The Gambler

[mippy]

A documentary on All4, and once on t'telly, where Jonathan Rendall is given £12k to gamble with.

I will be watching this later this week as I've started reading his 'Twelve Grand', ostensibly about the same thing but more....autofiction, I suppose? Anyone read or seen it?

[Lost Oliver]

Saw this years ago and thought it was very good. I remember him being really likeable and that the buzz/desolation of gambling seemed really genuine.

[Glebe]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfWD9OVxUkM#t=32s

[Icehaven]

I first saw this when it was repeated just after he died in 2013 (didn't realise it was that long ago!) and became a bit of a fan as it was so good, and he's extremely charismatic. I missed most of the first episode so I emailed the director or the production company or someone to see if it was going to be released on DVD but there weren't any plans to then, and it's on All4 now so hopefully it'll stay there for a while.

It took me a while to track down a copy of Twelve Grand as it was out of print at the time, but finally got a copy and it's a terrific read too, as is Garden Hopping, about his adoption, but This Bloody Mary, his first book, is his best by far. It's about boxing, and I have no interest in boxing, but it's one of those books where that doesn't really matter, I highly recommend it. His final book, The Scream Tapes, is a bit of a fizzle as it's just bits of interviews with Mike Tyson for a book that sadly he never finished.

It's just a pity there isn't more material left. He wrote a lot of columns for various papers (one about drinking which was frequently brilliant) which I trawled the internet for and have saved in a file somewhere so if anyone wants me to send them or can tell me how to post a link to them (I'm not very technical) then let me know.

[mippy]

Twelve Grand I have for the Kindle, but annoyingly This Bloody Mary isn't available as an ebook (it's on OpenLibrary but I really dislike reading off a regular screen) so I'll have to track it down. Like you, no interest in boxing, but I do really like books that are about things I'm not ostensibly interested in but turn out to be incredibly good reading.

I'm generally turned off by that particular type of writing that is done by young men who read too much Hemingway/Lester Bangs/Howard Marks in their youth, because you have to be really very good in order for it not to be really very tedious. Thankfully he seems to have been.

[who cares]

...he's extremely charismatic.

He absolutely is. Watched this a few years back after you mentioned it in a thread; I've seen it twice now. He has an air about him, like he's two steps from absolute ruin and dissolution, yet somehow managing to hold it together.

Some great moments; like when he's feeding ten pence pieces into a phone box trying to get a bet on. It's like another world. Also when he's screaming for his horse to win

Spoiler alert

and the gradual encroaching pain in his expression as he realises it won't. You really feel for him at that point.

[close]

One of my favourite documentaries.

[imitationleather]

Definitely one of the best documentary series I've seen.

This thread makes me really want to source out his books.

[DenzilHolles]

Thanks to this thread for letting me know about this superb documentary, I'm on the final one and picked up his book on his adoption via an amazon seller for a couple of quid. Icehaven I'd love that file you have, I'll drop you a line and we can work out how to send.

[mippy]

Me too, please!

Finally watched it last night, three episodes in a row. The main thing is how awkward it makes pursuing gambling look in the days before smartphones - listening in to races on premium rate numbers, walking up and down cities to compare the best odds. Was trying to work out if the Australian 'pokies' are similar to the FOBT they have now?

I would have liked him to have done more documentaries - someone pottering around doing things with no overbearing narration to explain every aspect of what we see is the kind of doc you don't get as much now. Although I say that as someone who couldn't follow the blackjack very easily.

[Icehaven]

Me too, please!

I sent it to DenzilHolles via Wetransfer, can do the same if you pm me your email if that suits?