This first, which I believe originally aired as a sketch on Monty Python's Flying Circus (a series which was broadcast by the BBC between 1969 and 1974), sees the great comedy troupe taking on classic British country house mystery. People have labeled this an "Agatha Christie sketch," but in fact the obsession all the characters have with railway timetables suggests that the author being parodied surely must be a popular Agatha Christie crime writer contemporary, Freeman Wills Crofts, undisputed king of the railway timetable and alibi mystery. Can you beat Inspector Davis in spotting the dastard who shot Sir Horace?
Clearly influenced by Monty Python, Canada's The Kids in the Hall, had a television sketch comedy series which originally aired in Canada and the United States between 1989 and 1995. "Detective Peter Prince" is a short film which offers a decidedly queer take on the memorable fictional world of Raymond Chandler, as a pacifier-sucking shamus is hired by distraught wealthy matron Mrs. Gold to look into the disappearance of "Kitty." In Mrs. Gold's odd mansion Prince encounters stiff-lipped British butler Baltimore and sexy cabana boy Carlos, but will he ever discover what happened to Kitty? Warning: there's a bit of blue language at the climax!
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| the shocking climax of Detective Peter Prince |
This six-minute film is available here on YouTube and all of the Kids in the Hall television seasons (including Season 4, where this film debuted) are available on DVD. I loved this series when it first aired and am very pleased that it is out on DVD. I just wish these clever lads had done more mystery parodies!
Loved both of these, Curt! Thanks for a laugh!
ReplyDeleteIt's appropriate to have both of these, I thought, as they cover the two traditions and the Kids definitely followed in Monty Pythons's footsteps. I don't recall another mystery sketch the Kids did though.
DeleteHmm there seems to be two Python sketches named The Agatha Christie Sketch, as this is a different one which doesn't involve railway timetables:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0BuKYiwhVQ
Both very funny though.
Doesn't the other one have John Cleese as the inspector who can't get his word order right? What I liked so much about what I call the Crofts one above is everyone's intense interest in railway timetables, that is just so Crofts.
DeleteWell yeah it is partly about Cleese' character but then it soon becomes rather midsummer murder like with the body count steadily rising.
DeleteHave you seen Mitchell and Webb's parody of the televised Christies? It's pretty spot-on.
ReplyDeletehaha oh yeah I had forgotten about that one. That is funny.
DeleteI need to look that up!
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