The television company which makes comedy classic Rab C Nesbitt has been sold to a Paris-based media giant in a £150 million deal. RDF, also the creators of Wife Swap and Location, Location, Location, has been bought by Zodiak, an entertainment conglomerate backed by French and Italian money.
The deal swallows up Glasgow-based production company The Comedy Unit, which was bought for £10 million by RDF four years ago. Boss David Frank has already ordered a 30-day internal review of the new group and some job losses are anticipated.
Does this mean Rab will get a make-over? Will the string vest no longer be his basic apparel? Somehow I can't see him strutting through the streets of Glasgow in a beret, tailored jeans and designer t-shirt.
It has to be hoped that the Glasgow side of the business will continue to thrive. We can only wait and see.
Rab C Nesbitt, one of my heroes and role models. Please leave him just as he is with all that indefinable old world charm.
ReplyDeleteThere will be changes of course Demetrius but surely they can't make a Scottish icon obsolete?
ReplyDeleteNaw, there's still money in Rab. ;)
They can stick their garlic up their arse!
ReplyDeleteBut the possibility of a 'combined' programme should do wonders for the viewing figures..........
ReplyDeleteRab C Nesbitt & WifeSwap!!
See you?
ReplyDeleteAuch Rab, you know you fancy the idea. ;)
ReplyDeleteNow Joe, I never thought of that...
ReplyDeleteSee you too Jimmy? Of course you're not Jimmy English Viking or maybe I'm wrong?
ReplyDeleteYou are not wrong Subrosa, (you seldom, although sometimes, are), my Christian name is $&"!4%%67.
ReplyDeleteSorry, something went wrong there. Oh well, you can call me flower, if you want to, I don't mind.
Hi flower, I'm happy to admit I can be wrong. I don't mind being corrected either. ;)
ReplyDeleteIt might be a bit of French sophistication or a string of onions. Either way I did not find Rab as funny in his latest incarnation. But I recently rented a DVD from Dundee library of “waiting for god” which I remembered as hilarious and was disappointed to find it only mildly amusing the second time around. Rose tinted spectacles?
ReplyDeleteNo Munguin, I don't think it's a case of rose-tinted glasses, I just think humour is best the first time round. Also some programmes date more quickly than others. Perhaps this is one of them.
ReplyDeleteAm imagining Rab turning up with Asterix instead of Obelix!
ReplyDeleteBut on a more dismal note - why are so many things being sold to 'foreign' companies. Even the National(?) Lottery is now owned by a Canadian company, it was sold at the end of March.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8588321.stm
Just wouldn't be right would it Mrs R!
ReplyDeleteI asked that question of a few politicians during the election. They have a stock answer. 'It's a global market now. We buy as much overseas as foreign investors buy here'. What they refused to see was we are a small island being owned by foreigners.
I bet the Germans don't sell out so much. Thanks for the link.