BORN TO RERUN - A COUPLE OF KNIGHTS WITH RALPH AND LARRY AND JOHN

"One would no more suspect an actor being a knight 

Then a knight being an actor."

Sheriff of Nottingham

'The Adventures Of Robin Hood'

("The Quickening Of The Hand")

In this episode, three knights decide to spend their tournament downtime as bounty hunters - hoping to kidnap Robin Hood and bring him back to the Sheriff of Nottingham for a reward of 750 crowns.  

Those three knights were Sir John, Sir Ralph, and Sir Laurence (played respectively by Brian Oulton, Richard Caldicott, and Richard Pascoe.

Their plan was to pass themselves off as "strolling players" and to use a magic trick to spirit Robin away.  And they almost got away with it!

Now, there may not be any proof here in the real world that reincarnation can happen, but it's a fact over in Toobworld.  How do I know?  The theme song for 'My Mother The Car' told me so:

Everybody knows in a second life, 

we all come back sooner or later.
As anything from a pussycat 

to a man-eating alligator.
Well you all may think my story, 

is more fiction than it's fact.
But believe it or not my mother dear 

decided she'd come back.

As a car ...
She's my very own guiding star.
A 1928 Porter.
That's my mother dear.
'Cause she helps me through everything I do
And I'm so glad she's near.

My Mother the Car.
My Mother the car.
[composed by Paul Hampton]

For Toobworld, one of the more notable examples of reincarnation was Roman Emperor Claudius as Chicago psychologist Dr. Bob Hartley.  Most talking dogs in Toobworld had been humans in their past lives.

Sometimes two souls are so closely bonded that the Universe will do anything to bring them back together in new bodies with new lives, destined to be rejoined.  This is what happened with Cornish landowner Ross Poldark and his gypsy wife Demelza from the late 1700s.  Eventually they were reunited in San Francisco in the late 1990s as upper class lawyer Greg Montgomery and hippie chick Dharma Liberty Finkelstein who met and impulsively got married.

Duos are rare enough, but I think we have a case here in which three souls were at last brought back together in the 20th Century.  This time they all became the leading lights of British thespians in the 20th Century.  (Perhaps as karmic justice for passing themselves off as those "strolling players".)

It will be the contention of Toobworld Central that Sir Ralph was reborn as Sir Ralph Richardson; Sir John would one day be Sir John Gielgud; and as for Sir Laurence, he would come back to Earth Prime-Time as Lord Laurence Olivier.

Both of them even spelled "Laurence" the same!

Outside the Box, I have this feeling that R.W. Bogany deliberately gave those three knights those particular names, as sort of an in-joke reference to those acting titans.

And each of them has a televersion, not even taking into account all of their talk show appearances and news stories.  Lord Larry (as he liked to be called) showed up in the 1973 Christmas special hosted by Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise.  Meanwhile, a few years later, Richardson and Gielgud appeared on 'SCTV' in a Pinteresque sketch that was slightly reminicent of "No Man's Land".  (Only instead of being written by Harold Pinter, the author was Spike Pynther.)

One would think both those shows would be relegated to Skitlandia, but the framing devices for such variety programs are always rooted in Earth Prime-Time.  This is verified by the mentions of the shows in other TV shows.

For Eric and Ernie, it's 'Life On Mars' and 'Ashes To Ashes'.  Their actual location doesn't alter the fact that the characters know who Morecambe and Wise were.  As for 'SCTV', mostly it's due to 'Mystery Science Theater 3000'.  But then, I see 'SCTV' more as a sitcom set in Mellonville, Ohio, with their Skitlandian touches showing up in what they broadcast.

But getting back to the basic assertion: Sir Ralph, Sir John, and Sir Laurence were all reincarnated as Sir Ralph, Sir John, and Lord Laurence.  Not that I put much stock into end title credits, but both Larrys spell it "Laurence".

BCnU!