This whole Oz and James thing

8 Responses

  1. Myfanwy Alexander says:

    Hell’s teeth, guys, that’s telly! In the mean time, let us all embark upon our own diverse crawls, blessed by the spirit of ‘The Rolling English Road’. My own pitch is this: when I was five, I promised my brother that he and I would grow up to drink a half in every pub in England (he was then twenty). He married and went to America and when his wife died, he said, “What about that half?”
    The series is called ‘Half a pint of Heartbreak’
    In the mean time, for those of us who value a good pub where they think tapas is an anagram, come to Montgomeryshire

  2. Pete says:

    I share your grumpiness – I posted about the fact that I had a meeting to do a series just like it the day before they announced this was going to happen. I think you’re right about it spoiling the integrity of the travel book – read Anthony Bourdain’s Cook’s Tour for his constant frustration with having to falsify what he was doing and discovering. But having already done the book I thought it would be nice to reprise the themes and get a higher profile chiefly so the books would sell more.

    As for the series itself… it’s poorly researched, full of holes as you say, and is much more a vehicle for two blokey blokes (or rather one blokey bloke and one wine ponce trying hard to be a blokey bloke) than it is a serious attempt to explore Britain’s drinking culture and the wonders of beer. If you watch it with that expectation it can be quite diverting for half an hour before the daily fix of crack-addictive pantomime genius that is Masterchef.

    Cheers!

    Pete

  3. Graham says:

    Who’s James, by the way? And Ice Road Truckers is great. It is incredibly strangely compelling. And if, like me, you don’t drink tea, Rick is a good target for throwing cups of the stuff at. But you’d only know who Rick is if you watch it. Not to be confused with Captain Rick of Deadliest Catch, natch.
    Dog The Bounty Hunter. Frightening stuff.

  4. RE; Tape Recorder In The Car; unconstrained we spent most of the journey skitting on a 1940’s guy called Frank; I seem to recall he’d inherited his granfather’s sheath. Always keen to lend it out. A sort of filthy Glumms… ‘Ere, Frrrank… Yes, Ethel?

  5. I hear that at one point they drove over a bridge between England and Scotland that in reality is to be found between Devon and Cornwall. Easy enough mistake to make I suppose, and besides, one bridge is much like another, who’s to know and who cares anyway, isn’t it?

  6. Dan says:

    Well, I fear I raised this ugly issue – so a few comments. Thank goodness (and more) you did not go with the TV idea Ian – that would have ruined the book IMHO – at its best it might have worked with radio – in that you could have had a tape recorder in the car and used it if required, and left it alone if not – but quite frankly hardly necessary. I’m convinced such a ‘multimedia’ approach would have been bad news for the book.

    I suppose if they did rip off the book without telling you that is very rude.

    My other half reckons they never stay in that caravan and that is all a fake too – and I suspect that is correct (after all you’d just kip on the back seat of the roller would you not?)

    No doubt the constriants of a 30 min slot have made the TV prog hard to get to work. I suppose it was the visit to Brook Laddy distillery that made me think of this co-incidence, since I’d read that chapter of your book the day before. In fact the most likeable bit of the TV series was when Mr May got up close and personal with the Victorian gear wheels – but then I’m a sucker for that sort of detail – of which the programme is seriously short on. It’s is, I agree, big on missed opportunities!

    Does it clash with Ice Road Truckers? Maybe I should switch to that – I hear it is strangely compelling….

  7. God almighty, but I’m liking that picture. That’s some kind of heaven isn’t it? I wonder if you can get it on a poster.

    Even better tea-related discourse here: http://www.nicecupofteaandasitdown.com/

    Re the Oz and James thing, let us not mince words, it’s fucking poor and if only for that reason couldn’t have been lifted from your excellent work Mr M. The fact that it is entirely unfunny should be another clue.

  8. I think a nice cuppa is what is needed here; and if you take a trip to the home of the the UK Tea Council at http://www.tea.co.uk/ you’ll find just the thing, A picture of giant tea cup inside of which there is a lovely brew; and what’s this? There’s a blonde woman bathing in it! One lump or two, vicar?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

WP Facebook Like Send & Open Graph Meta powered by TutsKid.com.