Camel Spotting / Train Spotting
(In the country we see an
Interviewer, with microphone. Behind him a man sits on a wall, with clip-board,
binoculars and spotting gear.)
Interviewer (John): Good
evening. Tonight we're going to take a hard tough abrasive look at camel
spotting. Hello.
Spotter (Eric): Hello Peter.
Interviewer: Now tell me,
what exactly are you doing?
Spotter: Er well, I'm camel
spotting. I'm spotting to see if there are any camels that I can spot, and put
them down in my camel spotting book.
Interviewer: Good. And how
many camels have you spotted so far?
Spotter: Oh, well so far
Peter, up to the present moment, I've spotted nearly, ooh, nearly one.
Interviewer: Nearly one?
Spotter: Er, call it none.
Interviewer: Fine. And er
how long have you been here?
Spotter: Three years.
Interviewer: So, in, er,
three years you've spotted no camels?
Spotter: Yes in only three
years. Er, I tell a lie, four, be fair, five. I've been camel spotting for just
the seven years. Before that of course I was a Yeti Spotter.
Interviewer: A Yeti Spotter,
that must have been extremely interesting.
Spotter: Oh, it was
extremely interesting, very, very - quite... it was dull; dull, dull, dull, oh
God it was dull. Sitting in the Waterloo waiting room. Course once you've seen
one Yeti you've seen them all.
Interviewer: And have you
seen them all?
Spotter: Well I've seen one.
Well a little one... a picture of a... I've heard about them.
Interviewer: Well, now tell
me, what do you do when you spot a camel?
Spotter: Er, I take its
number.
Interviewer: Camels don't
have numbers.
Spotter: Ah, well you've got
to know where to look. Er, they're on the side of the engine above the piston
box.
Interviewer: What?
Spotter: Ah - of course
you've got to make sure it's not a dromedary. 'Cos if it's a dromedary it goes
in the dromedary book.
Interviewer: Well how do you
tell if it's a dromedary?
Spotter: Ah well, a
dromedary has one hump and a camel has a refreshment car, buffet, and ticket
collector.
Interviewer: Mr Sopwith,
aren't you in fact a train Spotter?
Spotter: What?
Interviewer: Don't you in
fact spot trains?
Spotter: Oh, you're no fun
anymore.
(ANIMATION: Then a girl in
bed. Count Dracula enters (Graham). The girl (Carol C.) reveals her neck. The
vampire goes to kiss her but his fangs fall out.)
Girl: Oh, you're no fun
anymore.
(A man at the yardarm being
lashed.)
Lasher:... thirty-nine...
forty. All right, cut him down, Mr. Fuller.
Long Haired Fellow being
lashed (Eric): Oh you're no fun anymore.
(Back to camel spotter.)
Spotter: Now if anybody else
pinches my phrase I'll throw them under a camel!
Interviewer: (giggling) If
you can spot one.
(Spotter gives him a dirty
look. Knight in armor appears beside him. He hits interviewer with chicken.)