Title: Hamlet
Original Airdate: 21/2/1974
At a psychiatrist's office, Hamlet laments how everyone wants him to recite lines from his play and he would rather be a private detective, but all the psychiatrists he talks to are perverted frauds. Then on the show Nationwide a reporter discusses police helmets with a police officer who keeps mugging people, followed by a father awkwardly sharing his daughter and son-in-law's bed.
After the opening titles: inside the locker room after a boxing match, a bunch of doctors listening to a boxing match on the radio, pepperpots discussing shopping, sports updates, and ending on the final act of Hamlet.
And then.
Tropes:
- As Himself: Former footballer Jimmy Greaves appears dressed as Queen Victoria to do post-game commentary on the Queen Victoria Handicap.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The boxing match between The Champ and The Killer; The Champ lost his head twice in two separate bouts, he won the second when The Killer was disqualified.
- "Down Here!" Shot: In a sketch, a sports commentator is talking to a bunch of horse jockeys and all we can see are the tops of their caps. Then another even more famous jockey comes over and we can't see him at all until he climbs on a Scully Box, at which time we can see his hat too.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The Queen Victoria handicap is...a bunch of guys dressed as Queen Victoria running a steeplechase race.
- Freud Was Right: An actor playing Hamlet is depressed because he is bored with life and wants to become a private dick (detective), hoping to get fame, money, glamour, excitement, and sex; all the psychiatrists and other people around him jump on the "sex" part.
- One-Steve Limit:
- The Piston Engine sketch features Mrs Robinson, Mrs Non-Robinson, Mrs Gorilla, Mrs Non-Gorilla, Mrs Smoker, and Mrs Non-Smoker.
- For the Queen Victoria Handicap, the winner is never revealed. Supposedly it was Queen Victoria. Or maybe Queen Victoria. Or did Queen Victoria beat Queen Victoria and Queen Victoria? We'll never know...
- Running Gag: "So, you've got her on the bed, and her legs up on the mantlepiece..." "Out!"
