The Dick Emery Show
The Dick Emery Show | |
---|---|
Created by | David Cummings |
Starring | Dick Emery Pat Coombs Deryck Guyler Roy Kinnear Joan Sims Josephine Tewson Arthur English |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language | English |
No. of series | 18[1] |
No. of episodes | 166[1](85 missing) |
Production | |
Running time | 25–50 minutes[1] |
Production company | BBC[1] |
Original release | |
Network | BBC1 (1963-64, 1969-81) BBC2 (1965-67) [1] |
Release | 13 July 1963 7 February 1981[1] | –
The Dick Emery Show is a British sketch comedy show starring Dick Emery.[2] It was broadcast on the BBC from 1963 to 1981.[1][3] It was directed and produced by Harold Snoad.[4] The show was broadcast over 18 series with 166 episodes.[1][3] The show experienced sustained popularity in the 1960s and 1970s. The BBC described the show as featuring 'a vivid cast of comic grotesques'.[5]
Frequent performers included Pat Coombs, Victor Maddern, Deryck Guyler, Roy Kinnear, Joan Sims and Josephine Tewson.[1][5]
The principal writers of the programme were David Cummings, John Singer, and John Warren. Additional contributions were by
The show became anachronistic with the advent of the 1980s, and has subsequently been perceived as homophobic, racist, and sexist.
Peri Bradley critiqued the show in the chapter "The Politics of Camp" in British Culture and Society in the 1970s: The Lost Decade. Bradley examined how camp could "operate as a political and liberating force" in the 1970s; and felt that Emery's characters "comprised representations [which] instigated" a "transformation of consciousness" as described by the gender theorist Judith Butler.[6]
Out-takes of
Characters
Characters portrayed by Emery included: Bovver Boy, a hapless
Vox pops
Contrived
Home Media
An 85 minute compilation titled Comedy Greats: Dick Emery containing the very best sketches from The Dick Emery Show was released on UK PAL VHS by BBC Video on 11 October 1999.[9]
This was re-released on Region 2 DVD on 11 July 2005 by 2 Entertain Video BBC Studios titled: The Best of Dick Emery.[10]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m "The Dick Emery Show". BBC Comedy Guide. 2 December 2003. Archived from the original on 26 April 2004. Retrieved 24 November 2021.
- ^ "The Dick Emery Show[04/12/64] (1964)". BFI. Archived from the original on 24 February 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i "The Dick Emery Show". British Film Institute. Retrieved 3 August 2020.
- ^ "Harold Snoad". BFI. Archived from the original on 11 April 2017.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "The Dick Emery Show". BBC. Retrieved 3 August 2020.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4438-1838-4.
- ^ "BFI Screenonline: Bit of Fry and Laurie, A (1989-95)". www.screenonline.org.uk.
- ISBN 978-0-19-920895-1.
- Amazon.co.uk. 11 October 1999. Retrieved 24 November 2011.
- Amazon.co.uk. 11 July 2005. Retrieved 24 November 2021.
External links
- The Dick Emery Show at IMDb
- The Dick Emery Show at the BFI's Screenonline