Following on from 'The Stanley Baxter Series', the great man made one more LWT special, and it would turn out to be his last for the commercial channel. It stuck to the tried and tested formula of spoofs, sketches, and musical numbers. A Hollywood director is in Hell and made to watch his old movies over and over again. Noel Coward sang about 'Brideshead Revisited' ( then a recent television hit ), a theatre actress is annoyed when her dressing room is gate-crashed by the annoying Rosemary Gusher, The Whicked Report investigated marriage, Probe's Charmaine Globb tackled the subject of the 'Conned-sumers' and the way subliminal advertising is employed in the modern world. The latter sketch has Baxter as two chain-smoking snooker players clearly modelled on Alex 'Hurricane' Higgins and Ray Reardon. The audience are puffing away as well. I used to think it was a good thing snooker tournaments were not sponsored by Heinz Baked Beans. Parliamo Glasgow gets another outing. The finale - Fast Food Follies' - is in the same format as 'Love's A Tonic' and has musical numbers built around junk food. Denise Coffey, Roland Curram, and Susie Blake are among the guest stars.
Funniest moment - the spoof of the Martini ad that used to star Joan Collins and Leonard Rossiter. Here its the Queen and Prince Philip. He extols the virtues of his drink by saying "Can't you just smell it?" to which she replies "Probably one of the corgis!".
John Birt decided Baxter's shows were too expensive, and ended them. Fortunately, Baxter got a helping hand from Michael Grade, then controller of BBC-1, and two more comedy specials appeared in the course of the decade.
Funniest moment - the spoof of the Martini ad that used to star Joan Collins and Leonard Rossiter. Here its the Queen and Prince Philip. He extols the virtues of his drink by saying "Can't you just smell it?" to which she replies "Probably one of the corgis!".
John Birt decided Baxter's shows were too expensive, and ended them. Fortunately, Baxter got a helping hand from Michael Grade, then controller of BBC-1, and two more comedy specials appeared in the course of the decade.
