While
American stand-up comedy in the '70s and '80s was in "rock star" mode,
dominated by outsized personalities, the British comedy clubs were following
the leads of punk and new wave, emphasizing class-conscious character studies,
sly put-ons, and surrealist goofery. One of masterminds of the "alternative
comedy" scene was Ben Elton, who came out of Manchester alongside Rik Mayall
and Adrian Edmonson to co-create the seminal series The Young Ones. Simultaneous to The Young Ones, Elton hooked up with a quartet of
Cambridge Footlights alums—Paul Shearer, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, and
Emma Thompson—to develop the dry, subtle sketch comedy program Alfresco, which aired on ITV in 1983 and
'84. Alfresco
was nowhere near as riotous as The Young Ones, nor as mind-bendingly brilliant as
alt-comedy forerunner Monty Python's Flying Circus. The show was, first and foremost,
a performance showcase, giving a cast of talented young comic actors (including
Robbie Coltrane and Siobhan Redmond) a chance to wear a lot of different skins.
The
double-disc Alfresco DVD set contains all 13 episodes that Elton and company produced, plus
the three-episode pilot series There's Nothing To Worry About. Much of the humor in these 16
episodes is more conceptual than funny, and relies heavily on certain
types—the indifferent shopgirl, the pub-crawling prat, the clueless
aristocrat, the fatuous TV presenter, etc.—that have been staples of
British comedy so long that they've become clichés. But by Alfresco's 1984 run, the cast developed an
easy chemistry that made them fun to watch even when the jokes were thin. Fry
and Laurie especially had crackerjack timing together, and would continue to
show it on three subsequent British TV series. But the real revelation of Alfresco is Thompson, who's
had such a long career as a high-toned actress and screenwriter that it's easy
to forget she started as a comedian. Thompson transitions easily between
playing dowagers, pop stars, party girls, secretaries, journalists, and
whatever else is needed, and she plays them all with a sincerity that
transcends the snarky nose-thumbing that often defined the alternative comedy
movement. If the purpose of alt-comedy was to get beyond farce and double-entendres
and reveal the real UK, then Thompson did more for the cause than anyone.
Key
features: Nothing,
outside of a four-page booklet offering a modest history.