Lenny - Compo mark II?

[mashibinbin]

In many ways Lenny's charcter played by Bobby Ball could have been the Compo replacement that was long missing and whose void was never sucessfully filled completely. He had the stature, clashes with authority figures and all round stupidity to carry it off. Having his wife appear (the second Florrie aka not the former Mrs Truelove that could have been) probably put paid that tho.

 

[wstol]

You make a good point, Bobby Ball was almost 'tried out' as a Compo replacement, exactly like Keith Clifford, Tom Owen and Brian Murphy were.

However, I think Bill Owen was too established in the show to be directly replaced, yet it didn't stop Alvin moving in below Nora and acting in a similar way to Compo.

I think Tom was a reasonable replacement - after all the son often becomes the dad, and would move into his old home, and the over affection from Nora was good because it was the opposite to before - meaning fresh new ideas and comedy. Not many liked Tom in this capacity though, it seems.

Keith Clifford was good because he and his character never copied Bill Owen's Compo.

I don't think Bobby Ball would have made a good long term Compo replacement, too young, too different, and yet too similar, in a strange way. I myself dreaded him becoming a regular, which happened a lot with new characters in the latter half of the show. Lot of people liked his performance though.

 

[RickAns]

That could have worked. Not thought of Lenny as part of the main crew before. I do like him more than Hobbo. He was a hoot in The Swan Man of Ilkley. I could see him going on more adventures with Barry, Entwhistle, Alvin and others. If Billy was able to get away from the wife for a bit so could Lenny. After all, she must not have minded too much of him floating downstream on an inflatable swan for a bit.

 

[captain clutterbuck]

I think Bobby Ball would have played out exactly as Russ Abbot did [both with the assistance of Roy Clarke] and you would have increasingly seen his stage persona play out as the episodes progressed do you really want to hear " Rock on Cleggy" as a show catchphrase , I don't think so.