Gina’s Laughing Gear
Louise Gold featured as HM The Queen and Simon
Cowell’s Mother, in Series 1, Episode 2 ‘Spoof’; recorded
20 November 2006, first broadcast at 17:00 to 17:30 on BBC 1, on Friday 19 January 2007
Cast
Gina Yashere – as The Host
James Hurn
Jessica Robinson
Geoffrey Norcott
Francine Lewis
Howard Gossington – as Ron Weasley, and, Prince William
Zoe Gardner
Louise Gold – as The Queen, and Simon Cowell’s Mother
Chris Pavlo
Additional Cast – Claire Bailey, Dylan Bailey, Eleanor Mcready, Bernard Mensah, Cordell Roper, and. Eros Vlahos
Uncredited
Ray Donn – as Simon
Cowell’s Father
Production Team
Writers – The writers for this episode was the team
behind ‘Dead Ringers’ (Carl
Carter, Lucy Clarke, Tony Cooke, Julian Dutton, Nev Fountain,
Alan Gilbey, Jack
Jameson, Tom Jamieson, George Poles, John Sayle, Ben Ward,
and, Arnold Widdowson)
Director – James Garbett
Producer – Caroline Norris (also producer of
‘Dead Ringers’)
The TV listings describe the cast for this episode as “brightest new impressionists” It should
perhaps be noted that some of them aren’t so “new” at least one of them has actually
been around on television as an impressionist for over twenty years!
James Hurn acted on an
episode of Dead Ringers in 2006
Howard
Gossington has appeared in News Revue at The Canal Cafe
According to her official site Francine Lewis has appeared in many TV shows, and she was described
by one tabloid newspaper as “The best
female impressionist in the country”
Zoe Gardner’s performance
in a show called ‘Congress Of Oddities’ seems to be much noted on the web
Chris Pavlo actually has
an entry in the BBC Comedy Guide
While Louise
Gold is of course a veteran of Spitting Image,
and Laugh....??? I Nearly Paid
My License Fee.
Caroline Norris had previously
produced The Wonderful World Of
Puppets, on which performer Louise Gold had appeared in her puppeteer’s
guise.
Meanwhile Ray
Donn has extensive film and television credits, mostly as a Supporting
Artiste (in which capacity he has worked on the same film sets as several major
British animatronics people, particularly on Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy).
He also has a long history of charity work, particularly for the Entertainment Artistes Benevolent Fund,
in which the Royal Variety Performance
is always given in aid of. (One might note that Louise Gold has performed on at
least two RVP’s, in 1977
and 1982).
The whole series has a running gag about ‘Gina’
hacking a CBBC transmission in a
desperate attempt to become a CBBC
presenter. Each individual episode was self contained, with its own cast.
Interestingly, Gina
Yashere and Louise Gold are both
left-handed.
Blue Peter, BlackAdder, Joint Account,
Allo Allo, The
House Of Eliott, Casualty, and, Doctors were all first screened on BBC 1.
Review
by Emma Shane, 30
March 2007 (amended 2 April 2007)
One
of the great things about Louise Gold is
her tendency to take an audience by surprise. One never knows what job she will
pop up in next. I only caught this programme by chance, so I am not entirely
certain I caught all of Louise’s appearance on it. This particular episode of
the children’s programme Gina’s Laughing Gear was about
spoofs, and basically consists of spoof of quite a variety of films and
programmes, some children’s ones such as Charlie And The Chocolate Factory
(done as Charlie And The Cheese Factory), and Harry Potter, not to
mention as dash of Mary Poppins. While others are more grown up, for example the
news, Little Brittain, and Big Brother, amongst others. Indeed
for a children’s programmes (even one at five o’clock) some of it I thought a
little shocking.
Louise Gold appeared in at least three sketches
(Well I just about spotted her in three – but I only caught it by chance and
missed the beginning). Towards the end Louise popped up in a sketch spoofing Simon Cowell (a judge on Pop
Idol and X Factor etc). In it she played his mother. She has baked a
cake and brought it into the room (where some kind of party is going on), the
guy tells her she’ll never win the contest by baking cakes. For some
inexplicable reason he wants his mother to sing, he says to her something along
the lines of “You do want to sing ---
dressed in nothing but a thong.” To which she replies, very deadpan “No I do not want to sing – dressed in a
thong”. Whereupon the guy pushes her face into the cake. The things
actresses’s have to do to earn their living! The sketch was pretty dreadful
(but that’s probably more a reflection on the kinds of programmes it was
parodying than the sketch itself), although it has to be said Louise acted it
well, and made as much as she could of her lines, bringing to them anything she
could from her considerable comedy experience. She did this part with an accent
similar to the one she used when appearing in Doctors, and, The
Bill. Her hairstyle was quite straight and sweptback, I could not tell
if it was her own hair cleverly styled or a wig, though the colour (“that
peculiar shade of red” - to quote David Garnett’s Lady Into Fox) would
suggest it might be her own. Even with the strange hairstyle, and glasses,
there was still something in her facial expressions, and her voice to make one
realise it was her (well if you know her work). And then of course there is her
almost unique acting style. (“Almost unique” because it is very similar to a
certain Unity Theatre actress). She has such a special stage presence
that she practically acted the rest of the cast (including the actor playing Simon Cowell) off the screen.
The
highlight of the entire episode was a spoof on Big Brother, done as ‘Royal
Big Brother’. The actors played various members of the Royal Family,
and for this they were of course dressed up to resemble the relevant royals,
such as Prince William (played by Howard Gossington), Prince Charles, and possibly Prince Philip (only catching part of it
I’m not quite sure), and of course The
Queen. It was here that the queen of Spitting Image puppeteers came into
her own; and presumably it’s why they hired her. Louise Gold may very well be one of the first impressionists ever
to have done a voice for ‘Queen
Elizabeth II’ on television, but hitherto seems to have always done it (and
to this day still does) with her clever left arm up the back of a puppet. This
time, by way of a change, she is doing it as an actress. However, Louise’s
portrayal of The Queen as an
actress, is actually strikingly similar to Spitting Image’s wonderful take on The Queen, and therefore Louise’s own
characterisation as a puppeteer (and of course the voice it exactly the same), it’s a wonder piece
of back-translation on Louise’s part, putting her performance from her left
hand back into the rest of her body. But it is more than just a parody. For
Louise has done as an actress just what she always does best with her puppets,
she has put a bit of herself into it. The way she moves, the way she looks at
the camera, a sly glance her or there, and her facial expressions (especially
with her mouth), and her overall body language, have a distinctive element of
Louise herself in them; making one know, just know, from watching her, that
it’s that magnificent British actress-puppeteer Louise Gold. Even though she was wearing a grey wig, and glasses,
one still knew it was her.
The
Big
Brother spoof was done as at least two sketches (possibly more – I’m
not totally certain, having caught this a little late). The final scene of this
particular spoof has The Queen, Prince Charles, and one other prince standing
around. A Voice Over tells them not to start any bird impressions, which
immediately prompts one of the princes, possibly Charles, to do so. Then the
Voice Over tells them it’s time to end Royal Big Brother. When one of the
princes remarks “I thought this had
another two weeks to run”, The Queen replies “I had it end early. There are advantages to being The Queen, you know”.
Oh how delightfully Louise delivered that line; in exactly the same wonderful
way she would have done on Spitting Image, some twenty years
ago. The Voice Over then announces the winners. Charles is in third place (and
is supposed to go and be executed), and the winner is The Queen. At this she
gives a wonderful squeal of joy that is both Louise’s Spitting Image portrayal
of The Queen; mixed in with a dash of the way Louise’s own (well according to
her cabaret act) reaction to Sondheim’s note in MWRA. In fact that sketch really did bear a marked similarity to Spitting
Image. Had Big Brother been around back then surely it is exactly the kind
of thing they would have done. Just compare this to the early Royal Family
sketches from the first series of Spitting Image – it would fit.
Overall
I wasn’t too keen on this programme. I thought some sketches (particularly the Harry
Potter, and Charlie And The Chocolate Factory parodies) quite painful,
painfully unfunny. However, we all have our taste in humour; and I’ve not doubt
it’s target audience probably enjoyed it. Although there is clearly a lot of
acting talent in it. The actors actually did a fine job; with the notable
exception of Royal Big Brother, I wasn’t too enamoured of the writing, but
then comedy is hard to write; and new comedy can take some getting used to.
However (oh I would say this, wouldn’t I) this episode it is worth watching for
the acting, in particular Louise Gold’s
performance. As an actress, one of Louise
Gold’s sterling qualities is her upbeat nature and ability to make the best
of any role she is performing. She is a true professional trouper. It was
something that certainly came into play with that talent entry sketch. However,
her tour de force is in the Royal Big Brother sketches. And it
is good to see this legendary British puppeteer given an opportunity to
demonstrate on television that she is as splendid a comedy actress as she is a
puppeteer.
Critics Comments
.
Links about Gina’s
Laughing Gear
BBC
Programme Guide page for the episode: http://open.bbc.co.uk/catalogue/infax/programme/LCQE879W
TVGuide.co.uk’s page for the
episode: http://www.tvguide.co.uk/tvlistings/details.asp?id=6604467
BBC Page for the programme (as a whole): http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/specials/comedy.shtml
Digiguide’s page for the episode: http://library.digiguide.com/lib/episode/Spoof!-575237
Wikipedia entry for the programme: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gina's_Laughing_Gear
TV.igoe’s page for the programme:
http://tv.igoe.me.uk/info/3347012-Gina's_Laughing_Gear.html/
Mighty Programme’s page for the episode: http://www.mightyv.com/program_info/261492/36052
Gina Yashere’s Official Site: http://www.ginayashere.co.uk/
Mindthegap.tv’s page for the episode: http://www.mindthezap.tv/programs/935727.html
Francine Lewis’s official website: http://www.francinelewis.com/
Francine Lewis’s entry on her agent,
Mirth Control,’s website: http://www.mirthcontrol.org.uk/artist-francine-lewis.htm
Howard Gossington’s entry on his agent’s
website: http://www.burnettgrangerassociates.co.uk/actors/howard-gossington/
Zoe Gardner’s entry on her agent’s website: http://www.noelgay.com/html/artist_voiceover.php?id=32
Chris Pavlo’s entry in the BBC Comedy Guide:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/talent/p/pavlo_chris.shtml
Gina Yashere’s entry in the BBC Comedy Guide:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/talent/y/yashere_gina.shtml
Ray Donn’s Movie And TV Clips: http://www.btinternet.com/~eabf/movieclips.htm
Ray Donn’s own Website (useful for its
information about the work of Supporting Artistes): http://www.donn.co.uk/
