On Saturday I went to an enjoyable and far from lairy stag day, a part of which involved going to see The Damned United. Not being much of a football fan but having heard good things about it I was in two minds, but actually I thought it was great. Old football is so much more interesting than new football isn't it.
What struck me was that all the players were British. How novel is that? But what struck me more, however, is that thesedays the 1970s are portrayed as being utterly bleak, crumbling, drizzly and unexcting.
Let me tell you now, it wasn't ALWAYS like that. Yes, it had its off days, but generally I remember sunshine, fruit and vegetable pencil top men, endless days, Whizzer & Chips, glam rock, Chipsticks, Corona cherryade, cinemas with balconies, Humphries, Harry Worth, roller skating to Young, Gifted & Black, Weekend chocs, shiny Ford Capris, Farmer's Wife orange juice and Hygena kitchens. Not smoky pubs, peeling flock wallpaper, constant rain and dull ochres. I'm sure that existed somewhere - David Peace books definitely, but not in my Seventies.
Anyhoo, I fully recommend The Damned United. Michael Sheen is top notch with his channeling of Brian Clough, a man I didn't really know much about but who got nothing more than he deserved. A great character though, and sadly lacking today.
NB I saw Marianne Faithful in a restaurant yesterday. I'm sure it was her. There's no mistaking her is there? And last week I saw Alastair Campbell jogging in Hyde Park.
6 comments:
I used to like The Grimleys, it seemed quite authentic 70s to me. They had sunshine and everything in that.
I think you had to live in Yorkshire to fully experience dreary '70s Britain. Everyone smoked everywhere, blokes seemed to be permanently drunk and on the verge of violence, everything was brown, everyone worked in an industry that was on strike, there was rubbish piled up everywhere and, if that weren't bad enough, there was a loony on the loose killing women. To this day my mother thinks of the 1970s as a dirty word.
Hang on though, aren't we meant to be living in 'darker' days now? Or is that just what America is telling us?
So when people used to say 'it's grim up north', BPP, they're weren't joking?
May I ask what you mean when you say Brian Clough 'got nothing more than he deserved'?
He made things difficult for himself and pissed alot of people off, therefore, he surely knew what was going to come, as brilliant as he was.
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