This torrent was uploaded from www.TheBox.bz (signup is open and free) - the home of all British TV
Comedians (1979)
http://www.screenonline.org.uk/files/1044532.jpg
/>
For Play for Today, BBC, tx. 25/10/1979
95 minutes, colour
Director Richard Eyre
Producer (uncredited) Richard Eyre
Screenplay and original play Trevor Griffiths
Cast: Bill Fraser (Eddie Waters); Jonathan Pryce (Gethin Price); David Burke (Mick Connor); Linal Haft (Sammy Samuels); Derrick O'Connor (George McBrain)
Six budding comedians gather in a classroom for a final lesson from comic Eddie Waters, the Lancashire Lad.
'Comedians' (Play for Today, BBC, tx. 25/10/1979) was an adaptation of a 1975 Nottingham Playhouse production which later transferred to Broadway. Frequently described as one of the plays of the 1970s, it is regularly revived to this day. Despite the play's growing reputation at the time, the television production was dogged by controversy, as had been Griffiths' earlier Play for Today entries 'All Good Men' (tx. 31/01/1974) and 'Through the Night' (tx. 2/12/1975), albeit for different reasons. In this instance the BBC took exception to the few swearwords in the play, and, close to transmission, moved it from the usual 9.25pm slot to 10.10pm, with the effect of diminishing its audience by millions. This was particularly galling to Griffiths, as it is probably (at least initially) one of his more accessible plays, concentrating as it does on the badinage between would-be comedians, who are like a real-life mix of characters from the 'There was an Englishman, an Irishman and a Scotsman' school of jokes.
The genesis of the play was a meeting Griffiths had with some of the stars of the then-popular show The Comedians (ITV, 1971-1992), but as Griffiths has commented: "It's basically about two traditions - the social-democratic and the revolutionary... The play has been read as being about humour, as a play about comedians. At another level, it is probably that too." The play hinges around the moment when the comedians do their 'turns' at the local pub, as one by one the performers jettison their material, thereby betraying their teacher, Waters (Bill Fraser).
Price's (Jonathan Pryce) act, while not a betrayal, is a direct challenge to Waters' social-democratic humanism. Price's weird harnessing of football violence, politics, mime and skinhead culture is summed up by the agent Challenor (Ralph Nossek) as "aggressively unfunny", but as Price later says, it is not being funny that is important, but being 'truthful'. Waters despairs of the hate in Price's performance, but his view of the world, fuelled by his wartime experiences, is not grounded in the political reality that Price is expressing in his act.
'Comedians' is an intellectually and emotionally powerful play, but it works particularly well because it has the kind of roles that actors love. Certainly it launched Jonathan Pryce onto a dazzling career, and despite many successes he can rarely have matched his performance as Gethin Price, a seminal character in modern political drama.
John Williams
Screenonline:
http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/1044487/index.html
FILE_NAME BBC Play for Today - Trevor Griffiths - Comedians 1979 VHSrip - xvid.avi
FILE_SIZE 734,025,728
VIDEO_CODEC_NAME XviD ISO MPEG-4
VIDEO_DURATION 1:34:43
VIDEO_FRAMES_PER_SEC 25.000
VIDEO_SIZE_X 528
VIDEO_SIZE_Y 400
AUDIO_BITRATE 104
AUDIO_BITRATE_TYPE VBR
AUDIO_CHANNEL_COUNT 2
AUDIO_SAMPLE_RATE 48000
===============================
Some of the other rather spiffing shows available now and always if you signup free @ www.TheBox.bz:
Comedy: The Office, Peep Show, Coupling, Chef, Fawlty Towers, Only Fools and Horses, The IT Crowd, Brass Eye, Nathan Barley, Young Ones, Monty Python, Blackadder, Alan Partridge, Father Ted, Coupling, Little Britain, Mr Bean, Extras, Green Wing, Mighty Boosh
Drama: Casualty, Holby City, The Bill, Hustle, Skins, Shameless, Ashes To Ashes
Entertainment: Faking It, Derren Brown, Scrapheap Challenge, Strictly Come Dancing, Wife Swap
Game/Quiz Shows: Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Have I Got News For You, Deal Or No Deal (UK), Q.I.
Education/Documentary: Planet Earth, Horizon, Panorama, Mark Thomas (Comedy) Product
Food: Hell's Kitchen, Jamie Oliver, The F Word, Kitchen Nightmares, Masterchef, Great British Menu, Gordon Ramsay's Cookalong
Home/Property/Garden: Property Ladder, How Clean Is Your House?, Changing Rooms, Grand Designs, Homes Under The Hammer, To Buy Or Not To Buy
Motoring: Top Gear, Fifth Gear
Music: Top Of The Pops, Jools Holland, Glastonbury
Reality: Big Brother, Celebrity Big Brother, I'm a Celebrity - Get Me Out of Here!, Any Dream Will Do, Grease, Pop Idol, Wife Swap, X Factor, Badger Or Bust, Apprentice UK, Dragons' Den, Britain's Got Talent
Sci-Fi: Doctor Who, Red Dwarf, Torchwood, Primeval
Sport: Football (Soccer), Cricket, Rugby, Snooker, Darts, Formula One (F1GP)
Soaps: Eastenders, Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Neighbours, Hollyoaks
Style/Fashion: What Not To Wear, Project Catwalk
Kids: Teletubbies, Blue Peter, Tikkabilla, Andy Pandy, Postman Pat, Shoebox Zoo, Brum, Bob The Builder, Young Dracula, Sarah Jane Adventures, Shaun The Sheep
