Onto the final three episodes of Phoenix Nights series 2 and episode 4 with Jerry's "Free And Easy Night". I didn't see this episode when it was originally transmitted as I was on my first visit to Venice but it contains a few amusing moments.
The episode starts off with Brian coming up with another scheme by cashing in on the Crimetime appearance by offering tours around the club and very dear merchandise of "burnt items" from the blaze. However they're really ash trays being burnt outside on a barbecue and they come unstuck when Jerry accidentally burns his hand on one.
Brian manages to organise a quiz night to launch a Japanese drink called "Kamikaze" which Jerry isn't too happy about as it clashes with his "Free And Easy Night". To make things worse Brian mentions that he will attempt to rig the quiz so they win the years free supply of Kamikaze that's on offer.
I'm certain one of the Kamikaze salesmen looks like the first "Mr Shakehands Man" from Channel 4's spoof gambling show "Banzai" which leads onto another random bit of television knowledge as one of the shows creators was Gary Monoghan who was Chris Evans co-presenter on TV-AM's Saturday morning show "TV Mayhem" in 1991.
However the show got dropped after 6 weeks when it was revealed that the ITV breakfast station had lost it's franchise to Sunrise who later had to change their name to GMTV because Sky News had that name for their morning show which they still do to this day.
Only the beginning of what was to become one of television's biggest embarrassments in my opinion although at least today saw the departure of Fiona Phillips after god knows how long.
Anyhow,
The quiz itself is a brilliant scene where the Phoenix club team consist of Spencer and the two Kennys whilst Den Perry has a team of attendees from The Banana Grove. Max and Paddy are also playing under the team name of "Lord Loverocket and his Mongy Mate Max" much to Max's annoyance.
However all the teams lose out to the Gypsy Kings who it turns out Brian was backing all along.
The funniest part comes when the host Ray Von goes into the music round by asking players to guess the name of a song from it's introduction;
Ray: "Now I want the name of the song and not the artist, here we go"
"It's A Kind Of Magic..."
Ray: "Ooh no, no, no"
(Audience jeer)
Ray: "OK then I want the name of the song, not the artist, try this one for size"
"Youuung at Heart"
Ray: "Oh shit"
Jerry on the other hand starts getting hyperactive by taking too much of his herbal medication and ends up doing a stage dive and bursting into the Jocky Wilson suite half naked and urinating on the floor.
Moving onto episode 5 which is probably my least favourite of the series when compared to the others. This involves the conversion of the Jocky Wilson suite into "The Golden Phoenix" a Chinese restaurant opened specially, mainly due to the Chinese immigrants "Ant & Dec" who Max and Paddy brought back from France in episode 2.
Ted Robbins sister Kate makes a guest appearance as the compere of a ladies night where whilst Paddy starts cavorting as "Lord Loverocket", Max agrees to become a hitman for a woman who wants her husband bumped off or "fingered" as she says to Max.
Peter's mum Deirdre can be seen once again as one of the women in attendance at the ladies night.
Ted and Kate used to have a prime time show on ITV during the late 80s which I think was produced by Granada but it wasn't very succesfull.
Kate went onto become a popular impressionist lending her voices to Spitting Image and the first radio series of Dead Ringers along with Alistair McGowan and Jon Culshaw.
Also making a return appearance is Smug Roberts as Max's brother although unlike in the first series, he doesn't say "bollocks" in every single sentence.
When performing the shooting, or attempting to do so the husband starts begging for Max & Paddy to let him go, offering to give them his car to which Max responds
"It's not friggin' Swap Shop".
The give in however and pass on three grand for him to go abroad and never return.
The auditions in the end credits this series once again are superb and dare I say even better than the first with highlights including a woman who shoots ping pong balls in between her legs leading to this classic exchange
Brian: "Next!"
(Ball shoots from legs)
Brian: "No next!"
(Balls continue to shoot)
Brian "Where did the come from? She only had three!"
There's also a fella who bases his acts on battery operated toys whilst just dancing about with a big smile on his face, and appears in both episodes 4 and 5.
The final episode has Brian getting an offer from the brewery to come over and organises a "Stars In Your Eyes" night which infuriates Den Perry. This results in Den ringing up the agency pretending to be Jerry and cancelling the night which results in Brian and the team having to think quickly and perform the show themselves.
Max and Paddy on the other hand bump into the husband who they were supposed to have killed and get a visit from his enraged wife who paid them eight grand to kill him and threatens to have Max and Paddy killed by real hitmen.
I like how she gets in a taxi that's owned by "BS Taxis" from episode 6 of "That Peter Kay Thing" despite the company going bust near the end of the original episode.
Also there's a deleted scene from episode 5 where Paddy is seen coming out of "Softy's Hard Stuff" which is Robert Edge's porn shop from the end of "The Ice Cream Man Cometh" when he gives up being an ice cream man to sell "adult art" full time.
The "Stars In Your Eyes" night goes ahead with Holy Mary singing as Lulu, Ray Von as Adam Ant, Kenny Sr as Britney Spears and Spencer as Gary Glitter.
Once again the scene is recorded in front of an audience of real Boltonians although they get even more involved to an amusing extent by standing up at random during Jerry's performance of "The Real Slim Shady" and cheering after Spencer disguised as Gary Glitter falls off the stage.
Den Perry comes in to the club and confronts Potter after he finds out that his plan backfired and confesses that he burnt down the club threatening to do so a second time, unknown that Brian is recording him on a radio mic.
Den gets sent to jail and this puts Brian in the clear to become the licensee again but decides to let Jerry carry on as a result of his success despite not allowing him to get a word in edgeways.
Max and Paddy on the other hand decide to leg it in their newly brought caravan opening the doorway for their spin off series which I'll probably re-view after Christmas.
Overall a very amusing series and it would be brilliant if Peter, Dave and Neil would make up and come back together to make at least one more series.
As for tonight I've got my final soul show of the year at 7pm looking back at the Best of '08 followed by a visit to Chris, Stoobie and Denis etc's house for their Christmas meal.
I may also buy a few drinks as well and hope for a repeat of Tuesday if those bottles were anything to go by.
Definitely an ideal way to end the semester and a superb one at that.
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