Irritating Peter Cook article in this month's Oldie

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

...by The Holy Dragger (former editor of Publish and Bedazzled). He talks about how people used to write to him requesting further unpublished scripts or more data/lists of rare material (Not Only But Also tracklistings, etc), to which he responds 'But why should that be so important? We've printed the best sketches - isn't that enough?', going on to argue that cut material is usually removed because it wasn't very good in the first place and 'isn't it strange that comedy fans have no sense of humour?'.

So what he's saying is, 'Other anoraks are interested in different aspects of anorakdom to me'. Why is that a bad thing?

And why should there be an 'enough's enough' attiude to unearthing rare material? Surely you're either interested or you're not? If you're fascinated by Derek and Clive enough to locate one out-take, why wouldn't you want to dig further in case you found ten more?

I hate joyless list-maker toos, but surely the problem only comes when making lists is *all* you do? I don't see what's wrong with wanting scholarly documentation of the stuff you're interested in, so long as you remain enchanted and excited by the stuff in the first place.

Also, it's The Holy Dragger's definition of 'the best sketches' that's troublesome. I'd rather see reprints of everything so we can judge for ourselves what the best bits are. To which he'd probably respond, 'Well do your own reserach then', which I suppose is fair enough.

I don't know - the article just reeks a bit too much of 'Yes, I'm an anorak...but I'm not THAT sad!' for my liking. Especially since it's *unapologetic anorakiness* which makes all fanzines (including P&B) so great.

[Jemble Fred]

...by The Holy Dragger (former editor of Publish and Bedazzled). He talks about how people used to write to him requesting further unpublished scripts or more data/lists of rare material (Not Only But Also tracklistings, etc), to which he responds 'But why should that be so important? We've printed the best sketches - isn't that enough?', going on to argue that cut material is usually removed because it wasn't very good in the first place and 'isn't it strange that comedy fans have no sense of humour?'.
.

For some reason I thought you meant that Cook said that. Didn't sound right.

Ta for the head's up - never bought the Oldie before, but here I go...

[Partridge's Love Child]

I wonder if this'll be more or less embarrassing than the time I had to go and buy Gay Times for work purposes.

Not that buying either publication should be embarrassing - tis societies fault and no mistake.

I found Perrin's Walk the other day.  There's a barrier half way down, so I thought I'd better not progress any further.

[Jemble Fred]

I found Perrin's Walk the other day.  There's a barrier half way down, so I thought I'd better not progress any further.

It took me ages to find it, but I was so chuffed with Hampstead generally, I didn't mind the searching. It's such a nice place, you could almost not be in London. In fact I made a terrible short documentary on Cook sites, for fellow Cook worshippers who couldn't come along.

However, after two separate visits to St John's churchyard, I still haven't found the grave. First time I wandered around endlessly in the rain (I'd just lost my job and was soon to leave London for good, to explain this strange use of spare time) but couldn't find anything. I subsequently was told that the unmarked grave (fucking UNMARKED! The greatest humorist of the 20th Century!) was next to Herbert Beerbohm Tree's grave, which I'm sure I'd seen last time round. Next time I went to look, I couldn't find that grave, and it got dark very quickly.

Third time lucky? Although gawd knows when I'll be in London with time to spare again. The chances of finding a decent job there seem to be nil at the moment.

[Ambient Sheep]

I wonder if this'll be more or less embarrassing than the time I had to go and buy Gay Times for work purposes.

I buy the Oldie every month.  It's not as good as it used to be (before they sacked most of the staff) but it can still be a good read at times and the letters page is usually a hoot.

Mind you, I'll be 40 later on this year.