There are few statements as incontestable as 1981 being one of the greatest years in Horror ever: An American Werewolf in London; Possession; The Evil Dead; The Beyond; The Howling; Dead and Buried; Friday the 13th: Part 2; My Bloody Valentine; The Prowler - there are a bucketload of classics from that year. But the frightmares weren't just restricted to the big screen; a fine example comes unexpectedly from a musical sketch by the legendary British comedic duo, The Two Ronnies.
Aired on BBC's Saturday night TV slot, the duo performed a musical sketch parodying the infamous Penny Dreadful tale of Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. The story revolves around the villainous barber putting his cut throat razor to literal use and robbing his patrons of their valuables. His bloody victims would fall backward down a revolving trap door whilst on the barber's chair. Below, in the basement, his accomplice in crime, Mrs. Lovett would dispose of the corpses by using them as the filling in her meat pies. A gruesome tale that's been adapted many times over. (Sidenote: I've never actually watched the Tim Burton adaptation since I'd already given up on him by then, along with being sick of Johnny Depp being inescapable everywhere.)
The Two Ronnies' Teeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Queer Street, did not refrain at all from showing a visceral amount of blood spewing from the throats of unfortunate victims. Can you imagine seeing such a gruesome premise aired on a primetime slot in a comedy today? So chilling, the sketch ended up being cut from repeats later on.
My memory of this event layed buried until viewing the British Quota Quickie film from 1936, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street starring Tod Slaughter (what a name!) very recently. It unearthed the memories of me being very young and horrified of that Two Ronnies sketch.
Teeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Queer Street wasn't the only chiller from The Two Ronnies as they previously had a
running episodic tale co-written by The Goon Show comedian Spike
Milligan known as The Phantom Raspberry Blower of Old London Town.
It had the look and feel of vintage Hammer at times, which made it
all the more alluring to me, as the Jack the Ripper style antagonist would assault his victims by blowing a raspberry at them (it
turned out to be performed by David Jason and not by Spike Milligan as once thought). Once his face was finally revealed The Phantom Raspberry Blower's visage became a similar frightful memory from the much beloved comedy show.
It's a pity Barker didn't do any movies in the 70s other than the Porridge one. Imagine him starring in an Amicus horror or a Carry On movie written by Le Fresnais & Clement and/or Clarke.
ReplyDeleteRango is the only good movie Depp's done in the last 20 years.
Barker played Friar Tuck in Robin and Maron in the seventies, but I was never a fan of the film. I agree, he would have been great in an Amicus or Hammer production, though. Haven't seen Ronnie Corbett in anything from that era either, with the exception of No Sex Please - We're British.
ReplyDeleteCaught a few mins of Fiddler on the Roof on TV this afternoon and I was surprised to see Roger Lloyd Pack in it as a Russian Orthodox monk.