And Now In Colour

Tim Firth, Tim de Jongh (aka Tim Scott), Michael Rutger (Michael Smith) and William Vandyck.
Oh. Not so catchy.
Back in the 80's and indeed early 90's, BBC Radio 4 produced many a Comedy Sketch Show.

Bodgers Banks and Sparkes, Dial M For Pizza, In One Ear, Live on Arrival, Saturday Night Fry, The Million Pound Radio Show and And Now In Colour.

Bodgers became Absolutely on Channel 4, Saturday Night Fry evolved into A Bit Of Fry and Laurie, Live on Arrival spawned Punt and Dennis. Andy Hamilton and Nick Revell grew out of The Million Pound Radio Show...oh you get the idea, but And Now In Colour remains one of the great missed opportunities in comedy.

Firthie, Tim, Mike and Will -- presented each show as if it was coming from some exterior location (fairground, space shuttle, top of the Post Office Tower and the spectacular French Special...), and spent most of the time squabbling about various recurring issues, notably Firthie's eating habits, Will's militarist upbringing and in particular the North-South divide, which usually became the North-South-Dutch divide as a result of Tim's interjections. Fish and Advocaat. And Mike's obsession with Stephen King. His surname of Rutger was his homage to Rutger Hauer.

It was in many ways a fairly traditional series for the period, with the weekly adventures being little set pieces linked by sketches and songs. I admit to being fairly obsessed with the programme, even wiring up my stereo to my old VCR one Saturday night because my girlfriend and I were going out that night, and I didn't want to miss it. Remember, this was a very long time before "Listen Again" Sky + or the lovely i-Player came into the world.
Unfortunately, this worked very well, which lead to me recording many, many hours of radio. I think my attic is still full of old Danny Baker, Phill Jupitus and Kevin Greening shows from variuos radio stations over the years. But I digress.
And Now In Colour should've been much bigger than it ever was. For a start it was funny, yes some of the sketches didn't work, but for 2 series and 2 Christmas Specials it maintained a hit rate 99% of Radio 4 Comedy these days would kill for. Well, maybe not kill, or am I underestimating the jealous nature of comedians.
A sort of television pilot was made called It's a Mad World World World, but it didn't really work. Possibly as it only had 50% of the ANIC cast, possibly because it had a crap title, probably because it had Alastair McGowan in it, and plans for a series fell by the wayside.
I can't help thinking that in this day and age it would be picked up by BBC 3, allowed to grow and eventually make it onto a 9pm slot on a Friday night on BBC 1.
A whole generation would be quoting lines like "If it's in a basket, it's free" rather than claiming to be "The only gay in the village". Which would be a much better world if you ask me.
Oh, you didn't.

The cast are still out there in various guises.

Tim Firth is an award winning writer of stage and screen, responsible for BBC tv's The Preston Front, the stage play for the musical Our House as well as writing the scripts for Calender Girls and Kinky Boots.

Tim De Jongh has written several books, the sketch series "Dare To Believe" and won a BAFTA for his work on the children's series "Ripley and Scuff".

Michael Rutger has reverted to his real name of Michael Marshall Smith, writes Fantasy Novels, and very good ones at that. And again, award winning. There is a theme emerging here.

William VanDyck writes books for children, presented King Stupid" on Radio 4, and has won many cases in his guise as a barrister.

Thankfully, the good people at BBC 7 repeat the series on a fairly regular basis. And long may they do so.

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