'Scotch & Wry' was awarded its first Hogmanay special in 1980 and proved to be a huge success. Oddly though one failed to follow the following year ( presumably Rikki Fulton was busy with other commitments ), instead the honour went to '81 Take 2', a fast paced single episode sketch show looking back at the events on 1981 and was also the first show to be given the green light by then head of BBC Scotland's comedy department Sean Hardie.
In the cast were John Bett, Celia Imrie ( who both appeared as newsreaders ), Robbie Coltrane and Ron Bain. Making small appearances were Scottish comedian Chic Murray as a flustered M. P ( "I was asked to vote for something I believed in. Very distressing! ) and Rik Mayall as a Las Vegas compere who uses words wildly out of context and tells jokes that are nowhere near as funny as he thinks they are.
Some of the sketches did fall flat but overall there were some absolute belters. Robbie Coltrane hilariously lampooned the infamous Reverend Ian Paisley in a sketch where he has the brass neck to tell god to be quiet whilst he is talking. Celia Imrie did a funny sketch as Princess Diana trying to be a stand-up comedienne. This item was a dig at Diana's speech during her wedding to Prince Charles in which she fluffed her words constantly. In a parody of Hamlet Cigar commercials, we see a man who has lost his job pull a cigar packet from his pocket ( to the accompanying 'Air On A G String' jingle ), only to be disappointed to find the packet is empty!
Starring, written by and produced by the same team behind 'Scotch & Wry' and 'A Kick Up The Eighties', '81 Take 2' is a perfect Hogmanay tonic that expertly ridicules the fabricated events of its year. It's high time we had comedy shows of this calibre on New Year's Eve again. Thankfully, the show has been posted by some kind person onto YouTube so I strongly suggest you give it a go.
Funniest sketch - the sketch featuring Rik Mayall as the compere. Mayall here starts to adopt the mannerisms that he would later use in 'The Young Ones'.
In the cast were John Bett, Celia Imrie ( who both appeared as newsreaders ), Robbie Coltrane and Ron Bain. Making small appearances were Scottish comedian Chic Murray as a flustered M. P ( "I was asked to vote for something I believed in. Very distressing! ) and Rik Mayall as a Las Vegas compere who uses words wildly out of context and tells jokes that are nowhere near as funny as he thinks they are.
Some of the sketches did fall flat but overall there were some absolute belters. Robbie Coltrane hilariously lampooned the infamous Reverend Ian Paisley in a sketch where he has the brass neck to tell god to be quiet whilst he is talking. Celia Imrie did a funny sketch as Princess Diana trying to be a stand-up comedienne. This item was a dig at Diana's speech during her wedding to Prince Charles in which she fluffed her words constantly. In a parody of Hamlet Cigar commercials, we see a man who has lost his job pull a cigar packet from his pocket ( to the accompanying 'Air On A G String' jingle ), only to be disappointed to find the packet is empty!
Starring, written by and produced by the same team behind 'Scotch & Wry' and 'A Kick Up The Eighties', '81 Take 2' is a perfect Hogmanay tonic that expertly ridicules the fabricated events of its year. It's high time we had comedy shows of this calibre on New Year's Eve again. Thankfully, the show has been posted by some kind person onto YouTube so I strongly suggest you give it a go.
Funniest sketch - the sketch featuring Rik Mayall as the compere. Mayall here starts to adopt the mannerisms that he would later use in 'The Young Ones'.
