As I get older I find my opinions changing on celebs. In some cases, the love has faded but in others a new appreciation has developed. Sometimes it’s more about me and my mid-life wisdom, but in others it seems to simply be a case of people growing older in a way that makes them more accessible.
I had this thought the other evening while watching Jo Brand on QI. I was never a fan of her 90s shtick and stand up routines but these days I can happily see her on the box and enjoy her take on the world. She was also very good on Taskmaster in a sort of double act with David Baddiel.
So, with all that said, who else has changed for the better? Obviously all a matter of opinion but interested to know thers opinions.
I dunno if she counts as a modern-day sleb, but I’ve become mildly obsessed with Shirley Bassey’s United Artists recordings since hearing a track from 1970’s Something LP during a Charity Shop Classics show.
I’m only four albums off completing her 13-year run at UA, and they’re all early or late period (i.e. not the good, middle-period, stuff). All have come from charity shops, and none of them has cost more than a couple of quid.
I am 55.
It’s not really my taste changing, but I think my mother was typical of quite a few people in changing her opinion of Harry Hill and Bob Mortimer.
She thought the original Harry Hill shows, with Al Murray and Burt Kwouk, and Reeves and Mortimer were just dull and childish. But she changed her mind with Harry Hill’s TV Burp, which was one of her favourite programmes and Bob Mortimer’s appearances on Would I lie to you. They seemed to make their surreal, or to her, daft, humour work in a more mainstream context, and came across as basically very genial people.
I think with TV Burp, it also helped that a lot of the humour was about the programmes she watched, like Emmerdale, Coronation Street and so on.
I saw Harry Hill solo at Glasto in 1992 and he was the funniest thing there all weekend, then again solo in Richmond in 1995, and in Sydney in 1998, and he was hilarious.
Apart from giving his mates Al Murray and Burt Kwouk some income, I didn’t really see the need for them to be there.
I had a vague unsubstantiated dislike of Al Murray due to a vague unsubstantiated dislike of the idea of the pub landlord, but I like his history stuff with James Holland a lot and discovered his ancient TV series touring Germany on YouTube which is interesting and thoughtful. I even saw the Pub Landlord at the Steven Wilson gig earlier this year – I did laugh a few times but honestly I could have done without it.
I’ve warmed to Jeremy Clarkson with Clarkson’s Farm though I expect I’m in a minority here.
re: Clarkson. He’s still a bit of an opinionated tit in the media, but on the farm you can see he cares and is actually trying to make it work.
We went to see Al Murray Pub Landlord at the Junction on his first headline tour. His show balanced that fine line between irony and bigotry (see also: Alf Garnett). Mrs F, a Forrina, left during the interval. Consquently, so did I.
His history podcast is great, though.
We like Clarkson’s Farm.
People who think Clarkson or Murray are the characters they portray presumably think David Bowie was a space alien.
You don’t realise that there’s a UK culture, until you marry a Spaniard raised in France, where they don’t do irony.
“He’s not funny!”
“But he was taking the piss.”
“What does that mean?”
Etc…
But Jeremy Clarkson IS the “character” he portrays. Unless there is an inner, gentler, kinder, more tolerant Clarkson than the swaggering playground bully with a glib way with words.
Edit. Wait, what – David Bowie’s WASN’T an alien?
I’m not convinced he isn’t the character in his columns. It may be exaggerated but it’s fundamentally him. I think the Clarkson’s Farm persona is more character
It’s a bit like those absolute monster mafiosi killers who were also devoted family men. Two people in one person.
I find it difficult to warm to a bloke who made so much money (moving to the Isle Of Man at one point, no less) talking bollocks about petrol head nonsense that he could afford to stump for 1000 acres of Cotswold farmland to amuse himself while bleating about the fate of proper farming families who are several generations into just-above-subsistence existence with little prospect of ever being able to afford a Ferrari.
Yeah, we all stuff our faces with tax-free gold over here…
You know perfectly well that many of your better-off neighbours, particularly of the blow-in variety, are there for that reason.
That’s me told off… 🙂
Shall I send you a fiver as recompense?
A small postal order will do nicely, thanks.
In mitigation he does go to some lengths to work with and support the local farming community. And the farmers association have him and award for highlighting the issues farmers face….
Although they did have to ask him to stop talking about inheritance tax on farms after it came to light that he told the Sunday Times that he specifically bought a farm to avoid inheritance tax.
I can’t get too excited about it. So what. He’s hardly alone in that. But after the farmer who worked the land he took it over and I think is genuinely committed to it.
James Rebanks was quoted as saying that Clarkson has “done more for farmers in one series of Clarkson’s Farm than Countryfile achieved in 30 years” – ok, that’s partly criticism of the BBC but it’s also praise from someone who knows something about farming.
Faint praise about someone who has a massive platform – derived mostly from his non-farming-related history – for getting publicity.
To me, his farming epiphany looks like what you might call brown-washing.
The inverse of “warming” to Bob Mortimer … “cooling” on Vic Reeves
Reeves & Mortimer together – spot on
Vic Reeves on his own … it does add credence to the belief Bob came up with a lot 9f the raw material.
His artwork is mighty fine though.
He did call his autobiography “Me Moir”, which is an excellent title. I am assuming he came up with it.
Paul Sinha from the Chase has a great Autobiography title – One Sinha Lifetime.
I quite like gardening expert Carol Klein’s – Hortobiography.
On a related note I think the prize of worst title gets shared jointly by everyone who has called theirs “My Autobiography “.
I grew up in the 70s when Bob Monkhouse was the smarmy orange game show host.
Not until the early 90s did I realise he was a superb comic and gag merchant.
“They all laughed when I said I would become a comedian… they’re not laughing now”.
I first saw Jo Brand in a tent in Wollaton Park, on a triple bill in the early 90s with Hattie Hayridge (quite funny), and Lee Evans (barely a titter for the first 10 minutes, my sides ached by the end)
JB was the most foul mouthed person I’ve ever been in the same room with, but crikey she was funny.
There is no record of this gig on the internet, it appears to be only in my head. It definitely happened though.
She might still have been billed as the Sea Monster then.
Yes, I saw the Sea Monster in freshers term 1988. He standard response to hecklers was “shut up, or I’ll come and sit on your face”.
*Her
My fave early heckle reply from her was ‘Alright mate, it’s a night out for you – and a night off for your family’.
My parents were devoted fans of the gentle old comics that appeared on 1970s panel shows. Frank Muir and Arthur Askey were the equivalent of how I now view Vic & Bob, Harry Hill, Paul Merton
and Jo Brand.
Bob’s “It’s a kind of Magic” routine went properly viral earlier this year. It made me think of his routine with Vic where they are earnest, T-shirted youth workers facilitating a community drama workshop called Action Image Exchange. I honestly can’t describe why this skit was so funny – there’s no jokes – it just is.
As that master of stand-up Horace once said.
“Misce stultitiam consiliis brevem: dulce est desipere in loco.”
“Mix a little foolishness with your serious plans; it’s lovely to be silly at the right moment.”
Nothing wrong with a bit of silliness.
Two Ronnies
I watched a doc on The Good Life last night … I enjoyed it, so much more than I would’ve 20-odd years ago.
In the words of Vyvyan “no, no, no, we don’t want to watch the bloody Good Life”.
Actually, I do …
I have gone the other way with that at least regarding the “Goods”, Tom Good comes across as something of a bullying misanthrope. Margo and Jerry have aged better for me, but like Vyvyan I find the white middle aged, middle classes (often childless) portrayed in BBC 1970s sitcoms to be a bit hard to take. It has it’s moments though
A couple of quotes from yesterday’s i paper.
https://inews.co.uk/culture/television/queen-made-us-reunite-felicity-kendal-good-life-50-3998243
“But the show has recently come in for a different kind of scrutiny. Viewed through a modern lens, Tom Good might just be an example of toxic masculinity, the belligerent alpha who could only ever see one point of view – his own – which his wife had dutifully to fall in line with. Richard Briers himself, who died in 2010, seemed to agree. “I never liked Tom,” he once said. “I thought he was a bully, and an obsessive.”
When I bring this up with Kendal, she groans. “I think that sometimes these days, because the show has endured for so long and become part of the folklore, people look back on it mistakenly, and slightly narrow-mindedly.” She is choosing her words here with necessary care. “It wasn’t a documentary, it was a comedy, and Tom did not drag Barbara along unwillingly. Barbara was positive, and practical, and totally in love with her partner. Yes, she got pissed off on occasion, but she loved Tom. I loved Tom.”
But one programme endured, as Edmondson himself would later note. “The Good Life stands up better [than The Young Ones],” he said recently. “I’d rather watch that.”
This is perhaps a bit niche, but I have really warmed to (Baroness) Sayeeda Warsi in her regular news review spots on This Morning (ok, don’t judge me). She comes across as sensible, down to earth and agreeable. It must be a trait of Tories who leave governments that they become more relatable; see also Michaels Portillo and Heseltine.
Heseltine is certainly scathing about farage recently and Major about brexit.
Do I like them more because they align with my viewpoint, probably.
Perhaps my view is a tiny bit rose-tinted but John Major seems further to the left than Starmer and Reeves, currently.
John Major has always been a pragmatist, surrounded by a bunch of headbangers. I couldn’t really understand why he wasn’t in the Libs. His constituency office is/was 10 minutes from me, next door to KwikFit.
I vaguely knew him socially, after his stint as PM, as his daughter played in the local orchestra, while my pal Bob sang in the amateur operatic society. In one particular performance of HMS Pinafore, Mrs F and I sat front-row centre, next to John and Norma. I tried very hard not to look down into the orchestra pit, as her ‘talents’ were visibly obvious. I could barely string a sentence together during the after-show party…
Bet you had to try hard not to mention Ralph Rackstraw.
I was worried I’d come across as a massive tit.
Everyone’s got their knockers…
(Where is that confounded Moose?)
If he’s not responding to those little cues then perhaps it’s time to send out the search party.