From Rags to Gags by Vince Powell

Author:Vince Powell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Comedy, sitcom, biography, autopbiography, Coronation, George, Dragon, Narest, Dearest, Bless This House, Love Thy Neighbour, Surprise, Blind Date, Cilla Black, Mind Your Language
ISBN: 9781907792380
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited
Published: 2010-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine: HAPPY DAYS

One morning, after spending another couple of fruitless and unproductive hours thinking of nothing, we decided to have a change of scene and go to our local pub for a drink and a ploughman's. When we arrived there was a little party going on. It appeared that one of their customers, who worked as a car mechanic at a nearby garage was leaving his job and that this was his leaving party. Harry and I knew him as we both had our cars serviced at the garage for whom he worked. We joined his party to wish him well.

'I hear you're leaving the garage Ted'. I said.

'Yes' he replied, 'can't wait to get away.'

'Come up on the pools have you Ted?' said Harry.

Ted grinned. 'Chance would be a fine thing. No. I just got fed up of working indoors, and coming home every night covered in oil and dirt. From next week, I shall be my own boss working outside in the fresh air.'

'Doing what?'

'I've bought a little smallholding in Sussex. Only fifty acres with a couple of hundred poultry, a few geese, half a dozen pigs and two goats. I might not make a fortune, but I'll have a much better lifestyle.

Harry and I suddenly reacted simultaneously each struck by the same thought. The telepathy was working again. There was the idea that we had been searching for. We sat down, borrowed a couple of napkins from the landlord to make notes on and by the time we'd finished our ploughman's, we had the basis of an idea.

We saw Sid and a colleague, fed up with the daily monotony of working in an accounts office, suddenly rebelling, handing in their notice and buying a small farm. The comic possibilities of two men who didn't even know how to milk a cow trying to cope with all the problems of running a farm seemed to be ideal for Sid. We gave it the title of 'TWO IN CLOVER' with the farm called Clover Farm. We talked it over with Sid, who loved the basic premise, as did Philip at Thames. The only cloud on the horizon was who do we cast to play Sid's mate in the series. Thames casting director, Iris Fredericks suggested a brilliant Welsh actor called Victor Spinetti yes I know he doesn't sound Welsh, but he was born in Cwm, Wales, of an Italian father and Welsh mother. Victor was a highly successful actor, writer and director who first found fame with Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop, with which he did 'OH WHAT A LOVELY WAR', and then later directed The Beatles movies. Sid was very enthusiastic about working with Victor and Philip contacted Victor's agent but he told us that Victor was in Paris doing a movie. To my surprise, Philip arranged for me to fly to Paris, meet Victor at his hotel, tell him about the proposed series and hopefully get his approval to star in it. Fortunately Victor was a great admirer of Sid James and agreed like a shot.

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