On the back of the success of 'Red Dwarf', Chris Barrie landed his own hugely successful show on the BBC - 'The Brittas Empire' - which cast him as Gordan Brittas, the bungling manager of a leisure centre. His co-star Craig Charles on the other hand was not so lucky with his vehicle - 'Captain Butler' - a short lived Channel 4 sitcom which cast him as a cowardly pirate. Scripts were provided by John Smith and Rob Sprackling. Unlike 'Red Dwarf', this show was more of a throwback to comedy farces of the 'Carry On' vein, with intentionally corny jokes, bad puns, and over-the-top acting, obviously being a send-up of the whole nautical genre. This being the case, many nautical phrases were in use an awful lot such as ''Shiver me timbers!'' and ''Splice the mainbrace!''.
Assisting the black hearted Butler on his ramshackle ship are sharp tongued Bosun ( the much missed Shaun Curry ), naive Master Roger ( Lewis Rae ), dim witted Adeel ( a post 'Goodness Gracious Me' Sanjeev Bhaskar ) and cool headed Cliff ( Roger Griffiths ). In one episode, Butler meets and falls in love with a mermaid. In another, the crew kidnap a young girl who is unbeknownst to them the daughter of a rival pirate with a fearsome reputation. Another, and rather funny edition, had them apprehend Admiral Nelson ( played by 'Red Dwarf' co-star Robert Llwellyn ), who here is not the brave Admiral he makes himself out to be but an infantile coward.
'Captain Butler' failed in the ratings and was dropped swiftly after only six episodes, Well, the first thing to say about it is that is not brilliant comedy, far from it, but it was not dreadful either. Charles plays Butler much in the way Chris Barrie portrayed Arnold Rimmer, and the supporting cast fared reasonably well. Having watched it recently, I enjoyed it a lot, however I can understand why is had a short life span, the format was too limiting. How do you make pirates funny over and over again? After the show finished, Charles returned to his comfort zone on the mining ship 'Red Dwarf'.
Like I said, 'Captain Butler' was not side splittingly hilarious but it does keep one smiling throughout, which in this day and age is quite an achievement. The show's catchy theme tune is an amusing arrangement of The Sex Pistols' 'Friggin' In The Riggin''.
Assisting the black hearted Butler on his ramshackle ship are sharp tongued Bosun ( the much missed Shaun Curry ), naive Master Roger ( Lewis Rae ), dim witted Adeel ( a post 'Goodness Gracious Me' Sanjeev Bhaskar ) and cool headed Cliff ( Roger Griffiths ). In one episode, Butler meets and falls in love with a mermaid. In another, the crew kidnap a young girl who is unbeknownst to them the daughter of a rival pirate with a fearsome reputation. Another, and rather funny edition, had them apprehend Admiral Nelson ( played by 'Red Dwarf' co-star Robert Llwellyn ), who here is not the brave Admiral he makes himself out to be but an infantile coward.
'Captain Butler' failed in the ratings and was dropped swiftly after only six episodes, Well, the first thing to say about it is that is not brilliant comedy, far from it, but it was not dreadful either. Charles plays Butler much in the way Chris Barrie portrayed Arnold Rimmer, and the supporting cast fared reasonably well. Having watched it recently, I enjoyed it a lot, however I can understand why is had a short life span, the format was too limiting. How do you make pirates funny over and over again? After the show finished, Charles returned to his comfort zone on the mining ship 'Red Dwarf'.
Like I said, 'Captain Butler' was not side splittingly hilarious but it does keep one smiling throughout, which in this day and age is quite an achievement. The show's catchy theme tune is an amusing arrangement of The Sex Pistols' 'Friggin' In The Riggin''.
