The Stanley Baxter Picture Show (1972–1975) User Reviews

Baxter Brilliance!

[ShadeGrenade · 10/10 · 13 August 2006]

Producer/director David Bell left the B.B.C. to move to L.W.T. in 1972, and Stanley Baxter followed suit. 'Picture Show' only ran to four episodes, but gave the popular Scottish comedian the launching pad for those one-hour spectaculars for which he is best remembered. It comprised spoofs of popular shows of the day such as 'Whicker's World', 'Braden's Week', 'Cinema' and 'The Benny Hill Show'. 'Scars On Sunday', to give an example, had Stanley as 'Jest Fate', a lampoon of the late Jess 'Bishop' Yates. The same sketch featured Stanley as Eartha Kitt and Harry Secombe! 'Elfin Nolan - Supertramp' was an effective mickey-take of portentous rock documentaries such as those directed by Tony Palmer. Any resemblance between the character and the late Marc Bolan was presumably intentional. 'Peculiar Girl' had Stanley as Barbra Streisand from the film 'Funny Girl'. Miming to 'Don't Rain On My Parade', he was to be seen hijacking a bus, riding various forms of transport ( such as a penny farthing bicycle, tricycle and roller skates ) and zooming over London on a broomstick.

Stanley did not just take off politicians and D-list celebrities, but went for big-name stars such as Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Clark Gable and Katherine Hepburn. He was also the first comedian to impersonate The Queen! Admittedly, they cheated slightly by calling her the 'Duchess Of Brendagh', but only a twit would have failed to spot the connection. Rich Little? Not in the same class. Stanley had a brilliant writer in the shape of the late Ken Hoare. Of course some sketches no longer seem terribly funny on account of the target fading from public memory ( the parody of Ken Russell's 'The Music Lovers' comes to mind ). But Stanley's genius remains undiminished. Watch and marvel that comedy of this calibre ever got made, much less transmitted.

Baxter's triumph!

[Yonilikka-22 · 10/10 · 29 April 2021]

Stanley Baxter's L. W. T. Shows are among, in my view, the finest comedy shows commercial television has ever broadcast. It goes without saying that a lot of the targets ( such as Jess Yates, Bernard Braden, John Betjeman, and Eartha Kitt ) probably mean little to modern audiences. In which case, they'd do well to leave the D. V. D.'s alone and watch something else. Modern comedies do not go out of their way to avoid topical humour, so one should not expect older shows to do the same. I have not read Baxter's autobiography, so cannot comment on his allegations about the late Rikki Fulton. If Baxter had made them when Fulton was still alive, its most likely the 'Scotch & Wry' star would have seen his career crash and burn, and gotten a prison sentence. Baxter did him a favour by keeping quiet on the subject until after Fulton's death. This fine series led to Baxter's legendary one-hour specials which set new standards which have never been surpassed, much less equalled.

Over the top nonsense!

[Rabical-91 · 2/10 · 25 January 2021]

This short and frankly terrible series for LWT came about after Stanley Baxter decided to quit the BBC after his producer David Bell resigned from the corporation.

It was a combination of sketches, music and film parody and monologues, scripted mostly by Ken Hoare. There was no regular support cast as such. Baxter performed nearly every role himself.

Baxter did a send up of Bette Davis, which made light of the actress' bitter rivalry with Joan Crawford on the set of 'Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?', as well as send ups of Jess Yates, Barbara Streisand, Benny Hill, Eartha Kitt. An amusing short sketch saw a naked Baxter standing before a director, his modesty covered by a clapperboard, to which the director says: "'The Naked Flash', take one!". He then slams down the top of the clapperboard. Baxter screams in pain! Though much of the sketches sadly seem to focus too much on costume and music than comedy.

Baxter has demeaned himself lately following his hatchet job on the late, great Rikki Fulton in his autobiography 'The Real Stanley Baxter' ghost written with the detestable Herald journalist Brian Beacom. In it, Baxter came out the closet in regards to his homosexuality ( even though it was no secret ) but then saw fit in what I see to be a cowardly and petty move to tarnish Fulton ( who in my opinion was way more talented than Baxter ) as a closet gay, saying he was "full of bile!" and claiming that he ( Fulton ) would have cheerfully buried Baxter's carrer ( much like you are trying to do to Rikki Fulton, Stanley! ). Given that Fulton has been dead for fifteen years and therefore not able to defend himself ( ignoring the fact that Fulton was happily married ) that to me would suggest that Baxter is more "full of bile!" for casting these despicable allegations! If you want to come out the closet, Stanley, more power to you, I support that, but to cast unsubstantiated aspersions on the deceased is a pretty low blow. Besides, Rikki was not the one who was arrested for importuning young men in public toilets, was he? Nor was he the one who drove his wife to suicide. Sounds to me like Baxter is passing the buck on Fulton to take the bad look away from himself! Also, if Baxter's allegations against Rikki were true, by keeping quiet on the subject until after the star's death means he is condoning and allowing him to get away with his actions, therefore making Baxter an accessory to the crime. Odd how no one questions that!

Baxter was called into the LWT offices in the 1980's to be informed that his contract would not be renewed due to his shows becoming too expensive to afford. He later relocated to the BBC but alas they could not keep up with budgetary costs and so the writing was on the wall for Baxter again.

Baxter basics.

[F Gwynplaine MacIntyre · 20 October 2005]

Stanley Baxter is often described as a 'comedian' or an 'impressionist', but I don't consider either of those terms to be an accurate description of him. As a comedian, he isn't very funny. He is best known for his vast number of celebrity impersonations, male and -- especially -- female. In the 1970s, Baxter briefly incurred the wrath of the British public when he impersonated HRH Queen Elizabeth on television. However, the scandal blew over when people realised that the impersonation was not vicious, and the whole affair evaporated when it was learnt that Her Majesty had enjoyed the 'tribute'. (Thus proving you've got no taste, Ma'am.)

In "The Stanley Baxter Picture Show", the funniest joke occurs when Baxter, in costume as a cavalry officer and apparently on horseback (his mount is out of frame), decides to ask a question to his batman. (American viewers won't recognise this term; a batman is a British officer's orderly who serves as his valet ... not to be confused with a batsman, as in cricket.) The officer takes a telephone out of his saddle, and rings his orderly. Cut to a shot of Baxter again, in slightly different costume, on horseback in the same parade, as he takes a 'phone out of his saddle and answers the call. Cut back to the first Baxter as he asks: 'Hello, batman? Robin here.' Ha bloody ha. The elaborate set-up isn't worth the weak payoff.

Baxter is allegedly an impressionist, but he pales in comparison to a true genius of that form such as Rich Little (or even Joe Baker). Without any props or elaborate costumes, Rich Little has an astonishing ability to get into the *soul* of the celebrity whom he's imitating. Baxter, on the other hand, tends to look and sound the same in all of his 'impressions', and he's forced to rely on elaborate costumes and production numbers. Nearly all of his characters speak in the same Glesga accent, and his 'female' characters are even less convincingly female than Monty Python's Pepperpot women.

Baxter always seems to perform his male roles as if he's in a big hurry to get back into a frock for his next female role. He tends to play larger-than-life showbiz divas, especially musical performers. I give Baxter some credit for having bottle enough to dress up as Shirley Temple, but Baxter utterly fails to capture any of the magic that made Little Shirley a superstar: he's simply a middle-aged man cozzied up as a little girl, larking about in a wig and a frock. I'd rather squizz at Grayson Perry.

Like Bottom in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', Baxter wants to play ALL the roles. We see him here in a sketch parody of 'Upstairs, Downstairs', with Baxter playing all the characters in the same scene. His production budget won't pay for the process photography that would enable multiple Baxters to appear in the same shot ... so the camera is constantly cutting from a tight close-up of Baxter in one costume to a tight close-up of Baxter in another costume. There's never any interaction between the characters, and the device is wearying. Baxter as Gordon Jackson is only barely distinguishable from Baxter as Angela Baddeley.

In "The Stanley Baxter Picture Show", we see Baxter kitted out as Liza Minnelli, chanting (not singing) a parody lyric: 'Liza with a Zee, not Judy with a J, 'cos Judy with a J is Ma, not me,' I'm no fan of Minnelli, but this sort of mockery is just cheap baiting. It also calls attention to the fact that Baxter can't sing at all, and certainly not on a level to compare with Minnelli's. He can't dance either (not even with Shirley Temple's level of skill), so the production numbers are staged to camouflage the absence of any actual dancing.

Some of Baxter's drag humour is just too gay for me. At one point in this series, an offscreen announcer breathlessly heralds the arrival of a legendary movie actress. We know that this 'actress' is just going to be Baxter in drag, so we're not eager to see her. But then the camera shows an extremely tight close-up of a low-cut hemline, revealing some genuine cleavage. How did male performer Baxter manage to acquire some cleavage? We learn the dreadful answer as the camera pulls away to reveal Baxter standing with his back to the camera ... aye, it's his REAR cleavage we've been looking at. His builder's crack! Now Baxter turns towards the camera, displaying the usual pair of falsies and a bad makeup job. Even Milton Berle did this stuff better. British audiences will have seen Danny La Rue, whose drag routines are much funnier than Baxter's, and whose female impersonations are much more impressive than Baxter's ... so I'm baffled by Baxter's appeal, given the easy access to funnier (and more convincing) female impersonators.

I'll rate Stanley Baxter's entire showbiz career barely one point out of 10. Still, he seems to be enjoyed by a lot of blue-rinsed old ladies. Including Brenda.