Mind Your Manors

Mind Your Manors
"I'm not your butler, why don't you try ringing!" (Rings the Bell) "You Rang!" "Ha Ha, it worked!" "Uh oh!" "What?" "AHHHHHH!"
Written by:	Rory Clark
Original Broadcast:	28 January 2008
Guest Starring:	Harry Hill, Simon Harvey, Guy Siner, Hugh-Clay Jones
Series Number	20
Episode Number	1
Previous Episode	Hanging Round
Next Episode	I Scream Men

Mind Your Manors is the first episode of series 20 of ChuckleVision. The episode is centered around Paul and Barry saving Chuckle Manor from Simon Chortle of the Chortle family, played by the well-known comedian Harry Hill.

Plot

Aunt Petunia has passed away, but has not bequeathed Chuckle Manor to the brothers in her will. To buy it, Paul and Barry have set up an antiques sale outside Chuckle Manor to try and raise money. Unfortunately, they are unsuccessful in their sale attempts. The only buyer is Simon chortle, who is determined to get the manor, and whom Aunt Petunia loathed. He buys almost all of the antiques for the ludicrously small sum of £2, with the exception of a small cup with a Chuckle face on it. He then reveals himself to be a Chortle, and tells the Chuckle Brothers to get off his land. To escape him, they run into the house and lock the door behind them. Paul remarks that he and Barry did a lot of work on the house: at that point a chandelier smashes to the ground after he thumps the wall.

Meanwhile, Simon tries to find another way to get in the house and ends up climbing the drainpipe and after some struggling, he falls through one of the windows. The Chuckles walk into a room and a portrait of Aunt Petunia starts to talk to them. She is shocked to hear that Chuckle manor could fall into the hands of Simon Chortle. She notices that Paul and Barry still have the small cup, which she she tells them is called the Chalice of Chuckle. Although Paul and Barry only have a single chalice, she says that it is in fact one of a pair: the pair together would be priceless, and would raise sufficient funds to buy Chuckle Manor. She says that the second chalice must have been lost some time in the past, and that the brothers must go back in time to find the other chalice. To go back in time, the brothers must utter the words "Charlie Chuckle, Chants to Cheeky Chick, Cheerily Chucking Clucks."

On the first attempt, the Brothers head back to the Stone Age. There, they materialise at Stonehenge, where the Stonehenge circle is just being completed. The brothers try to grab the chalice, but the priests constructing the circle fight back. After Barry narrowly saved the chalice from being crushed, he leans on one of the upright stones and knocks it over, thereby causing the entire Stonehenge circle to collapse. The brothers flee, pursued by the furious priests. With the option of hiding in dark caves or a boggy marsh, the duo elect for the former choice. However, they are chased into the caves by one of the priests, who grabs the chalice back from Barry before the brothers successfully recite the words (at the second time of asking) to bring them back to the present day.

When they arrive back, they tell Aunt Petunia that they were unsuccessful. Since they are unwilling to go back to the stone age for a second time, Aunt Petunia tells them that the next sighting was at the court of Elizabeth I. Before heading back in time again, Barry writes the recantation down on a piece of paper so that he will not say it wrongly again as he did at the first time of asking in the stone age. When the brothers arrive at Elizabeth I's court, they see the chalice, but discover that it is the executioner's personal chalice. He intimidates them, and so the brothers decide that they must find a way of distracting the executioner, so that they can grab the chalice. To do this. Paul decided to arrange an execution of Barry, much to Barry's dismay. The plan is for Barry to upset the queen, and be sentenced to death. Paul will grab the executioner's clothes and chalice, then before "executing" Barry, say the words and bring them back to the modern day. Barry successfully upsets the Queen by making her fall into a hole filled with water, that he laid a cloak across to conceal. The queen falls in and Barry is dragged off. Back in the court, Barry has his head on the execution block, ready to be executed. However, he finds out that Paul is next to him, also on the execution block: Paul's plan has failed. Barry successfully reads the oath on the paper, transporting him and Paul back to the modern day. However, the piece of paper remains in the Elizabethan era, and the executioner finds the paper, reads out the oath, and is also transported back to the modern day, although into a different room in the manor.

They announce to the portrait once again that they didn't get the chalice and she tells them that they have one more chance. While Simon makes a trap for the Chuckles, so does the executioner and they both fall into each others. Since the last sighting of the cup was at Beethoven's Salon, the Chuckles say the oath and head back once again and surprise Beethoven. Paul announces that he and Barry are piano tuners and sets Barry to work, looking for the Chalice, while Paul tries to persuade Beethoven that his own symphony is a better new one to compose. While looking underneath the lid of the grand piano, Barry leaves a candle there that he was using for light. As a result, the piano catches fire, and Beethoven has to throw water from the chalice that he was using as a mug over the piano to t=extinguish the fire. As he starts to cry at the piano's destruction, Paul and Barry grab the chalice, utter the oath and head back to the modern day.

They show the portrait that they have got the second chalice, and the portrait congratulates them. Meanwhile, Simon has cut himself down from the rope he was trapped in. When Simon comes into the room, he tells the Chuckles to get out, but they tell him about the pair of chalices being priceless together, and he breaks down in tears on the floor. In celebration, the Chuckles clink the cups together, and they both smash. At this point, Simon smiles, and throws the chuckles out of the house.

Meanwhile, the executioner has also cut himself down from Simon's previous trap. Simon hears his footsteps and goes to confront him, thinking him to be the Chuckles returning. However, he screams in terror once he realises that he has made a mistake. As the Chuckles stand dejected outside the house, Barry utters the exact words Simon is about to say: that he has had enough, and that the Chuckles can have the keys and the house after all. A moment later, Simon runs out of the house in terror, fleeing the executioner. Seeing the Chuckles, he gives them the keys and says the same words Barry has just mockingly suggested. He then runs off,

Now that the Chuckles are back inside the house, Paul sits down and tells Barry to go and get him something. However, Barry says that he is not Paul's butler and tells Paul to to ring the bell for service instead. When Paul does this, the executioner comes in, and once Paul and Barry realise who it is, they scream and run.

Trivia

• First ChuckleVision episode of 2008, and the first since CBBC's rebrand on Monday 3rd September 2007.
• This was an interactive episode on channel 301. You could get there by pressing the red button, and could "chose your own adventure" by opting between different (additional/alternative) episode scenes. The alternate choices weren't shown in the normal episode however and the interactive episode has never been repeated, only the normal fixed episode. Additionally, no Youtube footage of those alternative scenes has ever been uploaded. There may be a chance to see those choices again on the series 20 DVD if Simply Media ever plan to release it.
• The exteriors of Chuckle Manor were filmed at Dancer's Hill House near Barnet. Dancer's Hill House was previously used as a filming location in Safe and Sound, That Ol' Chuckle Magic, A Change in the Weather and Music of Time.
• The scenes at Elizabeth I's court were filmed at the old palace at Hatfield House
• Playing Simon Chortle, Harry Hill was an actor and comedian notable for presenting You’ve Been Framed and Harry Hill’s TV Burp.
• Playing Beethoven, Guy Siner was famous for playing another German character - Gruber in the classic BBC sitcom Allo Allo!
• The trap Paul plans of laying a cloak on top of a puddle for Queen Elizabeth I is a reference to the real life Sir Walter Raleigh, who allegedly lay his cloak down on a puddle because the queen was about to step in the puddle.

Goofs

• Aunt Petunia says that the chalice was first seen in the Stone Age, and sends Paul and Barry back to where Stonehenge is just being completed. However, the Stone Age actually ended in around 3300 BC. Stonehenge is believed to have been constructed in around 2500 BC, which was the Bronze Age.