The Phantom Piddler and Other Fairy Tales

Production

Episode: 16
Date: February 26, 1973
Time:
Musical Director:
Vocals:
Choreography:
Producer: Peter Whitmore
Director:
Writer: Dave Allen, Austin Steele and Peter Vincent

Episode

• Coming Up

Highlights

• Coming Up

Cast

• Dave Allen
• Ronnie Brody
• Jacqueline Clarke
• Michael Sharvell-Martin
• Peter Hawkins
• Robert East

Quotes

• Dave Allen - "If you've been watching the show, you might have noticed that we have a small company of people in the show comprised of six people, and if you've been watching very carefully, you might have noticed one of them is physically different to the rest of us. (pauses) I'm not talking about the fat one with the the mustache; I'm talking of the female in our company - Ladies and Gentlemen, Mrs. Jacqueline Clarke."

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• Dave Allen]] - "I get paid to dress up and be a fool, and if politicians can get away with it, so can I."

Trivia

• "Elementary, my dear Watson..."
  Sherlock Holmes never said this in any of his books. The closest version of it appears in "The Crooked Man" published first in 1893 and included in "The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes" published in 1894 where Holmes says a brief "Elementary" after observations from his friend and colleague, Dr. Watson.
• Recurring Series Characters and Themes: Rodriguez, Sherlock Holmes, Robin Hood, Sir Isaac Newton, The Mexican Revolutionist, Admiral Horatio Nelson, drunks, funerals, The Catholic Church, werewolves
• The Mexican Revolutionary portrayed in the recurring series sketches has never been given a name.
• In all the sketches with Dave playing the Mexican Revolutionary, Michael Sharvell-Martin has consistently played El Presidente, the figure he is trying to blow up.
• In Jacqueline's adultery sketch, she names her lover Bert.
• Robin Hood is a semi-historical figure (1160-1247) whose exploits were the basis of several tales beginning with "A Lytell Geste of Robyn Hode" in 1510 and reaching to modern literature and motion pictures. It's believed the original story was based on the tale of Robert Fitztooth, 12th Century Earl of Huntingdon who had escaped his debts by retiring into a solitary existence in the woods. Some scholars believe there was not just one Robin Hood, but several whose stories merged to one.

" "Wuthering Heights" which Dave Allen parodies in this episode is a great English romantic novel by Emily Bronte.

Sequence

• Last Episode: Fear
• Next Episode: Spies, Indians and Vikings