Talk:N. F. Simpson

Sources

I know that there is almost nothing in print about Simpson, undeniably important as he is. I suspect that the majority of the current content of this article came from the recent BBC Radio 4 documentary. If that is true, we should move the mention of the documentary to "Sources".Cutler 07:46, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

Looking at the history, there seem to be very few edits post transmission of the programme (which, by the by, I listened to and found interesting) so not a 'source' for the article. --AlisonW 20:37, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

Bum! I wonder what the source was then. However, if not the "source", it could still be used as a citation if the info was recited therein. Sadly I only caught the last 10 minutes. Cutler 23:42, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

Hi there, thanks for looking and listening. I was in fact the researcher of the Radio 4 documentary and decided to compile a new page ahead of transmission. On request, I've thrown in a few references where footnotes were obviously needed. Please alert me to any others. I'm also rather new to Wikipedia...Iangreaves 13:16, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

May we keep the Wood Engravers link, as it's not very Wikipedean, but almost perfectly Simpsonian?

By the way, Iannucci may never have heard of Simpson, but did you ask Chris Morris? Compare Blue Jam with Sketches for Radio... Grangousier 18:26, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

Interesting possibility, but I've often assumed that the Blue Jam sensibility stems from things like Kazuo Ishiguro's The Unconsoled. Must dig out the Sketches For Radio script again and give it the once over! Iangreaves 21:18, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

I'm thinking of things like the two ladies, one of whom is complaining that the newspaper is exactly the same every day, and it becomes evident that they're both insane; Or the telephone operator who thinks she's Joan of Arc. Banal situations that become increasingly strange and also disturbing as they go on - very like the doctor strands of Blue Jam, or the "x trapped in y's body" sketches.

It would also explain the "World in Ferment" / "Day Today" thing, were it not for the fact that Morris is too young to have seen it.

I'm glad to see Simpson is being rediscovered, though - the Sketches for Radio had a tremendous effect on me when I was young (I had it on a tape, with something like "Hello Cheeky" on the other side).

For context, there was also Milligan, who wasn't mentioned in the show, was he? On the one side there was 'serious' absurdness, like Ionescu and Beckett, on the other there was Milligan, with Simpson in the middle.

This is only Saloon bar pontificating, though, not genuine critical insight.

---

No, I take your point re Morris, and it's conceivable that he was twiddling the dial for Sketches. I think he'd just have arrived at boarding school. It's more likely to have stemmed from Peter Cook though, who had a highly Simpsonian sense of humour as we argued. Vivian Stanshall too.

Something I really should add to this entry in the fullness of time is the sheer mess that is the NFS archive at the BBC, not just in terms of recordings but scripts too. For instance, they've long since ditched the tape of Sketches For Radio* and the script is not present at the Written Archives. I eventually tracked down a script amongst Wally's private collection, though it seems to be missing one of the six sketches originally submitted. According to the production file Martin Esslin wasn't keen on "the funeral one" and I've found no evidence to suggest that it went out at all, or whether the producer vetoed Esslin's recommendation to drop it.

The total obscurity of Simpson's Seventies work is a particular crying shame. Thankfully, recordings of Silver Wedding and Thank You Very Much still survive.

• Needless to say, my eyebrows pricked at your mention of a cassette. Does it survive?

On your final point, perhaps an interesting observation - perhaps not - from the theatre critic and broadcaster David Benedictus, who I spoke to during early research. He observed that one possible reason for Wally's slip into obscurity was, to paraphrase, that he wasn't foreign like Ionesco or dirty like Orton (cf What The Butler Saw), so through no fault of his own he was almost unsustainable, or untantalising as a cult writer. I reckon there's some truth to that.

Iangreaves 23:42, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

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