2000 AD Online Forum

Yes, Tucker returned today to Grange Hill.

Not only that but he did indeed say "Flippin'eck!" and on arrival immediately had a stand-off with a pompous teacher.

He didn't however say : "It's only pocket-money Mister H!"

Great stuff.

ADE

Aw hell, I heard he was coming back and missed it, is it repeated.

Tucker... dear me.

Where's Fatman!?

Tucker in Grange Hill - yes. But i'm sure he'd have sworn.

Tucker in Tucker's Luck - No.

Tucker in Eastenders - I've got to get back to the stall.

was he?
wow now we are talking about quality entertainment.would have made me smile to see that.is he someones dad in the show or what?

Isn't there a Tucker in Enterprise too?

If Tucker is on the Enterprise he must be getting on a bit. Nearly as old as that poor bloke Captain Slog who's been kicking around star fleet for ages.

(OK OK it was a poor excuse for a gag. Work with me here, I've been kept awake all night by the storm).

Good to hear Tucker is back. Must be some kind of telly comeback record there.  

Erm, maybe. Jon Pertwee was playing Doctor Who in the Nineties, 20-odd years after he began, so that might be close to a record.

Kathy Staff might have had just as long a gap as Todd Carty when she returned to Crossroads.

If we include radio versions of T.V. programmes then Ian Lavender, Clive Dunn, Bill Pertwee, and Frank Williams all returned to their Dads Army roles in the late Nineties nearly 35 years on from their first appearances.

Quatermass also returned on the radio, but I'm not sure if it was one of the T.V. actors or not.

"If we include radio versions of T.V. programmes then Ian Lavender, Clive Dunn, Bill Pertwee, and Frank Williams all returned to their Dads Army roles in the late Nineties nearly 35 years on from their first appearances. "

Did they? I know there was a radio series with the characters set post-war but I didn't realise it was as recent as the 90s.

I'd also mention Alf Garnett, The Liver Birds, the Reggie Perrin cast, Frank Spencer and Wendy Craig's Butterflies character (both returned on Comic Relief), Peter Cook's mad old Lord character who's name eludes me. More obscurely, I think one of the original cast of the 50s comedy Car 54 WHere Are You? might just have  reappeared in the 90s film version.

ADE

FYI, Todd Carty will also appear in The Bill this summer, as a cheeky, cheery copper with a dark secret.

- Trout

Right BBC now you can bring back Bullet, Bronson, Sexy Lexy, Mr Hicks and the bully's bully Gripper. Oh and Ro-land too

Looking over the net I reckon it'll be hard to beat Alf Garnett as longest running character at 1964-present day (more or less), that's 38 years. That time away must only be about 15 years though. As for longest gap between re-appearance I can't think of any longer than the Car 54 cast's (1964-1994) 30 year absence (if you count the film, filmed in 90 but released in 94). That's if you don't still call Normon Wisdom "Pipkin". Any better offers?

ADE
(Getting slightly obsessive)

Psycho 1960... Psycho 2 1983 that held the biggest gap between sequals for years

I'm sure Mr Bronson would leap at the chance.

Link: http://www.michaelsheard.com/

I almost forgot The Monkees, if you could call them characters, from the mid 60s to their TV reunion special in the late 90s

ADE

>>Link: http://www.michaelsheard.com/

Thanks for that, arthur.  This will keep me amused for many days to come.

As you might know, the fascinating career of Michael Sheard has been something of an obsession of mine, ever since I managed to mortally offend him at an SF convention guests'  dinner some years ago.

Heh. Its the wheel of fandom: The fans stalk the droids, the droids stalk Michael Sheard and Michael Sheard stalks the fans...

He's got three volumes of his autobiogrpahy out.  THREE!!!

And hei sebsite makes ominous threats that this is just the first trilogy of the full story...

Here's an excerpt from the blurb the latest one, Yes, School's Out! Sci-Fi Conventions, Parties and Much, Much More.

"In a way this is a love story. The love of an actor for his public."

Oh god....this is just too priceless.  I can never thank you enough here, arthur...

We're going to invite him to Shedcon 2 you know.

The post war sitcom was late seventies/early eighties (and later made into an I.T.V. series with Micheal Elphic and Richard Wilson), but there was a special (possibly to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the end of the war) which had the survivors and the Huddlines cast....

The platoon were off on manuvueres (or however that's spelled) and that left Pikey, Jonesy, Hodges and the vicar to defeat an army of robotic Winston Churchills...

Other casts to return after a long absence are the cast of 'Are you being served?' and various Z-cars actors who returned for the last episode.

On the radio Colonel Chinstrap continued to appear post I.T.M.A., often replacing Bloodnock when Peter Sellars wanted time off from the Goons.

Eunice Gee was also brought back to Corronation Street after at least Fifteen years.

If anyone has Gordon Rennie's address, send it to me so I can inflict a copy of Sheard's autobiography on him.

Then stalk him and climb in his bathroom window, rearrange things and leave.

Heh, heh, heh.

- More sinister than ever Trout, now even creepier!

Yeah, I missed the return of Tucker as well.  I even knew it was on and thought "Ooooh- I'll watch that this arvo...", but still forgot.

Does anybody know if it'll get repeated?

Funny thing is, when tucker left the school it was in London.  Now it's in the North of England somewhere.  And he sort of looked at it as if to say,  "back in this old place again".  

I mean do they not think we care about things like continuity?  :)

i take it return of zammo is out of the question though eh?

How could Mr Bronson come back? Darth Vader killed him!

Link: paddybrown.co.uk

Please no, ne's a good actor but even as a kid I found the character ridiculously over the top. It would have been okay if he had actually seen justice and finally been sacked for mental abuse of children.

Anyone remember an episode from the Tucker era in which a bullying sports teacher was being partucularly cruel to this one kid, and of course being a teacher getting away with it. Then finally the well known bearded sports teacher (who's name eludes me) finally sees what he's up to and calls him outside during a lesson. He then punches him to the ground and (I think) utters the immortal line "what's wrong - slipped in the showers?"

Incredible stuff, and I hoped to see the episode again when they repeated them all recently to see if it really happened, though I never noticed it and I wonder if they skipped it simply because of the dubious "brute force wins the day" message.

Ah, I love justice, especially the poetic variety.

ADE

Yes, Jackie must be shaping up quite nicely by now.

ADE

"Then finally the well known bearded sports teacher (who's name eludes me)"

wasn't it Mr. Baxter?

>Anyone remember an episode from the Tucker era in which a bullying sports teacher was being partucularly cruel to this one kid

Ah yes the imfamous Mr Hicks... and it was 'Bullet' Baxter that layed him out.

This was in the first series when each episode was a self-contained story instead of the later soap-like stuff.

And they did show it in repeats. Though they have made selective cuts in some repeats - like the one where the kids get left alone in the swimming pool and have races with boats made from benches... they got loads of complaints that no teacher would be 'that irresponsible'. Right.

After years of being rubbish (A donkey! what were they thinking) recently it went totally mentalist with some shooting/druggie/lesbian plot line... Pity old Mr Brookside decided to shift it out London. Dolt. The Hill will always be London... you cannot say 'Flippin 'eck' in anything other than Cock-er-ny

Link: You nut-job!

you know you read too much comics when you mention the evil word "continuity"

you know you read too much comics when you mention the evil word "continuity"

Yup, you're right there.  But I'm in a mood to pull everything to bits this week, so why should grange hill get away with it?  What do they take us for? (tsk!)