Nobbut laiking with Ross Brewster
You would imagine it to be a veritable bastion of free speech and lively controversy.
Not on your nelly. The Edinburgh Fringe this year has, says one veteran critic, been “the most censorious” ever.
I know quite a lot of people from around here make the trip north of the Border to enjoy a few days at the festival and take in some interesting Fringe events.
However the 2023 Fringe has gone all soft and wobbly faced with comedians who enjoy winding up audiences with some near the knuckle material.
What is wrong with a Britain that is scared of words? A country that can’t handle debate. A country that perpetually seeks out offence where there is none and no longer does irony. Once irony is lost, comedic art is lost forever.
Critic Kate Copstick, long a Fringe fan, said: “It’s not open access, it’s only if you say the right things and good grief that is like Soviet Russia.”
Last summer The Pleasance cancelled an appearance by comedian Jerry Sadowitz after complaints by front of house staff and audience walkouts. His act was labelled racist, homophobic and misogynist. It could be he’s opposed to all these things, but these days audiences don’t think, they just follow causes like sheep.
An SNP member Joanne Cherry was “cancelled” at another venue when staff felt uncomfortable with her views on transgender.
Later she was re-instated, but the theatre had to hire extra security for fear protesters might cut up rough. I ask you, extra security. Where are we heading when people can’t hold a debate without fear of violence?
But we’ve seen it happening for a while now and allowed extremists to operate cancel culture with speakers and performers they disagree with. De-platforming probably meant getting off a train until it was taken over by students who could not face listening to views that differed from their own.
We are now in an age of the apology. How many TV programs begin with a statement warning super-sensitive viewers they might be upset by some of the language used?
If, like me, you are a fan of older comedy programs — let’s face it, much of the new stuff is tosh — then you will be familiar with such warnings. Heavens above, even The Two Ronnies were labelled with a warning when I watched one of their old shows recently.
I’m a great Rumpole watcher on the Talking Pictures channel. But even Rumpole of the Bailey, a great supporter of honourable causes, now carries an advance message telling us that it was made at a different time when language might now give offence.
It’s an insult to the intelligence. Don’t they think we are capable of working out for ourselves that the series was made a long time ago and we watch it in that context.
I weary of all this apologising and get annoyed when I see examples of cancel culture. It’s time we as a nation regained our right to judge offence for ourselves. Otherwise the day will come when nobody will dare speak out and we are only permitted to read books and go to the theatre as and when Big Brother permits.
When a Keswick shop got a free plug on the Beeb
Who says the BBC never carries advertising?
The recent death of George Logan — better known as Evadne Hinge, one half of a popular comedy duo in the 1970s and 80s — reminded me of the time Hinge and Bracket slipped a free advert for a Cumbrian theatre enthusiast’s shop into their weekly TV programme.
“Doing anything at the weekend?” inquired Hilda Bracket. “I’m going to Lindsay Temple’s shop in Keswick to buy some knicker elastic,” replied Evadne.
The Beeb were mortified, but what could they do? It was a live show. And their good friend Lindsay, a stalwart of the Century Theatre predecessor of today’s lakeside theatre in Keswick, got a free advert for his drapery shop.
For those that don’t remember Hinge and Bracket, they were the creation of female impersonators George Logan and Patrick Fyffe. It’s said they were so accurate in their portrayal some viewers thought the duo really were two eccentric old dears.
Alpacas go for the knackers
You don’t need to go far in our fair county without seeing woolly jumpers.
No, not the Herdwick kind, so useful in warding off winter’s chills. The fashion these days is not traditional Herdwick sheep, it’s alpacas.
Whenever I’m driving on the A66 between Keswick and Penrith I spot the cuddly-looking creatures grazing contentedly. There are lots of alpaca farms throughout the area.
However TV vet Julian Norton has a different view, Best to have males neutered, he says. Otherwise they have a habit of biting rivals’ private parts.
Just think of that next time someone suggests an alpaca-leading day in the countryside.
Musk’s ambition
The space race is becoming the province of the super-rich.
One such character is Elon Musk, the man I apparently have to blame for turning my Twitter pages into a giant X.
Musk provided the best quote of the week when he said he would like to die on Mars — “but not on impact”.
