‘Bilge’ starts tonight

Press, 4 March 1982, Page 15

‘Bilge’ starts tonight

Billed by its producers as “55 minutes of really awful, patronising bilge,” the British spoof show “Not The Nine O’Clock News” hits New Zealand screens tonight, on Two.

According to TVNZ publicity material, if you are a Monty Python devotee, you will undoubtedly enjoy similiarities in the humour — if you take life, and yourself, excessively seriously — don’t watch. The programme combines a mixture of films and stills, archive material, monologues, graphics and music in a pot-pourri of gags and sketches about people and events in Britain.

’ The resident performers are Rowan Atkinson, Pamela Stephenson, Mel Smith, and Griff Rhys Jones. All four contribute to the scripts, along with the producers, Sean Hardy and John Lloyd, and an army of freelance -writers.

The stars of “Not the Nine O’Clock News” are splitting according to the London "Sunday Mirror.” Pamela Stephenson has landed a coveted West End stage role in “The Pirates of Penzance,” due to open in May. The last episode of the

series, which was launched two years ago, will be shown .in Britain on March 15. The show, which attracts enormous ratings, has sometimes been criticised because of its topical biting satire and “off colour” comedy sketches.