I have recently recorded, for an elderly friend, a series off the television entitled ‘Heroes of Comedy’. The series covered comedians and comic actors of past and recent eras including Frankie Howard, Max Miller, Joyce Grenfell, Alastair Sim, Benny Hill, Ronnie Corbett and the like; reflecting their style, technique and most significantly their humour. The series was not intended as a critique with today’s professional comic talent, nevertheless, to me, it drew all the necessary comparisons.
It made me think back to the days when I saw Max Miller at the Kingston Empire and how shocked his audiences were by what was then considered rude and even crude, however, there is no comparison to what passes for humour today. We have gone through the Sachgate episode and have to contend with the excessive crudities of The Royle Family (where Ricky Tomlinson has made his oft delivered “My arse” a national catchphrase.) and many quite humourless late evening comedy programmes on UK TV that rely on a four-lettered punch-line to get their laugh and, while there is always the option to turn them off, I never cease to be amazed by what they get away with and how times and humour have changed.
But it’s not only humour that has degenerated it is attitude as well. I the past weeks a famous actress started work in Eastenders as an elderly lady related to one of the main female characters. This actress has had a very distinguished career on stage, screen and TV and I was both pleased and surprised that at the age of 84 she had accepted such a contract. Unhappily after just one week it was announced that Margaret Tyzack had left the cast and the role of Lydia Simmonds would be taken over by actress Heather Chasen. However, it did not end there, suddenly on one of the TV websites a tirade of abuse and disrespect appeared with contributors criticising her for taking on the role, saying she looked like a man in drag and calling her resignation and behaviour snobbish. I can only presume that these messages could only originate from young uninformed people who did not bother to look for any information about Ms. Tyzack. (If you are interested you can check this out by entering “Margaret Tyzack, Eastenders” on your browser.)
Where are we going when such everyday things like humour, entertainment, attitude and respect create such a hard edge on life? Is this another example of what is called progress and development?