History Series / ThatWasTheWeekThatWas

-->'''Patricia Routledge:''' ''(singing)'' You look a little lovelier each day... with fabulous Douglas Jay![[note]] Labour MP who had been a member of Attlee's Cabinet and was President of the Board of Trade in Wilson's Cabinet.[[/note]]\\

** ''Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life'', which ran for 62 episodes from 1964-65 (with three 45-minute episodes a week, a workload which may have contributed to the programme's short run), retained David Frost as frontman and included Willie Rushton and Bernard Levin as supporting performers/pundits, as well as John Bird (the original presenter of the pilot of ''[=TW3=]''), Eleanor Bron, and John Fortune. Perhaps the most remembered sketch featured Patricia Routledge as a working-class mother in Liverpool's Irish Catholic immigrant community being chastised by the local priest for failing to conceive her seventeenth child.

Cast members included cartoonist Timothy Birdsall,[[note]] Only in the first series, as he died in June 1963 while the series was off the air.[[/note]] political commentator Bernard Levin, and actors Creator/LancePercival, Creator/KennethCope, Roy Kinnear, Creator/WillieRushton, Al Mancini, Creator/DavidKernan, and MillicentMartin (resident chanteuse). Creator/MichaelRedgrave and Robert Lang made multiple guest appearances to recite topical poems, while Creator/FrankieHowerd made a guest appearance to deliver a monologue poking fun at the Macmillan government. Script-writers included John Albery, John Antrobus, John Betjeman, John Bird, Creator/GrahamChapman, Creator/JohnCleese, Creator/PeterCook, Creator/RoaldDahl, [[Magazine/PrivateEye Richard Ingrams]], Lyndon Irving, Gerald Kaufman, Frank Muir, David Nobbs, Denis Norden, [[Series/TheGoodies Bill Oddie]], Creator/DennisPotter, Creator/EricSykes, Kenneth Tynan, and Keith Waterhouse.

Cast members included cartoonist Timothy Birdsall,[[note]] Only in the first series, as he died in June 1963 while the series was off the air.[[/note]] political commentator Bernard Levin, and actors Creator/LancePercival, Creator/KennethCope, Roy Kinnear, Creator/WillieRushton, Al Mancini, David Kernan, and MillicentMartin (resident chanteuse). Creator/MichaelRedgrave and Robert Lang made multiple guest appearances to recite topical poems, while Creator/FrankieHowerd made a guest appearance to deliver a monologue poking fun at the Macmillan government. Script-writers included John Albery, John Antrobus, John Betjeman, John Bird, Creator/GrahamChapman, Creator/JohnCleese, Creator/PeterCook, Creator/RoaldDahl, [[Magazine/PrivateEye Richard Ingrams]], Lyndon Irving, Gerald Kaufman, Frank Muir, David Nobbs, Denis Norden, [[Series/TheGoodies Bill Oddie]], Creator/DennisPotter, Creator/EricSykes, Kenneth Tynan, and Keith Waterhouse.

* AccidentalInnuendo: Invoked in a 1963 sketch spoofing the controversy over junior minister Thomas "Tam" Galbraith beginning a letter to civil servant John Vassall (whose homosexuality had been used to blackmail him into spying for the Soviet Union) with the words "My Dear Vassall". A civil servant (David Kernan) presents a draft letter to his superior (Creator/LancePercival), who reacts with disgust to the perceived sexual overtones of such language as "Pursuant to your letter, I am hoping for the favour of an early reply. Thanking you in anticipation," and the possible closing lines "Yours faithfully" and "Your obedient servant". He insists the letter simply end with the writer's name... which, unfortunately for said writer, is Fairy (or Fairey, or Farey).

* ExactWords: One link segment had Willie Rushton relating the story of a production of ''Expresso Bongo''[[note]] the original 1958 West End run of which starred future ''[=TW3=]'' cast member Millicent Martin[[/note]] by Cambridge undergraduates, and saying that the proctor, Mr. Richard Bainbridge, said of a scene featuring four cast members posing nude from the waist up, that "frankly, I prefer [[Creator/WilliamShakespeare Shakespeare.]]" "Well, your wish is our command," said Rushton, the camera panning to David Kernan dressed as Shakespeare, nude from the waist up except for a ruff around his neck.

** ''BBC-3'' ran for 24 weekly episodes from 1965-66, now fronted by Robert Robinson. Bird, Bron, and Fortune returned from ''Not So Much a Programme'', joined by ''[=TW3=]'' cast members David Kernan and Millicent Martin and occasional writer/performer Bill Oddie. By this time, the sketch/music/discussion format was perceived as tired, and the series suffered in comparison to ''The Frost Report'' and ''Not Only... But Also''. The programme became infamous for featuring the first PrecisionFStrike on British television when, during a censorship debate, theatre critic Kenneth Tynan argued that as the word no longer shocked people, neither should the act it describes.

Cast members included cartoonist Timothy Birdsall,[[note]] Only in the first series, as he died in June 1963 while the series was off the air.[[/note]] political commentator Bernard Levin, and actors Creator/LancePercival, Kenneth Cope, Roy Kinnear, Creator/WillieRushton, Al Mancini, David Kernan, and MillicentMartin (resident chanteuse). Creator/MichaelRedgrave and Robert Lang made multiple guest appearances to recite topical poems, while Creator/FrankieHowerd made a guest appearance to deliver a monologue poking fun at the Macmillan government. Script-writers included John Albery, John Antrobus, John Betjeman, John Bird, Creator/GrahamChapman, Creator/JohnCleese, Creator/PeterCook, Creator/RoaldDahl, [[Magazine/PrivateEye Richard Ingrams]], Lyndon Irving, Gerald Kaufman, Frank Muir, David Nobbs, Denis Norden, [[Series/TheGoodies Bill Oddie]], Creator/DennisPotter, Creator/EricSykes, Kenneth Tynan, and Keith Waterhouse.

** In a 1963 sketch parodying anti-homosexual witch hunts in the government and civil service, Kenneth Cope, dressed in a trench coat and hat, gives a grave confession of the events that have led to his coming to terms with his ''hetero''sexuality, such as thinking the captain of his public school's football team was a boring, disgusting slob, and having to take a client to a strip club where he found himself "violently desiring" a stripper in a G-string as she wrestled a stuffed snake. He ends the monologue by pleading for acceptance from the audience, saying that he is not so different to them.

* RunningGag: Kenneth Cope bursting into a rendition of big musical number (such as "Maria" from ''Theatre/WestSideStory''), only to either stop himself or be stopped after the first line.

Cast members included cartoonist Timothy Birdsall,[[note]] Only in the first series, as he died in June 1963 while the series was off the air.[[/note]] political commentator Bernard Levin, and actors Lance Percival, Kenneth Cope, Roy Kinnear, Creator/WillieRushton, Al Mancini, David Kernan, and MillicentMartin (resident chanteuse). Creator/MichaelRedgrave and Robert Lang made multiple guest appearances to recite topical poems, while Creator/FrankieHowerd made a guest appearance to deliver a monologue poking fun at the Macmillan government. Script-writers included John Albery, John Antrobus, John Betjeman, John Bird, Creator/GrahamChapman, Creator/JohnCleese, Creator/PeterCook, Creator/RoaldDahl, [[Magazine/PrivateEye Richard Ingrams]], Lyndon Irving, Gerald Kaufman, Frank Muir, David Nobbs, Denis Norden, [[Series/TheGoodies Bill Oddie]], Creator/DennisPotter, Creator/EricSykes, Kenneth Tynan, and Keith Waterhouse.

* Lance Percival singing a calypso song inspired by the week's news events.

* AccidentalInnuendo: Invoked in a 1963 sketch spoofing the controversy over junior minister Thomas "Tam" Galbraith beginning a letter to civil servant John Vassall (whose homosexuality had been used to blackmail him into spying for the Soviet Union) with the words "My Dear Vassall". A civil servant (David Kernan) presents a draft letter to his superior (Lance Percival), who reacts with disgust to the perceived sexual overtones of such language as "Pursuant to your letter, I am hoping for the favour of an early reply. Thanking you in anticipation," and the possible closing lines "Yours faithfully" and "Your obedient servant". He insists the letter simply end with the writer's name... which, unfortunately for said writer, is Fairy (or Fairey, or Farey).
* AudienceParticipation: When Lance Percival began strumming his guitar to introduce a topical calypso performance, he would ask audience members to suggest stories that had already been featured in the episode as possible subjects for a verse of the song. In the 29 December 1962 episode, he expanded this to an invitation to name any news story from the previous year.

** A sketch from the 16 February 1963 episode (repeated in the series finale) satirising the outcry over the use of cars for sexual metaphors in the 1962 Leslie Phillips film ''The Fast Lady'' took this idea and dialled it up to eleven, with Lance Percival getting into a car (a prop in the original version, a real car in the reprise) with a voice with whom he has an amorous conversation while taking "her" out for a drive. The dialogue mostly revolves around purely automotive terms (sometimes of a very technical nature), but Percival and the car react as though they are engaging in sexual foreplay.

** A sketch from the 16 February 1963 episode (repeated in the series finale) satirising the outcry over the use of cars for sexual metaphors in the 1962 Leslie Phillips film ''The Fast Lady'' took this idea and dialled it up to eleven, with Lance Percival getting into a car (a prop in the original version, a real car in the reprise) with a female voice with whom he has an amorous conversation while taking "her" out for a drive. The dialogue mostly revolves around purely automotive terms (sometimes of a very technical nature), but Percival and the car react as though they are engaging in sexual foreplay.

* ExactWords: One link segment had Willie Rushton relating the story of a production of ''Expresso Bongo''[[note]] the original 1958 West End run of which starred future ''[=TW3=]'' cast member Millicent Martin[[/note]] by Cambridge undergraduates, and saying that the proctor, Mr. Richard Bainbridge, said of a scene featuring four female cast members posing nude from the waist up, that "frankly, I prefer [[Creator/WilliamShakespeare Shakespeare.]]" "Well, your wish is our command," said Rushton, the camera panning to David Kernan dressed as Shakespeare, nude from the waist up except for a ruff around his neck.

** A sketch from the 16 February 1963 episode (repeated in the series finale) satirising the outcry over the use of cars for sexual metaphors in the 1962 Leslie Phillips film ''The Fast Lady'' took this idea and dialled it UpToEleven, with Lance Percival getting into a car (a prop in the original version, a real car in the reprise) with a female voice with whom he has an amorous conversation while taking "her" out for a drive. The dialogue mostly revolves around purely automotive terms (sometimes of a very technical nature), but Percival and the car react as though they are engaging in sexual foreplay.

The programme is considered to be a significant element of the "satire boom" in the United Kingdom in the early 1960s. At this stage in the decade, far from challenging entrenched social attitudes and conventions, the 1960s promised to be a continuation of the socially conservative, conventional and stifling 1950s. The historical significance of this show is that it was the first challenge to convention of the decade. It broke new ground in comedy through lampooning the establishment and political figures of the time. This is so commonplace now that it is hard to believe the practice of satirising political leaders and those hitherto perceived to be our "social betters" had to begin somewhere and was in fact frowned upon - but it began here, over 50 years ago. Later shows such as ''Series/SpittingImage'' would simply not have happened were it not for pioneering shows such as this. Its first broadcast coincided with coverage of the politically charged Profumo affair, and John Profumo, the politician at the centre of the affair, became one of the first targets for derision. He was certainly not the last.

* PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad: Although the series lambasted prejudice in all its forms, they were not above attacking this attitude as well. In the 30 March 1963 episode, a sketch about retail magnate Charles Clore happened to mention that he was of Russian Jewish descent, sparking outraged viewers to accuse the programme of anti-Semitism. The fact that Clore's Jewish heritage had not been mentioned as an insult and that few of the angry letter writers were themselves Jewish prompted Bernard Levin[[note]] himself of Jewish descent, but he considered this fact irrelevant to his point and made no mention of it[[/note]] to make his segment in the following week's episode a monologue attacking such attitudes.

** In the United States, Creator/{{NBC}} aired a version of ''That Was the Week That Was'', also fronted by Frost, from January 1964 to May 1965 (following the cancellation of the UK original). The series was notable for featuring regular musical contributions by Music/TomLehrer (who performed several of his songs from the American ''[=TW3=]'' on Frost's later BBC programme ''The Frost Report''); many of the songs on his album ''Music/ThatWasTheYearThatWas'' were originally written for ''[=TW3=]''.

Cast members included cartoonist Timothy Birdsall,[[note]] Only in the first series, as he died in June 1963 while the series was off the air.[[/note]] political commentator Bernard Levin, and actors Lance Percival, Kenneth Cope, Roy Kinnear, Creator/WillieRushton, Al Mancini, David Kernan, and MillicentMartin (resident chanteuse). Creator/MichaelRedgrave and Robert Lang made multiple guest appearances to recite topical poems, while Creator/FrankieHowerd made a guest appearance to deliver a monologue poking fun at the Macmillan government. Script-writers included John Albery, John Antrobus, John Betjeman, John Bird, Creator/GrahamChapman, Creator/JohnCleese, Creator/PeterCook, Creator/RoaldDahl, [[Magazine/PrivateEye Richard Ingrams]], Lyndon Irving, Gerald Kaufman, Frank Muir, David Nobbs, Denis Norden, [[Series/TheGoodies Bill Oddie]], Dennis Potter, Creator/EricSykes, Kenneth Tynan, and Keith Waterhouse.

* VerySpecialEpisode: The 23 November 1963 episode aired the day after the assassination of US President UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy (whom the programme had previously not been shy about mocking). Sensing that the British public might not be receptive to satire as they reeled from the news, the cast and crew set aside the usual tone and format of the series to deliver a sincere tribute to the memory of the late President, the episode lasting just 20 minutes instead of its usual 50+.
** After this episode was broadcast in the United States on NBC (prior to the network's American version of the series), Millicent Martin's rendition of the JFK tribute song "In the Summer of His Years" was released as a single in the U.S. (not in the U.K., where it was deemed unsuitable for release). Several cover versions resulted, most notably by American pop diva Connie Francis, whose version reached the middle rungs of the ''Billboard'' magazine charts.

** ''The Black and White Minstrel Show'' itself was parodied in a one-off gag in which Frost wondered if they shouldn't broaden their horizons when looking for old musical standards to sing. Cut to a performance of Creator/RichardWagner's ''[[Theatre/DerRingDesNibelungen Die Walküre]]'', with {{Blackface}} singers in stereotypical Viking costumes but wearing the white gloves and doing the jazz hands that were a signature of minstrel show performances.

** In the United States, Creator/{{NBC}} aired a version of ''That Was the Week That Was'', also fronted by Frost, from January 1964 to May 1965 (following the cancellation of the UK original). The series was notable for featuring regular musical contributions by Music/TomLehrer (who performed several of his songs from the American ''[=TW3=]'' on Frost's later BBC programme ''The Frost Report'').

** Bernard Levin frequently began his debate segments by delivering one of these to his guests (sometimes individuals, sometimes representatives of a given profession or organisation), then allowing them to refute his arguments.

He's aimed the whole thing at the Orpington man,[[note]] The "Orpington man" was a political term for lower middle-class urban voters, Orpington (a London borough) being a typical home of such voters.[[/note]] the Tories will hold on 'til '64 if they can\\

* CreditsGag: The credits ended with a different epigram every episode, such as "If all the world loves a lover, why are there so many policemen in Hyde Park?", or "[[UsefulNotes/WilliamGladstone Mr. Gladstone]] devoted one night a week to lecturing fallen women - this has nothing whatever to do with the term 'Gladstone bag'".

** Following the publication of the New Years' Honours List, during the unusually snowy winter of 1962-63:[[note]] Millicent Martin was audibly suffering from a cold during this recording; she soldiered on as best she could, but had to flip between singing and speaking every few lines to avoid overstraining her already inflamed larynx.[[/note]]

The Honours List out, the dullest in years, who cares if Sir Eric Edwards[[note]] solicitor and organiser for the Conservative Party[[/note]] has joined the Life Peers?\\

''That Was the Week That Was'' (abbreviated to ''[=TW3=]'') was a satirical television comedy programme shown on [[Creator/TheBBC BBC television]] between 24 November 1962 and 28 December 1963. It was devised, produced and directed by NedSherrin, and presented by DavidFrost.

** Following the publication of the New Years' Honours List, during the unusually snowy winter of 1962-63:

Cast members included cartoonist Timothy Birdsall,[[note]] Only in the first series, as he died in June 1963 while the series was off the air.[[/note]] political commentator Bernard Levin, and actors Lance Percival, Kenneth Cope, Roy Kinnear, Creator/WillieRushton, Al Mancini, David Kernan, and MillicentMartin (resident chanteuse). Michael Redgrave and Robert Lang made multiple guest appearances to recite topical poems, while Creator/FrankieHowerd made a guest appearance to deliver a monologue poking fun at the Macmillan government. Script-writers included John Albery, John Antrobus, John Betjeman, John Bird, Creator/GrahamChapman, Creator/JohnCleese, Creator/PeterCook, Creator/RoaldDahl, [[Magazine/PrivateEye Richard Ingrams]], Lyndon Irving, Gerald Kaufman, Frank Muir, David Nobbs, Denis Norden, [[Series/TheGoodies Bill Oddie]], Dennis Potter, Creator/EricSykes, Kenneth Tynan, and Keith Waterhouse.

* DidTheEarthMoveForYouToo: Sometime around 1962, Rushton was seen getting into bed with an impossibly glamorous actress/model type. Amid giggling and sighing, foreplay ensues. The camera then cuts to stock footage of waves crashing against rocks, tall chimneys falling, train going into tunnels, et c. We cut back to Willie Rushton and girl, who are still in bed--but soaked through from the waves, covered in brick dust and rubble from the chimney, and smothered in soot from the steam-train. She is screaming. He is wide-eyed with panic.
-->''Every bloody time we try something, all that bloody lot happens!''

Cast members included cartoonist Timothy Birdsall,[[note]] Only in the first series, as he died in June 1963 while the series was off the air.[[/note]] political commentator Bernard Levin, and actors Lance Percival, Kenneth Cope, Roy Kinnear, WillieRushton, Al Mancini, David Kernan, and MillicentMartin (resident chanteuse). Michael Redgrave and Robert Lang made multiple guest appearances to recite topical poems, while Creator/FrankieHowerd made a guest appearance to deliver a monologue poking fun at the Macmillan government. Script-writers included John Albery, John Antrobus, John Betjeman, John Bird, Creator/GrahamChapman, Creator/JohnCleese, PeterCook, Creator/RoaldDahl, [[Magazine/PrivateEye Richard Ingrams]], Lyndon Irving, Gerald Kaufman, Frank Muir, David Nobbs, Denis Norden, [[Series/TheGoodies Bill Oddie]], Dennis Potter, Creator/EricSykes, Kenneth Tynan, and Keith Waterhouse.

Cast members included cartoonist Timothy Birdsall,[[note]] Only in the first series, as he died in June 1963 while the series was off the air.[[/note]] political commentator Bernard Levin, and actors Lance Percival, Kenneth Cope, Roy Kinnear, WillieRushton, Al Mancini, David Kernan, and MillicentMartin (resident chanteuse). Michael Redgrave and Robert Lang made multiple guest appearances to recite topical poems, while FrankieHowerd made a guest appearance to deliver a monologue poking fun at the Macmillan government. Script-writers included John Albery, John Antrobus, John Betjeman, John Bird, Creator/GrahamChapman, Creator/JohnCleese, PeterCook, Creator/RoaldDahl, [[Magazine/PrivateEye Richard Ingrams]], Lyndon Irving, Gerald Kaufman, Frank Muir, David Nobbs, Denis Norden, [[Series/TheGoodies Bill Oddie]], Dennis Potter, Creator/EricSykes, Kenneth Tynan, and Keith Waterhouse.