Nightingales
- You may be looking for the bird nightingale.
- Not to be confused with the 1989 American series about student nurses
Nightingales was an unusual British sitcom produced by Channel 4 in the early 1990s. As a sitcom about extracting comedy from 'nothing' it could arguably be considered a relative of such programmes as Seinfeld and The Royle Family although as it was made some time before them, it could be said that it showed them the way. The series can also be considered as an early example of the current strain of 'Dark Comedy' in situation comedy.
It revolved around the jobs of three bored nightwatchmen working in a deserted office block somewhere in London. Despite an ostensibly uneventful premise, the programme's episodes detailed surreal, Pinteresque happenings which subverted the usual comedy archetypes in ways which were to the few that watched it, clever and hilariously funny or were to others, including the Channel 4 executives who cancelled it, completely baffling.
The security guards themselves were standard sitcom characters. Robert Lindsay played Carter, the intellectual whose aspirations were invariably frustrated; David Threlfall was "Ding-Dong" Bell, 'the stupid one'; and James Ellis played the impossibly optimistic veteran watchman, Sarge. There was a fourth character, Smith, who was dead throughout the first series. The other characters kept his body in the building so that they could claim his salary. The basic setting was also a recognisable sitcom one, that of a number of different personalities forced together (see also Father Ted, Dad's Army, Porridge, etc.).
Beyond this, however, the programme moved into areas more befitting the nightmares of Spike Milligan or David Lynch. Guest characters included Eric the Werewolf (Ian Sears); an additional security guard who was a gorilla; and Mary the Christmas Allegory, who gave birth to consumer electronics. A running gag involved the question "Is there anybody there?" followed by the half-sung response "There's nobody here but us chickens!" accompanied by much arm waggling in the manner of said poultry. This line is from the 1947 song "Ain't nobody Here but us Chickens" written by Alex Kramer and Joan Whitney and recorded by many artistes including Louis Jordan, BB King and Asleep at the Wheel.
Two series ran, in 1990 and 1993. The long delay was prompted by Channel 4 executive Seamus Cassidy who was not happy with the proposed scripts for the second season and it was three years before the follow-up series was given the go-ahead. The theme tune was a version of the song "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" sung by Lindsay. Nightingales was written by Paul Makin, who went on to write the more conventional comedies like Goodnight Sweetheart. A US remake (titled "In Security") was piloted but never commissioned. The complete run of thirteen episodes was released on DVD in March 2006.
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