Originally intended to be a long running series, 'Boom Boom, Out Go The Lights' was commissioned as a single half hour show featuring up and coming comics performing stand-up and musical comedy. However, its derisory 10:20PM denied it much of a chance of gaining a decent audience reception. However, the BBC were impressed enough with the raw new talent involved and decided to commission a second show. It didn't really fare much better but again the talent involved made enough of an impression to end up having a long and successful partnership with the BBC.
There were no double acts, just solo performers. Alexei Sayle performed the aggressive style of comedy he would later adopt in 'The Young Ones' and 'Alexei Sayle's Stuff'. Keith Allen adopted a similar act while Tony Allen was more subdued. Nigel Planer played a prototype of his 'Neil' persona he would later take on in 'The Young Ones' whilst Rik Mayall favoured a more aloof and misanthropic persona rather than the loud and brash one that would later dominate his career. In order to save on budgetary costs, no signature tune was used, simply just the show's audience shouting the name of the show over the title card.
Seeing the show for the first time recently, I enjoyed it very much. Okay, so it wasn't great ( not even close to it. Nigel Planer later went on to say in an interview that ''most of it was s**t!'' ) but it was worth watching for seeing some of Britain's greatest talent in the making, particularly Mayall, who here performed his hilarious 'angry poems' about Vanessa Redgrave.
'Boom Boom, Out Go The Lights' could never have ran for long ( it had too limited a format ) but should be viewed now for what it was, an interesting, experimental stepping stone for future comedy greats.
There were no double acts, just solo performers. Alexei Sayle performed the aggressive style of comedy he would later adopt in 'The Young Ones' and 'Alexei Sayle's Stuff'. Keith Allen adopted a similar act while Tony Allen was more subdued. Nigel Planer played a prototype of his 'Neil' persona he would later take on in 'The Young Ones' whilst Rik Mayall favoured a more aloof and misanthropic persona rather than the loud and brash one that would later dominate his career. In order to save on budgetary costs, no signature tune was used, simply just the show's audience shouting the name of the show over the title card.
Seeing the show for the first time recently, I enjoyed it very much. Okay, so it wasn't great ( not even close to it. Nigel Planer later went on to say in an interview that ''most of it was s**t!'' ) but it was worth watching for seeing some of Britain's greatest talent in the making, particularly Mayall, who here performed his hilarious 'angry poems' about Vanessa Redgrave.
'Boom Boom, Out Go The Lights' could never have ran for long ( it had too limited a format ) but should be viewed now for what it was, an interesting, experimental stepping stone for future comedy greats.
