|
|
||
|
News
|
||
|
News |
Dateline: 5th November, 2004 Antrobus Is Of Good Report Following the huge success of Brian Cooke’s Round The Horne, which started life in at the White Bear, John Antrobus, another veteran BBC comedy writer and long term collaborator with Spike Milligan, takes us back to the age of Milligan, Sellers, Secombe and Howerd with Of Good Report.
John Antrobus is one of the great BBC Comedy writers of the past half century. He co-wrote some episodes of The Goon Show with Milligan, Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe, as well as Spike’s sketch series Oh In Colour, the radio series The Milligan Papers, and one-off specials such as The Last Laugh Before TVAM and Spike Milligan in…. His book Surviving Spike Milligan describes his career alongside one of the country’s great comedy minds.
As one of the BBC laureates, His career also led him to work with other luminaries such as Peter Cook and Dudley Moore in his TV play with Milligan An Apple a Day, with The Two Ronnies on Ronnie Corbett in Bed and Tony Hancock in his ITV show of the same name. His recent work for theatre includes continuing his occasional partnership with the Ray Galton, completing a stage version of Steptoe and Son. Together they also wrote the hit West End farce When Did You Last See Your Trousers? John has also written four plays for the Royal Court including Crete and Sergeant Pepper, a revival of which is in the works.
Of Good Report tells of John’s writing partnership with Johnny Speight, who died in 1998. Another veteran of television comedy, Johnny grew up in the East End as the son of a docker. After factory work and jobs as a milkman and a cook, he was introduced to Frankie Howerd, Eric Sykes and Spike Milligan, and began work on Frankie Howerd’s radio show. He is probably best remembered for creating the controversial Alf Garnet in Til Death Do Us Part, while also writing for That Was The Week That Was and Morcambe and Wise. His play The Compartment (1962) was credited with giving Michael Caine his first break.
Of Good Report relates the dawning of a golden age of comedy. John Antrobus and Johnny Speight team up on the Frankie Howerd Radio Show. John is a pacifist, fresh out of Sandhurst, and Johnny’s a fan of George Bernard Shaw (and Stalin) from the East End of London. As the Cold War hits light entertainment a man at the Beeb wants names. Someone is due for a walk in the woods…
Please note that all three Archive indices are very long and will therefore take some time to download.
|
|
|
|