the young ones

Old TV shows gather anecdotes over the years. They gather anecdotes until it’s sometimes difficult to see the real story through the detritus. It’s not really anybody’s fault. It just happens.

A case in point. Why were there bands in The Young Ones? If you’ve read much about the show or watched any documentaries, you already know the answer. Take the second episode of A History of Alternative Comedy (TX: 17/1/99):

PAUL JACKSON: It had kinds of quirky elements in it already in that first script, but I said if we could just put a band in or something, because then we’ll be a variety show, and we’ll get slightly more money. So we put Nine Below Zero in, playing in the boys room.

Nearly two decades later, in Gold’s How The Young Ones Changed Comedy (TX: 26/05/18), this story is still being repeated:

ADRIAN EDMONDSON: It got funding from the variety arm of the BBC budget, which meant it had to have a band in each week. So it wasn’t us putting a band in: it had to have a band in.

The best and most comprehensive version of the tale is also told by Paul Jackson, in this BFI panel from 2018. (To his credit, he labels it as an old story by now.)

PAUL JACKSON: By having a band in, we came under the Variety department, and the Variety shows – Two Ronnies, Morecambe and Wise and so on – used to get two days in the studio, and more money. We never knew how much money, because the BBC didn’t tell you at the time, but bigger budgets, two days in the studio. A standard sitcom had one day in the studio… so we had a much bigger canvas.

Certainly, it is true that The Young Ones was made by the Variety department, rather than Comedy. Let’s take an obvious example: the day that BBC2 first broadcast “Oil” (TX: 16/11/82), the Terry and June episode “Playing Pool” was premiering over on BBC1. Let’s take a quick look at the programme numbers:

LLV indicates a programme was made as part of the Variety department at the Beeb, and LLC indicates that it was made by Comedy. As we can see, The Young Ones gets an LLV code, and Terry and June gets an LLC. Moreover, it’s clearly stated that The Young Ones got two days in the studio, while Terry and June only got one. Everything matches up nicely.

Well sort of, anyway. Let me throw a couple more programme numbers into the mix. Firstly for Filthy, Rich & Catflap, and secondly for Bottom.

Both of these were made under the auspices of Variety, with an LLV code, and with two days in the studio. And yet you never hear, for instance, people talking about bands being forced into episodes of Bottom. Because it didn’t happen.

Please don’t misunderstand me; I’m not saying that the anecdote about why bands are in The Young Ones is false. Nor am I saying that Bottom et al being made under the auspices of Variety without there being bands in the show is inexplicable. Far from it, in fact. I can imagine a situation where unproven talent needs to be beholden to certain rules that proven talent does not. I can also think of ten other possible reasons.

I’m merely arguing that the way this anecdote is usually told gives an incomplete picture. Which is absolutely fine for a while… but when the same story keeps being told over and over again, it deserves a bit of a poke with a large stick every so often.

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Mike, You Bastard!

Published 27th July 2021

In a stunning break with tradition for Dirty Feed, who’s up for an obscure fact about The Young Ones?

So let’s poke our head in and see what the gang’s up to. Ah, that’s rather unpleasant. Rick has just found out that his bedroom has been turned into a roller disco by Mike. Unfortunately, Mike was clever enough to hire a bouncer.

SLOBBER: Sorry, guv’nor. Apples and pears, tit for tat, I love London Town, AAAAAAAAAAND I was at Violet’s funeral…

Quick quiz, and no cheating: what exactly does “Violet’s funeral” refer to?

If you know, you can give yourself a good pat on the back and feel very clever. If you don’t, you are far from alone. In this spectacularly unscientific survey I conducted yesterday, over 80% of people didn’t understand the reference. And I didn’t get it myself until I looked it up a few years ago.

The answer, then: “Violet’s funeral” refers to the funeral of Violet Kray, mother of the Kray twins. This was a newsworthy event, not least because both Krays were actually allowed out of prison in order to attend. This report from Thames News sums up the day’s events.¹

But there’s more to this story than what has become a slightly obscure reference. What I’m really interested in is the timing of all this, back in 1982. Because when I first started researching all this, I had assumed that the reference was at least a few years old, even then. It sounds like something that Slobber would boast about in order to prove his long standing in the community of the slightly dodgy.

It doesn’t take much poking for this theory to disintegrate, though. The Young Ones reference to “Violet’s funeral” appears in “Oil”, which was transmitted on the 16th November 1982. The funeral of Violet Kray took place on the 11th August 1982; just three months previously. This already makes it a topical reference for a sitcom.

If we look at when “Oil” was actually recorded, however, things get even more startling. Because “Oil” was recorded on the 25th and 26th August 1982. The funeral itself had only taken place two weeks previously. So far from this being an ancient thing at the time, it had literally just been part of the news agenda. And for the studio audience watching it that night, instead of it being a mouldy old reference, it was as burningly topical as a sitcom could really get. Which is a delightful thing to discover.

Which just leaves us with one final thought. What did the script originally say, before the “Violet’s funeral” reference was bunged in at the last minute – possibly in rehearsal the week before? Was there another gangster reference, swiftly replaced with something more current?

I seriously suggest you check out the official Thames News YouTube channel. It’s an absolute treasure trove of stuff, and it doesn’t seem to be widely known about. ↩

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the young ones

A Day in the Life of The Young Ones: 30th January 1984

Published 2nd May 2021

Oh, hello there. Now where were we?

Last time we investigated a day in the life of The Young Ones, we took a look at the pre-record studio day for the episode “Nasty”, which took place on the 6th February 1984. (Read that piece first if you haven’t already for the background information; I’m not going to repeat myself.) But that’s only half the story when it comes to the raw studio recordings sitting on YouTube. The other half of that video is the pre-record day for “Cash”. Oddly enough, despite being the second half of the video, this actually took place the week before, on the 30th January 1984.

Unlike “Nasty” which was in TC4, “Cash” was shot in TC3, and is still an extant studio at Television Centre; Good Morning Britain and This Morning now come from there live every weekday morning. Such is the odd life of a TV studio across the decades.

So, what can we glean from the above recording? As before, nothing can match just sitting and watching the video for yourself. But I thought a few notes about things I’ve spotted could be interesting. So join me as we leap back across the decades, and safely ensconce ourselves in a corner of Television Centre to spy upon proceedings.

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the young ones

“I Didn’t Know You Were Allowed to Say Wanker on Television!”

Published 24th January 2021

Recently, I wrote this ridiculous article about The Young Ones episode “Cash”. So while we’re on the subject, here is something else about the episode which has bugged me for years.

To recap: in order to earn some bread, the gang decide to send Neil to the Army Careers Information Office. In no short order, he is flung right back out onto the pavement.

NEIL: I only said I was a pacifist.

And as the gang help Neil to his feet again, there is a very peculiar edit. The following are two consecutive frames from this moment in the episode:

The gang outside the Army Careers Information Office

The gang still outside the Army Careers Information Office, at a slightly different angle

Everyone has changed position; most obviously Planer, who suddenly has his hands in his pockets. Clearly, something was cut at this point. But what?

Unlike our previous investigation, the raw footage is of no help to us here; no location material is present on that tape. Nor does the paperwork I personally have access to shed any light. But the answer is out there, if you look hard enough.

And I honestly think the cut moment could have gone down in history as one of those TV moments a whole generation remembers.

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I’ll Tell You a Story…

Published 15th January 2021

Today, we’re going to answer a huge burning question about The Young Ones. No, nothing to do with flash frames, or hidden fifth housemates. This is the really important stuff.

Exactly what is the farty neighbour watching on her television in “Cash”, just before she switches over to Andy De La Tour doing a public information film?

The television with a mystery cartoon on

Squinting at it, it seems impossible to tell. Some kind of drawing of a car? Unless it’s some well-known cartoon, or mentioned in the paperwork for rights reasons, or specified in the script, how could we ever figure it out?

Spoiler: it’s not a well-known cartoon, or mentioned on the paperwork for rights reasons, or specified in the script. We have only our wits to go on here.

Well… wits, and a certain video of Young Ones raw studio footage, sitting patiently on YouTube. I wrote recently about the section of this video containing material for the episode “Nasty”, but the second half of the video is entirely dedicated to “Cash”. And crucially, it includes the entire recording session for this scene.

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i hate doing research, star trek, the young ones

I Hate Doing Research.

Published 28th December 2020

Meta / TV Comedy / TV Drama

It’s January 1999, and Ronald D. Moore – writer/producer on Star Trek: Deep Space 9 – is chatting on AOL, answering fan questions about the show.

One particular question catches my eye. You don’t need to know the actual storyline, or have watched any of the episodes – that isn’t the important bit here.

Ron, I read on the boards that there was a scene in “To the Death” in which Weyoun somehow slipped Odo some virus that eventually resulted in his having to return to the Link in “Broken Link.” I read that this ended up on the cutting room floor. Is this true or just a wild rumor?

It’s just a rumor.

Now, one delightful thing about DS9 is that – unlike most TV shows – every single script is available for us to read. Not a boring transcript. The actual script, as used in production, including cut material, and the scene descriptions. Which means we can check and see if Moore is correct in this instance.

So, in the script for “To The Death”, we can read the following¹:

Weyoun looks at Odo for a beat, then gives him a good-natured clap on the shoulder. (In case anyone’s interested, when he touches Odo, Weyoun is purposely infecting Odo with the disease that almost kills him in “BROKEN LINK.”)

WEYOUN: Then it’s over. After all, you’re a Founder. I live to serve you.

And with that, Weyoun steps back into his quarters.

True, this scene didn’t end up on the “cutting room floor” – it’s in the episode as broadcast, just without the physical act of Weyoun clapping Odo on the shoulder. But the main thrust of how most people would interpret Moore’s response – that the episode never intended to contain Weyoun infecting Odo – is incorrect.

I very much doubt it was a deliberate lie. There’s certainly no obvious reason to try and hide anything. Moore almost certainly just forgot. That’s what happens when making TV shows; you can’t remember everything, there’s far too much important stuff jostling for position in your head. It’s completely understandable.

Still, the moral is clear. Don’t trust people’s recollections. Always trust the paperwork.

* * *

It’s 2020, and I have decided to trace every single piece of music used in The Young Ones, for some godforsaken reason. But not to worry. I have some production paperwork to help me out, which should list every track cleared for use in the show.

So let’s take a look at part of the sheet for the episode “Summer Holiday”:

Ah, “Tension Background”. Wonder what that was used for? Let’s take a listen, I’m sure all will become obvious.

Oh. That literally doesn’t appear anywhere in the episode at all. Brilliant.

To cut a long, tedious story short: the paperwork is wrong. Not entirely wrong; a track from the Conroy library album Drama – Tension is actually used in the episode. But the cut used is Track 3, “Chase Sequence”, not Track 15, “Tension Background”.

And that piece of detective work means that we can enjoy the full version of the music used when Neil goes all Incredible Hulk:

So, the moral is clear. Never trust the paperwork.

* * *

Have I mentioned that I hate doing research?

Reformatted here for readability. ↩

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A Day in the Life of The Young Ones:
6th February 1984

Published 19th December 2020

The Young Ones logo

It’s the 6th February 1984 in studio TC4, and Rik Mayall is having a circular saw aimed at his knackers.

I write a lot about comedy on here. Sometimes I write some very silly things about comedy indeed. Take, for instance, this analysis of one of the main sets in Blackadder Goes Forth, and how it showed up in various forms throughout the series. You have to have a certain kind of mind to find that interesting, and admittedly, part of it is a pure puzzle box mentality: “What bit goes where?”

But there is also something a little deeper going on there. For all the careful explanations of what writers were hoping to achieve with their work – which for the avoidance of doubt, is something I’m also extremely interested in – what I really want to be able to do is transport myself back, and be present in the room where the comedy was actually made. I get obsessed with wanting to know how a room felt, either in the writing, or in the shooting. Trying to figure out what piece of wood went where while recording a sitcom is an attempt at nothing less than time travel, however ludicrous that sounds.

Which is where your good old fashioned studio recording tapes come in. Whether it’s just clips in documentaries, longer extracts released as DVD extras, or bootlegs passed quietly around as though we’re all crack dealers, there’s nothing quite seeing the raw footage of how a show is made to get a sense of how things felt. An incomplete sense, of course. Nothing can quite replace a real time machine. But it’s something.

All of which preamble is leading up to this glorious video on YouTube. Two hours of raw studio recordings of The Young Ones, precisely none of which is officially sanctioned for release, and precisely all of which is fascinating.

Let’s be very clear about what the above footage represents. Each episode of The Young Ones – unusually for a sitcom of the era – had two days in the studio. These consisted of a pre-record day for the complicated technical bits, without an audience, followed by an audience record the very next day. The above footage is the bulk of the pre-record days for the episodes “Nasty” and “Cash”. The fact that these are the pre-record days explains the lack of audience laughter on the footage, something a few people in the YouTube comments are a little confused by. An edited version of this material would have been shown to the audience the next day on the studio monitors, along with recording the rest of the show in front of them, in order to get the laughs.

Not that what we are seeing is the edited footage that the audience would have seen, either. This is the complete – or near-complete – recording of the day, featuring multiple takes of the material. In short: this really is as close as we can get to skulking around in the studio for the day, silently watching as the team shoot one of the best sitcoms ever made. We even know exactly when everything occurs; the timecode at the bottom of the screen is literally the time of the recording.

There is no substitute for simply watching the video embedded above. But I thought it might be useful to write some notes to go alongside it. Here then, are some observations on the first half of the video, covering the pre-record day for “Nasty”. In particular, I’ve tried to identify any part of the script which don’t make it into the final edit, along with which of the multiple takes were actually used in the finished show.

Enjoy.

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The Young Ones Music Guide: Series Two

Published 15th November 2020

Music / TV Comedy

Madness and Mike

Previously on Dirty Feed, I took an in-depth look at the music used in Series 1 of The Young Ones. This turned out to be a surprisingly popular move. So, how about Series 2?

No preamble, let’s get on with it. Only pop music can save us now…

As before, there are some tracks that I just haven’t been able to identify yet. If you have any ideas, let me know in the comments or elsewhere.

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