Resurrection and Rev

At least one person asked for a final blog post on Rev, and the final episode has now gone out, so here goes. If you haven't seen it yet, feel free to stop reading now.

To make a series about a vicar who didn't fit the classic TV types was an interesting move. As I said in my previous post, it seemed to have the effect of engaging a lot of people - both clergy who saw the parallels with their own experience of ministry (their own or colleagues they have know) and those beyond the church who warmed to a genuinely human vicar. It also portrayed him struggling with the challenges of a city parish, the pressures of the institutional church, the characters you get in a congregation, and his own battles of faith. 

Of course, it had to use caricature and stereotype for comic effect, yet they were just that little bit closer to the truth than many sit-coms. Colin was a classic case - lots of churches have a kind of Colin, a rough diamond who can't quite turn things round, but somehow has a deep connection with the place. In fact Rev wasn't really a sit-com at all - I'm not sure what the right term is, but it was both funny and poignant, rather like M*A*S*H operated for a much earlier generation of TV viewers.

There were some clever dramatic devices. I don't know of any clergy who have been literally dumped out of a taxi in the middle of nowhere by a senior staff member, but I suspect some fellow clergy know the emotional, if not the physical experience. A conversation that the person in authority wanted to end, not having really listened in the first place, and it was all settled without anything really being settled at all. 

I also suspect incidents that alienated some viewers were the very things that endeared the series to others. The lapses in behaviour, swearing, making mistakes, and general vulnerability all made Adam more approachable, yet they also attacked the idealised picture that a lot of people have about clergy (and some clergy have about themselves). And then there was 'the kiss'. Social networks got very active after that episode, and even Alison Graham in the Radio Times - hardly a squeamish type - described her profound degree of upset. Adam stopped being the kind of vicar she wanted, who represented a Church she didn't belong to and a faith she didn't hold, but which she wanted to be there.

I'd like to see the final series in its entirety again, as I want to spot the point where they start using the passion narrative - the story leading up to and describing the crucifixion of Jesus - as the template for what happens. There's a kiss, a washing of hands, and following rejection by all his friends, a cross-carrying and time of darkness. In the midst of that there's a vision of a Jesus-type character (played by Liam Neeson). 

The in-between days from then are a kind of hell as Adam encounters his former parishioners, and starts to go through a breakdown. The Archdeacon explores possible job moves, coming out with a classic line implying chaplaincy might be an easier option (it isn't, believe me). And despite all Adam's desire to run from the church, no other career option appears to be either viable or desirable. He has no heart for an interview, and the temp job at the newsagent only faces him with his old congregation. Eventually all he can do is curl up in bed. The prayers of the other characters are heard for the first time, too. The Archdeacon's prayer sounding like the Pharisee in the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax-collector was a classic, and everyone except Alex tried to justify themselves.

As in the Biblical account, the women stay active, and it's through them, especially Adam's wife Alex, that the 'resurrection' of Easter morning gets organised, along with the much-delayed baptism of their child. I rather liked the ending, although I know some people didn't. The church had closed, Adam was no longer to be their vicar, there was no going back, and the future was uncertain. Just like the resurrection in the New Testament. We don't witness any conversations of reconciliation (other than Alex forgiving Ellie for the kiss), but Nigel, the archdeacon and members of the church are all there around the brazier and the font.

Comedy can sometimes do the profound better than any drama. just think of Comic Relief, Blackadder 4, or the aforementioned M*A*S*H. It can create a different kind of connection with the characters that means that when it gets serious, it really gets to us. Rev managed to do that, whilst holding up a mirror to us about our beliefs, ideals and prejudices. It asked us about the authenticity of the person we present to the wider world, and that's why it was both uncomfortable but compelling viewing.

Getting Upset About 'Rev'

After yesterday's edition of Rev, there was a flurry of tweets, expressing sadness and disappointment about it. Avoiding spoilers, suffice it to say the episode highlighted many of Adam's weaknesses, both in personal relationships and in misjudging a situation. My question is why did people (especially fans thus far) get so upset?

Rev has acquired quite a following amongst clergy, and I suspect it's because the series breaks out of the mould of depicting the type of vicar character you get in Dad's Army, or played by Derek Nimmo. Adam seems a lot closer to reality and seems to share a lot of the dilemmas modern clergy face. The series is also devastatingly well-observed in its depiction of 'types' one encounters in the ministry. One flaw I am aware of is that all the female clergy have not been very positive examples (but then no-one comes out that well!)

Despite his mistakes, I think a lot of people developed a lot of empathy for Adam, and to some extent placed their hopes in him to convey a more positive and contemporary image of the ministry. This has clearly extended well beyond clergy who share Adam's style or churchmanship. I can only presume, therefore,  that the sadness and disappointment that came through from some on social networks was because people felt let down. Adam had failed them, or maybe the series had betrayed them. The empathy was strong enough for people to feel got at, threatened, or let down because of Adam.

I think we need a bit of a reality check:

1. Rev is a TV comedy. By its nature, comedy exaggerates and accentuates foibles, flaws and idiosyncrasies of the people it depicts. Miranda isn't a 'real' shopkeeper, many Home Guard were much more conscientious, capable and competent than Dad's Army, and so on. Just because the comic versions mess things up doesn't necessarily mean that 'real' ones do or did. It's comedy and it's fiction, but it draws on reality and stretches and distorts it to bring out the humour.
2. The show isn't a piece of Church of England PR; it's a TV show on the BBC. We can't expect the BBC to do our publicity for us - if we're worried people might get the 'wrong idea' of clergy from Rev, we need to get on with living out our vocations as well as we can.
3. A sitcom isn't a theology essay. I've seen people discussing Adam's prayers and the lack of references to God in the ecclesiastical conversations. As I have said, it's a comedy, so why should it be accurate. Of course there is an implied theology in the writing, but to be fair all too many 'real' meetings that I have been to about church policy, strategy and finance have made little or no reference to God, so that seemed quite realistic
4. The reality for clergy is that we will let people down. We can't do everything, or meet all of the expectations people have of us. Adam does this in what are sometimes spectacular and larger-than-life ways, but the experience is real enough. It's not always easy to watch, but we know the feeling, albeit on a smaller scale (usually).
5. Having said all of this, I suspect that Rev has made one TV clerge more accessible and easier to relate to than many fictional versions. Part of the reaction last night resulted from the fact that it's closer to reality than many, to the point that emotionally people felt it as real, even if rationally they knew it wasn't.

Is Everything a Western now?

Catching up with TV the other day, we watched the first episode of the new series, Peaky Blinders. I have to say at the start that I enjoyed it, and it looks like a bit of escapism, complete with anachronistic music and one or two suspect Brummie accents (although not being a native I may be wrong).

What did strike me after a few minutes was that I was basically watching a Western. Not the ones which are about fighting Native Americans, but the version where there's a bad bunch terrorising the town, and a new marshall/sheriff (never did work out the respective role descriptions) comes into town and fights to create law and order, sometimes at the request of the governor or some other higher authority.

In Peaky Blinders, we're not in the Wild West, but industrial Birmingham. Most of the men are veterans of the great war and nearly all men seem to have, not surprisingly, undiagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder. Worryingly, many of them appear to be armed.

Just like the West, there are gangs and families who operate outside the law with a blind eye being turned to their activities. In place of the saloon, there's a pub. And every Western has a barmaid, and she soon arrives. The gang is, on the face of it, run by a patriarch, but a son is working on taking power and a matriarch doesn't trust him.

In place of the settlement with wooden buildings in the middle of a dusty nowhere, one of the main streets goes through a stylised industrial site, complete with coal, ash, and lots of flames so you know we're in industrial England. In place of stealing weapons from a wagon or railroad, they've been nicked from BSA, and the preferred mode of escaping trouble is by canal. 

But make those substitutions, and we might as well be in the wild west. The Western's moralistic marshal is replaced by a police chief imported from Ulster, who has terrifying religious zeal in his pursuit of righteousness, and he's sent, not by a state governor, but a young(er) Winston Churchill, who fears Irish Republicans and Communists in equal measure.

There'll be no shoot-out by some rocks and a couple of cacti, but otherwise it's all there. You can do the same sort of analysis with Ripper Street - that series even includes the classic 'house of ill repute' run by a powerful woman and includes an American doctor of dubious moral character. Ideal Wild West material in the middle of Whitechapel.

Not sure why TV has taken this turn, but both series give us a stylised look at life in periods of British history which often only get portrayed in aristocratic circles and big country houses. Personally I enjoy them both.

Elgar on BBC4

Image via WikipediaAlthough I will be over in church for some music he probably wouldn't approve of, I'll be recording the BBC4 programme on Edward Elgar this evening. One of my precedessors as Rector of Morecambe Parish Chuch, Canon Gorton, befriended Elgar and persuaded him to take part in the Morecambe Music Festivals. All this was at the turn of the 19/20th century. Elgar stayed here in the Rectory, and it's been fun to speculate whether the bedroom locally referred to as 'the Elgar room' is actually the one. I have sometimes wondered if he was thinking about any of his famous works as he looked out across the garden.

A Blogger catch-up

Taking a week's holiday seems to have taken me out of the pattern of blogging at all. As I'm taking a few minutes out, it seemed a good moment to catch up a bit.

Not wanting to bore you with too much holiday stuff, but we spent a week in the middle of Lincolnshire doing very little except being looked after at our favourite guest house. One brilliant experience was watching the (surprisingly good) Toy Story 3 at the Kinema in the Woods at Woodhall Spa. In the middle of the picture, there was an intermission, and out of the floor came the Compton Organ. Not an original fitting, apparently, but enhance the sense of being in an historic building (it's been a cinema since 1922). However, we had to miss Woodhall's worm-charming festival, which was probably just as well.

I have also missed out on blogging about Rev when it was still current. It was, at last, a series which took comedy about clergy and the church into new and edgy territory. Dibley and Derek Nimmo were never like this as Rev captured something much more authentic. They got so much right - the vicarage itself, complete with 1980s kitchen cupboards and left-over washing-up, the topical issues, the ecclesiastical terminology, and even the 'types' in congregation bore a striking resemblance to some people I have known.

It also managed to capture experiences using situations that would never quite happen, but which carried the same feelings. The Archdeacon with his black cab was a brilliant way of picturing of what has been a very real experience for some people I have known. What was remarkable was how respectful it was of Adam's prayers and how painfully it depicted his breakdown. And most churches have a Colin. Good reviews on Bishop Alan's blog and also Steve Tilley's.

Meanwhile now I'm back this month seems busier than almost any other - weddings, baptisms and holiday club are filling up the space pretty thoroughly, along with not a few other concerns. And in the midst of all this, tragedies of landslides and flooding remind us of the consequences of climate change, and the urgency to address it. Why not visit the Disasters Emergency Committee website if you haven't already donated.

OK, that's everything bubbling at the top of my brain at the moment. Hopefully I'll be a slightly more regular visitor to my own blog in the coming days!

Related articles by Zemanta

• Worm charming festival fails to catch a single specimen (telegraph.co.uk)
• Rev: The vicars' verdict (guardian.co.uk)
• Rev 'rather good' says Archbishop of Canterbury (guardian.co.uk)
• Rev - some observations (stevetilley.blogspot.com)

BBC News: Johannesburg and London

An item on the news last night described an area of Johannesburg as having been a muggers' paradise, but now is more like... London.

1) Didn't that sound just a weeny bit superior and condescending?

2) Are we to believe muggings don't happen in London?

Maybe someone needs a word with the editor

A blast from my student past

Image via Wikipedia

The other day I finally got round to buying a DVD I have wanted to have for some time - a compilation from The Tube, the Channel 4 live music show from the 1980s. I got a copy of the first series compilation for £5 here. This version has U2 performing New Year's Day (with Bono's voice cracking), the more recent version omitted that.

Fronted by Jools Holland, Muriel Gray, Paula Yates and more, it provided genuinely live performances from current stars and new acts, as well as some classics. There were also scenes from the nearby pub, which offered some great TV moments.

For most of my time at Uni, it was a fixture with some of the lads on the course, usually watched on my 12" black and white telly (except when we got control of the college common room's colour set) Only Whistle Test really matched it for live music (rather than the mimed/video of ToTP etc) and that was very late at night and pitched at a different audience (although great archives there, too).

Broadcast live on a Friday teatime from Newcastle, it was full of fluffed lines, mikes switched on slightly too late, presenters taken by surprise and some dodgy sound mixes. But that gave it an unpredictability that made it fun to watch every week. Anything could happen, and often did - the programme's demise came when Jools used a very naughty word in a live trailer at 5-30pm.

A DVD can't recapture that, but some great moments nonetheless. The Jam at the end of their career performing "Town Called Malice" and "Modern World" is a highlight, but the DVD also features U2, Simple Minds, Yazoo and Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five providing some early hip-hop with "The Message" to name but a few. Of course there's lots more in an archive somewhere - Madonna's TV debut, an early appearance by REM, and I seem to recall the bizarre spectacle of Cliff Richard winning over a sceptical audience with an impressively professional live set. I hope one day they manage to get some more footage issued.

So next time you watch Later with its multiple live stages, variety of music and interviews, you're seeing a more mature descendant. 

Last mention of Life on Mars for a bit (promise)

I love this. It's from the freebies on the BBC site. Sam Tyler as he would be in Camberwick Green. Brilliant.

Lent: Day 5

If you just want to view Lent posts, click Lent under the labels heading in the right-hand side-bar

Day of rest for Lent blog. Then again, I could say something.

Preached on James 5:7-end, trying to tie up disparate bits. Feedback would seem to indicate I succeeded to some extent.

Son's footie team won 5-1, which is a miracle; they usually lose.

Watched Lewis. I think they have managed to get away with this Morse sequel. Lots of lovely Oxford stone and quadrangles, Barrington Feloung music and posh criminals. Laurence Fox is a great new character as the public school, theology graduate sergeant.

Will it last? I think those shots of Oxford quads could sell anything.

Life on Mars (series 2)

One of my favourite current TV shows is back, complete with bronze Ford Cortina, sideburns and sheepskin coats. I couldn't even resist the chance to see a episode 2 on BBC4 straight after the first one.

If you haven't caught up yet, DCI Sam Tyler has found himself back in the world of 1973, following a road accident during a police pursuit. He even has a job as a policeman, and people seem to know who he is. Last series it seemed pretty clear that his 'retro' life was somehow being played out in his mind, whilst he recovered from a coma. Occasional blips of sound from a hospital ward and visions during shows on his old TV seemed to be glimpses of the present.

It just got spookier in series 2. In the first series, the phone would ring and Sam heard a voice from 2006/7; now he can have a conversation with it, and even call it up himself. The last two episodes also raised another weird possibility. Sam's actions in his 1973 world seem to have a real effect on life in today's world. So which era is real, or are they both?

At first sight, some of the characters seem almost cartoonish '70s people, with all the sexist (and in episode 2, racist) banter. But as things go on, they become more real, and the interaction of Sam with that world is intriguing. In the first series I was also aware of how limited some of the camera shots were, to avoid the need for a very expensive CGI Manchester. But as it goes on, the claustrophobic feel of that world seems very appropriate for what is going on.

I just want to know how it ends, but not before enjoying 6 more episodes.

Whistle Test

Caught up with some of my musical past when I taped a set of compilations from the Old Grey Whistle Test screened recently. For those who can't remember, OGWT was a pioneer of providing an opportunity for bands to play their music on TV. Back in the days of only 3 TV channels, you could stay up late and watch even album tracks being performed (if your TV could get BBC2!) The only other place for regular music was Top of The Pops, which focussed on singles which were climbing up the charts. Apart from that, there was the occasional special 'In Concert', or a few arty programmes and some oddities like Colour Me Pop.

OGWT also had a minimalist set - like bare TV studio walls and the band's PA equipment. You even sometimes saw cameras and lights, which was almost unheard of. I remember it from about 1977 onwards when they even had some films from bands playing live in the US and sometimes a studio audience. Usually it was just the presenters and production team.

On seeing the really early stuff (pre-Bob Harris) I realised that the 'live' performances were limited, probably by budget to the band singing and limited playing to a backing track. Fairport Convention's drummer wore a t-shirt with 'miming' on it. Later they got enough gear so it was all live in contrast to the lip-synching TOTP.

It all looks dated now (although the Arctic Monkeys revisited the idea in their 'Bet you look Good...' video, which again was played live in a basic studio). The Tube moved things on a generation, and we now have 'Later', but I have a soft spot for OGWT. Music on TV probably wouldn't be the same without it, and it's got an amazing artist listing in the archives.

For some reason I remember one of the later shows, which I watched after seeing Neil Young at the NEC (about 1983). 'The Last film I ever saw' by Kissing the Pink was featured, as was 'The Message' by Grandmaster Flash and Furious Five - probably the first hip-hop ever on telly.

Now, where's that Wishbone Ash album...