the day after the deadline: can the union survive brexit and other deep questions

Waiting to hear Tim Farron has been caught cottaging TBH.

Newsnight just ridiculously irrelevant these days

― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 13 December 2017 22:44 (four weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

John Sweeney traipsing down to Canvey Island to have a good old chinwag with some leery old farts in a pub about what's wrong with this country. Plus the inevitable balding old Yorkshireman in the studio.

This is a gem from the archive - here's new Work and Pensions Secretary of State Esther MacVey guide to personal development, "changing your dream into reality". It's so 1996. #reshuffle pic.twitter.com/2rbyY24EyD

— Jack Evans (@jackcevans) January 9, 2018

several inexplicable choices here, but I'm particularly baffled by the decision to include GRIFF RHYS JONES in their Deacon Blue soundtracked montage of successful people along with Richard Branson, Bill Gates, Anita Roddick etc - was GRJ really considered an avatar for the concept of success in the mid-1990s?

NEW - @Nigel_Farage has changed his mind and says “maybe” we now should have a second referendum on the entire Brexit vote

— The Wright Stuff (@5WrightStuff) January 11, 2018

Poor lamb misses the thrill of the chase.

I assume he thinks another vote would result in a massive majority for his side.

A friend of mine knew a comedy writer (he was a writer on the BBC 3 smash hit Smoking Room) who did some writing work for GRIFF RHYS JONES once, and his brief was to "keep it rambunctious and hilarious".

i associate GRJ with poor anger management

I associate "successful people" with let's destroy capitalism

Isn't he extraordinarily wealthy like far beyond his couple of good sketches in the 80s and slow exposure as an empire loving bollox since would suggest

I associate Denis Nordern with It'll Be Alright On The Night, no matter what Griff Rhys Jones might think.

The new IBAOTN is very poor stuff - not GRJ's fault but he does overegg the clips like they're gonna be great, and they aren't.

DN in different league from an Oxbridge face puller like GRJ.

Ya, lots of ppl fluffing lines, dodgy sets falling apart not good enough imo

deems, he founded talkback so he's been so he's been lolling in that buzzcocks cash for years

And McGrath hattrick, is that right?

Jesus what a number

Ya, lots of ppl fluffing lines, dodgy sets falling apart not good enough imo

And that's before they play the clips amiriteladiesangennelmen? I'm here all week etc.

And McGrath hattrick, is that right?

yeah w/ jimmy mulville, rich as fuck on licence payers cash

When McDonnell described Esther McVey as a "stain on humanity" he was completely out of order, she's much worse than that. I only just noticed her and Phil Davies were once an item, jesus that's scarier than being trapped in lift full of GRJ clones.

this revisionism cannot stand: IBAOTN was always bad and never good and nordern's shtick was just unwatchable

rich as fuck on licence payers cash

i'm not necessarily against the licence fee btw, just against rory mcgrath and grj

the moral arc of an ilx thread can be long, but it bends toward rory mcgrath

Looks Familiar was the real Norden horrorshow.

LOL. Afternoons on ITV in the 70s were something else.

Or was that the 80s?

Good grief, 1970 to 1987!

Christ. Norden STILL LIVES

the theme tune to Farmhouse Kitchen is one of my favourite pieces of music

while we're on 70s ITV I mean

lotta great folky jazzy tv music in the 70s

Griff sold Talkback at the turn of the century and apparently lost a plurality of his share of the proceeds to Lehmann Brothers' collapse, he wouldn't have earned off of Buzzcocks per se at all

well that's the first time he's made me laugh for years

*distant angry grunts*

I was always cheered and surprised, for a long time*, that Dennis Norden continued to turn up and present that programme.

[*Proustian sentiment]

I remember Mark S and I discussing DN before - was MS comparing Maconie to DN? (He also compared George Steiner to Maconie which I then put into print in a Marxist philosophy journal)

in a comparison between Maconie and Norden I'm not sure which one should feel slighted

yeah w/ jimmy mulville, rich as fuck on licence payers cash

― faust apes (NickB), Thursday, 11 January 2018 11:46 (fifty-eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

In fairness that don't leave me this way cover is my jam

Googled to find out who Rory McGrath was and learnt Hat Trick sacked him, their own co-founder, in 1992, for being a useless lazy arse. So good morning all round for NickB in decades-old news

I saw McGrath in Cambridge recently, he looked miserable and furious which is fair enough I suppose.

Well, he is an Arsenal supporter.

His skin complexion seems to be a Terry Yorath shade of puce these days.

Can I just shoehorn into this thread that Dominic Holland is fucking abysmal, GRJ is a fucking colossus of comedy next to that cunt.

xp Maybe he can get some work in Rhyl as a Pontins version of Steve Bannon

lol!

Googled to find out who Rory McGrath was and learnt Hat Trick sacked him, their own co-founder, in 1992, for being a useless lazy arse. So good morning all round for NickB in decades-old news

so sorry sic, burning my chelmsford 123 box set rn to appease the gods of shit 90s comedy

Current programmes

Boomers (BBC One 2014–present)
Cheap Cheap Cheap (Channel 4 2017–present)
Derry Girls (Channel 4 2018–present)
Dinner Date (ITV 2010–2012, ITV Be 2014–present)
The Fake News Show (Channel 4 2017–present)
Have I Got News for You (BBC Two 1990–2000, BBC One 2000–present)
Room 101 (BBC Two 1994–2007, BBC One 2012–present)
Whose Line Is It Anyway? (Channel 4 1988–1998, ABC & ABC Family 1998–2007, The CW 2013–present)

the trailers for Derry Girls look mildly amusing but I think we could safely gulag these people anyway

Why do people not like Maconie?

It is not that I revere him myself. This week I heard him on radio asking listeners to text in about forgotten 1970s TV programmes and saying 'That's BRILLIANT!' about most of them, and also getting into some kind of debate about Tiswas.

So this was not poor quality. But is there something about him that people think more awful than the above?

tbf that second sentence mostly answers the first.

I don't feel strongly about him nowadays, he doesn't even seem omnipresent as a lightweight faux nostalgia talking head on TV any more. in that sense, Dennis Norden is a good comparison.

Stuart Maconie: C or D?

when I wrote 'this was not poor quality' I meant: this was poor quality.

I guessed that!