I was just putting the glorious My Body May Die from the soundtrack of the Reeves and Mortimer version of Randall and Hopkirk onto a compilation (yes, I know, I still do them, it's my generation, you see) and wondered if there is any love for the series on these boards.
The little I saw of it didn't impress me too much (didn't completely turn me off, either), but Play.com has a box of both series for 7 quid, so I wondered ... is it worth seven whole pounds, and the requisite hours of my life?
The first series was pretty poor, not helped by the leads being in the wrong roles. Churubic not too tall Bob should have played the Hopkirk part and the bigger Vic play the Randall role.
The second series was a vast improvement, partly due to Jeff/Bob being considerably toughened up. Overall though to take a leaf from the original series, it should never have seen the light of day.
I quite liked it especially when Tom Baker turned up. Lots of great guest stars helped though it suffered from the two leads just not being different enough. Certainly worth �7 though
Wrong series Captain. Rowden is talking about the Reeves and Mortimer remake.
name='Tigon Man']Wrong series Captain. Rowden is talking about the Reeves and Mortimer remake.
Yes, I know. Though in fairness to me, he doesn't actually say that.
I think I actually preferred the first series of the remake to the second, but I didn't honestly think either was that good. Especially since the original was so excellent and is my personal favourite of the ITC Cult series. I don't think Reeves and Mortimer should ever have been picked to play the leads. They are both very good stand-up comedians but they are lousy actors. Emilia Fox was very good as Jean though.
wellendcanons.
Randall and Hopkirk is not one of my favourite ITC programmes, but even that looks like a work of high art compared to the dreadful remake.
name='CaptainWaggett']Yes, I know. Though in fairness to me, he doesn't actually say that.
Ooh! Ooh! I say!! I think, quoting my original post, that "the Reeves and Mortimer version of Randall and Hopkirk..." is fairly clear.
name='Rowdon']Ooh! Ooh! I say!! I think, quoting my original post, that "the Reeves and Mortimer version of Randall and Hopkirk..." is fairly clear.
OopsI stand by my opinion that it's not bad at all and it had some good guest stars.
The original version was at least passible and some of the episodes were ok - as for the remake IMHO it should have been consigned to the scrapbin before there was even any thought of screening it on TV - it was awful.
Very few remakes are a success - the recent Prisoner being a case in poin.t
name='johng']The original version was at least passible and some of the episodes were ok - as for the remake IMHO it should have been consigned to the scrapbin before there was even any thought of screening it on TV - it was awful.
Very few remakes are a success - the recent Prisoner being a case in poin.t
Couldn't agree more.
....in which Tom Baker was one of the stars playing Hopkirk's 'mentor' Wyvern.name='Tigon Man']Wrong series Captain. Rowden is talking about the Reeves and Mortimer remake.
I thought the series resembled one of th p***-take tv show clips from their 'shooting stars' show!
name='Tigon Man']The first series was pretty poor, not helped by the leads being in the wrong roles. Churubic not too tall Bob should have played the Hopkirk part and the bigger Vic play the Randall role.
The second series was a vast improvement, partly due to Jeff/Bob being considerably toughened up. Overall though to take a leaf from the original series, it should never have seen the light of day.
Got to disagree with you on the casting Tigon... apparently Vic & Bob had assumed Vic would be Randall but the casting/production people insisted he be the ghostly Hopkirk, and quite right too IMHO. I have always seen Bob as Vic's (willing) stooge and Randall was surely the "straight man" to the quirky, surreal Hopkirk, so I'm firmly of the opinion they appeared in the correct respective roles.
Still - as jaycad says - it was really little more than an overstretched version of one of their spoofs. The novelty wore off for me by about episode three.
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