Freeze-Frame Gonna Drive You Insane, Part Five

Part One • Part Two • Part Three • Part Four • Part Five

When I started this set of articles about flash frames, right back at the beginning of the year, I never thought it would end up taking five parts to tell this story properly. In particular, I never really wanted to get into the nitty gritty of endless Young Ones repeats.

Unfortunately, as Demosthenes would say: tough shit. It is actually relevant; or, at least, one particular repeat run is. In August 1995, something happened which we can’t entirely avoid. Because not only did The Young Ones begin a fresh, almost-complete run from the start on BBC2… but half the episodes were broadcast in a version never seen before.

“Oil”, “Boring”, and “Bomb” aired in their original, 35 minute versions. “Time” aired in its usual 1985 edit, with the flash frame cut out. But the rest of the episodes aired in brand new 30-minute edits, designed at least partially to make the series easier to repeat by fitting into a standard half hour slot.

Enjoy the following table at your leisure. Don’t worry if you get a little too aroused, it’s only natural.

These short edits have proved controversial with Young Ones fans over the years, and it’s hardly surprising. Chop five minutes out of anyone’s favourite programme and they tend to get grumpy, regardless of the reasons behind it. Going in-depth about them is beyond the scope of this article, but these edits probably deserve closer examination at some point.

Right now, however, we’re only interested in flash frames. And most of the shorter edits retain them, exactly as on original transmission… with one exception. That exception is “Nasty”, where the 30 minute version cuts out an entire sketch: the “Spies” sequence with Stephen Frost and Mark Arden. And this sequence originally included the flash frame of the pottery wheel.

The cut sketch as seen in the original version of “Nasty” is below; the flash frame is right at the end, at 2:01.³

Bye-bye to another flash frame.

Four years later in 1999, The Young Ones had another BBC2 repeat run from the beginning, and this time, they were all the 30 minute edits. This was the first instance of “Time” being shown in its shorter version, and guess what: it didn’t reinstate the gurning man flash frame. Which means that on the BBC at least, the only time that flash was ever broadcast was right back in 1984.

And bringing us right up to date: these short edits are the versions of the show which were uploaded to iPlayer in 2022.⁴

Whatever your opinions on the 30 minute edits of the show, I will confess to a certain twisted delight at how they managed to continue a tradition. “Summer Holiday” had a flash frame cut before original TX in 1984. “Time” had a flash frame cut before its first repeat in 1985. And now, we see that “Nasty” had a flash frame cut in 1995. Unlike the first two examples, it wasn’t intentional – it’s simply where the editor’s scissors landed in order to cut the show to time.

But yet again, the team’s running joke just couldn’t catch a break. Eight intended flash frames, now down to just five.⁵

*   *   *

In many ways, The Young Ones was made for the video age. The whole gag with the flash frames was, at any rate. In the first part of this article series, I quoted Paul Jackson in the 2018 Gold documentary How the Young Ones Changed Comedy:

“We’d heard that students were obsessing over the VHSes. The flash frames were a silly thing really. I thought to myself: ‘Well, let’s try and give them a little something, a little private joke for the real fans.’ And it was just pictures: there was a jumping frog, there was a dripping tap, there was a big end credits from a cowboy movie… We put them in to see if anybody would notice or say anything, assuming it probably would get picked up, and people would start to try and freeze-frame on the VHS, which would be a long process.”

The question is obvious, then: how did our flash frames fare on the commercial VHS releases?⁶

Of course, this being BBC Video, they didn’t do anything as sensible as simply releasing “Series 1” and “Series 2”. The first Young Ones VHS was in 1988, and was titled Oil, Boring and Flood. That’s the 2nd, 3rd and 6th episodes of Series 1. Oh, and it was presented in an omnibus edition, bodging together all three episodes with just a single set of opening credits, and brand new end credits.

This was followed in 1990 by Bambi, Nasty and Time. Finally in 1991, we get the frankly absurd Demolition Bomb Sick, and then the equally absurd Cash Interesting Summer Holiday. These last two releases, mixing and matching series as they do, make me want to go and lie down in a dark room for a very long time.⁷

But enough of my personal problems. Our flash frames? All present and correct.⁸ And I do mean all. Because in “Time”, who do we get to see?

Hello again.

Yes, our gurning man, only broadcast once in 1984, is present on the 1990 VHS release! Which is really quite extraordinary. Remember, he wasn’t even seen on television in the 1985 repeat run. But five years later, he suddenly pops up here.

And, indeed, he stays popped up. When Series 2 was finally released as a proper double pack VHS in 1992, he’s also included on that release. He’s even there on the later, white border re-release of Series 2.⁹ Whatever occurred to the poor man on the broadcast masters, he remained alive and well on the copy BBC Video was using, for every single UK VHS release the show ever had.

Which is what makes what happens next so intriguing. And probably the most complicated thing I’ve had to discuss across this entire series of these articles. Strap yourself in, this one gets tricky.

In 2002, Series 1 of The Young Ones was released on DVD, followed by Series 2 in 2003. These were the 35 minute versions rather than the 1995 half hour edits, albeit with some different material deleted due to music clearance problems. They also have some of the worst DVD covers ever made, in keeping with many BBC comedy releases around this point.¹⁰

But I could complain about these releases all day. What we’re interested in is our flash frames. And all of them survive in these initial DVD releases… except for our gurning man from “Time”. Who has gone missing again. Damn him.

For a long time, I thought this must just be a clearance issue; that when they released the DVD, they couldn’t prove our gurning man had given his consent to be in the programme, and so they had to use the version where he had been removed. But I don’t believe this to be the case. The reason he went missing again is very different.

To fully understand it, we need to pay attention to the two releases below. On the left is the combined Series 1 and 2 DVD release from 2007, and on the right is the Blu-ray release from 2022:

The 2007 DVD release essentially solved one of the ongoing issues with The Young Ones at this point. Because let’s face it, trying to understand what was going on in the early 2000s with the show was a complete mess, even if you ignore the VHS releases. We had the 30 minute episodes, last seen on TV; we also had the 35 minute episodes on DVD… but with loads of edits due to music clearance issues. The intention of the 2007 release was simple: to try and restore The Young Ones back to the versions that were originally broadcast in 1982 and 1984. I believe they managed it, with two exceptions.

One of those exceptions can wait for another EXCITING article next year.¹¹ But the other one is directly relevant here: despite said attempts to release the series as originally broadcast, the flash frame from “Time” is still missing. The same flash frame is also gone in the Blu-ray release from 2022. And having dug around in a few places which I shouldn’t, there is a very good reason for that.

The gurning man flash frame from “Time” is now entirely missing from the BBC’s archives. That version of the episode simply does not exist any more. It was only broadcast once in 1984, under the programme number LLV F597E/71; the earliest version which still survives is LLV F597E/72, the 1985 re-edit.

The obvious question is why, and I’m afraid I don’t know. There is a mention of the /71 version being a “damaged tape” in the BBC’s list of holdings for the episode, but there are no further details. Without knowing more, I’m unwilling to speculate further. You could spin a whole story out of thin air with those two words, and it would sound extremely convincing, but it wouldn’t stop the fact that you’d spun the story out of thin air.

So how did that flash frame exist on the commercial VHS releases for so long? The answer is: BBC Video must have taken a dub of the episode while the original /71 master did exist. “Time” was first released on VHS in 1990, so it’s tempting to suggest that the original edit of the episode with the gurning man still existed at that point. But for all we know, the dub BBC Video used could have been made years earlier, very possibly by BBC Enterprises for international sales.¹² All we know is that by 2007, when the new DVD release restoring all previous cuts was being prepared, that original edit was no longer present in the BBC’s archives.

The other obvious question to ask is: why then, did the VHS releases include the “Time” frame, but not any of the DVD releases? Here, at least, we are on firmer ground. As I said, all the VHS releases were made using the dubs that BBC Video used back in the 80s. When it came to the 2007 DVD release, 2 entertain – the entity BBC Video had changed into by that point – didn’t go back and use the masters they used for the VHS releases. They ordered up fresh new copies from the BBC archive. And by then, the version of “Time” with the flash frame simply wasn’t around any more. Obviously, exactly the same is true of the 2022 Blu-ray.

Which leaves us with a slightly odd situation: that one of the BBC’s best-remembered comedy shows of the 80s doesn’t quite exist in the same way that it was originally transmitted. And one of its most famous jokes is now slightly incomplete. OK, so we’re only talking about a couple of seconds of one episode. It’s not exactly The Likely Lads, where only half the episodes survive.

But it’s still a little wrinkle regarding the show which I think is fairly counterintuitive. When I started researching all of this, it’s certainly not the outcome I expected.¹³

*   *   *

And that’s the story of flash frames on The Young Ones and Spitting Image. Well, nearly. There’s room for just one more thing to ponder. For that, we need to leap back to 1984 again. But we’re not on BBC2 this time, or even ITV. We need to wander over to Channel 4, then just two years old, and a sketch show called Pushing Up Daisies.

Starring Chris Barrie, Hale and Pace, and Carla Mendonça, the show ran for two series, renamed Coming Next for its second run in 1985. I highly suggest reading this nice piece on the show from Curious British Telly. It’s the kind of programme I’m sad that Network DVD never got round to releasing.

Crucially for our purposes: the show’s producer was a certain Paul Jackson.

We’re interested in just one particular episode. It was broadcast on the 15th December 1984, and was the last show of the first series. But the image you’re about to see never actually aired.¹⁴ Instead, it was hidden away just before the VT clock for Part 2, and was never intended for transmission.

But somebody on the production was paying attention to all the shenanigans with The Young Ones and Spitting Image six months earlier…

Somehow, ending with an unbroadcast inside joke seems to sum this whole utterly ridiculous topic up.

With thanks to Phil Chappell, Dan Tootill, and Andrew Wiseman for Young Ones off-airs, Benny Brycheiniog for repeats information, Ben Jones for Young Ones VHS research, Spiny Norman for the Pushing up Daisies revelation, Gary Rodger for more Pushing up Daisies research, and Tanya Jones, Darrell Maclaine, Mike Scott, and Milly Storrington for editorial advice.

Also thanks to everyone who has helped me research this series of articles over the last three years, especially if I’ve been a dickhead and mislaid your name in my notes.

1. “Demolition” actually aired in a 40 minute slot, but it was the 30 minute version scheduled. The reason for this is simple if you look at the listings carefully; it was followed by The Queen at Horse Guards Parade, “A two-minute silence for VJ Day”. In fact, this programme ran for 9’55” in total, which easily explains why the 30 minute edit was broadcast.

   The hilarious thing about this is that “Demolition” actually aired during BBC2’s Punk Night. Meaning that two minute silence was sandwiched between The Young Ones and an Arena, “Punk and the Pistols”. Which is perfect, for some demented definition of “perfect”. ↩

2. It is incredibly annoying that “Summer Holiday”, possibly the most famous episode of The Young Ones, didn’t air at all in this repeat season. Presumably, they just ran out of time, and when the schedules for 1996 kicked in, they couldn’t find a place for it. The six week gap between “Bomb” and “Interesting” can’t have helped. ↩

3. Obviously, a two minute sketch divorced from the rest of the episode made it a ripe candidate for snipping in the 30 minute version. ↩

4. Aside from “Interesting”, which is the long version. Presumably unintentionally. ↩

5. So you may be wondering: what about post-1999 BBC showings of the second series of The Young Ones on the Beeb? In fact, it doesn’t have any bearing on the flash frames conversation at all, but screw you, I’ve done the research, so you might as well have it.
   
   In fact, there are far fewer repeats this millennium than you may expect, at least of that second series. “Cash”, “Nasty”, “Time” and “Sick” haven’t been repeated at all. “Bambi” has been repeated four times, twice on BBC Two and twice on BBC Four, each time in its 30 minute version. (Even the one given a 35 minute slot, on the 17th August 2007. That was a Stephen Fry night on BBC Four, and the extra time was taken up by a Stephen Fry introduction.)

   As for “Summer Holiday”, that’s had four showings on BBC Four… all of them the long version. At this point, I throw my arms up in the air and give up. ↩

6. Throughout this article, I’m only concentrating on the UK video and DVD releases. If anybody wants to step in with anything interesting about releases in other countries, feel free. ↩

7. For anybody wondering: no, I haven’t forgotten about The Very Best of The Young Ones, a VHS release from 1994 containing “Bomb”, “Boring”, “Bambi”, “Interesting”, and “Summer Holiday”. Yes, the flash frame is present and correct in “Bambi”, and as usual missing from “Summer Holiday”.

   In order to check this, I had to buy a copy of it from eBay. When it arrived, I was delighted to find it was entirely new. Which gave me my first glimpse of an unused, shrinkwrapped VHS tape in years! ↩

8. No, “Summer Holiday” doesn’t include the frame cut before TX, sadly. Yes, I have checked. In fact, the cut frame from “Summer Holiday” doesn’t exist on any VHS or DVD release, despite Paul Jackson’s claims to the contrary. ↩

9. A VHS release close to my heart, as that’s the one I had as a teenager, and that made me fall in love with the show. ↩

10. In fact, they were so notorious at the time, that this article on Ganymede & Titan has a parody of them. Incidentally, that article also says that the Series 2 DVD uses the short 30 minute edits, but it does in fact use the long 35 minute ones, albeit cut for music rights. Despite the credited byline, that could well be my error in 2004, when I wrote for the site. I’ve got a lot better at research in the last two decades. ↩

11. Yes, that’s what qualifies as a tease around these parts. ↩

12. BBC Enterprises at this point was the commercial arm of the Beeb; BBC Video was a division of Enterprises. Enterprises became BBC Worldwide, and finally BBC Studios. ↩

13. Is it possible that BBC Studios retains the master used for the 1990 VHS release, which includes the missing “Time” flash frame? It is… but I suspect that at this point, it’s unlikely. Sadly, this area is particularly difficult to research. Whatever legacy holdings BBC Studios have in this area, they are separate from the main BBC archive. ↩

14. At least, to my knowledge. I’ve only seen two episodes of that first series, and it’s not present in the broadcast material of either of those. I would suggest it is highly unlikely it appeared in any of the other four episodes, but if you know differently, let me know. ↩

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freeze-frame gonna drive you insane, the young ones