EPISODE · Dec 27, 2023 · 1H 30M
Clockwise (1986)
from Goon Pod · host Goon Pod
As it's Christmas this week we wanted to shake things up and try something a little different... so we decided to talk about a British comedy film which doesn't feature a Goon! A change is as good as a rest and anyway, the film is a cracker. In 1986 John Cleese starred in a Michael Frayn-scripted comic farce called Clockwise, in which he plays headmaster Brian Stimpson who needs to get to far-flung Norwich in order to deliver a speech. Having missed the train, Stimpson enlists the help of one of his pupils to drive him and what follows is a series of hilarious mishaps and misunderstandings with countless laws being broken along the way. It was the film that inspired Cleese to embark upon A Fish Called Wanda and is one of the greatest - if sometimes overlooked - British comedy films of the eighties. Chris Diamond of TV Cream returns for a fourth time and finally gets the key to the executive washroom. Having not seen the film since it was released he had a lot to say and props are given to the supporting cast including Stephen Moore, Joan Hickson, Tony Haygarth and Penelope Wilton. As for Stimpson: is he, as Tyler suggests, a 'less Tory' Basil Fawlty? This and many more questions are asked, and some of them are even answered!
What this episode covers
As it's Christmas this week we wanted to shake things up and try something a little different... so we decided to talk about a British comedy film which doesn't feature a Goon! A change is as good as a rest and anyway, the film is a cracker. In 1986 John Cleese starred in a Michael Frayn-scripted comic farce called Clockwise, in which he plays headmaster Brian Stimpson who needs to get to far-flung Norwich in order to deliver a speech. Having missed the train, Stimpson enlists the help of one of his pupils to drive him and what follows is a series of hilarious mishaps and misunderstandings with countless laws being broken along the way. It was the film that inspired Cleese to embark upon A Fish Called Wanda and is one of the greatest - if sometimes overlooked - British comedy films of the eighties. Chris Diamond of TV Cream returns for a fourth time and finally gets the key to the executive washroom. Having not seen the film since it was released he had a lot to say and props are given to the supporting cast including Stephen Moore, Joan Hickson, Tony Haygarth and Penelope Wilton. As for Stimpson: is he, as Tyler suggests, a 'less Tory' Basil Fawlty? This and many more questions are asked, and some of them are even answered!
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Clockwise (1986)
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