Friday, November 24, 2006

Frank Sidebottom, Simon Pegg, Pickled Turtles, Leia In A Jar And Simon Pegg - Now That's What I Call A Proper Telly Show


The first episode of
Frank Sidebottom's Proper Telly Show is online now, courtesy of Channel M, the Manchester TV station that produces it. I doubt you'll see anything so brilliant on TV all week, and certainly nothing so eccentric. You can also see the show on Sky channel 203 or NTL 878.

That's Frank Sidebottom above. I think he bears a striking resemblance to BBC DJ Mark Radcliffe... has anybody ever seen them in the same room at the same time? Or, for that matter, heard them talking over the top of one another?

Episode one features a some pickled Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles, Princess Leia in a jar, a tour of Timperley and an interview (of sorts) with Antonio Fargas, while Simon Pegg - who was up in Manchester promoting
Hot Fuzz - is either in part two of this episode, or coming along in a subsequent installment (I can't see part 2 on my Mac due to weird tech issues that are, really, all my own fault).

Apparently, Sidebottom grilled Pegg on such pressing matters as what colour pen he uses to do his scriptwriting. That's an interview we all want to see.

I hear that young Frank
will be launching his belated attack on the American media - first stop Letterman! - on April 1st next year. Unless, of course, I've been pre-emptively fooled.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't think Frank is Mark Radcliffe. Mark was Frank's keyboard player for a while. After Mark left Jon Ronson took over.

Anonymous said...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Sidebottom

Brendon said...

Sure, sure... but does this Chris Sievey even exist?

Anonymous said...

Yes. Formerly fronted punk/mod band The Freshies and briefly diversified into game design before creating his better known alter ego in the '80s. This is not some great secret, y'know; ebay or similar would yield a number of his old music projects.

Anonymous said...

I saw a Chinese New Year show a couple of years back and the Chinese dragon was being taunted by a little fella who was the spitting image of Frank Sidebottom. Honestly, he had the same shaped head and everything - only he had flip-flops on his hands and he kept patting the dragon and spanking it lightly on its hind quarters. So maybe Frank is a weird hybrid form of dragon taunter that originated in Chinese mythology? Any experts on Chinese
mythology out there?

- Lee Hutchinson

Anonymous said...

Frank has a brother www.easy.de/content/easy/easy000704/mc.jpg