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| To paraphrase an article in the 1948
BBC Year Book by Gale Pedrick, Band Waggon was 'the
first important manifestation of American influence.
Askey himself broke new ground by exploiting
"situation comedy" in the Jack Benny manner...
Here was a new radio framework.' The idea for the series,
to establish Askey as the BBC's resident comedian, came
from the BBC's Head of Variety, John Watt, and was
unprecidented in that it would be a 12 week comedy series
on the same day every week and at around the same time of
day, something that had never happened before. Askey was
paired with Richard Murdoch, and the rest of the team
were Miff Ferrie and the Jackdauz, and Phil Cardew and
the Bandwaggoners. However, the first three shows, while not a disaster, were not a real success either, and John Watt cut the length of the series in half. At this point, a single comment from Arthur Askey, whether as a joke or not, turned everything around. His comment that if he was the 'resident comedian' he should probably live on the premises provoked a brain-storming session with the writer / producers and for the next episode, Askey and Murdoch were installed in an imaginary flat on top of Broadcasting House. Listeners actually believed that they really did live in the flat - with Lewis the goat, two pigeons called Lucy and Basil and, at one point, a camel named Hector. The goat was written in when it was decided that 49 stairs and 7 floors by lift were too much to expect of the residents in order to fetch their daily pinta! The goat spawned the joke - 'A goat in the flat - what about the smell?' 'Oh, he'll get used to it!' - which has since been used in various guises since. Band Waggon also had its fair share of catchphrases, something which radio of the period was apt to throw up with absurd regularity. Askey's 'Aythangyow' for 'I thank you' came from a local bus conductor. Others used by him included 'Doesn't it make you want to spit' and 'Don't be filthy'. Richard Murdoch, who became known as 'Stinker' Murdoch to Askey's 'Big Hearted Arthur', often derided his flatmate as 'You silly little man'. It was also decided during the run of episodes, which eventually approached close to fifty, that they would have a char lady. Askey saw a name on the side of a van - Diploma Bagwash - and Mrs. Bagwash the char was born, although whether her first name was also Diploma is unknown. Her daughter Nausea became Arthur's fiancee, but neither character actually spoke - the show didn't employ an actress. The only sounds heard from the pair was an occasional grunt from Mrs. Bagwash, and a thud whenever Nausea fainted, which she was apt to do on a regular basis. A regular feature of Band Waggon was 'Mr Walker Wants To Know', a question and answer-type section presided over by comedian Syd Walker, whose own closing line became a catchphrase; 'What would you do, chums?' When the war escalated, Richard Murdoch left to join the RAF and Band Waggon came to an end. It reappeared, for a one-off Jubilee revival on the 13th November 1947. All the original cast appeared, except Syd Walker who had died in the interim. His part was taken on this occasion by Fred Yule. This
was the last of Band Waggon, a British
radio classic and birth of the British sitcom. It made
household names of both Askey and Murdoch, although both
had appeared in previous series on radio as well as in
theatre variety. In 1958, an attempt was made to recreate
the Band Waggon magic on
television by Associated Rediffusion. Askey and Murdoch
ran a pirate television station from a penthouse on top
of A-R's headquarters in a short-lived series called Living It
Up. Unfortunately, it didn't. And for Band Waggon's sake,
maybe it was just as well. article copyright PPS / M.Hearn 1999 |