There is an interesting back story to this character which I discovered when I saw an interview with the great Ian Hislop of Private Eye and Have I got News for you fame. The wikipedia entry for Harry Enfield and Chums states the following under the subheading Tim Nice-but-Dim Esq.

The character was initially created by Ian Hislop and Nick Newman, who are both Old Ardinians. They wrote the character as an antidote to contemporary portrayals of ex-public schoolboys as sharp-minded, high-achieving young men, and instead chose to base the character on former school contemporaries who had plenty of money and good manners but were light of intellect. Tim's catchphrase is "What an absolutely, thoroughly, bloody nice bloke!" A notable scene was him going to the school reunion of another school.

Another funny sketch from Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse. In this series part of the charm of this humour was simply capturing the odd characteristics of certain iconic characters that exist in every generation in this strange world we all find ourselves in. The ultra posh private Harley Street specialist routine is just so funny as in high powered medicine you do end up getting some characters, especially at the top echelons of the profession.

I live in a house with 3 women (two daughters and one wife) so Strictly come dancing is a weekly fixture. While I have tried to get into the show, I only find it mildly entertaining so tend to watch the show very occasionally. However, whenever I do watch it, I am always struck by lots of very young pretty woman and hunky blokes spending hours together in close physical contact. It therefore has never surprised me that dancing couples not too infrequently end up in some form of short or long term physical (and or romantic) relationship. I guess it was only a matter of time before a comedy group would also pick up this truth and run with it in a funny sketch. Nice also to see Michael Spicer (the room next door) making a guest appearance in this sketch.

So as the continuing insanity of this Tory Party continues, the comedians are hard at work satirising the crazy world we seem to now inhabit in Britain as the government continues to appoint ministers who, at best, are clearly out of depth in terms of the skills required for their role and, at worst, express opinions which just 10 years ago were only heard within the ranks of the British National Party (here's looking at you Suella Braverman).

Diane Morgan plays a famous character in the UK comedy scene called Philomena Cunk. While searching for funny comedy sketches for this section of my website, I came across this Youtube video of her working her craft as a stand up comedian. One of the interesting things about stand up comedy, is that comedians definitely inject their own unique characters into their routines. It is clear from Cunk and Morgan's routine in this little clip that she would be a person with an incredibly dry wit which completely permeates her whole character.

In fact, to give you a feel of Diane in a real life situation, I have also included this interview of her with her director Charlie Brooker. It is clear from some of the statements that Charlie makes, that he really doesn't have the first idea of what makes Diane tick. Sixteen minutes into this video Brooker says "Philomena is sort of on some unknowable level like or horse or something...It's hard to know what her inner life is or is that just me" To which Diane replies: I wouldn't say it was an absence of character"

This compilation of sketches parodies certain modern work environments where everyone competes for patronage from the alpha male that occupies some senior position in their company. As with so many workplaces, there is always the poor Declan who never can find a path into the in crowd no matter what juicy information titbit he brings his boss.

So just under a year ago I opened my comedy section with a series of sketches from the late great Dave Allen. Therefore it seems appropriate to bring this little series to a close with the late great Allen capturing his thoughts on air travel a theme which of course has been the butt of much comedy over many years.

Bonus Clip

When I was a young child my late father used to have a single record from the American Comedian Shelly Berman. One of the sketches on this record was the one posted below. As children my brother and I used to listen to this record again and again. After leaving Australia in 1997, I did not hear the sketch again until a few years ago when I looked it up on Youtube. Hearing it again brought back lots of pleasant memories and made me feel very nostalgic for a past age that is now long gone. A time even before modern jet engines as this sketch was old even when I was a boy. Sadly in the Youtube version below, the sketch is cut off before it finishes.