The great John Michael Howson created this television masterwork (with Godfrey Phillips) and played "Clown", a peculiar, unforgettable, asexual fellow who lived in a caravan in the town of Diddley-Dum-Diddley and never took his make-up off. That's right, folks, he was a permanent clown. Fixed grin. Never out of character. Totally nuts in a baggy costume and given to high-pitched declarations of surprise.
Truly incredible this series. So surreal, perhaps not deliberately, but one of the strangest "things" I've ever seen.
The town was controlled by a mean-spirited ogre (Meiser Meanie) who lived in a dark, cardboard tower overlooking the town square where Clown lived next to "Flowerpotts", an androgynous fusspot played by a man. Their neighbors were two married pandas, the male being a touch on the sissy side. Meanie's right hand man was the sycophantic Fester Fumble, affectionately played by Ernie Bourne.
The cameras never took us outside the town, although we were able to view a distant, remote outside world (painted) beyond the town gate occasionally.
Perhaps Mr. Howson, now a Hollywood-based writer of clever short stories and gossip monger of international repute, will see fit to resurrect this brilliant series one day, the crowning achievement of his queer youth.
Where are you, Clown? Where are you and that permanent grin?
Perhaps living in Baltimore with John Waters and Mink Stole?
