Blockheads (1938 54mins.) [Talking Pictures TV 8.15pm]
(Sky 343, Freeview 81, Freesat 306 & Youview 81)
Left to guard a trench in 1917, Stan Laurel is discovered two decades later with a pile of empty bean cans, still on guard. Oliver Hardy takes the war hero home and they become involved in a farcical situation with jealous big-game hunter Billy Gilbert.
Director John G Blystone's remake of the short Unaccustomed as We Are is one of Laurel and Hardy's most appealing comedies, and is one to relish for its innuendos and hilarious sight gags - this is the one where Stan makes a pipe out of his hand, much to Ollie's slow-burning astonishment.
First in a season of Laurel & Hardy films showing on this channel - a season that will resonate with most people who grew up in the UK during the seventies and early eighties : no school summer holiday was complete without spending rainy days indoors watching these fabulous, timeless comedy legends run through their paces.
Chaplin is (rightly) regarded as the artist of early film comedy and Buster Keaton's invention and physical skill was impeccable but Stan and Ollie had charm and warmth to go with their wit.
Masterful timing married to some superb sight gags and peerless verbal jousting means that their films remain hugely watchable eighty + years on.
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