| Event type: | Meeting |
| Date: | 17th April 2025 |
| Time: | 2:30 pm |
| Venue: | Kenilworth Methodist Church |
| Organiser: | |
| Cost: | Entry is free to u3a members. Non-members are welcome for a nominal charge of £1 |
Speaker: Steve Dimmer
Why are so many of the most memorable comedy characters the grumpy ones?
There is a direct line from Pa Glum, Tony Hancock, Albert Steptoe, Alf Garnet, Rigsby, Basil Fawlty and Victor Meldrew among many others… the list goes on and on of the bad tempered and irritable.
Steve Dimmer takes a hilarious journey examining the thread, with lots of clips, laughs and grumbles along the way. Prepare to be rocking in your seat…
Review by Paul Weller
Steve delivered an amusing and interesting talk on the history of ‘grumpy old men’ who appeared on radio and television. Obviously, audiences liked the comedy associated with antisocial men passed their prime. Initially many of the popular series started on radio as did ‘Life with the Lyons’ in 1950 and then in1955 appeared on the BBC TV. ‘Ray’s a Laugh’ followed a similar pattern starting on the radio in 1949 then into a TV series starring Ted Ray. These early domestic sketches were very much wholesome family comedies, but there was to be gradual change.
‘The Glums’ written by Frank Muir and Denis Norden introduced an uncouth and dysfunctional family. The premise of the ‘The Glums’ was the long engagement between Ron Glum and his long-term fiancée, Eth. Mr Glum, Ron’s father, was played by Jimmy Edwards and Ron, his somewhat dim son, played by Dick Bentley, Eth was played by June Whitfield.
One of the first grumpy men was Tony Hancock in ‘Hancock’s Half Hour’ which was really the birth of the sit com where there was no musical interlude. The all-famous cast being Tony Hancock, Sid James, Hattie Jakes and Kenneth Williams. The scene was set in East Cheam.
Perhaps the more odious, grumpy and ‘dirty old man’ was Albert Steptoe in the sit com ‘Steptoe and Son’. A British sit com about a father-and-son rag-and-bone business. Albert played both the bullying and sympathetic cards to get his own way over his son Harold.
One of the sit coms that was very funny at the time but would not be acceptable today was ‘Till Death Us Do Part’, the chronicles of the East End working class Garnett family. The patriarch, Alf, played by Warren Mitchell, was a reactionary white working-class man who held very racist and anti-social views that he ranted about at every opportunity. His main antagonist was his living-in son-in-law, played by Antony Booth. As you might expect Mary Whitehouse had a great dislike for this programme!!
Two more classic ‘grumpy old men’. Basil Fawlty in ‘Faulty Towers – played by John Cleese, an intolerant and rude man trying hard to improve the reputation of his hotel, but trouble never seems to leave his side. The other ‘grumpy man’ being Victor Meldew in ‘One Foot In The Grave’ who is always on a tight rope between comedy and tragedy. He coined the well-known phrase ….’I don’t believe it !!’
Steve introduced his audience to the ‘grumpy old men’ and provided videos of their antics to demonstrate just how grumpy some old men can be!!
