tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9987513.post6963938231900353819..comments2024-03-17T11:05:22.464+00:00Comments on The Life And Opinions of Andrew Rilstone: Who Remembered Hills (10)Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9987513.post-29544728633659395122013-04-16T17:12:06.419+01:002013-04-16T17:12:06.419+01:00I'd never heard of William McGonagall before r...I'd never heard of William McGonagall before reading this post. I read the Wikipedia article and saw this: "He found lucrative work performing his poetry at a local circus. He read his poems while the crowd was permitted to pelt him with eggs, flour, herrings, potatoes and stale bread. For this, he received fifteen shillings a night."<br /><br />And: "Throughout his life McGonagall seemed oblivious to the general opinion of his poems, even when his audience were pelting him with eggs and vegetables. It is possible he was shrewder than he is given credit for, and played to his audience's perception of him, in effect making his recitals an early form of performance art."<br /><br />It is incredible to me that this is in dispute. <i>Of course</i> he knew what he was doing. The audience is pelting him with things (for which he was fairly well paid) and he "seemed oblivious" that they didn't like his poems?<br /><br />Then: "Author Norman Watson speculates in his biography of McGonagall that the poetaster may have been on the 'autism-Asperger's spectrum.' Christopher Hart, writing in the Sunday Times, says that this seems 'likely.'"<br /><br />Are these people nuts? Are people going to say the same thing about Andy Kaufman in a hundred years? Andrew Stevenshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13453328821252013152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9987513.post-5933755923870879342013-04-12T13:15:37.067+01:002013-04-12T13:15:37.067+01:00Andrew - have you seen this - you appear to be in ...Andrew - have you seen this - you appear to be in the target demographic...<br /><br />http://www.dorktower.com/2013/04/11/who-on-who/Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9987513.post-48475895719456750742013-04-10T23:54:07.223+01:002013-04-10T23:54:07.223+01:00I am coming to the conclusion that Doctor Who was ...I am coming to the conclusion that Doctor Who was never a TV show, if such a thing even exists. It was a sequence of plays up till Sylvester, and has been a sequence of films ever since.<br /><br />Does "television" even exist as a distinct art-form, as opposed to the medium though which various art forms (and Top Gear) are distributed?Mike Taylorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06039663158335543317noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9987513.post-80456033019576509102013-04-10T21:26:10.529+01:002013-04-10T21:26:10.529+01:00When did TV stop doing plays? By which I mean som...When did TV stop doing plays? By which I mean something that was definitely a Play rather than a one-off drama or a serial; something that wasn't quite like having a camera pointed at a West End or provincial stage, but certainly relied on the viewer's being able to use some of the faculties that he or she would use when watching such a stage and not those he or she would use when watching Z-Cars. In particular, accepting that the props and backgrounds didn't have to be photorealistic and were really a nudge to the viewer to use his or her imagination.<br /><br />The canonical example is the Play For Today that the Beeb used to do, which is one of those seventies things like Public Information Films and Open University shows that I know about from YouTube and clips shows and any genuine memories have been overwritten by irony and nostalgia. I think I remember Yorkshire TV doing earnest Sunday night plays about unemployment, delinquency etc right up until the late 80s. Was Doctor Who a Play all along? It's very <i>theatrical</i>, isn't it? And the main lead must be not just an actor but an Actor: a mere telly star wouldn't do.Stevehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08957786130791291356noreply@blogger.com