Massive Brain Block Over Joe Gladwin!

Stephen

Stephen

Guest
Sorry to my fellow Summerwiners, but I have just been watching Getting Sam Home and it has just occurred to me that Joe Gladwin's involvement in this story was minimal. Does anyone know what the reason for this was? Was he contracted for something else?

I know some of you will be reading this thinking, "God! How does he not know that?!" but my mind has gone blank. It's an age thing. Could be a drink thing too. Lol

Anyway, feel free to have a good laugh...and tell me the reason. :)
 
There is always the possibility that the character just wasn't needed for the story. Perhaps Roy Clarke had plotted out that general storyline before LOTSW came along and when he sat down and plugged in our other regular cast members there simply wasn't a spot for the character. I often get the impression, especially in later seasons, that Clarke was experimenting with scenarios we would later see in his other shows, so I think it is likely.
There is also that Joe Gladwin may have had another obligation, like you suggest, either contractual or personal.
There is also the possibility that his health prevented him from participating more fully. We know that "Sid" was very ill at this time, needing to be voiced over.
Of course, this is all conjecture, I really have no idea.
 
The main reason is probably because Nora and Wally are not in the original novel which this episode is based on.

I THINK the only mention of the Battys is something like 'Five halves of bitter later they left having learned... the rudiments of the Wally Batty formula for bringing a sheen to the feathers of a pigeon'.

Obviously at this stage in the series it was expected that definitely Nora and preferably Wally as well should appear in the episodes, so they were written in despite having little to do.

From memory I think all we see of Joe Gladwin in the episode is him at the very beginning, and again returning home drunk.
 
wstol said:
The main reason is probably because Nora and Wally are not in the original novel which this episode is based on.

I THINK the only mention of the Battys is something like 'Five halves of bitter later they left having learned... the rudiments of the Wally Batty formula for bringing a sheen to the feathers of a pigeon'.

Obviously at this stage in the series it was expected that definitely Nora and preferably Wally as well should appear in the episodes, so they were written in despite having little to do.

From memory I think all we see of Joe Gladwin in the episode is him at the very beginning, and again returning home drunk.
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That's a very good point, wstol. Although, it does beg the question why they weren't in the novel more.

Then again, I suppose it isn't really necessary to use all the characters to their fullest extent all the time. I mean it is amazing that Getting Sam Home is so well written, and looks so good on the screen, that we don't actually miss one of the greatest characters in the show's history. :)
 
Stephen said:
That's a very good point, wstol. Although, it does beg the question why they weren't in the novel more.

Then again, I suppose it isn't really necessary to use all the characters to their fullest extent all the time. I mean it is amazing that Getting Sam Home is so well written, and looks so good on the screen, that we don't actually miss one of the greatest characters in the show's history. :)
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They probably weren't in the novel because when the novel was published only the pilot and Series One had been shown, consisting of only two appearances of Nora Batty and none from Wally Batty.
 
wstol said:
They probably weren't in the novel because when the novel was published only the pilot and Series One had been shown, consisting of only two appearances of Nora Batty and none from Wally Batty.
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Its easy to forget that Nora wasn't supposed to be a main character when the show was created, so as you say the pilot and first series just have her as an incidental character. Andrew Vine's book says Nora only appeared in the first series because BBC test audiences for the pilot indicated people liked the interaction between Nora and Compo. So, she was added in by Roy Clarke in a few times to see how she would do with a more expanded role. That went over well so she became a regular.

And, of course, the novel has Blamire instead of Foggy. Plus, Bill Owen is who pushed the BBC to do "Getting Sam Home" as a TV movie. They didn't want to do it at first.
 
Sarkus said:
Its easy to forget that Nora wasn't supposed to be a main character when the show was created, so as you say the pilot and first series just have her as an incidental character. Andrew Vine's book says Nora only appeared in the first series because BBC test audiences for the pilot indicated people liked the interaction between Nora and Compo. So, she was added in by Roy Clarke in a few times to see how she would do with a more expanded role. That went over well so she became a regular.

And, of course, the novel has Blamire instead of Foggy. Plus, Bill Owen is who pushed the BBC to do "Getting Sam Home" as a TV movie. They didn't want to do it at first.
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Yes, I believe this was the first BBC 'film', which led to feature length film versions of Only Fools and Horses, and Just Good Friends.

The thing about the episode Getting Sam Home is that in 1983, 8 years after Blamire left, we get to hear some more lines written for him, although this time uttered by Foggy.
 
He did indeed but cut me some comic slack there Rick :) . It reminds me of an old episode of Steptoe and Son where Harold is writing an article about rag n boning through the years for the Parish Magazine and Albert relays a sad story about his dad giving him a Pigeon as a pet but in hard times he was forced to sell it in the market . The pay off line is " I sold that pigeon 475 times before I was rumbled that it was a racing pigeon"
 
Was more asking the question, captain, not trying to throw shade your way :) .

I am thinking your reference to Steptoe and Son that Albert would resell the pigeon because it would come back to him after he just sold it to someone else. Then he would sell it on again to another.

Which has me wondering. How does one get their new homing pigeon to know that the pigeon's new place is it's new home and that it should not automatically fly back to it's old home? o_O
 
A racing pigeon IS a homing pigeon, although a homing pigeon is not necessarily a racing pigeon.
Racing pigeons come home as soon as possible; homing pigeons just come home. So, the punch line to the joke being "racing pigeon" makes sense, since the bird came home as soon as possible, he was able to trick the maximum amount of people before he was caught.
I don't think you can retrain pigeons to a new loft very easily, I believe what is sold is the squabs of proven winning parent birds because they imprint on their home loft very early. If you obtain a bird for breeding purposes, you would probably have to keep it contained or it would try to go home.

I had three pigeons as a teenager. They were just wild rock doves, one had been hit by a car, one attacked by a cat and the other shot with a bb gun. All recovered and were eventually released back into the wild.

We didn't have Steptoe and Son over here, we had Sanford and Son which I watched as a child, and I believe it was based on the British show. Has anyone seen both? Were they similar at all?
 
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Well it depends on what you call similar. There is a father and his adult son. They are poor and ethnic. The comedy comes from that -- having to deal with being poor and ethnic. Sanford and Son stars Redd Foxx, who was a popular black comedian. One of the inside jokes is that his real last name was actually Sanford.
 
wstol said:
They probably weren't in the novel because when the novel was published only the pilot and Series One had been shown, consisting of only two appearances of Nora Batty and none from Wally Batty.
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I remember a scene very early in the series where Nora goes in the pub (the Elephant and Castle I think in Holmfirth) and the only brief glimpse we get of Wally,for the first time,is for just a couple of seconds being dragged out onto the pavement,and it’s not Joe Gladwin it’s someone who looks completely different.
 
Rick I was not criticising you just an attempt at a tongue in cheek reply to your observation. Thanks for the reminder Wstol it was indeed Homing Pigeon in terms of what Albert described. You make an interesting point Rick how do you retrain a pigeon to return to your loft instead of a previous owner's if the bird has been sold on .

One funny story I can add to this was when I was at York Races they had a bird of prey flying demonstration between races and everything went well until they released an Eagle which must of thought " sod this for a lark" and promptly flew off towards the centre of York swiftly followed by the handler, whose initial optimism that the bird would return quickly turned to panic as he dropped the microphone and presumably scampered expediently towards his transport to chase after it . I imagine it would have been interesting not only to witness the recapture but also the reaction of the other birds when it turned up in York centre.
 
Stephen said:
Sorry to my fellow Summerwiners, but I have just been watching Getting Sam Home and it has just occurred to me that Joe Gladwin's involvement in this story was minimal. Does anyone know what the reason for this was? Was he contracted for something else?

I know some of you will be reading this thinking, "God! How does he not know that?!" but my mind has gone blank. It's an age thing. Could be a drink thing too. Lol

Anyway, feel free to have a good laugh...and tell me the reason. :)
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Excellent observation Stephen,something I’d not noticed,and Wally is one of my favourites,there was a poll on here a while back on favourites characters and I think Wally came fourth after Cleggy,Compo and Foggy,in another earlier thread the subject somehow got onto Wally and everyone was putting their favourite Wally lines,it was a hilarious read,but well spotted on the Getting Sam home episode,completely unnoticed by me as like others was probably too engrossed and enthralled to spot his absence.
 
The only thing that I can say is that when I watch Nora and Wally, I find myself knowing instantly what's going to come next. I know this because, well, let's just say that what they do is, is probably based on real life and real life happens all over the world. Need I say more?
 
Adanor said:
Well it depends on what you call similar. There is a father and his adult son. They are poor and ethnic. The comedy comes from that -- having to deal with being poor and ethnic. Sanford and Son stars Redd Foxx, who was a popular black comedian. One of the inside jokes is that his real last name was actually Sanford.
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I remember watching it regularly, but the odd thing about it is it's not the comedy I remember, or the edgy issues of the day. What made the biggest impression on me was, as much as they irritated the dickens out of each other, in the end they had each others back. Regardless of how they talked to each other, the relationship between the father and the son impressed me.

But, what I meant to bring out was that Sanford and Son and All in the Family were just about the biggest shows of their day in America, and they both have probably been referenced repeatedly as quintessentially reflecting the American experience at their time, but they were both based on British series.
 
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