This six-part Yorkshire Television production starred Griff Rhys Jones and Martin Clunes as Ian Deasey and Dick Dobson, an aspiring comedy double-act adjusting to life in civvy street after being demobbed from the army at the close of World War II.
Having survived encounters with Rommel in the desert, the duo decide to take to the stage with an act honed at a thousand NAAFI concert parties. They start their long journey to the top at The Blue Parrot – a Soho club.
Throughout their many ups and downs, Deasey and Dobson stick together, even when sidetracked by the need to earn a daily crust.
Amanda Redman was superb as Janet Deasey, the frustrated wife of the aspiring Eric Morecambe, especially in her scenes with son Alan (Luke Marcel).
In her first major role, Samantha Janus played Hedda, a nightclub dancer, singer and actress who briefly becomes entangled with Ian Deasey amidst the hurly-burly of post-war Britain.
George Melly camped it up delightfully as theatrical agent Marshall Gould, and funnyman Les Dawson appeared in his last-ever role, here playing variety star Morton Stanley – the self-styled “Duke of Chuckleshire”. The series was still shooting when Dawson died, and subsequent episodes had to be hastily rewritten.
The series struggled to find the right level – it was a bit too serious to rank as comedy-drama, yet not sufficiently profound to rate as an authentic representation of the era.
Ian Deasey
Griff Rhys Jones Dick Dobson
Martin Clunes Janet Deasey
Amanda Redman Hedda
Samantha Janus Alan Deasey
Luke Marcel Edith
Liz Fraser Rudy Lorimer
James Faulkner Dr Pollock
Harry Burton Annabel
Tilly Blackwood Norman
Jimmy Yuill Morton Stanley
Les Dawson Marshall Gould
George Melly Palliser
Dennis Blanch
Having survived encounters with Rommel in the desert, the duo decide to take to the stage with an act honed at a thousand NAAFI concert parties. They start their long journey to the top at The Blue Parrot – a Soho club.
Ian Deasey
Edith
