Come Back Mrs. Noah

'Come back Mrs Noah' is completely forgotten. I remembered this with the recent death of the comedy actress Molly Sugden. For years the only bit I could remember was the credit sequence with the cast dancing on a planets ring in gaudy colored space suits. Not all David Lloyd's comedies were a success but this was the worst. Memorable for being the worst too. An oddity to be remembered for that. Apart from the poor scripts the worst part of this series is the wasted talent. Gordon Kaye, Sugden and Michael Knowles and Donald Hewlett, and Ian Lavender from classic British comedies are in this and none seem to talk about this series. Ironically the cast play a crew trapped in some remote place unable to escape from there. That's how they probably feel about this. this series is in that category of worth seeing to see a car crash of great talent being wasted. See it once too believe that it was ever made. I give it 6 only for the acting talent in this.

A little gem of a comedy from 1977 – written by Lloyd and Croft ( 'Are You Being Served' etc ) and Starring Molly Sugden, Ian Lavender and the two 'silly arse' officers from 'It Ain't Half Hot Mum'. Virtually impossible to track down on video or DVD CBMN is the unlikely story of Housewife Gertrude Noah who is accidentally blasted in to Earth orbit with a few crew members of Great Britain's first space station.

The comedy is dated and old fashioned… by which I mean it's very funny! People say funny things and the viewer laughs – a concept sadly lacking in modern sitcoms. Certainly the jokes are crude and vulgar – in a traditional and hilariously smutty way like the 'Carry On' movies. Essentially if you've seen 'Are You Being Served' then you'll know exactly what to expect. I need hardly mention that there are no swear words whatsoever.

Special effects are hardly 2001 though there is an excellent scene where Sugden and Lavender are 'lying; in bed but it is a clever trick involving the camera lying on it's side giving the effect of cups and liquids flying horizontally instead of downwards – the results are side-splitting.

Jokes come from word-play, double entendres, bizarre inventions, silly costumes, class conflict – everything you expect from Lloyd and Croft.

There is no doubt in my mind that Rob Grant and Doug Naylor ( Creators 'Red Dwarf') watched this programme in their formative years as there are so many similarities and parallels even down to the appearance and behaviour of Kryten. A 'holodeck' also appears decades before the one in Star Trek.

If you like 'Are You Being Served' and 'Dad's Army' then ignore the knockers ( oops ) and do try to take a look at this.

I read an article in 'Dreamwatch' magazine a good few years back which included the lines; "Science fiction and comedy are difficult to mix. For every 'Red Dwarf', there are about ten 'Come Back Mrs.Noahs'. At which point I fell on the floor laughing. "Come Back Mrs.Noah' wasn't intended to be science fiction comedy! I'm sure Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft would be the first to admit that.

The premise is this; Mollie Sugden plays 'Mrs.Gertrude Noah', a prize-winning housewife on a tour of a British space station ( ! ). Unfortunately, there's an accident and said station is blasted out of orbit, beginning a course that will take it out of the Solar System. Rescue is, for the moment, impossible. Also on board are two scientists played by Michael Knowles and Donald Hewlett, and Ian Lavender as a news reporter.

The humour is crude and coarse; for instance, when in the first episode Mrs.Noah becomes weightless, the ship's computer advises her to propel herself forward by means of expelling natural body gas. Farting, in other words. Instead she takes a bottle of perfume from her handbag and uses that to do the same. If 'Grace Brothers' had been a space station instead of a department store, this is what it would have been. But what do you expect from Lloyd and Croft?

There were also a number of scenes back on Earth with Tim Barrett as the harassed head of the British space exploration centre and Ann Michelle as his sexy assistant. Spoof news broadcasts read by Gorden Kaye prefaced each edition. Great comedy? Absolutely not! But its not as half as bad as F.Gwynplaine McIntyre makes out. I think we should be allowed to see it for ourselves so we can make up our own minds. Besides, after the fiasco of 'Hyperdrive', could anything possibly be worse?

It genuinely feels like Mrs Slocombe has left Grace Brothers for a holiday, and instead of going to the Costa Plonka (the movie) she's gone to a space station. Her character Gertrude Noah wins a cookery prize and gets a chance to visit a British Space craft, set to travel into Space for sixty years, however a mix up sees Mrs Noah sent into space with some other unsuspecting people.

It's crass, bawdy, with the toilet humour exclusive of the seventies, if it's not your bag, you will utterly loathe every second of it, if you enjoy it, then there are laughs, gags and double entendres aplenty for you.

Borrowed jokes, horrific props, the worst special effects you could hope to see, but it does boast Mollie at her peak, and she manages to make it watchable, even if it IS Mrs Slocombe in space. All that's missing is the Are you being served cash register sound during the changes of scene.

It seems like Are you being served made stars of the cast, and nobody quite knew what to do with them after it, all of whom seemed to deserve better.

I can't help but snigger when I watch this show, I don't know if it's the script, or embarrassment, but to class it as the worst British sitcom of all time is unfair.

They tried something different, they didn't quite get it right, but Come back Mrs Noah is unique, and worth a look.

5/10.

This one only last for one season (6 episodes) while Mollie Sugden was in hiatus from the long-running ARE YOU BEING SERVED? series. A rather notorious series, it was written and produced by David Croft and Jeremy Lloyd, who also did SERVED. It stars Mollie Sugden (Mrs. Slocombe) as a British housewife accidentally blasted into space in Earth's orbit while touring the latest British space station.

With her are a journalist (Ian Lavender), two of the crew (Michael Knowles and Donald Hewlett) and a custodian (Joe Black). A sort of GILLIGAN'S ISLAND meets LOST IN SPACE, the series uses lots of topical jokes (a reference to the Thatcher Memorial in Moscow is quite funny) and lots of sight gags.

Done on the cheap, the series is very limited in its set design, but that almost works in its favor. The sight of Sugden flying around in a weightless environment or packed into an orange decontamination suit (How do we get rid of the contamination?) is quite funny.

Set in the year 2050, Sugden still looks and dresses like her famous Mrs. Slocombe character (minus the dyed hair) and she is firmly based in her working-class mum persona, despite the technological marvels of the age.

The series was a flop and Sugden returned to SERVED and stayed in the Grace Brothers store until the series finished in 1985. Also in the cast is Jennifer Lonsdale who would co-star in Sugden's THAT'S MY BOY series.

Knowles and Hewlett had also appeared on SERVED as had Diana King, Raymond Bowers, and Gorden Kaye, who all make guest appearances.

The giant techno chicken is hilarious.