'The funny thing is it’s not repeated...' Griff Rhys Jones says Not The Nine O'Clock News deserves more respect
Griff Rhys Jones says the BBC should show more respect to 'Not The Nine O'Clock News' because it is being forgotten as a ground-breaking comedy show.
Griff Rhys Jones believes his iconic comedy series 'Not The Nine O'Clock News' has been erased from history by the BBC.
The satirical sketch show was broadcast on BBC Two from 1979 to 1982 and starred Griff, Rowan Atkinson, Pamela Stephenson and Griff's late comedy partner Mel Smith, who died from a heart attack in July 2013 at the age of 60.
At its peak it was attracting up to 18 million viewers an episode, but it is never repeated by the BBC and Griff says it’s because the corporation doesn’t want to pay him and the writers.
Appearing on the 'Who’s Tom and Dick' podcast, he said: “The funny thing is it’s not repeated. I don’t think it’s so topical that’s it not.
“I think the reason is that it’s written by a lot of people. The BBC finds it easy to repeat things like 'The Young Ones' now and the history of comedy is slightly being re-written as a result of that.
“People say, ‘Oh Griff, you’re amazing, you were in 'The Young Ones' playing Bambi, you know Bamber Gascoigne.’ I go, ‘Yeah, I think that’s was an afternoon of my life, I don’t remember much about it.’
“The thing is we were in a show that was 10 times the size of 'The Young Ones' at the time, absolutely massive, but it was written by so many people that the BBC have now sort of wiped it. They don’t want to get involved in paying the rights of all those people.
“In fact, they went through the Millennium or some sort of thing of BBC Two and they didn’t even mention it, it’s just crazy because it was huge. It was like 18 million people watching at one point and that was with a difficult, edgy show. You’re not talking about just a family favourite, you’re talking about the one that kids said, ‘Mummy, daddy, I want to stay up and watch it.’ ‘No, you can’t, it’s not for you.’
“It was a huge thing and lasted in people’s memory for a long time but it was so long ago.”
And Griff doesn’t believe that 'Not The Nine O’Clock News' is snubbed from the repeat schedule because it is politically incorrect.
The comedian - who went on to create 'Alas Smith and Jones' with Mel after 'Not the Nine O'Clock News' - said: “Going back we laughed at gays, not offensively, but it was a sort a thing. We dressed up as women, but everyone did. They’re all coming on dressed as women, Dick Emery, Les Dawson, every single sketch they were dressed as a woman.
“When we didn’t have enough women I was dressed up as a woman, so I was the other singer in ABBA, but we had Pamela so it wasn’t very often. But it was a bit more trans, I was expected to be a convincing woman, not a Les Dawson woman, or a Monty Python woman or even a Dick Emery woman.”
