Clive James R.I.P.

[BigMon]

He said Arnold Schwarzenegger looked like a brown condom full of walnuts.

[s3fella]

His "on TV" shows were ground breaking I think. With internet and access to social media meaning we are bored of all the weird TV from all over the world, in it's day, I would think his show took a huge amount of research, and much like Harry Hills' TV Burp many years later, had some proper funny stuff on it.

Also likes his F1 and travel stuff. Great Bloke, I hope he stays with us for a good few more years.

[J4CKO]

Met him briefly when he was doing a one man show at the Lowry a few years back, he dropped all his stuff going through the door so we helped him pick it up, quick chat and off he went, he referenced his clumsiness and us helping in the show.

[CountZero23]

He did an interview with Stuart Maconie on Radio 6 yesterday, didn't sound too good but was impressively high spirits. Well worth a listen.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07q200r

[coppice]

Renaissance man isn't he ? Multi lingual,frighteningly well read, anorak knowledge of racing cars and WW2 planes , poet , lyricist and TV presenter. And , thanks to his legendary TV reviews for The Observer , the template for every smartarse TV reviewer ever since, even though nobody has come close .

[DoubleSix]

^well said

[tvrforever]

a proper legend!

[niva441]

CountZero23 said:

He did an interview with Stuart Maconie on Radio 6 yesterday, didn't sound too good but was impressively high spirits. Well worth a listen.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07q200r

Thanks for the link, I missed this due to variable DAB signal quality in the office. Certainly much better than Jeremy Vine's bile when working in the garage today.

Good to hear Clive and that his mind is as sharp as ever.

[DoubleSix]

Just found out the great man has died.

Bit gutted here.

[checkmate91]

CountZero23 said:

He did an interview with Stuart Maconie on Radio 6 yesterday, didn't sound too good but was impressively high spirits. Well worth a listen.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07q200r

"All is not lost" and he was so grateful for the airtime with Stuart Maconie, what a guy and pretty much irreplaceable!

Oh and not sure it was actually recorded yesterday, he apparently died last week and was buried at the weekend. I'm at a loss to know who's news to follow these days...

Edited by checkmate91 on Wednesday 27th November 23:43

[Dr Jekyll]

checkmate91 said:

CountZero23 said:

He did an interview with Stuart Maconie on Radio 6 yesterday, didn't sound too good but was impressively high spirits. Well worth a listen.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07q200r

"All is not lost" and he was so grateful for the airtime with Stuart Maconie, what a guy and pretty much irreplaceable!

Oh and not sure it was actually recorded yesterday, he apparently died last week and was buried at the weekend. I'm at a loss to know who's news to follow these days...

'Yesterday' from the perspective of 31/8/6.

[Trophy Husband]

Great man. I listened to him read one of his poems yesterday, recorded for Radio 4. It was called The River and was fantastic. He did well to last 10 years after a terminal diagnosis.
RIP.

[languagetimothy]

Great writer and presenter. I was only watching his travel shows (Clive james in....) on YouTube a few months ago. Well worth a watch, that's the sort of programming we don't get much of now,

And of course, who can forget his presenting to the world of Margarita Pracatan!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SisILpC38I8

All good stuff, thanks Clive.

[ceesvdelst]

What a great life though, a truly iconic man and voice, the driest sense of humour around and a way of delivery you don't see much these days, putting the emphasis on you the viewer to work out the pun, he gave nothing away.

[Tuna]

After his terminal diagnosis, it always came as a nice surprise to hear that he was still alive.

So sorry to hear he's gone now - a generation grew up with the humour and insight he applied to everything. He saw the "importance of stuff that was unimportant".

[some bloke]

My favourite line of his was him talking about Prince Andrew and Fergie - 'Andrew came back from the Falklands looking for somewhere to park his chopper.'

[Mark-C]

BigMon said:

He said Arnold Schwarzenegger looked like a brown condom full of walnuts.

He had a way with words! Sad to see the inevitible caught up with him but he wrote brillaintly until the end.

[Dr Jekyll]

Who was the actress (Marilyn Monroe possibly) he described as
'She was good at playing abstract confusion the same way a midget is good at playing short'.

[Adam B]

Sad news, he seemed a lovely funny and intelligent man.

Can someone recommend which of his books to read (not poetry)? I have read Cultural Amnesia but feel inspired to read some more now.

Looks like most of his non-poetry are memoirs or essays - where to start?

[DoubleSix]

Adam B said:

Sad news, he seemed a lovely funny and intelligent man.

Can someone recommend which of his books to read (not poetry)? I have read Cultural Amnesia but feel inspired to read some more now.

Looks like most of his non-poetry are memoirs or essays - where to start?

Start with 'Unreliable Memoirs'