User Reviews

"This programme makes me wish I'd never paid my licence fee!" said one disgruntled viewer when this was first transmitted. Made by the same team behind 'A Kick Up The Eighties'; 'Laugh?' gave Robbie Coltrane one of his first series. Amongst the characters he played were smarmy quiz master 'Ted Todgers' ( host of 'Lucky Bastards' ), the Orangeman 'Mason Boyne', the leader of an alien race ( the Nimmons ) out to conquer Earth, and an Edgar Lustgarten-style criminologist whose tales of murder tended to be incredibly gory ( not a patch on Stanley Baxter's version, alas )

Another cast member, John Sessions, was one of the players in 'The Comedy Store' in London. Louise Gold had performed on 'The Muppet Show' and would play 'The Queen' in 'Spitting Image'. Amongst the sketches were 'The Master Of Dundreich', a serial spoofing Robert Louis Stephenson's 'The Master Of Ballantrae', and an American porn film spoof called 'Sex Kitchen Starring Jayne Thomson'.

'Laugh?' was not well received, and has been virtually forgotten, apart from a U. K Gold screening in the '90's. However, it paved the way for the rather more successful 'Naked Video'. Elaine C. Smith, the future 'Mary Doll' of 'Rab C. Nesbitt', appeared briefly in one episode.

'Laugh??? I Nearly Paid My Licence Fee' was a whimsical BBC Scotland sketch show which followed in the tradition of 'Monty Python's Flying Circus' and starred Ron Bain, Robbie Coltrane, Louise Gold and John Sessions. In the manner of the latter's wake, many of the sketches were of a dark nature. Stand-out characters included The Nimmons ( an alien race who set out to destroy the earth ), Mason Boyne ( an Orangeman with an extremely xenophobic attitude towards Catholics ) and Edgar Bloodlusten ( who was based on Edgar Lustgarten ) a criminologist whose tales of murder ( which he prefaced with ''So there he lay...'' ) were often very grotesque. Some of Coltrane's characters - Ted Todgers ( a talentless stand-up comedian ), Big Jim McNulty ( an unintelligible Glaswegian thug ) and Bob ( a racist, sexist and even perverted male chauvinist who does not hesitate to voice his outspoken views to his friends ) - had earlier appeared on 'A Kick Up The Eighties'.

Spoofs were commonplace here. 'The Master Of Dundreich' was a hilarious send-up of Robert Louis Stephenson's 'The Master Of Ballantrae', 'Glasgow', a slight but amusing send-up of the dreadful American soap-opera 'Dallas' and 'Sex Kitchen Starring Jayne Thomson' a send-up of soft porn films.

Songs also featured prominently in the show such as 'The Glasgow Song' which was sung by Robbie Coltrane, Myra McFadyen and Elaine C. Smith, 'I Believe In Me', sung by Louise Gold, was a send-up of Shirley Bassey's 'This Is My Life' whilst 'My Boyfriend', again sung by Gold, was a send-up of those corny numbers sung in films like 'Grease'.

'Laugh??? I Nearly Paid My Licence Fee' sadly after only one series disappeared. Robbie Coltrane later made it abundantly clear he would not sign up for a second series as he did not find sketch shows enjoyable to do. There was talk of giving Mason Boyne his own show but producer Colin Gilbert felt the character did not have enough scope to carry off a sitcom and alas it did not happen. It was repeated once by UK Gold in the early '90's but since then has been doing nothing other than gather dust in the vaults. I rather liked the show and I wish those suits at the BBC would get their fingers out and release it on DVD, along with 'A Kick Up The Eighties' and the remaining series of 'Naked Video'.