Sunday, September 03, 2006

Frizzle fry...

The voice of Stephen Fry is cropping up on lots of these nostalgia programmes with depressing regularity. It's a shame that such a talent deems it necessary to stoop so low. He can't be short of a bob or two, can he? Or if he is couldn't he just borrow some coin off Hugh Huge US Television Star Laurie? Last night Fry's was the smug voice nattering away on The Story of Light Entertainment on BBC2 and, simultaneously, could be heard over on E4's The 50 Greatest Comedy Films (a repeat, I think I'm right in saying). Strange to see on the former show that Robert Kilroy Silk has been totally obliterated from the history of 'chat' shows (last night's subject), save for a brief rostrum shot of a newspaper clip that pointed out that Vanessa and Kilroy came under fire for hiring actors as guests.
On all of these nostalgia programmes there seems to be a serious element of hoodwinkery going on - people that are far too young to remember what they're talking about possess a staggering array of anecdotes about the subject matter and a raft of what can only be false memories (or, as is the case on the quite dreadful Law Of The Playground, they just make stuff up). Do the programme makers think we don't realise that these people are all shown the clips beforehand? Also, on The Story of Light Entertainment, there are always 14-year-old big shot television producers explaining how great it was to have 'invented' some particular strand of television, or claiming all the glory for the work of maverick interviewers. Although much older than 14, and a half decent host in his day, last night Clive James claimed to have invented the use of news footage alongside a comedic voice over. Someone also claimed that Graham Norton is the finest interviewer working in British television today. That'll be why he's hosting Andrew Lloyd Webber's PR machine How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? and shows involving ballroom dancing, then, eh?
Anyway, it's a shame that Stephen Fry - fast becoming, if not already, the Jimmy Carr of 2006 - is associated with any of these programmes. They are utter nonsense. I should stop watching them.

Listening: Crass - Penis Envy.

3 comments:

Benjamin said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Dave W said...

Stephen Fry, was that you?

Anonymous said...

It was someone far more famous in Hull than Stephen Fry. I liked the post, btw.