#ruby wax

[yonderghostshistories]

Monty Python Fan watches Red Dwarf for the first time

(or, a Monty Python fan watches the Red Dwarf episode “Timeslides” for the first time)

Recently watched the Red Dwarf S3 Ep5 episode “Timeslides” for the first time, and I really liked and enjoyed it fr! It was very funny tbh, and ngl I fr relate with Lister’s existential dread with lounging about with nothing to do and wishing things went differently. I would absolutely love a Tension Sheet fr, I think it’d help me with my anxiety tbh

Kryten & Cat are so cool I absolutely love them both <33

Holly is a Sarcastic Queen fr 💅👑✨

Ruby Wax as Blaise (/Blaize) Falconburger was also pretty funny too, I really enjoyed her performance in the episode!

Ok the reason I did watch this episode was partly (actually no, not “partly”, it’s was “entirely” really lol) because of the fact that Monty Python member Graham Chapman was originally gonna play the role of Blaise(/Blaize) Falconburger, but he unfortunately passed away before rehearsals and filming began, and so the role was given to Ruby Wax at the last minute.

Idk why, but if in some AU where Graham never had cancer (or, at the very least in an AU where Graham’s cancer wasn’t as rapid and he was still well enough to at least appear in cameos or smth idk), this scene truly would’ve hit different at the time as it probably would’ve been, like, his final final acting role or smth, ya’know what I mean?

Like the episode is about people entering into photographs, like MOVING photographs, and so if Graham appeared in this episode as was originally planned, his performance really would’ve really given the episode a whole new meaning to it. Like the episode is about people going into the past via photographs from the past, and trying to change the timeline so they could have a different future compared to the one they currently have, so they could have a better AU life than the one they currently have, an AU life where they are happy and content compared to the mundane monotony and lack of excitement in their original life. Graham’s would-be performance had he not died would’ve (imo) represented this heightened sense of longing to be in a AU where everything is alright and good and happy and the world was ok for once (like for example, Graham Chapman not having cancer and is still alive and well and happy), as well as being really emotional too 🥺🥺😭😭❤️❤️.

Anyway, those are my thoughts and I apologise for making everyone sad now.

To cheer myself and y’all, the Red Dwarf theme song absolutely slaps fr 💯💯💯

@gcballet @iiep-wop

[of-fear-and-love]

Technology from Shock Treatment (1981)

[kwebtv]

Girls on Top - ITV - October 23, 1985 - December 11, 1986

Sitcom (13 Episodes)

Running Time: 30 minutes

Stars:

Dawn French as Amanda Ripley

Jennifer Saunders as Jennifer Marsh

Ruby Wax as Shelley DuPont

Tracey Ullman as Candice Valentine

Joan Greenwood as Lady Chloe Carlton

[a-girl-and-her-quotes]

Ruby Wax

[abfabsweetiedarlings]

Saunders, who plays PR boss Edina “Eddie” Monsoon on the show, and Dame Joanna, known for portraying her alcoholic friend Patsy Stone, will appear alongside Julia Sawalha (Saffron Monsoon) and Jane Horrocks (Bubble), as well as a roster of famous faces.

[tellurian-in-aristasia]

Sunday Tribune - Sunday 24 June 1990

Apparently at some point in early 1991 the Aristasians were featured in a programme about "offbeat" characters around Ireland. I am unsure if this ever made it to the air, but Ruby Wax did host a talk show from early 1991 to 1994 called The Full Wax.

[hankhill420]

Obligatory “does this bird belong to you?”

Also I just noticed the Freud and Somïnex on the bedside table… hm

[hbcsource]

@billie_charity: Some behind the scenes pics from @hayfestival 😍

[neil-neil-orange-peel]

Girls on Top ♀️

I finally watched Girls on Top (starring Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, Ruby Wax, Tracey Ullman, and featuring Joan Greenwood). My immediate thoughts were: wow, the title graphics and theme tune are extremely '80s. They feel so old! They're kind of almost cute in how old and nostalgic they are. Also, the board saying "COMEDY DEGRADES WOMEN" that appears briefly in the first series' opening credits before Dawn's glaring face is revealed amused me.

I can see why for marketing reasons this was dubbed the female version of The Young Ones. That must have been an almost guaranteed way to attract viewers in 1985. In fairness, Girls on Top is about four young women sharing a flat (well, three once Tracey left after the first series due to pregnancy). As well as this, Dawn's character (Amanda Ripley) and Jen's character (Jennifer Marsh) can definitely be directly compared to Rick and Neil, respectively. The two groups share similar struggles of paying the rent, the four of them are very different and don't get on, and the last episode ends with a bang. The central set in both shows too is, of course, the shared living space.

That said, Girls on Top isn't a cut and paste female Young Ones, for a number of reasons. It isn't as surreal, has a more developed outside world for its characters to exist in, isn't about students, and I believe the fourth wall is only broken occasionally - at the end of episodes, which is arguably just the actors half breaking character to address the audience. Girls on Top was also made for ITV, not the BBC, which I'm sure will have had an impact too. I think the differences to TYO are a good thing, to be honest.

Anyway, though Girls on Top takes a few episodes to warm up, I liked it. The contrast of personalities between the characters works - the way Ruby plays Shelley DuPont compared to the way Jen plays Jennifer feel at opposite ends of the comic spectrum at points, but both work perfectly for the characters. I always appreciate sitcoms where women are allowed to be flawed and awful people, rather than stock types for the funny male characters to play off. Girls on Top is very much about women; if it wasn't obvious through all the regulars being women, you can tell by the jokes and references to periods, feminism, diets, etc. Amanda in particular is a self-righteous, man-hating, second-wave feminist (and a massive middle class hypocrite - you can see the obvious comparison with Rick 😂). I guess you could say, while The Young Ones is about young people, Girls on Top is about women. Obviously, it's not that the characters in Girls on Top aren't young (although, they're not meant to be as young as the lads from TYO... apart from Mike), but the fact that they're women is more integral to the premise.

In the same sense, The Young Ones' characters all being men doesn't seem to be something the show chose hyper specifically. Man was and still is the default over woman, so the specific choice TYO made was to have a sitcom about young people; the fact they all happen to be men is secondary to that, though not at all surprising. Of course they're men. The experiences of young men are the default young person experiences, right? The experiences of young women have to be defined by their Womanness before their Youngness, right? That's a very stripped down way of putting it, not even addressing other important social factors like race and class, but you get what I mean. Interestingly, Lise Mayer has talked recently about how she thinks, retrospectively, they could have had one of the main characters in TYO be a woman but that at the time the characters were all written for the specific comics who played them, who were all men (again, apart from Mike 😂). Obviously, the dynamic between men VS the dynamic between men and women (especially if the split is notably uneven) would make for different comedies, particularly back then, but it's still an interesting thought.

To get back to Girls on Top, I think I'd have to say my favourite character is Jennifer. She is very dim and absolutely the group punching bag, like Neil, but I think the fact she doesn't go out of her way to look for sympathy makes her more sympathetic than Neil (and Neil isn't NOT sympathetic, as much as any of the lads are meant to be sympathetic, it's just he's also a passive aggressive bastard too 😂). In the final episode, when she finally gets the opportunity to get one over on Shelley and Amanda, we're on her side. Her obliviousness in the face of other characters' - particularly Shelley's and Amanda's - overinflated egos and neuroses means she gets a fair few punchlines, as well. I mean, how does one respond to their bossy, melodramatic diva of a housemate threatening to off herself?

SHELLEY: Now, leave! I've decided to commit suicide!

JENNIFER: Alright then, if you're sure you're okay.

Amazing. 😂

I'd say this show is worth watching if you're into the "alternative comedy" cohort. Aside from the main quartet, almost every episode features a familiar face as a guest star. Some of the guest stars even appear in multiple episodes (Helen Lederer, Pauline Melville). Here's a YouTube playlist featuring the first series, from the same account that ended Hardwicke House's 30 years of obscurity:

[sweetness-doesnt-touch-my-face]

Please enjoy this priceless exchange between two ICONIC manic depressives, Carrie Fisher and Elizabeth Wurtzel.

[yonderghostshistories]

IT IS NOW FINALLY FINISHED.

Ladies, Gentlemen & Non-Binary Pals, I present to you…..

My AU Fanart of……..Graham Chapman as Blaise Falconburger in the episode “Timeslides” from Red Dwarf (with & without glasses)

(with & without glasses on white background)

(with & without glasses on episode scene background)

I consider this to be one of my personal Magnum Opuses (among many upon many of my other Magnum Opuses <33)

But still I really love what I’ve done here and I hope anyone who sees this enjoys it here too!

@gcballet @iiep-wop @raxacoricofallapatorius42

w/reference photos under the cut

[247snob2]

Incredible 👏🏻🥂❤️‍🔥

*meh title. It's not what this is about. *temperature of the room i guess 💔

[motionpicturelover]

If you haven't seen this camp masterpiece follow-up to "The Rocky Horror Picture Show", do so immediately!

[kwebtv]

Dawn French as Amanda Ripley, Tracey Ullman as Candice Valentine, Joan Greenwood as Lady Chloe Carlton, Ruby Wax as Shelley DuPont and Jennifer Saunders as Jennifer Marsh in "Girls on Top"