Green Wing Was Named After Spider-Man Villain, The Vulture

Posted in: Collectibles, Comics, Comics Publishers, Marvel Comics, Marvel Legends, Spider-Man, TV | Tagged: Green Wing, stan lee, steve ditko, vulture

Today, BBC Radio 4 has revealed that the sitcom Green Wing was named after the Spider-Man comic book villain, The Vulture.

Green Wing is one of the great sitcoms of the noughties, starring Tamsin Greig, Mark Heap, Stephen Mangan, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Pippa Heywood, Sally Bretton, Michelle Gomez, Oliver Chris and more. A broken comedy broadcast by Channel 4 set in a hospital that focuses on the doctors, nurses and other staff, while deliberately and utterly ignoring the patients, never even giving them a speaking part. A surreal office comedy, it spawned all manner of careers as well as giving Gomez the chance to play a role that would eventually be repurposed for Doctor Who as Missy – The Master.

But why was it called Green Wing? Ostensibly the name of the wing of the hospital in which the characters worked, it was never referred to in the show. And it seems its origins may be further afield.

On the BBC Radio 4 show this morning, What’s Funny About, they gathered creators and cast from the show to reminisce about how it all went down. And that originally the show had a very different name. Peter Fincher, Victoria Pile and Tamsin Grieg discussed its origins. And it is one that might be familiar to Bleeding Cool readers.

Peter: Why is it called Green Wing?

Victoria: “We had called it Doors because of all the whizzing around, sort of dropping in on various vignette and scenes. And we’re struggling with it and then Peter had been into the office and miraculously on the desk was this little green figure with wings.

Tamsin: Peter had brought this tiny plastic figure you might get in a cracker or a Happy Meal, are we allowed to say that? Asort of superhero with a green mask and he’s wearing green wings, I’d never seen anything like it before or since.

Peter: And it was apparently on my desk?

Victoria: No, on my desk, after you’d been into our room

Peter: I’d put it on your desk?

Victoria: No, you denied it very vehemently for quite a while

Peter: I’d have thought I’d have been proud of it

Victoria: None of knew where it had come from, the only connection we had was that you’d been in the office. I thought this would have been Arthur’s little toy or something.

Peter: I didn’t usually nick his toys and bring them to the office of a morning.

Tamsin: You had your own toys didn’t you?

Victoria: It remains a mystery then.

That green figure is The Vulture, the version seen in the Spider-Man cartoon, originally created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko in 1963 in Amazing Spider-Man #2. And identified now as the reason why Green Wing is called Green Wing…

What’s Funny About … Series 3, Episode 4 of 6: Green Wing

Jon Plowman and Peter Fincham and joined in the shed by Tamsin Greig and Victoria Pile to discuss how they made their medical comedy, Green Wing – a series that was a sitcom, a sketch show, and a soap all in one.

They talk about the challenges of making a show that walked the tightrope between the most surreal of comedy, and deeply tender and serious moments. And they tell us the surprising role that Peter himself played in coming up with the title (not that Peter seems to be able to remember any of the salient details!).

An Expectation Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4

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