Show Notes
This week’s guest President is the wonderfully entertaining Guy Siner. A ctor, raconteur, accidental international man of mystery and, of course, the man who brought Lieutenant Gruber magnificently to life in ’Allo ’Allo! Once safely installed, Tony’s enchanted bingo machine does its usual work, conjuring three numbers from the Dewey Decimal System and sending us off into the great outdoors. And our first destination is…
213 — Creation What do you believe happens when all of this begins? Guy was brought up as a Christian, confirmed at eleven so that he could become a godfather, but eventually arrived at a rather more humanist philosophy: we are here, we have been created somehow, and while we are here we might as well enjoy ourselves. That leads us into faith, atheism, the emotional nature of belief, and whether you can ever actually argue somebody into or out of faith. It also leads, inevitably, to Guy’s considerable love of the natural world. Animals, trees, meadows, landscapes and the simple pleasure of being alive all feature prominently although, as Guy cheerfully admits, he loves animals rather more than he loves people. There is also the small matter of cats.
379 — Educational Policy Our second number gives us an excuse to go back to the beginning. Guy is Anglo-American, born in New York to an American father and English mother, before being brought back to England at the age of five and educated here. That experience of belonging simultaneously to two countries and, in a sense, to neither of them completely. is one of the fascinating threads running through his story. From there we arrive at the extraordinary training ground that was the old repertory system. After drama school, Guy was sent away to learn his trade and, in just thirteen months, appeared in twenty-two plays. Drama, comedy, musicals, old men, young men, singing, dancing- the lot. It was an apprenticeship in the fullest sense, and Guy is passionate about what that kind of training taught him: that everybody in a theatre or studio matters. The actor cannot do their job if the person operating the cable cannot do theirs.
940 — History of Europe And now, surely, we must talk about Europe. There is Doctor Who, where a young Guy Siner terrified a generation as General Raven. There is his extraordinary work in television and film. There is That’s My Bush!, where he discovered that the supposedly German dialogue had been translated into complete gibberish and decided, brilliantly, that the best thing to do was simply perform the nonsense exactly as written. And then, of course, there is ’Allo ’Allo! Guy takes us behind the scenes of one of Britain’s most beloved sitcoms, explaining why the writing of David Croft and Jeremy Lloyd was so extraordinarily precise, why the cast worked so well together, and why the programme could make virtually everyone the butt of the joke without giving anybody the moral high ground.
Presented by Paul Carmichael & Allan Lear With their special guest President Guy Siner and Sir Stephen Fry as the voice of the Bingo Machine.
Music composed and performed by Michael Livesley & Andy Frizell
The voice of Pwfthhh- Michael Livesley www.michaellivesley.com
Series Researcher- Soula Carmichael
Series Producers- Erica Lear and Mark Hutchinson
Producers- Alan Dyebing & Stuart Morris
Executive Producer- Mark Strickson
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More from Tony Slattery's Rambling Club
Would you believe it? Two whole years of Tony Slattery’s Rambling Club! And to celebrate, we’ve invited a few friends into the shed for a special gathering. There is, however, a slight hitch. The bingo machine, having served us faithfully for two years, has finally decided to take a well-earned rest. The gears are grinding, the balls have stopped rolling, and the great outdoors will have to manage without us for once. So, with no numbers to guide us and no particular destination in mind, we settle down for a good old-fashioned natter.
Would you believe it? This week’s guest President is the magnificent David Schofield and after a brief encounter with darts, Yorkshire tea and a suspicious-looking path through the shed, the enchanted bingo machine sends us off into the great outdoors once again.
Would you believe it? This week’s guest President is the wonderful actor, director and writer Paul Clayton, and the enchanted bingo machine has once again decided that our ramble should take us somewhere we really weren’t expecting.
The Rambling Shed has gone on holiday this week before the last of the good weather departs. In the meantime, please enjoy this classic episode starring Nigel Planer and our late President, Tony Slattery.
With a thump and a grinding of gears, Tony's magic bingo machine has kicked back into action.