Bob Monkhouse on BBC Four

[Lew Stringer]

There's an interesting documentary on Bob Monkhouse currently airing on BBC Four. I missed the first five minutes so I don't know if it mentioned his comic work but the rest of his life is interesting enough in itself.

It's repeated later tonight on the same channel.

[Lew Stringer]

Unfortunately my machine failed to record the last half hour of it but in the hour I saw it did show some of Bob's massive collection of comics and original artwork. (And his obsessive collection of TV Times.)

It also mentioned he worked for The Dandy and Beano but didn't mention that he'd also produced his own comics. A friend of his said he thought Bob would "have liked to have been a cartoonist", without realizing that he had been one!

They also didn't realize that Bob sometimes designed the illustrated sets for The Golden Shot that they showed on the documentary. He also illustrated his own autobiography. (EDIT: Sorry, it was his book "The Book of Days" he illustrated, not his autobiography.)

I once saw Bob buying comics in Nostalgia & Comics in Brum, about 30 years ago. He was a fan of both British and American comics. I was too meek to speak to him then, which I always regretted.

(I guess this shouldn't be in the non-comics section. Sorry.)

[Peter Gray]

I'll catch up with it on IPlayer thanks for the heads up Lew

[Digifiend]

It also mentioned he worked for The Dandy and Beano but didn't mention that he'd also produced his own comics.

This has been mentioned here before, I'm sure. I don't think we ever found out the exact nature of his work for Beano and Dandy though. Anyone know?

[Niblet]

I was amazed as I watched the programme - Bob's tenacity as an archivist (aka hoarder) was staggering. Compared to him, most of us on this forum are mere dabblers! Mind, you he obviously had a bob (unintentional pun) or two judging by the size of his house, so he had the funds and space to build a collection, but he must have spent a huge amount of time transcribing recordings from the radio and documenting and organising his various collections.

[Peter Gray]

What a great program Carol and I found it very interesting..

What a collector!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Even writing in the Tv Times when a program was broadcast at a different time..it could be useful for Tv times if they ever do a dvd rom of there magazine..

Writing up radio and tv programs..for the jokes...quite a magpie..
and all those video tapes..unbelievable!!!
Great that so much has been saved..
Also glad he is being recognised as a comedian today..
love the sleeping in the nude gag..
nothing wrong in sleeping in the nude..though people on the plane don't like it..

I have that collector bug that Bob has..I record lots of telly and keep.collect comics annuals..though its kept under control because I live in a flat and don't have a lot of money..

[Lew Stringer]

Even writing in the Tv Times when a program was broadcast at a different time..it could be useful for Tv times if they ever do a dvd rom of there magazine..

It's useful for tv archivists too. The chap who was on the programme, Chris Perry, is one of the people who run the Kaleidoscope events and Bob's collection would be gold dust for them.

I've just checked the website and they worked with the BBC on the making of the programme:

http://www.kaleidoscope.org.uk/

There's a very nice letter on there from Bob's daughter thanking them for their help in sorting through Bob's tv archive.

[PaulTwist]

I've recorded this. Very much looking forward to watching it. One of the finest gagsmiths we ever did see. (Though I did catch a few minutes of it where he was voicing pro-Tory sentiments... still, no-one's perfect. )

[stevezodiac]

I enjoyed it very much and full marks to the bbc for giving the programme a nice 90 minutes length. It's being repeated this Saturday at 9pm on BBC4. He had over 40,000 videos of tv shows that have long since been wiped by the tv companies including 40 editions of the Golden Shot. (I watched it first time round). Those Hancock radio shows may surface one day if the bbc can obtain them. They only showed copies of the Triumph story paper when referring to his comic collecting. I'll watch the repeat but not sure whether to record it or not.

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

Bobbo must have been minted if he had the technology to record TV shows in the late 60s and very early 70s.......the invention of the VCR did exist then, but very few people could afford to buy this sort of gear back then.

[NP]

In October 2009 BAFTA had a special screening of some of Bob's videos and films from the 1950s and 1960s, where I met his daughter and a whole bunch of other comedians and presenters. A nice Saturday afternoon in Piccadilly! There, I bought a book which listed everything he'd kept - a quite staggering list, but unfortunately not a lot of it was rare or unique. By far the largest portion of his collection was from the 1980s & 1990s and on Videocassette. Perhaps 5% was interesting, half of that a true 'find'. Still, that did amount to maybe a hundred hours worth of material! There was no rare Hancock stuff, just off-air recordings of shows that are archived elsewhere.
The Kaleidescope people reckoned they still hadn't catalogued all the archive though, and one or two interesting items had turned up at the end of an otherwise unremarkable reel. (Lenny Henry's otherwise lost TV debut was found, and he was present to watch it again after 33 years!)
The most intriguing of all were six episodes of a sitcom Bob and his erstwhile writing partner Denis Goodwin made in 1957 which was incredibly modern in both appearance, subject matter and execution- it was more like The Garry Shandling Show of 1988 than a typical 1950s show. And so risque that it's clear any innuendo went completely over the head of the BBC!
Bob had an AMPEX professional open-reel Video Recorder shipped over from the US in 1959, at a time when only six others were in the country! (four at the BBCs White City and two at Granada in Manchester!) To put that in perspective the first domestic video cassette recorders were made in 1976!

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

Ruddy 'Eck: sounds like you should take up this archiving/pop-culture history lark yourself, NP!

I myself collected hundreds of hours of videotaped shows throughout the 80s/90s but threw the entire lot out a few years back...I've never regretted it, it just took up too much space . The best stuff is usually [but not always] available on DVD, much more compact to store and durable as well as economical.

No doubt there will be a boxed DVD set of GOLDEN SHOT shows for the conniseur of such stuff thanks to Bobbo's archival tenacity.

[stevezodiac]

My parents bought a reel to reel tape recorder in the late 60s and I recorded a lot of comedy stuff like the first two series of I'm Sorry I haven't a Clue and Milligna (Spike's own show). Still have the tapes but nothing to play them on now. I also have hundreds of cassettes with Radio comedy on them. Shows like Steptoe, Dad's Army and Yes Minister transferred quite well to audio only as they were all dialogue driven.

[Raven]

To put that in perspective the first domestic video cassette recorders were made in 1976!

1972, actually - the The Philips N1500 VCR. Very expensive. David Bowie had one of the first (and I think he bought Mick Jagger one for Christmas.)

That Fifties series was presumably My Pal Bob, a few clips of which were shown on the BBC4 doc. Bob was ahead of his time with that surviving second series, making it on film himself, leasing it to the BBC for one showing, then getting back the prints along with the world rights. Hence it still exists!

He's harsh on it in his autobiography, though, calling the series "half a dozen half-hours of domestic nonsense that not even the tender mercies of rosy nostalgia can render watchable." Well, I'd like to see more.

It's good that he kept at least forty of the original 70s Celebrity Squares (which ATV wiped) as, looking at the clips in the documentary, they have some interesting guests, from Spike Milligan to Vincent Price.

Do you recall any interesting 70s stuff in the book, Nigel? I expect he was mainly taping his own shows like the hour specials he did for Thames ('I'm Bob, He's Dickie' etc.), which will exist in the archive anyway.

[NP]

1972, actually - the The Philips N1500 VCR. Very expensive. David Bowie had one of the first (and I think he bought Mick Jagger one for Christmas.)

That's right the much missed Philips N1500- still hardly a 'domestic' product at the price it was, and the format was dead by 1980 or so. And Bowie buying Jagger a staggeringly expensive Christmas present... well, best not think about that! I believe the late Maurice Gibb had one (he, age 20, had rather flashily bought an Ampex in 1969 which is why we have that Hendrix clip from the Lulu show where he starts playing a Cream tune).

Do you recall any interesting 70s stuff in the book, Nigel? I expect he was mainly taping his own shows like the hour specials he did for Thames ('I'm Bob, He's Dickie' etc.), which will exist in the archive anyway.

I'll have to go and get the book. Nothing extraordinary stood out though - mainly variety shows and sitcoms. And movies of course, probably 70% of his archive was movies-he must have taped every movie that BBC and Thames/London Weekend broadcast in the 1970s and 1980s!