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| IS
IT BILL BAILEY? Friday 20/02-27/03/98, BBC2 reviewed by David McNay |
August 2001
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I have always perceived BBC Scotland as rather a strange place to work. As one of the larger regional stations, and covering the largest area of the UK, you would expect it to have the loudest voice, and possibly the most clout. However, that seems not to be the case. You almost get the impression there is a feeling of the underdog there, with most of the programmes running under the banner of "We're Scottish, look here's some shortbread to prove it." The Comedy Unit, BBC Scotland's main source of comedy programmes, helps to maintain this situation. With programmes like Chewin' the Fat, Naked Video, Rab C Nesbitt and the canon of Elaine C Smith in it, they flourish the Scottishness and use it as a stick to beat the rest of Britain into submission. All in all, this makes Is It Bill Bailey? rather a strange programme to come from The Comedy Unit. In fact, you wonder how exactly this came to be made by BBC Scotland at all: it contains none of the traditional sketches based on life in a Glasgow tenement, there are no "heidcases" who are "heid the ba's" and Elaine C Smith is nowhere to be seen (thank Christ). Strangest of all for a BBC Scotland show: the star is English. Bill Bailey is of course no stranger to Scotland: he appears at almost every Edinburgh Festival in some capacity or another. He's a bit of a nutcase, he has long hair and a silly beard; all of which mean he practically is Scottish. And this little oddity of a show confirmed him as a talent all by himself. Is It Bill Bailey? held the same format. Bill would come on, natter for a bit on a fairly abstract subject, interjected by some short sketches illustrating a point he had made (a question about baggage handlers doing the shopping was illustrated by Bailey, dressed in a luminous jacket and hard-hat, at a supermarket checkout throwing his purchases past the barcode scanner into a trolley, with little regard for the safety of the contents) and occasionally performing a short piece of music or song. Scattered throughout the show would be longer sketches that stood on their own, usually featuring cast members Forbes Masson, Simon Pegg and occasionally Ford Kiernan. The show would be rounded off by Bailey at the piano or keyboard demonstrating a little-known style of music which concluded with a longer piece over the end credits. These musical sections at the end were what stood out from the rest of the show. The first episode demonstrated styles of music for films and TV, before Bailey performed the Doctor Who theme in the style of Belgian Jazz. Other shows had him expounding upon the influence that Cockney music has had on classical music ('Ave a Banana) and famous composers performing Nursery Rhymes (Tom Waits does Three Blind Mice - "Blood on the cheese!"; Michael Nymen does Hickory Dickory Dock). Bailey's talent lies in his musical ability and the series shows it off to its full extent. The sketches varied in terms of quality. Those featuring Bailey as a rather boring suburbanite were very good, but the Teddy Boys living in the woods sketch fell rather flat, as no-one seemed to get the point. Perhaps the best sketch came in the first show, as a re-enactment society threw historical accuracy out of the window and called up reinforcements who brandished swords from the sunroof of an advancing Ford Cortina. What made this series stand out was Bailey's style of comedy. There would be no soapbox ranting or "have you ever noticed" items here. Most of it was stream of consciousness, beefed up with thoughts on philosophy and Bailey's own interpretations of it. His spin on the old theory that if a tree falls and no-one hears it then it didn't really happen is priceless: when you leave the room, old people start dancing. The episode in question showed two old folks dancing hypnotically to some drum 'n' bass before Bailey came back in. Bailey appears not to be bothered by the Government and such weighty topics: he'd rather just be able to get his favourite biscuits from the supermarket. A particular favourite is his theory that all Scots are from the future. By demonstrating perfectly how we speak at the dinner table ("Is that you?" "That's me" "Is that you away?" "That's me off up the road") he succeeds in portraying the Scots in a humorous way that no amount of Elaine C Smith's "man wanting his dinner when I get back from the Steamie" can manage to evoke. The other cast members all graduated onto more notable things: Simon Pegg moved on to Spaced among other things, and Forbes Masson (already legendary in Scotland thanks to Victor & Barry, The High Life and unfortunately My Dead Dad) would go on to do EastEnders. Bailey himself has appeared in Spaced and other sitcoms, but has never had a series to himself since. Space Cadets most certainly was not the future. |
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