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The Strange World of Gurney Slade

Started by 23 Daves, September 08, 2011, 10:48:21 PM

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23 Daves

OK then... I'm usually reluctant to start threads about comedy series I know absolutely nothing about, for fairly obvious reasons.  However, a quick Internet mention brought the existence of this one to my attention today, and as there seems to be zip-all about it on Cookd and Bombd at the moment, I thought I'd throw the discussion open for your experiences and opinions.  Here's what Wikipedia says:

Quotehe Strange World of Gurney Slade is a British six-part television series made by ATV which was transmitted by the ITV network between 22 October and 26 November 1960. A surreal series devised by Anthony Newley, who also starred, it was written by Dick Hills and Sid Green.[1] The series was produced by Alan Tarrant, who directed the series with Newley.[2]
Newley explained at the time: "There is no rhyme or reason for what I do, I merely take life and turn it upside down. We hope to achieve humour without setting out to be deliberately funny."[3] A reputed influence on the early career of David Bowie, the surrealism of the series was considerably ahead of its time for a 1960 television comedy[3] and it soon proved insufficiently popular with the mainstream audience, resulting in it being moved from primetime to a late-night 'graveyard' timeslot by ITV. Some sources claim that it was moved after the first episode had been broadcast, but the published television schedules of the time indicate that the first two episodes were broadcast at 8.35pm, while episodes 3 through 6 were broadcast at 11.10pm.[citation needed]
The show's theme tune by composer Max Harris was later utilised for the "animated clock" sequence on the BBC children's show Vision On, may be better known today than the series itself. The piano figure prominent in the recording was lifted (unacknowledged) from Mose Allison's song "Parchman Farm".
The Strange World of Gurney Slade was repeated in 1963, and the first episode turned up as part of Channel 4's TV Heaven series in 1992.[2] The whole series was releaseed as a Region 2 DVD in August 2011.[4]

It sounds sufficiently interesting for me to want to purchase it, but buying this on impulse may be a terrible, terrible risk.  The YouTube clips online at the moment don't give terribly much away either - so has anyone on here sat through an episode?  And what are your views?  Is it pure self-indulgence, or are there some genuinely fantastic moments?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWxb1KkXy5c

benthalo


Serge

There was a five-star review of it in last months Uncut which aroused my interest sufficiently to order it - though at the moment Amazon are giving a dispatch time of early October, so I won't be able to give you my thoughts on it until then! I asked my dad if he remembered it, and he raved about it - which, as we have similar tastes in the TV shows from that period, I also took as a good sign.

non capisco

I really like that trailer. It seems pretty avant garde for something as early as 1960. I thought the boom mic coming into shot was a standard early TV technical mistake until Newley walked on past the camera and off-set. Definitely intrigued.

vrailaine

Was about to start a thread about this. The trailer looks super interesting, as non capisco just said.

Has the show had a cult following for years or were the tapes locked away in obscurity asides from some people occasionally mentioning how much they liked it? Seems like the kind of thing which got a release just because Bowie mentioned it in some interview decades ago or something, which has me slightly sceptical.

Serge

It's funny you say that, as I've just been reading the new Uncut special about Bowie, which reprints some old interviews from the seventies and he's raving about it there. Still waiting for Amazon to dispatch it...

23 Daves

Last time I checked, Play seemed to have it immediately available for dispatch.

Mark Steels Stockbroker

I got mine off Amazon the other day. I watched about the first 15 minutes but then had to stop to do something else. My initial impression: very strong, striking beginning, but then it does tend a lot toward whimsy for a bit (talking dogs, etc.). But I've only seen a small portion so far.

Ocho

Quote from: Mark Steels Stockbroker on September 16, 2011, 01:27:45 PM
I watched about the first 15 minutes but then had to stop to do something else.

If find the second half of the first episode really thin after a promising set up.

The series is a game of two halves.  Three episodes of wandering about on location, then three studio based episodes, two of which are overt examinations of the form and content of the show itself.  I think the ending was supposed to be 100% whimsical, but it comes out 55% chilling.

Serge

Well, my DVD finally turned up last week, and I started watching it tonight. I say 'started', I actually watched 4 out of 6 episodes! The first surprise was that I was actually laughing quite a lot - I expected it to be interesting but dated, more likely to raise a grin than anything else. But no, several very large belly laughs, especially in the first episode. Especially at the line, "Look at the character in that millionaire face."

I can see the influence of the Goons - particularly 'The Running, Jumping, Standing Still Film' - and can also see how it must have influenced later comedians. Python most obviously, but there were also hints of Vic & Bob style surrealism (again, from episode one, Newley and a very young Una Stubbs pushing a vacuum cleaner on a swing.) Episode four is very 'Prisoner'-like, though again, before the fact. And epsiode two is strangely bleak, especially the first half which is almost entirely set on a deserted airfield. It still seems odd now, so it must have been mindblowing in 1960. I'll try and watch the last two episodes tomorrow.

And I never knew there was so much to countersunk screws.

jutl

There's a massive dose of Hancock in there too.

Serge

True, true. I really must watch some Hancock again - Python and Vic & Bob were easy reference points because they've been a big part of my life, whereas I haven't watched Hancock in years. Harry Hill also came to mind during the latter episodes, as the show becomes increasingly self-referential.

I did find the point that Ocho makes above quite interesting - that the first three episodes are largely shot on location, and the final three all studio based. Were the scripts written very close to transmission time and was the studio setting forced on them? I'd be interested to know. Also, the self-referencing I mentioned above is interesting in this regard - there are plenty of references to the humour being over people's heads in episodes 4 and 6 - is that written in reaction to complaints or were they anticipating that reaction?

There is still a lot to like about the last couple of episodes - I liked Gurney's bad side inside his mind and the idea of opening scene of Episode Six, with the men in suits being told what everything in the studio was, has definitely been used again by later comics. And that ending is very sinister. But definitely glad I bought it, it's certainly something I could happily watch again.

23 Daves

My copy just shipped today!

On the subject of surreal humour, I've had arguments (off-forum and in real life, surprisingly) about when and where it took hold in Britain, because I genuinely can't find a starting point.  I have a 78rpm gramophone record of a music hall song called "The K-Hissing Song" which is about seducing women by walking up to them and hissing at them.  When I played it to a friend, he insisted it had to be an eleborate hoax of mine, as it was too close in concept to Vic and Bob (channeled through Arthur Atkins).  There's no date on the label, but the evidence points towards it being a 1930s recording.

I also have an acquaintance who has a huge archive of music hall posters and programmes, and a lot of the acts sound deliberately otherworldly and bizarre (although there's always the worry that they may have been topical at the time in some way we cannot realise now).  The lack of professional recordings from the circuit (and the fact that these performers were never mainstream, Light Programme material) means that I don't suppose we'll ever fully realise exactly what it was they were up to, but I have to wonder if surreal comedy predates Python and goes right back into the 19th Century. 

Obviously, there were surrealist/ dadaist pieces of theatre which were humorous long before the Goons and Python as well.

CaledonianGonzo

Would the likes of Edward Lear count?

23 Daves

Quote from: CaledonianGonzo on October 12, 2011, 01:32:06 PM
Would the likes of Edward Lear count?

By my reckoning, it certainly counts for something.  But it depends upon what we're referring to when we're talking about comedy... he wasn't really somebody who made his living from performing, was he? 

23 Daves

Right, I've finally had a chance to sit down and watch a couple of these, and my verdict so far is that this is... quite good.  There are moments where it seems to actually pre-empt the bizarre worlds of Reeves and Mortimer and Mighty Boosh way, way before either of those events, for better or worse.  And sometimes the answer is "worse".  Some of the touches - the talking dog for instance - are just irritating surreal whimsy.  I wouldn't let that kind of thing pass on here for a new series now, and ("but they invented the future!" defenses aside) there's no reason why I should for one made in 1960 either.  Corny stuff.

On the plus side, it's unquestionably daring and the trial in episode four never stops being fascinating even when the laughs fall short.  It's Pythonesque through and through with the introduction of characters who take stupidity and officiousness to extremes, and whilst the pacing occasionally plods where it should zing along, the script itself in that case is sublime.  Even now, the most adventurous comedy writer would stop short of basing an entire episode of a sit-com focussed entirely upon whether jokes about screws (of the metallic, DIY variety) could be made funny or not.  Perhaps it could form the basis of a future Gervais vehicle, focussed instead on the word "Mong".

So far, I feel I'm enjoying them as groundbreaking, historical curios rather than laugh-out-loud pieces of comedy, but they're not without appeal, there have been some laugh-out-loud moments, and it's fascinating for me once again to find an early example of surreal humour.  Influential without question, I'd say, but it does seem obvious that others improved on the initial template. 

Quote from: Serge on October 11, 2011, 11:45:31 PM
I did find the point that Ocho makes above quite interesting - that the first three episodes are largely shot on location, and the final three all studio based. Were the scripts written very close to transmission time and was the studio setting forced on them? I'd be interested to know. Also, the self-referencing I mentioned above is interesting in this regard - there are plenty of references to the humour being over people's heads in episodes 4 and 6 - is that written in reaction to complaints or were they anticipating that reaction?

Borrowed these statistics from another forum, they're the studio recording dates.  Ep 2 not listed, as that was all location.

Ep 1 production no 4844
10/09/60 Wood Green

Ep 3 production no 4846
16/09/60 Wood Green

Ep 4 production no 4847
17/09/60 - 20/09/60 Wood Green

Ep 5 production no 4948
23/09/60 - 26/09/60 Wood Green

Ep 6 production no 4949
30/09/60 - 04/10/60 + 07/10/60 Hackney Empire

The series itself was originally broadcast from 22 October to 26 November 1960, so yes, it was all pre filmed.

Serge

Ah, thanks for that, Alternative Carpark! I'm glad that they were anticipating a bad reaction rather than reacting to one!

23Daves, while I can see what you mean, I think I feel a lot more lenient towards a talking dog in a 1960 show than one from 2011 - though it is admittedly the weakest joke in the first show. I liked the talking stone though - I actually laughed out loud at "I'll sink like a stone."

I have found that when I'm wondering about outside that my internal dialogue does sometimes slip into Gurney's voice since watching it, however....

Brundle-Fly

Fucking hell! This is bloody brilliant!

I've been a Tony Newley fan for years and always wanted to see this.  I had no idea how hugely ahead of its time this show is.

Extraordinary


Mark Steels Stockbroker

Quote from: 23 Daves on October 20, 2011, 07:57:08 PM
So far, I feel I'm enjoying them as groundbreaking, historical curios rather than laugh-out-loud pieces of comedy, but they're not without appeal, there have been some laugh-out-loud moments, and it's fascinating for me once again to find an early example of surreal humour.  Influential without question, I'd say, but it does seem obvious that others improved on the initial template.

Strictly speaking, the earliest examples of surreal humour were created by the Surrealists, in the 1920s.

Jake Thingray

Kept thinking, and for what it's worth this was my dad's reaction after the TV Heaven repeat of the first episode in 1992, that it would have been better with someone else playing the part instead of Newley. Dad felt a, quote, "sharp, good looking Jew boy" was wrong for such a character and suggested Marty Feldman, or Cook in E.L. Wisty guise; I keep thinking Peter Sellers, although he would have been out of the TV world by then. As far as I'm aware, the rest of Hills and Green's output did not contain self-referentialism, perhaps it was all part of Newley's ego. In the already mentioned fourth episode, Douglas Wilmer's casting as the prosecutor brings to mind N. F. Simpson's work.

Sin Agog

I know I'm late to the party and bumping old threads is generally frowned upon, but this one has lots of tasty Serge posts so I'll stick with it.  Just discovered Gurney Slade this morning, and I'm pretty gobsmacked.  I'm not claiming it invented surrealism or post-modernism or anything like that, but it's ahead of its time in so many ways.  Massively recommended if you haven't heard of it.  All up on youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6seqo-BM-6s

FalseRodHull

Thanks so much for bumping this - I rinsed them all last night and loved it. Some real big laughs in there and lots of charm to ease you through the bits that didn't work as well (like the aforementioned talking dogs). Well ahead of its time.

Brundle-Fly

Newcomers might want to check out this Newley oddity. Not in the same league as Gurney but worth a peep because it is so self-indulgent, crackers and quite frankly a bit dodgy.

https://www.modcinema.com/categories/1-60-s-films/14-can-hieronymus-merkin-ever-forget-mercy-humppe-and-find-true-happiness-1969-dvd?order=title_a-z&page=1