"It Was Alright in the 1970's" 10pm - Channel 4

[Stato]

I watched this at the weekend and was irritated by the lack of research and consideration of context. They should have paraphrased 'The Go Between' and called it 'The Past is a different country - Lets all laugh at the foreigners.'

The shoddy approach was summed up for me by the shock horror response to Jack Jones singing Randy Newman's 'Love Story'. They were stunned that he sang 'Has to be straight, don't want a bent one' as the rhyme for 'We'll have a child, Maybe we'll rent one.' Should they have had anyone working on the programme who knew anything about Newman's work, they would have known that the line is ironic and satirical, just like 'Short People', or 'God's Song' or 'Rednecks' or practically anything else Randy wrote in the seventies. Even when Grace Dent briefly raised the question of context, Lucas's voice-over dismissed the truth.

It annoyed me that they could have a whole team of people being paid to work in the arts and not one who is aware of one of the work of someone like Newman. It annoyed me more that nobody had the sense to recognise that Jack Jones is American, that Randy Newman is American and that the word 'bent' was slang for homosexual in Britain, but not in America. A simple Google of 'Bent definition' leads you to: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/bent where it has the prefix [Brit] before the definition.

Thanks for starting the thread. I've been wanting to rant about this all week.

 

[lawros left foot]

Yes, and I was one of them. As mentioned the other day, Albion v Palace 1975 I think, 33,000 all ticket.

Although a regular, I couldn't get a ticket for this game, until the Friday night before, when I found one stuck to the sole of my platform shoes, in the Royal Stewart bar on Worthing sea front. Of course I handed it in

 

[vegster]

Although a regular, I couldn't get a ticket for this game, until the Friday night before, when I found one stuck to the sole of my platform shoes, in the Royal Stewart bar on Worthing sea front. Of course I handed it in

OOOHHHH The Royal Stewart ! did you ever drink at The Marine or The Old England a bit further along too?

 

[jakarta]

I watched this at the weekend and was irritated by the lack of research and consideration of context. They should have paraphrased 'The Go Between' and called it 'The Past is a different country - Lets all laugh at the foreigners.'

The shoddy approach was summed up for me by the shock horror response to Jack Jones singing Randy Newman's 'Love Story'. They were stunned that he sang 'Has to be straight, don't want a bent one' as the rhyme for 'We'll have a child, Maybe we'll rent one.' Should they have had anyone working on the programme who knew anything about Newman's work, they would have known that the line is ironic and satirical, just like 'Short People', or 'God's Song' or 'Rednecks' or practically anything else Randy wrote in the seventies. Even when Grace Dent briefly raised the question of context, Lucas's voice-over dismissed the truth.

It annoyed me that they could have a whole team of people being paid to work in the arts and not one who is aware of one of the work of someone like Newman. It annoyed me more that nobody had the sense to recognise that Jack Jones is American, that Randy Newman is American and that the word 'bent' was slang for homosexual in Britain, but not in America. A simple Google of 'Bent definition' leads you to: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/bent where it has the prefix [Brit] before the definition.

Thanks for starting the thread. I've been wanting to rant about this all week.

This - don't you want to punch the faces of most of the 'modern' commentators?

 

[lawros left foot]

OOOHHHH The Royal Stewart ! did you ever drink at The Marine or The Old England a bit further along too?

Yeah, tbh most pubs in town during the mid 70s to mid 80s, especially the Marine on a Friday and Saturday night, although the Ham in east Worthing was my local

 

[vegster]

Yeah, tbh most pubs in town during the mid 70s to mid 80s, especially the Marine on a Friday and Saturday night, although the Ham in east Worthing was my local[/QUOTE]

Crikey... just seen the connection ! did you drink there when Lawro was coaching the pub side when he was doing his coaching badge ?

 

[lawros left foot]

Yeah, tbh most pubs in town during the mid 70s to mid 80s, especially the Marine on a Friday and Saturday night, although the Ham in east Worthing was my local[/QUOTE]

Crikey... just see the connection ! did you drink there when Lawro was coaching the pub side when he was doing his coaching badge ?

Most of my good mates played for the pub , Lawro coached us for about a season, I think. Stand out players were Sid Chester, Tony Corona, Shane Steele and John Stapleton, I used to turn out for them when I was on weekend leave (RN), I had my stag night with most of them,52 blokes on a pub crawl round Worthing, finishing off in the Carioca, happy days

 

[GT49er]

This - don't you want to punch the faces of most of the 'modern' commentators?

Yes - you can't judge history by today's standards. Different standards applied back then; many of them undesirable, to be sure, but you can't blame people for living by the moral ethics of what was considered acceptable or unacceptable at the time.

 

[vegster]

oops

 

[vegster]

Most of my good mates played for the pub , Lawro coached us for about a season, I think. Stand out players were Sid Chester, Tony Corona, Shane Steele and John Stapleton, I used to turn out for them when I was on weekend leave (RN), I had my stag night with most of them,52 blokes on a pub crawl round Worthing, finishing off in the Carioca, happy days

Oh my... are you either " Ripper " Martin or Gary Heathfield ?........ I claim my £5 !

 

[lawros left foot]

Gary, I spoke to Rip yesterday though, who are you?

 

[vegster]

Aha ! I must remain forever a mystery.But, I can tell you that I worked just down the road from The Ham at Marylebone Optical , I was only in for the odd liquid lunch, one of about 100 of us most fridays .

 

[lawros left foot]

My missus was working there when I first met her, small world

 

[Publius Ovidius]

Iwatched 2 episodes, A bunch of moralising, pompous wankers judging 40 year old programmes by todays standards...An absolute must for the NSC p.c. brigade.

Which is exactly what I felt when watching it!

The next thing will be these pretentious twats reviewing jane Austen and moralising about women's roles in society.

The really. Interesting thing was how the black comedians of the day actually played on the prejudices. The classic was Charlie Griffiths, a comedian from Barnsley I think it was. His act included the line " if tha doesn't laff at mi jokes, I'll come and move in next door to thee". No one took any offence to that and he was a highly sucessful comedian. Alf garnet was a brilliant bit of writing that people today moralise on, but don't get the joke.

I am not saying it was right, but that was how it was 40 years ago.

 

[Return of the Rev]

Yes, and I was one of them. As mentioned the other day, Albion v Palace 1975 I think, 33,000 all ticket.

feb 76 33,300

 

[Hastings gull]

Which is exactly what I felt when watching it!

The next thing will be these pretentious twats reviewing jane Austen and moralising about women's roles in society.

The really. Interesting thing was how the black comedians of the day actually played on the prejudices. The classic was Charlie Griffiths, a comedian from Barnsley I think it was. His act included the line " if tha doesn't laff at mi jokes, I'll come and move in next door to thee". No one took any offence to that and he was a highly sucessful comedian. Alf garnet was a brilliant bit of writing that people today moralise on, but don't get the joke.

I am not saying it was right, but that was how it was 40 years ago.

Yes, granny, could not agree more and I am a grand-dad! No one thought that monkey chants at the Albion in the late 70s was anything other than an attempt to put an opposing player off, or at least I never saw or heard any criticism, that you would quite rightly get these days. It was much the same as fatty or spider -Ian Mellor's nickname? I also recall the black comedian's particular joke, mentioned on another thread, which really went down well. Yes, they were the standards at the time, and one really should not try to compare the two. Perhaps the criterion should be intent -nowadays, we know that monkey chants are unacceptable, but then, whilst race was obviously the catalyst for that particular attempt to put off an opposing player, it was not intended as a nasty racial slur as such.

 

[maltaseagull]

Anyone else watching?

Must be gripping if you are posting on NSC while watching?

 

[Mackenzie]

Iwatched 2 episodes, A bunch of moralising, pompous wankers judging 40 year old programmes by todays standards...An absolute must for the NSC p.c. brigade.

In a nutshell.

 

[Stato]

Which is exactly what I felt when watching it!

The next thing will be these pretentious twats reviewing jane Austen and moralising about women's roles in society.

The really. Interesting thing was how the black comedians of the day actually played on the prejudices. The classic was Charlie Griffiths, a comedian from Barnsley I think it was. His act included the line " if tha doesn't laff at mi jokes, I'll come and move in next door to thee". No one took any offence to that and he was a highly sucessful comedian. Alf garnet was a brilliant bit of writing that people today moralise on, but don't get the joke.

I am not saying it was right, but that was how it was 40 years ago.

Charlie Williams, not Griffiths me old flower. Previous to being a stand up he was a centre half for Doncaster. As this was in the 1950s he was a bit of a trailblazer in more than one field. He's still a bit of a cult hero at Donny. I saw him interviewed a couple of years before his death on a programme which gave the space for context which this programme was missing.

 

[kevo]

Really enjoyed this series. I don't think it's moralising at all - or even attempting to pass judgement. Just an entertaining observation on how much things have changed - and how things that were acceptable then would never be acceptable now.