Brighton Fringe review by Steve Bennett

In Bin & Gone, the son of 3-2-1 comedian Ted Rogers makes a case for a reappraisal of his father’s legacy, arguing he deserves better than being remembered as the game show host who played second banana to a mechanised dustbin. 

Danny Rogers has undoubtedly put in a lot of effort in piecing together the life story of his dad, who died when he was just 11, including watching hours of footage of  3-2-1 for clues as to the man behind the entertainer. But as anyone who remembers it will know, decoding any clue from the notoriously cryptic show is an impossible task.

Danny is under no illusions about the cheesiness of the primetime ITV show that made his father both famous and rich from the 16million viewers it attracted at its peak. That was enough to fund a stable of polo ponies and a garage full of Mercedes for the working-class man made good.

But there was more to his career than that. In this show, which mostly follows a straightforward biographical path, we learn how he cut his teeth as a Butlin’s redcoat, got his big break on the Billy Cotton Band Show, hosted Sunday Night at the London Palladium and even performed a double act with Bing Crosby.

Any devourer of memoirs from the golden age of light entertainment will find much to enjoy here. And nor is the story without pathos, as Ted hit personal and financial troubles in his life – even without the fact that he has been consigned to a footnote in comedy when peers have been elevated into enduring comedy icons.

Such tragedies, including Ted’s early death in 2001 from heart problems, are poignantly told, but the opportunity to use (or exploit) them for more significant dramatic pivots are bypassed as Danny keeps his telling pretty straightforward. The piece, incidentally, has not been written by him but playwright Tom Glover. Similarly, his attempts to connect with his father through his surviving work are presented as an aside rather than central to the piece.

Rogers Jr is himself a trooper of an all-round entertainer in his father’s mould, and not just physically. He, too, learned his craft in the holiday camps and judiciously sings, dances and knocks out impersonations, from Crosby to Michael McIntyre. 

The staging is simple and neat, a few cleverly deployed props and imaginatively projected clips bringing moments to life. Though quite why we needed to be handed 3-2-1 envelopes on the door is something of a mystery.

Most importantly, Danny is a sympathetic and warm teller of his father’s story – which certainly achieves his avowed aim of getting us to think again about the man behind that trademark 3-2-1 hand gesture.

Review date: 10 May 2019
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett