Friday, 12 June 2009
Man on telly
George Szirtes is currently (between 10.00-11.00pm) to be seen on a television programme called The Book Quiz on BBC4 TV, where, like half the contestants, he is not famous enough to appear in the billing, yet , with the aid of the lovely Natalie Haynes, goes on to fight his way through to the final, where they face... and then go on to...
If you miss him tonight you could happily go on missing him but no doubt BBCi will persist in showing the programme for week.
In the meantime, in and out of Norwich. Wedding arrangements. Meeting groom's parents. Entertaining. Eating. Packing for Rotterdam on Sunday.
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6 comments:
You didn't say, 'bollocks'
Ruthless assassin of poet-type knowledge types.
Masterful.
Can I say it now, Plump?
Ruthless was Padel's middle-name.
BBCi can't be viewed outside the UK. Living in Holland has its drawbacks.
So sorry I can't come to Rotterdam. Wish you a wonderful time there!
George - I only turned on 20 minutes before the end, so perhaps I missed something significant; but while your performance was magnificent, the programme is dreadful: Kirsty Wark snaps out a question, Szirtes gives the correct answer, everybody else looks a bit shifty, we move on to the next question. Couldn't there be some conversation, some context? Surely the whole point of a panel game - as opposed to a quiz like Mastermind or University Challenge - is that the questions are an excuse for getting the participants to talk about the subject. When Motion was given a quotation from Keats, why didn't Wark mention that he'd written a biography and ask a bit about that? When a line turned out to be from Herrick, why wasn't she telling us a bit about him, asking the panellists what you thought of him, challenging you to quote a few more lines? At the very least, when you spotted a quotation couldn't we have then had the preceding or succeeding lines read out? They could have got you to recite stuff as well as recognise it; there could have been some recognition that poetry is written in other languages. What a lost opportunity. But, again, you were fantastic.
George, my Warhol moment was on a Tyne TV quiz with Sachs and Bakewell. I also didn't merit billing. My opponent was the all-Ireland Scrabble Champion. She wasn't billed either. Quackers, eh?
Be very interested to learn how your Hungarian ear found the sound of grass roots Dutch :-)
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