Comedy characters trapped.

[andy-hughes]

Watching the Steptoe & Son film a few nights ago reminded me how often our best commedy characters are those who are trapped in their situatrions.

Hancock, Fawlty, Meldrew, Brent, all kicking against the system, and making comdy that is a mere whisker away from tragedy.

That situation was always so wonderfully realised in the relationship with Harold and Albert - manacled together, each needing the other more than either would ever dare to admit to each other, much less to themselves.

The faces Wlfred Bramble could manufacture, rendering Albert a nasty selfish old man, and in the wink of an eye a pitifully frightened lost soul, were Brechtian in scale and execution, and their black and white TV episodes, often shot on one camera with no edits, were masterclasses in comedy theatre.

Why oh why cannot modern writers create such gems, or find actors with the genuine thatrical skills to bring them to life?

[237SJ]

I don`t think there is a shortage of actors who can bring characters to life. I think that scriptwriters tend to mirror the characters in the real world and in the real world (what with PC constraints and the like) there aren`t any outrageous characters anymore.

[jno]

"why do some people here thrive on bringing racism into anything they can?"

er, it was you who first mentioned it, mickrog...