First viewed : January 1993
Clive James suffered something of a critical backlash with this BBC series and book - now out of print- looking at the phenomenon of fame in the mass media century. His critics attacked it as a shallow cut and paste exercise and morally questionable in its light hearted treatment of mass murderers such as Lenin and Hitler.
I'm not sure when I joined it but I did find it quite enjoyable. I was always more or less in tune with James's sense of humour and I thought the series did provide some insights into older celebrities whose appeal now seemed incomprehensible such as Liberace. The switch from Adolf Hitler to Johnny Weismuller was quite startling but I didn't find it offensive.
I also found the last episode quite affecting. Covering the eighties meant a heavy focus on Princess Diana and given that the royal couple's divorce was now inevitable, the wedding footage from 1981 seemed particularly poignant.
James has said the lack of repeats is due to the exorbitant cost of licensing all the archive footage which may well be true. However it did seem to mark a turning point in his career , pretty much ending his association with the BBC. His chat and travel shows were picked up by ITV and continued for a few years but he's had no regular presenting gig since the turn of the millennium so you could say his own fame ended in the twentieth century.
No comments:
Post a Comment