I'd never seen Copy Cats before so never realised how accurate Ade Edmondson was in Filthy Rich and Catflap with the line "Nobody has ever recognised an impression on Copy Cats except when they say "Hello! I'm Benny from Crossroads!""
And coincidentally enough, that comedy series was created and written by Ben Elton (additional material by Rik Mayall) who was impersonated by Andrew O’Connor. 😃
@@Faithnomore227 I've heard that said by Jan Ravens, who is actually a good impressionist. Then I watched an episode of "Dead Ringers" and her and the rest of the cast were doing exactly that.🙄.
This horrible era when they put Butlins Red Coats and Pontins Blue Coats on TV is not something I would ever wish to revisit.Even as a child I wanted to hurt these people.
Totally agree. There was a lot of weirdness and deviant behaviour in tv at the time as we now know and it does reflect in the programming. I made a comment about what little I did enjoy as a kid above 👆🏻
As Millard said in another video, "impressions of other people's impressions." No one would ever do lip smacks for Cliff Richard if they hadn't seen another stand up doing it.
My cousin was a singer on cruise ships in the 80s, (I know). She met Mark Walker n ended up going out with him for just over a year. I have several tenuous links to shit celebrities and this is the most cringe worthy of them. I fkn love your channel Stuart. Your commentary is always spot on n I'm hard to please. Very funny dead pan delivery. I've enjoyed about ten of your vids so far n look forward to watching them all eventually. You really have picked out the biggest wankers from the 80s n 90s. I'm subbed to around 150 channels and yours has stormed into the top 10 already. 😊
What year was the Iced Ink joke from? I remember that and similar going round the playground at primary school... so 1987 or 88 at the latest. Did we get it from this show or was that just an age old joke that they used to fill time?
Wow, Andrew O'connor can do everyone from Rik Mayall to Kevin Turby to Rik from The Young Ones to that guy from the Dangerous Brothers. Truly a million people every day
Imagine the rehearsals for this, though. You've got a room, a few people - producer, stage manager, script editor, director etc - sitting down holding scripts. Watching all of this. And then saying 'yeah yeah it's really good'. I'm 59. I remember this tv bloodbath era. There were so many horrors like this on the telly.
When you say you remember watching something back in the day, the assumption is that you were sitting down and concentrating on the programme. I remember seeing this on the telly, but it was one of those programmes that was 'on' and just provided a sort of backing track to a dreary evening at home. There were a lot of programmes like that back then, but the nostalgia merchants have successfully airbrushed those out of history, or rehabilitated once crappy shows and transformed them into cult classics. The only time I think you'll ever see "Copy Cats" and "Cult Classic" in the same sentence is here. Thanks for reminding us,Stuart, that not even the rosiest of rose-tinted spectacles can make this stuff look any better.
Brilliant statement. That’s exactly what 75% of the output of TV was , and maybe still is . There was the odd gem like an Alan Clarke TV film or a TV version of an American Blockbuster, an extremely rare event though, or , for the mass population, a World or European Cup or Wimbledon, of which 3 produced some classic moments in the 80s- early 90s
That's something that's pretty common, even today. The TV is, 'on', but people aren't necessarily sat down and giving it their full attention. Most of the time, it's mere background noise whilst they're doing something else. Only on the odd occasion doesn't something detract their attention. It's be interesting to see the viewing figures of some shows with the proportion of those which were, 'on', for the sake of being, 'on', rather than being watched removed! The main issue with television is that it's a hungry beast. It demands something to fill in the air-time slots, and particularly nowadays with the number of channels available, we've become satiated with countless shows that we don't give our full attentions to, if at all. Even when this show was broadcast, back in the days of only 3 or 4 channels, cost came into it. It was cheaper to have shows that fit the criteria of, 'comedy', with a bunch of non-entities trying desperately to be funny, than to pay the amounts demanded by those who were guaranteed a huge audience.
American comedy may have given us some monumentally awful creations but it also had Bill Hicks, George Carlin, Richard Pryor and John Belushi. Oh and Lenny Bruce.
Copy Cats really does seem like a college revue that somehow made it to TV. The talentless imitating the talented with material they wouldn't use in a million years.
I know Hilary O Neil , shes amazing , I had a zoom session with her on how she started in theatre. My friend Kev Orkian knows her too as he worked with her in pantomimes
There was an earlier series than any of these where the cast included the late Dave Evans (father of Lee Evans), & the late Johnny More, along with Gary Wilmot, Bobby Davro, Jessica Martin, Andrew O'Connor, Allan Stewart, & Aiden J Harvey. As the first 5 left, one by one, later casts added Mike Osman, Hilary O'Neil, Cheryl Taylor, and finally Mark Walker (son of Roy), & Pauline Hannah.
"No one has ever recognised a single impression on Copycats, except when they say, "Hello, my name's Benny from Crossroads." In an Irish accent." Eddie Catflap.
And coincidentally enough, that comedy series was created and written by Ben Elton (additional material by Rik Mayall) who was impersonated by Andrew O’Connor. 😃
I went triple Benny once and instantly regretted it. I can't even imagine what triple Benny plus one (I can't even bring myself to repeat the horror you wrote) must have been like for these soldiers of light entertainment.
Oh sweet jesus. I had successfully repressed the trauma of watching this back in the day. Thanks very much, it's now fully recalled and I am fully traumatised.
I watched several episodes a while back, thinking it will either be funny or so bad it would be funny. It however was neither. I found myself hypnotized watching every episode waiting for a sketch to make me laugh, but it never came.
Bloody Hell ! I've just done the same a few days ago. Other half was watching that "Get me out the Jungle" crap when I came across it here on UA-cam and remembered watching it as a kid. I ended up watching 6 shows, but I only laughed at that Krankies sketch. But yes, for some reason it was oddly hypnotic.
Loving this channel but its really strange to realise that so much TV of the era wasnt just bad, but so bad. Were we all hynotised? Why didnt we notice at the time how awful this was?
I remember knowing it was bad at the time ... when decent stuff like Red Dwarf appeared for the first time I was like whoah? what is this? It's really good.
@@squeezyjohn1 Same. I don't think most people couldn't see something like 'Copy Cats' as shite - but it was on when there was little choice. The true gems of the era (there was a lot of good TV too), shone even brighter by comparison.
That Frank Bruno puppet might be the most egregious thing you've covered on the channel so far. Was dreading where things were heading when you mentioned Gary Wilmot doing a sketch with "Bet Lynch"...
Bet Lynch was a character in Coronation Street played by actress Julie Goodyear. The character was not remotely racist nor had anything to do with lynchings. She was a brassy blonde barmaid.
3:54 I think that's meant to be Jasper Carrott? Also at 4:56, I must admit I was weirdly pleased to see an attempt made at Mary The Punk From Eastenders, as an impression of that character on Copycats is one of the most 1986 / 87 things in existence. (Even if she does look a bit more like a weird cross between Sue Catwoman and Juiia Davis.) But everything else, bloody hell...
Yeah, I would have thought ‘80s + Brummie accent + stand-up routine about Jehovah’s Witnesses = Jasper’ fairly obviously tbh. Mind you, another comment mentioned Rowan Atkinson and I genuinely have no idea which bit they’re referring to.
Jessica Martin and Gary Wilmot from Copycats (they were in the first series, as Hilary O'Neil and Pauline Hannah didn’t join until later) would later provide the voices to animated show The Junglies, shown in the latter days of TV-am before closure. Andrew O'Connor is more a producer nowadays. His Objective Productions produced Balls of Steel, which was hosted by Mark Dolan. Yes, that Mark Dolan.
I have a horrible feeling I may have laughed at this…but then I was 11. Then again I may have thought it was shite as I remember thinking Bobby Davro’s Phantom of the Opera skit around the same time was utter balls.
When your sole talent is pretending to be other people, impressionists end up with absolutely zero personality of their own to craft any future TV career with.
I’m 64 and it pains me to know that there are people who are nostalgic about this sort of cr**. It is mildly funnier than Jim Davidson, although that is a low bar.
Parodying soap operas and movie stars was the done thing at the time, but even as a kid I remember thinking, "Why are they copying other comedy characters?" That music you played in the background near the beginning. That's from the Nightmare stage of Pinball Dreams on the Amiga, isn't it? Pleasant surprise to hear that after all these years. :)
Especially when the other comedy characters were either still in use (CU Jimmy, Cooperman) or long retired (Kevin Turvey/Rowan Atkinson Angry Of Mayfair)
Millard, my old mate. The comedian at 3:56 is supposed to be Jasper Carrot. I recognise the routine from watching it on an old VHS. I can confirm this impression is absolutely shit.
I remember Andrew appearing in Get Fresh on a Saturday morning…his characters were Les Hope, a guy in glasses who emphasised all words with a p in it. His second contrasting persona was poseur Austin Tayshuss…stay cool
"Any Yewtree, Millard, mate?" Bless you, Stuart. You do this for us. The chorus line of Benny from Crossroads was very nice, quite a lot going on there. On the other hand, not everything landed. "Igor blimey" maybe wanted a bit of script tightening, eh. Towards the end we see a skit with Little and Large. Have a watch of them, Millard. Very odd stuff - Large often ignores Little and knocks out rubbish gags while Syd shuts up politely. Or can't think of anything it is hard to tell with his face for comedy.
I did spent a pleasant half an hour wondering what copycats would have been like if they made it in today’s box set Netflix era *enter Mike Osman with bald wig and fake beard* ‘Hi it’s Walter Whyte, Heisenberg here. You know, I’ve been worried about Jessie Pinkman mixing in brake fluid with his crack…but he says it’s okay…he can stop anytime he wants *enter Mike Osman with a garish suit on* ‘Hi, it’s me Don Draper from Mad Men. You know, we get a lot of strange requests at the ad agency. Someone wanted us to run an ad for a five legged turkey. I said ‘what does it taste like?’ He said ‘I don’t know, I’ve not caught it yet” *enter Aidan J Harvey on his knees* ‘Hi, it’s Tyrion Lannister from Game of Thrones here. You know, my brother asked for a loan to pay soldiers to fight Ned Stark. But I said ‘I can’t. I’m a little short right now’
The sort that would happily sit down on a Saturday night and enjoy this sort of detritus are the same lot that complain that there is no decent comedy on these days , not like the good old days !
Also those people who whinge at kids who never go out these days. This is why we went out, the TV was the sole "home entertainment" and your parents were always watching something as pure evil as this
@@FurQ69 The problem here is what periods we are comparing. Some compare now to a period of several decades , not really a fare contest. Mind you you have given me a few years , although most compare to now and the eighties and seventies. I think that , apart from People Who Just Do Nothing on the tv the most recent for me has been on the radio and that is more than likely 10 years old. Hut 33 , Chambers, Double Science , Cabin Pressure . There is a panel show with Frank Skinner about guessing reviews which started last week. I had a similar debate with my aging father and i rattled off 20 - 25 shows - he hadn't heard of hardly any of them. Some are so incurious as well as having a sense of humour so far more obvious (ya know jokes and slapstick) than myself as well and thus part of the reason that some cannot get humour in the same way. Anyway - Copy Cats really is indefensible.
Copycats is dross and even poor for the time Rattle of those 20-25 show's on here and perhaps I may find a couple that are watchable. @@paulhollett8415
I swear I remember seeing them on some royal variety show and making a joke that referenced a previous episode. "They obviously didn't watch us last week" one of them quipped at the meagre laughter. Yeah.
There's a line Bernard Manning used to use in his stand-up: "It's easy enough to be pleasant when the world rolls along like a song, but a man's worthwhile if can smile when everything's going wrong. Know who said that? Adolf Hitler, 1945." I can't help but think that at 15:25 they've literally just nicked Manning's act to do themselves.
I always suspected there was a reason why I never gave this show, (or any shows like it), the time of day, based simply on the fact that I knew none of those who starred in them, and having seen this video, it seems I made the right choice. The words, 'trying too hard', spring to mind with a lot of these impersonations. The fact that, a lot of the time, they have to introduce themselves as whatever character they're trying to be, says enough about how convincing they are. Although as though they're trying to convince themselves more than anyone else. The over-exaggeration reeks of desperation to be taken seriously as an impressionists worthy of their own series. I guess that's why the producers of the show decided to rope them all in together as none had the ability to go it alone for more than 10 minutes straight.
How the hell did I watch this? Maybe it was the consolation that later in the night I'd be watching my heartthrob Michael Brandon in Dempsey & Makepeace.
10:30 THAT'S the one episode I saw on YT years ago. Came across it accidentally and was amazed at how awful it was. There was a terrible Kenny Everett impression IIRC, well, they were trying to be him, but for some reason they had hugely long arms.
What's awful is that you can tell who they are even when Stuart's talking over the audio. It's just the body language and the stock hairdo or set of false teeth. You can tell who they're doing, and you can even pretty much guess the entire sketch from one picture. I only vaguely remember this show but yes, it was shit. There was lots of shit, especially on ITV. Oh how things change.
You needed to have the shit yin of this for the yang of alternative comedy to exist, so despite it being so incredibly lame, it of itself did a service by demonstrating so opaquely the need for something better.
Remember seeing snippets of an episode back in 1986 before the channel got changed. My schoolfriends were all raving about it the next day and I thought I'd missed out on some brilliant TV. In hindsight, a lucky escape! Watched a complete episode a year later and it was painfully unfunny even as a 9 year old. But this show did have genuine fans.
This is dreadful. I mean the impressions are not even good. They are terrible. How did this tripe get on tv? I mean we complain about tv today being crap, but 90% of it was abysmal in the 80s. By the way Stuart I found your channel only 2 days ago and have been binge watching your videos since. It's gold mate, your commentaries are wonderful and hilarious and can easily match those of Charlie Brooker (who Is also hilarious) So much so that I am seriously contemplating supporting you on Patreon (which I never do) because, quite frankly, you deserve it. Keep up the good work mate
I was too young to remember Copy Cats first time round. I saw an episode on Granada Plus once in its early incarnation, and it’s half an hour of my life I never got back. (I don’t think it was ever repeated after that) I remember it being bad, but not this bad. You can kind of forgive the impersonating of the celebrities of the era type thing, it has that working men’s/Phoenix club feel to it, but more polished with an 80s set… but the Frank Bruno puppet and Mr T, wow… Perfectly nailed as ever Stuart.
Favourite moment is the Dracula Forsythe, where the guy has such little faith in the swill material, as well as obviously having no faith in the audience, that he completes the call and response catchphrase by himself, with no pause or delay. You can hear the audience trying to do it, and getting cut off. An incredible display of unspoken rage.
No mention of the first series that had Johnny More and Lee Evan’s dad Dave in the cast - both seemed past it then! Dave Evan’s impressions were prehistoric - The Goons and E.L. Wisty etc.
was that the music from Timm Thaler? Good Lord, that's a deep cut. Also a fantastic choice that reveals more about your disdain for this rubbish than anything else :)
Brilliant stuff, thanks for sharing, I hope they repeat this soon, it was probably one of the funniest things ever on TV, genius from everyone involved 👍👍👍
4:22 I was convinced this was a terrible Cilla Black. Turns out it was an even worse Audrey from Corrie. Some of these are so bad they can have you second guessing whether you ever even knew what the original person sounded or looked like.
You are spot on with here. Dont do impressions of other comedians who are better than you!! Also doing Basil Fawlty 10 years after Fawlty towers finshed, and Tony Hancock 20 years after he died.
I have yet to watch the vid, but I thought it's best to say thanks in advance for having to endure more of copycats than anyone should actually endure to make it. If there was an award for such acts of watching bad TV valour, you should win it :)
This show was the pits. In fairness to Andrew O’Connor though and dire as his impressions were here, he went onto host the criminally underrated Saturday kids show ‘On The Waterfront’ before disappearing behind the camera. ‘On The Waterfront’ was genuinely funny and mildly anarchic and you should cover it in one of your Saturday morning kids programme recaps
Although we were still laughing at blacked up characters with Little Britain. I think the proshetics helped bring some of the characters alive in that and the scripts were funny and I'm not against black comedians dressing as white people (Coming To America?) - that doesn't bother me (just like the argument that only gay actors should play gay characters - a nonsense) - it's whether the sketches are funny or lazily written.
the history of blackface and how it was used to belittle and dehumanise black people, a race whom had been slaves of white people and still lacking equal rights for a long time is why a white person 'blacking up' is much, MUCH worse than a black person 'whiting up'. And it had been seen as racist way before this show even aired. Remember the notorious Black and White Minstrel show? In May 1967 the Campaign Against Racial Discrimination submitted a petition calling for the show to be axed.
I'd never seen Copy Cats before so never realised how accurate Ade Edmondson was in Filthy Rich and Catflap with the line "Nobody has ever recognised an impression on Copy Cats except when they say "Hello! I'm Benny from Crossroads!""
In an Irish accent
Filthy rich and Catflap is so underrated. I love it.
And coincidentally enough, that comedy series was created and written by Ben Elton (additional material by Rik Mayall) who was impersonated by Andrew O’Connor. 😃
Yes I'd say the golden rule to a great impression is to not tell the audience who you are. It should be quite obvious if the impression is good.
@@Faithnomore227 I've heard that said by Jan Ravens, who is actually a good impressionist.
Then I watched an episode of "Dead Ringers" and her and the rest of the cast were doing exactly that.🙄.
This horrible era when they put Butlins Red Coats and Pontins Blue Coats on TV is not something I would ever wish to revisit.Even as a child I wanted to hurt these people.
I like Jessica Martin and I seem Geoff Atkinson in the writing credits, I like them :( still do
Totally agree. There was a lot of weirdness and deviant behaviour in tv at the time as we now know and it does reflect in the programming. I made a comment about what little I did enjoy as a kid above 👆🏻
🤣
As a kid in the 70s & early 80s I genuinely look back at that time as being culturally vile, such a slag heap of barren & talentless rubbish.
As Millard said in another video, "impressions of other people's impressions." No one would ever do lip smacks for Cliff Richard if they hadn't seen another stand up doing it.
My cousin was a singer on cruise ships in the 80s, (I know). She met Mark Walker n ended up going out with him for just over a year. I have several tenuous links to shit celebrities and this is the most cringe worthy of them. I fkn love your channel Stuart. Your commentary is always spot on n I'm hard to please. Very funny dead pan delivery. I've enjoyed about ten of your vids so far n look forward to watching them all eventually. You really have picked out the biggest wankers from the 80s n 90s. I'm subbed to around 150 channels and yours has stormed into the top 10 already. 😊
What year was the Iced Ink joke from?
I remember that and similar going round the playground at primary school... so 1987 or 88 at the latest.
Did we get it from this show or was that just an age old joke that they used to fill time?
Horrific. Even without the terrible impressions, the synchronised swaying whilst sitting down and singing the theme tune is criminal.
Wow, Andrew O'connor can do everyone from Rik Mayall to Kevin Turby to Rik from The Young Ones to that guy from the Dangerous Brothers. Truly a million people every day
This is a level of hell I lived in, but repressed, thanks for unlocking the trauma
This video had me glued like I was watching the strangest car crash ever.
I watched through my fingers, all the while exclaiming “oh god - no! No!!” a lot.
When the bottom of the barrel falls out and hits the abyss.
Imagine the rehearsals for this, though. You've got a room, a few people - producer, stage manager, script editor, director etc - sitting down holding scripts. Watching all of this. And then saying 'yeah yeah it's really good'. I'm 59. I remember this tv bloodbath era. There were so many horrors like this on the telly.
When you say you remember watching something back in the day, the assumption is that you were sitting down and concentrating on the programme. I remember seeing this on the telly, but it was one of those programmes that was 'on' and just provided a sort of backing track to a dreary evening at home. There were a lot of programmes like that back then, but the nostalgia merchants have successfully airbrushed those out of history, or rehabilitated once crappy shows and transformed them into cult classics. The only time I think you'll ever see "Copy Cats" and "Cult Classic" in the same sentence is here. Thanks for reminding us,Stuart, that not even the rosiest of rose-tinted spectacles can make this stuff look any better.
Brilliant statement. That’s exactly what 75% of the output of TV was , and maybe still is . There was the odd gem like an Alan Clarke TV film or a TV version of an American Blockbuster, an extremely rare event though, or , for the mass population, a World or European Cup or Wimbledon, of which 3 produced some classic moments in the 80s- early 90s
That's something that's pretty common, even today. The TV is, 'on', but people aren't necessarily sat down and giving it their full attention. Most of the time, it's mere background noise whilst they're doing something else. Only on the odd occasion doesn't something detract their attention. It's be interesting to see the viewing figures of some shows with the proportion of those which were, 'on', for the sake of being, 'on', rather than being watched removed! The main issue with television is that it's a hungry beast. It demands something to fill in the air-time slots, and particularly nowadays with the number of channels available, we've become satiated with countless shows that we don't give our full attentions to, if at all. Even when this show was broadcast, back in the days of only 3 or 4 channels, cost came into it. It was cheaper to have shows that fit the criteria of, 'comedy', with a bunch of non-entities trying desperately to be funny, than to pay the amounts demanded by those who were guaranteed a huge audience.
Oh blimey - I’d forgotten about this horror show: a car crash of spectacular proportions. I expect I’ll be having nightmares about this now.
1:00 Never thought I'd hear Pinball Dreams - Nightmare table as a sound bed for a documentary before, but it works great !
I had a double take when I heard it, hahah
As an American with no knowledge or history of this show this was a wild ride.
The propaganda about us English being sophisticated has done an amazing job of papering over what a bunch of halfwits we actually are
I’m sorry I ever called American TV shit.
American comedy may have given us some monumentally awful creations but it also had Bill Hicks, George Carlin, Richard Pryor and John Belushi.
Oh and Lenny Bruce.
Copy Cats really does seem like a college revue that somehow made it to TV. The talentless imitating the talented with material they wouldn't use in a million years.
Yes, that line about getting a woman "into trouble" out of the mouth of someone supposed to be Rik Mayall was a fucking crime against humanity.
18:46 is that Suggs in the garage so he can go driving in his car?
"A shit joke told by someone dressed as a funnier comedian is still a shit joke." There's your nutshell, ladies and gentlemen.
10:32 I’m sure you’ll be pleased to hear that someone has uploaded Series 1 & 2 to UA-cam in full…
Sobbing right now. Absolutely distraught.
good. Sorting notes into categories? Oh my god how sad and lonely are you? Get a life you sad virgin
I know Hilary O Neil , shes amazing , I had a zoom session with her on how she started in theatre. My friend Kev Orkian knows her too as he worked with her in pantomimes
Thanks Mr M, keep up the good work
Thank you, Jon, much appreciated!
There was an earlier series than any of these where the cast included the late Dave Evans (father of Lee Evans), & the late Johnny More, along with Gary Wilmot, Bobby Davro, Jessica Martin, Andrew O'Connor, Allan Stewart, & Aiden J Harvey. As the first 5 left, one by one, later casts added Mike Osman, Hilary O'Neil, Cheryl Taylor, and finally Mark Walker (son of Roy), & Pauline Hannah.
"No one has ever recognised a single impression on Copycats, except when they say,
"Hello, my name's Benny from Crossroads." In an Irish accent." Eddie Catflap.
And coincidentally enough, that comedy series was created and written by Ben Elton (additional material by Rik Mayall) who was impersonated by Andrew O’Connor. 😃
The "my name is" is just so painful
I’m pretty sure I saw this as a kid, but for obvious reasons I never thought about it again until I saw this video
Never go quadruple Benny
I went triple Benny once and instantly regretted it.
I can't even imagine what triple Benny plus one (I can't even bring myself to repeat the horror you wrote) must have been like for these soldiers of light entertainment.
Oh sweet jesus. I had successfully repressed the trauma of watching this back in the day. Thanks very much, it's now fully recalled and I am fully traumatised.
I watched several episodes a while back, thinking it will either be funny or so bad it would be funny. It however was neither. I found myself hypnotized watching every episode waiting for a sketch to make me laugh, but it never came.
Bloody Hell ! I've just done the same a few days ago. Other half was watching that "Get me out the Jungle" crap when I came across it here on UA-cam and remembered watching it as a kid. I ended up watching 6 shows, but I only laughed at that Krankies sketch. But yes, for some reason it was oddly hypnotic.
I've just come back from a funeral, and this is perfect, cheers!
Loving this channel but its really strange to realise that so much TV of the era wasnt just bad, but so bad. Were we all hynotised? Why didnt we notice at the time how awful this was?
I remember knowing it was bad at the time ... when decent stuff like Red Dwarf appeared for the first time I was like whoah? what is this? It's really good.
@@squeezyjohn1 Same. I don't think most people couldn't see something like 'Copy Cats' as shite - but it was on when there was little choice. The true gems of the era (there was a lot of good TV too), shone even brighter by comparison.
This looks as painful as that Dorito's Freindchips advert.
Makes me laugh in this show how they have to announce who they are before doing the impression
That's learned in Impressionist School, lesson 1.
That Frank Bruno puppet might be the most egregious thing you've covered on the channel so far. Was dreading where things were heading when you mentioned Gary Wilmot doing a sketch with "Bet Lynch"...
Bet Lynch was a character in Coronation Street played by actress Julie Goodyear. The character was not remotely racist nor had anything to do with lynchings. She was a brassy blonde barmaid.
3:54 I think that's meant to be Jasper Carrott?
Also at 4:56, I must admit I was weirdly pleased to see an attempt made at Mary The Punk From Eastenders, as an impression of that character on Copycats is one of the most 1986 / 87 things in existence. (Even if she does look a bit more like a weird cross between Sue Catwoman and Juiia Davis.) But everything else, bloody hell...
That's DEFINITELY Carrott, yeah.
Yeah, I would have thought ‘80s + Brummie accent + stand-up routine about Jehovah’s Witnesses = Jasper’ fairly obviously tbh. Mind you, another comment mentioned Rowan Atkinson and I genuinely have no idea which bit they’re referring to.
*Soo Catwoman
Thanks , re the Jasper Carrot - well i wouldn't have guessed that myself.
Sounds nothing like Jasper.
Doesn't even sound like a Brummie.
Not saying you are wrong, just that the impersonation is so bad
I did have the best breakfast at Gary Wilmot's wedding though.
You bounced back with that comment
Partridge Line.
Use the sausage as a breakwater.
did you bring your big plate?
@@paulhollett8415 did you make sure there was distance between the eggs and the beans ? Use the sausages as a breakwater.
Good times.. I'd just hit the age to fuck off to the pub and avoid this back in 1987😂
Oh my God! You started with music from Fury of the Furries on the Amiga! What a wonderful surprise 😁
Jessica Martin and Gary Wilmot from Copycats (they were in the first series, as Hilary O'Neil and Pauline Hannah didn’t join until later) would later provide the voices to animated show The Junglies, shown in the latter days of TV-am before closure.
Andrew O'Connor is more a producer nowadays. His Objective Productions produced Balls of Steel, which was hosted by Mark Dolan. Yes, that Mark Dolan.
Andrew O’Connor also redeemed himself, comedy wise, by producing Peep Show
I have a horrible feeling I may have laughed at this…but then I was 11. Then again I may have thought it was shite as I remember thinking Bobby Davro’s Phantom of the Opera skit around the same time was utter balls.
I just can't imagine being any of these people, waking up in the morning and thinking you're actually creating something that's not just utter shite
When your sole talent is pretending to be other people, impressionists end up with absolutely zero personality of their own to craft any future TV career with.
Hello you!
Impressions are easy … :)
That is not true at all. Most of the Copycats STILL have successful careers in theatre, tv & much more!
Well, many people did have a point about poor Mike Yarwood.
Before I even started reading the comments, I just knew Larry was going to be here.
Bit like Carol Vorderman.
Was that a Barry Shitpeas impression at 10:17?
This unearthed some memories as a very young boy.
Having seen this I’m happy to put them back where they were.
Thanks
My first ever Super Thanks! Really appeciate it, thank you!
It's all dreadful stuff but I'd still kinda like to see the full Victoria Wood song
Thankfully this passed me by.
I’m 64 and it pains me to know that there are people who are nostalgic about this sort of cr**. It is mildly funnier than Jim Davidson, although that is a low bar.
Parodying soap operas and movie stars was the done thing at the time, but even as a kid I remember thinking, "Why are they copying other comedy characters?"
That music you played in the background near the beginning. That's from the Nightmare stage of Pinball Dreams on the Amiga, isn't it? Pleasant surprise to hear that after all these years. :)
Especially when the other comedy characters were either still in use (CU Jimmy, Cooperman) or long retired (Kevin Turvey/Rowan Atkinson Angry Of Mayfair)
Millard, my old mate. The comedian at 3:56 is supposed to be Jasper Carrot. I recognise the routine from watching it on an old VHS. I can confirm this impression is absolutely shit.
I remember Andrew appearing in Get Fresh on a Saturday morning…his characters were Les Hope, a guy in glasses who emphasised all words with a p in it. His second contrasting persona was poseur Austin Tayshuss…stay cool
7 year old me watched this shit and loved it, it was definitely aimed at simple folk.
"Any Yewtree, Millard, mate?" Bless you, Stuart. You do this for us. The chorus line of Benny from Crossroads was very nice, quite a lot going on there. On the other hand, not everything landed. "Igor blimey" maybe wanted a bit of script tightening, eh.
Towards the end we see a skit with Little and Large. Have a watch of them, Millard. Very odd stuff - Large often ignores Little and knocks out rubbish gags while Syd shuts up politely. Or can't think of anything it is hard to tell with his face for comedy.
1:49: that’s gotta be Roy Walker’s son, looks the same, same surname
I did spent a pleasant half an hour wondering what copycats would have been like if they made it in today’s box set Netflix era
*enter Mike Osman with bald wig and fake beard*
‘Hi it’s Walter Whyte, Heisenberg here. You know, I’ve been worried about Jessie Pinkman mixing in brake fluid with his crack…but he says it’s okay…he can stop anytime he wants
*enter Mike Osman with a garish suit on*
‘Hi, it’s me Don Draper from Mad Men. You know, we get a lot of strange requests at the ad agency. Someone wanted us to run an ad for a five legged turkey. I said ‘what does it taste like?’ He said ‘I don’t know, I’ve not caught it yet”
*enter Aidan J Harvey on his knees*
‘Hi, it’s Tyrion Lannister from Game of Thrones here. You know, my brother asked for a loan to pay soldiers to fight Ned Stark. But I said ‘I can’t. I’m a little short right now’
Okay…but I was amused.
The sort that would happily sit down on a Saturday night and enjoy this sort of detritus are the same lot that complain that there is no decent comedy on these days , not like the good old days !
Also those people who whinge at kids who never go out these days. This is why we went out, the TV was the sole "home entertainment" and your parents were always watching something as pure evil as this
Is there anything you recommend comedy wise in the last few years ?
@@FurQ69 The problem here is what periods we are comparing. Some compare now to a period of several decades , not really a fare contest. Mind you you have given me a few years , although most compare to now and the eighties and seventies. I think that , apart from People Who Just Do Nothing on the tv the most recent for me has been on the radio and that is more than likely 10 years old. Hut 33 , Chambers, Double Science , Cabin Pressure . There is a panel show with Frank Skinner about guessing reviews which started last week. I had a similar debate with my aging father and i rattled off 20 - 25 shows - he hadn't heard of hardly any of them. Some are so incurious as well as having a sense of humour so far more obvious (ya know jokes and slapstick) than myself as well and thus part of the reason that some cannot get humour in the same way. Anyway - Copy Cats really is indefensible.
Copycats is dross and even poor for the time Rattle of those 20-25 show's on here and perhaps I may find a couple that are watchable. @@paulhollett8415
I quite like The Skewer on Radio 4@@FurQ69
How does the Rene look more like Lt. Gruber?
I love the background music from Pinball Nightmares on the Amiga 500!
I swear I remember seeing them on some royal variety show and making a joke that referenced a previous episode.
"They obviously didn't watch us last week" one of them quipped at the meagre laughter.
Yeah.
I see Mike Osman is now touring as a tribute to Jethro!
Did you put the bulk and skull music from power rangers under bits of this? Makes me feel kinda crazy
I did. Great ear!
There's a line Bernard Manning used to use in his stand-up: "It's easy enough to be pleasant when the world rolls along like a song, but a man's worthwhile if can smile when everything's going wrong. Know who said that? Adolf Hitler, 1945." I can't help but think that at 15:25 they've literally just nicked Manning's act to do themselves.
I always suspected there was a reason why I never gave this show, (or any shows like it), the time of day, based simply on the fact that I knew none of those who starred in them, and having seen this video, it seems I made the right choice. The words, 'trying too hard', spring to mind with a lot of these impersonations. The fact that, a lot of the time, they have to introduce themselves as whatever character they're trying to be, says enough about how convincing they are. Although as though they're trying to convince themselves more than anyone else. The over-exaggeration reeks of desperation to be taken seriously as an impressionists worthy of their own series. I guess that's why the producers of the show decided to rope them all in together as none had the ability to go it alone for more than 10 minutes straight.
3:52 I never knew Brian Walden hated double-glazing salesmen and Jehovah's witnesses. ;)
How the hell did I watch this? Maybe it was the consolation that later in the night I'd be watching my heartthrob Michael Brandon in Dempsey & Makepeace.
Thanks for reminding me of Allan Stewart. Been trying to remember his name for years!
10:30 THAT'S the one episode I saw on YT years ago. Came across it accidentally and was amazed at how awful it was. There was a terrible Kenny Everett impression IIRC, well, they were trying to be him, but for some reason they had hugely long arms.
That Clint Eastwood impression would have made a good Jimmy Cricket 😅
I can't really hate on these guys for trying. But I can understand why they weren't asked to do voice work on Spitting Image.
I can. They shouldn't have tried, especially the blackface stuff
What's awful is that you can tell who they are even when Stuart's talking over the audio. It's just the body language and the stock hairdo or set of false teeth. You can tell who they're doing, and you can even pretty much guess the entire sketch from one picture. I only vaguely remember this show but yes, it was shit. There was lots of shit, especially on ITV. Oh how things change.
You needed to have the shit yin of this for the yang of alternative comedy to exist, so despite it being so incredibly lame, it of itself did a service by demonstrating so opaquely the need for something better.
Magnus pike bought the cafe in allo allo ?
Remember seeing snippets of an episode back in 1986 before the channel got changed. My schoolfriends were all raving about it the next day and I thought I'd missed out on some brilliant TV. In hindsight, a lucky escape! Watched a complete episode a year later and it was painfully unfunny even as a 9 year old. But this show did have genuine fans.
This is dreadful. I mean the impressions are not even good. They are terrible. How did this tripe get on tv? I mean we complain about tv today being crap, but 90% of it was abysmal in the 80s.
By the way Stuart I found your channel only 2 days ago and have been binge watching your videos since. It's gold mate, your commentaries are wonderful and hilarious and can easily match those of Charlie Brooker (who Is also hilarious) So much so that I am seriously contemplating supporting you on Patreon (which I never do) because, quite frankly, you deserve it. Keep up the good work mate
I was too young to remember Copy Cats first time round. I saw an episode on Granada Plus once in its early incarnation, and it’s half an hour of my life I never got back. (I don’t think it was ever repeated after that)
I remember it being bad, but not this bad. You can kind of forgive the impersonating of the celebrities of the era type thing, it has that working men’s/Phoenix club feel to it, but more polished with an 80s set… but the Frank Bruno puppet and Mr T, wow…
Perfectly nailed as ever Stuart.
Excellent as always.
Favourite moment is the Dracula Forsythe, where the guy has such little faith in the swill material, as well as obviously having no faith in the audience, that he completes the call and response catchphrase by himself, with no pause or delay. You can hear the audience trying to do it, and getting cut off. An incredible display of unspoken rage.
10:05 cursed, so cursed.
No mention of the first series that had Johnny More and Lee Evan’s dad Dave in the cast - both seemed past it then! Dave Evan’s impressions were prehistoric - The Goons and E.L. Wisty etc.
It was supposed to be Rik Mayall's Kevin Turvey at 4.04
This is easily one of the most cringe inducing things I've ever seen. Horrible, thank God I can't remember it.
Some horrors are just best forgotten.
was that the music from Timm Thaler? Good Lord, that's a deep cut. Also a fantastic choice that reveals more about your disdain for this rubbish than anything else :)
Brilliant stuff, thanks for sharing, I hope they repeat this soon, it was probably one of the funniest things ever on TV, genius from everyone involved 👍👍👍
Jeezo fred your easily suited 😂
Saw them live on holiday with my parents at Great Yarmouth one year. On other years I met Russ Abbot and Rod Hull, and saw Big Daddy too!
A lot of the impressions are good but the material is abysmal. It's a group of people who share one party trick but have no other talent.
4:59 the closed captions, lmao
Syd Little's best impression is an unintentional likeness to guitar impresario Paul Reed Smith!
No way. I haven't thought about that programme since seeing it as a kid.
Christ, this was a tough watch. I managed it though, do I get a prize?
Isn't that the music from Pinball Dreams Graveyard or whatever the fourth table is called?
4:22
I was convinced this was a terrible Cilla Black. Turns out it was an even worse Audrey from Corrie. Some of these are so bad they can have you second guessing whether you ever even knew what the original person sounded or looked like.
What was with the bill hicks clip about 4 minutes before the end?
I took it as a way of highlighting the low standard of material, like "can you imagine a quality comedian having to recite this sort of crap?"
What the hell was a super gran?
Was a kids TV program back in the day.
You are spot on with here. Dont do impressions of other comedians who are better than you!! Also doing Basil Fawlty 10 years after Fawlty towers finshed, and Tony Hancock 20 years after he died.
These routines are so breathtakingly bad, they seem like an overly exaggerated satire of bad comedy.
Curse you I'd forgotten all about this.
The only funny thing in this last 20 minutes was Stuart Millard
I have yet to watch the vid, but I thought it's best to say thanks in advance for having to endure more of copycats than anyone should actually endure to make it.
If there was an award for such acts of watching bad TV valour, you should win it :)
This show was the pits. In fairness to Andrew O’Connor though and dire as his impressions were here, he went onto host the criminally underrated Saturday kids show ‘On The Waterfront’ before disappearing behind the camera. ‘On The Waterfront’ was genuinely funny and mildly anarchic and you should cover it in one of your Saturday morning kids programme recaps
Although we were still laughing at blacked up characters with Little Britain. I think the proshetics helped bring some of the characters alive in that and the scripts were funny and I'm not against black comedians dressing as white people (Coming To America?) - that doesn't bother me (just like the argument that only gay actors should play gay characters - a nonsense) - it's whether the sketches are funny or lazily written.
the history of blackface and how it was used to belittle and dehumanise black people, a race whom had been slaves of white people and still lacking equal rights for a long time is why a white person 'blacking up' is much, MUCH worse than a black person 'whiting up'.
And it had been seen as racist way before this show even aired. Remember the notorious Black and White Minstrel show? In May 1967 the Campaign Against Racial Discrimination submitted a petition calling for the show to be axed.
3:54 is supposed to be Jasper Carrot I reckon.
Pity the props, set design, costume depts and, yes makeup people, clearly put so much effort in to something that turned out so awful.