Rutland Weekend Television
Tuesday, March 28th 2006
I was delighted over the weekend to get a hold of a copy of the two series and Christmas special of this mid-70's comedy series and in really excellent quality as well. RWT was Eric Idle's post-Python series that he made with former Bonzo Dog Band member Neil Innes (never released on DVD or video apparently due to legal problems - I'm guessing between Idle and Innes).
I've watched the first five episodes of the first series and it's very enjoyable. Recognisably made by one of the Python team it has the same air of silliness about it. It's a fine idea for a series, basically the premise being that you're watching a low budget television station (and since they had next to no budget for the series, it's very authentic). This allows Idle and his cast to create all manner of parodies of documentaries, quiz programmes, music programs, cookery programmes and so on. This is mixed in rather nicely with Neil Innes's songs. Having converted a work colleagues vinyl collection of Innes albums to CD I know most of these songs pretty well but it's nice to be able to put them in context with the sketches in which they featured.
It remains to be seen whether the second series can match the first and I'm looking forward to seeing the Christmas special featuring as it does a guest appearance by George Harrison dressed as a pirate. I've had a bootleg of his song from this episode for years, it starts as a normal version of My Sweet Lord before veering off into different lyrics 'Oh I'd like to be a pirate, a pirate's life for me...'. Again nice to put this into context, I always wondered where it came from. Also looking forward to seeing the first appearance of The Rutles and the sketch that inspired Lorne Michaels from Saturday Night Live to finance 'All You Need Is Cash'.
This series certainly deserves a proper release on DVD and it's a shame that one hasn't been forthcoming. It would be worthwhile if for no other reason than to highlight Neil Innes's work outside the Bonzos which, for too long, has been neglected.
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