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The Phantom Raspberry Blower of Old London Town: Part 6

The Two Ronnies
SKETCH-O-VISION
A VERY GOOD USE OF YOUR TIME.

The setup

With Inspector Corner and Sergeant Bowles both sent off to a rest home, a bird recordist's tape finally gives Scotland Yard the Phantom's call, and a taunting letter summons them to a midnight graveyard.

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The premise

Here’s the bit.

After the strain of the case leaves Inspector Corner convinced he is Napoleon, a naturalist recording birdsong on Hampstead Heath accidentally captures the Phantom's blast and plays it to the Royal Ornithological Society as proof the dodo survives. The chairman, a former victim, recognises it and sends the tape to Scotland Yard, where Sergeant Bowles cracks too, until a shortage of men brings both detectives back on duty. A letter from the Phantom challenges Corner to a graveyard rendezvous at midnight, so the pair set off by way of the Hippodrome, where a flower seller in drag says a cloaked man boarded the cemetery bus. Meanwhile Lord Peter awaits his showgirl Dulcie at the stage door, only to be felled by the Phantom just as she gives her answer.

The funny people

Meet the cast. 8

Say it with us

Highly quotable.

Then I'm coming with you. / Good, then we'll go alone together.

We must act fast. / I'm acting as fast as I can.

Don't worry, Bowles. This is a plainclothes job.

Behind the scenes

The people who made it.

A little extra

Notes from the archive.

The narrator's "Ludwig von Koch, famous Chinese ornithologist" sends up Ludwig Koch, the German-born broadcaster whose wildlife sound recordings helped popularise British birdsong.

The rabbit hole continues

One more couldn’t hurt.

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