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Channel Hopper
Dispatches from the sofa, with Brian Donaldson
‘In the best traditions of Channel Four comedy, it successfully marries the ground-breaking with the familiar and best of all, it’s really, really funny.’ Grand claims made there on behalf of Friday Night Dinner (Channel 4, Fri 25 Feb, 10pm) by a very creative type with an extremely wild imagination in the C4 press office. Can ‘groundbreaking’ also be ‘familiar’? Surely to break ground, you have to split from the familiar? As for ‘really, really funny’? Well, while you wouldn’t judge a novel purely on the basis of its first 50 pages, you should still be enticed into its world sharpish. Similarly with the first episode of a six-part series, and as opening 24-minute episodes go, this is a pretty puny effort. Simon Bird does his confused- sardonic thing, followed by that appalled look he’s perfected in The Inbetweeners while anything remotely reminiscent of a guffaw is produced by laughing at a man with impaired hearing. There’s a worm-infested Alsatian called Wilson that sniffs around his owner’s genitalia. That’s quite amusing. At one point a sofa bed gets frustratingly stuck halfway down the stairs. That might be funny if you’ve never seen Laurel and Hardy or Fawlty Towers or that Eric Sykes short film, The Plank. You could be kind and say this isn’t much good. Or you could be honest and declare the first slab of FND (as someone who likes this might dub it) one of the worst opening episodes of a sitcom since Big Top defiled the genre.
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AROUND TOWN Fans of the National Museum of Scotland will be delighted to learn that following an extensive £46.4m facelift, the all-new Victorian part of the NMS will open this July, eventually boasting 20,000 objects over 36 galleries. Highlights are set to include mummies, T-Rex skeletons and more. Elsewhere, arts fans are up in arms following news that the Highland Council may remove its funding from the National Centre for Excellence in Traditional Music as part of wider spread cuts. See www.go petition.com/petition/42495. In Glasgow, GSA students are working towards their final show at the School’s Vic Bar on 8–9 Mar. This will be the last time the venue is used as it will shortly enjoy a revamp along with other areas of the GSA campus. See www.gsa.ac.uk.
FESTIVALS The Edinburgh International Festival has announced that its director Jonathan Mills will remain in his post until 2014. Mills will announce his plans for this year’s programme on Wed 23 Mar.
FILM Questions have long been raised about the future of filmmaking in Scotland and Creative Scotland have finally announced a £1 million investment fund for feature film. Awards of between £100,000 and £500,000 will be offered to people with a background in the development, production and distribution of feature films, with applications invited from producers, financiers, distributors, exhibitors or consortia. 8 THE LIST 17 Feb–3 Mar 2011
MUSIC In happy music news, Canadian rockers Arcade Fire have announced they will appear at Edinburgh Castle on 1 Sep, following gigs in London and Manchester. Go to www.see tickets.com for tickets. THEATRE All things variety are making their way to the King’s Theatre in Glasgow next month for the 2011 Young Variety Show. Michelle McManus and the Red Hot Chili Pipers are just two of the names making an appearance, alongside a roster of young up- and-coming Scottish talent. See it live on Sun 6 Mar or see www.ambassadortickets.com for more.
VISUAL ART The List would like to say a huge congratulations to visual artist Graham Fagen and theatre director Graham Eatough, who have been revealed as the recipients of a Creative Scotland Vital Sparks award. Their visual art and film collaboration, entitled Crime and Punishment will be one of the key commissions for the Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art 2012. Lastly, we are pleased to hear that Edinburgh artist Elph will be bringing his finely- tuned brush strokes to the capital this fortnight, transforming the McEwan Hall into a 40ft canvas, as part of a Red Bull Stereopticon event launch. The project organisers promise to give Scottish artists, illustrators, and designers the chance to submit their canvas designs later in the year and follow in Elph’s elusive strokes. Check it out, complete with live DJs, on Thu 24 Feb, at 6.30pm.