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"Turnbull's Finest Half-Hour" (1972)
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Overview
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Cast
(Series Cast Summary - 7 of 8) | Michael Bates | ... | Maj. Clifford Turnbull (5 episodes, 1972) |
| Blake Butler | ... | Bernard Pratt (5 episodes, 1972) |
| Liz Fraser | ... | Faye Bush (5 episodes, 1972) |
| Alan Helm | ... | Charlie (5 episodes, 1972) |
| Jonathan Lynn | ... | Roddy Cheever-Jones (5 episodes, 1972) |
| Roddy Maude-Roxby | ... | Rex Rivoli (5 episodes, 1972) |
| Leonard Trolley | ... | Jellico Withers (5 episodes, 1972) |
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UK:30 min (6 episodes)
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*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Long before the onset of multi-channel television, this short-lived sitcom provided a glimpse of things to come. Clifford Turnbull, a pompous ex-army major, is hired by Sir Zachary Stein, chairman of Pentagon Television, to boost the small station's flagging ratings. He tries to run it like a military operation - slashing budgets, sacking staff, stealing credit for other people's ideas and coming up with inane ones of his own. Everything he touches turns to disaster; for example, a 'This Is Your Life'-styled show ends with the victim's family brawling live on air. He is not helped by the fact that the channel is virtually a talent-free zone.
Michael Bates and Raymond Huntley headed up the cast, which included Liz Fraser, Jonathan Lynn and Roddy Maude-Roxby. Ken Hoare and Mike Sharland's scripts were more satirical than was the norm for I.T.V. sitcoms of the period, which probably explains why Yorkshire Television buried it in an obscure time slot. It developed a cult following ( it was rumoured Alan Bennett was a fan ), but that was not enough to save it.
The premise would later be revisited in Eric Idle's 'Rutland Weekend Television' and 'K.Y.T.V.' staring Angus Deayton. It would be fascinating to see 'Turnbull's Finest Half-Hour' again after all this time, just to see how much of its prophecies have come to pass.