“As a writer and broadcaster about the arts, Jonathan Meades is essentially a nightmare that is happening to the spinning cadaver of Kenneth Clark.” Clive James
Where is Jonathan Meades? In the mid Nineties, he seemed ubiquitous. Turn on a TV in the evening and he’d probably be there, caricaturing himself. A stuffed suit, talking about architecture whilst standing sideways-on in a field looking at a cow. Then he slimmed down, and the transmissions petered out.
Incisive, with the best of judgement, the standard Meades televisual schtick was to deliver a non-stop stream of meaty pronouncements. As each perfectly boned and filleted trope flashed before you, it was whisked away almost before you could grasp the perfection of the execution, and in the meantime, even more excellence thundered past before you’d practically noticed. The man in the suit, who played with all the conventions of presenting, delivered lines in a loud lugubrious monotone, as if he had become too bored with our modern existence to partake in it himself. Many lines were disdainfully delivered facing away from the camera. Yet this breakneck agility and ice-cold intellectualism was always leavened and made palatable by the addition of his trademark comical Magritte-infused surrealist tableaux.
With his quick soundbites and jokey visuals, you’d think Meades would be perfect for the YouTube generation – so it leads me to wonder why we don’t see more of him about. He would be an ideal candidate to ‘do a Clive James’ and attempt to make a little online media centre to put out short films on pertinent topics. Surely there’s plenty in our current society to raise his ire and offer itself for dismantling. Luckily there’s a whole section of YouTube, the ‘MeadesShrine‘, dedicated to his work. Well worth seeking out. Here’s the start of a series that leads on nicely from Gaw’s Future Post of yesterday:
Loved him mincing around the western Isles in his city schmutter, expected him to be song writing with Bernie Taupin.
Spot on Worm, Rene would have had him sitting for the one with bowler and apple. If only more of the media creatures were as accurate.
He did a great thing on the North recently. It ended, memorably, in Finland, a fascinating country.
Meades has definitely carved out an odd little niche for himself, even amongst the rare breed of Televisual Pontificators. His style is more carefully preposterous than Clive James. I think they should let Tom Paulin do a series in this genre – he would out-preposterise them all.
“Finland, Finland, Finland
The country where I quite want to be
Your mountains so lofty
Your treetops so tall
Finland, Finland, Finland
Finland has it all”
Brit – you’re right, Meades is totally preposterous! And yes, Tom Paulin would be super awesome, leaning back, squinting at things and rubbing his chin; before emitting a noise like a deflating lilo.
Meades actually attended the same west country school as me – a second-rate holding pen for farmer’s sons. He must have left the teachers fairly confounded I suspect.
He did an excellent fairly recent programme on Scottish football clubs with no obvious link to place. It was top stuff.
Oh yes, I saw that too, Stephen, but had forgotten about it. What I was surprised at were the tiny crowds. It’s amazing some of those matches get reported on the national news when you’ll find more people at any one time in attendance at your local Tesco Extra.
Meades is too damn clever, and his progs too arty and expensive, for mainstream TV, so he’s been exiled to BBC4, where he emits from time to time. He is the best, tho I thought Peter Ackroyd’s attempts at presenting, channeling Orson Welles, Edgar Lustgarten (and yes Meades) showed promise. He looked as if he’d been wheeled into position and was incapable of anything more than a slow, whole-body turn through 90 degrees. We need more of this kind of presenting. The lugubrious fellow who told us about The Normans had a crack at it, but he clearly had the use of his own legs.
And then there’s Brian Sewell of course…
I think Nige may have the revolutionary idea here: Slow Presenting. One could have a series in which the presenter doesn’t appear at all in the first programme, because he will not be disturbed from a long and proper lunch. I watched some of that programme on Scottish football towns with a fascinated horror, as if a visit to Cowdenbeath was on a par with being cast into the abyss. How fitting that Broon is the local MP for one of them. It’s good to be reminded of the programme’s creator. I enjoyed the bits of Magnetic North I saw too. I wonder if he really likes anyone.
Meads seemed to quite like the Finns, Mark. Mostly because their architecture was refreshingly ugly as I recall.
Apparently, Nige, Peter Ackroyd is a demon disco dancer. I think his approach to locomotion is cetacean – a stately and measured progress very occasionally interrupted by dramatic leaps and dives.
but who would win in a dance-off between Ackroyd and Salman Rushdie?
Meades is one of the best.
He upped sticks from Britain a few years ago and now lives in France, which may account, to some extent at least, for his absence from our screens. However, I suspect the main reason was that he didn’t fit into any particular pigeonhole and refused to use the words “I’m on a personal journey to discover…” at the start of his shows.
BBC Four seems a purpose built home for him, so I hope they get commissioning him quick while he’s still prepared to do this sort of stuff.
The day I discovered the MeadesShrine on YouTube was a highlight of that particular year. Can’t recommend it enough.
ah, thanks for commenting and relaying the extra info Burghblue, france seems like the kind of place for Meades, seeing how they like their ‘intellectuals’ – and very true about the pigeonholing i’m sure!!
This post was most presentable until Brit brought out Brian (yes Salvador, of course I will) Sewell, arch accent of the airwaves, working class hero and trenchant tosser.
The sewell/salvador story is pretty excellent though!