An Evening with Eddie Fontana @ 3MT
by Liam Moody
Reviewed by John Waterhouse March 2018
At first glance, An Evening with Eddie Fontana is exactly what it says on the packet; an evening with a ‘celebrity’ TV-show host, aided and abetted by a plethora of co-hosts and guests. This is a well-worn comedy sub-genre which considerably predates Alan Partridge and Ron Burgundy.
Back in the 70’s during his hey day, spoofs of popular TV-show hosts such as Hughie Green and Simon Dee were a regular feature on the Benny Show and before. Then at the dawn of Python, John Cleese in a memorable sketch, perfectly satirised the mid-Atlantic voice egotists who filled prime-time Saturday night TV slots on both sides of the pond. And let’s not forget Eric Idle’s Rutland Weekend television from around the same time.