Sit in a Bottle

I’m sure you all know what bottle episodes are. They’re episodes of television shows that are filmed only on pre-existing sets, with few (if any) actors other than the regular cast members. (They may also be told in real time, but that’s not a prerequisite.) For this reason they tend to be known as “the cheap one”, or “the one that’s replaced another episode that’s fallen through at the last minute”. Anyone who knows anything will know that this does them a grave disservice, as they often lead to some of the greatest moments their respective series will ever produce.

I really, really like bottle episodes, because of how much their minimalistic approach reveals about the show, they produce some of the best performances from the show’s cast members, and they often have fascinating stories behind their production. I particularly find them interesting in the case of audience sitcoms – that’s basically live theatre playing out in front of an audience. So I thought I’d grab one example each from three different audience sitcoms and see what each one tells us, if anything. (I considered widening the scope to include drama series… but the article started getting a wee bit over-complex. Maybe another time.)

One Foot in the Grave: #2.6 “Timeless Time” (1990)

I found it very difficult to choose which of One Foot in the Grave’s bottle episodes to go for here. There’s five, one per series beginning with Series 2, all of which take place on one set and in real time. The obvious choice at first was “The Trial” (1993), which is a one-hander featuring Richard Wilson and nobody else. (The series’ only other regular cast member, Annette Crosbie, appeared in a voice-over part in a scene which was cut and subsequently repurposed as a Comic Relief mini-episode… according to Wikipedia.)

But in the end, I decided to go for the first one the show ever did. “Timeless Time” fits the bottle episode to a T: just Wilson and Crosbie, in the bedroom set, in real time (although it does start getting light out suspiciously early given the episode begins at just after 3 AM). Victor’s mishaps often rely on sustained misunderstandings between other people and set-pieces. Take an episode from the first series, “I’ll Retire to Bedlam”, which features a swarm of bees, a doctor’s surgery, and some unpleasant children he’s babysitting… or indeed the preceding episode, “Love and Death”, which takes the show completely away from any of the usual sets to a B&B on the south coast and includes four separate guest characters to set off a string of coincidences that leads both Victor and his wife Margaret to believe that they have been unfaithful. But “Timeless Time” shows that Victor doesn’t actually need any of that. No need for any of your fancy pre-recorded inserts – just a bright light and a noise to simulate a car alarm. It also includes one of the most touching moments the series manages to date, with the discussion of ‘Stuart’, implied to be the Meldrews’ son who died as a child (the only such reference to him that would ever be made). “Timeless Time” strips the show back to its very basics, and it works very well indeed. On my first ever viewing of One Foot, I reached this episode, knew I had another bottle episode coming in every subsequent series... and I remember being so, so happy about that.

Cabin Pressure: #2.6 “Limerick” (2009)

The only radio show that’s part of the trio. Cabin Pressure also makes something of a tradition of including a bottle episode – there’s three across the four series, with only Series 3 missing out. Series 4’s “Xinzhou” has a fascinating story behind its production, which you can read about here. But “Limerick” is the most extreme example of the three – it’s the only one with no guest cast at all, it’s the only one told in real time, and it’s the only one limited to the same room. Series 1’s “Fitton” takes place in both the plane and a small portakabin by the plane, “Xinzhou” takes place across the plane… but “Limerick” is limited entirely to the cockpit of the plane. In fact, the entire episode is meant to be what you’d find on the black box recording, tying in beautifully to the show’s whole premise and medium.

The best part? There’s no reason for the show to have done this. Well, alright, there’s no reason for any show to do a bottle episode at all really if you’re going to be that liberal with your definitions – but it’s a radio show. And John Finnemore is certainly no stranger to realising situations that would be impossible to do on television (most famously the conclusion to “Douz”, which involves a team of Scottish cricket players moving a fire truck out of the way of an aeroplane which then proceeds to drive – not fly, drive – down a desert highway). That he’s willing to resist the temptation and do shows like this is brilliant.

Red Dwarf: #10.6 “Dear Dave” (2012)

Finally, a bottle episode I’ve chosen simply for the utter chaos surrounding its production. In fact, the tenth series of Red Dwarf – the first full series in thirteen years – is well known for what an absolute nightmare the production was for the entire series. (You can find the full story on the 2-hour documentary “We’re Smegged” on the DVD/Blu-ray, which includes the tale of how the entire model shoot was cocked up, all the location filming was cancelled at the last minute and they managed to lose all the rushes.) “Dear Dave” was, however, far and away the episode most screwed by all this.

Remember when I mentioned two lines ago that all the series’ location filming was cancelled? Long story short, this meant that the original episodes 5 & 6 were now unusable, and new ones had to be written whilst the other four were being filmed (in fact, Red Dwarf X has been called by many the ‘bottle series’ due to that lack of location filming). Episode 6 was cannibalised from a draft of the legendary unproduced Red Dwarf Movie’s script, whilst episode 5 would be a bottle episode, with no guest sets and only one small, voice-over part. Due to the short time available to write it, only half of it could be filmed in front of a studio audience, because that was all that had been written. Later on, after the series had finished its audience recordings, they had to go back and film new material to edit in. They had to go back again later still to film more material, which had to be done on bluescreen as the sets had been dismantled by that point. The end result is, if nothing else, fascinating as an example of an episode of an audience sitcom pieced together from three different shoots. It’s especially instructive to look at the deleted scenes on the DVD – during the reshoots one plot strand got chopped out and replaced with something else.

Now, an unpopular opinion it may be, but I actually quite like “Dear Dave”… in concept, at least. It’s obviously a structural mess, but its bottle nature sort of helps disguise that (see also the previous episode, “Entangled”, which was also badly affected by the chaotic production). And it seems to me to be very much in tune with the concept of the series, even if not entirely by intention – the show is about the last human being alive and his mates, stranded in deep space. They must have loads of boring, lonely days like this, pondering the futility of their hopeless predicament – but after Series I, the show slowly but surely gradually moved away and became more and more about action and adventure. I like the idea that this is what usually happens inbetween episodes. In a way, it feels very similar to “Timeless Time”, even though obviously it’s nowhere near as good. Red Dwarf actually has a rather interesting history of bottle episodes and blurred lines – “Bodyswap” features no guest cast at all (apart from an uncredited voiceover), and were it not for the extensive specially filmed model sequence it’s arguably a bottle episode too. But it’s clearly doing something very different to “Marooned” (largely involving just Lister and Rimmer stranded on a crashed Starbug, and mostly shot with a hand-held camera), or indeed “Dear Dave”, whereas you could argue that all of One Foot in the Grave’s bottle episodes are designed to strip Victor’s life back to the bare necessities, and prove he’s still no luckier even then.

Bottle episodes, then. Don’t ever let anyone argue they’re just there because the production’s run out of cash, when they’re just as imaginative as the rest of the series, if not moreso.