Malcolm Muggeridge

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Ah! Is Mandy pulling our collective plonkers???

[amateur51]

I saw Bernard Levin many times in the RAH, RFH and Barbican and went to a book reading he gave in Bristol in 1988. Best of all, though, was at a VPO concert in the Barbican in 1983 when the great man came and sat next to me. It so happened that I had, previously that same day, attended an exhibition at the Royal Academy entitled, if memory serves, The Glory of Venice, on which Levin had written one of his typically eloquent articles. Unforgettable.

His next Times article was about that very concert with harsh words about Webern but waxing lyrical about the Schubert 9 both of which had featured. He forbore to mention the guy sitting next to him!

BL's Times artcles were required reading for me for years and I miss them still.

(I'll cut and paste this on to Mandryka's BL thread when it appears).

Totally agree Petrushka and I would recommend his collected journalisms , widely available on Amazon, and in particular his Enthusiasms

Levin was a complex and serious man, brave enough to stand up to the Festival of Light, of which Muggeridge was a prominent supporter, support which led to Whitehouse's successful private prosecution of Denis Lemon and Gay News for blasphemy. When people today howl rightly about Muslims railing against Danish cartoonists, I think back to those dark days in UK.

[Nick Armstrong]

Don't beat yourself up, Mandy - I'm sure it wasn't your fault

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

[Richard Tarleton]

I heard St Mug preach in St Aldate's in Oxford in 1967, just as he was entering his evangelical phase and I was leaving mine. I wish I could remember a thing about it. "Pompous asses" doesn't do it for the TV broadcast - Cleese and in particular Palin come across as models of courtesy and good sense. It is a toe-curling experience watching it today, and not for their performance.

[John Wright]

The only lasting memory I have of Malcolm Muggeridge is when I was at Edinburgh Uni, early 1970s, and Muggeridge was the rector. At that time we had separate Student Union buildings, one for men and one for women, which had bars, dining areas and libraries. In 1971 or 72 the Men's Union committee voted to install contraceptive machines in the toilets. Muggeridge resigned.

[Nick Armstrong]

Totally agree Petrushka and I would recommend his collected journalisms , widely available on Amazon, and in particular his Enthusiasms

Levin was a complex and serious man, brave enough to stand up to the Festival of Light, of which Muggeridge was a prominent supporter, support which led to Whitehouse's successful private prosecution of Denis Lemon and Gay News for blasphemy. When people today howl rightly about Muslims railing against Danish cartoonists, I think back to those dark days in UK.

I was reserving comments about Bernard Levin for an announced separate thread. In my very young lawyer days, I was at a firm which numbered The Sunday Times among its clients, and as a result I had a minor role in professional dealings with him. Very good training, to keep his forthright prose within the bounds of libel law. I would have him to that theoretical dinner party a million times more willingly than Mr Muggeridge.

That said, before his decline into the sort of ludicrous caricature demonstrated in the "Life of Brian" episode, I recall St Mug's broadcasts being on at home and prompting interesting discussion. I suppose I was just too young to have a view about him in his heyday.

( Finally, on the film. It is firmly in my top six of most watched, most loved comedy films. Every scene a winner. That top six (in no particular order): Life of Brian, Withnail & I, Kind Hearts & Coronets, Blazing Saddles, Some Like it Hot, The Big Lebowski )

[amateur51]

The only lasting memory I have of Malcolm Muggeridge is when I was at Edinburgh Uni, early 1970s, and Muggeridge was the rector. At that time we had separate Student Union buildings, one for men and one for women, which had bars, dining areas and libraries. In 1971 or 72 the Men's Union committee voted to install contraceptive machines in the toilets. Muggeridge resigned.

Would that be an outcome of the Law of Intended Consequences??

[amateur51]

I was reserving comments about Bernard Levin for an announced separate thread. In my very young lawyer days, I was at a firm which numbered The Sunday Times among its clients, and as a result I had a minor role in professional dealings with him. Very good training, to keep his forthright prose within the bounds of libel law. I would have him to that theoretical dinner party a million times more willingly than Mr Muggeridge.

That said, before his decline into the sort of ludicrous caricature demonstrated in the "Life of Brian" episode, I recall St Mug's broadcasts being on at home and prompting interesting discussion. I suppose I was just too young to have a view about him in his heyday.

( Finally, on the film. It is firmly in my top six of most watched, most loved comedy films. Every scene a winner. That top six (in no particular order): Life of Brian, Withnail & I, Kind Hearts & Coronets, Blazing Saddles, Some Like it Hot, The Big Lebowski )

Grand list, Caliban but I'd substitute Mel Brooks' The Producers for Withnail and I. ] I've not seen The Big Lebowski.

Given the amount of hilarity-inducing material thereon, I think it might be prudent to sign a note before watching, saying "In the event of hysterical hyperventilation and seizure, I do NOT wish to be attended by Dr. Conrad Murray"

[Mandryka]

The Producers is the only comedy in my list of top 10 favourite films. It's a brilliant-and very rare modern -example of a compassionate comedy, ie, one that where the author/director actually likes the characters he's making us laugh at. The kind of thing that people like Ricky Gervais (or the egregious Pythons, for that matter) couldn't achieve in a million years.

[Anna]

Grand list, Caliban but I'd substitute Mel Brooks' The Producers for Withnail and I. ] I've not seen The Big Lebowski.

Have to disagree Ams, I'd have The Producers instead of Blazing Saddles (which I don't think is funny.) Withnail is (imho) brilliant. I too have never seen The Big Lebowski (will search for it on LoveFilm) but agree with Caliban's list, Some Like it Hot gets a regular outing here.

[aeolium]

Surely a Marx Bros film should be in a top comedy films list, am51 - any (or all) of Night at the Opera, Duck Soup or Animal Crackers.

[amateur51]

Have to disagree Ams, I'd have The Producers instead of Blazing Saddles (which I don't think is funny.) Withnail is (imho) brilliant. I too have never seen The Big Lebowski (will search for it on LoveFilm) but agree with Caliban's list, Some Like it Hot gets a regular outing here.

I saw Withnail & I at The Screen On The Green in Islington on its first run, one Saturday evening in a full house.

As soon as Uncle Monty (Richard Griffiths) appeared I started to feel uncomfortable. By the time we got to the scene in the bedroom where Paul McGann says 'If he comes through that door I'm going to shoot him with this' (or somesuch) and the audience roared its approval, I was checking the exits. I've not experienced a build-up of homosexual-panic like it in an audience since and their howls of delighted relief at that line live with me still.

And that was in 'trendy Islington' What it must have been like in the Ajax Lower Cwmtwrch, I dread to think

[Anna]

And that was in 'trendy Islington' What it must have been like in the Ajax Lower Cwmtwrch, I dread to think

Gosh, Ams, I dunno! I last saw the film a year ago, that reference must have gone over my head. Oh, Life of Brian, The Myth!! It has been generally taken as truth that it was banned in Aberystwyth in a blasphemy row until 30 years later but research reveals it seems it was shown at The Commodore in 1981!!

aeolium. Marx Bros - No, I don't think so, although reasonably entertaining to watch, not really funny to me, far better ones from that time I think. Sorry, this has gone really off-topic!

[Mandryka]

I saw Withnail And I on its initial release, when it did diddly squat at the box office. Its 'fame' only came later.

I can recall finding it dismally unfunny and an inadequate representation of the period (December 1969) in which it was supposedly set. Both Grant and McGann came across as smug, up-themselves shysters. The whole film has a general air of being incredibly pleased with itself. To turn the late Kenneth Tynan on his head, I fear I could never love anyone who loves Withnail And I.

The one (almost) bright spot in the film, as I remember, was Richard Griffiths' performance, which I thought was very sincere and even moving. Obviously, we're meant to laugh our draws damp at this sad, overweight and unlovely old queen, but Griffiths delivered a figure of flesh and blood that had no relation to the pantomime figure in the script (which I've read). I later read that Bruce Robinson had based Uncle Monty on his experience of being 'stalked' (his word) by Franco Zeffirelli. FZ must be a very undiscriminating cove.....