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Text, Batteries & Earwax
Trivia

As soon the film wrapped, Matt (Lenny) went straight to the bathroom to shave off his facial hair. He'd turned up for filming with a goatee but was promptly told by the Reid brothers that only a moustache would do.

'I.O.U.' was a mega-hit on dancefloors worldwide in 1983. You can have a listen to this and other works performed by the vowel-greedy Freeez if you ask Jonathan nicely for a loan of his 'Freeez Frame' CD.

The authentic-looking railway station featured in TB&E is the newly-restored Birmingham Moor Street. During filming the station was still in the restoration process, which meant - agh! - no power points. Thankfully, Chiltern Trains came to the rescue, allowing us to use the points in their Ticket Office to charge up the battery pack...

After the premiere, Mark Wheatley was approached by two young ladies wishing to know "exactly why are you famous?". When our man asked if the pair had ever viewed See Hear!, the response was "How can we? We're from Ireland..."

John Lewis (Deaf Hard) was rather keen to get into character - he shaved his head especially on the morning of his scenes.

Shortly after filming social worker John visited a probation centre as part of his rounds. A security guard immediately challenged him: "Are you a care worker or a client..?"

TB&E centres around a train delay. Ironically, the first day's shooting schedule had to be rearranged when the local rail service bringing Mark to the set took two hours instead of the usual 25 minutes...

Olive's character, Mrs. Sanderson, is named after the formidable hard-of-hearing guest in a classic episode of Fawlty Towers. Mrs. Richards was played by that veteran player of battleaxes, Joan Sanderson. (big thanks to Mark Flower for lending us the DVDs)...

The hearing-aid Olive is seen to use in the film actually belongs to one of the Reid brothers - their mother had kept it in a drawer all of these years.

Angela (Tara) was a big hit during filming - literally. When working through her repetoire of dance moves for 'I.O.U.', Angela lay back on the top of the sofa and <bang!> hi-kicked out the nearest lamp bulb. One for the bloopers tape...

And finally the 'earwax' in the film is actually day-old parsnip soup...

Showings Film Info Links Cast Trivia
William Mager as Steve and Matt Kirby as Lenny
William Mager (Steve) & Matt Kirby (Lenny) in a scene from Text, Batteries & Earwax