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Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club (The): The Complete Second Series (TV)
R2 - United Kingdom - Network Review written by and copyright: Paul Lewis (20th July 2010). |
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The Show
 The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club: The Complete Second Series (Granada, 1975) 
Growing out of the popular stand-up comedy series The Comedians (Granada, 1971-92), The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club (Granada, 1974-7) offered an attempt to capture the spirit of Northern club comedy for the medium of television. The Comedians had attempted to do this by placing a number of prominent pub and club comics in a television studio, in front of a live audience, cutting quickly from gag to gag. (The Comedians used the then-relatively new technology of videotape editing to piece together the strongest jokes: in Turned Out Nice Again: The Story of British Light Entertainment[2008], Louis Barfe asserts that around eighty per cent of the material filmed was not used in the series, and producer Johnnie Hamp’s ‘stroke of genius was to take only the very best gags and use the new technology of videotape editing to create a quick-fire comedic assault’ (245).) The Comedians was notoriously un-PC, featuring controversial comics such as Bernard Manning, Charlie Williams and Mike Reid. Many of The Comedians introduced in the series went on to become household names, with long careers in television (the aforementioned Mike Reid, Jim Bowen, Frank Carson), and The Comedians is a landmark show inasmuch as it represented the first major attempt to capture the spirit of pub and club comedy for television audiences (see Littlewood & Pickering, 1998: 297). Although the type of humour represented in The Comedians was considered ‘old hat’ by the 1980s – when the alternative comedians of the era reacted against the more conventional jokes of the pub and club comics, and foregrounded sketch-based comedy and situational humour (as per The Young Ones; BBC, 1982-4; and A Kick up the Eighties, BBC, 1981-4) – in recent years, traditional stand-up comedy has seen something of a revival on television, thanks to series such as the BBC’s Live at the Apollo (2004- ) and, even more recently, Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow (BBC, 2009- ). Other recent shows, such as Mock the Week (BBC, 2005- ) and 8 Out of 10 Cats (C4, 2005- ), have offered an ironic recuperation of the brand of non-PC humour that was showcased by many of the club comics featured on The Comedians.  
Dave Russell, in Looking North: Northern England and the National Imagination (2004), argues that The Comedians ‘did much to cement the notion of the “club” as a core institution of northern comedy’ (196). By the mid-1970s, the culture of working-men’s club comedy became a mainstream topic, escaping its trappings of region and class: Trevor Griffith’s 1975 play Comedians (televised in 1979 as part of the BBC’s Play for Today strand) featured a dramatic take on the life of a comedian on the club circuit. By the early-2000s, the culture of Northern working-men’s clubs was so embedded in popular consciousness that Peter Kay’s situation comedy Phoenix Nights (Channel 4, 2001-2) could provide a comfortable deconstruction of it for a mainstream television audience. Taking The Comedians’ focus on club comedy one step further, The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club attempted to capture the spirit of the working men’s clubs more directly, by recreating one for the audience. Each episode takes place in the fictional ‘Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club’ of the title, rather than in a traditional television studio. The acts frequently interact with the audience, and compere Bernard Manning delivers his introductions (and his opening sing-a-longs) from within the audience. The club also featured a chairman (played by Colin Crompton) who would frequently interrupt the acts by ringing a bell and making announcements from ‘the committee’; Crompton’s performance as the chairman was supposedly inspired by Hull comedian Norman Collier’s act (see Mason, 2009: np). According to producer Johnnie Hamp, the audience ‘were lulled into forgetting they were on television by an absence of the procedures that usually characterize television recordings’: for example, the shows began without a countdown (Barfe, op cit.: 246). Hamp’s successor David Liddiment once noted that ‘What was clever about The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club [was that] when you went into studio 6 for a recording of the Wheeltappers you were not in studio 6. You were in a club. It was four walls, it ran uninterrupted, they never stopped. If something went wrong, Bernard [Manning] would come on, do a bit of banter with Colin [Crompton], the show never stopped’ (quoted in ibid.: 246-7). The shows feature a variety of club-style acts, including stand-up comics (Duggie Brown, the great Charlie Williams), musical performances (Matt Monro, Roy Orbison, Brotherhood of Man, Russ Conway), impressionists (Franklyn James, Dave Evans) and ventriloquism (David Copperfield).  
The show’s weakness is arguably in its variety; the show can sometimes seem unfocused, and unlike The Comedians there is no attempt to edit out the ‘flab’ – the acts, regardless of quality, are left to play out in their entirety. This is part of the charm, but also the key weakness of The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club. As with the first series, Colin Crompton’s in-character interjections are arguably the highlight of most of the episodes. (During an appearance by a strongman, Paul Winter, Crompton declares, 'He is now going to tear a telephone directory in 'alf'. Then we well have one for the lounge and one for the games room'.) Disc One: 27/07/1974 (38:53) 03/08/1974 (39:09) 10/08/1974 (39:21) 17/08/1974 (39:47) Disc Two: 24/08/1974 (39:23) 31/08/1974 (38:34) 07/09/1974 (39:19) New Year Special: 31/12/1974 (50:12)
Video
The episodes are presented in their original broadcast screen ratio of 4:3. Shot on video, the episodes display some minor tape damage. Colours are consistent, although the episodes display the weaknesses of shot-on-video television programming.  
The original break bumpers are intact.
Audio
Audio is presented via a two-channel track which is effective and clear. There are no subtitles.
Extras
None, which is a shame as a series such as this (and the brand of television entertainment, and club humour, it represents) begs for contextualisation.
Overall
Arguably a little weaker than the first series (largely due to the acts themselves; there’s much more musical acts during this series, many of which have dated very badly), the second series of The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club seems to contain a more defined structure to each episode. There are some good acts here (Charlie Williams’ turn during the New Year Special, in which he addresses Manning as ‘Humpty Dumpty’, is a particular highlight), and the presentation of the series is efficient – if nothing spectacular. Some contextual material would be welcome, but considering the niche appeal of the series it’s unlikely. Please also see our review of the first series of The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club. References: Littlewood, Jane & Pickering, Michael, 1998: ‘Heard the One About the White Middle-Class Heterosexual Father-in-Law?: Gender, ethnicity and political correctness in comedy’. In: Wagg, Stephen (ed), 1998: Because I Tell a Joke Or Two: Comedy, Politics and Social Difference. London: Routledge: 291-312 Mason, Sue, 2009: ‘When Being Funny’s Just a Job’. [Online.] http://www.thisishullandeastriding.co.uk/news/funny-8217-s-just-job/article-786534-detail/article.html Russell, Dave, 2004: Looking North: Northern England and the National Imagination. Manchester University Press Barfe, Louis, 2008: Turned Out Nice Again: The Story of British Light Entertainment. London: Atlantic Books Logan, Brian, 2009: ‘The new offenders of stand-up comedy’. The Guardian (27 July, 2009): en Slott, Andrew, 2005: Comedy. London: Routledge For more information, please visit the homepage of Network DVD.
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