Malevolent televisions in film and TV

[Jah Womble]

All you had to do to free-up your day was say "Oh, was it? Ah, my bad!" Or similar. To cheer you up even further, here are the listings for the day The Changes first aired (6/1/75):

http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules...don/1975-01-06

Great resource, that. (NB The same one that I used earlier, for the record.)

[treibeis]

All you had to do to free-up your day was say "Oh, was it? Ah, my bad!"

I'm usually the first to hold my hands up - why, I'm so concilatory that I even left the womb with my palms facing upward and pleading, "It's all my fault, I'll come quietly" - but I'm not 100% sure I've committed a 'bad'. You're so cocky only because you've got ursus on your payroll as a back-office crack, whereas I'm a one-man band.

And I can only hope that you've now got a Leo Sayer earworm, because I definitely have.

[Stumpy Pepys]

The people who watched TV in the V/H/S film series rarely fared well.

[Jah Womble]

I'm usually the first to hold my hands up - why, I'm so concilatory that I even left the womb with my palms facing upward and pleading, "It's all my fault, I'll come quietly" - but I'm not 100% sure I've committed a 'bad'. You're so cocky only because you've got ursus on your payroll as a back-office crack, whereas I'm a one-man band.

And I can only hope that you've now got a Leo Sayer earworm, because I definitely have.

'Nobody knows nor understands', you say? However, I do. I 'understand', good sir, that that BBC genome-thang has been there years, just waiting to furnish you with the detail you've so keenly craved. But did you do the research? Did you, 'willies'...

You're not being ganged-up on - and nor did I need a nark. It's all there in black-and-white, good sir.

Let's just call this my 'scrumpy-'n'-western' moment, eh?

[treibeis]

Let's just call this my 'scrumpy-'n'-western' moment, eh?

"Oo ar" to that, most definitely. One can never have enough Scrumpy 'n' Western moments.

It's still wrong, though.

[Jah Womble]

The difference being that I willingly held my hands up to your better knowledge on that occasion.

(Quite a 'big' difference, that...)

[treibeis]

I recall your conceding the point, but, if it's possible to issue a mumbled apology in writing (Smaller font? Missing vowels?), then that's what it was.

[Jah Womble]

Nah, that's not me. Always very magnanimous in defeat, I am.

It doesn't happen that often, so I might as well be.

[Various Artist]

Blimey, I step out of this thread for five minutes...

Anyway, I could swear The Changes was on YouTube in its entirety when I was watching Children of the Stones the other month, but all I can find now is a BFI trailer for the DVD release and a review video.

Some extra digging reveals it is on Dailymotion, though broken down into 3-chunks-per-episode, and poor quality.

Aha, no it's there in proper episodes and decent quality after all, uploaded by a French person with optional French subtitles what's more: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4amfot

[Benjm]

...palms facing upward and pleading, "It's all my fault, I'll come quietly"...

...Leo Sayer...

Very hard to see these in the same post without thinking of the Goldhawk Road bank siege back in '74.

[treibeis]

Very hard to see these in the same post without thinking of the Goldhawk Road bank siege back in '74.

There"s been a lot of rubbish talked about the Goldhawk Road bank siege down the years. Leo Sayer took the rap for it, yeah, but a bloke I lived next door to in Homerton in 1986 reckoned that Gilbert O'Sullivan was the brains behind the operation.

[Benjm]

...a bloke I lived next door to in Homerton in 1986 reckoned that Gilbert O'Sullivan was the brains behind the operation.

Pure speculation; Keith Michell was the only one who knew the full story and he won't be giving it up to anyone now.

[Jah Womble]

Apart from Clifford T Ward, who'd allegedly driven the van. And he took that secret to the grave, bless him.

[Benjm]

With apologies to Stumpy for the prolonged derailment, the first time I ever heard of Clifford T Ward was in an NME feature on Swans in about 1985, in which the writer described Michael Gira as having a Clifford T Ward haircut. Apart from seeing a couple of photos that seemed to confirm this point, I am none the wiser about old Clifford thirty plus years down the line. His being involved in the Goldhawk Road bank siege would*, even now, be the second thing that I knew about him, after his having the same haircut that Michael Gira had in 1985.

* - if true. I'm only 85-90% convinced.

[treibeis]

who'd allegedly driven the van.

I now have a John Cooper Clarke earworm. This is excellent, as it's replaced the Leo Sayer earworm I'd had for six hours.

[Jah Womble]

We've approached Johnny Clarke this week for a TV pilot I'm scripting. (Fingers crossed...)

With apologies to Stumpy for the prolonged derailment, the first time I ever heard of Clifford T Ward was in an NME feature on Swans in about 1985, in which the writer described Michael Gira as having a Clifford T Ward haircut. Apart from seeing a couple of photos that seemed to confirm this point, I am none the wiser about old Clifford thirty plus years down the line. His being involved in the Goldhawk Road bank siege would*, even now, be the second thing that I knew about him, after his having the same haircut that Michael Gira had in 1985.

* - if true. I'm only 85-90% convinced.

The third 'thing' might be this Top Ten hit he had, just as I was leaving primary school:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-C3YcIdkYhw

(Another of Ward's compositions - Home Thoughts from Abroad - made #4 in a Radio 2 all-time Top 100 a few years back...)

[treibeis]

We've approached Johnny Clarke this week for a TV pilot I'm scripting. Fingers crossed

Despite all the cobblers you've come out with in the last 24 hours, all the (genuine) best from me for that.

[Benjm]

The third 'thing' might be this Top Ten hit he had, just as I was leaving primary school:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-C3YcIdkYhw

(Another of Ward's compositions - Home Thoughts from Abroad - made #4 in a Radio 2 all-time Top 100 a few years back...)

I checked both out and genuinely not a flicker of recognition.

It's kinder not to say anything about the hair but I can see why Michael Gira became known as an awkward and occasionally intimidating interviewee, his 'do having been likened to it at a formative stage in his career.

Good luck with the work thing from me too.

[Lang Spoon]

Isn’t Michael Gira a nasty nasty rapey man, notwithstanding hair issues?

Tbh Swans seem hilariously overwrought. Like the Young Gods, Serious Music for Serious Arseholes.

[Benjm]

Absolutely; Clifford T Ward probably has as much right to be irked by the comparison as Ol' Makes Yer Ears Bleed.

The only Swans album that I ever bought, around that time when I was but a callow youth and still susceptible to Biba Kopf or Dele Fadele's recommendations, I used to play on 45rpm to give it a livelier Hi-NRG feel.

[Jah Womble]

Despite all the cobblers you've come out with in the last 24 hours, all the (genuine) best from me for that.

Thank you - and to Benjm. It's a long-ish shot, but he'd be utterly, utterly ideal for the project.

...but it's the BBC Genome's (correct) 'cobblers', not mine! (Unless you mean all the dressing around it, which was just muggins here having a giggle. No offence.)

[treibeis]

You'd know if I'd taken offence, as I'd have come round your gaff with my Scrumpy 'n' Western crew, stuck a funnel down your throat, poured a gallon of Tanglefoot down it and then pitchforked your mantlepiece ornaments to smithereens.

[Patrick Thistle]

Yeah, but what would your sister do? She seems like the mean one.

[treibeis]

Yeah, but what would your sister do? She seems like the mean one.

She'd have done exactly the same. And then kicked me in the goolies.

[Jah Womble]

I think I'm most amused by treibeis's belief that I might have a mantelpiece...