Muttering, coughs and laughs.



"Sozzled, rambling old barrister, Rowley Birkin QC, sits in his chair and spins yarns of foreign adventures, mysterious women and exotic beasts, attended only by his equally ancient butler. During his nonsensical mutterings you can make out the occasional phrase - 'took it off below the knee'... 'a rather strikin mustache'... 'SNAKE, SNAKE!'... 'Her husband had been entombed in ice. Like this.'... and of course, 'I'm afraid that I was very, very drunk'." (bbc site).

[rowleybirkinqc.ytmnd.com]

LOL

I'm obviously not alone in thinking that his sozzled monologues bear a striking resemblance to a certain veteran guitarist that we're all quite fond of...

For the uninitiated amongst you, here's a little background info,
to this cult British comedy character:-

Rowley Birkin QC is a fictional character played by the comedian Paul Whitehouse in the popular BBC sketch show The Fast Show.

Rowley Birkin was an elderly barrister (the post-nominal letters "QC" stand for "Queen's Counsel") with grey hair and a puffy red nose from drinking too much. His sketches consisted of him seated in an old-fashioned sitting room in front of the fireplace with a drink in his hand, regaling the person in the opposite chair (of whom only the legs could be seen) with stories about his past exploits. His speech was mumbled and slurred, making it almost entirely unintelligible, with just the occasional incongruous-sounding word or phrase audible. He sometimes illustrated his stories with strange noises and hand signals. It turned out that he had carried out his adventures whilst inebriated, as he ended every monologue with the phrase, "I'm afraid that I was very, very drunk," or a variant thereof.

The character also made a cameo appearance in the Fast Show spin-off film, Ted and Ralph, and was also for a time used as part of an advertising campaign for British Gas.

The BBC webpage on Rowley Birkin tells of the character's origins, saying, "Rowley was based on a man, named Andrew Rollo, who Paul Whitehouse met on a fishing trip to Iceland."

In a BBC documentary about the Fast Show called The Inside Leg of the Fast Show, actor, and fan of the show, Johnny Depp said that he thought the Rowley Birkin character was a creation of 'genius'.

Gee, I wonder why Johnny Depp liked him!!

In the USA, the Fast Show goes under the title of "Brilliant".

God knows why they changed the title.

....brilliant!

"Aren't old people brilliant? I mean, they're just young people who stayed alive real long. They just sit in their chairs talking about the War, and then they die! Brilliant!"

Limbostone Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> "Aren't old people brilliant? I mean, they're just
> young people who stayed alive real long. They just
> sit in their chairs talking about the War, and
> then they die! Brilliant!"


LOL!!!!!!

One of his best...

"Weren't The Rolling Stones circa 1986 brilliant? i mean, that album, Dirty Work, has some great stuff on it, and they're taste in fashion, on the cover...
Brilliant!"