Andrew Collings had just arrived, all ready for
podcast 89 and I was feeling pretty chipper, when my phone rang. It was someone from my management agency and I could tell from the tone of her voice that it wasn't going to be good news, but I had a fair idea of what that news might be.
I was about to get dumped. In a professional sense.
As you've probably noticed I've been pretty busy for the last month, mostly working on stuff for free, but my only regular paid commitment was as a script associate on the Russell Howard show. I hadn't been doing a bad job (I don't think), but in the last couple of weeks it had become clear that it probably wasn't going to work out. I was only contracted to work for one day a week, but my only free day each week did not really sync up with when they needed my help. It was still a not entirely pleasant feeling to be "let go" though, even though I completely understood and accepted it and had been expecting the call. Though I hoped we might have worked it out, because annoyingly I do need money to buy food and shelter and expensive electronic gadgets.
Don't worry. I will be fine. One of the good things about having worked so stupidly hard this year is that I have both saved some money and haven't had all that many opportunities to spend it.
It's still a blow to the ego to be sacked, even if that isn't exactly what happened here.
So I was in a slightly bad mood for the podcast itself, not that that's always a bad thing - it's usually quite fun to vent and let the podcast Richard Herring get his frustrations out on tape. He must have taken over completely because I can't remember anything about it. Let's hope he takes a back seat when Andrew and me deputise for Adam and Joe on 6Music on Saturday (9-12 in the morning, do tune in - there will be no podcast of it, but it will be on iPlayer).
After going out for another romantic burger based date with Collings where he tried to get me drunk with large glasses of wine I came home to watch "The Flipside of Dominick Hide" and "Another Flip for Dominick". These were two early 80s dramas that I have mentioned before and which I decided to rewatch to see if they stood the test of time. They didn't really. The original film is OK, though a bit more mawkish than I remember, with
an annoying but catchy theme tune that they obviously think is amazing because they keep playing it throughout. The follow up is a lot weaker though, with Peter Firth for some reason camping up the character a great deal and a sprawling and messy plot and some even more embarrassing 80s music (as one of the characters is in a Spandeau Ballet style band). It's rather like Goodnight Sweetheart funnily enough - a man traveling back from the future and having a woman and child in both eras (though Dominick is slightly more honest about it than Gary Sparrow, though not entirely truthful). Maybe all men would have affairs if they knew that the women in their lives lived far enough apart in time to never meet. Or perhaps sci-fi writers are just cynical or living vicariously through their more adventurous characters. Be careful if you ever do sleep around in time though - you might end up being your own great great grandparent.
There is a new dimension to these films now though, watching them almost 30 years into the future because everything seems dated and stuck in a distant era - the cars, the buildings, the acting, the direction, the writing, the effects. Peter Firth once a double decker, is then a romantic lead but is now the elderly boss figure in Spooks. The youth of the leads has decayed and the older actors are dead. It lends an extra layer of mawkishness to the whole thing.
The only extra on the DVD is a clip from "Did You See" hosted by Ludovic Kennedy, who died just a couple of weeks ago as if to prove my point. But it's hilarious to see this Newsnight Review style show from 1980 and it seems very unsophisticated by today's standards. Also it comes from a time when ugly and unusual people were allowed on TV. There's a waffling, enthusiastic sci-fi writer and a transexual (looking like a reject from Hinge and Brackett) who believed that flying saucers really come from the future and a journalist with a face like a frog and buck teeth with a gap in the middle. They are none of them photogenic and they prattled on, reading from notes, dressed in awful clothes. I am not saying it's a bad thing. It is in fact a brilliant thing. TV allowed people like this to be on it back then, but now everything has to be slick and beautiful and quick. This was a gallery of nerdy freaks, talking about a sci fi drama. It was one of the best things I've ever seen.
But strange to go back and watch a show that I had so loved at the time. Unlike my feelings for Johnny Ball my affection for Dominick Hide had diminished a little. Not entirely, it has to be said, but it wasn't the same seeing it again. Because I suppose I too have also travelled 30 years into the future and am somewhat removed from that teenager who had been so impressed back then and who lived in this drab and dour time.
You can now buy a "Rhino Not For Sale" T shirt from
our T shirt collection. A ""Rhino Not For Sale" Sign is not for Sale" T shirt will appear soon enough, don't you worry.
