Rob Grant GOSSIP News Posted by John Hoare on 31st July 2017, 00:45 If you’re like me, a couple of times a day you probably sit bolt upright, let out a strangulated groan, and think: “Just what the fuck is Rob Grant doing these days?” After all, his last tweet was in January 2016; his website is stagnant. Here’s some brand new gossip then, from comedy writer extraordinaire Andrew Marshall, (co-)writer of The Burkiss Way, End of Part One, Alexei Sayle’s Stuff, If You See God, Tell Him, and 2point4 Children. Speaking to Steve O’Brien about his old fanzine: If you still do that, Rob Grant and I will have something new to talk about soon. — Andrew Marshall (@AndrewM2p4c) July 30, 2017 And just in case that wasn’t enough: It is sci-fi related. — Andrew Marshall (@AndrewM2p4c) July 30, 2017 Andrew Marshall and Rob Grant collaborating? That is a very, very intriguing team-up indeed. And something to keep us all excited until Red Dwarf XII hits our screens. Then we’ll forget all about it and moan about UKTV Play for six fucking weeks straight instead. Anyway, here’s one of my favourite End of Part One sketches, for precisely no reason at all. With thanks to Ian Potter for the friendly nudge towards this news.
I’m a member of a small but dedicated “release 2point4children on DVD” group on Facebook. Why the fuck it’s not come out (other than a fairly short-term series 1-3 release a long time ago) is beyond me, but it’s infuriating. I actually looked Andrew Marshall up on Wikipedia and had a similar reaction to the “what the fuck IS Rob Grant doing these days?” feeling. Well paid as some writing jobs may have been, you do wonder how these guys pay their bills sometimes. I’d also love to see ‘Strange’ again. Oh yeah, that Rob Grant bloke too.
My heart is now full knowing someone else here regales in End of Part One. It is an astonishingly obscure series, to the point where I didn’t know it existed at all until just a few months ago when I happened to view the ‘Mr. & Mr. & Mrs.’ sketch purely by chance on YouTube and I thought I knew my nearly forgotten late-’70s ITV Sunday afternoon programming. I assume John has the DVD judging by the video quality of the Fat Ladies sketch. For the rest of you, buy it right now. I got it for a fucking song and it is six hours of joy and captures and subverts the programs, idents, personalities and humour of the era with astonishing accuracy and good humour. There’s never been anything like it since and I’d go as far to say nothing has really reached its comedic heights in the context of what End of Part One was trying to do.
Other than being a slush pile reader for Absolutely, Grant’s only recent credit has been script editor on the VERY GOOD Radio 4 sitcom ‘Reluctant Persuaders’, which desperately needs to transfer to TV soon. Excited about the Marshall collaboration. I was about to make an indefensibly tasteless play on words revolving around former writing partners and their relationship to the phrase “ONE FOOT”, but my conscience has stopped me. I am simply reporting that my brain generated it automatically without my consent and attempted to pitch it to me, and that I emphatically rejected it. I have put my brain on an account suspension. Sorry.
For a moment i thought Rob was finally writing another Red Dwarf Novel that he talked about so many years ago now. Last i remember Rob was working on a novel about virtual reality though.
Rob has been teaching for a good while. Oh I know he’s been busy, mostly out of the spotlight, but I really liked ‘Fat’ and I’d assumed there were dozens more to come. He was everywhere in 2007, I’d got comfortable with him reassuming his throne. I was aware that Grant and Marshall were close, as my friend Jem interviewed Marshall for his Douglas Adams biography and he volunteered Grant as a bonus. Them writing together is genuinely exciting. Trying to think if there’s ever been a show they’ve both been credited on. Alas Smith & Jones definitely, but not at the same time (Marshall & Renwick wrote a bitchy End Of Part One-esque Clive James parody for the original “Mel And Griff” pilot aired mostly intact as show 3 of series 1, and Grant Naylor have a couple of credits on series 4).
Grant Naylor have a couple of credits on series 4 I DID NOT KNOW THIS AT ALL You wouldn’t happen to know which sketches they did?
No, and last year I spent an evening trying to work it out (around the time I noticed the uncredited Hale & Pace/Son Of Cliche sketches)! They definitely have a credit on 4.7 at least (the final regular ‘Alas’), and I couldn’t spot their ‘voice’. I should have another look. That’s true about the pilot being called ‘Mel & Griff’ by the way. Series 1, Show 3 (with the heads-to-heads against a brown background and a Pythonesque flow) is viewable at the Bradford Media Museum and the pilot’s clapperboard is at the start.
Please let it be the Sooty sketch! I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a sketch quite like that…….ever?? Probably because of the Chicken Song, I want to believe Rob and Doug wrote these lyrics as well, and maybe that’s why they were asked to do it? This sketch must be post-Chicken Song, right?
Incidentally, Rob and Doug apparently wrote the lyrics to this other one from Spitting Image – https://youtu.be/41mMxnj_6xg
Rob and Doug wrote this as well. I’ve got it on a 7″ single. https://youtu.be/q16qNevEk-Q http://images.45cat.com/the-boss-squad-the-worst-song-ever-the-sick-as-a-parrot-remix-polydor.jpg (Note Chris Barrie in the Thanks list.)
I have NEVER heard that before either! Even if that hadn’t got any credits on the back, that is SO FUCKING CLEARLY Rob and Doug’s work. Almost the most Robby and Douggy thing ever.
This article is already out of date, as Rob tweeted literally 40 minutes ago: https://twitter.com/realrobgrant/status/893183705086398464 I demand a refund.
It wasn’t “literally” 40 minutes ago at all. Rob Grant had actually Tweeted *42* minutes prior to you posting that last comment. Refund denied
Somewhat overshadowed by the other announcement, perhaps, but here we go: https://www.comedy.co.uk/radio/news/2812/hitchhikers_guide_2018/
