Further to yesterday’s update, and with thanks to Louis Barfe of the excellent Cheeseford, here’s another brilliant clip of Stewart Morris at his angry best. “Cue the piper! PLAY, YOU BASTARD!”
”Is there any way of getting these old age pensioners to PLAY?” Really, if we’d been involved in these live broadcasts, we’d have kept cocking things up on purpose, solely for the benefit of people from the future putting things on YouTube. Whatever that turned out to be.
Meanwhile, from the infamous Good King Memorex BBC VT Christmas tape, here’s some footage of Stewart Morris getting only mildly miffed with a take of The Wengelbert Humptyback Show.
Sadly, that seems to be it on YouTube for shouty Stewart Morris moments. Unless anyone knows differently, of course. While it wouldn’t be too surprising if there aren’t that many recordings that survive of gallery chatter from 1970s/80s light entertainment shows (or indeed, recordings of the actual shows themselves) that are still in public circulation, we do really hope there are more out there.
For now though, we’ll do what we can to increase the amount of Stewart Morris clippage on YouTube. Here, from 2003’s Pegg-narrated “What Was The Week We Watched”, is the tale of Stewart Morris deciding to… well, “slightly mislead” a certain internationally acclaimed diva.
Apologies for aspect-ratio wrongness. It was recorded onto a steam-powered DVD recorder back in 2003, and we’re too technologically challenged (and lazy) to do much about putting it in 16:9.
Coincidentally, that same episode of TWTWWW did include a look back at Eurovision 1977, but only includes a short exchange with Stewart Morris, and doesn’t even mention the talkback track, so it wasn’t worth putting online. Unless you all really want to find out that Angela Rippon is so tremendously polite, she meekly mimes the word ‘bloody’ when quoting an angry lighting technician.
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In retrospect, the opening ceremony of the 1986 Commonwealth Games is a strange affair - like a cross between We Are The Champions, some Ronnie Hazlehurst LE spectacular and Seaside Special. With Old English Sheepdogs. But I guess that's what you get for putting Stewart Morris in charge.
I'm not sure what my favourite bit is, to be honest - it's a toss-up between "CUE FIRE!", "JUMP! JUMP! JUMP! COME ON, JUMP!" and "STOP THE BAND, TERRY, FOR GOD'S SAKE!"
That reference to "edited highlights" at the end is because, for some reason, the ceremony ran short, so for some demented reason, the BBC plugged the gap before the Nine O'Clock News with 20 minutes of highlights of what you'd just been watching.
Stewart was a great lover of Old English Sheepdogs, long before Dulux got in on the act. The one in the Bassey clip was his own pet, and in later life he had a statue of one outside his house in Kew. Unless his widow's moved, I suspect it's still there.
You've seen these, I take it? http://www.tech-ops.co.uk/page154.html
Ah, thanks Louis. I had seen those before, but that page is always worth revisiting occasionally. Stewart Morris is certainly a figure from the BBC's past who would merit an edition of BBC Four's Time Shift. Or even a factually inaccurate one-off drama.
Oh, and meant to mention - I wonder if Chris Barrie's furious TV producer character from Filthy, Rich & Catflap's "Ooer, Sounds A Bit Rude!" is a direct reference to Stewart Morris. It seems a fairly safe bet.
If you've ever enjoyed the director talkback clips of the 1986 Commonwealth Games and the 1977 Eurovision Talback recordings, then hopefully you'll enjoy this little tribute too!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jac6jIYOSlM
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