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Somewhere, over the the rainbow..

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    Somewhere, over the the rainbow..

    RIP Geoffrey Hayes.

    #2
    Someone has also posted this on World. What a bungle!

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      #3
      Zip it.

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        #4
        By george, there's no need for that sort of language.

        RIP Geoffrey, a huge part of my childhood like so many. And for those who haven't seen it, the small piece of subversive genius that is this filthy unbroadcast version of Rainbow:

        Last edited by Various Artist; 01-10-2018, 16:26.

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          #5
          Recorded for the Thames Television christmas party.

          The London/southern ITV franchises used to do tapes for the studio Christmas party every year. Some of them are on Youtube.

          It's a shame that he was a semi-serious actor in the 60s who basically became a kids entertainer for the 70s and 80s and then couldn't get any other roles. RIP Geoffrey

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            #6
            Originally posted by BallochSonsFan View Post
            It's a shame that he was a semi-serious actor in the 60s who basically became a kids entertainer for the 70s and 80s and then couldn't get any other roles. RIP Geoffrey
            Yes, RIP and all that, but you do a kids' show with fluffy puppets, for several generations, and earn your crust with it, and then you complain about only being "Geoffrey from Rainbow"? Fuck off.

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              #7
              When I was a sixth-former, and interested in drama school/acting, I was taken on a careers thingy to some university, and the only two things I remember about it was that we were spoken to by Tony Robinson, and elsewhere were told that 'Geoffrey' actually had an 'Embarrassment Clause' payment in his contract.

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                #8
                A Dundee United supporter, too.

                Some say he changed Zippy's colour from blue but that might be as apocryphal as Bob Holness' sax.

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                  #9
                  There's an entire section devoted to Zippy being Dundee United tangerine on his Wikipedia page (seriously).

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                    #10
                    Now the thing about the unbroadcast episode is that one of them says 'fuck' at 1:44 when the band come in:

                    'Hello'
                    'Hello'
                    'Fuck'
                    'We could hear you all...'

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                      #11
                      Originally posted by BallochSonsFan View Post
                      It's a shame that he was a semi-serious actor in the 60s who basically became a kids entertainer for the 70s and 80s and then couldn't get any other roles. RIP Geoffrey
                      I remember it seeming a bit weird when the presenter of Granada schools programme Picture Box turned up as Heather's junkie husband in Brookside later in the '80s.

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                        #12
                        There was one particularly strange episode of Rainbow where George went all Howard Hughes, and continually expressed his fear of germs.

                        Must have been for the under-5s who suffered from OCD.

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                          #13
                          Originally posted by Kevin S View Post
                          Now the thing about the unbroadcast episode is that one of them says 'fuck' at 1:44 when the band come in:

                          'Hello'
                          'Hello'
                          'Fuck'
                          'We could hear you all...'
                          Haha, they do as well. That's so random.

                          Special mention by the way, as ever, to the vocal brilliance of the great Roy Skelton, who voiced both George and Zippy. It was so well done I could swear I sometimes heard them talking over each other, which obviously is impossible. I do remember being blown away (matron!) by seeing him interviewed on Channel 4's 100 Greatest Children's TV Programmes in 2001 and he slipped into one (oo-er!) on camera then switched back and forth to the other, seamlessly, in mid-sentence, effectively arguing with himself. He also did many Dalek voices on Doctor Who, from the '60s onwards I believe, and appeared in person at least once as I know he turned up with Jon Pertwee's Doctor in 'The Green Death' – a.k.a. The One With The Giant Maggots. A sorely underrated marvel.

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                            #14
                            Heh, here is a marvellous video of Roy in interview from 2006, ad-libbing an argument between Zippy and George to prove it:



                            Imagine Zippy shouting "Exterminate! Exterminate!", incidentally, and mentally apply the Daleks' vocal modulation over the top, and their shared voice artist becomes instantly evident. Just for giggles, it turns out someone on YouTube has decided to demonstrate this, to which end they've actually replaced the Daleks' speech in footage from Tom Baker's 'Destiny of the Daleks' with excerpts from Rainbow:


                            I'm not ashamed to admit this has just made me laugh until it hurt.

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                              #15
                              Rainbow was definitely a highlight of my childhood, great TV for kids. Zippy was a wonderful character. Reading the articles and obituary in the Guardian about him was quite moving, he came across as a humble not bitter man despite being Geoffrey from Rainbow to everyone in every audition. RIP.

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                                #16
                                Originally posted by treibeis View Post
                                Yes, RIP and all that, but you do a kids' show with fluffy puppets, for several generations, and earn your crust with it, and then you complain about only being "Geoffrey from Rainbow"? Fuck off.
                                But did he lose more money from jobs he lost through being typecast than he earned from the show?

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                                  #17
                                  We'll never know. The Guardian obituary did say though that in retirement he divided his time between homes in England and Spain so the Kids TV obviously did him OK.

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                                    #18
                                    I can understand his frustration given that he began as a 'proper' actor (in Z Cars, etc), but that's the rub with kids' television: if you spend the best part of two decades talking to puppets then it's going to be a lot harder to cast you in something for an adult audience.

                                    But if Hayes wasn't actually cast in said serious productions, he can no more be said to have lost income from them than I can.

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                                      #19
                                      And I'd guess he brought in a lot more from pantos, public appearances, freshers' events etc as Geoffrey from Rainbow than he would have done if he'd been Geoffrey the occasional bit part actor on Thames TV dramas.

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                                        #20
                                        Yes, there was some comment of his I read yesterday to the effect of how ultimately accepting his role as an post-ironic iconic kids' TV figure meant he did rake in a lot of money in the end, so it kind of all worked out in that sense.

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