Title: A Book at Bedtime
Original Airdate: 11/1/1973
First, a choreographed party political broadcast on behalf of the Conservative and Unionist party
And now, it's: A bunch of people who can't read trying to read a book at bedtime, the Queen's own kamikaze fighting Scotsmen, a man who wants to use the phrase "No time to lose", a cartoon parody of 2001: A Space Odyssey, a show about penguins helping to understand how the human mind works, kamikaze Scotsmen attacking the Kremlin, the game show "Spot the Looney", and news reporters fighting over stories.
After the closing credits, there are some previews of upcoming shows.
Tropes:
- Biting-the-Hand Humor: The BBC would be better off if it was run by penguins.
- Death Seeker: The McKamikaze Highlanders.
- Distinction Without a Difference: "Katie Boyle is not a looney - she is a Television Personality."
- Driven to Suicide: MacDonald, the last of the Kamikaze Scotsmen, keeps attempting to kill himself, but his superiors keep stopping him.
- Fun with Subtitles: The Russian major played by Idle speaks Russian with English subtitles, while the Russian major played by John Cleese speaks English with Russian subtitles. When Cleese switches to Russian, the subtitles switch to Chinese. At one point, the majors soak the unexploded Scotsman's head into a bucket of vodka, and the subtitles translate the bucket to "whiskey" (even though whiskey contains more alcohol than vodka).
- Improbably Low I.Q.: BBC programme planners scored 8 on a standardized IQ test, at least they understand how ridiculously high that is.Prof. Rosewall: The BBC programme planners' surprisingly high total here can be explained away as being within the ordinary limits of statistical error. One particularly dim programme planner can cock the whole thing up. (Followed by superimposed title: "You can say that again!")
- Never Learned to Read: The reader for "A Book at Bedtime", played by Michael Palin, struggles to get through the first sentence. John Cleese takes over repeating the full sentence Palin read, but then has difficulty getting through himself. Eventually, the entire cast help Palin read the story.
- You Bastard!: In the "Spot the Looney" sketch, Charles Dickens says this when Sir Walter Scott says that Ivanhoe sounds more like something Dickens would write.
