THEATRE REVIEW
RADIO TV REVIEW
Poet in notion
When Dundonian poet W.ll. (Bill) llerhert suggested that maverick Mancunian rocker Mark E. Smith of The Fall ought to be editor of the highbrow Poetry Review, it was an example of his vividly skewed imagination. Once, ilerbert’s utoplan parallel universe existed only in ‘the ioulest recesses oi my imagination’, before coming to lite in his books, especially 1994’s appropriater titled Forked Tongue.
Radio 3 brings Herbert’s imagined world even closer to the suriace with a short series in which ilerhert reads as yet unpublished work. For someone
Channel
Scottish writer and journalist Andrew about a period ofGlasgow‘s history. O’Hagan has been overtaken by events Suggesting they add to our
“"0 “it” in both 5303 and 5'19"“: w’ "' W: m can no“ not once. but twice in the lead up to understanding of ourselves will be of mating tits "0'63 Wt loud t5 3" Herbert’s new N30" is "‘9 Ptayflllty transmission of his film Calling Bible no comfort to the families of the titti'o't’at‘t business it" "when mi“ 0808’“ "3500393", M‘ John for the crime season Blue Light victims, just as it will mean nothing to m" 3 a Who" “393 0t thttng 8"" "lawns" itiSh'bom “99"” Zone (Saturdays. Channel 4). First of the parents of those killed in Dunblane. which has to it?" tho “‘3'” ft '0‘" Wilt" "imam "WWW": "melt is all there was the decision by Also set in the 60s. but before the '0'“ inst“ its he says! so it s a [Inhibited in "31- ‘Mcfionaoall’s Strathclyde police to exhume the body arrival of that liberating promiscuity “'10” “3t at "it" wom' Wm": ha" “come a" Who" tout" “9"” it" of one John Irvine Mclnnes who had which hung in the air with the at” 9“ but" at “putt” um" Dundee: and POOP" Who ham art been questioned as a suspect in the late Brylcreem at Barrowland. is And The Mr 3° MP" ‘0“ t “mo out 0t celebtate that. but M was “any quite 60s for the murder of three Glasgow Beat Goes On . . . (Tuesdays. Channel readings wanting to blot out that a tragic tigllte,’ he 8813- 50 What women. but was never charged. The 4). It’s a new series from Brookside Vito" experience. about the Glittellt vogue i0! 560“ link between the three women was that creator Phil Redmond which reads like mm“ m 0” tit 30"". suits Pm“ "titers ‘ 3'9 Pints getting a they had all been dancing at the pre-history for the Merseyside soap "'th alonosido that! English look in? ‘Part oi the problem oi being Barrowland Ballroom. where adultery opera. . contoured: 33 “'9' “Benn”, a non-independent country is the was in the air. The other feature of the The drama looks at the interlocking My a men's" PM “0'0"”! tendency to split things into bite-Size three murders was that each woman lives of two families. and the first nonfat “Nations t" 30"“ “an” pieces,’ says Herbert. ‘You’ve got the had their period at the time of death. episode lets a number of predictable that‘nootrl “"9"; to"?! com“! 3‘ prose writers and poets seen as The police files on the ‘Bible John‘ storylines out of the traps: teenage the new rock n roll . it was the tirst something separate, whereas I’d killings. so called by the media because pregnancy (yes. she's tried hot baths cue". 9009" cm ttit With a 3373 rather celebrate the entite Cllitllte.’ of the murderer's reported fondness for and gin. but no luck); Catholic guilt; m". “0 “WWW” (lleil Cooper) waxing Biblical. had stayed open the repression of the middle classes. “infliction the Influence of Innate. Young Poets is on BBC Radio 3 at though the trail had turned decidedly and the corresponding love of brown Pflttctttatty Punk» 0" “it"s coming 0' 9.30m". W1. Herbert is on Thurs 28 chilly. In the intervening years. ale and a knees-up down the social 800 in the W 703 and 03'" 803- and Fr! 29 March. however, DNA finger-printing amongst the working classes. To cap it
techniques had been invented. opening all. a couple of likely lads look as if
Carl Reiner and his numerous movies UP the POSStbtttt)’ 0f making a matCh they're poised to form a beat group awash with Jewish wisecracks. With semen Stains 0n the tights 0f one sporting sharp suits and mop tops.
I Beyond Reasonable noun: A I Eddie COCHMM’S l8“ 70"! (Radio 2) of the dead women. The results of these Well, this is Liverpool in the 60s. . . Dangerous Reputation (Radio 4) Fri 22 (Shit gobMatr' 5-03?!“ 103‘: De: SFCPS Off tests have not yet been published, as And The Beat Goes On . . . bears the Mar, 10.02am. Budding sleuths should 19603 at: ,C'fcul‘lt to :0 a” e atetm O'Hagan explained in a tacked-on coda hallmarks of ‘devised‘ television; a lend an ear to this new senes as the files toe n to Pac age tour WhtCh h' 1 - f h - - o
. . came to an abr t d h C h . to 18 exp oration o t e impact the process by Wthh producers srt around of sax murder cases are re-opened. Tonight , uP 8“ Wit 9C time S unsolved murder had on th .t bl d .d. h .1 goes back to 1947 when a botched raid on death ‘" a cat crash. Marty Wilde sums ~ . 6 CI y. a ta .e ecl mg w at c ements are a London jewellers led to the conviction Cochrane up :5 ~31”), The Kid with a Wthi’l leads on to the second reason requrred to sell the idea to a of Henry Jenkins. despite 27 witnesses guitar‘. while Joe Brown, also on the tour, the wnter's film was overshadowed by commissioning editor. This process has failing to identify him in an idem“), 1s intervxewed too. events in the outside world — Dunblane. already lumbered us with the dire teen parade and convincing alibis from seven I “ha (Radio 2) sat 30 Mar. 6~03Pm- Ah At a distance of 27 years removed soap Hollyoaks, which Redmond also
others. ha! From EUtOVtStO" to the divorce courts. from the three killin s in Glas ow it is devised and the earl si ns are that this ‘3' m - Sweden’s hottest ex rt are as . - . g‘ ‘g ‘ ‘ . ‘ ' y ‘ g ‘ . . . ‘ - s" F. n' Th. Hm”: Hungary p0 popular as possrble to articulate a theory about a is another example of a televrslon big
1 ' . . ever. There’s sin alon otential a lent . . . . . . Ngfigagfligssafiefzrggsfhigfl'gdng in [his 1979 welfibleygAgena concepn y senal killer robbing people ofthelr shot trading on his track record long of democracy that shook up the Stalinist which has been dragged out of the new-found 60s sexual and socral after the creative spark has gone. regime before me Soviets regained archives for no apparent reason_ ivoulcz- freedoms. It may even be reasonable to In the same week the Beeb also comm]. Hungariambom Bmish poet Vouz'. ‘Take A Chance On Me', the argue. as O'Hagan does, that ‘now, launched a new drama serial designed George Szirtes returns to Budapest to Works. more than ever before. we seek to to fill a scheduling niche. This lite write a poetic documentary on the I Studio 33 com?“ (Radio 3) Sat 30 understand ourselves by trying to (Mondays, BBCZ) is a self-conscious revolution that led his family to flee 3’13“ 845D?“- SeneSPf 5“ e’tpenméntal understand killings. If killing is attempt to create a Britpop version of across the Ausman bordei- ATChWe mmas wh‘Ch exptou the tad“) med‘um meaningless then perhaps muchelse is imported U.S. series Friends. In this
- ° with all manner of wei n ‘s - , recordings of gun battles and radio pleas td 0‘ 65 "0t heard meaningless too,
for help feature alongside poetry old and Since the BBC Radtophontc workShOP twentysomething scenario five peeple
new. were last let loose in an editing suite. The In the “take (“the death Of Since" move into a flat; 3 mixed Couple' two ' aw,” "ours mm up: . . . to first is a "(n-fish thriller in which a young children in Dunblane. these straight singles and one gay. but that Mil. (Radio 4), Thurs 28 Mar. 11pm. plumber is called out to fix a leaking arguments seem. at best. a little could all change in the great tennis Tho bosodressed surrealist in jazz is the flotation tank where the inventor of an pretentious. O’Hagan talks of the match of relationships. It's a hip pad. gaggeeoihton plalysfasedlonyhe lyniyls/t‘blehbar is trapped. Not exactly ‘myth’ of Bible John; but he too is but not too designery - just the right
1 y lsear as am ercerSISI. "‘ ' " dance hall dives with Micyk Myuliigayn'sg I Trail-t Plum (Radio 3) Sun 31 Mar. 21T2L°§§2§§£f $2332? trite: S'dil Of sunday iupelemiini hmg' Th Magnolia Jazz Band. Whose Line Is It 1.02pm. Poet Simon Armitage looks at the - - - t i t 0 yeah‘ and t Cy re a awyers' e Anyway's Steve Steen plays young Melly. relationship between British and rim?“ m our mmds long after the". bots talk apom fooma“ and women' while Gary Olson and the divine Charlotte American poetry by speaking to writers “otth have been forgotten lf’ m.nme' wh'le the girls talk abom the way boys Coleman also feature. Georgie boy sings who’ve hopped across the pond in one we talk of Thomas Hamilton's aCtlonS always talk about football and women. (he choons, of course, one awaits volume direction or another. Armitage blags his in terms 0f understanding 01" Own lives And they all talk about their jobs — two mm [re tdatjon, way to the States in person to ask Irish are we not in danger of doing exactly incessantly. The set-up is unbelievany I comedy oer: Laughter USA (Radio 2) Poet Pant Muldoont “0W Working at what he no doubt craved; making an contrived. but the dialogue is half- Sat 30.31?"- td03PleNlne'YVCCk. PnnFeté’" unwegsttyv Why Poets are , unimportant life count? decent and the show is slickly put Potentl Y 8‘ e5P "We "might ""0 the "‘sp‘m to 5pc" "me away from the" The danger with myths is they obscure together; this could be one you start of
lives and works of America's top funny own culture. Future subjects include . . men. including Mel Brooks. Milton Berle Sylvia Flaws biographer and former the truth which rarely conforms to neat laughing at but end up hooked on.
and Chevy Chase. First up is Mel Brooks. Edinbmgh university write, In Residence theories; O'Hagan used the Bible John (Eddie Gibb) who talks about his work with Sid Coasor, Anne Stevenson. (Neil Cooper) killings as a vehicle for his own ideas
d u The List 22 Mar-4 Apr 1996