John Hoare

[John Hoare]

I really like Are You Being Served? a lot (“You’ve all done very well!”), although it’s not the best Croft sitcom. (Which, for my money, is ‘Allo ‘Allo! – even over stuff like Dad’s Army.)

Perhaps it?s a personally thing but a joke based on a character I can find infinetly re-watchable whereas conversely the jokes in Fawlty Towers have now lost a lot of appeal.

I don’t really understand this, as most of the jokes in Fawlty Towers *are* based on character!

I’m with Tanya on this one (surprisingly) – I don’t think OFAH is consistently funny enough. It’s good stuff, but there’s a hell of a lot I’d rate above it. This is a personal thing, though – for me, the best sitcoms are laugh after laugh after laugh – and do the character stuff at the same time. (The second half of the first series of Joking Apart I find far better than the first half, for precisely this reason). But other people respond to different things, which is fine.

Actually, I tend to have the same problem with a lot of John Sullivan’s work – Citizen Smith springs to mind. A great idea, a great cast, wonderfully produced… but not consistently funny enough for me to finish watching the DVD.

[John Hoare]

Well, The IT Crowd lost out in the BAFTAs to The Royale Family.

Bah. Although it was an entirely predictable decision.

[John Hoare]

I don’t remember Get Some In at all. I’d love to see it sometime.

But… I have a soft spot for Game On, I’m afraid. I laughed a hell of a lot at it. I must get the DVDs – ?15.99 is a great deal. Although the end of the first paragraph of the description can FUCK RIGHT OFF.

[John Hoare]

There is a big difference between all sitcom film adaptations being rubbish, and them not being as good as the original series. I agree that they are very rarely as good as the series which inspired them – but my argument is that a lot of people seem to think they are absolute worthless rubbish, when that isn’t the case at all.

The best one I’ve seen is the Till Death Us Do Part film – I think it’s a wonderful film, and in a lot of ways equal to the series. (The second film is a disaster, mind you – albeit an entertaining one.) Even the more mediocre ones – such as the Man About The House (which is a top-class sitcom, but mistakes were made in the transfer to film) often have a huge amount to enjoy.

[John Hoare]

I wrote about this on Standard Nerds actually, before I decided to close that site down…

[John Hoare]

Yep – they’ve shot a US pilot, and I found out it had been picked up today as well.

It’s without doubt my favourite comedy series this decade by a hell of a long way – I went to see three episodes of Series 2 of the UK show recorded recently.

I keep meaning to write reviews of the UK series for NTS…

[John Hoare]

Any suggestions for a new poll, anyone?

[John Hoare]

BTW, sorry this thread is so unweidly at the moment. I’ll change the forum so it splits long threads down into pages next week.

[John Hoare]

Wiki now taken offline. I honestly haven’t got time to deal with it right now, sorry!

Once I’ve done the behind-the-scenes G&T stuff (and no, it isn’t Downloads – although there are plans for that, too), then I’ll clean it up, update the software, install anti-spam stuff, and stick it back online. Hopefully with a new direction at the same time.

[John Hoare]

It does need sorting, I agree. Thanks for reminding me of it again!

Without giving too much away, I’m working on a big behind-the-scenes thing for G&T at the moment – and I’ve only got limited time to work on the site. Once that’s done, I’ll definitely get the Wiki sorted out.

[John Hoare]

Close-up here. Excellent find, Pete!

I like the way that’s drawn, actually. The proportions are off, but that’s clearly deliberate, as a stylised cartoony version. Excellent.

[John Hoare]

Reposting something you?ve already posted on the notbbc forum doesn?t make it any more true!

Oh, I’ve reposted some of my comments to three different forums at times, as I think EVERYONE SHOULD READ MY INCISIVE OPINIONS.

I didn?t know that you were also Moss at notbbc, John. All this time! Why not just call yourself John Hoare like your true names?

TEH LOLS

Actually, if I was registering there now, I probably would do. But everyone knows me as moss there now…

[John Hoare]

Time to add pages to these boards?

Yeah. I didn’t think it’d take off this much, to be honest!

I’ll look into it tonight.

[John Hoare]

Incidentally, I’ve just made it so URLs auto-link in forum threads and comments. So you don’t need to bother adding <a> tags now. Hooray!

[John Hoare]

Something occured to me the other day – I’ve loved each episode this series, wheras quite lot of the last series felt vaguely disappointing to me. Evolution of the Daleks may well have huge plotholes and been extremely derivative – but I enjoyed it far more than stuff like Tooth & Claw.

And I think I’ve figured out why: the comedy. Each episode this series (with the possible exception of The Shakespeare Code) has made me laugh loads. I think the humour so far has been far, *far* better done than in the last two series. Evolution alone had loads of bits – “first floor perfumery”, the Dalek looking conspiratorially around, the bored pigs in the lift…

That’s not to say that Doctor Who is all about the comedy – but when a show makes me laugh so much, I find it very hard to dislike it. It just leaves me with a good feeling at the end of each episode – rather than sitting there with things nagging in my head.

[John Hoare]

Thta is great. I love the way they just make you wait for the punchline.

[John Hoare]

I’ve just shortened your name, I’m afraid Sylv, as it was breaking the layout of the forum topic list. Sorry.

I’ll fix my dodgy CSS at some point so it copes with long names better.

[John Hoare]

There you go.

[John Hoare]

Partially right. The other reason is: I forgot about them. That’s not very professional, is it?

I’ll put one up now.

[John Hoare]

Yeah, I was. I always loved the line, but yesterday’s show did remind me of it.

The Return of ‘Allo ‘Allo was a good show – indeed, in places, a great show – but I do have some issues with it. I may write a review, actually…

[John Hoare]

Another great swearing joke, in ‘Allo ‘Allo – Herr Flick answering the phone:

“Flick, the Gestapo? No, I said Flick, the Gestapo?”

[John Hoare]

My favourite swearing moment in sitcom has to be in the hugely underrated Gimme Gimme Gimme: ?I want my men to stand up for something, not to be so far back in the closet they?re in fucking Narnia!?

Actually, I’ll tell you why I love that line so much. Not just because it’s a great joke – but because NO OTHER word would do. If you take out the “fucking”, the joke isn’t hugely funny. And if you replace the “fucking” with any other word, then the line loses all the rhythm, and it’s not that funny either.

It’s a bit like a bit of Rutland Weekend Television, where they give a load of symbols at the start of the show to warn viewers of content, with a different symbol for each sentence:

“Bad language. Very bad language. Bloody bad language.
“Safe viewing. Very safe viewing. Bloody safe viewing.”

That joke would *not* work with any other word apart from ‘bloody’. Put fucking, or sodding in, and it’s just not as funny…

Speaking of RWT – I want more stuff in comedy like this, please. In fact, I could link to RWT all day. “I rape for Luton Town…”

[John Hoare]

Best Two Ronnies sketch EVUR. Bad quality, but stick with it, because it’s marvellous. I love the fact that they got away with an implied cunts on primetime BBC1!

(Although it does bring into question yet again Ronnie Barker’s attitude towards comedy – he always complained about swearing and rudeness in comedy. Erm, so saying “fuck” in a post-watershed show is bad, and you can get away with putting ‘cunt’ into people’s heads in prewatershed comedy? I love innuendo and seaside postcard humour – but you can’t pretend that that stuff is fine, but as soon as you say ‘fuck’ you’re in dodgy terrirory. Some of the stuff they got away with just as rude. Something that NTNON pointed out – and they never accepted it. Barker is still moaning about that sketch in his biography…)

And also, in case anyone agrees with Norman Lovett that Barker was brilliant and Corbett was rubbish – Corbett is fucking *brilliant* in this sketch. His delivery of the line “That’s a f****** good idea” is much funnier than Barker’s, for instance. True, some of that is because of the repetiton – but it’s BRILLIANTLY delivered. The idea that Barker was the talented one and Corbett was a hanger-on is a huge load of bollocks.

[John Hoare]

Ah, right – I’d forgotten you lived in Australia. It doesn’t surprise me at all that it’s more frequent there to be honest, which is meant as a good thing…

My favourite swearing moment in sitcom has to be in the hugely underrated Gimme Gimme Gimme: “I want my men to stand up for something, not to be so far back in the closet they’re in fucking Narnia!”

[John Hoare]

Which shows? And what channels?

[John Hoare]

I couldn?t help but think ?yeah but you lost your looks? after ?I am a Human Dalek, I am your future?.

This is fantastic. Someone needs to edit that together and stick it on YouTube…

[John Hoare]

That’s very interesting. I hadn’t thought of it like that, but I bet you’re right.

I think part of the reason I was so shocked at the Brittas usage is that it was said so *violently* – as a preamble to the man attacking Brittas. If it had just been tossed off as a mild “oh, shit”, I wouldn’t perhaps have noticed so much. I’m still slightly shocked it got through in that context in 1990, and it’d be interesting to know if there was any discussion about it at the time.

[John Hoare]

I’ll admit I haven’t watched much Eastenders recently. But I remember Mandy saying bastard loads in episodes in the 90s, and I haven’t seen it at all recently. Maybe I’ve just missed them all.

But shit would *definitely* not make it into a 8:30pm family sitcom these days, I’m sure.

[John Hoare]

THAT-CHER

[John Hoare]

SHUT UP

[John Hoare]

Noel Fielding is in three of the four episodes recorded so far – but a very minor part in two of them.

Chris Morris shows up in one pre-record for the first episode, but is then replaced by Matt Berry, who plays Denham’s son.

[John Hoare]

I went to the recordings of the first three episodes. It’s fucking FANTASTIC – especially the second episode recorded, which was some of the best sitcom I’ve ever seen.

I keep meaning to write a report…

[John Hoare]

Quite.

Another brief Dwarf-related media thing that isn’t worth an article:

http://www.thecnj.co.uk/islington/041307/news041307_19.html

Yeah, you go girl.

[John Hoare]

Just going back to Love & Monsters a minute – this review is just brilliant.

[John Hoare]

Because adding a third option is a joke on top of a joke, and wouldn’t be funny.

I KNOW HOW COMEDY WORKS.

[John Hoare]

…and now it’s back up.

[John Hoare]

Although I do wonder (that is wonder, mind you – I don’t know) whether the crash sequence would have been possible even without the dancing Midgets and dino stuff. Crashing into landmarks is far more ambitious than either of the other two sequences put together…

[John Hoare]

Yeah, the whole site is down, not just the Webboard. It’s been down since at least yesterday afternoon.

[John Hoare]

How about ?Which confirmed Remastered DVD extra are you most looking forward to??

I was debating exactly this question – but I’d just have to ask it again when all the extras were confirmed, so I didn’t bother.

Maybe I’ll do that one after the next TOS update in case they announce anything else – as then there will be at least two weeks before any more are announced.

[John Hoare]

Wasn?t ?Earth? supposed to have been a special that never happened?

No, it was supposed to be the last episode of VIII.

[John Hoare]

See, I think you’re allowed at least one episode a series (whether that series is six episodes long, 13 eps long, or 26 eps long) to be a complete format breaker, and have the balls to do something completely different. The thing is though, as Andrew says, and I mentioned in my review – I don’t think it’s much of a format-breaker at all. It might be in style, but not in content.

And just because something is part of my life, it doesn’t mean I don’t want to see it on-screen. Otherwise, I’d find very little I wanted to watch at all…

Weirdly though, I saw School Reunion again recently, and I stand by my original assesment of it at the time – which was, it’s just not as clever as it thinks it is. Old companion coming back is a great idea – but they didn’t do nearly enough with it. The stuff about companions dying and The Doctor living on was fine – but the forced rivalry between Sarah Jane and Rose is APPALLING, and I found embarassing to watch. Cumulating in that Loch Ness Monster argument that makes me want to tear my face off. Absolutely diabolical dialogue, which unfortunately New Who badly suffers from at times. (See also: “I think you need a Doctor…”)

Which is a shame, because everyone always talks about how great the episode is – and I’d hoped that I’d finally see what people raved about it so much for. But no such luck, sadly.

[John Hoare]

The Long Game is one of the weaker episodes… but I find it impossible to dislike too much – because when watching it I just have such good memories of the final two-parter. And it’s an extremely traditional Who story as well, which is nice to have.

Love & Monsters really is one of my favourite episodes of new Who, though. The whole fandom thing just resonates a lot with me.

[John Hoare]

In the latest SFX Collection Doctor Who special, there’s the results of a favourite episode poll. Out of the last two series, The Girl in the Fireplace won, which I can’t really argue with.

Lowest rated was Fear Her (fair comment, although I don’t hate it as much as most people seem to), and second lowest was The Long Game. Third lowest, however, was Love & Monsters, which I find utterly baffling. How can an episode that is basically a love letter to fandom – at 7:00pm on BBC ONE on a Saturday night, no less – be hated so much by a bunch of SF fans?

[John Hoare]

You’re basically paying for it being a limited edition collectable, rather than the chips themselves. I’ve never been into that kind of thing at all, although I can understand why some people are.

You wouldn’t actually dare use the fuckers, would you?

[John Hoare]

Well, confirmed so far are:

• Series 1 docco
• Series 2 docco
• Remastered docco
• The End: The Original Assembly
• Bodysnatcher
• Script Extracts

It’s at this point that I wonder how much room there is for anything else! But they must have some stuff up their sleeves – they can’t have announced everything this early on…

[John Hoare]

Also… whilst I don’t really want to get into a huge discussion about the Movie (I’ve talked about it far too much before), I don’t think you can draw any inferences about the quality of the script from the fact that the Movie isn’t funded yet. As Leelu says, the good script doesn’t always win out – plenty of great scripts go unmade, and plenty of tosh gets produced.

The problem with the Dwarf Movie is that British independent films (that’s independent – not attached to a Hollywood studio) that cost ?12m are unprecedented. So it was always going to be a difficult thing to get that budget…

[John Hoare]

The comedy in this episode was the best it’s been in a long time. The Planet Zovirax gag, the fact that Emmeline Pankhurst nicked the Doctor’s laser spanner… excellent stuff.

At the risk of sounding predictable – it’s a far better comedy SF than fucking Hyperdrive. Of course, with every risk, there’s always the possibility of failure…

Also:

The logo of the Union Aerospace Corporation from Doom is seen on medical equipment in the MRI room.

Fantastic!

[John Hoare]

I,m beginning to think it may just be me that find some of the comments almost laughable but I found some genuine amusement in the interview. In particular, I liked the ?Red Dwarf was a long time ago now, but it can be difficult to fight off?.

I can fully understand Norman being pissed off at some people seeing him as a one trick pony and not acknowledging that he had a life before and after Dwarf, but ?fight off? has to be a joke surely..

I tend to look at the efforts that have been made to ?fight off? the Dwarf tag only recently.

Memorabilia (last November): whilst selling ?beat the geek? (oddly a very recent Dwarf release, starring the man himself).
Norman was there in person with Hattie surrounded by Dwarf merchandise and posters, selling autographs to Dwarf fans!
Then there were a number of radio interviews designed to plug Red Dwarf.
Memorabilia, the year before, I paid a tenner for a signed ?Holly? photo.
At the start of this year, Norman could be found recording bits for the forthcoming ?remastered? DVD release.
Hmmm, I could go on, but wont..

Maybe Norman is being forced to appear at these events, recordings etc against his will, perhaps he?s doing it out of some kind of duty, hell, it could even be the money!

I love Norman, he?s been great for Dwarf and the fans over the years and is a good comedian but at best, he?s sending out mixed messages.

He?s suggested that GNP have been stringing the fans along regarding the Movie, he?s implying that some fans have nothing in their lives other than the prospect of a movie and now he claims to be almost type cast and ?wants? to fight this off.

It reads to me that it?s him that needs to ?let it lie and move on? rather than the fans who continue to ?enjoy? Dwarf and remain ?hopeful? that there?s still the ?posibility? of good things to come.

Maybe some fans do have a movie fixation, but I?m more than happy with what we?re given. Red Dwarf, the series, may well have been a long time ago but the Dwarf experience is very much alive and on-going.

If thinking that makes me ?weird? so be it.

I agree with this 100%.

[John Hoare]

Yeah, I called it the BBS to get round an issue with our backend system. And then stuck with it because I like calling it the BBS because I’m a geek.

But it’s a bit needlessly confusing. I’ll try and fix it so it’s just called the forum.

[John Hoare]

Sorry to be an ARSE, but can we keep all talk about this in here, please? Just so all talk is confined to one thread, and so people who don’t follow the forums see it as well…

[Author]

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