Watching 'The Plank' like doing a comedy archaeological dig

Having recently read the mostly enjoyable autobiography of Eric Sykes, I thought I would search out his short tv film 'The Plank', to which he makes reference on a number of occasions. He, and others, clearly think it is a comedy classic, emphasising the fact that it is silent as some kind of badge of undisputed quality.

I vaguely recall seeing it when I was about 10 years of age, slightly baffled by it, and I couldn't recall much that was funny about it. Maybe as an older person I would see it differently.

My wife and I watched it last night, appalled from start to finish, at just how bad it is, encapsulating the state of television comedy art at the time (1967, IIRC). No wonder Monty Python happened, we both said, almost in unison.

Every tired cliché and stereotype of vaudeville and silent comedy was on display, from funny business with car doors opening and closing and falling off, car bonnets opening when they shouldn't, people being hit or narrowly avoiding being hit by the eponymous plank and other objects. And, of course, leering at a mini-skirted young woman by randy older men, a staple of tv comedy until alternative comedy arrived in the early 1980s.

Just what you might expect from a programme 'starring', inter alia, Jimmy Edwards, Jimmy Tarbuck and Kenny Lynch. The latter was the inexplicable sine qua non of variety tv throughout the 1960s, even though he never seemed to be called upon to actually DO anything, other than appear on screen as a professional pal to the stars.

It was like watching a comedy archaeological dig, hoping against hope that we would find an immaculate top quality Roman mosaic at the bottom of the trench only to find we were in fact digging the latrines.

According to 'If I don't write it, nobody else will', the autobiography in question, Peter Sellers thought the concept fantastic and was set to star in it but accepted an offer to do something in Hollywood instead. Lucky him, I'd say. His replacement, Tommy Cooper, looked throughout as if he did not have a clue what was going on, almost as if the creator was making it up as he went along.

And guess what. At around 47 minutes long, The Plank is not exactly short. And it is not even silent...