Julian Clary

[Crusoe]

I’m not sure what everyone else thought about this. I suppose I was fairly ambivalent, on the whole, at least in part because I’ve never really been a big fan of Julian Clary. Some aspects of his life story were quite interesting, however, and he came across as quite a likeable person. I was intrigued to hear of the “notorious” incident at the awards ceremony because it was the first time I had ever heard about it. I thought it also showed the hypocrisy of the media and entertainment industries: it’s perfectly acceptable to do all manner of fairly irresponsible, probably illegal, things but to joke about having done something lewd with a former Chancellor is cause for blacklisting.

Sue was, at times, at her most annoying during this interview. I found her style rather interrogatory, ending her questions with “hmm?” or “huh?” when she was trying to get him to agree with her assessment of his life.

As for the music, I enjoyed “Big Fat Mammas are back in Style Again” and “Peace in the Valley” and found the yodelling quite funny but most of it was not really to my taste.

So, all in all, I suppose it was a fairly so-so edition for me.

[Tiger Lil']

I'm a big fan - but then am a bit of a 'fag hag' so someone kindly informed me!

I didn't hear it

[Billy OBuckle]

Well Crusoe, I keep wondering if the DID team have just come back from a relaxing holiday in Colwyn Bay, with lots of nice walks up the Great/Little Orme! This is the second DID in a row that’s I've found rather enjoyable.

I’ve always liked Mr. Clary – especially his kind and thoughtful voice – and loved the introductory story about his mother wearing a pair of knickers on her head! There tends to be a ‘beating’ hit parade within Catholic education (Christian Brothers used to be top of the charts during my own school days), so I was genuinely saddened to hear the story concerning his Benedictine headmaster beating him. Oh dear, what a dreadful crime to forget one’s swimming trunks. How ironic that Mr. Bolton was discussing the proposed banning of quiescent homosexuals from the priesthood (Sunday), when the Catholic church apparently condones the beating of children.

Listeners are usually aware if the guest has placed boundary limits in respect of the interview, but I certainly didn’t get the impression that Mr. Clary had done this. The loss of his partner must have been very difficult to talk about, yet it was clear that he (Mr. Clary) stayed loyal to the end. I also admired him for discussing his depression and the effect of the alcohol/Valium combination.

The musical choices weren’t really close to my own tastes, although I was interested to hear that he was a Dana Gillespe fan, since she’s a singer that I, too, have always admired. I love her version of ‘Andy Warhole’. For some reason, Barb Jungr always reminds me of listening to ‘Loose Ends’, so that didn’t go down too well. Mr. Clary’s love of yodelling songs is perfectly understandable.

DID is always interesting when the guest turns the tables on Miss Lawley and she’s caught off balance. Consequently, I was quite pleased to hear that she’s not interested in gardening, since one always imagines most R4 women spending hours in garden centres and fortunes on posh gardening hats.

Finally, I’ve always been puzzled as to why there always appears to be a degree of friction between Mr. Cary and Mr. Ross when Mr. Cary is a guest on Mr Ross’s Saturday radio show. Has anyone else ever picked up on this?

[Mrs Winthrope]

What a delightful program that was. A sweet, sweet boy.

So like my Gary.

[sea horse]

Billy said:

There tends to be a ‘beating’ hit parade within Catholic education (Christian Brothers used to be top of the charts during my own school days),

When I first joined Internet message boards, one of the first useful things I was able to do was to inform an ex-pat living in the Caribbean that the bane of his school life, (Christian) Brother Francis, had died at last.
The ex-pat still had the marks to show.