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Re: The UK Comedy Double Act Thread (UPDATED: 20th July 2013)

BONUS: Music
A few of the duos in this thread have performed music in one form or another. Adrian Edmondson plays in a band (and wrote and performed songs in spoof band Bad News for The Comic Strip) and others had song routines in their sketch shows on a regular basis. A lot of them, though have actually had hit singles, mostly for charity, and made music videos for such songs. Here, we will start with

Rik and Ade and the rest of the Young Ones (Nigel Planer and Christopher Ryan) singing with popular British singer Cliff Richard and a version of his 60s hit Living Doll. Rick in the show is a huge fan of the singer but in an ironic way. So much so that Alexei Sayle refused to contribute to the song as he felt collaborating with Cliff was against the alternative ethos of the show. The song reached number one in the UK charts and made a shedload of cash for Comic Relief as its very first charity single.

Oh and Rik Mayall was in the video for this-

Fun Fact: Ade Edmondson sings backing vocals on the theme tune to his wife’s show Ab Fab performed by singer Julie Driscoll. Driscoll had a hit with the song (Bob Dylan’s This Wheel’s On Fire) in the UK in 1968.  There is no video for it, so this is just the song-

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Re: The UK Comedy Double Act Thread (UPDATED: 20th July 2013)

French and Saunders teamed up with comedic actress Kathy Burke to do a piss take on popular girl group Bananarama. Calling themselves Lananeeneenoonoo, they had the fortune of actually teaming up with the real group for a cover of Help by The Beatles. The song reached number three in the UK charts in 1989 and again made a lot of cash for the worthy cause of Comic Relief.

Five years later, Saunders dumped French and got Joanna Lumely as their characters from Absolutely Fabulous for another Comic Relief single with the Pet Shop Boys under the name Absolutely Fabulous singing the song…..Absolutely Fabulous. Although, Saunders and Lumely only appear in the video and in clips of the show. Fans weren’t as kind this time round, though, as it only got to number 6 in the singles chart.

Fun Fact: Jennifer Saunders also played the Fairy Godmother in Shrek 2 and sang this-

Last edited by Jimmy B (2012-12-24 16:53:30)

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Re: The UK Comedy Double Act Thread (UPDATED: 20th July 2013)

Hale and Pace brought their own brand of ‘comedy’ to the charity single in 1991 with The Stonk. An original composition written by the duo with Joe Griffiths and produced by Brian May from Queen, the song was based around a fictional dance craze and the video featured some TV stars. If it wasn’t a song for charity, I’d very much question why the piece of crap got to number one…..

The Stonk was released as a double a-side record with The Smile Song written and performed by Victoria Wood. Considering she has more talent in her little finger than either Gareth or Norman have in their entire bodies, this should have got more airplay. After all, it was also for charity.

Fun Fact: I really don’t like Hale and Pace……

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Re: The UK Comedy Double Act Thread (UPDATED: 20th July 2013)

Smith and Jones had the honour of having the second ever Comic Relief single after the Young Ones. Why am I just including it now, you ask? Because it is a cover of Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree so I thought I’d put it last. Teaming up with Kim Wilde, Smith sings while Jones pops up every now and then to moan. The song, credited to Mel & Kim was released in December 1987 but only got to number three. It is still played on the radio around the festive season and usually pops up on Christmas song compilations cds.

Featured in the music video were the Spitting Image puppets for Tina Turner and Bette Midler, for some reason. Spitting Image, a satirical show solely featuring a cast of puppets, had its own shot at a Christmas single the year before with Santa Claus Is On The Dole. Written by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor who went on to create Red Dwarf, the single featured at the end of that year’s Christmas special of Spitting Image.

Fun Fact: Rather than do another song for the B side of Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree, Mel Smith did a sketch minus Griff Rhys Jones entitled Deck The Bloomin’ Halls…

Merry Christmas smile

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Re: The UK Comedy Double Act Thread (UPDATED: 20th July 2013)

Huh. It has been brought to my attention that David Mitchell voices a character called Mitch in Phineas and Ferb-

http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100319200954/pffanon/images/b/b0/Mitch_1-1-.png

I did not know that, maybe because I have never watched the show but I have heard of it.

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Re: The UK Comedy Double Act Thread (UPDATED: 20th July 2013)

Thanks again, Jimmy!

I just love Fry and Laurie and continue to revisit A Bit of Fry and Laurie on Amazon Instant from time to time.

David Mitchell has begun to really grow on me from QI, and—now that I'm aware of them from this thread—his Soapbox rants for The Guardian.

I was a big fan of The Young Ones when it got picked up by MTV in '80s, but I liked Nigel Planer best, and nothing else he's done has come over, so I've barely caught snippets of him since.

Jennifer Saunders is just tremendous, and her version of "I Need a Hero" is (thanks, perhaps, to the miracle of Auto-Tune), absolutely fabulous.

Last edited by Zarban (2013-07-20 20:09:20)

Warning: I'm probably rewriting this post as you read it.

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Re: The UK Comedy Double Act Thread (UPDATED: 20th July 2013)

I am resurrecting this thread briefly to report the sad news that Mel Smith, of Smith and Jones, has died of a heart attack. He was 60. Smith was a gifted performer and writer but also a pretty good director too. Here is a selection of clips of Smith in memoriam.

                                  Mel Smith (1952 –2013)

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