The Beer Hunter

Episode Overview

When Arthur’s mate Yorkie comes down to London for a reunion with Arthur, they both have a little too much to drink. Arthur gives Terry the job of taking Yorkie home, only to discover he has gone missing the following day. With Yorkie’s wife Dora on the way down to London in a few hours the hunt is on for Yorkie, who has ended up lost in London, with a prostitute called Renee without his trousers and no idea what the name of his hotel was. When Terry discovers the night porter who let Yorkie back into his hotel was actually a moonlighting teacher, the trail leads them to a one armed taxi driver and the hunt is on to find Yorkie before wife Dora lands on their doorstep.

Cast

Brian Glover as Yorkie, Georgina Hale as Renee, Pat Ashton as Dora, Alan David as Chef, Robert Blythe as Coliver, Jo Warne as Brenda, William Rourke as Police Constable, Janine Duvitski as Carol, Carlos Douglas as Carlos, Marshall Ward as Trev, Barrie Rutter as Reg, Victor Baring as Enrico

Uncredited: Harry ‘Aitch’ Fielder as fruit machine player in Winchester Club, Tommy Coombes as man with hands in his pockets at the coach station

Facts

This episode features a particularly memorable scene where Arthur interrupts a game of rugby in order to attract the attention of the referee, a teacher who has been covering as a night porter at the hotel where Yorkie was staying. No explanation is given in this episode as to why Terry’s flat is full of telephones, but we can assume it must have something to do with Arthur. The great Brian Glover guest stars in this episode – possibly the greatest actor ever to come from Barnsley, he appeared in many other roles over the years and is known by British viewers as being the voice of Tetley tea bags. Pat Ashton who plays his wife starred in an early 1970s sitcom with John Thaw and Bob Hoskins called ‘Thick As Thieves’. At just after 26 minutes Arthur refers to the black jazz musician as a ‘lemonade’, which tends to be edited out of any TV repeats of the episode. Georgina Hale had previously appeared alongside Dennis Waterman in the ‘Sweeney 2’ film.

At the end of this episode Arthur, Yorkie and Dora sing ‘Mairzy Dotes’, a novelty song first composed in 1943 and popular with American servicemen overseas.

Filming Dates

Unknown (likely mid-1980).

Bloopers: A minor continuation blooper in this episode. When Arthur and Terry leave the rugby game, they are being followed by the infamous brown Ford Cortina (see our Dodgy Motors section). As they turn the corner the car is magically parked up on the left hand side of the street – quite amazing! Also, watch carefully at 35m40s as Arthur is singing to himself while the boys play football on the street – the rear window on the driver’s side of his Jag is slightly down – seconds later as the ball hits the car, the window is up again. As they head for the church, the window is down again and when they finally arrive it is back up.

Title: ‘The Deer Hunter’, a 1978 film starring Robert De Niro, Christoper Walken and Meryl Streep, which examines the effects of the Vietnam war on the lives of people in a small American industrial town.