''The Crystal Cube'' was a
mockumentary
A mockumentary (a blend of ''mock'' and ''documentary''), fake documentary or docu-comedy is a type of film or television show depicting fictional events but presented as a documentary.
These productions are often used to analyze or comment on c ...
television pilot
A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie), in United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television network or other distri ...
written by and starring
Stephen Fry
Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director and writer. He first came to prominence in the 1980s as one half of the comic double act Fry and Laurie, alongside Hugh Laurie, with the two starring ...
and
Hugh Laurie
James Hugh Calum Laurie (; born 11 June 1959) is an English actor, comedian, writer, and musician. He first gained recognition for his work as one half of the comedy double act Fry and Laurie with Stephen Fry. The two men acted together in a ...
, broadcast on 7 July 1983 on
BBC2
BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...
at 22:10. The pilot was one of
Fry and Laurie
Fry and Laurie are English comedy double act, mostly active in the 1980s and 1990s. The duo consisted of Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, who met in 1980 through mutual friend Emma Thompson while all three attended the University of Cambridge. Th ...
's first television appearances and the first show they had written themselves. However, the BBC chose not to take it to a full series, and Fry and Laurie did not get a chance to make their own programme for the BBC until 1989, when they produced their first full series of the more conventional sketch show ''
A Bit of Fry and Laurie
''A Bit of Fry & Laurie'' is a British sketch comedy television series written by and starring former Cambridge Footlights members Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, broadcast on both BBC1 and BBC2 between 1989 and 1995. It ran for four series and ...
'', after a pilot in 1987.
Plot
''The Crystal Cube'' was a spoof science programme, based on shows such as ''
Tomorrow's World
''Tomorrow's World'' is a former British television series about contemporary developments in science and technology. First transmitted on 7 July 1965 on BBC1, it ran for 38 years until it was cancelled at the beginning of 2003. The ''Tomorro ...
''. The show was hosted by Jackie Meld (
Emma Thompson
Dame Emma Thompson (born 15 April 1959) is a British actress. Regarded as one of the best actresses of her generation, she has received numerous accolades throughout her four-decade-long career, including two Academy Awards, two British A ...
). In each episode, a different topic of science was to be discussed. In the pilot, it was
genetics
Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinian friar wor ...
. Two guest scientists discussed the issue of genetics to a live studio audience and viewers at home. The scientists were Dr. Adrian Cowlacey (Fry), a practicing clinician at St. Thomas' Hospital, London, and Max Belhaven (Laurie) of the Bastard Institute in California. Cowlacey and Belhaven commented positively on the prospects that in the future, society would be divided into a genetic
caste system
Caste is a form of social stratification characterised by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultura ...
with people divided into "Alphas", "Betas" and "Gammas" based on their genetic background (terminology used in Huxley's ''
Brave New World
''Brave New World'' is a dystopian novel by English author Aldous Huxley, written in 1931 and published in 1932. Largely set in a futuristic World State, whose citizens are environmentally engineered into an intelligence-based social hierarch ...
''). They also showed an example of a genetically engineered human, Gareth Gamma 0001 (
Arthur Bostrom
Arthur Bostrom FRGS (born 6 January 1955) is an English actor, best known for his role as Officer Crabtree in the long-running BBC TV sitcom Allo 'Allo!''.
Biography Early life
Bostrom was born in Rugby, Warwickshire and attended Lawrence S ...
), who was designed to carry out menial tasks without complaint. The show later went into a debate between a member of clergy, The Bishop of Horley, The Very Reverend Previous Lockhort (
John Savident
John Savident (born 21 January 1938) is a retired British actor, known for his numerous television roles, including his portrayal of Fred Elliott in the soap opera '' Coronation Street'' from 1994-2006. He is also known for his performance as ...
) and Martin Bealey (
Robbie Coltrane
Anthony Robert McMillan (30 March 195014 October 2022), known professionally as Robbie Coltrane, was a Scottish actor and comedian. He gained worldwide recognition in the 2000s for playing Rubeus Hagrid in the ''Harry Potter'' film series. He ...
), an anti-communist journalist who claimed the Soviets were using genetics to invade Britain. However, Gareth interrupted the conversations and caused a riot. Cowlacey therefore was forced to end the show.
Cast
*
Stephen Fry
Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director and writer. He first came to prominence in the 1980s as one half of the comic double act Fry and Laurie, alongside Hugh Laurie, with the two starring ...
as Dr. Adrian Cowlacey / Various Roles
*
Hugh Laurie
James Hugh Calum Laurie (; born 11 June 1959) is an English actor, comedian, writer, and musician. He first gained recognition for his work as one half of the comedy double act Fry and Laurie with Stephen Fry. The two men acted together in a ...
as Max Belhaven / Various Roles
*
Emma Thompson
Dame Emma Thompson (born 15 April 1959) is a British actress. Regarded as one of the best actresses of her generation, she has received numerous accolades throughout her four-decade-long career, including two Academy Awards, two British A ...
as Jackie Meld / Various roles
*
Robbie Coltrane
Anthony Robert McMillan (30 March 195014 October 2022), known professionally as Robbie Coltrane, was a Scottish actor and comedian. He gained worldwide recognition in the 2000s for playing Rubeus Hagrid in the ''Harry Potter'' film series. He ...
as Martin Bealey
*
Fanny Carby
Fanny Carby (2 February 1925 – 20 September 2002) was a British character actress. She had two different roles on ''Coronation Street'': she played Mary Hornigold in 1965, then in 1987 she took the role of Vera Duckworth's domineering mot ...
as Gareth's Mother, Mrs. 0001
*
Arthur Bostrom
Arthur Bostrom FRGS (born 6 January 1955) is an English actor, best known for his role as Officer Crabtree in the long-running BBC TV sitcom Allo 'Allo!''.
Biography Early life
Bostrom was born in Rugby, Warwickshire and attended Lawrence S ...
as Gareth, Gamma 0001
*
Roy Heather
Roy Heather (20 May 1935 – 3 September 2014) was an English television actor best remembered for playing cafe owner Sid in the sitcom ''Only Fools and Horses''.
Heather was born in Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire. After leaving school, he w ...
as Gareth's Father, Mr. 0001
*
John Savident
John Savident (born 21 January 1938) is a retired British actor, known for his numerous television roles, including his portrayal of Fred Elliott in the soap opera '' Coronation Street'' from 1994-2006. He is also known for his performance as ...
as The Bishop of Horley, The Very Reverend Previous Lockhort
*Paul Shearer as Mike Liam
Production
''The Crystal Cube'' was designed by the BBC to provide a pilot for Fry and Laurie, who after working in the ITV comedy series ''
Alfresco
Alfresco may refer to:
* ''Al fresco'', or fresco, a technique of mural painting
* Al fresco dining
* Alfresco Software, an open-source content-management system
* ''Alfresco'' (TV series), a 1980s British television comedy series
* ''Al fresc ...
'' were beginning to be seen as a
double act
A double act (also known as a comedy duo) is a form of comedy originating in the British music hall tradition, and American vaudeville, in which two comedians perform together as a single act. Pairings are typically long-term, in some cases f ...
. The show involves several members of the ''Alfresco'' cast, such as Thompson and Coltrane.
Reception
The BBC were not expecting that the show Fry and Laurie made would combine elements of science fiction and mockumentary, and as a result, the pilot was not commissioned into a series. Fry and Laurie did make later appearances in other BBC comedy shows such as ''
The Young Ones'' and ''
Blackadder
''Blackadder'' is a series of four period British sitcoms, plus several one-off instalments, which originally aired on BBC One from 1983 to 1989. All television episodes starred Rowan Atkinson as the antihero Edmund Blackadder and Tony Robins ...
''. The BBC later gave Fry and Laurie a second chance and this resulted in ''
A Bit of Fry and Laurie
''A Bit of Fry & Laurie'' is a British sketch comedy television series written by and starring former Cambridge Footlights members Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, broadcast on both BBC1 and BBC2 between 1989 and 1995. It ran for four series and ...
'', first broadcast in 1987.
One joke from ''The Crystal Cube'' is reused in ''A Bit of Fry and Laurie''. In it Harris Edgley-Woad, a fictional early genetics pioneer, was said to have been born in a working-class home that his parents had built for him in the grounds of their Gloucestershire estate.
This joke appears in the last episode of the second series of ''A Bit of Fry and Laurie'', but instead it is Laurie who was born in such a house.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crystal Cube, The
1983 British television series debuts
1983 British television series endings
BBC television comedy
Television pilots not picked up as a series