Jonathon Meades
- Thread starter viktorvaughn
- Start date
I watched the first episode of Magnetic North last night, not really knowing about him, beyond this thread. So fantastic! Genuinely informative, I know f all about the "Hansa cities", who he depicts as a kind of proto-EU but it's got so many great weird asides and set pieces i.e. miming to a Pierre Bsachlet song covered in coal dust in front of a giant slag heap. Enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. A big thumbs up from me.
I did wonder if his affection for "the North" came from a kind of inbuilt contrarianism (he opposes it to "the South i.e. the Mediterranean), just 'cos you can completely imagine him being like that.
Did make me lament for TV a bit. I wonder, has great TV like this disappeared for good, in a world of Netflix and constant streaming? It seems like it'd need surplus money sloshing around the BBC for something this eccentric to get made.
I did wonder if his affection for "the North" came from a kind of inbuilt contrarianism (he opposes it to "the South i.e. the Mediterranean), just 'cos you can completely imagine him being like that.
Did make me lament for TV a bit. I wonder, has great TV like this disappeared for good, in a world of Netflix and constant streaming? It seems like it'd need surplus money sloshing around the BBC for something this eccentric to get made.
Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
There's a Meades interview from a few years ago where he names Adam Curtis as one of the few people still doing really worthwhile, highbrow, adult TV journalism. Not that those two really have much in common with each other, I think, beyond each being one of a kind.
jenks
thread death
Interesting interview with him here: https://medium.com/the-scrawl/jonat...interview-from-the-scrawl-archive-ea11ab96563
WashYourHands
Cat Malogen
There’s one where he talks about being a student, burying his accent under layers of elocution and a tutor dropping where he was from almost exactly - “20miles from Southampton“
He has a sense of fun and comedy that Curtis doesn’t. Where Meades might wink, Curtis will remain out of frame and let the film roll to Aphex. Think Meades grasps the absurdity of Britain in more redolent pieces overall
He has a sense of fun and comedy that Curtis doesn’t. Where Meades might wink, Curtis will remain out of frame and let the film roll to Aphex. Think Meades grasps the absurdity of Britain in more redolent pieces overall
Meades isn't reaching for new narratives either (says the great expert, having watched precisely one hour). He's talking about obscure history rather a newly uncovered understanding of the world. There;s the use of the film text and footage as materia as well with Curtis - I'm sure he's the better film-maker, technically but Meades is, as you say, a million times more fun.
I was thinking about this earlier, it struck me as being a weird bizarre evolutionary end point to the classic BBC formula of "bloke walks around, talks about stuff". They've been doing that form for so long that Meades can flip out within the confines of that formula.
I was thinking about this earlier, it struck me as being a weird bizarre evolutionary end point to the classic BBC formula of "bloke walks around, talks about stuff". They've been doing that form for so long that Meades can flip out within the confines of that formula.
Meades agreeing with me, what a clever man he is.
The thing is that television is so institutionalised that it is very loath to try anything new or to make a program about a subject that has not been covered before. It is very loath to take any risks… and when you think how fantastic it was twenty / twenty-five years ago: we had Denis Potter, Peter Nichols, David Mercer, David Perry, David Rudkin, Tom Stoppard — really good writers writing specially for telly. Whereas now, it has become absolutely formulaic, with very occasional exceptions. I imagine that British television is going to have to react in some way to the success of things like Breaking Bad and The Wire and Lilyhammer and those Scandinavians.”
The thing is that television is so institutionalised that it is very loath to try anything new or to make a program about a subject that has not been covered before. It is very loath to take any risks… and when you think how fantastic it was twenty / twenty-five years ago: we had Denis Potter, Peter Nichols, David Mercer, David Perry, David Rudkin, Tom Stoppard — really good writers writing specially for telly. Whereas now, it has become absolutely formulaic, with very occasional exceptions. I imagine that British television is going to have to react in some way to the success of things like Breaking Bad and The Wire and Lilyhammer and those Scandinavians.”
Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
Anna and I have been watching Civilisation by not-that-Kenneth-Clark-the-other-Kenneth-Clark, and it's great. His accent is, to modern ears, hilarious, and some of the stuff he says is mind-bogglingly small-c conservative (patly dismissing all modern art as garbage, that sort of thing), but he's so erudite and articulate, and the sweep of his knowledge and enthusiasm so broad, that you can't help but be carried along with it.
WashYourHands
Cat Malogen
Re-runs of AJP Taylor
I watched that last year, I meant to mention it, I love it! He's such an amazing character. Alan Clark's Dad. There's one part, in one of the later episodes, where he mentions, the decline of the taboo against swearing in front of women, with a rueful glance at the camera, that made me want to shout with joy.