khaosworks (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
khaosworks) wrote2006-07-05 12:26 pm
khaosworks) wrote2006-07-05 12:26 pm
Entry tags:
Current Personal Soundtrack
I got Series One of Steven Moffat's brilliant 1990s sitcom Joking Apart in the mail. The show only lasted two series, spread over a few years, and never got the audience it truly deserved, so it died. Critically acclaimed, wonderfully acted, hiliariously funny and poignant at the same time, the premise for the comedy is an unlikely one: Mark Taylor, a comedy writer, starts off the series with the single line: "My wife left me."
As Moffat puts it, it's a romantic comedy about a romance that has already died. The show weaves in and out of Mark and Becky's relationship in flashbacks over the course of the season, juxtapositioning it with the present day and Mark's trying to cope with the fact that his wife has left him for another man. Moffat based the sitcom on his own life at the time, and the bitterness does show and is sometimes painful to watch. However, he is equally as hard on himself, if not more, than the wife-substitute in Becky. The non-linear structure prefigures the type of comedy we see in his later Coupling, and Moffat's wit here is rougher but no less biting.
I first watched Joking Apart when I was studying for my law degree and it taught me everything I know about how to structure a farce. The line between comedy and tragedy is often said to be a fine one, but in farce you can see exactly how fine that line is: the fast pacing, the absurd situations and justifications, the snowballing predicaments that leads to even more and more absurdities. It's certainly not fun for the people, but it's funny from the outside nontheless. It's the monster snowball that starts from a single snowflake that explodes at the end which is the essence of it all.
Joking Apart was not available for years, but still very fondly remembered by its audience, until an enterprising fan got the license from the BBC to put together a DVD. He even got Moffat and the other stars to do commentaries and a short making-of feature, and it's all very professionally done. Look for it at replaydvd.co.uk, and hope that he releases Series Two as well. It's brilliant stuff. Go get it if you've never seen it, and if you've seen it before, here's your chance to see it again. I was watching it and I'm amazed at how much I still remember and has stuck with me over the years.
I've been singing the theme song all day.
Fool (If You Think It's Over)
by Chris Rea
Dyin' flame
You're free again
Who could love and
Do that to you
All dressed in black
He won't be coming back
Save your tears
You've got years and years
The pains of seventeen
Unreal they're only dreams
Save your cryin' for the day
Such a tragic scene
He knocked your crown
And ran away
First wound of pride
And how you cried and cried
But save your tears
You've got years and years
We'll have a real good time
Save your cryin' for the day
As Moffat puts it, it's a romantic comedy about a romance that has already died. The show weaves in and out of Mark and Becky's relationship in flashbacks over the course of the season, juxtapositioning it with the present day and Mark's trying to cope with the fact that his wife has left him for another man. Moffat based the sitcom on his own life at the time, and the bitterness does show and is sometimes painful to watch. However, he is equally as hard on himself, if not more, than the wife-substitute in Becky. The non-linear structure prefigures the type of comedy we see in his later Coupling, and Moffat's wit here is rougher but no less biting.
I first watched Joking Apart when I was studying for my law degree and it taught me everything I know about how to structure a farce. The line between comedy and tragedy is often said to be a fine one, but in farce you can see exactly how fine that line is: the fast pacing, the absurd situations and justifications, the snowballing predicaments that leads to even more and more absurdities. It's certainly not fun for the people, but it's funny from the outside nontheless. It's the monster snowball that starts from a single snowflake that explodes at the end which is the essence of it all.
Joking Apart was not available for years, but still very fondly remembered by its audience, until an enterprising fan got the license from the BBC to put together a DVD. He even got Moffat and the other stars to do commentaries and a short making-of feature, and it's all very professionally done. Look for it at replaydvd.co.uk, and hope that he releases Series Two as well. It's brilliant stuff. Go get it if you've never seen it, and if you've seen it before, here's your chance to see it again. I was watching it and I'm amazed at how much I still remember and has stuck with me over the years.
I've been singing the theme song all day.
Fool (If You Think It's Over)
by Chris Rea
Dyin' flame
You're free again
Who could love and
Do that to you
All dressed in black
He won't be coming back
Save your tears
You've got years and years
The pains of seventeen
Unreal they're only dreams
Save your cryin' for the day
- Fool if you think it's over
'Cause you said goodbye
Fool if you think it's over
I'll tell you why
Newborn eyes always cry with pain
At the first look at the morning sun
Fool if you think it's over
It's just begun
Such a tragic scene
He knocked your crown
And ran away
First wound of pride
And how you cried and cried
But save your tears
You've got years and years
- Fool if you think it's over
'Cause you said goodbye
Fool if you think it's over
I'll tell you why
Newborn eyes always cry with pain
At the first look at the morning sun
Fool if you think it's over
It's just begun
We'll have a real good time
Save your cryin' for the day
- Fool if you think it's over
'Cause you said goodbye
Fool if you think it's over
I'll tell you why
Newborn eyes always cry with pain
At the first look at the morning sun
Fool if you think it's over
It's just begun
New born eyes always cry with pain
At the first look at the mornin' sun
Fool if you think it's over
It's just begun
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(Anonymous) 2006-07-05 07:16 pm (UTC)(link)Paul H
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