The Crazy Gang were a British Institution,but then again so was hanging and the cat o' nine tails at about the same time,and quite frankly they'll none of them be missed as those other British Institutions Messrs Gilbert and Sullivan once said. Between the wars in a long - lost London of thick fogs,trams and coaster - mongers,The Crazy Gang ,by dint of assiduous forelock tugging, became favourites of the Royal Family,a crazy gang in their own right, and - by extension extremely popular with chirpy cockneys who flocked to see their shows often conveniently based in Victoria - handy for a pint of Watneys with George and Liz back at Buck House no doubt. Flanagan and Allen,Naughton and Gold (immortalised at least in rhyming slang),Nervo and Knox,later the supremely unfunny Monsewer Eddie Gray, were very much sacred cows - based as much as anything on their perceived status as Court Clowns - right up until the end of their lives. Watching and listening to recordings of their act is a desperate business.Humour based on ethnicity,pathetic attempts at American style cross - talk,mindless shouting of "oy!",sniggering references to sex that make Max Miller seem wholesome,all this might have worked had it been funny,but it wasn't. Thus I didn't expect much even in 1959 from "Life's a Circus",and I wasn't disappointed.Even by The Gang's abysmal standards it is terrible. A nudging reference to Royalty here,a dirty old man's leer there,some clumsy clowning,surely they can't have needed the money that badly,didn't Bud Flanagan own some Betting shops? When people talk about the Golden Age of British Television I reckon I must have blinked and missed it.In much the same way much is made of the Golden Age of British Comedy,where the names of the Crazy Gang are writ large.Well,I'm here to tell you it just ain't so.
Review of Life Is a Circus
