Looking for a Canadian comedy recording from the 1960's

March 22, 2006 12:13 PM

Where can I find a recording of (or information about) a Canadian radio comedy sketch called "Les Anglaises"?

Where can I find a recording of (or information about) a Canadian radio comedy sketch called "Les Anglaises"?

My parents had a tape of the performance when I was growing up and they thought it was absolutely hysterical. I ruined the tape one day when I was 10 and hid it at the bottom of the garbage can so they wouldn't know what I'd done. Years later, I now feel horrible about destroying such a valued posession and want to make amends by finding a new copy of it to give to them

Unfortunately, I don't remember any specific details about it except:
1. It's about a married Francophone man and Anglophone women living in Montreal and cultural confusions.
2. It pre-dated Trudeau, so was probably from around the late 1960's.
3. It was an audio recording of a live stage performance.
4. It was likely a CBC recording.

Some of the situations were:
- The wife wanted to learn French and was taking DIY classes so that she could someday study at the Sorbonne (which she pronounced "The Sour Bun"). The husband mocked her as she recited her verbs, "je vais, il va". The punchline of the entire sketch was the phrase "j'peut pas!" in the most horrible Quebecois accent you can imagine.
- The husband gets a cold and they trade family folk remedies.

Anyone have any idea what this show is and where I could go about getting a recording?

posted by sayitwithpie to Media & Arts (3 answers total)

I googled ""Les Anglaises" and CBC and found this

CBC Television Series 1952 to 1982

Comedy Cafe

Sat 10:15-10:45 p.m., 1 Feb-8 Mar 1969

Comedy Cafe was an interim program, which filled the scheduling gap in the Saturday post-hockey/pre-national news slot after the failure of Barris and Company and before Comedy Crackers. It had been broadcast locally, in Montreal, in black and white in autumn 1968, and converted to colour for the network in February. For the most part, the cast and writing staff of Comedy Cafe duplicated the personnel of the popular CBC radio series, Funny You Should Say That. The television show featured Barrie Baldaro, Ted Zeigler, and Joan Stuart from the radio broadcasts, and added Dave Broadfoot and George Carron.

Comedy Cafe included sketches with formats that had been tested in the radio series, such as "The Tavern," a collection of different types of men gathered in a typically Canadian beverage room where they discuss the events of the day over a few dozen draft, or the L'Anglaises, a Francophone husband and an Anglophone wife (a bit originated by Peter Cullen and Joan Stuart on radio, and performed by George Carron and Stuart in the television version). Perennial revue performer Dave Broadfoot also gave the show addresses from the Member for Kicking Horse Pass, a character he had played in Spring Thaw and elsewhere. The writers were John Morgan, also of Funny You Should Say That, and Martin Bronstein, and the program was produced by Dale Barnes.

posted by tiamat at 12:30 PM on March 22, 2006

More info about character names on one other page, but this is all I could find.

CBC Television Series 1952 to 1982: Z

Cullen played Gilles to Stuart's Anglo Penelope--she called him Giles, he called her Penny-lope--in the recurring sketch about the cross-cultural couple called the L'Anglaises.

I guess my advice at this point would be to call CBC archives (I know there's on in Toronto, maybe Montreal has one as well) and beg a lot. I'd think your chances are next to zero of finding this stuff commercially, since there's no mention of any of it on google.
posted by tiamat at 12:45 PM on March 22, 2006

Best answer: I have the record album of the "L'Anglaises" sketches—it came out in the late 1960s, during the period when "Funny You Should Say That" was being aired on CBC Radio. The sketches featuring Gilles ("Gyles," as dubbed by Penelope) and Penelope (Penny-LOPE, comme Gilles disait) were originally aired on that CBC Radio show first.

I also have a "Funny You Should Say That" album, too, featuring a cute sketch entitled "Ecumenical Sermon," between a British-accented Anglican priest and a malaprop-spouting French-accented Catholic priest that sounded a lot like the Gilles character—because, of course, it was being done by Peter Cullen, who played Gilles. :-)

I had a friend of mine in Toronto back in the mid 1980s who found a copy of this album in a second-hand record store (yes, they called them record stores back then ). He graciously sent me a copy. I've made audio files out of them, and always chuckle when they pop up on my MP3 player (when in random mode).

One of the funniest lines, from the "Breakfast" sketch: When G. and P. are in Ottawa, Gilles tries to explain the origin of the word "parliament" to Penelope. She asked him,

"[Since] you know it all, tell me why it's called parliament."

"It comes from two French words, see?" [ripples of laughter from the audience, after a second, as the francophones anticipate the joke, I'm guessing...] "The first word, parler, to speak; and mentir, to lie."

I have the record packed away somewhere, so I don't have the label or number handy, though I think it was a co-branded CBC and RCA Canada recording (the heyday of CBC Records hadn't happened yet).

Oh, the bit about Penelope learning "real" French (not the one they speak at the "Sour Bun": What Gilles actually says is "Chu pas capab' "—which, as any Québécois can tell you, is Quebec French for "Je ne suis pas capable." That proper phrase is what Penelope tries to say in her most proper Westmount way, anglicizing every vowel in sight.

And, I must say, for an anglophone, Cullen does a very good French accent, even when he's pronouncing French words, although occasionally there are some slipups. But this is a comedy show, for God's sakes, not a proficiency test for a bilingual certificate. :-)
posted by kentk at 12:20 AM on August 30, 2006