Stanley Baxter

Jack Docherty brings together a jam-packed cast of comedians, actors and famous faces for a riotous celebration of Scotland's most valuable export – its sense of humour. Scotland is a small nation with a big funny bone. It's known the world over for self-deprecation, quick-witted patter and deadpan asides. But what makes it so funny? To find out the answer, this programme delves deep into the BBC Scotland archives to find a century’s worth of classic characters, catchphrases and comedy clips.

Dame Edna Everage takes questions from a celebrity audience about her life and career.

Bing Crosby and his family spend Christmas at the estate of a distant relative in England.

While posters urge austerity and vigilance in wartime Britain, 'Joey Boy' Thompson has never had it better. In a cellar beneath his East London fish shop, a gambling club thrives – and austerity provides a nice black-market sideline. But the dolce vita crumbles when police arrive in a lightning raid, and offer Joey and his fellow reprobates a stark choice: sign up for active service, or face another stint inside. Thus the lads find themselves heading off to Italy, determined to make the best of it...

When Dexter Munro and his new wife Juliet get married, they decide to escape Juliet's meddling father by buying a rundown cottage and doing it up themselves. But when the cottage proves to be more ramshackle than they thought, and the scale of the repairs needed far out of their budget, the newlyweds are forced into calling on Juliet's father after all. Before long he's employed incompetent builder Josh Wicks, and the situation goes from bad to worse.

Murdoch Troon es un sencillo funcionario que está locamente enamorado de Claire, hija de un prestigioso millonario. Con la intención de impresionar al padre de su querida, Murdoch aprenderá a conducir un antiguo coche deportivo.

A former burglar trying to go straight joins a rehabilitation scheme using much the same methods as AA. Through the process, he takes work as a department store Santa, where the endless parade of goods and money, not to mention the pretty young shop hands have him like a moth to a flame in no time flat.

A finales de 1942, sir Ernest Pease, un investigador científico tan eminente como carente de sentido del humor, es embarcado en un bombardero para que pueda comprobar en directo el funcionamiento del radar que ha diseñado. Para no despertar alarmas ni sospechas se le inventa la personalidad de teniente Farrow. Pero el bombardero es atacado y el falso teniente, que cae en terreno enemigo, es apresado por la Luftwaffe y llevado a un campo de prisioneros. Para Sir Pease lo peor de la situación es tener que compartir cabaña y actividades diarias con un grupo de compatriotas que tratan de llevar su encierro de la mejor manera posible y que para él no son más que ‘idiotas irresponsables’. El Primer Ministro británico logra enviar un mensaje a los prisioneros: han de hacer lo imposible para que importante personaje escape del campo.

Concerned about his small stature, a young Scottish boy applies for a mail-order body building course, successfully gaining both height and strength. The film was released as "Wee Geordie" in the USA.