- This topic has 58 replies, 32 voices, and was last updated 16 years, 3 months ago by
.
- Posts
Greville Starkey!
Christ! I nearly choked on my smoky bacon crisps when I read that! I started to laugh but was seeing red at the same time
Anyway, my hero has to be my Dad.
I use the word Hero very sparingly, Sir Henry Cecil and Tom Watson are the only two that spring to mind.
Two of mine are remembered on BBC4 this evening – Oliver Postgate and Sir Clement.
Propsects of getting all my chores done have worsened considerably as a result.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
so Bagpuss was meant to look like Garfield but ended up pink by mistake..and he thought Teletubbies were people living in a post apocalyptic world…..
Both the gentle humanity and the coiled-spring intellect of Mr Postgate shone through in the show. Can you imagine anyone else trying to broach the subject of political suffrage in a children’s animation nowadays, much less pull it off?
As for Sir Clem, his propensity for bouts of unerring gitsworthiness was certainly to the fore, but that’s nothing we don’t know about him anyway, and at his best he was absolutely priceless – the "second sheep from the left" retort to Sir Robin Day nearly slayed me.
All that and an "Imagine" special on Scrabble geeks back on Beeb One, too – I’m happy to pay the license fee for all that even if other buggers aren’t!
gc
PS Most important of all – they only went and filmed Sir Clem at Cottenham point-to-point, didn’t they! Splendid work. Did anyone recognise the other pointing track covered, though? Looked like a flattish left-hander but not one I’ve ever been to, I don’t think.
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Can’t remember the last time I laughed so much for an hour! How amazing to have two programmes about two such different people with so much in common.Alas, the world is an emptier place without them.And what has happened to the wonderful Emma these days..she used to do lots of very cultural programmes if my memory is correct?
Emma was interviewed on Five Live a few weeks ago, and confirmed that most of her professional energies in recent years have been taken up with her husband Richard Curtis’s projects – she edits all his film scripts, and coordinates most of the activities behind or associated with Comic Relief for him.
She doesn’t miss doing TV and radio presenting too much, as these other projects and the couple’s three children take up enough of her time. Moreoever, some of you may remember that her last radio engagement of note was an unhappy one, when Matthew Bannister’s cull of many Smashie & Nicie types from Radio One in 1993 paved the way for her to take over the lunchtime slot. The old guard that did remain (Peel and Nightingale excepted), apparently gave her a horrible time of it off-air for daring not to understimate the listeners’ intelligence.
She had a happier time of it when contributing to "Loose Ends" on Radio Four, though I don’t think she’s been on since Ned Sherrin’s passing.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
On a similarish note – I see the voice of Top Cat has passed away today
My hero is my Dad, for many reasons, but particularly the dignity with which he coped with the degenerative (and sadly fatal in his case) Motor Neurone Disease.
I’m sorry to hear that Benny. I salute your hero, and wish you and your family a Happy Christmas.
‘Hero’ has the uneasy connotations of worship and blind-faith but those who spring to mind – outside of family – I like, love, respect, have enriched me and who I never tire of are:
David Attenborough
Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Salvador Dali
Charles Darwin
Thomas Hardy
John Lennon
Patrick Moore
Isaac Newton
Sergei Rachmaninov
Alf WainwrightTwo still with us, but they too will soon be gone I fear
glorious lives lived
Think Patrick Moore will go on forever..took my son to see him give a talk when he [my son, that is] was in the sixth form saying ‘better see him now, won’t be around for much longer’. That was @ 12 years ago. Around the time that I took my daughter to see Ken Dodd for the same reason. By the way, there was a good programme about Breughel [sp] the other week on BBC4, but was too busy with Christmassy things to watch it properly or even remember what programme it was. What I did see was fascinating, though.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.