Alfie Bass & Bill Fraser as Bootise & Snudge in Foreign Affairs

Whilst Granada sitcoms The Army Game and spin-off Bootsie & Snudge proved huge hits for Granada it is less well known that a third series for the characters of Bootsie & Snudge followed, the short-lived spin-off for the characters that followed Bootsie & Snudge called Foreign Affairs, which ran for one series of 8 episodes in 1964, sadly all lost.

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Like it's predecessors The Army Game and Bootsie & Snudge, Foreign Affairs was made by Granada for ITV.

The characters of Bootsie & Snudge, played by Alfie Bass and Bill Fraser respectively, started out in Granada's hit 50s sitcom The Army Game, which ran for four series totalling 154 episodes between 1957 and 1961 plus a feature film called I Only Arsked! (1958) although Snudge wasn't in it from the start (nor in the film where David Lodge was the Sergeant-Major). Revolving around a group of lazy National Servicemen billeted at Hut 29 in the fictional Nether Hopping Surplus Ordnance depot. The hut included Corporal Springer (Michael Medwin) and his men; Private 'Professor' Hatchett (Charles Hawtrey), Private 'Cupcake' Cook (Norman Rossington), Private Montague 'Excused Boots' Bisley (Alfie Bass) who had a chit excusing him from army boots due to his poor feet, he always wore plimsolls with a hole on top of one hence his nickname Bootsie, and the breakout star of the early years, Private 'Popeye' Popplewell (Bernard Bresslaw), an extremely dim-witted and slow talking idiot whose catchphrase "I only arsked!" was used as the title of the 1958 feature film spin-off. Above them was Company Sergeant Major (CSM) Bullimore (William Hartnell) whilst above him in charge of the camp is Major Upshot-Bagley (Geoffrey Sumner). The first of many changes in this line up occurs in Episode 28 of the 40 episodes of Series 1 when Bill Fraser comes in as CSM Claude Snudge to replace William Hartnell's CSM Bullimore. He quickly establishes a hate-hate relationship with 'Bootsie' Bisley in which Snudge loves lording it over Bootsie who in turn loves having a figure of authority to hate. The rapport between the two would become the central focus once Bernard Bresslaw left at the end of Series 1. When Series 3 finished on 13th June 1960 there were some major changes. Bootsie & Snudge would be spun off into their own show, whilst Series 4 of The Army Game ran concurrently with a new/old cast. Geoffrey Sumner returned as Major Upshot-Bagley, William Hartnell returned as CSM Bullimore not seen since Episode 27 of Series 1, whilst Harry Fowler continued as Flogger and Ted Lune continued as Private Bone, they were joined by new recruit Private 'Chubby' Catchpole, played by Dick Emery. Frank Williams also remained as Major Pocket, with Pocket and the returned Upshot-Bagley sharing responsibilities.

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But following Series 3 of The Army Game, Bass and Fraser were given their own starring spin-off, Bootsie & Snudge, which ran for three series totalling 104 episodes from 1960 to 1963. The first 6 episodes were titled Bootsie & Snudge in Civvy Life but the title was shortened to Bootsie & Snudge thereafter. For spin-off Bootsie & Snudge, starting 3 months after the end of Series 3 of The Army Game, Bootsie has completed his National Service and been discharged whilst career army man CSM Snudge has also been forcibly retired due to his age, against his wishes. Neither knows what to do back in civilian life, being institutionalised in the army, and they separately attend a jobcentre looking for work. They are both sent to an old-fashioned Pall Mall Gentleman's Club called the Imperial, run by the Right Hon. Sec. Hesketh Pendleton (Robert Dorning), called Old Tup Tup by Bootsie as he has a habit of telling him to shut up then shouting Bootsie down with increasingly loud shouts of "Tup!" till Bootsie stops talking. At the Imperial Snudge becomes the hall porter and Bootsie becomes the general handyman/dogsbody, so keeping the relationship they had in the army. Also employed by the club is 83 year old Henry Beerbohm Johnson (played by 38 year old Clive Dunn aged up).

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At the end of Series 3 of Bootsie and Snudge it was felt they'd used up all the do-able plots for a gentlemen's club so they were spun off into a new sitcom 7 months later in 1964 called Foreign Affairs, possibly the first instance of a spin off from a spin off, still quite uncommon now (Bowler was a spin-off from The Fenn Street Gang which was a spin off from Please Sir!). This short-lived sitcom ran for just 8 episodes and saw the pair change jobs, now working for the Diplomatic Service in the British Embassy in the fictional middle European country of Bosnik, Bootsie is working security and Snudge sees himself as Ambassador material but is actually the Ambassadors' private valet. The actual Ambassador is played by Nicholas Phipps with Arthur Barrett as his Third Secretary O'Connor.

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For this series to modernise Bootsie's look a bit rather than the usual slicked back quiff he sports a Beatles mop-top hairstyle. But otherwise everything is as before,

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Like Bootsie & Snudge the main writer of Foreign Affairs was Barry Took, with contributions also from Dennis Spooner, Richard Harris and Rag Trade actor Peter Jones.

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The series ran on Thursday evenings right before Roger Moore's The Saint on Granada as follows (without episode titles);

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1.1 02/01/1964*

Bootsie & Snudge are transported to the Embassy in Bosnik.

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1.2 09/01/1964*

Who has desecrated the statue of the President of Translavia?

1.3 16/01/1964*

Clanger dropping Snudge is challenged to a duel by the Vice-Consul of a Middle Eastern country.

1.4 23/01/1964*

Bootsie & Snudge look forward to a lazy luxurious time when they are left in charge of the Embassy. Their hopes are shattered when they are told a pitiful story by a man who appears at the window, leaving them with a difficult problem and a big decision to be made in the Ambassador's absence.

1.5 30/01/1964*

NO SYNOPSIS IN NEWSPAPER LISTINGS

1.6 06/02/1964*

NO SYNOPSIS IN NEWSPAPER LISTINGS

1.7 13/02/1964*

NO SYNOPSIS IN NEWSPAPER LISTINGS

1.8 20/02/1964*

A stick up for the Ambassador and Third Secretary as Bootsie & Snudge turn traitor.

*Sadly and rather atypically for Granada who were usually pretty good with archiving compared to the BBC and other ITV networks, all 8 episodes of Foreign Affairs were wiped after broadcast so it's no surprising it's not as well known as its predecessors.

The series had some positive but mostly negative reviews from newspaper TV critics who felt the characters had run their course, not helped by American style seasons of long series of 20+ episodes a run, with Granada choosing to stick to the standard 6, 7 or 8 episode series going forward for comedy output. During the run of this it was decided to retire the characters so Bass and Fraser could move on to other projects once their Granada contract expired.

But the now lost Foreign Affairs was not the end for the characters, as the previous Bootsie & Snudge was revived for a fourth series in colour in 1974 at a time in the early to mid 70s when ITV and particularly the BBC were reviving their old b/w sitcom hits like Steptoe, the Likely Lads, Sykes, Till Death Us Do Part, Whack-O!, The Rag Trade etc. The revived Bootsie & Snudge series ran for just one series of 6 episodes between 16th October and 20th Novemver 1974 and saw another change of direction. Here Bootsie & Snudge had finally gone their separate ways some years ago, Snudge is now working for a Pools company and is charged with delivering a winning cheque, the first £1Million Pools win, to the lucky winner, only to find the winner is his old colleague Bootsie. Snudge, wanting a cut of the action, appoints himself as Bootsie's financial advisor despite Bootsie's protestations but this time Bootsie wants to keep the upper hand in the relationship as the man with the money. Sadly it wasn't recommissioned for a further run and that was the final end for Bootsie & Snudge.