Rutland Weekend Television
Encyclopedia
Rutland Weekend Television (RWT) was a television sketch show on BBC2
, written by Eric Idle
with music by Neil Innes
. Two series, the first consisting of six episodes, the second of seven, were broadcast, in 1975
and 1976
. A Christmas special also aired on Boxing Day
1975.
It was Idle's first television project after Monty Python's Flying Circus
run ended the previous year. The show was the catalyst for The Rutles
. Rutland Weekend Television or RWT centred on "Britain's smallest television network", situated in England
's smallest (and mainly rural) county, Rutland
.
The show's title alludes to the then ITV
company London Weekend Television
(now ITV London
). A Rutland TV station would be pretty small, so a Rutland Weekend Television would have to be ridiculously tiny. The joke was doubly meaningful as Idle had accidentally been granted a presentation budget instead of the more lavish budgets associated with light entertainment - so the weekly patter about their inability to buy props and sets was in fact quite real. Indeed, the last show of the first series featured Idle and Innes, stripped and shivering in blankets under a bare bulb, singing about how the power's about to be shut off. Idle speaks bitterly about these conditions now but his attempts to overcome them formed the basis of a lot of the show's jokes.
Idle, in a 1975 Radio Times
interview, remarked, "It was made on a shoestring budget, and someone else was wearing the shoe. The studio is the same size as the weather forecast studio and nearly as good. We had to bring the sets up four floors for each scene, then take them down again. While the next set was coming up, we'd change our make-up. Every minute mattered. It's not always funny to be funny from ten in the morning until ten at night. As for ad-libbing, what ad-libbing? You don't ad-lib when you're working with three cameras and anyway the material goes out months after you've made it."
The role of the announcer would be to announce the 'programmes' (typically sketches) - many programmes would lead into, or announce one of many songs and accompanying strange vignettes by Neil Innes.
Neil Innes
A former member of the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, longtime songwriter for and performer with Monty Python
, and later to be part of musical acts the Grimms
, The World, and The Rutles
, Innes wrote and performed most of the songs in the show, often in the guise of another character, such as Stoop Solo. A few non-Innes songs (mostly penned by Idle) were also performed by him and members of his band, Fatso, during the tenure of the show.
Aside from the musical items, Innes was also a regular cast member, performing in many of the sketches.
(1971) and the hapless Ergo in Krull
(1983)
In the show, he was often the straight man, and second only to Idle in the number of his performances throughout the series. He was the Paul McCartney character in the original (RWT) Rutles sketch, but was not involved in the TV special All You Need Is Cash (1978). Battley also appears in the final episode as David Frost
, whom he had also portrayed in a stage production.
Henry Woolf
Woolf plays often as a co-conspirator to Battley, appearing at his side in many sketches, though occasionally complains about being cast as 'the short one', or 'The Jewish One'. He would later star as the Surrey mystic, Arthur Sultan, in All You Need Is Cash. In the fourth episode of series two, Woolf bitterly complains that "I'm a writer - I've had plays on!". Both claims are true.
Gwen Taylor
As the main female character, Gwen would appear in a lot of sketches, but is still much more noticeably absent than Idle or Battley. Credibly, she frequently plays genuine female characters, instead of the more 'decorative' roles from the other female contributors. She too would go on to star in All You Need Is Cash, as the mother of Leggy Mountbatten and Ron Nasty's wife, Chastity; as well as appearing in several roles in Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979), including Mrs Bignose ("Don't pick your nose!"), the elderly woman bent double under the weight of a dummy donkey and the ineffectual heckler during Pilate's passover address ("and a pickpocket!").
Terence Bayler
Appearing in from the last episode of series one onward, Bayler played a variety of characters, including a shy and apparently forgetful announcer, the greasy presenter of 'Rutland Showtime', and the Pink Panzer (a pink-uniformed SS officer who greets the camera with an effete Nazi salute and a breathless "heil Hitler"). He would later appear as the manager of the Rutles in All You Need Is Cash, and as Gregory ("I'm Brian and so's my wife!") in Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979).
Bunny May, Lyn Ashley
Three performers who were given the more 'token' roles, often playing attractive, silent characters, in sharp contrast to the well rounded performances of Gwen Taylor
.
Bunny May was not in fact an actress but an actor who occasionally appeared in drag. Lyn Ashley was Eric Idle's wife at the time. Carinthia West, romantically associated with Mick Jagger
& Bryan Ferry
at various points in her life, increasingly provided the glamour over the two series.
featured regularly, both as a group and as individuals.
Members included Innes himself, as well as:-
John Halsey played Ringo Starr facsimile Barry Wom in Idle and Innes' Beatles parody, The Rutles
, which originated as a sketch on RWT. Innes and Idle portrayed the Lennon and McCartney parallels, Ron Nasty and Dirk McQuickly.
Roger Rettig now resides in Florida, USA, and is regarded as one of the finest pedal steel players in the business. In England, Roger backed Lonnie Donegan
and Roy St. John
, as well as participating in the band Klondike Pete and the Huskies.
Brian Hodgson, regularly tours with legendary guitarist Albert Lee
in a band called Hogan's Heroes.
Billy Bremner is one of the UK's top session guitarists who now resides in Sweden. He was also a member of Rockpile
fronted by Dave Edmunds
. Also in the band was Nick Lowe
. Billy released a solo single on Stiff Records
in 1981 called Loud Music In Cars.
They now have an official website.
George Harrison
The Christmas special features George Harrison as "Pirate Bob", dressed in appropriate attire and frequently interrupting the action throughout the show, before being given the chance to sing at the end in normal clothing. After leading the band through an intro to Harrison's "My Sweet Lord," Harrison switches off and starts singing a lively song about pirates known as "The Pirate Song".
Innes's connection with Harrison and the other Beatles, as well as Harrison's to Monty Python and its members, are equally notable. Innes' Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band appeared in The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour
film, and Paul McCartney produced the Bonzo single "I'm the Urban Spaceman," while Harrison founded HandMade Films
for the purpose of financing Python's Life of Brian
; HandMade later also produced Python alum Terry Gilliam's Time Bandits
. Harrison also appeared as a news reporter - interviewing Michael Palin - in Idle and Innes' Beatles parody, The Rutles: All You Need is Cash
.
Idle said of his RWT colleagues (in the same Radio Times
interview) "Neil Innes is superb. I must be his biggest fan. Henry Woolf
played Toulouse-Lautrec
in the West End
. He's the best small philosopher in London at the moment. And David Battley – what can I say? Straight, pale, dead-pan brilliant. Our cameraman, Peter Bartlett, filmed the Queen
but says I'm easier to work with."
, a four-piece band fronted by Innes as a man "suffering from love song" spoofing The Beatles
, singing "I Must Be In Love", a masterly pastiche
of some of the early Lennon
-McCartney
songs. This was followed by the beginnings of a documentary feature about the band, cut short when the camera, mounted on a car, speeds off. This scene was later remade in the spinoff film, All You Need Is Cash
, featuring Idle, Innes, Rikki Fataar and John Halsey
(who also appeared in many of the musical items in the series) as the "Pre-Fab Four". Innes wrote the music for the film, most of which was parody of well-known Beatles songs. On RWT (including the clip featured later on Saturday Night Live
, which vaulted the Pre-Fab Four to stardom) the Rikki Fataar part was played by Eric Idle with David Battley in the Paul McCartney role.
in the style associated with Monty Python. One sketch features the Lone Ranger (Idle) transformed into the Lone Accountant, with Innes as Tonto
accidentally murdering holdup victims while trying to rescue them ("too many gin-and-tonic at lunch... You think it easy to be Indian and accountant?"). Another scene features Gwen Taylor
visiting the doctor to complain of her constantly changing costume and surroundings and being diagnosed with "bad continuity." The prescribed treatment is editing out two weeks of her life, after which she says she feels well, and a bit hungry... though her soundtrack is still off. She then becomes a victim of recurring film flashbacks, eventually disappearing back into her childhood.
Innes subsequently created and starred in The Innes Book of Records, a pre-MTV
show that wove together strange guests and music video
s in a bewildering array of musical styles and visual styles.
, Rutland Weekend Television also spawned its own LP and book.
A dense and lavishly illustrated parody of the Television, films and print media of the mid-1970s.
The book is notable for the issue of "Rutland Stone" bound inside. The back page of this issue carries a full-page advertisement for The Rutles' latest album ("Finchley Road"), a single ("Ticket To Rut"), and an assortment of Rutles merchandise. The book also contains the "Vatican Sex Manual" featuring pictures of Eric Idle in various positions in which it is impossible to have sex.
and the songs of Neil Innes
. Innes has claimed that Idle has no interest in seeing the series released as it reminds him of an unhappy time in his life, but recent litigation and bitterness concerning The Rutles
spin-off may also be a consideration.
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
, written by Eric Idle
Eric Idle
Eric Idle is an English comedian, actor, author, singer, writer, and comedic composer. He was as a member of the British comedy group Monty Python, a member of the The Rutles on Saturday Night Live and author of the play, Spamalot....
with music by Neil Innes
Neil Innes
Neil James Innes is an English writer and performer of comic songs, best known for his collaborative work with Monty Python, and for playing in the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and later The Rutles.-Personal life:...
. Two series, the first consisting of six episodes, the second of seven, were broadcast, in 1975
1975 in television
The year 1975 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1975.For the American TV schedule, see: 1975-76 United States network television schedule.-Events:...
and 1976
1976 in television
The year 1976 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1976.-Global television events:*The Olympics, broadcast from Montreal, Canada, draw an estimated one billion viewers worldwide....
. A Christmas special also aired on Boxing Day
Boxing Day
Boxing Day is a bank or public holiday that occurs on 26 December, or the first or second weekday after Christmas Day, depending on national or regional laws. It is observed in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and some other Commonwealth nations. In Ireland, it is recognized as...
1975.
It was Idle's first television project after Monty Python's Flying Circus
Monty Python's Flying Circus
Monty Python’s Flying Circus is a BBC TV sketch comedy series. The shows were composed of surreality, risqué or innuendo-laden humour, sight gags and observational sketches without punchlines...
run ended the previous year. The show was the catalyst for The Rutles
The Rutles
The Rutles are a band that are known for their visual and aural pastiches and parodies of The Beatles. Originally created by Eric Idle and Neil Innes as a fictional band to be featured as part of various 1970s television programming, the group recorded, toured, and released two UK chart hits in...
. Rutland Weekend Television or RWT centred on "Britain's smallest television network", situated in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
's smallest (and mainly rural) county, Rutland
Rutland
Rutland is a landlocked county in central England, bounded on the west and north by Leicestershire, northeast by Lincolnshire and southeast by Peterborough and Northamptonshire....
.
The show's title alludes to the then ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
company London Weekend Television
London Weekend Television
London Weekend Television was the name of the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties including south Suffolk, middle and east Hampshire, Oxfordshire, south Bedfordshire, south Northamptonshire, parts of Herefordshire & Worcestershire, Warwickshire, east Dorset and...
(now ITV London
ITV London
ITV London is the on-air brand name used by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the two Channel 3 broadcast franchises, Carlton Television and London Weekend Television in the London ITV region.-History:...
). A Rutland TV station would be pretty small, so a Rutland Weekend Television would have to be ridiculously tiny. The joke was doubly meaningful as Idle had accidentally been granted a presentation budget instead of the more lavish budgets associated with light entertainment - so the weekly patter about their inability to buy props and sets was in fact quite real. Indeed, the last show of the first series featured Idle and Innes, stripped and shivering in blankets under a bare bulb, singing about how the power's about to be shut off. Idle speaks bitterly about these conditions now but his attempts to overcome them formed the basis of a lot of the show's jokes.
Idle, in a 1975 Radio Times
Radio Times
Radio Times is a UK weekly television and radio programme listings magazine, owned by the BBC. It has been published since 1923 by BBC Magazines, which also provides an on-line listings service under the same title...
interview, remarked, "It was made on a shoestring budget, and someone else was wearing the shoe. The studio is the same size as the weather forecast studio and nearly as good. We had to bring the sets up four floors for each scene, then take them down again. While the next set was coming up, we'd change our make-up. Every minute mattered. It's not always funny to be funny from ten in the morning until ten at night. As for ad-libbing, what ad-libbing? You don't ad-lib when you're working with three cameras and anyway the material goes out months after you've made it."
A typical episode
The episode begins with the announcer, usually with something going wrong or with something out of the ordinary. From announcements catching fire to open auditions for the announcer itself. Occasionally the announcement would be sung, or performed by more than one person. In one episode, the announcements are performed by 'The Ricochet Brothers' (spelled Ricochet, but pronounced Rick-ot-chet) who begin the episode as a pair, and expand to a full cast, each speaking the announcement in harmony.The role of the announcer would be to announce the 'programmes' (typically sketches) - many programmes would lead into, or announce one of many songs and accompanying strange vignettes by Neil Innes.
Eric Idle
As the star of the show, Idle comprises many of the 'leader' roles in the series. He is also the first person to appear in the show, and the interviewer in the first sketch, 'Gibberish' in which Idle and Woolf talk in complete nonsensical sentences:Ham sandwich, bucket and water plastic Duralex rubber McFisheries underwear. Plugged rabbit emulsion, zinc custard without sustenance in kipling-duff geriatric scenery, maximises press insulating government grunting sapphire-clubs incidentally. But tonight, sam pan Bombay Bermuda in diphtheria rustic McAlpine splendor, rabbit and foot-foot-phooey jugs rapidly big biro ruveliners musk-green gauges micturate with nipples and tiptoe rusting machinery, rustically inclined. Good evening and welcome.
Neil InnesNeil InnesNeil James Innes is an English writer and performer of comic songs, best known for his collaborative work with Monty Python, and for playing in the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and later The Rutles.-Personal life:...
A former member of the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, longtime songwriter for and performer with Monty PythonMonty Python
Monty Python was a British surreal comedy group who created their influential Monty Python's Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four series...
, and later to be part of musical acts the Grimms
Grimms
GRIMMS was an English pop rock, skit and poetry group, originally formed as a merger of The Scaffold, the Bonzo Dog Band, and the Liverpool Scene for two concerts in 1971 at the suggestion of John Gorman...
, The World, and The Rutles
The Rutles
The Rutles are a band that are known for their visual and aural pastiches and parodies of The Beatles. Originally created by Eric Idle and Neil Innes as a fictional band to be featured as part of various 1970s television programming, the group recorded, toured, and released two UK chart hits in...
, Innes wrote and performed most of the songs in the show, often in the guise of another character, such as Stoop Solo. A few non-Innes songs (mostly penned by Idle) were also performed by him and members of his band, Fatso, during the tenure of the show.
Aside from the musical items, Innes was also a regular cast member, performing in many of the sketches.
David Battley
Battley, a RWT regular, is best remembered for his performance as the schoolteacher Mr. Turkentine in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate FactoryWilly Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory is a 1971 musical film adaptation of the 1964 novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl, directed by Mel Stuart, and starring Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka. The film tells the story of Charlie Bucket as he receives a golden ticket and visits Willy...
(1971) and the hapless Ergo in Krull
Krull (film)
Krull is a 1983 heroic fantasy film directed by Peter Yates and produced by Ron Silverman. Released by Columbia Pictures, it stars Ken Marshall as Prince Colwyn and Lysette Anthony as Princess Lyssa....
(1983)
In the show, he was often the straight man, and second only to Idle in the number of his performances throughout the series. He was the Paul McCartney character in the original (RWT) Rutles sketch, but was not involved in the TV special All You Need Is Cash (1978). Battley also appears in the final episode as David Frost
David Frost
Sir David Frost is a British broadcaster.David Frost may also refer to:*David Frost , South African golfer*David Frost , classical record producer*David Frost *Dave Frost, baseball pitcher...
, whom he had also portrayed in a stage production.
Henry WoolfHenry WoolfHenry Woolf ,is a British actor, theatre director, and teacher of acting, drama, and theatre who lives in Canada, and a longtime friend and collaborator of 2005 Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter, having stimulated Pinter to write his first play, The Room in 1956...
Woolf plays often as a co-conspirator to Battley, appearing at his side in many sketches, though occasionally complains about being cast as 'the short one', or 'The Jewish One'. He would later star as the Surrey mystic, Arthur Sultan, in All You Need Is Cash. In the fourth episode of series two, Woolf bitterly complains that "I'm a writer - I've had plays on!". Both claims are true. Gwen TaylorGwen TaylorGwen Taylor is an actress who has appeared in many British television programmes, including Z-Cars, Murder Most Horrid, Yes, Prime Minister, Inspector Morse, Midsomer Murders and Belonging...
As the main female character, Gwen would appear in a lot of sketches, but is still much more noticeably absent than Idle or Battley. Credibly, she frequently plays genuine female characters, instead of the more 'decorative' roles from the other female contributors. She too would go on to star in All You Need Is Cash, as the mother of Leggy Mountbatten and Ron Nasty's wife, Chastity; as well as appearing in several roles in Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979), including Mrs Bignose ("Don't pick your nose!"), the elderly woman bent double under the weight of a dummy donkey and the ineffectual heckler during Pilate's passover address ("and a pickpocket!"). Terence BaylerTerence Bayler-Early life:Bayler was born in Wanganui, the son of Amy and Harold Bayler, a stagehand. His first film appearance was in the New Zealand film Broken Barrier ....
Appearing in from the last episode of series one onward, Bayler played a variety of characters, including a shy and apparently forgetful announcer, the greasy presenter of 'Rutland Showtime', and the Pink Panzer (a pink-uniformed SS officer who greets the camera with an effete Nazi salute and a breathless "heil Hitler"). He would later appear as the manager of the Rutles in All You Need Is Cash, and as Gregory ("I'm Brian and so's my wife!") in Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979). Bunny May, Lyn AshleyLyn AshleyLyn Ashley is an Australian actress who worked in the United Kingdom on television during the 1960s.Her credits include: Danger Man, Compact, Doctor Who , The Saint and Monty Python's Flying Circus....
, Carinthia West
Three performers who were given the more 'token' roles, often playing attractive, silent characters, in sharp contrast to the well rounded performances of Gwen TaylorGwen Taylor
Gwen Taylor is an actress who has appeared in many British television programmes, including Z-Cars, Murder Most Horrid, Yes, Prime Minister, Inspector Morse, Midsomer Murders and Belonging...
.
Bunny May was not in fact an actress but an actor who occasionally appeared in drag. Lyn Ashley was Eric Idle's wife at the time. Carinthia West, romantically associated with Mick Jagger
Mick Jagger
Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger is an English musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and a founding member of The Rolling Stones....
& Bryan Ferry
Bryan Ferry
Bryan Ferry, CBE is an English singer, musician, and songwriter. Ferry came to public prominence in the early 1970s as lead vocalist and principal songwriter with the band Roxy Music, who enjoyed a highly successful career with three number one albums and ten singles entering the top ten charts in...
at various points in her life, increasingly provided the glamour over the two series.
Fatso
In addition to this, the band FatsoFatso (band)
Fatso was a band from the 1970s, who featured regular in the TV series Rutland Weekend Television. Their involvement with this show spawned The Rutles, which Innes and Halsey portrayed in one episode.Members included:-* Neil Innes* John Halsey...
featured regularly, both as a group and as individuals.
Members included Innes himself, as well as:-
- John HalseyJohn Halsey (musician)John Halsey is a rock drummer, best known for his appearance as "Barry" in The Rutles, leading to his playing with Neil Innes's band Fatso and appearing in the film All You Need is Cash ....
- Billy BremnerBilly Bremner (musician)William "Billy" Bremner is a guitarist best known for his work in the band Rockpile and on many of Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds' albums...
- Brian HodgsonBrian HodgsonBrian Hodgson is a British television composer and sound technician. Born in Liverpool in 1938, Hodgson joined the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in 1962 where he became the original sound effects creator for the science fiction programme Doctor Who...
- Roger Rettig
John Halsey played Ringo Starr facsimile Barry Wom in Idle and Innes' Beatles parody, The Rutles
The Rutles
The Rutles are a band that are known for their visual and aural pastiches and parodies of The Beatles. Originally created by Eric Idle and Neil Innes as a fictional band to be featured as part of various 1970s television programming, the group recorded, toured, and released two UK chart hits in...
, which originated as a sketch on RWT. Innes and Idle portrayed the Lennon and McCartney parallels, Ron Nasty and Dirk McQuickly.
Roger Rettig now resides in Florida, USA, and is regarded as one of the finest pedal steel players in the business. In England, Roger backed Lonnie Donegan
Lonnie Donegan
Anthony James "Lonnie" Donegan MBE was a skiffle musician, with more than 20 UK Top 30 hits to his name. He is known as the "King of Skiffle" and is often cited as a large influence on the generation of British musicians who became famous in the 1960s...
and Roy St. John
Roy St. John
American-born singer-songwriter Roy St. John released albums on the Virgin and Chiswick labels in England after singing in the Pub Rock Phoenix which featured Charlie Sinclair , Les Morgan, and Adrian Pietryga His first album Immigration Declaration included Roger Rettig on pedal steel and Malcolm...
, as well as participating in the band Klondike Pete and the Huskies.
Brian Hodgson, regularly tours with legendary guitarist Albert Lee
Albert Lee
Albert William Lee, born 21 December 1943 in Leominster, Herefordshire, England, is an English guitarist known for his fingerstyle and hybrid picking technique. Lee has worked both in the studio and on tour with some of the most famous musicians which stretch through a very wide of genres...
in a band called Hogan's Heroes.
Billy Bremner is one of the UK's top session guitarists who now resides in Sweden. He was also a member of Rockpile
Rockpile
Rockpile were a British rock and roll group of the late 1970s and early 1980s, noted for their strong rockabilly and power pop influences, and as a foundational influence on new wave...
fronted by Dave Edmunds
Dave Edmunds
David 'Dave' Edmunds is a Welsh singer, guitarist and record producer. Although he is primarily associated with Pub rock and New Wave, and had numerous hits in the 1970s and early 1980s, his natural leaning has always been towards 1950s style rock and roll.-Early bands:As a teenager Edmunds first...
. Also in the band was Nick Lowe
Nick Lowe
Nicholas Drain "Nick" Lowe , is an English singer-songwriter, musician and producer.A pivotal figure in UK pub rock, punk rock and new wave, Lowe has recorded a string of well-reviewed solo albums. Along with vocals, Lowe plays guitar, bass guitar, piano and harmonica...
. Billy released a solo single on Stiff Records
Stiff Records
Stiff Records is a record label created in London in 1976, by entrepreneurs Dave Robinson and Andrew Jakeman , and active until 1985. It was reactivated in 2007....
in 1981 called Loud Music In Cars.
They now have an official website.
George HarrisonGeorge HarrisonGeorge Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...
The Christmas special features George Harrison as "Pirate Bob", dressed in appropriate attire and frequently interrupting the action throughout the show, before being given the chance to sing at the end in normal clothing. After leading the band through an intro to Harrison's "My Sweet Lord," Harrison switches off and starts singing a lively song about pirates known as "The Pirate Song".Innes's connection with Harrison and the other Beatles, as well as Harrison's to Monty Python and its members, are equally notable. Innes' Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band appeared in The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour
Magical Mystery Tour (film)
Magical Mystery Tour is an hour-long British television film starring The Beatles that originally aired on BBC1 on 26 December 1967...
film, and Paul McCartney produced the Bonzo single "I'm the Urban Spaceman," while Harrison founded HandMade Films
Handmade Films
HandMade Films is a British film production and distribution company. Through a series of sales, and acquisitions, the company now known as Handmade Plc owns all the rights and assets of the original HandMade Films Ltd...
for the purpose of financing Python's Life of Brian
Monty Python's Life of Brian
Monty Python's Life of Brian, also known as Life of Brian, is a 1979 British comedy film written, directed and largely performed by the Monty Python comedy team...
; HandMade later also produced Python alum Terry Gilliam's Time Bandits
Time Bandits
Time Bandits is a 1981 British fantasy film produced and directed by Terry Gilliam.Terry Gilliam wrote the screenplay with fellow Monty Python alumnus Michael Palin, who appears with Shelley Duvall in the small, recurring roles of Vincent and Pansy. The film is one of the most famous of more than...
. Harrison also appeared as a news reporter - interviewing Michael Palin - in Idle and Innes' Beatles parody, The Rutles: All You Need is Cash
The Rutles
The Rutles are a band that are known for their visual and aural pastiches and parodies of The Beatles. Originally created by Eric Idle and Neil Innes as a fictional band to be featured as part of various 1970s television programming, the group recorded, toured, and released two UK chart hits in...
.
Idle said of his RWT colleagues (in the same Radio Times
Radio Times
Radio Times is a UK weekly television and radio programme listings magazine, owned by the BBC. It has been published since 1923 by BBC Magazines, which also provides an on-line listings service under the same title...
interview) "Neil Innes is superb. I must be his biggest fan. Henry Woolf
Henry Woolf
Henry Woolf ,is a British actor, theatre director, and teacher of acting, drama, and theatre who lives in Canada, and a longtime friend and collaborator of 2005 Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter, having stimulated Pinter to write his first play, The Room in 1956...
played Toulouse-Lautrec
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa or simply Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, and illustrator, whose immersion in the colourful and theatrical life of fin de siècle Paris yielded an œuvre of exciting, elegant and provocative images of the modern...
in the West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
. He's the best small philosopher in London at the moment. And David Battley – what can I say? Straight, pale, dead-pan brilliant. Our cameraman, Peter Bartlett, filmed the Queen
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...
but says I'm easier to work with."
Memorable sketches
- Santa Doesn't Live Here Any More. Supposedly a play by 'Arthur Serious', this sketch parodies a typically miserable family Christmas, with David Battley complaining about everything and suggesting "a nice game of suicide". Eric IdleEric IdleEric Idle is an English comedian, actor, author, singer, writer, and comedic composer. He was as a member of the British comedy group Monty Python, a member of the The Rutles on Saturday Night Live and author of the play, Spamalot....
relates a charming childhood memory that quickly turns nasty, and Neil InnesNeil InnesNeil James Innes is an English writer and performer of comic songs, best known for his collaborative work with Monty Python, and for playing in the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and later The Rutles.-Personal life:...
arrives as a postman, with an unusual present in the shape of a sexy showgirl, prompting Battley's remark "they make lovely presents, women". This segues into Innes's doleful song, I Don't Believe In Santa Any More. - Being Normal. A spoof documentary about one man's completely uneventful life. Despite having had lunatic parents and a miserable childhood, David Battley remains depressingly ordinary, going to "straight pubs" and feeling at home in the company of "other normals". The documentary's narrator decides that "the little man from the off-licence" is to blame, not just for Battley's misfortune, but for everything, including Leicester City Football ClubLeicester City F.C.Leicester City Football Club , also known as The Foxes, is an English professional football club based at the King Power Stadium in Leicester...
's failure to win the FA CupFA CupThe Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football and is the oldest association football competition in the world. The "FA Cup" is run by and named after The Football Association and usually refers to the English men's...
. This segues into Innes's song Lie Down and Be Counted. - Expose. What begins as an investigation into the notorious 'Massed Flashers of ReigateReigateReigate is a historic market town in Surrey, England, at the foot of the North Downs, and in the London commuter belt. It is one of the main constituents of the Borough of Reigate and Banstead...
' is quickly overtaken by the revelation that the police force are moonlighting as shop assistants and builders, and a commune for policemen (and women) is raided by hippies looking for drugs. The documentary also highlights how few people believe in Sir Keith JosephKeith JosephKeith St John Joseph, Baron Joseph, Bt, CH, PC , was a British barrister and politician. A member of the Conservative Party, he served in the Cabinet under three Prime Ministers , and is widely regarded to have been the "power behind the throne" in the creation of what came to be known as...
, before Eric IdleEric IdleEric Idle is an English comedian, actor, author, singer, writer, and comedic composer. He was as a member of the British comedy group Monty Python, a member of the The Rutles on Saturday Night Live and author of the play, Spamalot....
is informed that he's getting a bad review. Idle rants about the uselessness of television critics for a while, but Henry WoolfHenry WoolfHenry Woolf ,is a British actor, theatre director, and teacher of acting, drama, and theatre who lives in Canada, and a longtime friend and collaborator of 2005 Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter, having stimulated Pinter to write his first play, The Room in 1956...
informs him that his satirical invective has won him a rave review. Idle changes tack and begins praising TV critics, but the cast rebel against him and talk about putting in for their own series as the credits roll. - The Cretin Club. A man (David Battley) is despondent after he scores zero in an IQ test, but since he managed to get his name right at the top of the paper, the examiner (Eric IdleEric IdleEric Idle is an English comedian, actor, author, singer, writer, and comedic composer. He was as a member of the British comedy group Monty Python, a member of the The Rutles on Saturday Night Live and author of the play, Spamalot....
) gives him two points and membership to the Cretin Club, whose perks include cufflinks, a club tie and an 'I Am A Cretin' t-shirt. (This sketch was expanded upon in The Rutland Dirty Weekend Book.) - Ill Health Food Store. Eric IdleEric IdleEric Idle is an English comedian, actor, author, singer, writer, and comedic composer. He was as a member of the British comedy group Monty Python, a member of the The Rutles on Saturday Night Live and author of the play, Spamalot....
runs a shop selling both unappetising fare such as tins of acne, the 'diarrhoea delight'- and the chance to take a vegetarian home and force-feed him meat. - Twenty-four Hours In Tunbridge Wells. An extremely low-budget spoof of the Gene KellyGene KellyEugene Curran "Gene" Kelly was an American dancer, actor, singer, film director and producer, and choreographer...
/ Frank SinatraFrank SinatraFrancis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
film On the TownOn the Town (film)On the Town is a 1949 musical film with music by Leonard Bernstein and Roger Edens and book and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. It is an adaptation of the Broadway stage musical of the same name produced in 1944, although many changes in script and score were made from the original stage...
, shown as part of Rutland Weekend Television's season of Classically Bad American Films. - Ron Badger / Satan's Electrical Shop. The Devil (David Battley) is found in reduced circumstances, running a small electrical shop. He complains that people's souls are no good to him ("they just sit there, soulfully...if people sold me their privates, it'd be more interesting") but reluctantly decides to buy just one more. The customer (Eric IdleEric IdleEric Idle is an English comedian, actor, author, singer, writer, and comedic composer. He was as a member of the British comedy group Monty Python, a member of the The Rutles on Saturday Night Live and author of the play, Spamalot....
) hasn't taken Satan's economic downturn into account though, and the promise to make love to Helen of Troy turns out to be a seedy one-night stand with "a bird from bleeding EdgbastonEdgbastonEdgbaston is an area in the city of Birmingham in England. It is also a formal district, managed by its own district committee. The constituency includes the smaller Edgbaston ward and the wards of Bartley Green, Harborne and Quinton....
" in a grubby seaside hotel room. - Man Alive - Suburban Prisons. A spoof on the BBC current events series has housewives running maximum security prisons from their bungalows. Mrs Harris's prison is the most unpopular, as she has reintroduced hanging. However, Mrs Fletcher's prison is a big hit, because she had Johnny CashJohnny CashJohn R. "Johnny" Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...
(Neil InnesNeil InnesNeil James Innes is an English writer and performer of comic songs, best known for his collaborative work with Monty Python, and for playing in the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and later The Rutles.-Personal life:...
) perform a concert for the inmates. - The Old Gay Whistle Test. A parody of The Old Grey Whistle Test, featuring Eric Idle as the host, speaking in a permanent whisper. It featured the world's first dead musician, and a rock star talking about a concert where "we did over seven million dollars' worth of damage, so it was rather good", even though only five people appeared.
The Rutles
One show introduced The RutlesThe Rutles
The Rutles are a band that are known for their visual and aural pastiches and parodies of The Beatles. Originally created by Eric Idle and Neil Innes as a fictional band to be featured as part of various 1970s television programming, the group recorded, toured, and released two UK chart hits in...
, a four-piece band fronted by Innes as a man "suffering from love song" spoofing The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
, singing "I Must Be In Love", a masterly pastiche
Pastiche
A pastiche is a literary or other artistic genre or technique that is a "hodge-podge" or imitation. The word is also a linguistic term used to describe an early stage in the development of a pidgin language.-Hodge-podge:...
of some of the early Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
-McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
songs. This was followed by the beginnings of a documentary feature about the band, cut short when the camera, mounted on a car, speeds off. This scene was later remade in the spinoff film, All You Need Is Cash
All You Need Is Cash
All You Need Is Cash is a 1978 television film that traces the career of a fictitious British rock group called The Rutles...
, featuring Idle, Innes, Rikki Fataar and John Halsey
John Halsey
John Halsey was a colonial American privateer and a later pirate who was active in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans during the early 18th century. Although much of his life and career is unknown, he is recorded in A General History of the Pyrates which states "He was brave in his Person, courteous...
(who also appeared in many of the musical items in the series) as the "Pre-Fab Four". Innes wrote the music for the film, most of which was parody of well-known Beatles songs. On RWT (including the clip featured later on Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
, which vaulted the Pre-Fab Four to stardom) the Rikki Fataar part was played by Eric Idle with David Battley in the Paul McCartney role.
Python influence
Aside from the first appearance of the Rutles, the show features some brilliantly surreal humourSurreal humour
Surreal humour is a form of humour based on violations of causal reasoning with events and behaviours that are logically incongruent. Constructions of surreal humour involve bizarre juxtapositions, non-sequiturs, irrational situations, and/or expressions of nonsense.The humour arises from a...
in the style associated with Monty Python. One sketch features the Lone Ranger (Idle) transformed into the Lone Accountant, with Innes as Tonto
Tonto
Tonto may mean:* Tonto, a band of Apache native Americans.* Tonto, the fictional sidekick to the Lone Ranger.* "Tonto", a song by the American math rock band Battles, from their album Mirrored.** "Tonto+", the EP centered around said song....
accidentally murdering holdup victims while trying to rescue them ("too many gin-and-tonic at lunch... You think it easy to be Indian and accountant?"). Another scene features Gwen Taylor
Gwen Taylor
Gwen Taylor is an actress who has appeared in many British television programmes, including Z-Cars, Murder Most Horrid, Yes, Prime Minister, Inspector Morse, Midsomer Murders and Belonging...
visiting the doctor to complain of her constantly changing costume and surroundings and being diagnosed with "bad continuity." The prescribed treatment is editing out two weeks of her life, after which she says she feels well, and a bit hungry... though her soundtrack is still off. She then becomes a victim of recurring film flashbacks, eventually disappearing back into her childhood.
Innes subsequently created and starred in The Innes Book of Records, a pre-MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
show that wove together strange guests and music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
s in a bewildering array of musical styles and visual styles.
Other media
As well as providing the basis for The RutlesThe Rutles
The Rutles are a band that are known for their visual and aural pastiches and parodies of The Beatles. Originally created by Eric Idle and Neil Innes as a fictional band to be featured as part of various 1970s television programming, the group recorded, toured, and released two UK chart hits in...
, Rutland Weekend Television also spawned its own LP and book.
Book
The Rutland Dirty Weekend Book by Eric Idle, 1976A dense and lavishly illustrated parody of the Television, films and print media of the mid-1970s.
The book is notable for the issue of "Rutland Stone" bound inside. The back page of this issue carries a full-page advertisement for The Rutles' latest album ("Finchley Road"), a single ("Ticket To Rut"), and an assortment of Rutles merchandise. The book also contains the "Vatican Sex Manual" featuring pictures of Eric Idle in various positions in which it is impossible to have sex.
DVD
Despite many requests, none of the episodes have been released on DVD - the show has complicated rights issues, belonging in principle both to the BBC and Idle, but with issues concerning appearances by former-Beatle George HarrisonGeorge Harrison
George Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...
and the songs of Neil Innes
Neil Innes
Neil James Innes is an English writer and performer of comic songs, best known for his collaborative work with Monty Python, and for playing in the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and later The Rutles.-Personal life:...
. Innes has claimed that Idle has no interest in seeing the series released as it reminds him of an unhappy time in his life, but recent litigation and bitterness concerning The Rutles
The Rutles
The Rutles are a band that are known for their visual and aural pastiches and parodies of The Beatles. Originally created by Eric Idle and Neil Innes as a fictional band to be featured as part of various 1970s television programming, the group recorded, toured, and released two UK chart hits in...
spin-off may also be a consideration.