Davro's clumsy neo-noir parody is based on an advert For Barclay's bank, made by Ridley Scott himself in Blade Runner style. Scott has a background in advertising and gave us 1973's Hovis advert where a baker's delivery boy pushes a bicycle up a cobbled road to the tune of Dvořák's Symphony No. 9 from The New World. Everyone here probably knows that anyway.
Here is Scott's original Barclay's ad: ua-cam.com/video/JnVyANe0ZnE/v-deo.html It's still relevant in the way customer service is just dead-end menus on a computer screen. It makes more sense than Davro's skit, he's robbing a bank without cash? Something like that?
@@anophelesnow3957 If he was still on TV, perhaps he'd have a sketch where he tries to pay with cash at a cashless Aldi and maybe show how relevant he by still doing impersonations of Alex Higgins and Albert Tatlock.
His legacy is that line in Red Dwarf where it’s implied one of his descendants becomes one of the most renowned geniuses in human history. (And even then, it’s not entirely clear that was meant to be direct reference.)
"Dya watch the quiz games? Eh? You've seen them. The quiz games on TV? Great arent they. The quiz games. On the telly. I love the quiz games, me. I love all the quiz games. All of them . . . .Blankety Blank" Stuart Davro.
Haha you're right, I did think you'd forgotten his faceplant. I was surprised how close his normal stand-up voice was to Jim Davidson's, it was almost like he was doing an impression of Jim. Maybe that's why people don't remember any of Davro's bits, his stage persona is so similar it's all been eclipsed by JD and all that people remember is Davro's name? Great video as usual, cheers!
Another Millard masterpiece! Davro was a case of right place, right time…the only major impressionist on TV was Mike Yarwood, who fell out of favour with audiences Come the 80s, Mike was a middle-aged man doing impressions of out-of-power politicians, film stars from the 40s etc Sure, Bobby Davro is hardly the epitome of great talent...but he was young, he was parodying pop stars and TV shows of the time, and it was fresh. I mean, he did Max Headroom who was big at the time, and said that it took hours of very painful prosthetics just for a 30 second sketch. Meanwhile Yarwood was gurning and still doing Steptoe!
As well as Yarwood falling out of fashion there was also the early passing of Dustin Gee when his and Les Dennis’s laughter show was fairly popular. Dennis could never carry on as a solo comedian so it opened a gap for comedy impressions that Davro was there to fill.
@@Toooldforthis78 a good point! Les was far better as an ensemble player with Dustin, or with Russ Abbott Seems to be a nice enough guy but didn’t quite have enough to carry it by himself Saw him as Uncle Fester in the West End; actually surprised me how good he was
@@tombstoneharrystudios584well, Les "I don't really know Vera" Dennis was a terrible impressionist, I don't remember Dustin Gee being any better but he could pull a brilliant Robert Mitchum face.
Yarwood fell out of favour, but for about a decade afterwards, other impressionists were doing Mike Yarwood impressions every time they did someone he'd already done. What set an impressionist apart was who they could land outside of the Yarwood canon.
@@commandingjudgedredd1841 I remember once. I don't recall what show it was and there's no videos of it on YT. Davro once did a brilliant Thomas the Tank Engine sketch which he played Ringo Starr, and it was done on roller-skates and it ended with Davro losing control and accidentally crashing into the camera.
Those of us who lived through those dark TV times of the 80s really suffered. It was a boon that the home computer era started near enough at the same time, that was the only thing that made it worthwhile.
It was also the rise of home video, so increasingly a Saturday night trip to the video store became the norm, but for my family my dad would religiously videotape all the rubbish we were forced to watch on a Saturday night like this then force us all to watch it through again on a Sunday!!!
@@sambwoy3well we had the spectrum, cpc and c64. All cheap devices, and the games were cheap and could be copied. Piracy and cheap games protected the whole industry.
As Stuart points out Davro just turns up and says ‘do you remember everyone else is rubbish?’ when he’s rubbish himself. It wasn’t even for kids but has a strikingly unfunny, precocious child at Christmas vibe.
The series 'Bobby Davro On The Box', 'Bobby Davro's TV Weekly/Annual', 'Davro's Sketch Pad' and 'Davro' were all made by TVS (Television South) for ITV. The rights to many TVS programmes over the years have been lost or tangled up in legal framework which may partly go some way to explaining why his own shows are not repeated or have been released on DVD.
Its definitely odd that he didn't try to buy back the rights to his TVS shows when they lost their franchise, even just to release them on VHS compilations - but even on this YT documentary, theyre looking pretty shite 😂
Nice karmic vibe from the final clip now, knowing that Davro was BRUTALLY LAMPOONING both Bowen and Cheggers in his show. I bet he had a Lional Blair impression in his back pocket and all. I reckon the fall was no accident...
Their reactions are very interesting, Cheggars seems genuinely concerned and tries to help, Bowen doesn’t know what to do, Blair remains the consummate professional and calls for calm from the audience with the raise of a finger!
Davro still does stand-up these days, but has rebranded himself as a right wing anti-woke “tells it like it is” act. He played a club near me in Muswell Hill last year. I’d have love to have seen how his pro-Brexit material would’ve fared in a lefty liberal area like N10, but someone uploaded a clip of the gig which mainly consists of him doing musical impressions of Elton John, Macca etc. to backing tapes. He makes one confused comment about how Black Lives Matter is dividing us, before closing with Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me. ( Jessica Martin draws graphic novels these days BTW )
Vivid image of Bobby these days, I might not get tickets. Jessica Martin's graphic novel work is good, in fairness. Stories about Clara Bow and old Hollywood.
That six week stint I spent flipping burgers at Bultins Bogner Regis, Davro was the headline act... ...He really milked that Alex Higgins impression :P
22:21 Jim's revenge for this 12:06 See the sneaky little touch on his leg to knock him off balance? I always knew it was deliberate and now we know why. Had a memory like an elephant did Jim. Funny how after Davro's kamikaze faceplant, he's the only one from that clip still breathing today.
In the 80s my mum made stage wigs for theatre and occasionally tv. She made one for Davro too. She hand stiched a big fluffy wig for an Elton John sketch, from the soft white hair from a Yak's belly... yes really 😂 All us kids got to try it on, and eventually see it on TV, a little trimmed and caked in hairspray. She was sent a signed photo from him to thank her for it too. Not my cup of tea though.... and looking back at 80s TV now I can't believe how shit it all was.
Bloody hell that fall at the end looked very painful. A bit like watching his shows. I do remember the "We got the nose, we got the nose!" bit. Watching your channel is very addictive.
As a teenager then, ITV Saturday evenings were a no-go area, total cringe. It would be on the telly in the front room, with mum and dad dozing in front of it, and you'd catch a sketch here and there between the bouts of embarrassment that made you look away. 35+ years on, while the material is still shite, it is a goldmine of 80s pop culture. It also reminds you that that jokes about adverts and parodies of pop acts just don't exist anymore, can you imagine someone trying to do a popular stand-up about what he saw on Netflix? I will say that "Best of Bobby Davro" was an epic burn!
Thank you Stuart! Great montage of my early work 🥰 Certainly bought back some wonderful happy memories apart from that last clip of me nearly breaking my neck in those stocks 🤪 Ouch! Excellent work sir! 👏 Oops silly me... apologies for presuming your gender. But once again thank you for all your hard work in putting this together whatever the chosen pronoun you identify as! 🥰
That accident at the end was horrific Bobby. I had to look away. It really shocked me. I hope you made a quick recovery afterwards. It's really bad that you were put in such an unsafe position and whoever was in charge of the stage, they must have taken their eye off the ball there. I bet it sticks in your memory as a really nasty incident. I've made a couple of snarky comments about your comedy but I haven't got anything against you personally. I imagine you're a decent bloke and seeing people make jokes about that accident is really upsetting. No one deserves that.
It’s easy to mock the past, if you can do the media archaeology to uncover the vhs, it worked at the time, though it was a comedic recession in the 70’s & the 80’s, there was a comedy boom after that era ended, 90’s, 2000,s . Give him his due, he was versatile and worked, if you think the 80’s were a joke, you haven’t looked at britain today, I think it will look shabbier than the 80’s in 20 years time?
Also, Postman Pete - such inventive wordplay - while everyone else in the sketch has their mouths closed but obviously their own, why does Pete have that hideous papier mache Chelsea smile of a rictus grin?
@@PooperScooperTrooper embarrassingly bad, but not even in the same league as Mike Osman's Del Boy in Stuart's 'When Barrymore Was King Of Summer' video, which I can confidently say is possibly the worst impression I have ever seen, hands down.
“Well if it isn’t the Davro calling the Kraków’s shit…” 😂 I must admit also that musically a very guilty pleasure back then was the later disgraced predator Jonathan Kings “Ill slap your face” which was the theme tune to Entertainment USA, Great video as always 👍
I don't remember Jessica Martin because I avoided this sort of low comedy back then even as an 80s child. Watching this though, it's clear that she was far more talented than Davro while she was playing second fiddle to him. She's better at impersonations, she has a good singing voice, she's a really good dancer and she's quite hot in that quirky Helen Lederer/Laurel from Emmerdale sort of way. Jessica's no Felicity Kendall but then again, who is?
I've learned about Bobby Davro for about two years, and I still think there's a likability factor to him. Sure the impressions aren't always the best and the jokes don't always land, but I can't blame a guy for trying. I still enjoy his Max Headroom impression from time to time.
I think THAT was the key to his success as I wrote above - he was young and dynamic and doing impressions of current pop stars & adverts etc The likes of Mike Yarwood were still doing Steptoe and Jimmy Cagney impressions years after they'd fallen from relevance
The master impressionist of the 1990s was Rory bremner. And davro knew his material material was safe. Where as bremner was very savage in comparison. Especially with bremner, bird and fortune. Behind the scenes. Bobby davro was in a battle with his bosses which cost him his mental health and he vanished from TV. He hated his own series. Which he agrees deeply unfunny. And utter rubbish. He was interviewed when he got the role on eastenders. He was he said in that interview straight out of drama school and very keen.
@ottagol1985 A place I worked at back in the eighties used to have a Fed EX driver come everyday to collect things. I'm pretty sure it was '87 when he told me he had been asked to give Davro a lift in his van. I asked what he was like, he said he's a prat. He said he never stopped talking, constant bad jokes and worse impressions, and to make it worse he was laughing at his own "funnies". The driver told me he'd never tried to drive somewhere so fast. Just thought I'd try and shift your opinion of him. It may actually endear you to him more, we all love a tryer after all. You have to admire someone who has that much belief in themself, unless it's Davro of course.
@@tombstoneharrystudios584You are so right. The sheer variety of impressions- even if they are rubbish- in this show is impressive. Yarwood’s downfall was he never upated his act.Couldn’t do Thatcher because she was a woman, and then her most celebrated impressionist wax a man ( Steve Nallon in Spitting Image).
This video is a masterpiece. I am hugely appreciative that this video content exists, for it is truly elite material 🔥 🔥 🔥 tremendous treatment of the subject 👏 genius video ❤
Very astute observation - he doesn't have a 'bit'. And the earnest stuff was so bad. ALMOST impressed by the musical bits though, decent parody lyrics.
I'd call him a better stand-up by far than Robin Williams. Have a look at stuff he's done in the last ten years (here on YT). He's sharp and unpretentious, and never lets go of the audience.
I realise now the pastel colours and harsh video taped lighting haunt me as much as the imminent threat of nuclear war. Or perhaps they're part of the same phenomenon. Cheers all the same Stuart. I think.
It’s a fine line between innocent nostalgia and Ooh my god what did we laugh at? 😮it was an innocent time where we were no so educated. But at the time it worked. And made people happy. BUT i would be remiss if i didn’t respect the level of attention to detail and fast edit you brought to this hilarious and insightful recap. Kudos. Keep it up. Hope you can do one for me and my 90’s crock of shite i presented and wrote in the 90’s for CBBC. Thank you for this. I love it. Even if it makes me feel slightly uncomfortable 😳 hahaha 😝
2:17 That is the most 80s set design I have ever seen. It reminds me of my parents bedroom! Making children's characters do "adult" things, that's new!
Oh Lord that "Fall"... I remember hearing about that... First time I have ever seen teh clip though... I do remember enjoying Davro back in the day... But it was always when he was on a Variety Show - I feel that is where he worked best, His own show? Or Shows as he appears to have had a few... NAH! I never got to see these back in the day, And I dont feel I missed much... He was one of those acts that was never suited to a "One Man Show"
He was in panto about 20 years ago when I saw him last. He seemed really lovely at the end and maybe after seeing this back even a bit repentful for some of these exploits.
There's a few Davro DVDs avaliable, but they have nothing to do with any of his TV series, which either remain in the archives or occasionally appear on YT. With his blacking-up, jokes about asians, and references to Jewish noses, ol'Bob was certainly a Brextremist in waiting even several decades ago with his mate Jim Davidson.
Did I imagine it, or did one of his early saturday evening shows have a full blown musical number about "Jack the Ripper"?! 😮 (Early as in time of day - I think it might have been an episode that went out towards the end of TVS 😏
It’s from one of Davros shows (oddly I remember through the series he was strangely trying to establish ‘tomatoes’ as his catch phrase). This was an ending sketch that went wrong as the prop stock was too heavy and face planted him with him unable to put his hands out to stop himself. As I recall I think he was quite badly hurt and hospitalised. It was never broadcast, but this clip has done the rounds as it was used in a workplace safety video on how not to build props and what they didn’t do to make it safe.
He's still working and his live shows are still popular in theatres and comedy clubs. He's a fantastic powerhouse of jokes and impressions. Many a comic could learn from his stagecraft. Not for the ❄️and woke...
I’d guess that before they did television they were all doing the club circuits where it didn’t matter if you’d stolen bits of everyone else’s act because there was a different audience every night. Suddenly having to come up with three hours of material must have been a massive strain, even with seven writers.
I was about 10 or so when he was on. even then, because I was gratefully exposed to the young ones, Saturday / Friday night live on channel 4 and the likes, I was fully tuned in to exactly how awful he was.
Another "impersonator" where you know who it is they're taking off, but it still sounds more like themselves. Davro is only well known because he was always on the TV. Not because of any of his actual work. Although I do remember the one where Davro and Jessica Martin do "Kenneth Williams/Barbara Windsor where they're having food . Davro -"Have some tongue" -JM "I couldn't eat anything that's come out of an animals mouth" Davro, "Well have a boiled egg then, eh." JM "This egg's off", Davro, "Don't blame me , I only laid the table !". All whilst curling his nose but somehow managing to sound more like Zippy than Kenny. Come to think about it, I only remember that episode because I was a massive Queen fan at the time and got my mom to video the episode because Davro did a (terrible) Freddie Mercury impression and I was far too busy enjoying my youth to stay in on a Saturday night to watch it.
This was the kind of ITV show that yer mum's werkin' class best friend would rave about, to the embarrassment of all the middle class grown ups stood around in the kitchen…. when you were sat in the living room, head buried in a Ghostbusters comic wanting all the pain to go away...😢
Bang on. He was part of the last scraps of working men's club acts that was already fast falling out of favour by the time he got his first TV vehicle.
@@tonycowin He was arguably usurped by Brian Conely just a few years later.. A kind of gurning, flexible proto-Bradley Walsh, popular among Findus Crispy-housewives. And he did songs.👍
Outrageous! Nowt against Conley but that was a Frank Sidebottom joke! (Of little Frank, incredulous at audience sympathy 'HE's only a puppet!' ). 'Light entertainment' was really that @@tonycowin
I liked watching his shows back in the day. I never had a problem with any of the Saturday night entertainment shows in the 80s & 90s. Helluva lot better than the garbage that's on the box these day's.
He did OK, becoming master of the Daleks.
Took me a couple of seconds, I'll admit.
You're thinking of Kojak's brother.
@@jonsmith20766no, hes thinking of Harry Enfields kebab seller from the '80s
They named that Swiss town after him as well
That final clip IS his legacy
I remember meeting Bobby one time. Can't remember what sort of event it was. He was surprisingly down to earth, and very funny.
Limmy?
“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness.”
― Oscar Wilde
Davro's clumsy neo-noir parody is based on an advert For Barclay's bank, made by Ridley Scott himself in Blade Runner style. Scott has a background in advertising and gave us 1973's Hovis advert where a baker's delivery boy pushes a bicycle up a cobbled road to the tune of Dvořák's Symphony No. 9 from The New World. Everyone here probably knows that anyway.
Yes, Gwyneth Strong (Cassandra from Only Fools & Horses) plays the frustrated customer in the original ad.
Here is Scott's original Barclay's ad: ua-cam.com/video/JnVyANe0ZnE/v-deo.html It's still relevant in the way customer service is just dead-end menus on a computer screen. It makes more sense than Davro's skit, he's robbing a bank without cash? Something like that?
@@anophelesnow3957 If he was still on TV, perhaps he'd have a sketch where he tries to pay with cash at a cashless Aldi and maybe show how relevant he by still doing impersonations of Alex Higgins and Albert Tatlock.
I worked with the kid on the bike, he became a fireman.
We do know that, but I still gave you a like anyway. ❤
His legacy is that line in Red Dwarf where it’s implied one of his descendants becomes one of the most renowned geniuses in human history. (And even then, it’s not entirely clear that was meant to be direct reference.)
I’d say that’s definitely the joke given the audience reaction.
"Dya watch the quiz games? Eh? You've seen them. The quiz games on TV? Great arent they. The quiz games. On the telly. I love the quiz games, me. I love all the quiz games. All of them . . . .Blankety Blank"
Stuart Davro.
Lionel Blair at the end, summed it up wonderfully
"Remember Bobby Davro?"
Haha you're right, I did think you'd forgotten his faceplant. I was surprised how close his normal stand-up voice was to Jim Davidson's, it was almost like he was doing an impression of Jim. Maybe that's why people don't remember any of Davro's bits, his stage persona is so similar it's all been eclipsed by JD and all that people remember is Davro's name? Great video as usual, cheers!
Another Millard masterpiece!
Davro was a case of right place, right time…the only major impressionist on TV was Mike Yarwood, who fell out of favour with audiences
Come the 80s, Mike was a middle-aged man doing impressions of out-of-power politicians, film stars from the 40s etc
Sure, Bobby Davro is hardly the epitome of great talent...but he was young, he was parodying pop stars and TV shows of the time, and it was fresh.
I mean, he did Max Headroom who was big at the time, and said that it took hours of very painful prosthetics just for a 30 second sketch.
Meanwhile Yarwood was gurning and still doing Steptoe!
As well as Yarwood falling out of fashion there was also the early passing of Dustin Gee when his and Les Dennis’s laughter show was fairly popular. Dennis could never carry on as a solo comedian so it opened a gap for comedy impressions that Davro was there to fill.
@@Toooldforthis78 a good point!
Les was far better as an ensemble player with Dustin, or with Russ Abbott
Seems to be a nice enough guy but didn’t quite have enough to carry it by himself
Saw him as Uncle Fester in the West End; actually surprised me how good he was
@@tombstoneharrystudios584well, Les "I don't really know Vera" Dennis was a terrible impressionist, I don't remember Dustin Gee being any better but he could pull a brilliant Robert Mitchum face.
@@BigyetiTechnologies Sadly Dustin died young 😢
Yarwood fell out of favour, but for about a decade afterwards, other impressionists were doing Mike Yarwood impressions every time they did someone he'd already done. What set an impressionist apart was who they could land outside of the Yarwood canon.
Not sure what's sadder, Bobby Davro or the fact I instantly recognized the music from beach volley on the Amiga in the background
Nothing sad about the amiga mate
@@Kenneth-cn8dx couldn't agree more. Still got and use my original Amiga
Remember Zool?
Bobby Davro
3:01 Bobby Davro's impersonation of George from Rainbow is spot on.
It was his only true comedic master stroke.
I did like his Max Headroom impression and his piss take of Thomas the Tank Engine.
@@commandingjudgedredd1841 I remember once. I don't recall what show it was and there's no videos of it on YT. Davro once did a brilliant Thomas the Tank Engine sketch which he played Ringo Starr, and it was done on roller-skates and it ended with Davro losing control and accidentally crashing into the camera.
mine is better
Those of us who lived through those dark TV times of the 80s really suffered.
It was a boon that the home computer era started near enough at the same time, that was the only thing that made it worthwhile.
It was also the rise of home video, so increasingly a Saturday night trip to the video store became the norm, but for my family my dad would religiously videotape all the rubbish we were forced to watch on a Saturday night like this then force us all to watch it through again on a Sunday!!!
The BBC Micro! The UK computer scene was detached from the US games crash.
@@sambwoy3well we had the spectrum, cpc and c64. All cheap devices, and the games were cheap and could be copied. Piracy and cheap games protected the whole industry.
@@learntooilpaint My friend owned an Acorn Atom. Was total crap but we managed to amuse ourselves with it. Hilarious when you look back on it ;-))
These were the wilderness years when ITV were desperate for their own Russ Abbot.
Hello you. Bet nobody has said that before to you. 😉
As Stuart points out Davro just turns up and says ‘do you remember everyone else is rubbish?’ when he’s rubbish himself. It wasn’t even for kids but has a strikingly unfunny, precocious child at Christmas vibe.
Ironic. Saying, “do you remember this, wasn’t it rubbish?” is literally the business plan of this channel.
@@nfornetrue! So Bobby is the ideal subject!
A Redcoat on the make .
The series 'Bobby Davro On The Box', 'Bobby Davro's TV Weekly/Annual', 'Davro's Sketch Pad' and 'Davro' were all made by TVS (Television South) for ITV. The rights to many TVS programmes over the years have been lost or tangled up in legal framework which may partly go some way to explaining why his own shows are not repeated or have been released on DVD.
I suspect that's not the only reason
@@abbafan50986Not even near an actual reason, really.
Its definitely odd that he didn't try to buy back the rights to his TVS shows when they lost their franchise, even just to release them on VHS compilations - but even on this YT documentary, theyre looking pretty shite 😂
You'd need a thousand faces to take that fall at the end. Fucking hell
Nice karmic vibe from the final clip now, knowing that Davro was BRUTALLY LAMPOONING both Bowen and Cheggers in his show. I bet he had a Lional Blair impression in his back pocket and all. I reckon the fall was no accident...
Their reactions are very interesting, Cheggars seems genuinely concerned and tries to help, Bowen doesn’t know what to do, Blair remains the consummate professional and calls for calm from the audience with the raise of a finger!
@@Toooldforthis78 Very true, but then Cheggers was a child actor so maybe he was good at improvising.
You can see Davro push his feet forward over the edge of the box just before the close up on his legs then gravity made comedy GOLD FRIED GOLD !
Davro still does stand-up these days, but has rebranded himself as a right wing anti-woke “tells it like it is” act. He played a club near me in Muswell Hill last year. I’d have love to have seen how his pro-Brexit material would’ve fared in a lefty liberal area like N10, but someone uploaded a clip of the gig which mainly consists of him doing musical impressions of Elton John, Macca etc. to backing tapes. He makes one confused comment about how Black Lives Matter is dividing us, before closing with Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me.
( Jessica Martin draws graphic novels these days BTW )
Vivid image of Bobby these days, I might not get tickets. Jessica Martin's graphic novel work is good, in fairness. Stories about Clara Bow and old Hollywood.
That six week stint I spent flipping burgers at Bultins Bogner Regis, Davro was the headline act...
...He really milked that Alex Higgins impression :P
Christ on a bike I'd never seen that final clip before. Might explain a bit about his views later in life...
Knocked some sense into him?
That was a hell of a bump
That faceplant was awesome.
Excellent! Fabulous commentary. Very insightful.
22:21 Jim's revenge for this 12:06 See the sneaky little touch on his leg to knock him off balance? I always knew it was deliberate and now we know why. Had a memory like an elephant did Jim. Funny how after Davro's kamikaze faceplant, he's the only one from that clip still breathing today.
Yeah, apart from Davro himself.
Jim is also dead
It took Jim until the end of the ad-break to count out in 2018, whilst Lionel tappped on until 2021. Sadly Cheggers went pop first, in 2017.
Love the story from the narrator about being applauded off stage by a teacher! 😂😂😂
Last five seconds.. chef’s kiss.
I had never seen that before, so thank you!
In the 80s my mum made stage wigs for theatre and occasionally tv. She made one for Davro too. She hand stiched a big fluffy wig for an Elton John sketch, from the soft white hair from a Yak's belly... yes really 😂
All us kids got to try it on, and eventually see it on TV, a little trimmed and caked in hairspray.
She was sent a signed photo from him to thank her for it too.
Not my cup of tea though.... and looking back at 80s TV now I can't believe how shit it all was.
The 80s were good times no matter how bad it looks like from 40 years away.
Hahah at the end bit! I was just waiting for the moment Blair hold a finger up in the air, looking at the camera...I wonder if it was his idea?
Please do a video on Brian Conley.
I remember him from the first time I found out about him, which was Thomas the Tanked-Up Engine
Nah, pregnant Bungle is amazing. That got a genuine laugh out of me.
Man of a thousand faeces more like.
Another banger, thank you Stuart!
Remember him as being a bit crap, but for some reason he was always on the telly, but it seems like he really wasn't
Beach Volley on the Amiga music :))
Bloody hell that fall at the end looked very painful. A bit like watching his shows. I do remember the "We got the nose, we got the nose!" bit. Watching your channel is very addictive.
As a teenager then, ITV Saturday evenings were a no-go area, total cringe. It would be on the telly in the front room, with mum and dad dozing in front of it, and you'd catch a sketch here and there between the bouts of embarrassment that made you look away.
35+ years on, while the material is still shite, it is a goldmine of 80s pop culture. It also reminds you that that jokes about adverts and parodies of pop acts just don't exist anymore, can you imagine someone trying to do a popular stand-up about what he saw on Netflix?
I will say that "Best of Bobby Davro" was an epic burn!
Thank you Stuart! Great montage of my early work 🥰
Certainly bought back some wonderful happy memories apart from that last clip of me nearly breaking my neck in those stocks 🤪 Ouch!
Excellent work sir! 👏 Oops silly me... apologies for presuming your gender.
But once again thank you for all your hard work in putting this together whatever the chosen pronoun you identify as! 🥰
That accident at the end was horrific Bobby. I had to look away. It really shocked me. I hope you made a quick recovery afterwards. It's really bad that you were put in such an unsafe position and whoever was in charge of the stage, they must have taken their eye off the ball there. I bet it sticks in your memory as a really nasty incident.
I've made a couple of snarky comments about your comedy but I haven't got anything against you personally. I imagine you're a decent bloke and seeing people make jokes about that accident is really upsetting. No one deserves that.
Glad to see you take it on the chin, Bobby.
It’s easy to mock the past, if you can do the media archaeology to uncover the vhs, it worked at the time, though it was a comedic recession in the 70’s & the 80’s, there was a comedy boom after that era ended, 90’s, 2000,s . Give him his due, he was versatile and worked, if you think the 80’s were a joke, you haven’t looked at britain today, I think it will look shabbier than the 80’s in 20 years time?
Another belta!
His Jools Holland popped up frequently, but I couldn’t compare it to the original, as I was too young to watch The Tube
Jessica Martin is a revelation
These Adam Curtis documentaries are getting weird.
Also, Postman Pete - such inventive wordplay - while everyone else in the sketch has their mouths closed but obviously their own, why does Pete have that hideous papier mache Chelsea smile of a rictus grin?
Thank you for always reminding me how shit and cringe a lot of mainstream TV was in my youth - this channel is fucking gold, love it.
Always love your content .❤❤❤❤
Good Lord, that Michael Caine was one of the worst impressions I've heard.
I know right? The worst, low level poor effort I've witnessed...I reckon a lot of kids did a better one at school!
Not a lot of people know that. Few,if any,care
@@PooperScooperTrooper embarrassingly bad, but not even in the same league as Mike Osman's Del Boy in Stuart's 'When Barrymore Was King Of Summer' video, which I can confidently say is possibly the worst impression I have ever seen, hands down.
His Brian Tilsley (Chris Quinten) fixation was understandable...he made the others on Corrie seem like Bogie and Bacall!
Oh Bobby !
Bobby is a great stand up, I think a bit of a fun sketch show would be nice to come back now! ❤
9:54 Golliwog jam baseball cap 👍
“Well if it isn’t the Davro calling the Kraków’s shit…” 😂 I must admit also that musically a very guilty pleasure back then was the later disgraced predator Jonathan Kings “Ill slap your face” which was the theme tune to Entertainment USA, Great video as always 👍
Superb stuff and well put together
22:25 FATALITY!!!
Kim Justice's epic rant about impressionists and why they are appalling is apropos at this point.
What video is that in?
@@ianjones3346 Apologies for the delay - here it is: ua-cam.com/video/JpwahSUJCvw/v-deo.html
I don't remember Jessica Martin because I avoided this sort of low comedy back then even as an 80s child. Watching this though, it's clear that she was far more talented than Davro while she was playing second fiddle to him. She's better at impersonations, she has a good singing voice, she's a really good dancer and she's quite hot in that quirky Helen Lederer/Laurel from Emmerdale sort of way.
Jessica's no Felicity Kendall but then again, who is?
She was also great in an episode of doctor who as an alien werewolf
@@lukeb247 A role she reprised in a couple of the Big Finish audios.
Jessica Martin is now an actually good graphic novelist, about silent film stars. You are right, she has talent and nunce.
I would
I've learned about Bobby Davro for about two years, and I still think there's a likability factor to him. Sure the impressions aren't always the best and the jokes don't always land, but I can't blame a guy for trying. I still enjoy his Max Headroom impression from time to time.
I think THAT was the key to his success as I wrote above - he was young and dynamic and doing impressions of current pop stars & adverts etc
The likes of Mike Yarwood were still doing Steptoe and Jimmy Cagney impressions years after they'd fallen from relevance
@@tombstoneharrystudios584 Ah, I see. Granted, some people have used the Jimmy Cagney impression for cartoon voices before.
The master impressionist of the 1990s was Rory bremner. And davro knew his material material was safe. Where as bremner was very savage in comparison. Especially with bremner, bird and fortune. Behind the scenes. Bobby davro was in a battle with his bosses which cost him his mental health and he vanished from TV. He hated his own series. Which he agrees deeply unfunny. And utter rubbish. He was interviewed when he got the role on eastenders. He was he said in that interview straight out of drama school and very keen.
@ottagol1985 A place I worked at back in the eighties used to have a Fed EX driver come everyday to collect things. I'm pretty sure it was '87 when he told me he had been asked to give Davro a lift in his van. I asked what he was like, he said he's a prat. He said he never stopped talking, constant bad jokes and worse impressions, and to make it worse he was laughing at his own "funnies". The driver told me he'd never tried to drive somewhere so fast.
Just thought I'd try and shift your opinion of him. It may actually endear you to him more, we all love a tryer after all. You have to admire someone who has that much belief in themself, unless it's Davro of course.
@@tombstoneharrystudios584You are so right. The sheer variety of impressions- even if they are rubbish- in this show is impressive. Yarwood’s downfall was he never upated his act.Couldn’t do Thatcher because she was a woman, and then her most celebrated impressionist wax a man ( Steve Nallon in Spitting Image).
Let's get some yew tree in here....
Haha
on big brother once a davro dvd was given as a treat for them to watch. no one laughed so they turned it off
Genuinely enjoyed those last 10 seconds. Enjoyed it all to be fair, but that last bit made my day.
17:03 'Not after that last log that you gave me...' WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN
This video is a masterpiece. I am hugely appreciative that this video content exists, for it is truly elite material 🔥 🔥 🔥 tremendous treatment of the subject 👏 genius video ❤
Very astute observation - he doesn't have a 'bit'. And the earnest stuff was so bad. ALMOST impressed by the musical bits though, decent parody lyrics.
I'd call him a better stand-up by far than Robin Williams. Have a look at stuff he's done in the last ten years (here on YT). He's sharp and unpretentious, and never lets go of the audience.
Bobby's Bob Geldof looked more like Harry Henfields Wayne Slob, or should I say, did Harry Henfield steal this idea 😂
I got an advert for Davidson's god-awful u-streme halfway through watching this. One for Private Eye's 'Malgorithms' perhaps?
I realise now the pastel colours and harsh video taped lighting haunt me as much as the imminent threat of nuclear war. Or perhaps they're part of the same phenomenon. Cheers all the same Stuart. I think.
This is the music from Beach Volley on the Amiga
Stuart you are wonderful 👏 I wanna watch old TV with you
That has to be a pre-anything-else-she's-ever-done Catherine Zeta Jones, if I'm not mistaken 11.10 11:12 ?
So, let's see - Sade was boring and deserves to be summoned up with stereotypical comments about black people and their supposed staple diet. Nice.
It’s a fine line between innocent nostalgia and Ooh my god what did we laugh at? 😮it was an innocent time where we were no so educated. But at the time it worked. And made people happy. BUT i would be remiss if i didn’t respect the level of attention to detail and fast edit you brought to this hilarious and insightful recap. Kudos. Keep it up. Hope you can do one for me and my 90’s crock of shite i presented and wrote in the 90’s for CBBC. Thank you for this. I love it. Even if it makes me feel slightly uncomfortable 😳 hahaha 😝
The only problem with Davro is he was criminally unfunny and was a shit impressionist.
I genuinely laughed at his Chegwin... and also his Jools Holland...
2:17 That is the most 80s set design I have ever seen. It reminds me of my parents bedroom!
Making children's characters do "adult" things, that's new!
Were Bobby Davro and Freddie Star the same fella? Lol.
Like les Dennis he always uses his own voice
You've really sold this one! I remembered it as being shite, but those music parodies are gold! What was that ending bit from?!
If Charlie Brooker does Screenwipe again someday, you need to have a regular section on it...
Yea right like he's gonna do that! Sell out shill
Oh Lord that "Fall"... I remember hearing about that... First time I have ever seen teh clip though...
I do remember enjoying Davro back in the day... But it was always when he was on a Variety Show - I feel that is where he worked best, His own show? Or Shows as he appears to have had a few... NAH!
I never got to see these back in the day, And I dont feel I missed much... He was one of those acts that was never suited to a "One Man Show"
this guy was f---king brutal
He was in panto about 20 years ago when I saw him last. He seemed really lovely at the end and maybe after seeing this back even a bit repentful for some of these exploits.
...Like A KURGAN?...
There's a few Davro DVDs avaliable, but they have nothing to do with any of his TV series, which either remain in the archives or occasionally appear on YT. With his blacking-up, jokes about asians, and references to Jewish noses, ol'Bob was certainly a Brextremist in waiting even several decades ago with his mate Jim Davidson.
I’d forgotten him… the only good thing was the costume department.
Did I imagine it, or did one of his early saturday evening shows have a full blown musical number about "Jack the Ripper"?! 😮 (Early as in time of day - I think it might have been an episode that went out towards the end of TVS 😏
Sade has more talent in her little finger than Bobby Davro has in his entire body
alright what's the context for the final clip?
Unlike the VHS rip, this was.....stock footage.
I'll get my coat.
It’s from one of Davros shows (oddly I remember through the series he was strangely trying to establish ‘tomatoes’ as his catch phrase). This was an ending sketch that went wrong as the prop stock was too heavy and face planted him with him unable to put his hands out to stop himself. As I recall I think he was quite badly hurt and hospitalised. It was never broadcast, but this clip has done the rounds as it was used in a workplace safety video on how not to build props and what they didn’t do to make it safe.
I grew up watching Not the 9 o'clock news. Bobby Davro was terrible.
He's still working and his live shows are still popular in theatres and comedy clubs. He's a fantastic powerhouse of jokes and impressions. Many a comic could learn from his stagecraft. Not for the ❄️and woke...
I’d guess that before they did television they were all doing the club circuits where it didn’t matter if you’d stolen bits of everyone else’s act because there was a different audience every night. Suddenly having to come up with three hours of material must have been a massive strain, even with seven writers.
I was about 10 or so when he was on. even then, because I was gratefully exposed to the young ones, Saturday / Friday night live on channel 4 and the likes, I was fully tuned in to exactly how awful he was.
Another "impersonator" where you know who it is they're taking off, but it still sounds more like themselves. Davro is only well known because he was always on the TV. Not because of any of his actual work.
Although I do remember the one where Davro and Jessica Martin do "Kenneth Williams/Barbara Windsor where they're having food . Davro -"Have some tongue" -JM "I couldn't eat anything that's come out of an animals mouth" Davro, "Well have a boiled egg then, eh." JM "This egg's off", Davro, "Don't blame me , I only laid the table !". All whilst curling his nose but somehow managing to sound more like Zippy than Kenny.
Come to think about it, I only remember that episode because I was a massive Queen fan at the time and got my mom to video the episode because Davro did a (terrible) Freddie Mercury impression and I was far too busy enjoying my youth to stay in on a Saturday night to watch it.
This was the kind of ITV show that yer mum's werkin' class best friend would rave about, to the embarrassment of all the middle class grown ups stood around in the kitchen…. when you were sat in the living room, head buried in a Ghostbusters comic wanting all the pain to go away...😢
Bang on. He was part of the last scraps of working men's club acts that was already fast falling out of favour by the time he got his first TV vehicle.
@@tonycowin He was arguably usurped by Brian Conely just a few years later.. A kind of gurning, flexible proto-Bradley Walsh, popular among Findus Crispy-housewives. And he did songs.👍
@@Tomurow I somehow forgot about Conely ("It's a puppet", was that his catchphrase?). At least he had a certain charm about him.
Outrageous! Nowt against Conley but that was a Frank Sidebottom joke! (Of little Frank, incredulous at audience sympathy 'HE's only a puppet!' ). 'Light entertainment' was really that @@tonycowin
@@TECHNOIR Was that what it was?
Is it ok when Lenny Henry did the Jamaican migrant. "I come over in a banana boat" sketch?
Nah, it was just a young black guy trying to fit in to a mainly white audience. It’s sad to watch.
I liked watching his shows back in the day.
I never had a problem with any of the Saturday night entertainment shows in the 80s & 90s.
Helluva lot better than the garbage that's on the box these day's.
Thanks for reminding me this guy ever existed and just how unfunny he was.