Inside the October Issue: Editor's Note p. 1)  They Say It's Your Birthday p. 2)  And Now For Something Completely Different p. 3)  Tea News Bits p. 4)  The Complete and Utter (Sorta) History of British Comedy           Part III: The 1980's p. 5)  Tea Customs p. 6)  Tea With Jane Austen p. 7)  Tea Advisor p. 8)  Mystery of the Month p. 9)  England's Calendar of Events: October p. 10)  Recipes: Pumpkin-Apple Muffins p. 11)  Afternoon Teaisms    Printer-friendly Version

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Editor's Note

Welcome everyone to the October issue of the Tea Times. We hope you enjoy reading it, perhaps while sitting outside enjoying the delightful October weather.

Every little thing she does is magic... Can you name this tune? If so, you know who's having a birthday this month.

This month we offer articles about Monty Python and part three of The Complete and Utter (Sorta) History of British Comedy from the 1980s. The Brits were really on the cutting edge when it came to making us laugh.

October brings a new series to Sunday evenings - Ruth Rendell Mysteries. We think you will enjoy them. They will be followed by the new Inspector Lynley series on Mystery! So get ready to curl up and enjoy your television viewing on the last night of the weekend. Be sure to read the Tea News Bits this month to be alerted to more, great programming during the month.

It's the time when thoughts turn to pumpkin, so this month we offer a muffin recipe to start the holidays off right.

Have a Happy Halloween! We hope all of your little ghoulies and ghosties have a great time carving their pumpkins and dressing up as their favorite characters.

The Tea Times Newsletter Staff

1 

They Say It's Your Birthday!

Do you share a birthday with any of these people?

October 2, 1951
Gordon Sumner – musician, songwriter "Sting"

October 5, 1975
Kate Winslet – actress, "Rose" in movie Titanic

October 9, 1953
Sharon Osbourne – actress, wife of Ozzie Osbourne

October 16, 1925
Angela Lansbury – actress, Murder She Wrote

2 

And Now For Something Completely Different
by Sheela Kadam, Contributing Writer

Ham, Jam & Spamalot: Monty Python Fever

I have been a Monty Python fan for as long as I can remember. Like many other Brits in my age group, I grew up watching it when it was first shown on the Beeb. Not that I was supposed to be watching it...but that just added to the fun. For me, experiencing "Monty Python's Flying Circus" involved surreptitiously sneaking downstairs from my bedroom late at night to watch it with my big brother.

In later life, I can attribute my warped sense of humor to this early exposure to Python. At a young and impressionable age, I really thought that there was a Ministry Of Silly Walks. And of course, it was the Vikings who had invented SPAM. And you could buy a dead parrot with lovely plumage at a pet shop in Bolton (or was that Notlob?). The cartoons weren't anything like Tom & Jerry. After watching Gilliam's surreal offerings, Looney Tunes just didn't seem, well, looney enough.

Watching Python was a completely different experience from peeking at "Dr Who" from behind the sofa in case the Daleks attacked." Who cares about being exterminated - it was Hell's Grannies who posed the real threat outside the local shops up the road. And really, who needs a Time Lord when Bicycle Repair Man could save the universe?

Much has been written about the widely-acclaimed Python team - and rightly so. Python was cutting edge, surreal and completely ahead of it's time. It's classic humor that's still funny today - even if nobody knows who Alan Whicker is. Let's face it - if it still makes youngsters laugh today, it's passed the test of time. I get such a kick out of watching Python with my two sons - they think Mr. Gumby is hilarious and do impersonations all the time, and even have their own silly walks.

John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Michael Palin, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam were the 'dream team' of comedy - pure genius. Unlike other comedies at the time (except perhaps Spike Milligan's "Q" series), Flying Circus used a 'stream of consciousness' format of sketches flowing into each other. Their unique brand of humor coupled with intelligent writing and brilliant acting inspired countless subsequent comedians - and the show's format influenced later Britcoms.

Since those early, heady days of Python, comedy fans in Britain have always been utterly spoilt by the wealth of talent on BBC television and radio. Seen in that context, it's easy when you're living in the UK to become blasé about Python - "oh yeah, that vintage stuff from the 70's, cheese shop and all that" is a common reaction among most of my British pals still living over there.

Having grown up with it, I've seen that many Brits here in the U.S have the same attitude - although Python has a special place in their hearts and they remember all the classic sketches, most just don't get excited about it. When I heard that Spamalot was coming to Dallas, Texas, I thought it would be fun to have a Python celebration at our British store in Grapevine the weekend before the show opens - but I did wonder what the turnout would be like. I needn't have worried. As the event 'snowballed', I was delighted to discover that that there are legions of American Python fans here who embrace all things Python-esque wholeheartedly - and I've made lots of new friends! For them, this class-based, subversive comedy was so refreshing, so different from American humor.

We true diehard Python fans live it, sleep it (yes, I've had Gilliam animation-style dreams), enjoy it, celebrate it and can rattle off "The Parrot Sketch" or some other favorite skit at the drop of a Viking Helmet (I have four. I've also got a killer rabbit, coconut shells, a dead parrot, two live budgies and numerous other props & costumes). We've started a "Monty Python Appreciation Society" here in Grapevine - there's no formal club membership or dues - that would be far too normal for folks like us. We don't have a website, but we're easy to find. There are no funny handshakes, but we have been known to have very silly conversations. Try talking to one of us and we'll generally latch onto some sort of Python reference or the other in the conversation and things will soon veer off onto a surreal tangent. We'll pepper what we say with one-liners such as "nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition", or "I'm not dead yet!" It'll amuse us no end to complain about dirty forks in restaurants, we'll moan about not liking SPAM. And don't even get us started on Philosophy or we'll break into THAT song.

Reminiscing about your childhood with fellow fans? It'll soon dissolve into "Four Yorkshiremen" style exaggerated comparisons with everyone trying to outdo each other. "You were lucky", "we used to live in a cardboard box", "luxury" etc.

What Took Them So Long?

The arrival of Spamalot to Dallas this summer was fitting. Did you know that Monty Python was first introduced to America at PBS Station KERA-Dallas by forward-thinking Program Director Ron Devillier back in the 70's? KERA was the first PBS station in the nation to broadcast Monty Python's Flying Circus, and was the Pythons' first stop in the US after the premier of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" in Los Angeles in 1975.

When told that Spamalot was coming to Dallas, Mr. Devillier's reaction was "what took Python so long to come back to Dallas? That's where Spamalot should have opened!" He was even more amused to learn that we were holding a PythonFest in Grapevine, Texas of all places. "I'm still amused that the introduction of Python in America started in Dallas - its first home. Dallas of all places! You would have thought that it would have been somewhere like New York or Boston. I have a sense of pride that it all started at KERA, which back then was just a tiny studio which the Pythons visited," Devillier said.

"We made an announcement that they were coming to Dallas for a pledge drive and asked if any of the public would care to meet them. We ended up being mobbed by Python fans. There was a flood of people at the event. The Pythons were so impressed, and they were very warm to everyone that came," he added.

Devillier has particularly fond memories of the late Graham Chapman, who he remembered carrying a stuffed armadillo to the studio all the way from the airport: "Graham was the quietest one. At the event he didn't say a word for about 45 minutes, then he stood up, commanded the audience's attention and apologized profusely for performing so poorly. Then he sat down and didn't say another word for the rest of the evening!"

The Insider, August 2001

3 

Tea News Bits

October programming notes

If you missed Ken Burns' The War in September, you can catch all seven hours on Saturday, October 6 from 6:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. It's well worth the time you will invest to watch it.

On Sunday, October 7 at 8:00 p.m., MPT premiers Ruth Rendell Mysteries (author Ruth Rendell, pictured). Veteran actor George Baker plays Chief Inspector Reg Wexford of Kingmarkham (a fictional town in the real English county of Hampshire), with Christopher Ravenscroft as his partner in detection, Inspector Mike Burden.

Follow up the Ruth Rendell Mysteries on Sunday, October 7 and 14 at 9:00 pm with Mystery! and the new Inspector Lynley series.

Your Saturday night Britcoms return on October 13 at 8:00 p.m.

The Mysterious Human Heart airs on Monday, October 15 from 9:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. and again on Monday, October 22 from 9:00 to 11:00 p.m. This is an in-depth, comprehensive look at the organ that beats almost 100,000 times a day. This program takes a look at how it works, what can go wrong and how we treat it.

Be sure to watch Masterpiece Theatre on Sunday, Oct 21 and 28 at 9:00 p.m. to see The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard, a story about a local supermarket manager who decides to run for prime minister due to her anger with the state of politics.

Get in on the action! At 9:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct 25, MPT will show you its Online Auction Highlights.

Do you want to get to know the First Lady of Maryland better? Stay tuned in after The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard on Sunday, October 28 at 10:00 p.m. to see Rhea Feikin's interview with Katie O'Malley.

If you loved the crystal clear voices of Anúna: Celtic Origins and would enjoy hearing them once again, tune in on Tuesday, October 30 at 10:00 p.m. for a repeat performance.

Office on sale with own spook

A haunted office space in a 19th century Gothic chapel overlooking Wandsworth Common is on the market for £1.75 million ($3,530,417.42). The Chapel, at the Royal Victoria Patriotic Building, boasts nearly 6,000 sq. ft. of prime commercial space and forms part of a grade II listed, residential, commercial and community complex.

In the 19th century, the site was a home to orphans, and legend has it the building is still roamed by one girl who died there. It was reportedly later used to interrogate foreign spies during World War II.

The chapel itself was built in 1958 in a romantic French Gothic style and converted by architects who kept many authentic features including the pointed arch doorway, the buff stone and brickwork and the exposed wooden beams in the ceiling. Its Rose window is the architectural highlight of the building and overlooks the common.

www.thisislocallondon.co.uk

4 

The Complete and Utter (Sorta) History
of British Comedy – Part Three: The 1980's

ANARCHY IN THE U.K.

We now take you to a home in north London occupied by four male college students. I'll leave the filthy living conditions to your imagination, but trust me, they're worse than you think. An explosion has just occurred.

Rik: (nonchalantly) Oh no. The front door's exploded.
Mike: Vyvyan!
Rik: Vyvyan!
Vyvyan: Vyvyan! Vyvyan! Vyvyan! Honestly, whenever anything explodes in this house, it's always "Blame Vyvyan!"
Mike: Well who do you suggest we blame?
Rik: THATCHER!
Vyvyan: No...blame whoever rang the front doorbell because they obviously triggered off the bomb I set up.

OK, technically Vyvyan is right, but as the 80s began, nothing summed up the attitude of youthful Britain better than Rik's attitude of BLAME THATCHER!

That was only one of Rik's many digs at the Prime Minister. It was also proof that the pendulum had swung because like everything else in life, comedy tends to be cyclical. The 60s was dominated by political satire and when the government no longer provided sufficient fodder, the 70s spawned more comfortable, middle-class comedies such as The Good Life and To the Manor Born.

Not the Nine O'Clock News

So the time was ripe for a swing back toward the more angry and political. The opening bullet was fired in 1979 with the savage satire of Not the Nine O'Clock News and this trend would continue throughout much of the next decade.

One of the first great comedies of the 80s was The Young Ones, about those poor college students with the exploding front door. In spite of the now outdated punk ethos and clothing, it still stands the test of time.

Before discussing The Young Ones, however, let's take a step back once more.

Starting in the 60s, British comedy had been dominated by a couple of different groups. First, there was the "Oxbridge Mafia," a group of performers including the Pythons, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett and others who had emerged from the rarefied atmosphere of Oxford and Cambridge. Their comedy, although often based on flat-out silliness, was also more intellectual, showing a careful grasp of language and logic.

On the other hand, there was Benny Hill as well as David Croft and his various collaborators. Their humor was something of a throwback to the music hall tradition, with jokes about mother-in-laws, references to women's breasts, and other not-so-subtle sexual innuendo.

THE REVOLUTION BEGINS

Both the Python and Croft styles of comedy would continue to thrive during the 80s. However, their supremacy would be challenged and the comedy world turned on its head when two entrepreneurs named Peter Rosengard and Don Ward opened a small club above a strip joint in London's grimy Soho district. It was called The Comedy Store.

The Comedy Store

Rosengard, an insurance salesman, hit on the idea for The Comedy Store after going to a similar club during a vacation in Los Angeles. London had nothing like it, so he rented a vacant spot above the strip joint run by Ward. Before long the small club became the virtual epicenter of British comedy.

What set The Comedy Store apart was that it embodied the punk attitude of "anyone can do it." This had already proven successful in the music business with bands that could barely play their instruments climbing the charts. Who cared if you only knew three chords on the guitar? All that mattered was that you meant it - that you believed what you were saying.

And young people at that time had a lot to say. Unemployment was high and racial tensions led to riots in Liverpool and London. Relations with Northern Ireland once again deteriorated causing the IRA to renew their attacks. The division between the poor, industrial north and the wealthier south seemed to grow even greater. And who did the young people blame? Mrs. Thatcher and the conservative government.

The increasing despair led teenagers to believe that there was, to quote the title of a famous punk song, No Future. Without a job to go to and employment opportunities almost non-existent, there wasn't much to do but get into trouble.

Well, not always. An American commentator named Bernard Nossiter hit the nail on the head when he claimed that the bad conditions and unemployment in Britain "masked something far more hopeful - a deliberately creative use of leisure in which the British middle and working class opted for greater freedom from the drudgery of mass automated work and rebelled against the norms of ever-increasing production."

So becoming a musician, a writer, or even a stand-up comic became an increasingly viable career option. And if you wanted to be a stand-up comic, The Comedy Store quickly became known as the place to make your name.

It was far from an easy gig. The small, dank room left virtually no space between the performer and the audience, which heckled ferociously. If things weren't going well, the compere (master of ceremonies) could send you off at any moment using the infamous Comedy Store gong. Surviving five minutes on stage was considered a triumph and those who made it through this boot camp came out tough and seasoned.

At The Comedy Store, experimentation, anarchy and social commentary were encouraged while anything racist, sexist or even slightly resembling a mother-in-law joke was gonged. This new breed of comedy was labeled by the media as "alternative."

Alexei Sayle

Most of the performers didn't like the label and didn't fit it anyway. Alternative was all about being working class, anti-privilege, politically left wing and politically correct. Alexei Sayle, The Comedy Store's first compere and one of the godfathers of alternative comedy, probably fits the bill the best since his parents were both blue collar and paid up members of the Communist party.

Sayle was an exception. Most of the other Comedy Store originals came from solid middle-class backgrounds. In fact, Ben Elton, who followed Sayle as Comedy Store compere, comes from an extremely distinguished family. His father is a professor at Sussex University and his uncle is a Professor Emeritus at Cambridge University and a Knight of the Realm. Rik Mayall (co-creator and writer of The Young Ones) also comes from an academic family. His father was the head of the drama department at a teacher training college and his mother was a teacher. Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders both came from Royal Air Force families and trained to be teachers. Indeed, French was still teaching when she and Saunders began to perform.

Still, they were young, exuberant and disliked Mrs. Thatcher, so therefore they were "alternative."

Others who cut their teeth at The Store included Clive Anderson (a barrister by trade who went on to host Whose Line Is It Anyway?) plus future Red Dwarf stars Chris Barrie, Hattie Hayridge and Norman Lovett. Over the years stars such as Robin Williams have done sets at the Store while Austin Powers himself, Mike Myers, was an original founding member of The Comedy Store Players, their special improv troupe.

The Comedy Store inspired a major boom in stand-up comedy and its performers soon infiltrated television. One evening a BBC producer named Paul Jackson came to the show and was blown away by what he saw. He knew he had to find a way to transfer the anarchy and energy he saw on that stage to television.

MEET THE YOUNG ONES

After a couple of false starts Jackson succeeded with The Young Ones, a sitcom about four students sharing a house. The Young Ones was rude, surreal, loud and violent yet managed to be consistently hysterical. It was the program that introduced alternative comedy into the mainstream.

The Young Ones

The Young Ones followed the adventures of Rik the anarchist (Rik Mayall), Neil the hippy (Nigel Planer), Vyvyan the heavy metal freak (Adrian Edmondson) and Mike the cool person (Christopher Ryan.) During the show's twelve episodes tempers flared, front doors exploded, the boys' home was demolished for being a health hazard, and they fought a vampire who claimed to be a driving instructor from South Africa.

Sound exhausting? It was. The energy, attitude and scatological nature of many of the jokes made the show a hit among young people. The scripts were by the show's star Rik Mayall, his then girlfriend Lise Mayer and Ben Elton, who met Mayall while both were attending Manchester University.

Watching the show is like seeing a virtual who's who of future Britcomedy luminaries, many of whom were also Comedy Store regulars. These included Emma Thompson, Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry, Chris Barrie, Norman Lovett, Robbie Coltrane, Lenny Henry, Paul Merton, Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders. (Saunders would later marry Adrian Edmondson, who played the psychotic heavy metaler Vyvyan.) There were also guest appearances by Not the Nine O'Clock News stars Griff Rhys Jones and Mel Smith as well as Terry Jones from Monty Python.

After two seasons of juvenile chaos the actors and writers decided that they were ready to go on to other things. To make sure they couldn't get roped into another season, an end was put to it by having the boys go off a cliff in a double-decker bus and getting killed in the explosion.

The Young Ones didn't last long, but it was enormously influential. The performances and writing were remarkably assured considering the stars and writers were barely into their twenties. The interesting question is why would the BBC allow a program that insulted Mrs. Thatcher, the police and every other authority figure? A program that trashed such classics as The Good Life and mocked the BBC's attempts at "youth" programming? A program that found time every episode for an appearance by a punk rock band?

The answer is simple. The BBC knew that these were some seriously talented young people and they were afraid of losing them to new rival Channel 4, which began transmission in November of 1982.

Their faith in this talent paid off. For example, Ben Elton would go from working on one classic sitcom - The Young Ones - to another.

THE SOUND OF HOOFBEATS...

Blackadder

Blackadder brought the alternative sensibility even more squarely into the mainstream. The saga of Edmund Blackadder and his descendants was created by series star Rowan Atkinson and his Oxford University chum Richard Curtis. They had worked together on Not the Nine O'Clock News and then decided to write a vehicle for Atkinson.

One of their inspirations was Fawlty Towers. The classic John Cleese/Connie Booth sitcom was a revelation to Atkinson and Curtis because they realized it was possible to have a successful sitcom with an unlikable main character. You can also see some of the influence in the relationship between Blackadder and Baldrick, which is a bit like that of Fawlty and Manuel.

After dismissing several premises (including one set in a detective agency) they decided on an historical sitcom that became Blackadder. Or as it was known as first, The Black Adder.

Atkinson and Curtis co-wrote the first season, which took place in the late 1400s. It was an elaborate affair full of ornate medieval costumes and extensive location shooting at Alnwick Castle in Northumberland. All of that meant EXPENSE. When the new boss at the BBC decided that there weren't enough laughs to justify the cost, the series appeared to be as dead as King Richard III in the very first episode.

Or was it? Curtis asked Young Ones co-writer Ben Elton to help him resurrect the series, and if it was gags the boss wanted, it was gags he got. Blackdder II began the tale of Edmund and his descendents as most people remember it.

The boss also liked the fact that costs were drastically cut by no more location shoots. Additionally, the second season also brought together the classic cast. There was the wonderful work of Atkinson and Tony Robinson (as Blackadder's whipping boy Baldrick), Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry, Tim McInnerney and Miranda Richardson, whose hysterical portrait of the Queen could unfortunately last only one season.

Blackadder lasted a total of four seasons during which the characters went through medieval times, the Elizabethan age, the Georgian era and finally World War 1. The series ended on the highest of notes with an extraordinarily poignant final episode.

In 1999 the readers of TV Times magazine chose Blackadder the "show of the millennium" and it was selected to be part of the entertainment at London's Millennium Dome. For this special occasion an additional 30-minute film called Blackadder Back and Forth was made specifically for The Dome. It's a time travel story that ends with Britain being led into the next century by "King" Edmund, his Queen (played by supermodel Kate Moss) and Prime Minister Baldrick. The final words that appear on the screen make reference to another Blackadder adventure coming in 3000. It's just a joke, but we can dream this isn't the end of the saga, can't we?

Before leaving Blackadder, however, we must pay tribute to its unsung hero. Without the contribution of one Howard Goodall the show would not be nearly as memorable as it is. Who's Howard Goodall, you say? Well, if you were an obsessive reader of credits like I am, you'd know that Goodall wrote the ever-hummable Blackadder theme song. He's also responsible for the theme songs to Red Dwarf, The Young Ones, Mr. Bean and many others. Stand up and take a well-deserved bow, sir.

MORE ALTERNATIVE

Meanwhile, the former Young Ones and other Comedy Store regulars were also a busy lot. Edmondson, Mayall and Planer then joined forces with French, Saunders, and Peter Richardson to create a number of short films under the banner of The Comic Strip Presents.

Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders

Each of the more than thirty Comic Strip Presents films differ completely in style and tone. They include everything from a Spinal Tap-style "mockumentary" about a really bad rock band (Bad News Tour) to a parody of Clint Eastwood spaghetti westerns (A Fistful of Traveler's Cheques) and everything in between. The cast in various combinations wrote the films, which were produced from time to time from the early 80s until the late 90s. They proved that these young "alternative" comics were not a fluke, but a force to be reckoned with as writers, directors and actors.

In 1985 Jennifer Saunders played the very mean Granny Fuddle and her four wayward granddaughters in Happy Families, Ben Elton's homage to the Ealing film Kind Hearts and Coronets, in which Sir Alec Guinness played multiple roles. Despite the talent on display and an extraordinarily clever premise, Happy Families was not well received.

Three of The Young Ones (Edmondson, Mayall and Planer) then reunited in 1987 for Filthy, Rich and Catflap a vicious send-up of "light entertainment." Rik Mayall played a very minor celebrity called Richie Rich, who had an entourage consisting of a pathetic drunken wreck of an agent Ralph Filthy (Planer) and a "minder," Edward Catflap (Edmonson), who is as bad as - if not worse - than his charge.

Filthy, Rich and Catflap had the same loud, juvenile tone as The Young Ones but was not as successful despite some classic moments. One was a riotous take-off on celebrity game shows called Oo'er...Sounds a Bit Rude. Richie feels his career will skyrocket with his appearance on this show, but he totally destroys the whole thing and sends the director (Chris Barrie in a great guest spot) into histrionics. Ben Elton also wrote this series, cementing his reputation as one of the hardest-working men in British showbiz.

AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE ALTERNATIVE

Alternative may have been the buzzword, but it was far from the last word in comedy during the 80s. The maestro himself, David Croft, continued to produce shows at an enormously prolific rate during this decade. Are You Being Served? would continue until 1985, and on top of that he debuted a couple of more classics.

Hi-de-Hi! was written with his Dad's Army collaborator Jimmy Perry. It explores a world that is fairly alien to most Americans: that of a typical British holiday camp and the people whose job it is to entertain "holidaymakers."

The series was set in the late 50s, once again allowing for that sense of nostalgia that Croft does best. Star Simon Cadell (David Croft's son-in-law) played Jeffrey Fairbrother, the entertainment director at Maplin's holiday camp. It is his job (and unfortunately, one for which he is not well-suited) to watch over the employees. These include a prankish comic, snobbish ballroom dancers, a Punch and Judy puppeteer who hates children and more.

Hi-de-Hi! ran from 1981-1988 and also starred Su Pollard, Jeffrey Holland and Paul Shane, who later starred in Croft's You Rang, M'Lord? Simon Cadell left after the fourth season and David Griffin (Emmet from Keeping Up Appearances) replaced him as new entertainment director Clive Dempster.)

In 1984, Croft debuted another winner - a wartime comedy called 'Allo 'Allo!, co-written with AYBS? scribe Jeremy Lloyd.

'Allo 'Allo!

The setting was Nazi-occupied France during WWII and 'Allo 'Allo! contained all the hallmarks of a Croft sitcom. It was a perfectly cast ensemble piece with large doses of slapstick, farce, catchphrases, another fey character similar to Mr. Humphries plus plenty of sight gags and well-endowed women. This time, the theme of well-endowed women even extended to a painting that became an important part of the plot - The Fallen Madonna With The Big Boobies by an artist called Van Clomp.

'Allo 'Allo! starred Gorden Kaye as Rene Artois, café owner and suave ladies man, whose life becomes more complicated than it already is when his café becomes a meeting place for members of the French resistance.

He is helped at the café by the women in his life. Edith, his wife (the wonderful Carmen Silvera), attempts to be a chanteuse, but her bad voice causes customers to use cheese as ear plugs. Rene also lusts after one of the waitresses, Yvette (Vicki Michelle), with whom he is often caught in compromising positions. He always manages to find some lame brained excuse to explain these trysts to Edith and luckily, she buys them.

Also residing at the café is Edith's sickly mother (Rose Hill), who is inconvenienced each time a message comes through from the British since her bed must be raised in order to get to the wireless receiver.

Other regulars included the French resistance fighter Michelle (Kirsten Cooke), who would show up in the oddest places to give Rene messages, always preceded by her catchphrase, "Leesen verrry carefully, I weel zay zis only once..." More laughs came from the mispronunciations supplied by the gendarme Crabtree (Arthur Bostrom), who is supposed to be English but who absolutely mangles the language. "Good moaning" was his most famous catchphrase.

The German bad guys were represented by Herr Flick, his aide-de-campe, the fey Lt. Gruber (who also has something of a crush on Rene), and his ferocious right-hand secretary Helga (Kim Hartman).

Since this program was an equal opportunity offender, however, Croft and Lloyd even had a go at their fellow countrymen in the form of two British airmen who are shown as totally incapable twits.

'Allo 'Allo! reached dizzying heights of silliness, even if the farcical, highly convoluted plots could be a bit hard to follow. Rene would often speak to the camera and offer an explanation/plot update, but it never seemed to help.

'Allo! Allo! isn't as well-known in the States as other Croft sitcoms, but it lasted an incredible 85 episodes. A stage play based on the program had very successful runs in both the UK and Australia.

by Michelle Street, The Insider, March 2002

Related links

5 

Tea Customs

Every country serves tea in a manner that expresses its own culture. In China, a cup of tea is a customary way to welcome a guest. In Morocco, shopkeepers still greet prospective customers with a glass of sweet, mint-flavored green tea. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, tea is a welcome pick-me-up at eleven in the morning and four in the afternoon.

In Russia, tea was served with a slice of lemon, a dollop of raspberry jam, or a lump of sugar to be held between the teeth, as a comforting supplement to the one large, daily meal served in traditional Russian households. To make certain that there was a constant supply of freshly brewed tea available, the Russians developed their own way of brewing, using a samovar. The large boiler, or giant kettle, kept water hot all day long. A small teapot filled with tea concentrate rested on its crow, so that a cup of hot tea was available anytime by mixing a small amount of concentrate with hot water.

It was the British or, to be more precise, Anna, the seventh duchess of Bedford, who introduced the delectable custom of afternoon tea to the Western world. The nineteenth-century practice of eating an early breakfast and a late dinner made afternoons long and lean, and Anna solved this dilemma by serving tea with a tantalizing tray of gourmet goodies. Today, this tradition continues to fortify and delight thirty-something power brokers as well as the after-school nursery tea set.

By far the most remarkable tea custom is the Japanese tea ceremony. Known as Chanoyu, this ritual has become an important part of Japanese culture since tea was introduced to Japan more than five hundred years ago by Zen monks traveling from China. Once reserved exclusively for men, it is now a ritual that both men and women are welcome to study and share. The Japanese consider the tea ceremony a refuge in which spirit, man, and nature come together, where serenity allows knowledge to become wisdom.

Whether the ceremony takes place in a home or in a separate teahouse, there are guidelines to nurture every aspect, from the selection of guests to the choice of food, utensils, and topics of conversation. The sprinkling of water around a host's entry gate informs guests that preparations are complete and they are welcome to come in. As they remove their coats and shoes, slip into sandals, and walk down the garden path to the teahouse, they leave behind the outside world.

Although different schools of theory govern the ceremony, every gesture by the host and his guests is part of a prescribed ritual. Guided by centuries-old customs, the host or hostess places a small amount of powdered tea, call Matcha, into a tea bowl and, using a bamboo whisk and water, whips it into a light green froth. The tea is reverently poured, offered, and sipped. In this simple and elaborate ceremony, host and guests acknowledge the four principles of an enlightened life - purity, harmony, respect and tranquility.

The New Tea Book, by Sara Perry

6 

Tea With Jane Austen
by Kim Wilson

Tea in the Evening

7 

Tea Advisor

Aspects of Tea Production

[During the first half of the 19th century], the role of the East India Company had fundamentally changed, for Parliament had removed the monopoly the Company had enjoyed of trade between Britain and China. As from 22 April 1834 the China trade was opened to all. A year later the Company's Charter came up for renewal, and its position in India was transformed. It, in effect, became an agent for the British government, administering the country and collecting taxes on its behalf. It ceased to trade on its own account. Following the Indian "Mutiny" of 1857, the Company was stripped of this privilege too, and the British government took over the direct rule of British India. The Company was, of course, generously compensated - with money from the Indians.

China's trade with the West had originally been opened up by the Portuguese. A fleet of their ships had first visited Canton in 1517, and they had established "factories" (trading posts) at several places along the Chinese coast. In 1545 the Chinese attacked them. Many Portuguese were killed, and their ships destroyed. By 1549 all their factories had been closed. However, in 1557 they were allowed to re-establish themselves at Macao, a two-mile long spit of land sixty-five miles south of Canton.

A British ship first visited Canton in 1637, but it was 1699 before they managed to start regular trade and establish a factory. The Chinese allocated fifteen acres for the foreigners, and the British were crowded against the other nations' factories, including those of the Dutch, the French, the Americans, the Spanish and the Danes. To avoid any suggestion that the foreigners had any rights over the land, they were only allowed to stay for six months. Access to the rest of China was forbidden. The foreigners welcomed the enforced sojourn in Macao, for they were forbidden to bring any women, whether wives or mistresses, to Canton. Moreover, the Chinese women were forbidden to them. In Macao, the foreign men were free to keep their families, or make other liaisons, or visit the many brothels.

The Chinese, confident in their superiority, refused to have diplomatic relations with any country that refused to acknowledge inferior status. All dealing by foreign merchants were required to be conducted through a guild of Chinese merchants, the Cobong, who in turn were supervised by Chinese Imperial officials.

Tea | By Roy Moxham

8 

Mystery of the Month

What Is Your Guess?

Case One

With pounding hearts, six women take off running when they hear a gunshot. Without even a second glance at the women, the man with the gun calmly lowers the still-smoking revolver and walks away. He does not fire another shot, but makes no attempt to flee. The entire scene is captured by live TV news cameras, but no arrest is made.

The Mystery
Why did the man shoot and how far away from the man did the women run?

Clues

• The man shoots guns on a regular basis.
• The man does not know any of the women personally.
• The women were expecting to hear a shot.
• The women ran as fast as they could without looking back until they reached a barrier.
• The man is paid to shoot, but he's never hit anyone.
• The women ran for less than 12 seconds.

Case Two

Dr. Cooper, a registered surgeon, goes into surgery and immediately passes out. The operation is finished by the time that Dr. Cooper comes to. After a physical and a night's rest, he is called upon to perform an operation on a young child. Even though the hospital authorities know that the patient will die if Dr. Cooper passes out again, no other surgeon is present.

The Mystery
Why did Dr. Cooper pass out and why is he trusted to perform the operation on the child?

Clues

• Dr. Cooper is an experienced surgeon.
• Dr. Cooper's operation was a success.
• Dr. Cooper has never passed out before and there is no reason to believe that Dr. Cooper will pass out again.
• It did not surprise anyone that Dr. Cooper passed out.
• Even after Dr. Cooper passed out, the initial operation could not have proceeded without him.
• Dr. Cooper was not operating when he passed out.

Be sure to check the November 2007 edition of the Tea Times for the answers

Answers to September Mysteries:

Case One: All three people are on treadmills in a gym.
Case Two: The man drowned and the body was washed out to sea.

30 Second Mysteries, © University Games

9 

England's Calendar of Events | October

Summer Of Love Exhibition - The Karl Ferris Experience

Through October 6, 2007

St. Paul's Gallery in Birmingham celebrates the 40th anniversary of the Summer Of Love. The Karl Ferris Experience is the UK's largest exhibition of psychedelic art from the 1960s. Ferris is renowned for being the "godfather" of psychedelic photography and created album covers for Jimi Hendrix, Cream, Donovan and many more artists of the era.

www.whatsonwhen.com

British National Surfing Championships

October 2007

The British National Surfing Championships take place at the glorious beach at Tynemouth. Around 150 of the best British surfers are expected to battle it out in the Women's, Men's and Seniors competitions. Having the contest late in the season should ensure the best possible waves for the surfers, as well as testing their endurance in the chilly waters.

This being the UK and not Hawaii, poor weather conditions or the absence of surf could lead to the event date being moved. If in doubt, please check with the British Surfing Association.

www.whatsonwhen.com

International Ballroom Dancing Championships

October 11, 2007

The International Ballroom Dancing Championships features the best dance talent in the country in competition at the Royal Albert Hall.

Known as the Elsa Wells Championships to aficionados, 360 of the world's foremost amateur and professional exponents of competitive DanceSport compete for the International Standard and Latin titles.

www.whatsonwhen.com

10 

Pumpkin-Apple Muffins

It's that time of year again when thoughts turn to pumpkin. These muffins would be very nice for a Sunday brunch!

Ingredients

• 1 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and finely chopped
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Preparation

1. Combine first 6 ingredients in a large bowl; make a well in center of mixture. Combine pumpkin, butter, and eggs, and add to dry ingredients, stirring just until moistened. Fold in chopped apple, and spoon into greased muffin pans, filling two-thirds full.
2. Combine 3 tablespoons sugar and 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice; sprinkle evenly over muffins.
3. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Remove from pans immediately, and cool on wire racks.
4. Yield: 2 dozen

www.myrecipes.com

11 

Afternoon Teaisms

Rhymes and Wits

Three Little Ghostesses

Three little ghostesses
Sitting on postesses,
Eating buttered toastesses,
Greasing their fistesse,
Up to their wristesses,
Oh, what beastesses
To make such feastesse!

Ghosts don't have shadows and leave no footprints.
Wearing garlic around your neck will keep vampires away!
Shooting a werewolve with a silver bullet is supposed to kill it.
If you throw a key at a ghost, the ghost will disappear.
If a candle flame turns blue, it means a ghost is in the house.
Some people believe that cat bones make you invisible.

cstitcher.tripod.com/hpoems.html

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