The News Quiz: A Vintage Collection: Archive Highlights from the Popular Radio 4 Comedy
Barry Took, Alan Coren, B.B.C. Radio comedy and Simon Hoggart
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This is a sparkling collection of archive highlights from The News Quiz, which began on BBC Radio 4...
Please, Mister Postman
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In July 1969, while the Rolling Stones played a free concert in Hyde Park, Alan Johnson and his...
This Boy
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Alan Johnson's childhood was not so much difficult as unusual, particularly for a man who was...
Postcard from the Past
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WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY MARK HADDON In Postcard From The Past, Tom Jackson has gathered a collection...
Nobody Move
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Jimmy Luntz owes money to a man called Juarez. Trouble is, Juarez isn't the most patient of men. And...
Politics: Between the Extremes
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"Compelling". (Ian McEwan). "Engrossing". (Alan Johnson). "Essential". (Robert Peston). "Important"....
Sex - Tantra and Kama Sutra: Bringing You the Soul of Sex
Podcast
Tantra, Tantric Sex, Kama Sutra... Many people believe you can get closer to God through a practice...
Christians and Jews in Angevin England: The York Massacre of 1190, Narratives and Contexts
Sarah Rees Jones and Sethina C. Watson
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The mass suicide and murder of the men, women and children of the Jewish community in York on 16...
Say No to the Devil: The Life and Musical Genius of Rev. Gary Davis
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Who was the greatest of all American guitarists? You probably didn't name Gary Davis, but many of...
Bob Mann (459 KP) rated David Brent: Life on the Road (2017) in Movies
Sep 29, 2021
Here in “Life on the Road” we join Brent 15 years later where he has taken a rung or two down the career ladder and is working as a sales rep for Lavachem, a sanitary goods manufacturer, also based in Slough.
But Brent still harbours a dream of making it big in the rock world with his middle-of-the-road band called ‘Foregone Conclusion (2)’. Gathering around him his ethnic rapper ‘friend’ Dom Johnson (Doc Brown) and a band of session musicians (who can’t stand him), Brent cashes in “several pensions” to fund a tour of the venues of Berkshire… or at least, those that will give stage time over to a “shite band”. As the tour delivers predictably diminishing returns, and no record-company interest (at least, not in him) Brent is forced to face his inner demons and some uncomfortable truths.
Bringing TV comedy characters to screen is fraught with difficulty, and few have successfully done it. Even legends like Morecambe and Wise struggled with a series of lacklustre films. Perhaps in recent times Steve Coogan’s Alan Partridge has come closest with “Alan Partridge – Alpha Papa” and indeed there are a lot of similarities visible between Partridge and Brent: both have extreme ego issues and self-centredness. But there are significant differences as well, for while Partridge is just an irritatingly loud and obnoxious minor-celebrity Brent – as this film makes much clearer – has real mental illness.
Brent - the sun shines out of his earhole.
Brent – the sun shines out of his earhole.
Is this therefore a comedy at all? Well, yes, but in a very black way. There are certainly moments of excellent humour, with the tattooing scene being a high-point. But the result of watching Brent’s progressive decline, with his nervous laugh as a constant ‘fingernails on chalk board’ reminder of his insecurity, results in a level of audience squirming that is palpable. Everything he does is perverse, from describing in excruciating detail every song before singing it, to spending his money on multiple hotel rooms when every gig is within the County of Berkshire.
As a black comedy its important that it doesn’t outstay its welcome, and at 96 minutes it doesn’t. However, the film lacks the courage of its own dark convictions, and unnecessarily switches tack in the last reel to provide a degree of redemption for Brent. Whilst ‘sweet’, it is also implausible given what’s happened before and I would have suspected the interference of the director in lightening the mood of the writer’s original intent. However, as Gervais is both writer and director, there is no such excuse. That’s a shame.
So, in summary, an uncomfortable watch that aligns appropriately with the high squirm factor of the original TV show. Prepare to laugh, but feel a bit guilty in doing so.