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An utterly lovely day in Bristol with the Aardman people. I was in town to interview Peter Lord, the co-creator of Aardman about Morph for the Bristol Slapstick Festival. I’d stayed overnight as it was an afternoon event and got a good sign that it was going to be a good day when I unexpectedly bumped into Mark Gatiss at the breakfast bar. He is in town shooting some TV programme or other - he had his hair dyed brown, but you’d have to be a master detective to work out which show he’s filming. I hoped that he might be at a table with Tim from the Office and so I could go and say “Elementary my dear Tim from the Office”, but Tim from the Office wasn’t there.
As I headed back to my room, I inadvertently let out a loud fart in the seemingly empty corridor, just as a woman rounded the corner. She apologised to me, which I thought was wonderfully English. I then apologised too. But I wonder if she thought that she had farted. Or maybe we'd both let one go at the same time. It was mildly embarrassing, but only mildly. I'd never see her again and no one would ever find out. With any luck she'd tweet that Charley Boorman had done a loud guff and the resulting shame would have led to Herring shoes dropping him from their adverts and searching for someone more suitable for their products.
I had lunch with Peter Lord who casually crafted a Chas from a lump of plasticine as we ate. He would then make a Morph during the interview. It was really cool to be part of this retrospective, with this modest and unassuming genius, but also terrific fun to play clips from Morph’s career to an audience. It was particularly enjoyable to hear children laughing their heads off at the animated antics. Even with the more surreal ideas (like Morph stretching a sweet wrapper into a hole in the ground from which a naughty green blob emerges to chase and bully him) it was interesting to see how quickly youngsters got on board with it.
Due to the mixed nature of the crowd (and the fact that they were here to see Peter) I couldn’t use my normal emergency questions - though Morph would certainly be capable of sucking his own, if only he had one, and can pretty much turn his hand and armpit into anything that he wants. I did manage to refer to the fact that Morph is the only 70s TV star whose reputation remains intact, but I was mainly well behaved today.
And although I used my new RHLSTP notebook AND managed to remember to get Peter to sign it, there was never any chance of there being need for emergency questions anyway. And the clips really brought home how clever and funny these simple plasticine men are. There are broad bits of slapstick, but there’s some lovely subtle observational stuff (like when
Chas, sat in an empty room watching Morph do stand up is tricked into laughing along because he is surrounded by the sound of laughter - and that sketch perfectly mocks the way that so much stand up is about rhythms anyway). Chas himself was an accidental addition to the series, beginning as a one off sketch in which a vain Morph attempts to carve a statue of himself (but the statue-Chas - is more interested in kicking him up the bum). The double act that evolved is truly lovely and atypical as well. Although Morph is more of the straight man and Chas usually undercuts him, there are times when Morph tricks Chas and other occasions when they just have fun together. They are more like brothers than a double act really and it’s a very effecting relationship
I think the interview might be going up somewhere, it was a real joy to be a part of and there’s lots of insight into the working process of Aardman as well as lots of laughs (mainly from Morph).
I was given the Morph that Peter made during the interview, which was rather more lovely than the monstrous one I made back in June last year. I think I will hold on to this one. It’s a real honour to have a Morph made by Peter himself. I was also delighted to meet Dave Sproxton, the even more unassuming co-creator of Morph who is not so interested in sitting in the spotlight (but whose hands you will have seen in the early cartoons playing the hands of Tony Hart - Dave worries that the sharper HD versions of those sketches might show up the poor condition of his skin at the time).
We had a couple of afternoon pints after the talk and discussed art versus commerce. I love the way Aardman works things out, though their stuff is so expensive that they do need to get money from elsewhere and will do adverts as well, they are refreshingly autonomous and driven by their own talent, rather than focus groups and clueless executives. Bristol have much to be proud of. But Bristol is such a cool city anyway. I have an affinity with the place due to having grown up in the West County (and the soft Bristol accent is like a blanket of nostalgia for me, making me calm and happy). Two pints in I was even thinking about moving here.
We then went for a curry together before I had to head off for my late train home. Good food, great company and lots of laughs. It’s reassuring to know that good people can get on in this business and it seems that Aardman operates on a no-pricks policy which you can only admire. I’d institute one of those myself, but then I’d have to ban myself from working.
No RHLSTP this week as we’ve got a new RHMOL for you instead (RHLSTP will be back next week with Ben Goldacre)
The long paid version of Richard Herring's Meaning of Life episode 5 Good and Evil is now up for series pass subscribers (£15 for all 6 eps on video and audio or £6 for just the audio).
To buy these head to.
(episode 6 will be out in the next couple of months) You get loads more jokes and the full interview in the longer versions of the show.
The shorter free version (with less stand up and only a short version of the interview) will be up on youtube and vimeo later this week. If you like that, but don't want to buy the longer version, yet still feel inclined to make a contribution, then all one-off contributions are going towards funding this series.
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