Covered in glory
Ah, the official photos are in. (The full range is here.) Look at these two high-fliers at last night's Radio Times Covers Party at Claridges. Despite the man on the right, the event was pretty star-spangled. I've been to a number of these on official duty over the years - it's a private bash where everyone who's been on the cover in a given year is invited to go up and collect a framed copy, thus creating a small-screen/publishing love-in and providing starry editorial for the magazine. I've even been required to go up and collect a cover twice: once for a cover story I wrote called 50 Films To Change Your Life (no, we didn't have a cover story that week), and two years ago, embarrassingly, I had to collect Daniel Craig's on his behalf, because it was to do with films, and I am the Film Editor. Graham Norton, that year's host, seemed bemused to have to announce my name and invite me to the podium to shake my hand and have his photograph taken with me, and it was awkward and horrible. Never again. No such civilian substitutes required this year, as whoever did the celebrity booking played a blinder.In a very bald and vulgar way, I'm simply going to list all the stars who were there to collect a cover from genial host Rob Brydon: Keifer Sutherland (I know! even the professionally jaded among us were knocked about by this!), Stephen Fry, David Walliams, Ian Hislop, David Tennant, Philip Glenister, John Simm, Dawn French, Kevin Whateley, Gary Lineker, Barry Norman, Patsy Kensit, Keeley Hawes, Marshall Lancaster, Dean Andrews, Monserrat Lombard (fans of Life On Mars and Ashes To Ashes will have spotted that these are the cast of those shows), Eddie Marsan, Judy Parfitt, Emma Pierson, Georgia King (Little Dorrit), Natalie Dormer (The Tudors), Freema Agyeman, Gabby Logan, James May, Ben Daniels, Joseph Mawle (The Passion), Gregg Wallace, Jemima Roper (Lost In Austen), Olivia Hallinan (Lark Rise To Candleford), Anthony Head, the lead actor from Merlin ... I feel sure I'll remember some more, and I'll add them to my vulgar list as soon as I do.
As Rob said in his opening routine: "On this momentous day in history with the first black president of the United States being sworn in and millions watching his inauguration around the world, you're here because you had your photograph on the front of a magazine. If you didn't know what kind of person you were before, you do now."
After the prizegiving - during which, uniquely and brilliantly, Rob kept shushing the audience, who had rudely descended into low muttering very early on - I met Philip Glenister and talked to him for ages about the state of TV drama. (And don't worry, I know very well when a celebrity is looking over my shoulder, wishing they were talking to someone else, so I wasn't bothering him, I promise. He was as decent and outspoken as I knew he would be.) It was also good to chat to Barry Norman and find out what he's voted for in the Baftas - not that I would betray that confidence here. I actually didn't hang around for too long but it was a good night.
I notice, via a failed Google search for pics, that Stephen Fry was providing a running commentary on Twitter. Am I alone in thinking Twitter is surely the end of the world?
Anyway: stars. It's fun to spot them at close range. The day I stop being dazzled by famous people is the day I hand in the PRESS card in my trilby hat. I think the reason so many turn out for Radio Times is - apart from the circulation and national treasure status of the magazine - that the Covers Party requires nobody to make a speech, and they keep the paps out.
posted by Andrew Collins @ 11:40 AM
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If twitter is the end of the world, the first place you will find out about it is Twitter...
I never quite understood the point of Twitter. It just seems like a stripped-down version of Facebook where all you can do is add status updates.
Plus if you don't have any other friends on it it's pointless. It might be good for people with an existing following (Fry, Ross etc) but I don't understand why anyone would want to listen what I have to say. I guess the same goes for blogs really. No offence, of course, yours is great ;)
I was at the South Bank Show awards in the afternoon, and a lot of the attendees there were going on to the RT do - and some were really quite drunk. I hope they made it to the bitter end.
Christopher Biggins? Surely he was there...after all, Patsy Kensit?! Barry Norman? hardly A-list.
and as for Keifer Sutherland, he's the new Kevin Bacon I reckon.
Bollocks to you, Adam Smith. I was in a good mood when I wrote that, and now you've brought the whole party down. Barry Norman is a personal hero of mine. Actually, I've already explained that I am dazzled by famous people in the flesh. And I'm glad. There's enough cynicism in this world.
Of COURSE you hate Twitter Andrew - it's the very definition of Social Media, and as we have already established, you HATE Social Media...
Henry (Head of Social Media at the company he works for...!)
Arthur Negus asked me for directions once.
Lived off that for weeks , no really.
Hoops McCann
Adam Smith, what a misery. Nowt wrong with getting excited by a sleb. I'm interviewing Antoine de Caunes soon and I'm disproportionately excited.
As for Andrew's mood, it can't have been helped by news of Scouting for Girls being nommed for Best Live Act at the Brits. Must have been London Calling at the Palace that sealed the deal.
I can see that our Mr. Fry may have been a little embarrassed in typing out his Twitter update - he did it so quickly, perhaps not to be noticed, that Kiefer's now a member of the Su therland Clan!
Barry Norman is a scholar and a gentleman. I once shared a black pudding salad with him whilst arguing about The Witchfinder General (I think it is one of the great British films, he doesn't)
That was a bit like being on Twitter.
I'm surprised at Fry using Twitter. I steer clear - I thought we'd seen the final nail in the coffin of "txt spk" when SMS messages became practically free - the length limitation on Twitter updates seems to to me stifle creative use of language, but then, I suppose I'm a witterer, not a twitterer.
Also, amused to see Freema Agyeman needs no parenthetic introduction - I suppose that's what being a companion does for your reputation, not to mention instantly qualifying you for a role in the Beeb's ongoing series of (dreary) period dramas.
Nothing against the girl, but her CV must surely be shorter than Emma Pierson's...?
Andrew, I sincerely apologise (although that was a bit harsh) and I think I am still correct that Mr Norman is not considered A-list - whatever that really means - no matter how much of a hero he is to you.
However I wouldn't ever dream of putting down a persons Hero (unless I really did hate him/her which I don't) so I think you are being unfair and inferring more in what I actually wrote.
So please don't blame me for 'bringing the party down'. That's YOUR own issue not mine. I don't believe I did any such thing.
I, like you, grew up on Barry Norman - indeed today I still call the programme Film 81 for no reason other than that is what I associate him with.
Now if it means anything, I happen to think your film reviews are much more enjoyable and delivered far better than anything I remember Barry doing.
Ross's program reminds me too much of Wogan on BBC's 'Right to Reply' - an exercise in reading fluff off an autocue without any soul in the delivery, Ross is rubbish without a live audience.
Adam
So Andrew is there an intense and bitter feud amongst film critics? Do you secretly have posters of Barry Norman and Jonathan Ross on you wall with darts sticking out of them? Let the truth be told.
I would love to think that you have put a hit out on Mark Kermode.
I accept that the word "bollocks" was a bit harsh, but I'd just written a gushing review of an event I felt fortunate to have been at, and you came along and undermined my enthusiasm by telling me that the stars I listed were not that famous. (Where was Christopher Biggins etc.)
I never said that Barry Norman or James May or Ben Daniels or Emma Pierson were "A-list", so whose bubble were you trying to pop? I was excited to see Barry - whom I know, by the way, from Radio Times - as I really like him, not because he's "A-list" (which is why I stressed in my reply that he's my hero).
Read your original comment back. There's nothing offensive about it, or I wouldn't have published it, but you must admit it's a bit like the application of a wet blanket.
Presumably if you'd been there and Keifer Sutherland came out, you'd have shrugged and sneered and said, "But he's the new Kevin Bacon." (I would have been equally excited if Kevin Bacon had turned up. Maybe I'm just an airheaded groupie fool.)
Boring answer, Neil: critics are just getting on with their job. Some of them socialise. I don't, really, as I'm not a proper film critic. The proper ones spend all day at screenings and talk to each other. I don't. I know Peter Bradshaw to talk to - he's a nice bloke (and I really like his reviews), so is Mark, and James King. I've never detected any back-biting, but then again, as I say, I'm not really part of the inner circle. Sorry to disappoint!
Wow! It does sound like a lot of fun, Andrew, not least to have a chat with Philip Glenister - if only it had been pre-Demons.
But I really don't get your problem with Twitter. It's perfect for up-to-the-minute job updates from journalism websites, which are indispensable to me, currently staring down the barrel of redundancy. It compares only favourably to Facebook, which I know you are also not a fan of, and which amounts to nothing more than a high school yearbook on speed. Don't underestimate the Twitter service!
Did Gary Lineker bring his new bit of 20something underwear modelling crumpet to the bash?
Lucky sod.
Peter Bradshaw's review of the latest Hulk movie was scandalously lazy. Apart from that, he's a good critic.
Now - I can't see the point of Adam dissing Kevin Bacon. Kevin Bacon is FAR superior to Sutherland. Sutherland's been rubbish since the Lost Boys.
And he's fat.
I think there must be something wrong with me, because I didn't watch Life on Mars, Ashes to Ashes and I don't watch Demons. I did catch about five seconds of the latter on Saturday last, and was shocked to hear Philip Glenister talking in a ridiculous American accent. Why?
Anyway, being a girl, all my girl friends tell me that he is really sexy and attractive. But I just don't get it.
I wasn't dissing bacon...my reference was that of the 'five degrees of bacon' in that he has done an awful lot of 'stuff' (a real jobbing actor's actor) which is a good thing.
Kiefer has also done an awful lot of things too, it's just a shame he is now known as Jack from that dreadful show 24 (yes it is! just admit it)
So my comment was that soon it will be five degrees of keifer.
That was all.
And Andrew, I'm sorry.
I always feel a bit offended on Andrew's behalf when Mark Kermode comes back from holiday and describes Andrew as 'the bloke from last week'.
I hope Greg Wallace liked the nibbles at this thing: "moist, tender, crunchy...".
Kiefer is fat ??? You mean the guy who weighs just over 68 kilos/150 lbs with the 78 cm/31 inch waist...... that guy?
I'll agree it seems pretty amazing he showed up - seems to be fortuitous timing with the overseas 24 press tour currently underway.
As a person of larger girth (aka. I'm fat) I have to ask why "and he's fat" was tagged on to the end of that little rant, as if it supports the theory that he isn't any good?
It's turning in to a school playground in here.
Andrew - re Twitter... As an only-recent convert to Twitter, I can back up the previous comments about it being worth a look. You can use it in two ways- purely as a pull-medium, subscribing to interesting feeds and learning via them, or push-pull, posting your own updates and reading and replying to others.
I personally (http://twitter.com/henweb) originally did the first, and have started to do the second more recently, especially during the Obama inauguration. I follow (via Twitter - not as a stalker) such interesting people as Stephen Fry, Rory Cellan Jones, Decland Curry, Several big-name tech types (Matt Cutts from Google to name one), Greg Grunberg of Heroes and 'Band from TV' fame, plus a number of my industry peers who I just don't have the time to socialise with more physically.
Barry Norman and Film 80-ish was my first exposure to film criticism and hence he was the first to open my juvenile eyes to the fact that there's a lot more to a film than just plotline and "action".
Anyone who can summarise "The Fabulous Baker Boys" as "a case of he who lays the Pfeiffer calls the tune" is in a league of his own.
According to an episode of Shooting Stars I watched yesterday, both Kevin Bacon and Kiefer Sutherland are 'werepigs', as they both have upturned noses. So perhaps you are correct, Mr Smith.
Rory May
I agree with the praise of Barry Norman, I was only ten or eleven and I remember staying up to listen to his wise words about the Monty Pythons meaning of life which I was eagerly anticipatin gbut unfortunately not old enough to see. It must have been film 83 or 84.
It's funny - Barry Norman made the Film XX show his own and I don't think Ross has the delivery to carry it off. Like someone said above - Ross needs an audience to bounce off.
Barry's voice is so mellifluous it works without anyone else there. Shame he left the BBC while chasing money.
The Mayo/Kermode show would work very well in place of Film 09 though (but I'd HATE to lose the podcast, so I hope they don't do it).
Did Keifer say "Damnit!" at all? Or when he went up to get the award did he say "The following takes place between the minutes of 08:45 and 08:47"?
If the undisputed GLE was twittering then it's clearly a good thing. Whatever the fuck it is.
henweb - I was merely pointing out that the obese Sutherland isn't really comparable to the stick-thin Bacon in any sense.
If that's the language of the playground rather than a reasoned, sensible argument, then so be it.
(I'm not so slim myself these days, by the way. Certainly wasn't looking to offend).
Regarding Twitter, I'd have thought that anything that raises your public profile - whether you're a blogger, a talking head pundit, film critic, author - has to be a good thing?
Just as an aside, Barry Norman’s brand of Pickled Onions are the best damn shop-bought pickled onion I’ve ever tasted. I got mine in Somerfield in Torquay. They’re made by Opies, so I’m not sure if they are on national distribution. With onions like that how can we say the man is not a National Treasure on a par with Attenborough or Lumley?
By the way, who is that in the picture with Andrew? I don’t recognize him.
Ben
Who wouldn't rather have Barry Norman over Jonathan Ross on BBC Film? He was class...
Someone (I forget who) said something rather interesting about people taking photos of everything with their mobile phones that I feel applies equally as well to Twitter. They said that many people nowadays are just too busy documenting their lives that they don't bother living them anymore.
Nobody's sold me Twitter yet. It sounds awful.
Oh, and Barry Norman didn't go "chasing" the money at sky. According to his autobiography, if I remember rightly, the BBC didn't renew his contract and Sky wined him and dined him and made him an offer he couldn't refuse, so he took it. (The same happened to Clive James - the BBC let his contract run out without even noticing it had, and ITV jumped in with an offer that made him feel wanted. When you're a veteran broadcaster with many years' loyal service at the Corporation, it's hard when they take you for granted.)
By the way, I've seen Barry's pickles on sale in a supermarket in London.
Word on the "meedja" street is that Ross and Fry may discuss Twitter on Ross' first show back tonight, so get ready for it to suddenly be everywhere by next week...
Well, Henry, it looks like I got in just in time with my anti-Twitter campaign! I was slow to swear off MySpace and FaceBook!
It's nowhere near as offensive as Facebook and not as megalomaniac as Myspace - it's essentially a 'breaking news' mechanism in which you only have to 'follow' the stories that interest you...
Fry and Ross misuse it, as far as I'm concerned.
Barry Norman's pickled onions are second to none. They really are superb.
Did you talk to Keifer, Andrew?
I would have been cowering scared in a corner.
It seems to have begun already...
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/features/why-britain-is-suddenly-all-atwitter-1513423.html
Don't worry, I won't try to convince you any more - I learned my lesson with Facebook
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