Nolly (Crossroads drama written by RTD)

[centristmelt]

You can always set up a new email address for porn / multimedia platforms.

[daf]

Gatiss as Grayson was OK. I don't think they could have cast many people who looked less like him though.

From the old Alternative Pop thread :

Larry Grayson - Who's Stuffing Your Turkey This Christmas?



Released in October 1975 - did not chart

Larry Grayson was performing in cabaret in Solihull when the producer and some members of the cast of midlands soap opera 'Crossroads' went along to see him. When they went backstage, he told them that he was a real fan and asked, "Why don't you get me a spot?". Soon after, he appeared as a flouncing, difficult customer complaining about his room - drifting well off the script, and ad-libbing most of the dialogue, to the delight of the viewers.

 

He later turned up as the chauffeur at the wedding of Meg Richardson, played by his close friend Noele Gordon. In real life Grayson could not drive.

[Snrub]

Finished this tonight and loved it. There is a "The Real Nolly" doc on ITVX also that's worth a go with RTD and some of the Crossroads cast which is great if you knew fuck all about any of it like me.

[ollyboro]

Crossroads used to end with Wings playing the theme tune. Quite a coup. Only the theme tune Coronation Street could have had. And Nick Drake's sister was in it.

Angus Lennie played annoying little Scottish cunt Shughie McFee. Reprising his annoying little Scottish cunt Archibald Ives from The Great Escape. When he gets shot and dies, tangled in the barbed wire, my heart leaps with joy every time.*

*In The Great Escape, not Crossroads.

[Norton Canes]

Finished watching this last night. Random thoughts:

• Wonderful, obviously. An affectionate and unapologetic paean to a legendary figure who slipped through the net of highbrow critical appreciation - and by extension, to all such heroes of popular culture
• But in the end, just as much a love letter to Crossroads, and shows of its kind, as it was to Noele Gordon
• As such, comparisons to Who during Tom Baker's tenure in the late 70's are inevitable: a charismatic leading actor propping up an ailing show, immensely popular with the public but a domineering and sometimes unwelcome presence in rehearsals and during filming - especially in the eyes of the production team, which leads to repercussions further up the management hierarchy and the eventual forcing of him from his role. Is this the Baker/Who biopic Davies wanted to write, by proxy?
• Jack Barton was by far the most interesting protagonist. Initially portrayed as an indifferent character with a prosaic determination to simply get the show made with the minimum fuss, later framed as a villain in the final episode's dramatic reveal. And usually, in RTD dramas, when someone's outed as a bad 'un that's the way they stay, mercilessly castigated by the writer's ferocious invective; but that can't happen with Jack, because he invited Nolly back, so he has to be granted a measure of redemption. Which I think's a good thing, as it saves him from being reduced to a one-dimensional cipher
• As ever with RTD, a bit on the nose in places (especially the bus scene). But heart-on-his-sleeve stuff like that is such a big part of why he's so great.

[gilbertharding]

(especially the bus scene)

That bus was a 1969 West Midlands Daimler Fleetline, owned by Pop Will Eat Itself and Bently Rhythm Ace drummer Fuzz Townsend.

[A Hat Like That]

Being shown over Christmas. Episode 1 tonight, then Thurs and Fri.
Loved the moment it cut to 'as viewed'.