Fancy Wanders – Nostalgia Central

1 9 8 0 (UK)
7 x 30 minute episodes

Twenty years after the thought-provoking (but downright peculiar) The Strange World Of Gurney Slade, which had starred Anthony Newley, that show’s co-writer Sid Green turned in a new idea plotted along distinctly similar lines, now starring Dave King (in his first TV series for more than a decade).

Fancy (King) was an unemployed working-class layabout who avoided work as a favour to the nation since – as he reasoned – if everybody had a job, it would be an economic disaster.

Instead, he wandered around London with his dole-drawing black pal Alastair (Joseph Marcell), expostulating long and fancifully about life as they saw it, flitting from topic to topic and philosophising about how the world would be if they had an influential role.

As with Gurney Slade, the characters enjoyed what Sid Green called “illustrated thought comedy”, and viewers spent much of the time inside the characters’ minds, witnessing them holding conversations with inanimate objects, like statues and – bringing the concept up to date – Space Invaders machines.

Fancy
Dave King
Alastair
Joseph Marcell
Landlady
Hilda Fenemore

Episodes

Whatever Happened to Work? | High Finance | With a Little Bit of Luck | What Is This Thing Called Love? | The Thoughts of Chairman Al | Those Fates Are Made for Walking | Come Back Alastair