Lisa Maxwell was one of Russ Abbott's 'regulars' on his hugely successful sketch show which ran until about '91 or '92. At that time, the show's popularity could just have easily resulted in 'The Bella Emberg' show, so I'm surprised it sank without trace.
The sketches were by and large quite subversive and far more to do with the 'Comic Strip' and general BBC2 type of comedy revues, which seemed to have died a death by 92 or so in favour of anodyne, PC crap which only succeeded in being far more offensive by virtue of obviousness and vulgarity for being supposedly 'frank' about matters like sex in an 8.30pm time slot.
My most well-remembered sketches involved the obnoxious bespectacled, buck-toothed BBC public forum panelist: upper-middle-class audience member "Why has the BBC discontinued Howard's Way?" - reply "Because it's crap!"; and also Ethel from Eastenders (Gretchen Franklin) confronting a librarian - "I asked for something with no sex, no swearing, no drugs and no violence, and you gave me this"... "Yes, and?"... "It's bloody boring!".
The trouble with this show is that it was far too 'BBC2' for 'BBC1', and subsequently didn't attract many viewers. Lisa Maxwell paid the price of her comic originality and inventiveness because of her association with Russ Abbot's more accessible 'popular' style of mainstream comedy - a shame.
The sketches were by and large quite subversive and far more to do with the 'Comic Strip' and general BBC2 type of comedy revues, which seemed to have died a death by 92 or so in favour of anodyne, PC crap which only succeeded in being far more offensive by virtue of obviousness and vulgarity for being supposedly 'frank' about matters like sex in an 8.30pm time slot.
My most well-remembered sketches involved the obnoxious bespectacled, buck-toothed BBC public forum panelist: upper-middle-class audience member "Why has the BBC discontinued Howard's Way?" - reply "Because it's crap!"; and also Ethel from Eastenders (Gretchen Franklin) confronting a librarian - "I asked for something with no sex, no swearing, no drugs and no violence, and you gave me this"... "Yes, and?"... "It's bloody boring!".
The trouble with this show is that it was far too 'BBC2' for 'BBC1', and subsequently didn't attract many viewers. Lisa Maxwell paid the price of her comic originality and inventiveness because of her association with Russ Abbot's more accessible 'popular' style of mainstream comedy - a shame.
