Aimi MacDonald in The Mating Game, Apollo Theatre, London, 1972

Aimi MacDonald is a British actress who was born in Glasgow, Scotland on February 27, 1942. She was best known for her recurring role as "The Lovely" Aimi MacDonald in the television sketch comedy show At Last the 1948 Show (Rediffusion, 1967). For other uses, see Glasgow (disambiguation). ... Motto: (Latin for No one provokes me with impunity)1 Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital Edinburgh Largest city Glasgow Official language(s) English, Gaelic, Scots2 Government Constitutional monarchy  - Queen of the UK Queen Elizabeth II  - Prime Minister of the UK Tony Blair MP  - First Minister Jack McConnell MSP Unification    - by... February 27 is the 58th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1942 calendar). ... From top to bottom: Aimi MacDonald, Graham Chapman, Marty Feldman, Tim Brooke-Taylor, and John Cleese. ... Associated-Rediffusion was the British Independent Television (commercial television) contractor for London, on weekdays between 1954 (transmissions started on September 22, 1955) and 1968. ...

Background

Aimi MacDonald entered show business at the age of 14. She was initially a dancer, working in both Britain and the United States. She appeared in several musicals in London's West End and in cabaret ^[1].

At Last the 1948 Show

Aimi Macdonald (second from far right) in At Last the 1948 Show (DVD cover)

MacDoanld came to national attention in At Last the 1948 Show. In between the longer sketches, and at the opening and closing of the show, she would present a short piece on the seemingly inexhaustable theme of her own loveliness. She has been described as "a sort of low-key British Goldie Hawn" ^[2] (Hawn having risen to fame at about the same time in the American show, Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In). From top to bottom: Aimi MacDonald, Graham Chapman, Marty Feldman, Tim Brooke-Taylor, and John Cleese. ... Hawn in the 1972 movie Butterflies Are Free Goldie Jeanne Hawn (born Goldie Jean Studlendgehawn on November 21, 1945 in Washington, D.C.) is an American actress. ... Rowan & Martins Laugh-In was a United States comedy television show broadcast from January 22, 1968 through 1973 over the NBC network. ...

The sole female

The 48 Show was one of a number of productions with a predominantly male cast (in this instance, John Cleese, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graham Chapman and Marty Feldman) whose origins lay in the Cambridge Footlights in the late 1950s and early 60s. With Do Not Adjust Your Set, also created by Rediffusion, it was the precursor of Monty Python's Flying Circus, in which Carol Cleveland was, in her own words, the "blonde stooge", and, in many respects, the successor of the radio series I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again, in which Jo Kendall had been the only woman. The female star of Do Not Adjust Your Set was Denise Coffey. John Marwood Cleese (born October 27, 1939 in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, England) is an English comedian and actor best known for being one of the members of the comedy group Monty Python and for co-writing the TV series Fawlty Towers in which he played Basil Fawlty. ... Tim Brooke-Taylor (April 2000) Tim Brooke-Taylor (born July 17, 1940 in Buxton, Derbyshire, England) is a British comic actor most well known in Britain as a member of The Goodies comedy trio and as one of the panel members of the comedy radio show Im Sorry I... Graham Chapman (8 January 1941–4 October 1989) was an English comedian and writer. ... Actor Marty Feldman in Young Frankenstein (1974) Martin Alan Marty Feldman (July 8, 1934 – December 2, 1982) was a writer, comedian and film and television actor in the UK, famous for his bulging eyes, which were the result of a thyroid condition. ... The ADC Theatre is the home of the Footlights. ... From left to right: David Jason, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, and Eric Idle. ... Monty Pythons Flying Circus (also known as Flying Circus, MPFC or just Monty Python during the fourth season) was a popular, surreal BBC sketch comedy show from Monty Python, and the groups initial claim to fame. ... Carols first Python appearance. ... Im Sorry, Ill Read That Again was a long-running radio comedy programme that originally grew out of the Cambridge University revue Cambridge Circus. ... Jo Kendall is a British actress. ... From left to right: David Jason, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, and Eric Idle. ... Denise Coffey playing the part of Juliet in Do Not Adjust Your Set Denise Coffey (born 12 December 1936 in Aldershot) is a British actress. ...

At Last the 1948 Show
cast photograph — with Aimi MacDonald featured at the top of the image as 'the sole female'

Macdonald's highly contrived caricature of a "dumb blonde" stood apart from the core of 48; she did not contribute to the sketches, nor is she credited with any of the writing of the show. However, in retrospect, although the style and content of 48 were highly influential, Macdonald's solo contributions (sometimes joined by a small troupe of showgirls that included the actress Mary Maude, subsequently in Southern Television's Freewheelers) were in fact one its most distinctively memorable aspects. Download high resolution version (478x648, 59 KB)Cast of At Last the 1948 Show. ... Download high resolution version (478x648, 59 KB)Cast of At Last the 1948 Show. ... From top to bottom: Aimi MacDonald, Graham Chapman, Marty Feldman, Tim Brooke-Taylor, and John Cleese. ... Freewheelers is a British television series made by Southern Television for ITV between 1968 and 1973. ...

"The lovely Aimi Macdonald" as a catchphrase

Even into the 21st century, when a DVD of the 48 Show was released, the phrase "I'm the lovely Aimi Macdonald" could still trip dippily off the lips of middle aged people who had seen the programme as schoolchildren. With the possible exception of some lines in the "Four Yorkshiremen" sketch ("Try telling the young people of today that ..."), it was the only catchphrase to survive from the show; indeed, although several phrases from individual sketches in Monty Python entered the language ^[3], Nigel Rees observed in 1980 that "the new breed of university-graduate comedians often eschews [catchphrases] altogether" ^[4]. This article is becoming very long. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... A catch phrase is a phrase or expression that is popularized, usually through repeated use, by a real person or fictional character. ... Nigel Rees (born June 5, 1944, near Liverpool) is a British author and presenter, best known for devising and hosting the Radio 4 panel game Quote Unquote and for his keen interest in the use and misuse of the English language. ...

Other work

Macdonald's more conventional acting roles on television included appearances in episodes of The Avengers, The Saint, Man About the House and Dixon of Dock Green. She played the part of Wendy in the film Take a Girl Like You (1970), based on the novel by Kingsley Amis. Stage roles in London included those of Susie in George and Ira Gershwin's Lady Be Good (with Lionel Blair in 1968) and Honey Tooks in Robin Hawdon's long-running farce, The Mating Game (1972). Avengers or The Avengers may refer to: Avengers (comics), a team of superheroes in the Marvel Comics universe The Avengers: United They Stand, Animated show based of Marvel Comics team The Avengers (TV series), a 1960s British television show The Avengers (film), a 1998 film, based on the characters of... The Saint was a long-running British action adventure television series, made by ITC Entertainment, that aired on ITV stations between 1962 and 1969, and on American television as a syndicated show (1962-1967) and on NBC (1967-69). ... Man About the House was a British sitcom, made by Thames Television for ITV. It ran for six series, between August 1973 and April 1976. ... Dixon of Dock Green was a popular BBC television series, which ran from 1955 to 1976, and later a radio series. ... Sir Kingsley William Amis (April 16, 1922 – October 22, 1995) was an English novelist, poet, critic, and teacher. ... George Gershwin photograph by Edward Steichen in 1927. ... Lady Be Good (title sometimes presented with an exclamation point) is the title of a Broadway musical play that was written by Guy Bolton, Fred Thompson, featured music by George and Ira Gershwin. ... Lionel Blair (born 12 December 1931 in Montreal, Canada) (real name Lionel Ogus) is a British actor, choreographer, tap dancer and television presenter. ...

In the 1970s Macdonald appeared occasionally on the radio panel game Just a Minute - again, as the sole female panellist of four, being subjected (as were others) to the exaggerated jibes of comedian Kenneth Williams that women should not be permitted to take part ^[5]. Just a Minute is a BBC Radio 4 radio comedy panel game which has been running continuously since its first broadcast on December 22, 1967. ... Kenneth Williams Kenneth Charles Williams (22 February 1926 – 15 April 1988) was an English comic actor, star of twenty six films and notable radio comedies with Tony Hancock and Kenneth Horne, as well as a witty raconteur on a wide range of subjects. ...

References

External links

• Aimi MacDonald at IMDb
• Aimi MacDonald at tv.com