Laugh,
actuall
!
V
BRITISH COMEDY
Funny ha ha? (Clockwise from top left) Withnail and I; Curse of the Were-Rabbit: The Ladykillers; The Full Monty; Confetti
Confetti is the latest in a long line of British comedy films. But why, for every success like The Full Monty is there a lorryload of turkeys? Brian Donaldson sets sail on the stormy waters of British Film Comedy, in search of a saviour.
here‘s one phrase that is likely to raise a
groan whenever it is uttered by film
people: British comedy. 01' even worse. British romantic cotnedy. While British crime. horror and period genres have gone through \arious dips and bends. the comedy genre has steadily spit'allcd down the way since its 50s lialing heyday. Why should this be'.’ Why can we only produce a decent funny tnovie every six or seven ycat‘s'.’ l‘or every .S'liaun aft/1e Dead we have to trawl through acres of S ('luli Seeing
Double and Snare/i. livery titne a Brassed Off
blasts our way. we need to light off Bean and Bring Me the llt’tlt/ trillion Davis. It really has all gone Pete Tong. you know. liven the Spaniards are more consistently funny than us. Why can't the wt)rld-renowned likes of liddie l//ard. Billy (‘onnolly and Iiric Idle get on the case and make British tnovies respectable again‘.’ Because they‘re either too busy taking themselves just a bit too seriously or cropping tip in American documentary movies talking about scatological American jokes from the vaudeville era. But how did it come to all this'.’ Well. back in the 30s. with the infant British film industry
struggling under the heavy weight of Atnerican domination (sound familiarl’). something had to be done to avoid years of churning out twitchy short documentaries and stiff movies with titles like Incident at ('lm‘e/ly Cottage.
The new wave was aided by the I927 (‘inematograph Act which was passed to boost local production and ensure that British cinemas would show a strict number of [K movies. While this still led to a vast number of documentaries (Night Mail and the work of John (irierson being the tnost notable) directors such as Alfred Hitchcock and Michael Powell were now learning their trade. Not a bundle of laughs to be had with their output right enough unless the thought of hearing someone say ‘knife. knife. knife‘ louder and louder. over and over again is your idea of fun. But this was the hallowed period when George Formby. Gracie Fields and The Crazy (jang all made a name for themselves. their comic roots having sprouted in intisic-hall.
The war kind of got in the way of anyone having a smile or two (though Lord Haw Haw was having a right old giraffe with his treacherous ways) but the late 40s and 50s will
go down. genuinely for once. as the good old days in British cine-comedy. The Iialing studios arrived and made a sensation ()tll of Alec (iuinness as The Man in the Il'lrile Sun and part of The lavender Hill .l/()/) and Tire lxlt/V/x'i/lt‘l's. The success of lialing was relatively sli()t'l-ll\Ctl (which might have helped its iconic status) and ceased production in IUSB. Lesser franchises such as the .S'i ’l'rinians films and the I)m'lm' series kept things bubbling away while the Boulting Brothers. John and Ray (not e\actly the liarrellys of their day. mind) contributed with laughter In Paradise and 'Iim .llanv ('muks.
If the clatter of angry young men bashing around kitchen sinks was light relief for you then the ()()s were a boom time. I-‘or the rest of us. only the Beatles appeared to be having a giggle while Michael (‘aine showed off the chronic limitations that would hoodwink a gullible public for decades to come in the risible Alfie. The following decade was a hotbed of softeore filth and the sex comedy was on the rise with the Confessions series which made Robin Asquith an unlikely figure of sauce for the desperate housewives of the day. The 80s seemed to spend
~ rm, THE LIST 17