Friday 1 April 2011

Precise Correlations and Epistomological Problems




Surely the finest comedy ever produced by any British broadcaster? Certainly as good as anything produced by any other culture and, I imagine, readily understood in any other culture.

4 comments:

The Spine said...

Agreed but do they even make comedies like this these days? Just great writing. The books are even better.

William Gruff said...

I don't have a television set but what I see available on BBC iPlayer and 4OD leads me to the opinion that good writing is all but dead in this country and very nearly unwelcome, if not actually now unmarketable, if not, although there are some ageing exceptions.

I'll have to look at the books; I haven't read them.

Thank you for your comment and welcome to Grrrr ... uff.

The Spine said...

I've been writing and talking about this for years but nobody seems to listen. The BBC has a huge problem in their comedy department but they manage to hide it because Armando Iannucci and his writers save them once a year by producing a work of genius. Don't even get me started on Radio comedy. I sent jokes and sketches to a certain open radio 7 show for weeks on end but they ignored every single one and managed to stage half an hour of the most bland tedious rubbish...

Sorry. I'll go back to my corner and sulk.

William Gruff said...

Nobody is listening, or reading to anything worth listening to or reading because nothing worth listening to or reading is published or broadcast in or on the mainstream media.

The only problem the BBC has is that those not employed by it wish to see it wound up. The BBC is a huge problem for those not employed by it.

Radio comedy is an oxymoron and has been for a long time.

Long ago I sent something I thought might have been thought funny to the BBC. In the fullness of time they were kind enough to send me a rejection letter. When I do write something that someone will publish, and pay me for, I will have that letter, if I can find it, framed and hang it in my downstairs bog, when I can afford a house that has one.

Irony rarely comes over well in print. Were that otherwise I'd make an ironic comment, as it is I'll just thank you again for your comment and assure you that you are welcome to sulk here whenever you wish, as long as you don't object to the threat posed to defenders of free speech by outspoken critics of totalitarianism.

Having looked at your blog I was struck by the wit behind your posts; I particularly like your misunderstood headlines. Some quota minority placewoman or one time Cambridge Footlights stage manager thinks your work shit? So what? I'd take the BBC's unacknowledged rejection of your work as a glowing reference were I you.

Bollox to the BBC! I'm flattered, whatever that's worth, by your visits here.