The Burkiss Way : Good Quality

The Burkiss Way   :  Pilot Series, Series 1, Series 2 and Series 3. Radio comedy sketch show. Starring Fred Harris, Nigel Rees, Chris Emmett, Denise Coffey and Jo Kendall. Sketches written by Andrew Marshall and David Renwick. Good quality recordings. Includes some in Broadcast Quality at 320 Kbps. Fred Harris may not be well known to regular fans of British radio comedy, as he worked mainly in television where he's perhaps best remembered from Play School . Nigel Rees became well known as deviser and host of the long running radio panel game Quote Unquote . Chris Emmett (a.k.a. Eric Pode of Croydon!) co-starred for 25 years with Roy Hudd in the sketch comedy The News Huddlines . Jo Kendall may be best remembered as the sexy girl from the cult Sixties sketch comedy I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again . Co-writer David Renwick went on to great success in television, as creator and writer of the sitcom One Foot in the Grave featuring the perpetually grumpy Victor Meldrew, and the even more surreal mystery series Jonathan Creek starring Alan Davies. The Burkiss Way is a comedy largely based on puns. Each broadcast (known as a "lesson") is a collection of sketches, but these blend into each other in a stream of surrealism, in the tradition of The Goon Show and  I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again , but reaching even greater depths of absurdity. Many of the later programmes have a remarkably complex structure, as the show temporarily leaves one sketch to join another, often returning to the original sketch much later in the programme. A programme might be dropped on the floor and broken, only to be reassembled in the wrong order; or the closing credits might appear at the start of the show, which would then work its way methodically backwards to finish at the beginning of the script. The episode of Series 3 known as "Bruce's Choice and Start New Series the Burkiss Way" is a single episode masquerading as two half-episodes, the first of which pretends to end the current series, while the second pretends to begin another. This was not inconvenient for the BBC at the time, who originally designated the show only by numbering the 47 broadcasts consecutively, as "lessons" 1 to 47. To preserve listeners' sanity, I have adopted the BBC's approach and ignored this artificial division. The BBC and I treat the third series as a single set of 14 episodes. Otherwise, one of the half-hour broadcasts would have to be assigned to both of two different series, one of which would comprise only three (actually, only two and a half!) broadcasts... To further muddy the waters, there are two broadcasts labelled Lesson 39 , both of which are entitled Repeat Yourself the Burkiss Way , and which both have identical beginnings. This may have seemed a funny joke when written down! It certainly adds no clarity to this weird show. The full title of the show is The Burkiss Way to Dynamic Living , with each episode supposedly being one in a course of forty-seven lessons teaching listeners how to achieve that dynamic state. This preservation project is fraught with difficulties. In addition to the matters mentioned above, the project is further complicated by long term BBC cuts and bans, that go back a long way (with thanks to Darren Lee for providing these details). Some years after the show's first run, two of the broadcasts were censored when repeated, namely Lessons 28 and 47, repeats of which were cut by the BBC, although the cuts to Lesson 47 were restored in 2009 (on some repeats only: see the additional notes on Lesson 47 , below). The following five broadcasts present particular problems. Episode 6   (a.k.a. Lesson 6 ) ( Win Awards the Burkiss Way ) :  This is the banned episode. Never broadcast on BBC 7 or subsequently, it is not lost nor wiped. This episode was issued on CD with the rest of Series 1. Seemingly it was "too difficult" to create a suitable timeslot for repeating the episode, which is much shorter than all the rest of the series (17 minutes only). Also, there is a mystery as to whether an "orphaned" sketch, parodying a speech by British prime minister Harold MacMillan, belongs to this episode. Episode 8   (a.k.a. Lesson 8 ) ( Plan Christmas Schedules the Burkiss Way )  :  Not repeated since 2013. As with Episode 41 (see below) it has a Christmas theme. They don't schedule it in its natural place in Series 2 if that doesn't coincide with Christmas week, so repeats of it have been rare. Episode 28   (a.k.a. Lesson 28 ) ( Ignore Programme Titles the Burkiss Way )  :  A sketch in the original broadcast which suggested that ITV newscaster Reginald Bosanquet didn't mind the occasional "tipple" was cut from all repeats, because he complained ! Episode 41   (a.k.a. Lesson 41 ) ( Eric Pode of Croydon’s Easter Special )  :  Never broadcast on BBC 7 or subsequently, as it's a Christmas Special. As such it does not fit in with the rest of the series, because the show has never been repeated such that Episode 41 would fall to be aired over Christmas. In effect, another banned episode. Episode 47   (a.k.a. Lesson 47 ) ( Wave Goodbye To CBEs the Burkiss Way )  :  The final episode. Many jokes in the original broadcast lampooning the BBC's grovelling attitude to royalty were cut from all subsequent repeats. Today the episode continues to be broadcast in its cut form when repeated on its own, despite being regularly aired in its full original form as part of the 3 hour special entitled Celebrate the Burkiss Way .

This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.