Paul Chuckle
- Podcast Episode
- 2019
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- Quotes
[Hayden and Paul talk about the cancellation of ChuckleVision]
Hayden Parker: How was it, then, taking the cancellation from the BBC?
Paul Chuckle: It wasn't good because, er, they never-never told us. Never told us, never said a word. They just took it off. It's, erm... So Lorraine Heggessey, she's, erm... she's the head of Children's, or she was, in the 90's. And she took us to The Ivy in London for lunch, and er, we chatted. "Lovely to-to see you again." and blah-blah blah and eating and... Lovely food there, The Ivy. And then she said, "Well, as for ChuckleVision," she said, "as far as I'm concerned, er, you can keep doing them year after year after year until you've had enough. And BBC will keep it going until you don't want to do it anymore." So we thought, "Oh, thank you, that's lovely." So we didn't have to worry about what we're doing next autumn. You know, next autumn, we filmed ChuckleVision each year. And I think we'd done about seven series by then, so she was... she was right what she was saying because after that, we did about another fifteen... episodes... series or whatever. So, erm, when it came to the end, we'd done Series 22, I think it was, and on the wrap party, erm, the, er, somebody came up to us and said, er, "It was an honour to do ChuckleVision, especially as it's the last series, you know, it was great to be on it." And we said, "What are you talking about 'last series'? It's not." "Oh, isn't it? Oh, I must have got it wrong. So I thought it was the last series?" We said, "No, it's not the last series, no. No, as far as we know anyway, nobody's told us." So, anyway, we took it with a pinch of salt. And then, erm, came the following year and we said, "Where's ChuckleVision? You know, you've not come in with the scripts or ideas and stuff." "Oh, erm, well we're not sure," she said, "we're not sure, er, whether to do another one yet." We said, "What are you talking about? It... It's still as popular as ever." She said, "Yeah, but the thing is, we put the repeats on and it gets as many viewers for the repeats as it gets for the real one, you know, for a new one, so it's cheaper to just put the repeats on." We said, "Yeah, but you can only do that so long and it's, as you just said, it's still getting the same viewing figures, you know, and because the repeats are getting just as good viewing figures means it's popular, so." But they wouldn't have it. There was a new, er, guy who was Head of, erm, Children's... can't even remember his name, he's an Irish guy, and, er, he just wouldn't have it. He said, "No, we've got enough in the can." Which I suppose, 292 episodes in the can was fine, but they only went for another year after that and they stopped the repeats. And their excuse for that was, erm, that they couldn't find everybody from the years back to pay them their... their-their royalties, because there was royalties in those days, which is a load of rubbish, because Equity will find them, they'll collect the money, and find the act, and pay them. So, just total excuses all the time, and to this day, they've not said why they took ChuckleVision off. It was so popular and they took it off. Not on anymore.
Hayden Parker: Well, we're not happy as viewers.
[Paul laughs]
Hayden Parker: But as you said, you've got YouTube now, so it would have been nice to have some more.
Paul Chuckle: Yeah, it would, yeah. Because we enjoyed doing it. And the crew... we had the same crew for about the last fifteen years that, every year, they were all independent, the cameras, lights, everybody. But they all pencilled in every year to do that. And we had the same crew for years: make-up, everybody, wardrobe. Erm, it was like a family. You know, we had so much fun. That's the thing you can tell with the outtakes and stuff.
Hayden Parker: Yeah. So that was lovely as well, putting them on at the end.
Paul Chuckle: At the end. It was so much fun doing it.