Kenny Everett had been on television for six years by the time the "Video Cassette" went into production. Although still preferring to work on radio, the public demand for new Everett shows was high, so he came up with the "Video Cassette".
Essentially 30 minutes of his own brand of quickfire humour, blended with his characters, silly voices, special effects and bare faced cheek to the establishment (Prince Charles, Thames TV, and many others were the butts of his jokes), the show was self indulgent to the extreme, but his excellence as a performer and entertainer made the 30 minutes such fun viewing that you would never notice time ticking by.
Celebrity guests (all were friends of Kenny) abounded (Kate Bush, Rod Stewart, Terry Wogan, Cliff Richard, et al) and all were quite happy to parody themselves before the camera. Ken had a way of making them see the lighter side of themselves.
Only six shows were made, and Kenny quit Thames TV afterwards (allegedly because he was upset that Thames had scheduled the show up against the then-all powerful "Top of the Pops" on BBC1, almost guaranteeing it a low audience share)to go under contract to the BBC - to make "The Kenny Everett Television Show".
Although only six were made, they total 180 minutes of some of the most original and fresh comedy ever seen on British TV.
Essentially 30 minutes of his own brand of quickfire humour, blended with his characters, silly voices, special effects and bare faced cheek to the establishment (Prince Charles, Thames TV, and many others were the butts of his jokes), the show was self indulgent to the extreme, but his excellence as a performer and entertainer made the 30 minutes such fun viewing that you would never notice time ticking by.
Celebrity guests (all were friends of Kenny) abounded (Kate Bush, Rod Stewart, Terry Wogan, Cliff Richard, et al) and all were quite happy to parody themselves before the camera. Ken had a way of making them see the lighter side of themselves.
Only six shows were made, and Kenny quit Thames TV afterwards (allegedly because he was upset that Thames had scheduled the show up against the then-all powerful "Top of the Pops" on BBC1, almost guaranteeing it a low audience share)to go under contract to the BBC - to make "The Kenny Everett Television Show".
Although only six were made, they total 180 minutes of some of the most original and fresh comedy ever seen on British TV.