Black Mark, Edwards
T has been said that a radio comedian is only as good as his gag-writer allows him to be. It is likewise demonstrable that when radio comics step out of their familiar roles or medium they are often lamentably unfunny. How poor have been the films made by Frankie Howerd, Fred Allen, Tommy Handley and others. The Goons have made one movie which I am told is awful-and I readily believe it. And even on the radio, a comedian who has identified himself with a particular character or show must beware of stepping out of the familiar circle. All this by way or response to Jimmy Edwards’s Desert Discs session (1YA). The dull collection of records could be excused on the grounds of time-limit. However, in the chit-chat and dialogue exchanges, Mr, Edwards, without benefit of Messrs. Norden and Muir, seemed a mere’ shadow of his TIFH self, laboriously jocular, straihing for a laugh as eagerly as any tyro, and even, at times, pompous. The comic rumbles and humphings, appropriate enough in TIFH, had a contrived sound here, and the chirpy interlocuter, playing straight man, was a poor substitute for Bentley. Perhaps with anyone else but Edwards this might have amused, but then the whole point of the session, I take it, was his presence. In all, a "glum" affair.
J.C.
R.
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 901, 9 November 1956, Page 19
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225Black Mark, Edwards New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 901, 9 November 1956, Page 19
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