The Mermaid Frolics

The second pre-Secret Policeman's Ball is less of a proposition than the original and definitely feels like a bit of an unstructured afterthought. The majority of the running time seems to sit with the singer Julie Covington doing schmaltzy crooning and folk fluff with Pete Atkin and a gang of cheery musicians. Which is a bit of a dubious start to music's crucial role within the later Secret Policeman's canon. With the exception of the Fawlty-esque Book shop sketch (here performed by Connie Booth herself with Cleese) it's a bit of an empty show comedywise and most sketches feel semi improvised and a bit throwaway. A shame but thankfully the worthy charity franchise survived this bump in the road.