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.

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 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. 

X-factor clarification

Having caught a bit of the dreaded programme last night, I'd just like to clarify that the best piece of music during the programme is Neon Rainbow by the Box Tops which you hear briefly over the TalkTalk sponsorship ad.

Thank you.

An Exercise in the Risks of Democracy

There will be too much blah about Nick Griffin and the BNP on the web already, but I feel last night's Question Time can't pass without comment here. After a little thought and some discussion, I watched it with Debs and Jono, as we all wanted to see what would happen.

In a democracy, if a political party is legal, and commands a certain level of support, it is allowed a degree of coverage. BNP party political broadcasts have happened, so the QT appearance was inevitable. If you ban parties because you don't like them, you begin to compromise the very freedoms you are seeking to uphold.

On balance, I felt that given the BNP have MEPs and councillors and 1,000,000 votes, they need to be scrutinised in the same way as conventional political parties. In fact the panel did a very good job of ensuring that Griffin had to deny a number of things he said, and fall back on homophobic remarks and an argument about indigenous people. The problem was that everyone tried to talk at once, and Jack Straw was so angry and emotional, he verged into incoherence.

It seems to me that we shall have to take the BNP on with different kinds of arguments in the future. I think they are best thought of as heretics (to risk using a churchy word). It was once said that all good heresies contain a grain of truth, but then make it horribly distorted. What began to be acknowledged by mainstream politicians last night was that the BNP have put their finger on some real concerns. One is the pace of change that communities have experienced, and secondly they have also identified a sense of isolation in white working class people who have seen a lot investment in multiculturalism, but haven't felt it has been matched in their own communities. (In fact some investment is now being targeted)

Whatever the facts, that is how people are obviously feeling if they are desperate enough to vote for neo-fascists with a random set of policies based on prejudice. The solutions aren't the BNP's, but we have to take seriously the causes of their support or the right-wing will gain momentum. Question Time won't necessarily help the BNP; neglect of the issues they are exploiting certainly will.

As for indigenous, well where do you draw the line? Comparing white British with native Americans or Maoris, as Griffin does, is ludicrous. They were swamped by an invading white colonization that was better armed and resourced, and they now live as minorities in the land they had settled for thousands of years relatively undisturbed. Britain has always been in flux, experiencing repeated migrations over the last 3 millennia (Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Viking, Norman... need I go on?) Furthermore, ethnic minorities today are still precisely that - minorities. The 'white mainstream' still dominates statistically and politically.

Th party also has a 'voluntary' repatriation scheme. One wonder how voluntary this would stay, but sending people 'home' is also a nonsense in a genuinely multi-ethnic society. What is home to a British-born person of Indian or African or Polish heritage? At this rate, I'll be encouraged to repatriate to Denmark because my ancestors came from Lincolnshire, so wee must all be descended from Vikings.

What Griffin and co mean is that they think they can rewind the clock to a Britain where the general ethnic mix of the previous 800 years or so (post-Norman conquest) created the settled establishment of Britain up to World War 2. Of course, in truth that was always a changing mix and received many migrants from Europe and beyond, but this debate is not about logic and reason; emotion and prejudice rule here. We can't wind the clock back, and we shouldn't even think of doing so, as Griffin's portrayal of a 'better' ( and of course whiter) past is a deception, a fantasy and an illusion. Worse, it is precisely the kind of rhetoric that creates division, suspicion and demonises the 'other'.

I hope Griffin lost support by his performance on TV, but the argument won't be won by ignoring him and hiding him. He and his cronies need exposing for what they really are.

Glastonbury on TV

Looking forward to keeping up with the coverage this weekend. Saw the Specials doing Ghost Town - a Coventry inspired song by the city's most famous band. Fleet Foxes were an interesting discovery: beards, clapped out acoustic guitar and Crosby Stills & Nash harmony. Speaking of CSN they are on today so looking forward to that. Quo and the Boss still to go. It's like time travel.

-- Post From My iPod Touch

Teaching

Interesting discussion on TV about plans for 6 month teacher training. Lots of talk about the job and employability of bankers. No use of the term 'vocational' which is commonly used at our Uni for such courses. You don't have to credit the call to a deity in order to see teaching as a career which merits people with a strong sense of purpose. Not sure unemployed bankers come into that category.

-- Post From My iPod touch

Swearing

The whole Ross / Brand thing has raised quite a debate about bad language on TV, and more generally in society. I've recently corresponded with a friend who was somewhat surprised at the amount of swearing he heard in a church context. It was timely, then, that Clive James decided to address the issue on Radio 4 on Sunday in his contribution to Points of View. In it he also refers to Frank Skinner's experiment in eliminating swear words from his routine, which had little effect on the number of laughs he got.

Skinner's observation in an interview I heard was that he was surprised how well it went. He will continue to use swear words, as they are more dramatically and comically effective when rationed, but add punctuation. As he puts it "clever swearing, the beautiful, eloquent swearing", referring to Chaucer as a literary precedent!

James is in sympathy with this view and suggests that laughs from audiences that are shocked / embarrassed by over-use are very different from proper laughs from an audience that has been amused by clever wit and humour.

Best to read the article - he puts the case much better.

Strictly Fun

Let's be clear - I don't watch Strictly Come Dancing. I live with X-Factor addicts, so the choice wouldn't be open to me anyway.

It's been fascinating to see the fuss being made about John Sergeant's departure and the apparent pressure he felt under because he was surviving when better dancers were voted out.

Sounds like a sense of humour failure with some people. It's a bit of fun for Saturday tea-time, not a technical context for dancing excellence. If you want to go to a 'proper' dancing contest, I'm sure the Tower Ballroom, Blackpool could oblige.

That's the trouble with letting people vote - they don't always choose the 'right' result!

To see Paxo interview Sergeant, click here

The Stig

A lot of speculation about the identity of the current Stig on Top Gear. David Coulthard is retiring from F1 after today's race, so there's a career option for him!

Recap the weekend

It was a busy weekend. Set off Saturday morning to get to Nottingham for Keith & Carol's silver wedding celebrations. (I was best man - see left!) The party was held jointly with Paul & Penny, and by some coincidence both couple have a child (grown-up) at Lancaster University, so I was able to help with transport.

Got to Nottm for lunch with Mum and Dad and also got to watch the England - Kazakhstan game. Key thing about that match: formations? 4-3-3 vs 4-4-2 (or was is 4-2-4?) The left-side problem reappearing? No. What struck me was that the manager knew what to do when things weren't going so well.

After all, 3 wins with 11 goals is hardly a bad start to a campaign. It'll be tougher on Wednesday, though.

Great party, with lots of blasts from the past around the room. Good company and a great time. What's more, the band who formed for the night put on a remarkably good sounding and tight set of great songs. A splendid time was guaranteed for all.

After a slowish start and Sunday lunch, got back in time to set up PA for Inspire, our evening worship, which was led by Martin Walmsley from St Thomas' on music and worship. Martin shared his vision for what he does as music director and led us in songs familiar and new.

Finally got home to flop and watched Peter Kay's very well-observed X-factor spoof. Haven't seen the 'results show' section yet (so don't spoil it!) Will Simon Cowell ever get over it?

And now - it's back to Monday morning.

Life On Mars update

The US version of the series has just launched. The script is supposed to be 75% the same, although I can't quite imagine how Gene Hunt translates into US English. Previews have generated very favourable comments, so it will be interesting to see how it works out and whether it migrates back across the pond (like Office USA)

Hislop, Railways and Beeching

Enjoyed watching Ian Hislop on the story of the famous 'Beeching axe' - when many railway lines, including many much-loved scenic branch lines were closed. It goes out again on Sun Oct 5, or see here Hislop is both a train-lover, but also a realist, so he told the story with an affection for the railways, but also a degree of realism about the romance of a 1950s British Rail train.

In the end, of course, it was a mixed story. Some lines never paid, and should probably never have been built. Some lines were closed for goos and proper reasons. Other lines were closed for dubious reasons with even more dubious statistics. In some cases, it even seems that timetable adjustments ensured trains didn't connect and hence passenger usage dropped. All in a period when the Government had a transport minister who had made his money building roads...

Now, of course, some of those lines would never be closed and some have even been re-opened. The closure of the Waverly route from Carlisle to Edinburgh is perhaps the most drastic - with a section planned for re-opening from Edinburgh to Tweedbank. Likewise some people believe parts of the old Great Central route from Marylebone through Rugby, Leicester and Nottingham on to Sheffield and Manchester would be a great route for Channel Tunnel freight (with some necessary diversions!).

It's all a sorry tale of vested interests, wasted money, missed opportunities and lost assets. There's just something about the landscape that makes a disused branch line evoke something we can't feel about a car plant or a steel works.

Secret Millionaire

There's so much TV involving cameras wandering around after people in 'real life' situations, and I'm not a great fan. However, I've found this series fascinating, despite its potential vulnerability to criticism for being voyeuristic, exploitative or patronising.

The basic plot, if you're not a watcher, is that millionaires live 'undercover' on a basic allowance in a deprived part of the UK. There is an explanation for the camera - making a documentary about new starts, or life in the city, etc. They then get to know some people and organisations, with the expectation that they will make some donations at the end of the programme.

Over the course of the series, it has been very striking that the biggest change is often not in the causes or individuals that they end up supporting, but in the millionaire themselves. Nick Leslau who is estimated as worth £200 million, spoke about the experience of making friends with people who were completely unaware of his money. Most relationships he forms carry with them the suspicion that his money is a factor; in inner-city Glasgow, he was free. Others spoke similarly about being valued for who they were, not what they had.

It made me rethink the story of the rich young man who Jesus met (Luke 18:18-30) A few have taken it this passage be taken literally, like St Francis. Curiously, fundamentalists have been less keen to do so; of course that may have something to do with the fact they are often quite wealthy! Usually the incident is seen as moral condemnation of the rich man, either for being rich per se, or for having the wrong priorities. I just wonder whether it's also about freeing the man to know love, community and relationships that are not tainted by his wealth. Mark says Jesus looked at him and loved him (Mk 10:21); maybe his seemingly harsh command is to free him to know love properly.

As a footnote, they also did a programme on what happened next for some of the millionaires. They continued their relationships and some spent a lot more money trying to give something back to the area they originally visited, and some go back on a regular basis. Catch an episode if you get a chance.

Olympics

Have been picking and choosing my Olympic viewing, but it's been great stuff. Usually lots of heroic failures and a few unexpected valiant victories make up our medals tally. This year the confidence of the team has been fantastic.

What's been odd is that people have written about it as if it's surprising that the Olympics make good TV. Obviously it's better when we're winning, but where have you been? I think my earliest Olympic memory is watching with my mum when David Hemery won the 400m hurdles in Mexico (that's 1968). Also saw Montreal Olympics coverage whilst in the US in 1976 - the ad breaks were dominated by Chevrolet and Kodak. I can still remember the Chevy jingle, but wish I could forget it.

Later

Just watched an awesome line-up on Later with Jools Holland. Paul Simon, David Gilmour, David Crosby, Graham Nash and Elvis Costello. Not to mention the Streets and some pretty wild drum-based music from Brazil. Couldn't believe Gilmour ended the show with Arnold Layne, the first ever Floyd single, if my music trivia memory serves me right (1967 at a guess)

Despite all this talent, the really interesting track was Never Went to Church by the Streets. Not a big fan, generally, and with an 8 & 11 year old in the house, their lyrics aren't usually PG certificate. But this track certainly warrants a listen - all about coping with bereavement, and pointing to the inability of organised religion to connect with his needs. Much more serious than it sounds on first listen.

It is still my ambition to attend a recording of Later, so if anyone out there knows how, please get in touch!

Redemption

Have been a bit quiet this week on the blogging front. Not quite sure what caused all the distractions.

Enjoy is not quite the right word to describe the experience of watching the drama based on the story of the Moors murder screened last week on ITV. It was, however, both gripping and harrowing viewing. Apparently they received quite a lot of cooperation from the families of the victims, as well as from Myra Hindley's brother-in-law, who reported them to the police, but was also held under suspicion for a period.

The story raises a whole variety of issues. The obvious one is the question of forgiveness. I quite understand that all the families cannot forgive Hindley and Brady for what happened. The question for me is whether I believe that they could be forgiven. This is especially relevant for Hindley, who became a practising Catholic again in prison. One way of seeing this is that it was a cynical attempt to get parole, but what if she was sincere? Do I believe that she should be forgiven? Do I believe in a God who would forgive her under those circumstances? I expect for many the response would be that she should "rot in in hell", but that can't ultimately be a Christian reaction. If we start putting limits on God's grace and forgiveness, where's the threshold - how bad is too bad? And it starts to make God limited in what he can do - who he can redeem. If some redemption jobs are too big for God (assuming penitence, genuine intent, etc), he can't still be God?

The second one for me was the iconic nature of Hindley. Over the decades since, plenty of people have been cruel and sadistic to children (sometimes even their own children), yet haven't become a photo that the tabloids print at every available opportunity. Maybe it was something about being a woman involved in all that stuff, maybe she was the first in a TV/media age. Maybe it was something about that bleached hair in the police mugshot. It's not that I want to mitigate anything that she did - it's just she wasn't the first woman to be cruel to children or the last. She may not even have been the worst.

It would be a tough sermon to preach: "I believe in a God who would forgive Myra Hindley if she genuinely turned back to Christ". Trouble is, it's what the Christian gospel has been for 2000 years. Not sure the Uk's ready for it yet

A very British crisis

Image via Wikipedia

Just read that MPs tabled a motion proposing a ban on the sale of Blue Peter badges. Apparently there has been outbreak of badge buying and selling, as they can give you free access to a range of attractions around the country. (more at BBC News here) Now two Lib Deb MPs have tabled a motion (news here) calling for the sale of badges to be banned. Even Ebay took them off their site.

How do you ban the sale of one badge and not another? And how will they make the legendary Blue Peter badges secure? Will they require photo ID, or chip and pin? (could be good names for the next Blue Peter dogs)

I can understand why they have got so upset about it, but there are so many vouchers for major attractions floating around in circulation anyway, I wonder how much damage it has really done.

A very British crisis

Compelling viewing

Watched the Facing the Truth programme chaired by Desmond Tutu over the last two nights, and found myself unable to take my eyes off the screen. The sight of victims and former paramilitaries facing up to one another and dealing with the strong and complex emotions involved was gripping. Some of the encounters were disturbing and others were deeply moving. Over it all was Archbishop Desmond - probably the only living Anglican Christian hero I've got. Something about him stopped the discussions being a slanging match. His wise, almost ageless face invited people to be vulnerable, and yet also say through to their souls. As my son said "he really is Yoda". Awesome stuff, yet my own discomfort watching it left me wondering if it was also felt intrusive and voyeristic.

Life on Mars

Really enjoying Life on Mars, the time-travel drama running on BBC TV at the moment. If you haven't seen it, it involves a police officer who gets knocked down by a car, put into a coma and wakes up as a copper in 1973. There is always some ambiguity as to whether he has travelled through time or whether this is his internal thought world during the coma, but it becomes more and more clear it is the latter.

The problem is that back in the present, people are starting to wonder whether to keep the life support running. We only know this because he occasionally hears voices from the present either on the TV, in dreams or by rather odd phone calls. He can hear them; they can't hear him.

I think it raises lots of interesting questions, yet manages to portray them in an amusing way:

1) When is it the right time to switch off life-support? How can we know?

2) It gives an interesting slant on solipsism - the belief that everything is a construct of our own mind. If this 1973 world is Sam's coma, then it is all a product of his imagination. It isn't true solipsism, of course, as Sam has a body of experience of other beings before his coma; the true solipsist wouldn't acknowledge any other beings. However, Sam forms relationships with these other people in his coma world. What lasting value do they have. What would happen to that Sam if he comes round?

3) We have the impression that Sam's recovery depends on him fighting his corner in 1973 - maintaining his values, beliefs and integrity in the face of the sexism, racism and homophobia of that period. It made me wonder if there are parallels for people with belief systems in a secular world. As a Christian do I retain my 'reality' by holding on to my beliefs in the face of an uncomprehending world?

4) You just remember how much the world has changed since 1973. Quite apart from all the 'isms' quoted above, it is just another (and more smoky) world.

The question I have is how on earth can they end it?