A pioneering comedy series, postmodernist before there was such a thing, and a wonderful demonstration of Anthony Newley's genius in the art of self-mockery.
The Newley character, playing the lead in a ghastly domestic soap opera, suddenly walks off the set in disgust, but to his horror finds he can't escape the cameras.
A slight, pathetic figure in a shabby raincoat, he wanders about London - seen and unseen - talking to himself, a dog, a dustbin, dancing with a girl who's come down from an advertising poster... He's looking for some answers, but finds the world is surreal, absurd, trivial and bewildering. Like Alice.
The theme tune - wistful but jaunty - (which Newley summons up with a piano-playing action of the hand) - expresses his character unforgettably.
The series probably altered the history of comedy, and forty years on we still get allusions to it in advertisements.
The Newley character, playing the lead in a ghastly domestic soap opera, suddenly walks off the set in disgust, but to his horror finds he can't escape the cameras.
A slight, pathetic figure in a shabby raincoat, he wanders about London - seen and unseen - talking to himself, a dog, a dustbin, dancing with a girl who's come down from an advertising poster... He's looking for some answers, but finds the world is surreal, absurd, trivial and bewildering. Like Alice.
The theme tune - wistful but jaunty - (which Newley summons up with a piano-playing action of the hand) - expresses his character unforgettably.
The series probably altered the history of comedy, and forty years on we still get allusions to it in advertisements.