Keep Your Trousers On For Comedy, History And All You Need To Know About Irish Snakes

Sydney Morning Herald

Friday March 11, 2005

Doug Anderson

Seriously Funny

9.30pm, Ten: Off we go to Melbourne, that hilarious southern capital, for some serious laughs. Not from the remorselessly effervescent Steve Bracks or the always ebullient and amusing Jeff Kennett for a change. Who could forget the brilliant comic timing and wit Mr Kennett displayed in shovelling dirt over assembled media types at some sod-turning event? Brilliant! But it's not enough to be simply funny or witty these days. Absolutely not! Comedians have to be seriously funny. And with the likes of Will Anderson, Dave Hughes and Danny Bhoy on the bill there's every chance this two-hour program will push the envelope with some vigour.

The Paris Bordello

10pm, SBS: Not exactly Brideshead Revisited but a repeat of a program which conducts an informative excursion through les maisons closes - the state-sanctioned brothels that catered to randy messieurs in Paris throughout the so-called "golden years". These were not the same Golden Years of Hollywood that Bill Collins used to rhapsodise over. The era was begun by Napoleon at the start of the 19th century and ended by France's first women deputies in 1948. In Britain chaps had their clubs - in Paris they had their bordellos. This is an interesting and informative program with slender hint of the sadness and misery that undoubtedly existed behind the air of gaiety on demand.

FOR THE WEEKEND

The Memphis Trousers Half Hour

9.30pm Sat, ABC: Memphis gave the world Elvis Presley, then took Malcolm Fraser's strides. Now it's time to deliver a dividend. Billed as a scalding 30 minutes, the return of H.G. Nelson and the occasionally debonair Roy Slaven - last seen in the crockery-strewn precincts of the Sparta Club on Seven's deeply jingoistic archeological program, The Dream in Athens - is long overdue. But Saturday night? Is this an optimum timeslot for Memphis-style trouser sensations? After Gardening Australia, Monarch of The Glen and The Bill - (the Blue Hills of British cop drama) - a savage and committed depot shot of sport, entertainment and culture will be necessary. Seriously.

Sunday

9am, Nine: Various noises of concern have emanated from government quarters since the Kafkaesque situation involving Cornelia Rau became public. But the sound of hand-wringing has been louder than the words and a picture of the 10 months the 39-year-old former Qantas flight attendant spent adrift in limbo after succumbing to mental illness is beginning to emerge from the mire of bureaucratic neglect and the haze of inadequate systems. Helen Dalley talks with Rau's former associates in Baxter and unravels parts of the Gordian knot that consigned her there as a stateless person accused of being an illegal immigrant.

Compass

10.05pm Sun, ABC: How exactly did St Patrick rid Ireland of venomous serpents? Could his secrets not be utilised today to rid the nation of vile American Idol-style talent quests? The life and times of Ireland's patron saint are examined in this engaging profile.

Lost Worlds

7.30pm Sun, SBS: Is there anything useful to be learned in Toledo where, in the Middle Ages, Christian, Jewish and Muslim scholars worked together in the pursuit of knowledge, mathematics, science and translation? This four-part series swoops back to the turbulent times of monks and heretics, and finds that in spite of the fear and loathing abroad in Europe, the first seeds of the modern age were beginning to germinate. And if all else fails - vis a vis enlightenment - there's a very nice cake shop in the main square near the cathedral that has its own sweet links with revelation.

© 2005 Sydney Morning Herald

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