Nostalgic moments…

… who knows this series called "Mission Top Secret"? Plot:

"2-year-old Jemma accidentally taps into a disused telecommunications satellite and finds she has audio-visual contact with other computers worldwide. With the help of electronics inventor, Sir Joshua Cranberry, she forms the Centauri Network, a worldwide crime fighting organisation of children who use their network to outwit a master villain, Neville Savage."

Opening credits of the first season:



These were the German credits; the French-dubbed version had a silly tune:



Season 2 credits:



I remembered this one more precisely than the first, especially that image of the villain, Neville Savage (Shane Briant) with the Crown on his head. I also remember his characteristic French voice, namely that of Bernard Tiphaine (who most famously dubbed Bender in Futurama or the Fox River State Penitentiary warden in Prison Break).

Extra fun

Ricky Gervais and his fellow comedians from Extras made a Christmas special episode. Guest stars include: Clive Owen, David Tennant, Lionel Blair, Lisa Scott-Lee, Hale and Pace, Gordon Ramsay, George Michael and Barry from EastEnders. (Source: Wikipedia.)



Apparently, this episode was designed to be the conclusion of the series, just like what they did with The Office.

Talking about George Michael, he also made an appearance in an extra Little Britain episode to raise money for Comic Relief:

Téléchat

Who remembers watching this?



These were the opening credits of the first series of Téléchat, a Belgian-French TV show meant for kids, created in the early 1980s by the late Roland Topor and Henry Xhonneux. The format was that of a pseudo TV news bulletin, with silly reports; absurd humour and nonsense are the main ingredients of this show. Here's an episode:



It also gave rise to a popular crappy series, Léguman:

(Beware, it's completely kitschy)



And advertisements with Pub-Pub:



And here are the end credits:



And for the second series, another presenter, GTI (Grégoire de la Tour d'Ivoire), was introduced:



I never liked the new opening credits… Anyway, if you know this series, please let me know.

And as would Grouchat say: Chalut, à demain si on veut bien !

PS. Notice that Philippe Dumat (most known for voicing over Obi-Wan Kenobi in Episodes IV, V and VI of Star Wars, but also Gargamel in the Smurfs cartoons) lent his voice to the phone and the iron, but also the "gluon du trou".

PPS. Today's Uncyclopedia featured article: the Have-nuke-istan. To give you an idea:

Have-nuke-istan, officially The People's Democratic Republic of Have-nuke-istan (Have-nuke-istanian: Have-nuke-istan), is a small, dirty country where the men are bald, the women are bearded, and the children are below average. Current intelligence suggests that Have-nuke-istan is not located in the United States of America, which means that the country is simultaneously below contempt and extremely dangerous/evil. Despite its name, there is no indication that Have-nuke-istan possesses any nuclear weapons; in fact, "Have-nuke-istan" is Have-nuke-istanian for "Up yours, Russia."

The article about Ghettoistan is not bad, too. Fragment:

Number of Non-Muslim Ghettoistanis beheaded since you began reading this article:

Loading database... 

Christmas Week: "Little Britain"

I know that the Little Britain series had a special two-parts episode made for Christmas, called Little Britain Abroad, with characters traveling to exotic places, such as the Belgian Ardennes (a couple spending their honeymoon in a caravan) or Spain or Disneyworld (Lou and Andy were to go there, but their plane crashed on a desert island…). Unfortunately, the censors of YouTube apparently didn't like the fact that people shared funny stuff, and the episode is now only available through several fragments. The good news is that my account hasn't been suspended (yet!) and I have a scene that has something to do with Christmas. Enjoy!



I look a pillock!

Christmas Week: "Muppet Christmas Carol"

Welcome to my second theme week, namely the Christmas Week!

I'll devote this week's articles to my favourite videos that have something to do with Christmas. Previously on this blog, I already showed you a tremendous parody of the Jingle Bells lyrics, song by the Joker (aka Mark Hamill) in Batman: the Animated Series…

Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh what fun it is to ride
in a one horse-open sleigh, hey!

Jingle bells, Batman smells
Robin laid an egg
The Batmobile lost a wheel
And the Joker got awayyyyyyyyy!
Crashing through the roof
On a one horse-open tree
Busting out I go
Laughing all the wayyyyyyyyyy! Haahahahahah!

Now it's time for me to talk about one of my top-three Christmas movies: The Muppet Christmas Carol, based on Charles Dickens's Christmas Carol. The film stars Michael Caine to perfectly perform the role of Ebenezer Scrooge. (By the way, in the French version, he's voiced-over by the talented Bernard Dhéran.) It features the Muppets (of course) playing different characters in Dickens's story, e.g. Kermit as Bob Cratchit, and Gonzo the Great to act as Dickens/the narrator — definitely an overt one in this case, as in the book. At the beginning of the movie, he introduces Ebenezer Scrooge…



I LOVE THAT SONG!

I also love this one, "It feels like Christmas".



As a bonus, you can also read a blog entry that I wrote on germ@namur featuring another song that refers to my new nickname… (Martin, you're gonna like it too!)

Catch 'Em If You Can

In today's Simpsons episode (braodcast on Club RTL) there was a remarkable spoof made on the opening credits of Steven Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can. Let's watch those first:



I find it highly original, and John Williams's music is — as always — tremendous.

Let's now watch the parody, just after I mention that Homer and Marge try to escape from Bart and Lisa because they'd like to be alone just one day.



In one word: wicked!

One, Two, Tree

Here's the introduction of the Christmas special episode (my personal favourite) of the brilliant Britcom Father Ted, with the late Dermot Morgan as Father Ted Crilly. This extract also features Ardal O'Hanlon as Father Dougal McGuire and Frank Kelly as Father Jack Hackett (the grumpy old man).

Father Jack: "A pair of fecking women's knickers!!!!"

Chessington

Why haven't shown you yet the most-seen of my videos on YouTube? Probably because I never thought of it. So there it is: it's a skecth from the second series of Little Britain, with David Walliams (here as Lou) and Matt Lucas (here as Andy).

In Herby, Andy Pipkin is enjoying is annual bath…

I thought you hated France! I thought you said the French could never been forgiven for surrendering to the German war machine, and collaborating with the occupier by setting up the Vichy Government...

If you have enjoyed this evening's programme, you might like to travel back in time half an hour and watch it again.

--> Brilliant quote! I wish I could do that sometimes!

Andy wanted to go to Chessington World of Adventure (if you didn't understand what Lou mumbles…).

And, believe it or not, the crew actually went to Paris to shoot that scene!!

"Chubby little looser, pathetic little fat man"

David Bowie makes fun of Andy Millman (Ricky Gervais) in an episode of the second season of Extras, a Britcom (or "shitcom", as they called it in one episode) I really enjoyed watching this summer:

Manny's great deeds

Remember I told you once about that wonderful series called Black Books, starring Bill Bailey? I found a really good fragment from season 1. In this one, Manny is stuck in the book shop…



And this one when he finds out he can play the piano…



I can play!!

Jerry Seinfeld is a genius!

The other day, while wandering about on YouTube, I came across this commercial featuring one of my favourite comedians ever: Jerry Seinfeld.



Jerry Seinfeld cleverly made two references to a film he's playing in, namely Bee Movie. What was that? I had to check it out, and I found the trailers (see below). Seinfeld voices the bee character of Barry B(ee). Benson. The film also stars Renée Zellweger, Matthew Broderick and John Goodman (whom we hadn't seen in a while, had we?), among many others.

The first two trailers are about the "creation" of the movie:

Trailer 1



Trailer 2



Waw! Steven Spielberg himself promoting a movie in an ad? (Of course, he owns the production company, Dreamworks.)

E.T. was made of brown Play-Doh and chicken wire.

--> A myth is destroyed!

Trailer 3 (telling a bit more about the plot)



Trailer 4



Sounds promising.

Black Books

Professor Vandelanotte posted today (at 11:38, but it's not a reference to George Lucas' 1138, I'm afraid) on germ@namur a blog entry about the return of Never Mind the Buzzcocks on BBC. The name of Bill Bailey was of course mentioned, for he is one of the guest presentors. In fact, I knew Bill Bailey already because he played the part of Manny in this tremendously brilliant series called Black Books (three seasons of six episodes were made between 2000-2004).

Basically, the action is set around three characters: Bernard Black (Dylan Moran), Manny Bianco (Bill Bailey) and Fran Katzenjammer (Tamsin Greig, whom we have also seen as Dr. Caroline Todd in Green Wing, another Britcom). All of them are completely crazy, but in their own way.

There's a YouTuber who actually put some episodes online. To give you a kind of Hors d'œuvre, here's the first episode of the first series (in three parts), called "Cooking the book".

Part 1

Part 2



Part 3



Note that Manny was given many nicknames throughout the whole series, e.g. Gandalf, Thor or Bigfoot, but my favourite was Gengis Khan.

I wish I had the DVDs so that I could watch all the episodes. But what am I saying? I don't have the time!!! I'm already looking forward to being on holiday in July…

Rescue Me: "He's playing for the other team!"

Here's another fragment from the third series. The probie, Mike, isn't really sure about his sexual orientation, but in the third series, he lives with a man who wants him to publicly announce that he's gay. That's why the boyfriend goes to the fire station where he works to reveal that Mike is gay and that he wants to go to another fire station, because he's fed up with being called "probie" and treated like a rookie. Unfortunately, the guy talks to Garrity, who is — need I tell you? — is the dumb one in the firefighters team. He'll do a mess of things, as usual.



Lou's reaction is awesome, Franco's too. The meeting afterwards mirrors the daily routine of the firefighters that are friends with the hero, Tommy. And I haven't told you about his family, yet. There's a lot to say about them, e.g. the father, an old impotent firefighter who hates his family…

Supergran Is Back

In a previous post, I told you about one of my favourite series ever: Supergran, about a granny struck by a ray which made her extremely powerful, allowing her to tackle crime in the fictional town of Chiselton, as we can see it in the opening credits.



Someone was brave enough to post the closing titles on YouTube, with the full version of the theme tune by the famous British singer Billy Connolly. Enjoy!

Stand back Superman, Iceman, Spiderman, Batman and Robin too,
Don't wanna cause a ruckus with B.A. Baracus have I got a match for you,
She makes them look like a bunch of fairies, she's got more bottle than United Dairies,
Hang about, look out for Supergran.

You can stick your heroes, your Robert De Niroes, your Al Pacinoes too,
Lex Galone [Comment: no trace of him on the Internet; that must be a joke] is just another phoney, she couldn't lace her shoes,
After her they're all big girls' blouses, got more front than a row of houses,
Hang about, look out for Supergran.

She's a serious granny, a serious granny,
She'll do the things that you never saw your granny do…

(Scunner Campbell):
Is there nothing that she cannot do?

Hang about, look out for Supergran.

Dream On Credits

Finally! Dream On is about to be released in DVD! I will at last be able to watch the first episodes!!! Three years ago, they were broadcast by BeTV, and I saw them all, except for the first half of the first series. I'm going to look for other videos, but meanwhile, just watch these lovely credits…



It explains why Martin Tupper (Brian Benben), while plunged into a given situation, suddenly remember bits of old black-and-white movies and series that he saw…

Dream On was aired from 1990 to 1996. 120 episodes were made.

The Soup Nazi!!!

Seinfeld is definitely my favourite series. I discovered it three years ago, when they broadcasted the episodes from the very beginning, up to the ninth season…

The best episode ever is this one, with the Soup Nazi. I found it on YouTube, and I want to share it with those among you who haven't seen it yet. Unfortunately, the size of it is smaller, but just extend the frame.



A morphological note: Mr Vandelanotte, one of our professors at Namur University, told us that other phrases including "nazi" occur, as "brand nazi", which is said of someone who has to buy clothes from Nike or Adidas, etc.

Supergran: My First English Series

Stand back Superman, Iceman, Spiderman, Batman and Robin too,
Don't wanna cause a ruckus with B A Barracus have I got a match for you,
She makes them look like a bunch of fairies, got more bottle than united dairies,
Hang about, look out for supergran.



In a miraculous way, I still own one episode of that series, and I occasionally watch it! Great memories! I watched it when I was 3 or so—of course in French version, but the opening titles were in English, and I had never understood them until now.

Here are the lyrics of the whole song—which was in the Top50 in 1984…:

Super Gran

Stand back Superman, Iceman, Spiderman, Batman Robin too,
Don't wanna cause a ruckus with B A Barracus have I got a match for you,
She makes them look like a bunch of fairies, got more bottle than united dairies,
Hang about, look out for supergran.

You can stick your heroes, your Robert De Niro's, Al Pacino too,
Lex Galone's just another phoney, couldn't lace her shoes,
After her they're all big girls' blouses, got more front than a row of houses,
Hang about, look out for Supergran.
Sup-Sup Supergran,
She's a serious granny,
Sup-sup Supergran,
a serious granny, she'll do the things that you never saw your granny do ...
is there nothing that she cannot do?

On your bike Wonderwoman, lets just say you had it coming, this one is for real,
Charlies angels pack it in before it gets embarrasing, this lady's solid steel,
She comes on strong like a Bengal lancer, she makes you all look like a bunch of chancers,
Hang about, look out for Supergran.
Sup-sup Supergran,
Hang about, look out for Supergran.
Sup-sup Supergran,
Sup-sup Supergran,
Sup-sup Supergran, To end.