The Afterword

Musings on the byways of popular culture

Menu

Elizabeth Shepherd as Emma Peel, Jason Robards as Fitzcarraldo, Ken Dodd as Dr Who……

by 111 Comments

The trials and tribulations of Tinseltown!

Reading yesterday about the sad passing of Diana Rigg, I was fascinated to discover that the first choice for Emma Peel had been horror film veteran, Elizabeth Shepherd. Two episodes were actually filmed (they were later re-filmed with DR) before the producers realised they had got it wrong.

An expensive but bold decision.

Read more on the very extensive Avengers Forever website. Steed and Co are gone but most certainly not forgotten, Talk about a labour of love!

Likewise, I recently discovered that Jason Robards was cast in Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo and filmed half the movie until he got ill in the Amazon jungle and had to pull out. Klaus Kinski was called in, despite his rather stormy working relationship with Herzog.

Finally did I dream that Ken Dodd was originally cast as Dr Who?

Perhaps, even the Swinging 60s were not ready for an eccentric Liverpudlian Time Lord who vanquished alien invasions with this Tickling Stick.

Shame! Diddy Men vs the Daleks. would have been interesting.

So do you have any favourite tales of cultural developments that almost happened. Or that you wish had happened?

What a shame that Tim Burton never » Continue Reading.

Lone Piper on Lord Lovat’s Landing Craft. Frantic Thespians at the Ford Theatre. Norwegian fishergeezers charm Danish moshpit maniacs…

by 32 Comments

“Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.” And being a musician, actor, acrobat, make-up artist, busker, ghost writer, stuntman, extra, or belonging to many other professions within the creative industries can lead to the most surreal of experiences.

“Weird scenes inside the gold mine.” There’s no business quite like show business.

This whole line of thought was inspired by reading about William Millins aka Piper Bill aka Mad Bill. I am not a military man but I was fascinated to discover that Simon Fraser, 15th Lord Lovat and commander of the Special Services Brigade at D Day, had a personal piper. What is more, said piper followed him into battle on the landing craft, armed with nothing but a set of bagpipes. The poor sap probably thought that learning the pipes would result in playing a few ceilidhs or military tattoos.But instead of the Gay Gordons and Strip the Willows, he got to face the military might of the Third Reich. What is more. Lovat chastised him, if he played a bum note as they dodged the bullets on that Normandy beach. One rumour is that the German snipers were so astonished that they didn’t target him.

Let’s now give » Continue Reading.

Look sharp Lukashenko! Make way for the Belligerent Bagpipes of Belarus!

by 82 Comments

A couple of days ago, a friend sent me a clip of a large crowd in Belarus marching against that tyrant, Lukashenko. They are a brave bunch and I am really keeping my fingers crossed for them.

The reason he sent it was that the most conspicuous instrument being played by the youth, amidst all the guitars, dreadlocks and tattoos , was the bagpipes!

Well I never!! I knew nothing about the national instrument of Belarus: the duda, the Belarusian bagpipes.

(Back in the 1960s, a band from Minsk had a big international hit with I’m the Urban Cosmonaut , Comrade. Who remembers the Bonskoo Dog Duda Band?)

Anyway, as you all know, in the 1940s Woody Guthrie’s axe carried the war cry: “This machine kills fascists. Let’s hope that the same applies today: “These bagpipes topple tyrants!”

If these mighty pipers have anything to do with it, Lukashenko and his wee bampot pals will soon be history! But then again, I know all too well that when a merciless dictator faces a crowd of idealistic young people with their heart in the right place, the bad guys tend to win. Anyroads, every protest movement has its troubadours and » Continue Reading.

Goat herding for beginners

by 15 Comments

This is a thread about seductive, skinny-dipping Provencal goatherds. And Faulkner, Rowling, Brecht, Stoppard and Hornby and the art the art of scriptwriting. I am hoping for some rigorous intellectual ejaculations!

I do hope that, like me, you have all been carefully studying the results of Dai’s AW Survey of Best Ever films.

If you have, you will know that Claude Berri’s magnificent, two-movie Provencal epic from 1984, comprising Jean de Florette/ Manon des Sources, picked up 8 points.

Until this week, I had no idea that, Berri’s masterpiece was a remake of sorts of Marcel Pagnol’s four-hour epic, Manon des Sources, from 1952 which starred his wife, the gorgeous Jacqueline Pagnol as the voluptuous goatherd.

I say “of sorts” because Berri’s two films, are based on a two-volume novel that Pagnol published in 1966, which he had written as a result of making the film back in the 1950s.

Writing the novel after making the movie? That must be a first, Or am I wrong?

I stumbled across Pagnol by accident this week . Novelist, playwright, and film director, he was the first movie-maker to be elected to the Academie Francaíse.

Basically, I was listening to the music » Continue Reading.

Quince Jam Songs – Crumhorn is icumen in

by 27 Comments

Continuing the current AW trend of Spreadthreads, I would like to hear your favourite songs which capture the bitter-sweet flavours of Quince Jam. This vintage delicacy has been with us for many centuries and was reputedly a great favourite of Mr Shakespeare when he fancied a sarnie.

Who better to conjure up its delights than Hildegard Von Blingin’?

This talented Canadian has had a major Bardcore hit with her reboot of Jolene. Verily! Tis a cracker!

The Hilliard Ensemble, Quincy Jones, Vashti Bunyan, Van the Jam, ….Your Quince Jam favourites please

Oops! That was an anachronism there. The Bard could not have enjoyed a sandwich, as such a treat did not exist until 1762 when the eponymous Earl ordered roast beef with two slices of bread while playing cards.

Dai Hard – With a vengeance!

by 25 Comments

One film I do hope made it onto on our Afterword list is Dai Hard.

“Rugged, resourceful Welshman persuades a rag-taggle bunch of curmudgeonly misfits to get their act together and submit a list of their favourite films.” (IMDB)

One thing I have enjoyed about the last few weeks was remembering directors and actors I used to enjoy back in the day and also thinking about new talents. And now that we have IMDB, it is so much easier to join the dots together. Many of my favourites excel in versatility.

Here are a few names that cropped as I worked on my shortlist…

Alfonso Cuaron – Roma deserved all that praise and made me want to revisit Gravity, Y tu mama tambien, Children of men, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Don Siegel – Charley Varrick , Dirty Harry, The Killers, Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Alan J. Pakula- Klute, The Parallax View, All the Presidents’ Men

Louis Malle – Au Revoir Les Enfants, Lacombe Lucien, Atlantic City

Lasse Halström – My life as a dog, What’s eating Gilbert Grape? A shitload of ABBA videos

Michael Ritchie:- Smile, Prime Cut, Bad News Bears, The Golden Child. That’s versatility » Continue Reading.

If I have any time over after Tigger-testing Taylor, I may dip into these vintage beat groups.

by 7 Comments

Honestly! I do try to live in 2020. But that bounder Beelzebub keeps waving juicy vintage morsels in front of me. Yesterday it was the original Soft Machine (Wyatt, Ayers and Ratledge) live in 1968.

Today it is this.

Vintage 1960s live performances from German telly of sundry beat groups.

Troggs, Small Faces, Kinks, Yardbords feat J. Page, Hollies….

A lot to enjoy!

All I really want to do is listen to the LP that Taylor Swift has just dropped. ‘ What is actually going to happen is that I will spend the morning exploring seaside hits from the Weimar Republic

Echo, Rockaway, Ipanema, Brighton or Bondi? Beachcomber or Beach coma? Fish and chips, pizza, gelato or ceviche?

by 116 Comments

It’s time to plug in the Afterword jukebox. Beach party time, so grab your towel and your bikini. I’d like to know your favourite songs about beaches and visits to the seaside.

I’m also keen to hear about all those beaches which have made an impression on you. Were they in Skegness, Goa, Benidorm, Clacton or Ibiza?

I visited Homrev here on Öland a few days ago which is probably my favourite beach at the moment. Very long, sandy, often windy (which results in splendid waves) and usually pretty deserted. The only people you are likely to meet here are German nudists or the Grim Reaper having a quiet game of chess with a knight or two. It has probably appeared on the cover of Health and Efficiency magazine.

We often have to share some of the nicest Öland beaches with cows. They are adjacent to farms and the local bovines pop down for a dip.

My brother lives in New York and he’s off to the Rockaways most weekends. A total contrast. Lots of people, cafes and restaurants, Manhattan hipsters…

”Chewing out a rhythm on my chewing gum..” I love the Ramones but have great difficulty in imagining » Continue Reading.

VOLDEMORT!! JUDAS! Hell hath no fury like a fanclub turned!

by 36 Comments

“She who must not be named.” This article from The Atlantic by Helen Lewis is a useful and enjoyable look at the demonisation of J.K. Rowling by her readers.

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2020/07/why-millennial-harry-potter-fans-reject-jk-rowling/613870/?fbclid=IwAR2xljQ7kOdvQFjLrsEIqTCby_qshQ3yytvJwA50xGUgoo4gNZ9Ar1AQyZ0

I enjoyed the Potter books and I admire her as a person so I’ve been rather gobsmacked and perplexed by the way in which Potter fansites now no longer want to even mention her name. Quite bizarre.

But as Lewis mentions, J.K. is not the first to run foul of their fans

Mr Dylan got into very hot water when he strapped on that electric guitar.

That dangerous radical, Wild Willy Wordsworth, who wrote thus of the French Revolution,

“Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, But to be young was very heaven!”

alienated many admirers when he became a curmudgeonly pillar of the establishment in later life.

Have we any other examples of fans rejecting their idols?

When I was five years old, I idolised Pinky and Perky and Cliff. They are dead to me now.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With:

Progrock in the potting shed. Jazz in the Gazebo. Glamrock in the greenhouse. From gardens where we feel demure….

by 64 Comments

To my considerable surprise, one of the most enjoyable Spotify playlists I have listened to in the past few months is a selection of music from the soundtrack of Swedish gardening programme, Trädgårds tider (Gardening Times). Unexpected pearls of jazz , Americana, classical and ambient, compiled in a way that Gillett or Peel would have been envious of!

I’ll confess that my impression of gardening TV shows is violently out of date. It is either Percy Thrower puffing away on his pipe and giving charmingly low-key advice on how to win the top gardening prizes in the village fete. Or Bob Fleming spluttering energetically in his garden shed on the Fast Show.

Instead of that, this Swedish TV show provides a wonderful dollop of comfort TV. Exquisitely photographed, it has four very charming, rather good-looking presenters, (two man and two women), who get up to all kinds of inspiring horticultural and culinary activities in the heart of the magnificent Skåne countryside.

It is a great art to be the presenter on such a show. You should be knowledgeable but not an irritating know-it-all. They get it just right. ( If I say, not like Ernst, the Swedish contingent will » Continue Reading.

Coming soon to the Barcelona El Liceu Opera House: the Triifids, Green Day and the Flowerpot Men..?

by 2 Comments

Many musicians, actors and other performers have performed in front of unusual audiences.

But an opera house bursting at the seams with 2,292 house plants is in a league of its own.

It’s been a good year for the roses.

Can we expect manure in the moshpits of gigs in 2020?

Would anyone dare to speculate on how this might impact the world of popular music?

I suspect the Roots are in for some great audiences.

24 hours from Tolga – Egil Storbekken and the triumphant return of fhe tussefløyte!

by 41 Comments

Stuck in lockdown with little chance of any live music all summer, I am tending to look back and remember past favourites. This pandemic is certainly doing some strange things to my memory.

If you are interested in the Proustian powers of Norwegian cheese, fiddle burning fanatics and the rise of Sami chartbusters, please read on,.

I woke up yesterday morning at 6.00 and my first thought was: “Egil! That Norwegian flutey geezer’s name was Egil.” What was it that suddenly triggered access to a memory that has been languishing in the deeper, darker recesses of my brain since 1980?

I dashed to my PC and googled “Egil Norwegian flutey geezer 1980” and to my absolute delight instantly found a wiki entry on ….. Egil Storbekken: born in Tolga, Hedmark in 1911, folk musician, composer and instrument maker.

Back in 1980 I spent the summer in Norway doing round tours for Tjaereborg, the Danish travel company. There were some long days of driving and so I stocked up with some cassettes. Brother and sister folk duo Kai and Ola Bremnes: Folk I Husan. Deatnogátte Nuorat (Tanabreddens ungdom), the first Sami band to achieve commercial success in Norway. Jazzy folk by » Continue Reading.

Making a statuesque splash in Bristol

by 178 Comments

In Treasure Island, the good ship Hispaniola sails from Bristol. Watching a clip of that the motley crew of protesters de-plinthing Edward Colston and casting him into Davey Jones’s Locker with such gusto, I was reminded of Jim Hawkins and his shipmates.

Much as I disapprove of the re-writing of history and much as I dislike vandalism, I did feel a certain satisfaction at the sight of Bristol’s bloody-handed philantropist making such an enormous splash as he plunged into Bristol Harbour on Sunday.

A friend sent me a photo of the empty plinth. I do hope they leave it like that as a reminder. Of course, the statue should have been removed a long time ago but the powers that be hummed and hawed. The relationship between Colston and the city was anything but simple.

Did the police turn a blind eye and let the protesters get on with removing this embarrassing reminder of Bristol’s past? I sincerely hope that Colston is not airbrushed out of the history books. He belongs as an important exhibit in the City Museum along with an exhibit about the horrors of the slave trade. And the way that so many people were quite happy » Continue Reading.

Cads and tramps! Buffoons and battle-axes! Floozies and rotters! Carpet-baggers and hussies!

by 59 Comments

Many thanks to everyone who has shared their favourite comfort movies with us on the Tawny Pipit thread. I am thoroughly enjoying myself reading through your comments and making lists of the actors, directors, scriptwriters and studios who could be guaranteed to delight. Again and again and again.

Paul Wad made this thought-provoking comment about cads.

“Paddington 2 is ace. The first Paddington film was excellent, but number 2 moved it up a few notches, helped by the best performance of Hugh Grant’s career. Who knew he could actually act? It pips Timothy Dalton in Hot Fuzz as the best ‘cad’ since the heydays of Terry-Thomas, Leslie Phillips and George Sanders.”

Cad is such a marvellous word. So totally past its sell-by date and completely impossible to use seriously in 2020. I also like the fact that it is very difficult to translate into another language, without providing a lot of background information, You can only be a cad if you know how you should be behaving as a gentleman.

Jabba the Hutt is not a cad. Ming the Merciless perhaps might be. Darth Vader? Now there is an interesting question. Was he ever blackballed from an intergalactic gentleman’s club?

» Continue Reading.

Tawny Pipit or Maltese Falcon? Pink Flamingos or To kill a Mockingbird? The Eagle has landed or Hitch’s Birds? Time to crow about your cinematic comfort zone.

by 124 Comments

In these troubled, confusing, anxious, limbo-like times, I have a great temptation to dust off a few feelgood movies. Of course my comfort zone could well be your “feel slightly nauseous I need to chunder zone”.

Off the top of my head, My neighbour Totoro, Gregory’s Girl, Happy as Lazzaro, Ed Wood, Pride and On Body and Soul (Indiko Enyedi’s magnificent Hungarian romcom set in a slaughterhoue) all fit the bill.

A comfort zone movie or TV show does not necessarily have to be a masterpiece.

During the week a friend mentioned a wonderful treat Tawny Pipit, a film I had never heard of. A 1944 Ealingesque comedy about birdwatching during wartime filmed on location in the Cotswolds.

It is like walking into the pages of an Enid Blyton novel or vintage Agatha Christie. The English countryside looks magnificent. A delightful Albion full of afternoon teas, crusty old colonels and friendly villagers who unite to protect some a pair of hatching tawny pipits.

An England that probably never existed outside the ages of the Torygraph and the imagination of Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells. But wonderful anyway.

Please share your comfort zone movies and TV shows.

Do not » Continue Reading.

Ooops! Suddenly Boris is in Sooty’s shoes

by 60 Comments

There is a rather amusing meme that has been floating. around social media over the weekend. I don’t know who coined it originally.

Something along the lines of: Boris dare not sack Cummings. It would be like Emu sacking Rod Hull.

Equally true for Sooty of course. Sacking Harry Corbett was not an option for the ursine xylophone maestro.

Who are your favourite puppets and puppet-masters?

Songs, films, books, children’s TV, comics….. The choice is yours.

I won’t wait for the Guardians! In my pop Galaxy, the Rezillos are Top of the Pops!

by 59 Comments

Interesting though it may be to guess which singles will make it onto the Guardian’s Top Ten of the 100 Best Number One Singles…

..I am just as interested to hear about those magnificent singles which were heart-breakingly pipped at the post and never made it higher than Number two. This was particularly painful when the Number was a real stinker. And hogged the Number One spot for months, years even,

And what about those gems which were bubbling under and then bubbled no more?

The Rezillos Top of the Pops should have been just that: Top of the Pops.

Let’s turn back time and honour the Number Ones that Never Were.

Your nominations please!

“Pop music made by people who have never actually heard pop music…”

by 33 Comments

…. but have had it described to them by someone who didn’t really know what they were talking about.”

This is the Guardian’s Alexis Petridis’s hilariously accurate description of 1972 chart toppers Lieutenant Pigeon.

Does the description fit any other artists or tracks?

Shadowy, enigmatic figures who have sneaked in from another dimension to brighten the world of popular music.

Where shall we look? Berlin, Birmingham, Finland, New Orleans, the Bahamas, Madagascar, Iceland….??

Einsturzande Neubaten, the Wurzels, Joseph Spence, Laurie Anderson, Kate Bush, Philemon Arthur and the Dung, ……to name but a few.

Who dares to join me on an expedition to the Twilight Zone of Pop?

How many of us have joined the Zoomtown Brats?

by 58 Comments

Four months ago, I’d never heard of Zoom. These days Mrs KFD zooms more often than I change my underpants.

“Can you two go out for an hour or so? I have to Zoom with Umeå and I’ll need to re-arrange the bookcase.”

My daughter and I just spent an hour in the sunshine at the local sportsground, watching as a maverick deer legged it past us into the woods.

Mrs KFD works at home now. She’s an archivist at Stockholm Uni and in academia Zoom is the flavour of the month. It seems to be less trusted in banks and other sectors where security is important. Our teenage son is also at home all week and does his schoolwork with a programme called Meet.

Personally I’ve had lost less experience of video conferencing. One Zoomy book club, a birthday party and a pub night with just a handful of friends.

So how many of you or your family members have joined the Zoomtown Brats? Has it been a positive experience?

The undertakers, deep sea divers, dentists, prison officers, ballet dancers and milkmaids among us have probably had slightly less use of video conferencing.

Zoom is currently worth » Continue Reading.

Grab your tiara, tosh. It’s time for A Midsummer Night’s Stream!

by 17 Comments

One of the greatest novelties and pleasures of the last month for me has been watching stupendous National Theatre productions (Jane Eyre, Twelfth Night, Treasure Island and Frankenstein) on You Tube

And the delights are by no means over. I just had a mail from DuCool pointing out that: “The greatest theatre company in the world, Complicité, led by Simon McBurney, is putting one of their productions, “The Encounter” online for one week.”

I warmly recommend that you take the Duke’s advice and try and watch that.

And talking of dukes, I bet that Phil and Liz are now enthusiastic YouTube users. Along with many other members of the high-brow, cultural elite. Such as the contributors to this blogsite.

From being the domain of gamers, teenage pop fans, graffiti artists, indie bands and boomers who want to watch Fireball XL5 and Bonanza, YT is now proving an excellent tool for theatres, opera houses, orchestras, museums and art galleries who want to stay in touch with their audiences, find new audiences and do some very vital fundraising.

So, have of you go any suggestions regarding theatre or opera performances we might enjoy? Is your local museum doing virtual tours?

Exciting times…. » Continue Reading.

Move over Rover! Let Mabel and Olive take over!

by 7 Comments

These peculiar, disorientating, Groundhog, lockdown days have led to some peculiar ways of passing the time.

And some unexpected superstars.

Yesterday a friend posted this clip of Olive and Mabel, sports commentator, Andrew Cotter’s two labradors on his Facebook page. They are delightful pooches, but more importantly, he is a very witty chap. Dry and understated in a wonderfully Scottish way.

What a glorious tonic this clip is.

I suspect that I am a bit of a Johny-come-lately here.

By now Olive and Mabel have doubtless appeared on Blue Peter, been invited to Buck House to meet the corgis and relocated to Hollywood where their first movie is underway. I hope that being superstars does not go to their heads.

Lassie, Rin Tin Tin and Toto have some serious competition!

The Corona Virus is no laughing matter. But what has cheered you up and made you smile or laugh in the past few weeks?

I would dearly love to take a stroll down to the local pub with Mabel. Olive and Andrew. I can’t imagine better company,

Punch and Punctuality – Time for a Jane Austen Boss Bitch Challenge?

by 1 Comment

New Zealand stuntwoman, Zoe Bell, known for her work with Tarantino,came up with an novel solution to her lockdown blues. She set up an ingenious Instagram chain punch up with some of her female celebrity pals.

All rather fun.

And rather inspiring. This idea is just screaming to be imitated. And it doesn’t need to be fisticuffs.

In the serene world of Jane Austen, the weapons might be parasols, feather dusters or simply a sarcastic comment on an opponent’s choice of headgear.

In all Earnest, I think Oscar Wilde’s Lady Bracknell could be vicious with a handbag.

Some actors can demolish an opponent with a quizically raised eyebrow.

And a little nearer home, we could do a chain of Afterworders bashing each other, armed only with Bob Dylan Bootleg Boxset.

I’ll get my coat.

Covid and Conviviality

by 8 Comments

Which authors offer the most satisfying read in these angst-ridden times? Have you all been reaching for your favourite novels by European angst-merchants such as Camus, Kafka, Sartre and Dostoievsky?

Or have you been re-reading The Lord of the Rings trilogy? Or the complete works of Shakey? Perhaps some vintage Raymond Chandler or Agatha Christie is your comfort read of choice?

Josephine Tovey has written a witty and very convincing article about Jane Austen’s relevance to life in 2020. Our lives in lockdown have several similarities with the constrained existence of Sweet Jane’s protagonists. (See comments.)

There is great scope for a few Austen reboots!

Lockdown and Loquaciousness. Sensi and Sensibility. Covid and Conviviality. Boris and Bullshittery.

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, after a month of social distancing and lockdown, will be in dire need of an evening down the pub and a decent gig or two.”.

We were never being boaring..

by 17 Comments

With so much bad news around, it is a great joy to come across a sunshine story. Our friends in the animal kingdom are certainly doing their best to entertain us.

Kangaroos spotted hopping around downtown Melbourne. Dolphins frolicking in the canals of Venice. Elks in the Systembolaget in Eskiltuna.

But surely this tale of the policia and the porcellini in Perugia must take the biscuit?

Some Albanian mafia wise guys buried a packet containing cocaine with a street value 22,000 USD in the forest near Arezzo. The perfect hiding place: the cops would never find it. They didn’t.

But then along came some wild boar snouting around for something tasty. They dug the packet up and scoffed the lot.

The gang members were arrested and as they were led away commented angrily: “We’d have got away with it if it hadn’t been for you meddling pigs.”

Anybody else got a touching story from the animal kingdom to share? Dragons in Dagenham? Unicorns cavorting in St James Park?……

https://allthatsinteresting.com/feral-hogs-destroy-cocaine?fbclid=IwAR0g0vM0gNOCOm65-crXADvTVzvP90O3pV7Ie1APzIe0UdtcEoO9c9kBkOc