Jonathan Meades: The Joy of Essex

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

rt blurb

bbc 4 programme details

bbc 4 9pm tonight

[DracoM]

As a student looking for pin money, I once did a very dull traffic survey with Mr Meades in Streatham.
Oh, yes - me? Touched the hem of greatness, I have.

[Nick Armstrong]

rt blurb

bbc 4 programme details

bbc 4 9pm tonight

A must-watch! Thanks for the reminder.

[grippie]

Oiy being an Essex boy programme Ill give go

[Anna]

I circled in the RT some days ago. No family connection with Essex, except a Great-Aunt happened to live in Dagenham ..... well, somebody had to. A County I have rarely ventured into, but Jonathan Meades, looking rather like a Codfish crossed with The Blues Brothers, and his idiosyncrantic style of prose -it has to be a date!

[Serial_Apologist]

Hope it's iplayerable, since I now have to go out.

[eighthobstruction]

Well you certainly couldn't see the whites of Jonathon Meades eyes during this.....and all the better for that....Some eccentric projects by what might be called benefactors and philanthropic socio-engineers....some really lousy architecture (it must be the air)[flat roof, always a bad sign]....some intellectual burbling and parody, that could just as easily be attacked as accepted.....good sound track (peaked at BruceS's Nebraska Howl).....longed for more shots of drift wood and pilings, marshes, expanse of sky; to actually see the curlews heard in the background....enjoyed....but really, why I don't know....[?]

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

yep watch entranced and then ask 'What did he say?' ...etc

yes the estuarial scenes were seductive but not the bricolage

anarchism, modernism and DIY eh

[kernelbogey]

Just watched it on iPlayer. It's like having a very eccentric guide at your side. What I find riveting is the wholly unconventional visual presentation, abjuring all the cliches of contemporary tv documentaries - the walk towards a retreating camera, the exaggerated hand-gestures, the sudden exit of the presenter from the picture and so on. Meades is hugely abetted by his long-term director who crafts shots in which a single piece of script may be delivered with several cuts while showing Meades in the same scene. Individual shots are composed with great beauty. Jump cuts create an unconventional rhythm. The whacky DJ on the car radio adds to the eccentricity. Meades's script is uncompromisingly literate and educated. This is tv that requires concentrated listening, and I loved it.

[Old Grumpy]

Yep - enjoyed it greatly. Mrs OG doesn't get it though. I did wonder if the wacky DJ was for real - or was just for the programme. Any Essex boys/girls able to answer that question?

OG

[eighthobstruction]

DJ definitely not for real....

[kernelbogey]

DJ definitely not for real....

Is that a matter of fact, eighth, or opinion? Just interested .

[eighthobstruction]

....totally intuition....it's delivery, structure and sound design....Actually it was the bit I didn't like about the program....

[mercia]

without watching the whole programme again I can't give any examples but all the names in the DJ's "news" stories were [to me] obviously fake, in fact rather silly and childish

I found the running joke of the DJ soon palled

[eighthobstruction]

I do like this type of program Meades has ideas/philosophies but does not get caught in the trap of being a celebrity like Hitchens and Self....doesn't used obscure words long since obsolete, and obstacles to flow and understanding in audio and television (if you are reading those words you have the chance to stop and look them up) [and raise eyebrows at the pretention; possibly] Yes kernelbogey the directors touch was deft....But Meades does have presence....imagine AC Grayling or Scruton in the same situation [I imeadiately see Scruton in tweeds and expensive shooting wellingtons....].....The ambience , clean ambience of vision and soundscape have been left behind, and should be explored more. We continually have prog's about Roman/Greek/ South American/Euro Art and Culture guided by erudite presenters walking about, and on the screen as much as the works etc they look at....which fill us with information and conjecture, but please isn't there room for programmes which just allow us words, music vision, that allow us just to float through making our own minds up