First viewed : 6 February 1987
Another piece of the modern world falls into place here with the entrance of a star who's still pretty much at the top of his game.
Jonathan Ross was an unknown researcher on Channel 4 programmes such as Loose Talk and Solid Soul . Whilst working on the latter he met Alan Marke and they came up with the idea for a new chat show shamelessly based on Late Night with Letterman and formed a production company Channel X to produce a pilot. Though not the original plan, positive feedback for the lisping Ross as host led to him fronting the show.
Ross and Marke reportedly told Tom Jones it wasn't "a plug show". That's a bit rich ; most of the guests had a record / book/ film out at the time which got mentioned but it generally did try to lure the guests out of their comfort zone or zoom in on an unusual side line.
Channel 4 didn't seem to have total confidence in the new show and the first few episodes went out at half past midnight on a Friday before a good response and the willingness of more high profile guests to appear led to a more civilised 10.30 pm slot. I came in at Episode 5 attracted by the appearance of the American actor Brian Dennehy whom I admired for a while. The eccentric nature of the show was well illustrated by the shift from a serious interview with Dennehy about his new film Belly of an Architect ( not that great actually unless you're a fan of director Peter Greenaway ) to one with Maria Whittaker , a low-rent Samantha Fox , with whom Jonathan performed a parody of a scene from recent wank-fest 9 1/2 Weeks. Also on that show were modern soul group Hot House featuring the pre-fame Heather Small.
I'd never even heard of Letterman and found the show a very refreshing antidote to the likes of Wogan and Harty. The moments I particularly recall are :
- The illusionist who seemingly swallowed a length of string and then pulled it out of his stomach ( don't try that at home kids ! )
- Sarah Miles being quizzed about the drinking her own urine story
- Bonkers American actor Crispin Glover bringing along what looked like an acidhead's school project model and talking us through it
- Bernard Manning's spoof ad for his Smiths tribute LP
Besides launching Ross himself as a major star, the show is also remembered for re-vitalising a couple of music careers. Tom Jones had long been written off as a corny cabaret act and his recent musical- advertising hit A Boy From Nowhere was his first for a decade. As they didn't want him to perform that Jones suggested he did the Prince song Kiss, which he had recently worked into his live set , instead. The response was tremendous and Jones made a second appearance a few weeks later where the other guests - Terry Gilliam. Dawn French and Corrine Drewery - played along with an extended gag about his supposed reluctance to perform. Overnight he was transformed into an icon of ironic cool, a status he's more or less maintained to the present day. Though not quite as spectacularly, Donny Osmond also did himself no harm on the show with his dry humour and willingness to send himself up with the aid of Billy Bragg and Hank Wangford on a version of Puppy Love.
There was actually less of The Last Resort with Jonathan Ross than people remember, fewer than three dozen shows , most of them in 1987. Having made his mark, Ross moved on quickly to other vehicles ,showing a fleet-footedness that has served him well over the years. The legacy of the programme endures.
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