Four short absurdist comedies from the celebrated playwright N. F. Simpson.
This collection of four short plays is framed by the recurring characters Middie Paradock (Pauline Devaney) and Bro Paradock (Edwin Apps). Each installment presents a self-contained, surreal scenario. We’re Due In Eastbourne In Ten Minutes finds a group, including characters played by Avis Bunnage and Geoffrey Hibbert, struggling with an impending journey amidst bizarre interruptions. In A Punt With Friends Under A Haystack On The River Mersey relocates the absurdity to the English countryside, with a cast featuring John Barrie and William Gaunt. A Row Of Potted Plants focuses on domestic life turned upside down, while At Least It’s A Precaution Against Fire finds comedy in illogical safety measures.
Following the success of Three Rousing Tinkles, this quartet of short plays confirmed N. F. Simpson’s status as television’s resident master of the absurd. Each of the four ‘tinkles’ is a precise exercise in surrealist comedy, built not on jokes but on the relentless, logical extension of an illogical premise. Simpson’s scripts dismantle everyday language and situations, finding humour in non-sequiturs and the polite desperation of characters trapped in a nonsensical reality. The productions, directed by Stuart Allen, relied on a company of distinguished character actors to ground the absurdity in recognisably English anxieties. Stanley Myers’ music provided a suitably whimsical counterpoint to the escalating madness.
Broadcast: BBC Two, 4 Episodes, 2 January – 23 January 1967
Written by: N. F. Simpson
Producer: Stuart Allen
Director: Stuart Allen
Designer: Roger Cheveley
Music: Stanley Myers
Main Cast: Pauline Devaney (Middie Paradock), Edwin Apps (Bro Paradock)
Guest Cast included: Avis Bunnage, Geoffrey Hibbert, John Ringham, Blake Butler, Brian Hewitt-Jones, John Barrie, William Gaunt, Terence Brady, Gwendolyn Watts, Michael Robbins
