In At The Deep End (1985)

[pelam123]

Just been watching again an old episode I for got I had of this BBC series with Paul Heiny and Chris Searle (ex That's Life) taking on jobs they've never done before.



This is the one where Paul Heiny has to become a movie villain and wins a part in Water (1985) a Michael Caine pic, as a ruthless mercenary. I'd forgotten how funny it was, when he visits Ollie Reed to get a master class on how to be a bad guy and Pat Roach teaches him how to take a punch! He then spends ages getting his german accent right for the part of the mercenary "Kessler" only to be told by Clement and La Frenais who wrote it, that they intended Kessler to be french.



Loved Ollie Reed's advice about getting his curly hair cut: "Villains have straight hair...idiots have curly hair!"

[GRAEME]

My abiding memory was being present at the Lakeside Country Club gig where one of them (?) did a comedy monlogue as a woman doing her ironing - this was for the show and he'd got advice from top comics like Les Dawson. He died a death because the material was piss poor and also because he came on while everybody was still eating...



Bernard Manning came on later when the show proper started (it was a Variety Club awards night) and got a huge laugh out of saying "Cor, bloody hell! What about that c*** with the ironing board, eh?"



When I watched the show on TV months later, I realised that Manning had been one of the comics giving advice. What a nice man...