Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Space Philology


Regular readers (a Mrs Television of North Wales) will be pleased to hear that I can no longer bring myself to watch that third rate tosh ‘Downbog Abbey’, and I have exhausted my ability to find new ways to describe how dire ‘Spooks’ is.  Instead I will compare and contrast two other recent offerings on the electric television.

I was expecting to be mildly entertained by Stephen Fry’s “Planet Word”, but held out little prospect of Jo Brand’s Big Splash being other than a schedule filler.

I was wrong.

There. I’ve said it. I was wrong.

I found Planet Word to be fairly dull, learned nothing interesting from it, and found myself becoming slightly irritated. (I know that most of you think that I spend my waking life in a state somewhere between ordinary grumpiness and blood-vessel bursting. It ain’t so.)  The programmer planners seem to think that we all want to see endless footage of recycled celebrities trekking round obscure corners of the globe (yes,  Dave, I know there are no corners on a globe, now shut up and write your blasted blog) making facile comments and expressing enthusiasm about subjects of no earthly nor celestial interest.

Thus we have Mr Fry sitting amongst some poor bastards in East Africa who had only just recovered from a visit by Gyles Brandreth making a documentary about trombone polishing. They could not understand what Stevie was saying, and he spoke not one word of their language.  I am not sure how many times my licence fee it cost the BBC to fly Fry to Eritrea to fail to communicate with some poor unsuspecting bugger who was looking forward to an evening of goat-tending, but it is too bloody many. Then we have him striding along a beach, pontificating. I do not know why he felt that he needed the Caspian Sea (no, I have no idea where it was) as a backdrop – possibly to distract from the tedium of his discourse.  

What I had overlooked about Jo Brand was that whatever she is in, she is brilliant, certainly when all she does is be herself.  I just like her, it is as simple as that. I’ve liked her ever since her early days of abrasive comedy (the “painter’s in” line was one of the greatest ever), and now, even when her humour is no longer cutting-edge, and would probably not be even remotely funny when done by someone else, whenever I see her, I get the feeling that there is room in my enormous circle of friends for her, and I would love to spend time with her. Just watch it and feel good.


Here is an example for those of you of a foreign persuasion, who may not be familiar with her stage act.



13 comments:

Dave said...

I didn't watch either show, so I got it just as wrong as you did (ie 50%) but had time to spare to polish my trombone.

Romeo Morningwood said...

She is hilarious..thanks!

Richard said...

Read Fry's autobiographies and it's obvious that he really struggles with his self-perception. Like the rest of us, he doesn't really know what he is. Jo Brand is very funny.

Pearl said...

I don't always know what you're saying, but I do love how you say it.

Will watch the Jo Brand clip the moment my boss wanders away as I've not heard of her.

Pearl

Pearl said...

I love her!

And she was on Absolutely Fabulous, wasn't she?

Vicus Scurra said...

Dave, please avoid those terrible euphemisms.
Donn. You are welcome.
Richard. Yes, I expect Stephen is quite confused. I am very fond of him, but wish that he had someone around to tell him about things that are not good ideas.
Pearl. Excellent. Another convert. She had a cameo in only one episode of Ab Fab. There are several good clips on Youtube, including a very early TV appearance from 1986. Make sure you find her joke about euphemisms for periods.

Z said...

Dull, not interesting and slightly irritating describes most of Stephen Fry's output pretty well.

If Chris were around, I'd say "What did the Caspian see?" but I have no idea whether you will get the allusion, so I won't say it.

Vicus Scurra said...

We miss Chris, don;t we?

Z said...

Most awfully.

Martin said...

Ian Skidmore says of Fry, "I object to the way he uses knowledge as a bicycle to demonstrate how well he rides.

broken biro said...

I like that quote about Fry, Martin!

As for Jo - I always rated her too - a great role model for 'not having to be a dolly-bird to get on telly and be popular'

The Mistress said...

Some of us of a "foreign persuasion" actually know and enjoy her stand-up routines!

She's also a great talk show guest..on Graham Norton, for example.

I've seen her books on the shelves too but haven't read any yet.

Anonymous said...

I felt I had to come here after reading what Dave has said about you. I see what he means. :-)