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 👆🏻
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. 😃
French and Saunders also had a bit where Dawn sings "Copycraps and Who Do You Do! - We've got lots of faces for you! - But most of the people we impersonate are completely unrecognisable!" to the tune of the Copycats theme...it was funny on its own before I saw this video, but with context I now see it was simply an accurate observation. Copycats is surreal in its crapness!
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.
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
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. 😊
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.
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
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.
"Why didnt we notice at the time how awful this was?" I'm pretty sure people will be looking at us in 40 years' time and thinking the same thing. We are no better than these arseholes were.
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 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.
"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 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 TH-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.
"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.
yeah, this was truly awful. even worse that what bobby davro used to crap out each week. the 'comedy' actually became white noise as i tried to figure out why the audience were laughing. impersonators really were the worst, because they're so unoriginal. why on earth would you try to mock comedies that were x1000 better than what you appallingly tried to do? well, it was ITV I suppose, and their record for decent comedy was woeful. I can only remember Spitting Image and The New Statesman; and you could argue Spitting Image was an impersonating show. They did first air Men Behaving Badly with Harry Enfield, but that went to the BBC a year later. Overall though I can't think of another decent comedy other than Rising Damp, that aired in the 1970s. Channel 4 was making all the noise comedy-wise; Saturday Night Live, Drop the Dead Donkey, The Comedy Strip Presents... They really were ground-breaking, that took extraordinary risks which, admittedly, resulted in some terrible shows; such as Dream Stuffing. But this investment paid off over time, with bangers like Father Ted, The IT Crowd, Spaced.
@@eatmywords it's the instant laughter that depresses me. "I recognise that person!!!" the Derek Jameson was hinting at something interesting, taking an impression but then dropping it somewhere else to create a scene. But no.
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.
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.
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
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.
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 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
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 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’
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.
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’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.
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
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.
For Julien Burchill Good impressionist yourself? Give us your Frank Spencer Fill in the blanks: 'I had a lot of trouble as a ... The cats done a .....on the carpet
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.
Dear God, I thought Barrymore's "who'd a thunk it" song with the Japanese stereotypes was cringe inducing... The Frank Bruno puppet made me pass my own pelvis...
Yeah that Frank Bruno thing was rough. I could only watch in horror through the fingers clasped to my face. The shit that used to pass for entertainment then is hard to even comprehend.
2:11 Charlie Watts? 4:50 Stephen Fry? 5:55 A Young Ones parody! You know it's sad when you have use blackface to play Uhura, Mr. T, Tina Turner, MJ, etc.
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.
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)
You know a show is bad when even my Russ Abbot and Cannon & Ball-loving, comedically under-developed 8-year-old brain thought this was unwatchable bin juice.
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.
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.
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.
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 :)
To be fair they did look like the people they were impersonating without loads of prosthetics and sounded like them, just a shame the jokes weren’t funny
What crap people assume, its not being racist to black your face up for an impersonation, any more than putting on a kilt to impersonate a Scott, why do you get so up yourself over nonsense.
@@gibbogibbogibbo because he's singing It Started With A Kiss (I never thought it would come to this) I presume the joke is "I didn't realise something innocent like a kiss would end up with us having loads of kids". That combined with a very, very racist 'all black people are promiscuous' joke presumably, if the rest of the show is anything to go by.
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 :)
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 👆🏻
🤣
HURT! 😆😆😆Agreed...a highly amusing observation.
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.
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. 😃
French and Saunders also had a bit where Dawn sings "Copycraps and Who Do You Do! - We've got lots of faces for you! - But most of the people we impersonate are completely unrecognisable!" to the tune of the Copycats theme...it was funny on its own before I saw this video, but with context I now see it was simply an accurate observation. Copycats is surreal in its crapness!
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.
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.
"A shit joke told by someone dressed as a funnier comedian is still a shit joke." There's your nutshell, ladies and gentlemen.
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.
This is a level of hell I lived in, but repressed, thanks for unlocking the trauma
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
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?
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. 😊
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.
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
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.
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.
"Why didnt we notice at the time how awful this was?"
I'm pretty sure people will be looking at us in 40 years' time and thinking the same thing.
We are no better than these arseholes were.
The "my name is" is just so painful
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.
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.
"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. 😃
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.
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 TH-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.
1:00 Never thought I'd hear Pinball Dreams - Nightmare table as a sound bed for a documentary before, but it works great !
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
"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.
18:46 is that Suggs in the garage so he can go driving in his car?
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.
Thanks, I hated *every* *second* of that. But, like you, I probably would've eaten it up when it was first on.
yeah, this was truly awful. even worse that what bobby davro used to crap out each week. the 'comedy' actually became white noise as i tried to figure out why the audience were laughing. impersonators really were the worst, because they're so unoriginal. why on earth would you try to mock comedies that were x1000 better than what you appallingly tried to do? well, it was ITV I suppose, and their record for decent comedy was woeful. I can only remember Spitting Image and The New Statesman; and you could argue Spitting Image was an impersonating show. They did first air Men Behaving Badly with Harry Enfield, but that went to the BBC a year later. Overall though I can't think of another decent comedy other than Rising Damp, that aired in the 1970s. Channel 4 was making all the noise comedy-wise; Saturday Night Live, Drop the Dead Donkey, The Comedy Strip Presents... They really were ground-breaking, that took extraordinary risks which, admittedly, resulted in some terrible shows; such as Dream Stuffing. But this investment paid off over time, with bangers like Father Ted, The IT Crowd, Spaced.
@@eatmywords it's the instant laughter that depresses me. "I recognise that person!!!" the Derek Jameson was hinting at something interesting, taking an impression but then dropping it somewhere else to create a scene. But no.
Many people did; it regularly pulled in over ten million viewers.
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.
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.
I've just come back from a funeral, and this is perfect, cheers!
10:32 I’m sure you’ll be pleased to hear that someone has uploaded Series 1 & 2 to TH-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
This unearthed some memories as a very young boy.
Having seen this I’m happy to put them back where they were.
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
Good times.. I'd just hit the age to fuck off to the pub and avoid this back in 1987😂
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
I hate it when people say the 80's were the best. I'm glad there's people like you to reminds us how shit it really was.
I see Mike Osman is now touring as a tribute to Jethro!
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.
Horrific. Even without the terrible impressions, the synchronised swaying whilst sitting down and singing the theme tune is criminal.
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 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
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 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.
Thankfully this passed me by.
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.
I love the background music from Pinball Nightmares on the Amiga 500!
That Clint Eastwood impression would have made a good Jimmy Cricket 😅
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.
Pity the props, set design, costume depts and, yes makeup people, clearly put so much effort in to something that turned out so awful.
I must apologise to Bobby Davro for saying his Michael Caine is the worst impressions I've ever heard, the Rowan Atkinson just took the crown.
I find the Rik and Ade ones physically painful.
@@medievalist Ade is good Rik is not
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.
you know what? John Cleese DID say "RIGHT, okay" a lot.
Well spotted.
As did Clive Anderson.
These routines are so breathtakingly bad, they seem like an overly exaggerated satire of bad comedy.
Christ. It's like a somehow even worse parralel universe.
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
Oh my God! You started with music from Fury of the Furries on the Amiga! What a wonderful surprise 😁
3:52 I never knew Brian Walden hated double-glazing salesmen and Jehovah's witnesses. ;)
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
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
For Julien Burchill
Good impressionist yourself?
Give us your Frank Spencer
Fill in the blanks:
'I had a lot of trouble as a ...
The cats done a .....on the carpet
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.
So Eddie Catflap was right!
*best Irish accent* "Hello, my name's Benny from Crossroads."
They don't make TV like they used to... thank fuck for that.
Dear God, I thought Barrymore's "who'd a thunk it" song with the Japanese stereotypes was cringe inducing...
The Frank Bruno puppet made me pass my own pelvis...
Yeah that Frank Bruno thing was rough. I could only watch in horror through the fingers clasped to my face. The shit that used to pass for entertainment then is hard to even comprehend.
That has a years worth of cringing crammed into such a short time. 😬
This looks as painful as that Dorito's Freindchips advert.
10:05 cursed, so cursed.
2:11 Charlie Watts?
4:50 Stephen Fry?
5:55 A Young Ones parody!
You know it's sad when you have use blackface to play Uhura, Mr. T, Tina Turner, MJ, etc.
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.
Thanks for reminding me of Allan Stewart. Been trying to remember his name for years!
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)
You know a show is bad when even my Russ Abbot and Cannon & Ball-loving, comedically under-developed 8-year-old brain thought this was unwatchable bin juice.
I don’t remember Bernard Manning having such a squeaky voice.
Its a fookin disgrace.
I’ll be honest the costumes were pretty good, but the scripts and acting were appalling 😂
Watched this unfunny tripe as a child and hasn't aged well over the years if anything it's even more tripe now if that's possible!
Christ, this was a tough watch. I managed it though, do I get a prize?
Atrocious TV. Just the way I like it.
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.
Curse you I'd forgotten all about this.
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.
How does the Rene look more like Lt. Gruber?
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.
4:59 the closed captions, lmao
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 :)
they were very bad, i think the worse was mike yarwood. only good one he did was has himself.
To be fair they did look like the people they were impersonating without loads of prosthetics and sounded like them, just a shame the jokes weren’t funny
I believe that to be a lesser spotted impression of political commentator and sometime actual politician Brian Walden. Rare.
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.
What crap people assume, its not being racist to black your face up for an impersonation, any more than putting on a kilt to impersonate a Scott, why do you get so up yourself over nonsense.
Wow, the Erroll Brown bit, was too 80s.
Christ almighty.
Just after Bruno too, I was giving them the benefit of the doubt 🤷♂️
Why all those children?
@@gibbogibbogibbo because he's singing It Started With A Kiss (I never thought it would come to this) I presume the joke is "I didn't realise something innocent like a kiss would end up with us having loads of kids". That combined with a very, very racist 'all black people are promiscuous' joke presumably, if the rest of the show is anything to go by.
@@theflyintheointment don't presume maybe?!
Andrew O'connor went on to work with Derren Brown and also worked with Mitchel and Webb. From this shit to intelligent fun quite the journey.
3:54 is supposed to be Jasper Carrot I reckon.
This was outdated rubbish at the time. Saturday night entertainment was generally utterly dreadful in the 70s and 80s.
It was supposed to be Rik Mayall's Kevin Turvey at 4.04
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.
Luckily I have no memory of this....
Tim Thaler / Tyler ....the boy who lost his laugh. How apt
I think the guy who does Bob Monkhouse, Rik Mayall etc. is quite good.
He’s Andrew O’Connor.
@@Summer21.yes his Andrew O’Connor impression is spot on as well.
That Rik Mayall is bad
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 :)
The guy doing Clint Eastwood sounds more like Ronald Reagan.