chris morris book

[Lfbarfe]

I've never met Lucian Randall, but it's nice to hear another glowing reference. A lot of people I trust say he's a good egg.

I was just saying that people here seemed to be sniffing a conspiracy where there isn't one: "It's a book about Morris. Someone's nobbled the author, because the truth is too dangerous and edgy to know. Either that or he's off his mash on ecstasy pipes, bought with the miwwion pounds that the publisher gave him". Having more than a little experience of the financial realities of authordom, I suspect that Randall got a piss-poor advance that ran out far too soon, and that he's now being distracted by other work, while trying to get the Morris book finished at the same time. No laziness, no conspiracy, just a reflection of the yawning chasm between the sums doled out to best-selling authors and those whose books review well but sell, at best, respectably. Apart from a few rarefied cases, there's very little money in non-fiction.

[Jumble Cashback]

Well, I didn't expect such a thorough dissemination of my last post, but maybe I was a little too sore from the delays in production to be as even-handed as I should have been.  I'm sure Mr. Randall is a treat of a man and it is only due to keen anticipation for his work that I was so quick to lambast his tardiness, however I will be calling again soon as I still haven't reached anyone in the right department (they keep trying to connect me, but the person's always away from her desk so the phone just rings out).  

It's true also that the creative industry often suffers as a result of imposed restrictions and it is wholly possible that LR's motivation in further prolonging his work is entirely virtuous and all my criticism unjustified.  Oh, and I don't know where that conspiracy thing came from, but I certainly don't subscribe to that theory. 

As for the issue over the advance, clearly what was meant as a flippant, throw-away remark has provoked a certain amount of outrage and cries of "Sizeable-why that's a disgustingly inappropriate term!" from those who suspect that I might be the voice of the impatient, ungrateful, blinkered, consumerist public, attempting to generate a wildstorm of fanboy unrest in order to pressure LR into doing a rush-job.  I'm not so jaded - I'd rather have it good than fast - I was just a little crest-fallen at the thought of waiting another 18 months is all.  Oh, and, for the record, I flatter myself that I do have some idea how the book industry works, I'm not entirely new at this game.  That said, I was hasty in attacking Mr. Randall, so fair play for coming down on me for that and for endorsing his personal qualities and his previous work.  I hope that, ultimately, these will be reflected in an excellent book and, if so, I'll be the first person to stand up and congratulate him but, by god, if he crosses me...why I'll just about...ooh, I'll be so mad.  

[Lfbarfe]

I was replying to what I thought was an over-reaction to the delay. Maybe you don't go for the conspiracy side of things, but you were pretty quick to accuse Randall of being a lazy bastard, reclining on a chaise longue being fed grapes rather than getting down to the work in hand. Pardon me for taking the 'let the Randall bashing begin' comment at face value, because the rest of your post seemed deadly serious to me.

The only person who can tell you what's going on is the editor who commissioned it, and, for whatever reason, they might not be inclined to give you a straight answer just yet. Come on, Jumble, if you work in the book trade, I'd assume that you'd know the score. Publishers have the turning circle of an ocean liner.  It usually takes a year from delivery to publication, but my LE book will have been finished for 18 months by the time it comes out in Nov. The sizeable advance thing hit a nerve with me, and I suspect with other people around here who have written or are writing books about comedy. There's more money in road-sweeping, but they won't have me as I'm over-qualified.

[Jumble Cashback]

Well, okay then.  I appreciate the fact that those of you who found my knee-jerk reaction to the publication delays distasteful at least had the good grace to respond with constructive, logical criticism instead of the all-to-easy "fuck you, you piss-cake" attitude.  However, I would hate to think that anyone else shared the view that my diatribe was 'deadly serious'.  Like many of you, I have a proclivity for 'illustrative' candour but my words are not borne out of purulent hate or vengeful bitterness, I just find it a little more enjoyable than dry, objective analysis, especially in matters of comedy.  If you see such an outburst again just ignore it, as you would a petulent child, with the knowledge that it is only for fun and it will pass.  Unless it's about Morrissey, that dickless, posturing cum-gullet deserves all he gets.      Fud. 

[Lfbarfe]

If it was a misunderstanding, then fine. I wouldn't call any of the analysis here dry or objective, though. Ah, Objective. Home of quality television.

[banned from china]

From Richard Herring's blog 20th Sep '07

"Before the show tonight I met up with a guy who is writing a book about Chris Morris and the various people who have worked with him to mainly discuss the seminal radio show On The Hour.

Writing on this was one of the first jobs that Stew and me did. We'd been working for a few months on the poor, yet strangely missed topical sketch show Weekending, but On The Hour was a very different kettle of fish and in hindsight we were amazingly lucky to be involved in what would prove to be one of the most influential comedy teams of the decade.

It was strange to have to reminisce about those times, not least because it was so long ago (I think we started work on it in 1990), that it was quite hard to remember specific details, especially when trying to determine what shows we had been working on in which order. Stew and me worked incredibly hard in those days, writing about 30 hours of comedy between us in two or three years. We were young and ideas were spewing out of our brains like so much brain vomit. They were exciting, exhausting and depressing times. I hated working on Weekending in the end and as I may have mentioned before, once got so fed up with it that I got into a plastic crate usually reserved for old newspapers, put another plastic crate on top of me and refused to come out to write jokes about John "Grey" Majors. There was no such reluctance with On The Hour. I think we knew pretty early on that we were in the middle of something pretty special. Armando Iannucci did an amazing job of putting together a team of some of the most talented writers and performers not yet really known by anyone else. Chris Morris, Steve Coogan, Rebecca Front, Patrick Marber (well not all of them could be brilliant) to name but a few.

It's hard to believe all that happened 17 years ago. Although there were lots of great things about being involved with the show, ultimately we had a disagreement about contractual issues - Stew and me believing that we should have part ownership of characters we had helped to create- and we ended up not being involved in the equally brilliant TV show, The Day Today. But the radio show had been put together in such a collaborative manner - the actors improvising off ideas provided by the producer and the writers - that it was hard to work out who had done what. In the long run it was probably better for Stew and me to bow out of it all, as it meant we could concentrate on out own stuff. Yet if we had stayed on board might have ended up working on the various spin off projects involving Coogan and Chris Morris. "