Advent Calendar 2022 Day 19: Bobby Davro's TV Annual 1988, 1987

Well, that's clearly not going to be a confusing title, even if it is in keeping with publishing tradition. Davro these days is little more than Mr Collapsing Stocks Man but he was if not a big hitter than someone ITV went back to for years seeing a certain gold in his Jim Davidson But He Does Impressions style, giving him five series over six years with four different titles (Bobby Davro On The Box, Bobby Davro's TV Weekly, Davro's Sketch Pad, Davro), five if you count the two end of year Annuals that came between the first two listed. This was the second, which captures a moment that would soon enough start to evaporate from prime-time, centred around he and Jessica Martin's oh-alright-then take-offs of some intriguing scattershot choices - credit for latching on to Jonathan Ross this early and for this audience, and for Martin having Liza Goddard in her repertoire, but he's still doing Duncan Norvelle in 1987? And yes, there is blacking up, especially in a sketch about Five Star - in which, it should be noted, there are actual people of colour - in which the gag appears to be that there's five of them. And then, launching an extended closing spoof of a programme in The Roxy that was already on borrowed time and ended in April 1988, he does Prince! Good god almighty, past.