Megalodons Compared To A Whale Shark

Harry Enfield and the past who returns

A man without qualities?

have long been obsessed with some advertisements in newspapers and magazines that I had cut out religiously during my holiday a -studio in Great Britain in 1994 and collected in a folder. I do not know what happened to this folder, but the ads still remember them at a distance of sixteen. They were the Mercury Communications , which in the '80s was the first telephone company in the UK to challenge the monopoly of British Telecom with their fares, telephone booths - the phones were still in the bricks with the antenna - and his personal code.
The protagonist of this campaign in black and white with touches of blue, the color of Mercury, Mr. Grayson was an honest British middle-aged with a mustache and grisaille. The whole country was in a perfect '50s style, with an air of constant amazement to Marvels of modern science that Mecury made.

Mr. Grayson to grips with the calling card Mercurycard

was as if the Wind instead of Panariello and Vanessa Incontrada did a campaign with Paola Cortellesi made up and dressed Edy Campagnoli ...

The idea at the time - the end of the twentieth century - it was brilliant: the novelty of the product that married with a communication from an era where everything was celebrating "the magnificent and progressive." (The same idea was recycled for the Coca-Cola in 2010). But what I did not know was that Mr. Grayson was one of many characters created by actor e scrittore comico inglese Harry Enfield .
Alla fine degli anni '80 e all'inizio dei '90 Enfield sviluppò personaggi memorabili come l'insopportabile nuovo ricco Loadsamoney (il nome è una contrazione di "a lot of money", "un sacco di soldi") e gli ancora più insopportabili coniugi Considerably Richer Than You , marito e moglie della classe media che passano il loro tempo a ricordare a tutti quanto essi siano "assai più ricchi di voi". Una citazione a parte merita l'adolescente Kevin , che giunge allo scadere del tredicesimo age of becoming the nightmare of families: Teen. This character will serve as inspiration to the student hell Lorenzo starring Corrado Guzzanti :

Kevin the Teenager

Lorenzo

Returning to Mr. Grayson, it was actually co-star - or rather, the 'helper' of an incredible TV presenter of the 30s (the BBC began its first broadcast in 1929) , Mr. Cholmondley-Warner (actor Jon Glover), whose mission is to bring back with his highly educational films the healthy values \u200b\u200bof the British Empire.


Here, in the splendor of black and white television "age", a firm call for all women to know their limits and not to use their silly little heads:

The stylistic features of the educational film are there: the voiceover, the initial situation wrong, the "scientific" explanation con il cartone animato e la situazione di arrivo "corretta". Quest'altro filmato invita invece le giovani a scegliere bene il marito per non incorrere nel minefield of caddishness (nel gorgo della disonorabilità):

Da notare la parata dei pretendenti, dallo "straniero" con brutte intenzioni - che naturalmente parla con l'accento francese - al Mister Hyde barbuto che rantola " I find you uncommonly beautiful ...". La ragazza sembra aver perso tutte le speranze, ed ha una crisi isterica - e viene adeguatamente schiaffeggiata - quando finalmente lei nota Charles (Enfield), un timido giovane che sta firmando un substantial allowance for the poor to filthy rich and a devout member of the Anglican Church, it is important to show "less modestly for people in need that for themselves." 'S him.

The interesting thing is that the advice given by Mr. Cholmondley-Warner are very similar to those that can be found today on the women's magazines.

Here other educational films, including a guide for spouses embarrassed "likely to produce offspring ..." ( in order to produce offspring ... ):

in 1989 on Channel 4 aired the fake documentary (or "mockumentary") Norbert Smith - A Life on the extraordinary career of the greatest actor of the 20th century that Britain not 've ever had. Enfield and written by Geoffrey Perkins, in fact - in the style of Zelig Woody Allen - a ride on the ironic history of British cinema, from "social dramas with redemption" of the '30s to what The film is sentimental for British excellence, Brief Encounter '45 (here reduced in a commercial detergent), the Free Cinema 60 to the Carry On comedy scollacciate of '70. From white and black color paste to the television, the slightly senile actor is lost in memories, constantly supported by his wife-carer. Below is the entire movie on YouTube in segments:

"His father was a man. His mother, a woman."

The movie is so fun to overcome any barriers language (acting sliced \u200b\u200btypical of the first sound films transported in the slums of London is irresistible, as well as accents "northern" driven to such an extent that transform the depressing realism into something surreal). The same goes from Enfield interpretation to another without us noticing it: he gets all the players around the cinema of the United Kingdom, the only missing Karlheinz Böhm it Peeping Tom (perhaps because the story was really too tragic, "modern" to be able to turn into parody)

Currently Harry Enfield, after a period di allontanamento volontario dalle scene, è ritornato alla BBC2 con una nuova serie: Harry and Paul .