Mike and Angelo S9E1 (1997) - FULL EPISODE

Down in the Dumps. A leaky roof leads to Katy applying to the council for a grant to fix things up a bit, but matters soon escalate to the point of the entire house being condemned. Quite a way to open a brand new series! (In a strange way, it feels more like a finale in places.) How will they dig themselves out of this mess? This episode was originally broadcast on Thursday, 9th January, 1997. There are plenty of laughs to be had at small one-liners ("Genius with a capital J" got me), medium jokes (the opening invention), unintentional contemporary references (the accidental mannequin challenge two minutes in), and absolutely ginormous visual gags - and by that I mean (without spoiling too much) when things go *very* wrong. You know that it's going to be bad, but the reveal once the door opens doesn't disappoint in the slightest. What an absolute wreck! Top marks to the set designers for making it look so brilliantly catastrophic. To be honest, this is one of those episodes where it looks like they've written themselves into a bit of a hole, and you wonder how in the world they're going to work their way out again. I certainly had no idea how the story was going to resolve itself! But thanks to Angelo's resourcefulness, everything turns out just fine against all the odds. And that, in a nutshell, is one of many reasons why I could never be a television writer. The guest star in this one in Philip Pope. If you know him from anything, it's likely to be as the singer with the Elmer Fudd speech impediment that Del Boy signs up in Only Fools and Horses, resulting in him belting out Roy Orbison's "Cwying" on stage with Raquel. (Speaking of excellent comedy reveals, as we were.) Or maybe KYTV and its forerunner Radio Active, for which Philip also provided the songs. Oh yes, our Phil is a very talented musician whose credits include the theme tune to Whose Line Is It Anyway? and A Bit of Fry and Laurie, and musical director on The Fast Show (amongst others). None of that is doing him justice - look him up some time if you get the chance. Personally, I wish Graham Grimsdale had got his own spin-off series... Many thanks to Lee for providing this recording. (This is a transfer from an old videotape, so please don't expect full HD quality. To the best of my knowledge, this material is not available commercially anywhere in the world, and has been uploaded for its historic interest. That said, if you are a copyright holder and object, please don't hesitate to contact me.)