This one's for you, Mr Rumcove!
Rumcove plaintively asked during a telephone chat last week, "What the fuck's a primary?" Where to begin? I told him I'd get back to him.
Luckily, BBC News has published What is a primary? at its website here. Here's a 1 minute, 10 second video report for anyone interested who doesn't understand the process.
The Jekyll thing was exciting in that sick adrenaline-fueled way that leaves you feeling exhausted and a bit in need of a good brain bleaching afterward, but my real James Nesbitt love is reserved for him as Murphy . Yet another reason you need---or should have had---BBC America. That said, he should have had the Golden Globe for Jekyll. I didn't care for it, but he was amazing. I'd watch it again if I could stomach the violence. Much as I love Jim Broadbent and liked Longford, that must have been a relatively easy task compared to what Nesbitt had to do, surely (?)
Anyway, some favorite fragments from Murphy's Law:
Here's the website for the show. There are plenty more clips on YouTube, but as it happens, the answering machine was exactly the bit I was looking for.
What American woman doesn't love a Northern Irish accent? My husband can do a kickass Nesbitt imitation and for awhile we had this exact message on our answering machine, till my mother and a couple of my colleagues objected....
In England, Harry Enfield----tragically, you may know him only as the voice of the Travelocity Gnome--- had a hit comedy show (described in more detail here) in the 1990's which he---supported by the great Kathy Burke and the equally great Paul Whitehouse---starred as a variety of characters who very quickly evolved into English comedy classics, which is how I came to know and love him. You can rent Harry Enfield and Chums from Netflix, and you really, reallly should.
Here's one sample recommended by my internet friend Chris H. And it is indeed one of my favorites: the sex education video to end all sex education videos, newsreel style (circa 1940). In this educational video, Harry Enfield is Mr. Grayson. Learn all you need to know about the "horrid beastliness" marriage requires:
I love Steve Coogan. Alan Partidge, Duncan Thickett, Tony Ferrino, Paul Calf, Pauline Calf, Tristram Shandy....I don't care. I will watch anything with Steve Coogan in it that I can get my hands on.
He's the world's greatest character (or caricature) actor. This is a love I've not tried to explain or share with American friends. I am afraid they won't get Partridge & Co. Certainly the ones who find Brit comedy "mean-spirited" won't get Partridge.
Anyway. I was curious when I saw footage on You Tube that we won't be getting over here. Here's Steve Coogan from a show called "The Day to Day."
Is this cool?
Yes. Yes, it is, Steve Coogan.
It's a heaping spoon full of awesome. To see and hear for yourself, click this link.
(Cross-posted in The Flatland Chronicles)
I always thought it was a May Day fertility dance dating back to pagan times, but Wikipedia begs to differ. Shut up, Wikipedia.
Brilliant.
Note to the Brits: there are some traditions you must NEVER allow to die out.
I don't know why my mind went there today. This is "Essex based 'Cotswold' morris side dancing at Great Warley Spring Fayre on Headley Common, 26th May 2007 (near Brentwood, Essex, UK)." Hurray!
I like to imagine them practicing it. And I like to imagine the recruiting process. Someone should make a film of it, similar to "The Full Monty" (my all-time favorite film).
Ricky Gervais is one of my heroes. You can't help sensing if you're paying attention that behind the cherubic smile and squeaky giggle beats a dark, cynical spirit and that behind that is a mind with many a wry twist and black depth.
The man's view of the world is dark, but his gift for skewering pretenses and pretensions, or tearing down the defenses that people place between themselves and too clear a knowledge of themselves and others, is unerring. He makes me think of this quote from Mark Twain:
I have not read Nietzsche or Ibsen, nor any other philosopher, and have not needed to do it, and have not desired to do it; I have gone to the fountainhead for information - that is to say, to the human race. Every man is in his own person the whole human race, with not a detail lacking; I have studied the human race with diligence and strong interest all these years in my own person; in myself I find in big or little proportion every quality and every defect that is findable in the mass of the race.... What a coward every man is! And how surely he will find it out if he will just let other people alone and sit down and examine himself. The human race is a race of cowards; and I am not only marching in the procession but carrying a banner.
In the BBC America promos for The Office (UK version) a man said, "If you don't know someone like David Brent, the chances are, you are David Brent." We are all David Brent. This is the real theme of Extras, in which Gervais as the long-suffering Andy Millman endures the pretenses and posturings of a world full of celebrated Brents.
= Ray Winstone, the charismatic actor, recently won the international Emmy for best actor based on his role in Vincent. We are Winstone fans from way before, but we're happy to see him properly recognized here in the U.S.
Well done, Ray Winstone!
FOR A LAUDATORY NOTE, JUMP TO JUST EAT THE DAMN PEACH, MY TELEVISION BLOG.
I've actually written quite a few tributes to Gordon Ramsay, but they seemed to belong better in my television blog than here. Let's face it, Ramsay---consummately Scottish-with-inexplicable-estuary-accent as he is---is a man of the Age. He belongs wherever he is.
I can't help blogging about his show. I've created a whole Ramsay-based category. TO JUMP TO THE RAMSAY FILES, CLICK HERE .
