Ivor Cutler Doc on BBC4/The Thick Of It on BBC4

[The Mumbler]

Friday April 15th, if you believe the latest otherwise *shit* issue of Q.  Great news after a despondent week's viewing on BBC4, and it almost certainly means a terrestrial repeat on BBC2.

This information appeared on the same page as a contentless article about The Thick Of It, which really does look as if it's been delayed until after the election (no date or time confirmed).  Boyd Hilton may have seen a preview tape (someone says "cunt" apparently, whoop-de-doo), but the twerp gives precious little insight into any other aspect of proceedings.  Iannucci isn't interviewed, by the way, so don't get excited, and nor is Langham.  It's a space-filling Hilton filler, and that's all.

[SurferGhost]

Woohoo!
I wonder if that Ivor doc means the start of another series of Originals, then? Drool.

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

Is The Thick of It the 'sitcom about Westminster' he mentioned on Question Time?

[The Mumbler]

Indeed it is.  Don't know if Iannucci's got an onscreen role or not.

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

I hope it's a Nathan Barley for the noughties.

[benthalo]

Semi-improvised, so possibly an Annie's Bar for the Nineties.

[12 years, 11 months old]

Remember, Cutler's on at ten.

[InfiniteFury]

What a lovely programme. That's all I have to say really.

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

Nice that they dug out 'Gruts' from The Innes Book of Records.

What was the opening footage from, with him as the undertaker?

[benthalo]

Picking another Whistle Test performance aside from the recently seen Shoplifters was a good move. Absolutely lovely, but then Originals always is.

Just stuck 1986's South Of Watford documentary on. I want this good mood to last forever...

[InfiniteFury]

Has anyone taped this and thinking of doing a torrent.? I realised 5 minutes before it started that I didn't have enough scart leads going spare to wire the Freeview box up to the video as well as the TV.

I shall keep an eye on UK Nova but if you were planning on doing one, please let me know.

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

He is extraodinarily frail these days isn't he? He always looks and sounds like he's about to blow away like a dandelion. But then there's also the glint in the eye that says 'I know full well what's going on, and I might start doing somersaults ina minute for all you know'.

I like his intolerance of noise.

[benthalo]

Can someone remind me exactly which edition - in UK Gold terms at least - of IBOR that Ivor turned up in? I always get those shows muddled.

[alan strang]

Can someone remind me exactly which edition - in UK Gold terms at least - of IBOR that Ivor turned up in? I always get those shows muddled.

Can't check at the moment due to VCR death but it's the one where the linking device features Innes as the hack journo attempting, and failing, to write a story. Also features Blue Suede Schubert, Knicker Elastic King, City Of Angels, etc. Series 3, either Show 2 or 3 I think. Darrell will know for certain.

[Barney Sloane]

That was a great documentary (despite the ever-annoying presence of Phyllis April King), it's made me want to see 'Magical Mystery Tour' and that Hugh Laurie-presented 'South of Watford' again.  Actually, he was on "The Whistle Test Years" last year doing "Shoplifters" - anyone know which edition it was?

[benthalo]

I've been trying to find that out all day, Barney! Couldn't find anything online - why are rock/related bootleggers so shit at keeping dates for TV stuff? The series for 1986 ran from 29 April to 15 July of that year.This is concurrent with South Of Watford (09/05/86) so probably that same month, if he had a record out. He wasn't listed in Radio Times and unfortunately that crappy second part of the OGWT guide in Record Collector is just cribbed from generally wrong Radio Times listings anyway. I'm up to 1985 with my own checks at the Beeb so will get there eventually.

[Beagle 2]

Just to say I've just stumbled across this Cutler documentary having no idea who he was, and it's really captured my attention, I've never seen anything like it before. Then I see there's a thread on here about him and everyone from Macca to Franz Ferdinand wants to suck his cock, I wonder why he's stayed off my radar for so long. Anyway great stuff, I'll have to seek some of this out.

Kershaw's just said he can remember exactly where he was when he first heard him. Me too, it was about 45 minutes ago...

[InfiniteFury]

There's a torrent of the gig 'Cutler's Last Stand' up on UKNova as we speak.

No sign of the documentary though.

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

Anyone know how long the Last Stand gig was? The BBC4 version (30m) was edited strangely, and seemed to be from two different sessions. Was he supporting someone?

[splattermac]

I've just watched the UKnova download and it was wonderful and he remains an inspiration and reason to respect your elders.

It was perfect at 28 minutes and 5 seconds long, probably equates to Cutler's theory of the optimum time to consume a slice of cake with a cup of tea.

I was saddened to be reminded we all grow old, if only in body.

[InfiniteFury]

Anyone know how long the Last Stand gig was? The BBC4 version (30m) was edited strangely, and seemed to be from two different sessions. Was he supporting someone?

Was he not one of the acts before Elvis Costello at that year's Meltdown festival?

Maybe he did a couple of evenings during that festival.

[Duffy]

Bumped to let people know that the "Glasgow Dreamer" Ivor Cutler documentary's being repeated next Tuesday on R4:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/comedy/fabulousflops.shtml

Also, the BBC4 doc and Cutler's Last Stand are now out on a 94-minute DVD. I'm not sure how well it's being distributed, but it's released by Claptrap. I got mine by pure luck: it was on the merchandise stand at a Francis Dunnery gig I went to recently. Francis' manager is Jon Webster, former head of Virgin Records, and he appears in the documentary. I had a chat with Jon before the gig. He told me that the reason John Peel didn't appear in the documentary is that they had a falling out when Ivor complained about a noisy child at one of his gigs and Peel pulled him up about it. Sadly, they never buried the hatchet before Peel's death. And of course, poor old Ivor's health's on the wane now, too. Kershaw mentioned visiting him recently and Ivor barely remembered who he was.

[The Man With Brass Eyes]

quick question from the ignorant: who is Ivor Cutler?  The only thing I've heard about him was the "my disposition" bit on BlueJam.

[Duffy]

That's actually quite a tricky question, as he's a bugger to categorise. How about "Scottish poet/musician/writer/comedian with a surreal, childlike sensibility"? Hmmm. Probably a bit "Late Show", actually. I'll see if I can post some stuff up, as the only way to understand what he's about is to listen to him.

[Duffy]

Life In A Scotch Sitting Room, Vol 2 Episode 12 (Peel Session) (4.8Mb, 128Kbps, 03:26)

Bit of a glitch about halfway through, sorry.

[The Man With Brass Eyes]

Cheers Duffy.  Is that My Disposition skit in BJ him or is it a parody?

[neveragain]

It's him. You should search for more of his stuff, it's quite marvellous.

[Rubismus]

Duffy, is that definitely a legitimate release? It's just that I've seen it on a certain well-known internet auction site and presumed it's an off-air bootleg.

Oh, by the way, Stewart Lee appears on that R4 doc admitting that Pea Green Boat is: "Exactly copied off Ivor Cutler." For anyone further interested in the latter, fans generally agree that his best widely-available audio recording is Jammy Smears, though Prince Ivor - a collection of radio plays - is also well worth tracking down.

[Duffy]

Duffy, is that definitely a legitimate release? It's just that I've seen it on a certain well-known internet auction site and presumed it's an off-air bootleg.

The DVD, you mean? Well, I can't vouch for what's been put up for auction, but the DVD I've got seems pretty kosher. As I said, I bought the disc under full view of one of the participants in the documentary, and the packaging, whilst minimal, looks far too slick to be a bootleg, including Ralph Steadman titles. On top of that, the disc contains extras, including McCartney and Kershaw bits that didn't make it into the final cut of the documentary and a photo album, so it's not just made up of off-airs. So I'm 99.9% certain it's an official release. Having said that, though, Claptrap must be pretty new to this DVD lark, judging by the catalogue number: CTDVD0002.