Hale and Pace

There are some excellent and detailed reviews about this show here which I support. No need to re-write them.

'Hale and Pace'... what would the snowflakes of today make of these two saucy fellows? In the first episode they microwave a cat - later they played tennis with frogs... so probably this wouldn't even be made today!

'Hale and Pace' was tasteless, schoolboy humour for the rest of us... the 'us' being those that did NOT go to Oxford or Cambridge and the 'Footlights Review' for the high brow, pretentious humour which was fashionable at that time.

Part of the longevity of the series (ten years) is that the two men were simply regular, amiable and 'bloke next door' types. They worked very well together although they didn't have the polish of Morcambe & Wise or even (A little bit of) Fry & Laurie.

As time passed, the sketch routines became stale and they seemed to wear out their welcome in a changing world of British 'light entertainment'. But despite that, there are a lot of great skits and sketches that are still brilliant today.

Incredibly, every episode is available to watch for free on YouTube. Who knows how long that will last, so you might want to head on over there and see for yourself what schoolboys used to find funny (and some old folk - ahem!) still find funny, in a changing and increasingly sensitive and joyless world.

Great telly from two wonderfully funny men.