The Afterword

Musings on the byways of popular culture

Menu

Navigation

Sid James klaxon!

by 18 Comments

…in which our hero displays a hitherto unsuspected talent for Cockney hoofing.

This popped up on Twitter yesterday, and I thought I’d bring some innocent merriment into your dreary lives in honour of Blue Monday, apparently the most depressing day of the year – a perfect day for the Maybot to present a Plan B that bears an uncanny resemblance to Plan A.

The entire movie is available to stream on Amazon Prime. Caution: may be subject to the law of diminishing returns.

https://youtu.be/-eVms_tAN0E

What A Crazy World We’re Living In

by 14 Comments

Watching Obama’s emotional farewell address to the nation live on TV I was struck by the warmth and honesty of his speech. Whatever we think of the successes and failures of his presidency (and there have been failures) he seems like a thoroughly decent human being. As to what comes next, well, that’s sure to be an interesting leap in the dark, to say the least.

As Obama left the stage he walked through the crowd for one final goodbye, pressing the flesh and hugging his supporters. The air was thick with iPhones held aloft and most telling of all, the departing President was surrounded by a phalanx of beefy secret servicemen, eyes frantically scanning the hands and faces of the crowd, looking for the slightest hint of someone pulling a gun or other weapon. For some reason I found this profoundly depressing and disturbing. Is this what we’ve come to?

Brexit, Trump, Corbyn, ISIS, Bowie and the rest. As Joe Brown told us as early as 1962, what a crazy world we’re living in

Jim Carter: Lonnie Donegan and Me

by 40 Comments

“Lonnie had opened the door and a whole generation rushed though”: Jim Carter (that’s Downton Abbey’s butler “Carson” to you and me).

“A lot of us got out of the factory thanks to Lonnie”: Ringo Starr

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Before the Beatles, there were really only two men in Britain who could truly be called giants in the field of popular music. They were Hank Marvin and Lonnie Donegan. You may think that’s a rather glib statement, ignoring as it does all the great musicians and producers who were toiling away in the pop, jazz and folk worlds. But in terms of longevity and the influence they had on what was to follow, I do believe that before 1962 no two names were more important in British pop music than Hank and Lonnie.

Now read on….

http://i.imgur.com/6NGKHUS.jpg