Malcolm Muggeridge

[Guest]

Of all those among the great and the good who have passed on, there are few I miss more than the inimitable MM. Here he is being interviewed by American conservative thinker Williams F. Buckley, in February 1968 (the quality of the footage being every bit as remarkable as the thrust of Mugg's argument.

Taking as his theme 'the disease of liberalism', Mugg gives the fashionable nostrum-breathers de son jour a well-deserved thrashing. No wonder he made sheer bratwurst out of Cleese and Palin a decade later.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__nHqyLfeFE

[amateur51]

Of all those among the great and the good who have passed on, there are few I miss more than the inimitable MM.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__nHqyLfeFE

St Mugg had many transformations in his long life but throughout, surely, the one consistent quality was that he was entirely imitable.

As Sir Geoffrey Boycott might say 'Ma muther could do that wi' a stick o' rhubarb!'

[Nick Armstrong]

No wonder he made sheer bratwurst out of Cleese and Palin a decade later.

Did he? I thought MM and Stockwood came out of that looking like total bratwursts, a relentless hectoring pair of old reactionaries who resorted to being patronising, bullying and downright insulting, when in fact they'd misunderstood the thing entirely. Cleese and Palin appeared restrained in contrast and considerably more dignified. Time has confirmed what a wrong-headed pair of old fools Malc & Merv made of themselves that night.

[Atticus]

I always liked MM and miss him very much ditto Bernard Levin. It's comparable with policemen looking like schoolboys isn't it? The pundits of our youth become 'one with Nineveh and Tyre". I still remember a remarkable series MM produced on St.Paul about thirty years ago - profound reflections of an old man.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

or the repentance of a foolish rake .... i found him insufferable then and now he is long gone would prefer not to recall the reactionary old sod

[Atticus]

I admit aka he could be extremely irritating and quite hypocritcal at times - but aren't we all ?

[hackneyvi]

Of all those among the great and the good who have passed on, there are few I miss more than the inimitable MM. Here he is being interviewed by American conservative thinker Williams F. Buckley, in February 1968 (the quality of the footage being every bit as remarkable as the thrust of Mugg's argument.

Taking as his theme 'the disease of liberalism', Mugg gives the fashionable nostrum-breathers de son jour a well-deserved thrashing. No wonder he made sheer bratwurst out of Cleese and Palin a decade later.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__nHqyLfeFE

I've only seen this Buckley character a couple of times but there's something about his look that makes me queasy.

He says "everywhere that liberalism is applied, the results are disasterous." What point was Muggeridge actually making about "ssusaah-terre"?

[amateur51]

Did he? I thought MM and Stockwood came out of that looking like total bratwursts, a relentless hectoring pair of old reactionaries who resorted to being patronising, bullying and downright insulting, when in fact they'd misunderstood the thing entirely. Cleese and Palin appeared restrained in contrast and considerably more dignified. Time has confirmed what a wrong-headed pair of old fools Malc & Merv made of themselves that night.

I've just revisited the youtube extracts and I'm with you all the way here, Caliban - hilarious!

[Mandryka]

The ironic thing about the infamous FNSM clash was that Cleese and Palin walked so easily into the trap that Muggeridge and Stockwood had set for them. M and S were, in any case, out to have a go at the zany young men from the Circus; the fact that neither had seen the film was neither here nor there - they were going to trash it, whatever. Stockwood's interjection at the end, 'I'm sure you'll get more than your twenty pieces of silver' was an absolute masterstroke,imo: casting the aspersion that the whole thing was being done to make money (which it was, of course).

And Bernard Levin...yes, shortly to be the subject of another thread from me: I think you know you've reached maturity when you find yourself agreeing with Levin about everything.

[amateur51]

A short film in which Malcolm Muggeridges 'interviews' Somerset Maugham who struggles manfully to get a word in edgeways

http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/writers/12234.shtml

[amateur51]

The ironic thing about the infamous FNSM clash was that Cleese and Palin walked so easily into the trap that Muggeridge and Stockwood had set for them.

Do tell us about that Mandryka - I missed it. And in what way was it ironic?

[Nick Armstrong]

The ironic thing about the infamous FNSM clash was that Cleese and Palin walked so easily into the trap that Muggeridge and Stockwood had set for them. .... Stockwood's interjection at the end, 'I'm sure you'll get more than your twenty pieces of silver' was an absolute masterstroke,imo: casting the aspersion that the whole thing was being done to make money (which it was, of course).

Piffle, Mandryka. If anything, they fell into their own trap and offered a toe-curlingly awful exhibition of 'established religion', unwittingly exemplifying precisely what the film set out to expose and ridicule.

M and S were, in any case, out to have a go at the zany young men from the Circus; the fact that neither had seen the film was neither here nor there - they were going to trash it, whatever.

I agree: in my post #3 above I omitted to point out that as well as being wrong-headed, they were also intellectually dishonest.

[MrGongGong]

Indeed, they came across as bigoted buffoons (M & S or should that be S & M ?)
not much there to admire really ............. its a great shame that their "logic" inspired our own "prof"

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

The ironic thing about the infamous FNSM clash was that Cleese and Palin walked so easily into the trap that Muggeridge and Stockwood had set for them. ... Stockwood's interjection at the end, 'I'm sure you'll get more than your twenty pieces of silver' was an absolute masterstroke,imo:

Nice try, Mandy: you got me with your spoof post on the Tillie thread, curse you, but this comment is too obviously risible to trap even gullible me!

Best Wishes.

[Nick Armstrong]

Nice try, Mandy: you got me with your spoof post on the Tillie thread, curse you, but this comment is too obviously risible to trap even gullible me!

Best Wishes.

Ah! Is Mandy pulling our collective plonkers???