Series 3 - the Blamire that never was

[Sarkus]

I just watched Series 3 with an eye towards trying to see if I could identify which episodes were written for Michael Bates/Blamire versus those written for Brian Wilde/Foggy. Bates departure from the show was right as they were getting ready to film Series 3, so we know at least some of the episodes were hastily re-written to substitute Foggy for Blamire. Andrew Vine's book specifically mentions a scene from the script for "Cheering Up Gordon" that prompted Bates' concern over being able to continue on the show.

Outside of the obvious, "The Man From Oswestry," I've concluded that everything else was likely orginally written for Blamire and then changed only where necessary to Foggy. I think you can even "see" Blamire in much of the dialogue. It is a bit of a stretch for the character in some regards, but that was already happening by the end of Series 2 - Blamire was being changed a bit, as we see in "Ballad for Wind Instruments and Canoe."

It would be interesting to see what the general order of production was for the show in Series 3 as it would be an indicator of which scripts they felt could be filmed with minimal change to Foggy from Blamire and which they felt needed more work, but I'm not sure if that information is available. The "production codes" in the back of Bell's book are in the same order as the episodes were aired, even though info in Vine's book indicates that the order episodes were shown was usually determined by the theory that a series needed to open strong and finish strong, so they put what they considered the best episodes in those spots.

 

[Pearl]

Whenever I watch A Kink In Foggy's Niblick I always think of Michael Bates, when their in the loft looking for the clubs, his "Landlady" is mentioned a few times where as in The Man From Oswestry Clegg reads out the letter which states that he has been left a house.

 

[barmpot]

Whenever I watch A Kink In Foggy's Niblick I always think of Michael Bates, when their in the loft looking for the clubs, his "Landlady" is mentioned a few times where as in The Man From Oswestry Clegg reads out the letter which states that he has been left a house.

Yes I had often wondered about that anomaly: Blamire was in lodgings but Foggy was returning to an empty house (presumably his parents?). The Scarborough ones could have been Blamire who would have taken great exception to ferrets but certainly Stuart's Leg and Isometrics and After seem very much like Blamire.

Of course the novel, on which Getting Sam Home was based originally had Blamire and then substituted Foggy in later editions, with some areas that make the continuity less than ideal from what is known about other programmes.

 

[brendalovescompo]

I have also watched series 3 with Blamire in mind. Kink in Foggy's , Mending Stewarts Leg, definitely could be a Blamire, infact, all of them. Even some of season 4, Jubilee, and Flower Power I watched the other day and thought of Blamire could have easily fit in the role Foggy played.

I don't think it is a stretch at all Sarkus. :wink:

 

[Elmc]

I just watched Series 3 with an eye towards trying to see if I could identify which episodes were written for Michael Bates/Blamire versus those written for Brian Wilde/Foggy. Bates departure from the show was right as they were getting ready to film Series 3, so we know at least some of the episodes were hastily re-written to substitute Foggy for Blamire. Andrew Vine's book specifically mentions a scene from the script for "Cheering Up Gordon" that prompted Bates' concern over being able to continue on the show.

Outside of the obvious, "The Man From Oswestry," I've concluded that everything else was likely orginally written for Blamire and then changed only where necessary to Foggy. I think you can even "see" Blamire in much of the dialogue. It is a bit of a stretch for the character in some regards, but that was already happening by the end of Series 2 - Blamire was being changed a bit, as we see in "Ballad for Wind Instruments and Canoe."

It would be interesting to see what the general order of production was for the show in Series 3 as it would be an indicator of which scripts they felt could be filmed with minimal change to Foggy from Blamire and which they felt needed more work, but I'm not sure if that information is available. The "production codes" in the back of Bell's book are in the same order as the episodes were aired, even though info in Vine's book indicates that the order episodes were shown was usually determined by the theory that a series needed to open strong and finish strong, so they put what they considered the best episodes in those spots.

I don't understand what you mean in regard to Cheering Up Gordon. . Bates wasn't in the show.

 

[Sarkus]

I don't understand what you mean in regard to Cheering Up Gordon. . Bates wasn't in the show.

Bates was supposed to be in Series 3 but had suffered an injury doing pantomime on stage. They sent him some of the scripts (or parts of the scripts) for Series 3 as they were getting close to filming and one of those was the scene in "Cheering Up Gordon" where Foggy runs out into the ocean for a morning swim. So originally that scene was written for Blamire, not Foggy. Bates realized his health wasn't good enough to do scenes like that yet so he contacted the producers. There was some back and forth about changing things to make it easier on Bates to continue on the show, and apparently some delay in filming in the hopes that Bates might improve enough to do the episodes as written. However, Bates and the producers eventually realized that he could not continue doing the series so they wrote him out and brought in Foggy (Brian Wilde) as the replacement "third man." That at least is the course of events relayed in Andrew Vine's book on LOTSW. And because this was all happening right before they filmed the series, it seems likely that most of Series 3 is just hastily rewritten scripts orginally meant to have Blamire as part of the trio.

Sadly, as you may know, it turned out Bates injury was actually cancer, which he eventually died from a few years later. So he never fully recovered his mobility. However, its not clear from what I've read whether they knew it was cancer at the time he left LOTSW. At that point they may have believed it was simply an abdominal injury that was taking a long time to heal.