Under the guidance of lead writers Peter Richardson and Pete Richens, the Comic Strip broke the mould of TV comedy in the 1980s with a long string of self-contained films that ranged from parodies of Enid Blyton and TV detective shows, through to spaghetti westerns and stories of small-town villains. Now, over 40 years on from the first Comic Strip show, and almost a decade since the last, Just The Tonic are hosting a series of events where three different shows are screened alongside a Q and A with Richardson and another Comic Strip cast member.
The second event got off to a start that could almost have been from the shows annals as the attempt to screen Strike – one of the best known and critically acclaimed shows from the series – suffered due to an inability to connect the various cables needed to get the film to play. Giving up their attempts to master IT, they switched instead to Bad News Tour, a show written by Ade Edmonson that preceded This is Spinal Tap and set the template both for rock band caricatures and spoof documentaries. Four decades later and it hasn’t dated at all.
After Bad News, Strike finally played and was followed by the Q and A, hosted by Robin Ince and with guest star Alexei Sayle, before a short break and the last of the three shows, GLC The Carnage Continues.
Strike and GLC both mine similar territory, as the first reimagines the 1980s miners strike as a Hollywood blockbuster starring Al Pacino and Meryl Streep, and the latter takes a similar approach to the demise of the Greater London Council (GLC) in the same era. Putting the two shows on the same bill does GLC no favours. In contrast to Strike, where the story of the making of the movie and the death of a writer’s dream delivers pathos, cynicism and humour to devastating effect, GLC focusing only on the finished movie and lacks the emotional heft and poignancy of its predecessor.
Coming after the interval, it felt as if it was one show too many, with a sizeable section of the audience not returning after the Q and A, which also took a while to get going. Ince’s opening remarks sounded more like fandom than prompts for Richardson and Sayle to open up and develop. It was only when questions were invited from the audience, that the two really got into their flow, Sayle in particular going off at amusing tangents with genuine and fictional reminiscences. It still fell short of being an insight into the making of a string of shows that changed the nature of TV comedy and laid the groundwork for much of what has come since.
The series continues with three more events from 8th to 10th August where Richardson will be joined by Phil Cornwell and Keith Allen for the Q and As.
Runs until 10 August 2025
