Confirmed: In conversation with Chris Morris - 6th March - Bootleggers required.

[Neil]

Oh yeah, good news Tommy, but let's hope we get multiple tapers.  I'm sure lots of folks will already be planning to record it anyway, and I would imagine there'll be some YouTube vids.

[rudi]

He seems to be a pretty well respected investigative reporter

I don't care if it's Kevin Turvey. Get this bootlegged, somebody! :-)

This works on so many levels.


I'm seething that I'll be FURTHER AWAY rather than just down the M27 for this.

[insert swear words here]

I was all set to do my first 'bit' for the VW, ahem, massive...

[Tibetan Singing Bowl]

My studio is about 5 minutes away from the offices of "Cusp" in Kingston, who host the bio of the interviewer. Worth popping in and asking about him? I don't know what I'd ask, actually, or if I'd be of any conceivable use...

Maybe, if you lot have suggestions for me, potentially being a stone's throw from him, you could let me know and I'll have a poke around Cusp next week. Obviously, I'm sure he'd be fine with us compiling a list of dream questions and dropping it in sometime... But seriously, if anyone thinks of anything, give us a shout.

[Godzilla Bankrolls]

Do the organisers of things like this expect those who attend to record the thing on dictaphones/digital things for future reference? If not, try and make your recording discreet - they'll be on the lookout, especially after seeing this thread.

[A Passing Turk Slipper]

Well it's tommorrow then, pretty exciting stuff. What do people think the best course of events regarding questions and stuff would be? Obviously we don't want a million questions about the BES (not to say hearing him talk about it now wouldn't be interesting) so what would people like to see tackled? I'm praying we get a boot, even if it's incredibly shit quality, if it's transcribeable then I'll be happy. You had many emails from people saying they'll record it Neil?

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

Ask him specific questions about specific shows. Otherwise he'll just go onto autopilot and repeat generalities he's already said in newspaper interviews, and we'll learn nothing.

Bear in mind too that he may well lie.

[Neil]

You had many emails from people saying they'll record it Neil?

Absolutely none.  So it all depends on Tommy Trumpet, seemingly, although I reckon one or two people might get in touch after to say they've recorded it.  With a bit of luck, anyway.  And I'm hoping the Radox Showerfresh rushes will plop through my letterbox in a day or two as well!

[Tommy Trumpet]

I just went and asked the guy who's organizing it about whether they were going to record it and he said they were intending to record it (film it, I think) but they asked Morris and he didn't want it to be recorded, saying something along the lines of "if I know its being recorded it'll make it harder to have an honest and interesting discussion"

Which I guess is understandable, but it seems a bit silly... no matter how interesting and honest it is only a handful of people from Bournemouth will see it.

So yeah, I will have to attempt a discreet recording, although that conversation has made me a bit anxious about it. I have horrible visions of being caught and Morris storming out, and everyone attacking me with pitchforks.

[Godzilla Bankrolls]

You should be OK, as long as there are no obvious red lights or microphones popping out. Only once have I known someone get caught recording something, and that was down to the performer spotting the little red light, as the bootlegger was right in the front row. I've laid my mp3 recorder out on the table in front of me, I've tucked it into a pocket with the internal mic sticking out the top, I've propped it between my legs... No-one really expects it, although I think this thread may have heightened people to the likelihood of covert devices!

[TTT]

Little mics clipped to the inside of a shirt is the best way to go. Or maybe have them popping out of a jacket pocket, nobody's gonna notice unless you start fucking about with the levels etc in the main room.

Just set everything up and start recording before you go in so you don't have to touch anything while you're in there and you'll be fine. Also remember setting the volume lower than you think you'll need is better than setting it too high as you can easily boost the volume later on, where as its hard to remove clipping etc.

Good luck anyway, I hope someone gets a half decent recording.

[Morgan]

Can't wait to hear this...

[Kazuo Kiriyama]

If I come into this thread tomorrow, and there isn't an url to a recording, I will fucking weep.

[Garfield And Friends]

If I come into this thread tomorrow, and there isn't an url to a recording, I will fucking weep.

That kind of thing happens when no specific person(s) is/are assigned to/volunteers for the task.

[A Passing Turk Slipper]

So anyone get a recording of it then? I see StuartGranger seemed to enjoy it in the updates bit.

[rudi]

Ask him specific questions about specific shows.

Frink: Yes, over here, m-hay, m-haven... in episode BF12, you were battling Barbarians while riding a winged apoluser yet in the very next scene my dear, you're clearly atop a winged arabian! Please do explain it!
Lucy Lawless: Uh, yeah, well whenever you notice something like that.. a wizard did it!
Frink: Yes, alright, yes, in episode AG04..
Lucy Lawless: Wizard!
Frink: Oh for glaven out loud..

[Tommy Trumpet]

Hello...
I tried to record it with my mp3 player but I'm afraid it's VERY bad quality.

However, my friend recorded it with what he said was a 'decent' dictaphone and thinks it will come out alright (i haven't had a chance to check because we went drinking afterwards)

So, hopefully, tomorrow (or within a couple of days) i can get that off him and it should be listenable.

if not I will go through my recording and it may be possible to get something out of it though my first impressions are that its barely even audible.
The recording was made a bit more difficult by the fact that two people on my row were unsubtly fiddling with dictaphones, and someone else even got a video camera out! So at the start the guy in charge told everyone that there was to be no recording and anyone "surreptitiously" recording should stop  - he looked towards us and everyone laughed. So I put my mp3 player in my pocket, thereby decreasing the quality further.

Anyway, of the event itself, it was pretty great. There weren't any particular stunning revelations or anything,but it was really interesting and Morris seemed to genuinely try hard to honestly answer the questions. It's just a shame it didn't last longer because there was so much more to ask him. He didn't give away much about upcoming work and nobody really criticised Barley...

I see Stuart Granger has already posted about it. I'll type up my impressions tomorrow although hopefully I'll be able to get this recording for you to judge for yourself, rendering my impressions irrelevant.

[butnut]

Glad that there's a recording in some form at least, Mr Trumpet!

[derekandclive]

Did anyone ask him any questions about where he feels "his" comedy is going? It just feels like it was a chat more than an interview, i would have liked to find out if he thinks the current international political landscape is too sensitive to tackle?

[Neil]

Here's a really interesting report from someone who has asked not to be named...it's very interesting reading, sounds like a really great event:  Some lovely info in this...

Chris Morris @ Bournemouth University 6th March 2007.

There was still a definite audible gasp as Chris Morris walked into the (very warm) lecture theatre at Bournemouth University. He was tall and thin, wore Converse trainers topped with fluorescent bicycle clips, and had a black jacket with a frilly white shirt underneath. A glittered scarf completed the outfit and his hair has grown back into a curly mess. He looked like how Doctor Who should, basically.

He sat in a dirty chair, and played constantly with the broken armrest throughout. After a really vague introduction by the ‘journalist’ interviewing him, we had a clip from Brass Eye, (from the ‘cake’ episode) and then we were off.

The interviewer’s questions were awkward at times, and slightly misinformed, but that increasingly didn’t matter, as Chris took these questions as jumping-off points for things he really wanted to talk about.

He began by reminiscing about his days at BBC Radio Bristol, and the fact that people there were convinced he was taking the piss, when he genuinely wasn’t. A key moment was the Lockerbie crash, which caused cheering in the newsroom when someone found that ‘a local’ had been killed. Chris had â€" ironically â€" grown up listening to the phone pranks of Noel Edmonds and spoke at length about his love of radio. He also mentioned the comedian and musician Vivian Stanshall. He was also generous towards Victor Lewis Smith, particularly his work on Loose Ends. It seems that there has been a thaw between the two.  

Prompted by a question from the floor, he readily admitted his comedy was often based on wordplay and language, and this he had learned from listening to his heroes on radio. Chris said he would both love to do more radio and he would like to work with Warp again. He thought that Dean Man’s Shoes was an excellent film. He also bemoaned the lack of innovation on radio, particularly Radio One. He seemed exasperated that Chris Moyles is viewed by the BBC as a great DJ.

Taking questions about the industry, Chris said that he hadn’t yet found a production company or organisation that he felt at home with. He said that Talkback was now a huge global company and this often made things difficult, but something he learned from his BBC days, is that the bigger the organisation, the more room there is to hide and find a way through and find people who’ll champion your work. He said that part of the commissioning process was to ‘con’ producers into commissioning you, and interestingly he said that ‘will’ was more important than talent. He supported this statement by arguing that so much TV was terrible, that only ‘will’ got it made, because the creators clearly had no talent.

He seemed almost upset at the very existence of Jeremy Kyle, and he savaged The Verdict. He convincingly suggested that people were acting in court cases anyway, so the programme was about actors, acting at acting, which was ridiculous. He said that it was an excuse to use the words, ‘penis,’ ‘vagina,’ and ‘anus,’ a lot whilst showing close-ups of Jeffrey Archer.

He also talked about Big Brother, as someone asked if it could be subverted. Chris said he’s love to see it being done, but even by being in the show and trying to attack it from within, you’re still part of Big Brother. He thought that Jack Dee had come closest, because he was so ‘flat.’

He also talked about some of the things he liked, and seemed embarrassed at their mainstream popularity. He thinks the The Thick of It is a triumph, and he also loves (some) of Curb your Enthusiasm, but admitted that some episodes were very poor. He said that watching Extras and then The Office he noticed a massive ‘gap in quality’ between the two. He, perhaps alarmingly, also expressed a liking for Danny Baker.

As for Brass Eye, well the series seemed to take its toll on him. One phone prank with one of the Krays resulted in a visit from a thug at their production offices. Noel Edmonds still harbours a grudge, but others such as Tania Bryer shrugged it off and blamed themselves for being so gullible. Bernard Manning was a difficult one, as just before filming (which took place at Manning’s infamous Embassy Club in Manchester) the old comedian told Chris that his two bouncers had beaten someone to a pulp the night before for smoking a joint.  

Chris said that there wasn’t a hierarchy of ‘cuntery’ when choosing which celebs to attack, but he was often surprised. He managed to fool an (unnamed) newspaper editor with a gag, but Russell Grant rumbled him straightaway â€" ‘he clearly has a lot of nous’ according to Chris.

As the Brass Eye shoot took place over a year, the make-up artist had real problems with continuity as, by the end of the year, Chris looked, ‘so fucked-up’ and no amount of make-up could get him looking like he did 12 months before. He shrugged off the Daily Mail’s attack on the paedophile special, saying that it wasn’t very good, even by the Mail’s standards. He seemed a bit insulted by this.

Chris admitted that he did the IT Crowd as a favour to Graham Linehan, but he’s not doing anymore, and his character dies by jumping out of the window in the first episode of series 2. He’s working flat out on Nathan Barley 2, but with a different set of characters, and exploring different situations than before. This was a constant theme, as it seems he doesn’t like to stand still for very long. He admitted that Barley was always going to have a small ‘cult’ audience, and he said that the TV Go Home website version of the character was ‘external’ whereas the TV series had to be more internalised. But he likes working with Charlie Brooker very much.

He hinted that he was working on a large future project that would take him back to his current affairs roots. He was very guarded, but it would range, ‘from Jeremy Kyle to Osama Bin Laden.’ He said that he would love to do something about 9/11, as it was, ‘only 3000.’ He said that 7/7 was lame in comparison, and it was notable that he seems to be interested in conspiracy theorists, as he stated with conviction that we shouldn’t think that 7/7 was initiated by some young Pakistani men from Leeds. He thinks that people should make comedy from things like the Holocaust, and that he would love to do ‘the comedy version of United 93.’

Finally, asked why he had come as he never gave interviews, he said that he was attempting to recruit some secular terrorists, because people blowing themselves up for no reason would really ‘fuck with the actual terrorists heads!”

He seemed completely at ease, and totally devoid of ego or attitude. He had chatted to media students at Bournemouth University before the interview, and he stayed for sometime afterwards, signing Brass Eye and My Wrongs DVDs. He said that he wanted to know where the new comedy was coming from, as it wasn’t on Radio One anymore. Then he rushed for his train, and the cycle ride from Waterloo back to Battersea.

[Chris Chopping]

If Barley 2 features a different set of characters I hope we dont lose Julian Barret's character. He was the best thing in it.

[Tommy Trumpet]

I'm not sure he did say it would be a different set of characters. He was definitely clear about trying to make it from a totally different angle but I'm pretty sure he said at least some of the same characters would be in it.

That was great report though, covered most of what I remember. I'll see I can think of any other interesting bits to describe later.

Sorry I haven't got a recording up, but (i know it sounds like I'm endlessly excusing myself) my phone is broken so I wasn't able to contact the guy who's got the recording today.

[ccbaxter]

I don't understand why his admiration for Danny Baker would be "perhaps alarming". But an interesting read otherwise, cheers - look forward to maybepossiblyperhaps any audios being uploaded.

[Tommy Trumpet]

Photos of Morris...

[Marvin]

God, give him some glasses and you'd practically have Howard Stern.

Thanks for the write-up, great read and some interesting stuff and I'll ignore the stupid comment about Danny Baker. (Surely it's been well-known for awhile that there's a lot of love between him and Morris, he even did those trailers a couple of years back didn't he?)

[butnut]

Ha, that's great to see. Really hoping for the audio too. The write-ups were great to read, thanks to all for those.

EDIT - although the Battersea mention means he's moved upmarket a bit from Brixton if it's true.

[Garfield And Friends]

Photos of Morris...

[url=http://img240.imageshack.us/img240/827/morris2ls9.th.jpg](picture)[/URL]

[url=http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/8990/morrisjf4.th.jpg](picture)[/URL]

Love the way he's subverting the still image medium there!

[Marvin]

Ha, that's great to see. Really hoping for the audio too. The write-ups were great to read, thanks to all for those.

EDIT - although the Battersea mention means he's moved upmarket a bit from Brixton if it's true.

Not that it's that interesting but I think he lives in his brother's old house in Battersea.

[Artemis]

The new project that he's tight lipped about sounds good, doesn't it. I'm very excited that he's going back to his 'current affairs roots', and hope the new direction and new characters in Nathan Barley basically equates to a new show (with the same name though, obviously)

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

He looks almost exactly like Tom Baker circa 1975 in that second pic.

Just an observation.

Incidentally, anyone who is unsure about Danny Baker should listen to his afternoon show on Radio London today at 3pm. He's a fantastic, inventive, intelligent presenter. I'm not surprised that there's mutual respect between him and Morris.

[Harfyyn Teuport]

But aren't he and Danny Baker really old friends anyway? I always paired them together, wasn't he tipped to cover Baker's radio show for a week or so a few years back?