That they would turn out to be a perfect comic double act.
I have been watching their series for the last few days, BBC 2 at around 7.30pm French time, and the sparring between the 2 is wonderful. Jason is a comic actor not a comedian, Blades is a talented furniture restorer with an occasional humerous turn of phrase, but neither of them would I consider a perfect match for wordplay. Till now. Obviously much of it is scripted but both play their parts to perfection.
They are pretending to tour the country towing a mobile workshop visiting various fairs concentrating on people with special talents and hobbies but often in need of help in some aspect of their interests. This brings in to play various experts who then spend time teaching their expertise to fill the gaps in knowledge.
I think there are more to go in the series, so well worth a watch if you can.
A hint from last night. The pair were introduced to a man who has a very large collection of Reliant vans and saloon cars, also the designer of them all who used to work with the company. When he was asked what he did with his time there he said âlooking to make improvementsâ. Quick as a flash Jason said âlike another wheel perhaps?â
Rather more risque but passed over deadpan so you could have missed it, was the introduction of the rather generously endowed young lady who is the owner of a giant teddy bear which she inherited from her Great-Uncle, Tony Hancock.
We saw her walking towards them in slow motion which emphasised the floating action of her upper body, and hear Jason saying, off camera, âblimey, thatâs a big one, looks in need of stuffing to meâ. We are then released from our shock when the camera pans and he is actually look at the giant bear.
And indeed it does, which is where the on-hand expert came in and the young woman was then taught the secrets she needed to know. David Jason may have not made a rude remark, but the director certainly knew what he was doing.
No not at all, never slightly smutty, we made extremely coarse ones though⌠We all got fairly good at Greek at school because there were editions of various English lit texts where the dirty bits were in Latin , no problem there, everyone did Latin - but the really dirty bits were in Greek
I found the program very gentle but interesting compared to a lot of stuff being shown on TV these days. Itâs right up my street. I have âinventedâ more failures than Thomas Edison. The real stars of the show are the slightly eccentric enthusiasts that are invited along.
Yes indeed, what about the elderly railway enthusiasts who wanted to invent and construct a wagon long enough to carry a person in a wheelchair in safety but thought the corners of the narrow guage track too sharp to accommodate something suitable. The finished product was welded together by the elderly woman who had motor-neurone disease.
Before anyone had said anything and using my experience in heavy haulage over the years I immediately said to the screen â 2 x4 wheel bogies, self steering at both endsâ. And that is what they did. Put a mini turntable between the body and the bogies so that the wheels followed the rails but the body cut the corner slighty. I was rather disappointed that they didnât really demonstrate it on a bend afterwards though.
There have been model aircraft enthusiasts, ride on mower racers and a wonderful lookalike human head which moved in all ways including the eyes. The hobbyist had constructed the thing with lots of wires involved but needed advice on how to motorise it. Fascinating.
Yes that moving head was fascinating. Here is one of my attempts at something that actually worked for a change. It is crude, simple but is actually useful. But most importantly, it creates a talking point with passers by who seem more bemused than impressed.
Nice one, I donât have a video and although I am not really a handy person, some years ago I had a long, 20 metres or so, piece of small diameter rope at the gate post with the knob end of a wooden curtain rail on it. It fed up to a post to a pulley and then via pulleys in a couple of trees to a pulley in the front terrasse and then to a bell found in a vide grenier.
The postman was trained to pull it whenever he put something in the box or if he needed a signature. Only trouble was that in winter with all doors and windows shut it could only be heard through the double glazing in the nearest room.
It started life when we had a wooden veranda frame and drilling a hole through the wood was not a problem so it could be heard everywhere in the house, but once we had upgraded to a double glazed pvc affair it became redundant eventually. Then we discovered electric wireless bells, but they donât always work.
Back to Jay and J, this evening it was a wheelrite, a leather worker and an amazing glass blower lady. Wonderful stuff.
