Tracey Ullman "A Class Act" (9 Jan 1993)

(42 mins) The show was done as a Special immediately following the HBO show "Tracey Takes on New York". It first aired on ITV on 9 January 1993.

Ullman is ably supported by Michael Palin, Timothy Spall, and Susan Wooldridge. The show was written by doyens of British comic writing, Dick Clement, Kim Fuller, Gary Howe, Ian La Frenais, Richard Preddy and Tracey Ullman herself.

The director was Les Blair and it was produced by Allan McKeown and Jo Wright

The show has four main storylines running. 'Class Air', '37-Up', 'Powder Room' and 'Hethers'.

'Class Air' is about a British airline with Tim Spall as the Pilot running an initial check-list including a "name change" requirement. The co-pilot doesn't want to be called a "Nigel", however.

The main character in this section is a new Ullman character creation Trevor Ayliss, the head (male and gay) cabin steward who makes all the seating decisions for his plane based predominantly on the class of the passengers.

Naturally, they are often complaining they are travelling in the wrong section.

"Back of the bus, dear", is a classic judgement from Trevor.

'37-Up' is a parody of the British documentary Seven Up! where three children are followed from childhood to adulthood.

Amazingly mature behaviour comes from the younger ones, but eventually class finds its way into influencing the kids as they get older

In this sequence, Michael Palin plays a seven-year-old English schoolboy whose family can be described as not the "cream on the top", but actually "the little bit of air between the cream and the bottletop"!

In the 'Powder Room' - quite a short sequence - Ullman plays a multitude of characters in a public powder room showing all their class foibles.


It was "one of the best Kazis in London", according to one regular.

In 'Hethers', a young girl (yet another Ullman creation for this show which she used in later productions) Jeannine Pillsworth works to milk her not so well-off parents for all they are worth so she can rise above the massses.

As is de rigueur, Jeannine is going to be sent to a posh boarding school, her father, played by Michael Palin admitting that he may have to sell one of his kidneys to be able to pay for it. Jeannie's mother is always supportive of her daughter, and played by Tracey Ullmans as well, thanks to clever editing.

On arriving at the Hetherington Girls' School, from which the sequence gets its name, Jeannie starts to call herself Janie and reinvents herself as a posh young woman with leadership ambitions over her school friends.

She cruelly disowns her parents, making them promise to never speak to her again, although if they would provide much-needed financial support, she'd not refuse it.

The programme wraps up with the Ullman character creation Trevor Ayliss singing I Am What I Am from La Cage Aux Folles as "he" waltzes up and down the aisle inside the plane.

The US version of the telemovie (as originally broadcast) completely eliminated all references to and appearances of Trevor and cut the song at the end. If you watch this full version, you'll undoubtedly agree with me that these parts were amongst the best sequences of the show!

Cast: (in credits order)

Tracey Ullman
Michael Palin
Timothy Spall
Susan Wooldridge
Virginia Birdsall

Rest of cast listed alphabetically:

Gareth Armstrong
Ellie Beaven
Selina Cadell
John Cartwright
Amanda Dickinson
Guy Edwards
Alan Gilchrist
Jon Glover
Ann Gosling
John Harding
Leila Hoffman
Robert Lang
Laurel Lefkow
Rohan McCullough
Nicola O'Connell
Matthew Owens
Sam Preston
Sakuntala Ramanee
Alexandra Staden
Tip Tipping
Eddie Webber