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This episode of "The Charlie Drake Show", which allegedly "no longer exists", was shown 15 June 2025 on BBC4. It's very much a curate's egg. The strangest element for present-day viewers is the long pieces to camera by a historian describing a fictitious battle. The information is irrelevant and has no jokes. The scenes with Charlie Drake as a jester, hitting everyone, including King Cnut, on the head with his bladder, show why Drake became a big star in the UK. His is a unique comic character with inimitable delivery. He wasn't noted for his wit, but he was a great clown. The battle scenes, with opposing armies lobbing cardboard boulders over castle walls at each other, are great knockabout. There's a pay-off involving the incident on a beach for which Cnut is most famous. The credits list the entire cast, even extras, and I was surprised to note the appearance of my former boss, director Pete Walker, here credited as Peter Walker. I re-ran my recording. Mr Walker is seated on the right in the banquet scene. Hope this is all of some interest.

"Carry On Laughing", semi-forgotten TV series from 1975, is currently back on TV again (in UK on Rewind TV). It's funnier than you might expect and this is one of the best episodes. It's one of several featuring Lord Peter Flimsy (Jack Douglas) and his man Punter (Kenneth Connor), a parody of Dorothy L. Sayers' characters. Douglas is miscast as the aristocratic sleuth, and it doesn't matter in the slightest. The plot is ridiculous; ditto. What's surprising is that Dave Freeman's script is far better than the one he wrote for the dreadful "Carry on Columbus", last in the film series. The innuendos are clever and, what's more, there's a preponderance of rude poetry and tongue-twisters. A very long one that Joan Sims is saddled with is perfectly delivered. I nearly applauded at the end.

This repetitive Danzigers support consists almost entirely of two reporters (Richard Wyler, back in the UK after a Hollywood sojourn, and new star Pauline Yates) interviewing the relatives and colleagues of passengers on a crashed aircraft. Only three unknown people are said to have survived. It turns out that the survivors are generally those who deserved to live. Prolific screenwriter Brian Clemens had a lively mind and is admired for both his TV episodes and films. But it looks as though he knocked this one off in his lunch hour. Why are the police not involved? You get the feeling the Danzigers didn't want to rent the uniforms. How is it that nobody noticed throughout production that a news editor is sitting behind a desk with a sign on it reading "New's"? As a matter of additional interest there are two references here on IMDb to a man in the opening sequence, shot in London's Fleet Street, who stares directly into the camera. That man is not in the version currently showing on the British TV channel Talking Pictures. Is TP actually re-editing films to keep IMDb reviewers happy?