Rich Hall's Continental Drifters [tv show about road movies]

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Oenone

Contributor
Veteran XX
Great show about the history of road movies. Download it and watch, makes me want to sit down and watch all of the ones he talks about straight through.

Part of the BBC's All America Season, Rich Hall’s Continental Drifters (BBC Four) saw the curmudgeonly comedian ride through the history and symbolism of that great US institution: the road movie. This was a treat, not just for fans of Hall’s relentless acerbity, but because the genre boasts some enduring classics: Paris, Texas and Badlands are among the all-time great films.

Driving through those badlands of South Dakota to the mountains of Montana, Hall stripped down the genre’s appeal. “A true road movie is about escape from oppression: it’s a literal portrayal of rebellion.” A prime example, he said, would be Thelma & Louise, because people could identify with that rebellion. Punctuating his witty observations were film clips, interviews with historians and shots of the spacious vistas so integral to road movies.

The best part of the 90-minute documentary came when Hall, defending the reputation of muscle cars, unleashed an unexpected diatribe against Jeremy Clarkson, whom he called the “ill-informed and overhyped god of all things automotive”. “He’ll tell you that [a muscle car] can’t compare to a Ferrari,” he ranted. “But comparing a muscle car to a Ferrari is like comparing Jeremy Clarkson to a real television host. If this car was a woman it’d be Elizabeth Taylor. If Jeremy Clarkson were a woman, I wouldn’t be a goddamn bit surprised.”
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Watched it air on bbc4 ;] Ive been a massive fan of him for years, 'dirty south' is also fucking stellar

Its a bit awkward recommending him to people irl, though, because my name is aldo rich hall ;]
 
now that I'm back home, another good BBC4 documentary that I saw the other day:

BBC Four - Andy Hamilton's Search for Satan

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Just how did the Devil get inside our heads? And who put him there? For Halloween, award-winning comedy writer and performer Andy Hamilton (creator and star of Radio 4's acclaimed infernal comedy Old Harry's Game) explores just who the devil Satan is, where he comes from and what he's been up to all this time.
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i liked rich hall's interview with clarkson on top gear (especially his heavy handed efforts at using british vocabulary)

also, my parents bought his sniglets books -- the covers were festooned with hype about the hot up-and-comer rich hall and his hbo show "not necessarily the news"

at many times during the 1990s, when i read those sniglets on the toilet, i found myself wondering what ever happened to rich hall

it is cool to see that he is still alive
 
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'what happened to rich hall' is that he made a career for himself in england

which makes sense because english people have their own certain tastes when it comes to standup, and he just seemed to fit in more here :) same as with reginald D hunter

I must admit though

it does fuck with me to be typing my name out in reference to a different person

goes against 10 years of therapy ;]
 
thats 3 things I share with him

the name
the fact that he can bore people to literal death
and the fact that he looks like the half-rotten corpse of a particularly ugly frog
 
Al'Muktar said:
Watched it air on bbc4 ;] Ive been a massive fan of him for years, 'dirty south' is also fucking stellar

Its a bit awkward recommending him to people irl, though, because my name is aldo rich hall ;]
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I am of course fully aware of how gauche it is to quote oneself, but it's been rattling around in my head since I posted it

picture me hungover and generally looking like shit (aka looking like me)

walking into the kit-room saying 'hi I'm rich!' and everybody looking at me as if I'm a cunt bragging about being wealthy (to the fellow brits out there: that's a 'raised eyebrow')

6 months later, after I've finally managed to integrate and take on the tradition of picking on the 'new' guys:

'hey uh did you see that documentary by rich hall the other night?'

me saying that to a room full of documentary crew that know my name

'its not that fucking documentary about a bouncer you made? jesus you narcissitic fuck'

aaaakwaaaaard :picard2:
 
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