If two of the "Third men" should ever have met?

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imitation700mb

Dedicated Member
Do correct me if I'm wrong here, but I believe that sometime in the late 1980s or early 1990s a script was written involving Seymour AND Foggy, although it was abandoned as Michael Aldridge died in 1994 before the idea went any further. There have been episodes featuring two of the "third men" (Return of the Warrior & There Goes the Groom) although they never actually spoke to each other. What do you imagine would happen if two of the third men should ever meet in normal circumstances? Do you think it should have happened? Any ideas.....?
 
RichardFromMarple said:
Supposedly the BBC kept Foggy's costume handy in case Brian Wilde wanted to appear again, even just for one episode after Truly had been established as the third man.
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I think they wanted Foggy to return for Compo's funeral episode, but Brian refused. I always wonder what influence his son Andrew had as he was a regular part of the production cast?
 
Technically Truly and Foggy appeared in an episode together There Goes the Groom in fact Truly helped carry Foggy out of the pub and put him on Wesley's Landrover. Although Foggy was slaughtered he would of been sober at some point and they must have talked to each other at some point in the pub. Exhibit A attached M'Laud.

foggy.jpg
 
Let's see now...

Blamire and Foggy were old chums but can see our Cyril deciding to lambast poor Foggy and having him subservient in order to maintain his pretence of being such a war hero. Mr Dewhurst would in turn be constantly trying to finding a way to get rid of him but couldn't overplay his hand for risk of this exposure.

Blamire and Seymour wouldn't gel at all and would actively avoid each other unless Cyril was particularly drunk and we got the less than rounded singing tones once again of Mr Blamire.

Truly would put up with Blamire as long as he bought a round and be inclined to play tricks on him now and then.

Foggy too would gradually learn to utter Utterthwaite with the same curious mixture of curious sympathetic incredulity as Compo and Clegg. He would be happy to see his men under command but not have the burdens of before. He would probably still be heavily involved on the organisational front and dupe our retired headmaster into it's occasional execution.

Finally Herbert Truelove and Foggy would have been pretty casual with both enjoying the attempt to out boast one other with only a well timed Cleggism to puncture their bubbles.
 
imitation700mb said:
Do correct me if I'm wrong here, but I believe that sometime in the late 1980s or early 1990s a script was written involving Seymour AND Foggy, although it was abandoned as Michael Aldridge died in 1994 before the idea went any further. There have been episodes featuring two of the "third men" (Return of the Warrior & There Goes the Groom) although they never actually spoke to each other. What do you imagine would happen if two of the third men should ever meet in normal circumstances? Do you think it should have happened? Any ideas.....?
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Crums was the episode that was going to have Brian Wilde in it - with Foggy and Seymour both trying to take command.

I think it was decided it wasn't a good idea - but I think it would have been interesting as a one off.

In The Man from Oswestry it is revealed Blamire and Foggy had met up and had a long but thoroughly depressing chat.

And Foggy and Truly would have chatted at the stag party in There Goes the Groom before Compo and Clegg arrived.
 
Well, if an episode ever did feature two "third men", I think it would have caused quite a stir among the viewing public, with some loving it and some hating it. A "Marmite" episode, perhaps.
 
wstol said:
Crums was the episode that was going to have Brian Wilde in it - with Foggy and Seymour both trying to take command.

I think it was decided it wasn't a good idea - but I think it would have been interesting as a one off.
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Bell said in his book that the script wasn't very good, a rarity for Clarke. Wilde and he discussed it and decided to let it be re-done without Foggy, a plan that I think paid off as its one of my favorite holiday specials. I assume that Foggy would have been in the place Howard takes, which would have made Auntie Foggy's relative. That would have been interesting in the long-term, though. Bell notes that having Foggy and Seymour together didn't really work, and I think that if you look at the later era where Billy, Alvin, Truly, and Clegg tried to co-exist, you can see some issues when Alvin and Billy are together in scenes. The "third man", even though they weren't identical characters, overlapped enough that trying to make them interact requires special care.
 
I think Alvin and Billy were both more like Compo replacements. Truly remarks at one point that they're a kind of matching pair.
 
Sarkus said:
Bell said in his book that the script wasn't very good, a rarity for Clarke. Wilde and he discussed it and decided to let it be re-done without Foggy, a plan that I think paid off as its one of my favorite holiday specials. I assume that Foggy would have been in the place Howard takes, which would have made Auntie Foggy's relative. That would have been interesting in the long-term, though. Bell notes that having Foggy and Seymour together didn't really work, and I think that if you look at the later era where Billy, Alvin, Truly, and Clegg tried to co-exist, you can see some issues when Alvin and Billy are together in scenes. The "third man", even though they weren't identical characters, overlapped enough that trying to make them interact requires special care.
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When you put it like that, perhaps it wouldn't have been a good idea.

Viewers was just starting to accept Aldridge, and bringing Wilde back for a one off would have been unsettling.

There could have been a demand from viewers for more Wilde, and that wouldn't have been fair on Aldridge.

It was far better that Aldridge left, very regretfully, on his own accord; and that Wilde was brought back only then as a natural replacement.
 
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