Cliff Top Caution.
‘My Generation’ – its virtually impossible to hear those words without acquiring an earworm that taunts you all day with a stuttering echo:
Things they do look awful c-c-cold (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)
Yeah, I hope I die before I get old (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)
That song became the theme tune encapsulating the tortured angst of the generation destined to be the world’s first teenagers. Our musical tastes had been dictated by our parents – Frank Sinatra on 78 records if they were in skittish mood; ‘Time for Opera’ on the BBC Home Service if not. It was only when the generation before us turned into their late teens and early 20s that they produced music for us.
Elvis Presley, Billy Fury, Tommy Steele; our parents were disgusted by their greasy hair and tight trousers – why couldn’t they stand still and enunciate their words properly? There was one pop idol they made an exception for, one who didn’t offend them quite as much, nay, some of our Mothers and Grandmothers were quite taken with the young man.
Cliff Richard. He quickly made the transition from Butlin’s Holiday camp to the Manchester Hippodrome – to the London Palladium. By 1960 he was a guest on the Pat Boone show in America – and appearing in front of the Royal Family at the Royal Variety Performance. As safe and establishment as you could ask for. Some of us even deserted him at that point – he just wasn’t sufficiently outré for a teenage rebel. E’en so, to this day he retains a large and devoted fan club.
A very disappointed fan club. A quite angry fan club.
It would appear that Cliff Richard never existed. He was a figment of our imagination.
It must be so; for the BBC, that Reithian organisation whose mission is to ‘inform, educate,and entertain’ informs us so. The new generation of teenagers have been treated to a lesson in the history of pop music:
BBC Music today announces a raft of exciting programming around BBC Music: My Generation, a year-long landmark season of programming across BBC TV, Radio and Online charting the history of pop music across the decades, from the mid-1950s to mid-1990s through the memories of the people who were there.
The first episode, covering the period 1955 – 1965 was broadcast two days ago, on Saturday night. Guess what? Not one of ‘the people who were there’ had the slightest recollection of Cliff being there! Nobody saw ‘Stars in your eyes’ for the six months he appeared on that; Nobody heard Livin’ Doll get to Number One. Nor Travellin’ Light; incredibly, not one person had any memory of ‘The Young Ones’! Curiously, they did seem to remember the Shadows, his backing group, but not the snake hipped young man who stood in front of them. Most odd.
Odder still, was that one sharp eyed fan noted that when a clip of the Shadows was played, she remembered it so well, she was able to identify the obscure arm and a leg appearing at one side of the clip as being the genuine article – Cliff Richard. Yet still no one remembered him. Not by name, by image, or by any of the songs that he made world famous.
The BBC went to great pains, hiring helicopters and film crews to film the police raid on his house – they were well aware that those who remembered him would want to know that he had been swept up in the raft of allegations post Savile. The BBC’s coverage of the raid was nominated for scoop of the year at the Royal Television Society Television Journalism awards.
When the Dame Janet Smith report was published, they were so sure we would remember Cliff that they chose archive footage of him with Jimmy Savile on Top of the Pops to illustrate their coverage of the report. A deliberate attempt at guilt by association which has quite rightly earned them a stiff warning from libel lawyers.
Yet given a serious documentary on the history of pop music during a period when he dominated the scene in England – they have managed to airbrush him out of existence.
Is this an act of bitchiness by the BBC in retaliation for the legal warning?
Is it the work of a stalinist organisation determined to rewrite history?
Is it the work of lawyers terrified that someone somewhere will claim to be ‘triggered’ by the image of a wholesome young man singing his famous number one?
Does this mean we must approach every documentary, on every subject, broadcast by the BBC, with a series of reference books by our side to check what they have left out?
Can we trust the work of say David Attenborough – was there a ‘cliffosaur‘ between the dinosaur and the titanosaur that they dare not mention?
Is there any point in a BBC wallowing in revisionism?
What think you?
- The Blocked Dwarf
April 18, 2016 at 9:38 am -
When you said “Young Ones” I thought you meant “THE Young Ones”! Apparently though that CLiff bloke what Rick was always writing odes and sonnets to , did a song with that title? The things you learn…
Rick: [reading his ode to Cliff Richard] Oh Cliff / Sometimes it must be difficult not to feel as if / You really are a cliff / when fascists keep trying to push you over it! / Are they the lemmings / Or are you, Cliff? / Or are you Cliff?
On a more serious note, if i were heading up the Beeb’s legal team then I would have long ago advised them NEVER to show footage of any celeb still living EVER.
- Pericles Xanthippou
April 18, 2016 at 9:48 am -
One need only look at Lord Hall-Hall’s coverage of, e.g., climate change and the E.U. plebiscite to know that he has his own agenda.
Reith? I’d be surprised even to hear his name.
ΠΞ
- Moor Larkin
April 18, 2016 at 10:00 am -
BBC have gone full-out batshit crazy
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-3543832/BBC-new-Savile-storm-putting-child-abuser-bizarre-fake-photo-alongside-characters-hit-television-drama-Line-Duty.html
“In the episode, a retired police officer called Patrick Fairbank is suspected of covering up allegations of abuse and is quizzed by investigating officers about his links to a paedophile councillor called Dale Roach. He is reluctant to co-operate until officers produce a photograph which shows him and Roach greeting Savile. Fairbank is asked if he recognises the man in the picture, which police tell him was taken on August 7, 1995. He replies: ‘I think we all do.’A reference to Operation Midland in the same episode will also be controversial because the real-life Metropolitan Police operation resulted in one of the country’s most decorated war heroes, Lord Bramall, 92, being falsely accused of historic child abuse claims.
- Anne
April 18, 2016 at 10:37 am -
The BBC have been accused of ‘gross insensitivity’ gross insanity more like..
- Mrs Grimble
April 18, 2016 at 10:48 am -
I’ve been enjoying watching Line of Duty so far – the writing and acting are both brilliant. But it’s current unquestioning mythologising of HCSA stories is turning me off it completely. Don’t think I’ll bother to watch any more; I might just read the plot recaps to find out what happens to the characters.
Whatever happened to writers and dramatists who were prepared to challenge peoples’ beliefs and thinking?- Ted Treen
April 18, 2016 at 5:36 pm -
They were cast out by the PC luvvies – ANY reference to reality is more than their little minds can take.
- Ted Treen
- Peter Raite
April 21, 2016 at 10:52 am -
That’ll be the tortuously ham-fisted unoriginality of Jed Mercurio for you…
- Anne
- Bandini
April 18, 2016 at 11:00 am -
I was pondering all this wretched revisionism this morning during that blurry period between sleep and wakefulness: half a century of a nation’s yearning had finally come to an end as England’s football team once again hoisted the World Cup aloft…
Commemorative DVDs were produced, street-parties held, programmes commissioned – until one of the team’s young players got sent down for being a creep & failing to be the role-model one might expect of a man earning a year’s salary in a single week (since being plucked from secondary school as a pubing teenager).Then what? A hush falls over the pubs and bars as tanked-up patriots sheepishly cover their celebratory tattoos – and never mind the father who named each of his charming eleven off-spring after one of the heroes!
(Maybe it was the athletics doping ‘scandals’ that allowed this flexible attitude to history to take root, those 100m sprinters who came in 4th fifty years ago now elevated to Olympic gold-medal winners in the ‘record’ books; I wonder if they really FEEL like winners, though?)
Anyway, here’s a good article (2009) from a ‘tastemaker’ which sought to give Cliff his due:
“The late 60s and early 70s produced a wealth of forgotten Cliff treats. After Throw Down a Line came The Joy of Living, a snipe at postwar town planning, of all things. Silvery Rain was about pesticides. Then in 1972 came a single called Jesus. Robin Turner of Heavenly Records remembers being a teenager, “head full of all the usual prejudices that 18-year-olds have” and hearing the song. “It absolutely floored me. The most amazing thing wasn’t that I was having my mind blown by Cliff, it was that I was being mind-blown by a Christian rock record that sounded like a pill-ravaged Primal Scream circa Movin’ on Up.” To add to the fun, Jesus was written by somebody called Hamburger.”
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/sep/17/cliff-richard-bob-stanley
- :Fat Steve
April 18, 2016 at 11:06 am -
Gosh Anna I have noticed you are particularly insightful and incisive on a Monday morning. Don’t know what you do with your week ends but its got to be the intellectual equivalent of a 12,000 mile service and tune up
Personally I have never been one for popular music though I do recollect when young that Cliff Richard was ‘big’ but the point I see you making in this post is how the BBC (the media in general ?) interprets its duties to ‘inform, educate,and entertain’. There are of course irreconcilable contradictions in those duties …..just as frankly there is nonsense talked about ‘balance’ .
Objective truth (in so far as there is such a thing) is often an inconvenient old thing to those in the media who (quite rightly) see that public demand is for entertainment ….most spend their week ends looking for affirmation rather than in questioning.
After a week at the coal face what do people want? The intellectually anodyne or the intellectually rigorous ? Gosh if the history of something as important as popular music and the cultural history associated with it is subject to full deconstruction and honest analysis then the plebs might start to question the present. So leave out the difficult bits ( whilst the narrative continues to be of use to build upon) so the equation appears to balance and the end result appears more positive than perhaps it is.
Panem et circenses …..The circus was seen as a reenactment of Rome’s great victories and so the battle of Teutonberg Forest was glossed out of Roman history though of course not totally forgotten and when questions are asked why European history has been the way it has been? ….Why the big mistakes ? The answer in part may be that it is rather dangerous to gloss over the inconvenient parts of a narrative.
So yes I can just imagine an editorial confrences at the Beeb when this series was being made …..probably not sinister …..this is a celebration not an education …..no one will thank us if we put the difficult bits in …..they want simple answers not difficult questions …..give it to them its what they want.- The Blocked Dwarf
April 18, 2016 at 11:27 am -
.they want simple answers not difficult questions …..give it to them its what they want.
Yep, that’d be my bet too…along with the Gypsy’s Warning from the legal team.
- The Blocked Dwarf
- Dave G
April 18, 2016 at 1:18 pm -
What they can do to people’s reputation with so little regard for evidence and justice is terrifying. But then, the C of E are not much better. Look what they’ve done to the reputation of one of their own, Bishop George Bell, with no concrete evidence!
- Jonathan Mason
April 18, 2016 at 1:53 pm -
The C of E no longer exists. They have abolished the Book of Common Prayer, and started calling God “You” when everyone used to know him more intimately as “Thou” or “Thee”. Without the old words that generations of Englishmen and women had recited, there is nothing left but graves in church walls, creaky organs, stained glass windows, and World War I memorials, while weddings and funerals provide a modest income.
- Jonathan Mason
- Duncan Disorderly
April 18, 2016 at 1:24 pm -
I suspect, in fairness to the BBC, that their lawyers probably recommended that any image of Cliff should be removed just to be on the safe side. Just a hunch.
- Jonathan Mason
April 18, 2016 at 1:49 pm -
Ah, Sir Cliff! He started my adolescence. The first colour movie I ever say in a cinema–this was long before colour TV–was Summer Holiday in which young Cliff and a group of pals fixed up an old red London bus into a RV camper van and toured the continent of Europe avoiding low bridges, meeting cute girls, and (most importantly) getting off with them.
Five years later, as an acolyte of Sir Cliff, I was a hippy hitch hiking to the Greek islands and sleeping on a beach at the age of 17, and getting off with girls. Thank you, Sir Cliff.
Now the media generation of our children and grandchildren just want to throw Cliff under the bus. They probably want to euthanize us too, come to think of it.
- Moor Larkin
April 18, 2016 at 2:44 pm -
@Jonathan Mason
you might enjoy what Cecil King (of the Mirror) said Jimmy said to him re. the elderly and sympathy
https://twitter.com/moor_facts/status/721790008982642688
- Moor Larkin
- Stewart Cowan
April 18, 2016 at 2:02 pm -
“Can we trust the work of say David Attenborough – was there a ‘cliffosaur‘ between the dinosaur and the titanosaur that they dare not mention?”
As long as I can remember, BBC mind controllers have forgotten that they are supposed to be unbiased and have ceaselessly promoted evolution theory: the 18th century mistake which the social engineers must hang on to to achieve their objectives.
- Stewart Cowan
April 18, 2016 at 2:05 pm -
Mr Attenborough was also one of the patrons of the Optimum Population Trust (now ‘Population Matters’) which called for the UK population to be reduced to 30 million.
If anyone is interested: http://www.realstreet.co.uk/2010/11/eugenicist-conference-at-the-scottish-parliament-calls-for-population-to-be-reduced-by-a-quarter
- Oi you
April 18, 2016 at 7:20 pm -
I’ve long been aware of David Attenborough and the Population Trust and their aim to reduce the population. Thing is they don’t say how they’re going to achieve it….! Beggars belief that in the meantime our glorious leaders have been hell bent on opening the doors to millions of migrants.
:o)
- Stewart Cowan
April 18, 2016 at 9:02 pm -
Attenborough and Co. at least want to end mass immigration, but the Government doesn’t, as Blair aide Andrew Neather admitted, because they are using it to change our culture.
UN Agenda 21 will help see to it that there is a much larger depopulation than even Mr Attenborough wants, through tainted vaccines, chemtrails?, food additives and shortages, abortion, euthanasia, encouraging homosexuality, enforcing maximum family size, etc. and of course: wars.
- Stewart Cowan
- Oi you
- Pud
April 20, 2016 at 1:24 pm -
Perhaps the BBC, in order not to be biased, should start Songs of Praise with a warning that many people think Christianity is wrong?
- Moor Larkin
April 20, 2016 at 2:51 pm -
if the Anglican Church goes the way of the Papists, they may have to abandon it altogether and wipe all the tapes, not just the ones with Jimmy on…
- Pud
April 21, 2016 at 12:53 pm -
Anyone interested in reading the scientific response to some of the misunderstandings that a number of religious people have about evolution may like to see https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13620-evolution-24-myths-and-misconceptions.
In my experience most religious people don’t have a problem with evolution which isn’t really a surprise as it’s not scientists that say evolution denies god, but religious people who think it does.
- Moor Larkin
- Stewart Cowan
- Jonathan King
April 18, 2016 at 3:11 pm -
It was actually airbrushing me from the wonderful Top of the Pops that I complained about (on behalf of other viewers; I was personally rather glad not to see my younger self). Lord Hall Hall is now so loathed by the rest of the BBC staff that I would strongly advise him not to stand on those nice church steps on the next Ides of March. I gather employees make the sign of the cross at the mention of his name and carry garlands of garlic cloves beneath their neat shirts. As for Moor… this isn’t the first time your musical taste has provoked a frown, dear. Lucky your research is so impeccable.
- Moor Larkin
April 18, 2016 at 5:16 pm -
@Mr.King
you may have forgotten that, “Its Good News Week” is right up there with “Eve of Destruction” in my pantheon of Sixties 3 minute pop music genius.- Jonathan King
April 18, 2016 at 5:19 pm -
OK Forgiven!
- Jonathan King
- Moor Larkin
- Ed P
April 18, 2016 at 3:42 pm -
Slightly paraphrasing Walter Scott’s Marmion:
Oh what a tangled Webb we weave
When BBC tries to deceive!- Ed P
April 18, 2016 at 6:26 pm -
Too subtle? Cliff’s real name in Harry Webb
- Ed P
April 18, 2016 at 6:27 pm -
is, not in, silly fingers
- Ed P
- Ed P
- Penseivat
April 18, 2016 at 3:44 pm -
If/when a retrospective of Cliff’s career is made, perhaps clips from TV programmes would exclude any made on the Beeb, with no mention of that channel being made. Whatever his private life involved, there have been no reports of rent boys being motored down to his mansion, no fake marriage to make out he’s something he’s not and, to the best of my knowledge, he’s never been into drugs or promiscuous gay sex. His music can be rather bland and sometimes too spiritual but it’s always easy listening and the shows of his I’ve been to (Mrs P is a fan), I’ve always enjoyed. Leave the bloke alone unless hard evidence suggests we do otherwise.
- Jonathan King
April 18, 2016 at 5:20 pm -
And being lucky enough to have met him a few times – he is a genuinely nice and decent man.
- Ted Treen
April 18, 2016 at 5:43 pm -
I fully believe you:- but that’s anathema to today’s luvvies and luvvie acolytes, whose own leftie PC-riddled morality is the only acceptable one. Widerstand ist zwecklos: Sie werden assimiliert werden.
- Eric
April 20, 2016 at 2:39 am -
I think it’s more like the Russian journalist I recently heard interviewed who said Russians never believed anything in their media in the USSR days but couldn’t understand why those in the West believed the tosh in their own media when they weren’t obliged to.
- Eric
- Ted Treen
- Jonathan King
- JuliaM
April 18, 2016 at 4:56 pm -
The BBC has gone mad. Like ancient Egyptian pharoahs, demanding the removal of their predessessor’s image from all official stele.
- Ted Treen
April 18, 2016 at 5:45 pm
- Ted Treen
- Lincslass
April 18, 2016 at 6:07 pm -
To quote John Lennon “The first English record that was anywhere near anywhere was Move It by Cliff Richard. Before, there’d been nothing.”
BBC hierarchy may try to erase Cliff from ‘pop’ history BUT Cliff will long be remembered after they have turned to dust!
- John Mansell
April 19, 2016 at 2:47 am -
I consider ‘Move It’ the first ‘rock’ record. At the time we young ones (pun intended) of the male variety, were only interested in copying Hank. We got our cheap Woolies spanish guitars for Xmas and tried in vain to emulate him, drooling on being able to afford a Burns. In my case it was Jet Harris as I thought it would be easier to play a bass having only 4 strings lol. Then the Beatles happened and the rest is history.
Regards John (bass player of 64 yrs of age)
- John Mansell
- thelastfurlong
April 18, 2016 at 6:39 pm -
“Does this mean we must approach every documentary, on every subject, broadcast by the BBC, with a series of reference books by our side to check what they have left out?”
Simple answer – YES!
I find many BBC documentaries are pushing something we all “ought” to believe – or trashing something many of us take for granted. I hardly watch BBC documentaries any more. They feel like mind control!
I did not notice Cliff was missing – but I was an Elvis fan. Thank you for reminding me of what was missing. How sad.
- Stewart Cowan
April 18, 2016 at 9:08 pm -
I find many BBC documentaries are pushing something we all “ought” to believe – or trashing something many of us take for granted. I hardly watch BBC documentaries any more. They feel like mind control!
Indeed they are. I cancelled my TV licence eleven years ago, fully brainwashed into the evolutionary worldview perpetuated by these commies. Within months, I was exploring such things for myself and reaching very different conclusions.
Sign the petition against the TV brainwashing tax: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/112629
- SeXentric
April 19, 2016 at 11:05 am -
Rerun ‘thelastfurlong’, “I didn’t notice that alleged-pedo Cliff was missing – but I was a fan of true-pedo Presley. “
- thelastfurlong
April 19, 2016 at 1:33 pm -
Was Elvis a paedo?
- Mudplugger
April 19, 2016 at 3:16 pm -
Well, Priscilla was rather young, but whether that makes him a paedo depends on your opinion these days.
- thelastfurlong
April 19, 2016 at 5:40 pm -
Supposedly, her parents “made them wait” till she was 17.
But when you are an older person, like me, you will have friends who left home at sixteen and were working, or seeking their fortunes in other ways.
We have extended “childrenhood” so much, that nowadays children are artificially classed as children, when in reality they are young adults.
We’ve gone nuts.
- Don Cox
April 19, 2016 at 7:03 pm -
There really should be a clear distinction between children and teenagers.
- Eric
April 20, 2016 at 3:06 am -
My grandfather was 19 and my grandmother almost 16 when my father was born. So I guess dear old Grandad was an abuser & peedofile.
- Don Cox
- thelastfurlong
- Penseivat
April 19, 2016 at 6:58 pm -
I believe the term for someone attracted to a pre-adult, but post-puberty, is ephebophile. As one well known ex-punk rocker allegedly said, when accused of abusing a 14 year old girl, “I’m not a paedophile. She’s a groupie and if she’s old enough to bleed, she’s bleeding’ old enough!”
Just shows that you can take the man out of Chav city, but no matter how wealthy they are, you can’t always take Chav city out of the man.
- Mudplugger
- thelastfurlong
- Stewart Cowan
- Chris
April 18, 2016 at 7:44 pm -
Disregarding the lack of Cliff, I thought the actual show and concept was fairly original (‘The History Of Pop’ having been revisited (and latterly revised) for longer than I have been alive) and timely – for two reasons. Firstly, many of the devotees still around from the 50s probably won’t be around for that much longer, and secondly I do feel this ‘pop culture’ lark – in terms of being reverential and (something like) ‘true’ – is about to run its course, replaced by sneering revisionism and *megalolz*.
It would seem ‘7 Wonder’ – the company who are making these shows for the BBC – must have been under instructions to reduce Cliff’s presence to practically zero. Cliff wasn’t absent from the ‘Rock & Roll Britannia’ documentary also shown on Friday – but that was made 2013. So he hasn’t reached the level of a DLT just yet (probably due to his legal nous, and no other reason – ditto Tony Blackburn whenever he crops up on repeats)Coincidentally, I was doing a bit of “research” on Genome the other day, as to what was on BBC Four in September & October 2012. It seems they were in the middle of a re-run of the superb “History Of Light Entertainment” series of documentary’s just as the Yewtree death knell rang. That series was/is eight 90 minute documentaries first broadcast in 2006 and narrated by Stephen Fry, each focusing on an area of Light Entertainment. Part 1 was repeated Sunday 16th September 2012, Part 3 – on “Radio Stars” no less – was repeated Sunday 30th September. Part 4 – an exhaustive look at ‘The Comics’, including contributions from one Freddie Starr – was scheduled for October 7th, but that was that. Part 5 – on Popular Music and Easy Listening on TV, and starring the likes of Cliff Richard, Cilla Black, Bill Cotton Jr, Dave Lee Travis and one Sir Jimmy Savile – was shelved forever (replaced, oh irony, with a hastily-scheduled showing of ‘Fiddler On The Roof’) as was the whole series – the History of Light Entertainment having become, overnight, something reviled and rewritten and certainly not ‘celebrated’.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/programmes/schedules/2012/10/07- :Fat Steve
April 18, 2016 at 10:40 pm -
@ Chris …..The History of Light Entertainment
Oddly enough for reasons I cannot recall I happened to watch one episode on the web…..i thought it was on You tube but if it was it seems to have been removed …..can’t reacall which one but there was a clip of Savile which I think gave something of an insight into his charachter. It concerned how the name of Jim’ll fixit programme came into existence. Apparently the basic idea for the programme was thought up by senior BBC management and one of the big wigs approached Savile with the idea and asked him if he would do it …..the big wig said the programme would be called ‘Jim will fix it’. Savile appeared a little peeved about this and went to great pains to tell the big wig the programme would be called ‘Jim’ll fixit’ and repeating to the big wig words to the effect that it will be MY programme and I will tell you how it will be called.
To me (though whether I read too much into the clip is another matter) indicated what really mattered to Savile …..a compulsion to be thought central to the world of television/entertainment in that era ,……central to the culture that had taken root in the 60s and was being further developed, cleverer and more in tune than all the ‘officer class’ at the BBC and they would take orders from him rather than the other way round.I think in due course that transmuted into wanting to be seen as Saint Savile’ …..those struck me as his prime motives in life ……and I struggle to think he would have jeopardised that carefully constructed persona by being a serial and apparently reckless paedophile……even if young girls were his bag I just don’t see Savile as a risk taker ….nothing in his profile (such as I know of it) indicates other than constant careful calculation of every gesture and every prop he used.- Eric
April 20, 2016 at 3:04 am -
A ‘opportunist peedofile’ as the cranky ex-copper Jim Gamble called him “who took every opportunity to abuse someone of any age”. The latest nutbag rumour being that Jimmy is actually the father of Carol Thatcher after a liaison with Margaret while Dennis was otherwise occupied.
It really is a peculiar British thing, not apparent in the rest of Europe and quite apart from the BBC’s mendacity- a culture bred of gutter tabloids were there must be the ‘worst ‘ or the ‘best ‘ of everything. Thus Savile has been nominated as the Worst Abuser in British history, nay the World and from now on every case will be judged against his (alleged & never proven) crimes.
- Eric
- :Fat Steve
- Bill Sticker
April 19, 2016 at 2:41 am -
“Does this mean we must approach every documentary, on every subject, broadcast by the BBC, with a series of reference books by our side to check what they have left out?”
The answer to your question Anna is a loud and resounding ‘Yes’.
- Don Cox
April 19, 2016 at 3:21 pm -
Just the same as newspapers and magazines. And history books.
- Don Cox
- CalUKGR
April 19, 2016 at 12:34 pm -
Sir Cliff may have been ‘unpersoned’ by the BBC Comintern, but I’m fairly sure there is a well-resourced team bunkered somewhere in Media City already assembling a lavish, multi-part no-expense spared documentary of the life and times of Dame David Bowie – probably for an Autumn or perhaps even a Christmas/ New Year showing.
The BBC long ago declared war on all celebs who’s political outlook (and by extension target demographic) do not conform or correspond to their own narrow progressive definitions. Poor old Sir Cliff – he was always going to be thrown to the dogs. The late lamented Bowie, meanwhile, will be celebrated with a passion by the Corporation – almost certainly destined for true apotheosis and ascendance to pop sainthood.
Who knows what skeletons Bowie had in his closet? If anyone knows, they ain’t telling. Some ‘legends’ you steer well clear of, that’s the unspoken rule. Bowie’s reputation will receive a gilded send-off, complete with countless z-list nobodies all there to tell us how ‘unique’, ‘important’ and ‘shocking’ the old faker (Bowie’s own description of himself, btw) actually was. The funny thing is, that if one actually stops to examine the man himself, his politics were never very progressive or left wing – this £multimillionaire property owner, internet tycoon and business man never had much to say about progressive issues and – apart from an unfortunate incident in the 70s involving a public Hitler salute from the back of an open-topped Mercedes – he tended to keep his political opinions pretty much to himself. Something the Bonos and Springsteens of our day would do well to learn from…
- Bandini
April 19, 2016 at 1:03 pm -
That’s a very interesting point, the difference in the media’s treatment of Cliff and Bowie.
But it’s not really the case that no-one’s telling tales about Bowie – they HAVE done so, and they include exactly the kind of stories that first destroyed Savile’s reputation, for example. And this makes the difference in their treatment all the more telling.- Jonathan King
April 19, 2016 at 5:08 pm -
Yes Google Bowie and Rape and threads drop off the page. What puzzles me is – surely the numerous “credible and true” allegations which must have piled up, probably represented by Liz Dux, the moment his death was announced seem to have been ignored by plod. Why?
- :Fat Steve
April 20, 2016 at 10:27 am -
The point about the different treatment of Bowie and Richards is an exceptionally good one …..a similar point was made about Bill Wyman and his 13 year old ‘squeeze’ Mandy Smith . I can’t give an answer to the discrepancy …..why the narrative of one recieves different treatment than the other but anyone who can come up with the answer will contribute hugely to explaining why there is such confusion around the issue.
I wonder a bit if it might not relate to the level of cooperation that a celebrity affords to the media ……so long as one throws food to the beast it will not look to eat you.- Moor Larkin
April 20, 2016 at 10:45 am -
The police will not investigate Bowie any more than they investigated Savile, since they are dead. As to why they do not make solemn pronouncements about how Bowie degraded and defiled society may simply come down to the relevant “lead” in ACPO being a fan of Ziggy Stardust.
- :Fat Steve
April 20, 2016 at 11:27 am -
@Moor Larkin may simply come down to the relevant “lead” in ACPO being a fan of Ziggy Stardust.
Plausible and possibly true though I think both Police and CPS are more astute at guaging the easier rather than the more difficult collar .Savile, in retrospect, once dead, was low hanging fruit. (No Moor before we decamp to the pub car park I am not suggesting Savile was a paedo just that he was easy pickings to the media)
It doesn’t explain though the media’s present lack of enthusiasm to trash Bowie …..perhaps there is easier and cheaper mileage in the narrative of his ‘genius’- Moor Larkin
April 20, 2016 at 12:17 pm -
Not hard to imagine the “Bowie’s best ever” CD being a giveaway in the Mail soon…
- Moor Larkin
- :Fat Steve
- Moor Larkin
- :Fat Steve
- Jonathan King
- Bandini
- Valmai McLaren
April 19, 2016 at 12:52 pm -
Great article Anna – BBC is treading very carefully but really, it is too late for them to do that – they acted like a herd of elephants back in August 2014 and that rampage still hasn’t stopped with insensitive material dropped into the public arena from time to time by their programs and as someone else said, that program with Saville was guilt by association loaded up and fired! Not surprising the BBC got a shot over their bows because of that.
I grew up with Cliff’s music and have seen him adjust and change – like a chameleon almost – to bring music in a new way. He is brilliant at what he does and it is incredibly sad – as well as greatly unjust – at the way he has been marginlised by the media and whenever they have the opportunity to “Cliff – bash” even! They should ALL hang their heads in shame for what they are doing! He is a nice guy who has been an incredibly GOOD example of how to be a musician/entertainer and that sex. drugs and alcohol are not necessary to be successful! In fact these elements are, and can be seen in the lives of too many of the younger entertainers today something that destroys their lives and relationships.
Thank you once again Anna for such an amazing post to get us chatting on this matter which clearly needs to come to an end – especially for Sir Cliff who has NOT deserved any of what has been handed out to him. Thank God he has family and friends to support him, AND not forgetting thousands of faithful fans across the world. - Tracy Hodgkins
April 19, 2016 at 1:18 pm -
Thanks for a great article Anna, and thanks for picking up on the BBC’s increasingly desperate attempts to airbrush Cliff out of history. I don’t think this latest attempt is directly part of their smear campaign over the allegations Cliff is, ridiculously I might add, still facing. It’s part of what I believe to be nothing short of a hate campaign they’ve been running for years. Cliff is essentially a bit too nice, a lot too talented and far, far too Christian for the fools at the BBC to understand. Worse in their eyes, they’ve had no part in his success. Sure, he had a TV series with them in the early 70s, bringing in an average of 20m viewers a week, but they can’t say they started his career or that they’ve played any part in his continued success. This is not the first time documentaries on the history of music have airbrushed Cliff out. It’s been going on for years. What the BBC doesn’t like is the fact that Cliff was having hits for five years by the time The Beatles arrived, and he’s still going strong, in spite of the BBC cutting his radio airplay to relatively nothing. The BBC have failed for years to ruin Cliff professionally, so it’s quite clear they used the allegations they were tipped off about to get personal. They’ve lapped up every second of it, using it to try to obtain the RTS award, the report on the news of the clip of Savile, and just after the raid they cut the already low radio airplay Cliff receives by 65%. It’s vindictive and deliberate. I had the misfortune to come across the BBC’s Head of Newsgathering when I complained to the BBC about the raid coverage in 2014. The individual concerned was a nasty, vindictive piece of work who seemed to think what they’ve done to Cliff was funny. I hope one fine day that Corporation gets exactly what it deserves at the hands of Sir Cliff’s lawyers.
- Thimbling
April 19, 2016 at 2:34 pm -
I grew up in the 50s and 60s,and though I never bought pop records I was always aware of Cliff Richard as one of the big names in British pop at that time. “Travellin’Light” and “Livin” Doll” were the background music to my youth. A history of British Pop without Cliff seems inconceivable.Although he may have become a Grandma’s Favourite over the years,and many of us were dismayed when he became associated with Mary Whitehouse,Billy Graham and the Crucified Jesus Industry,we still saw him as a major figure in popular entertainment. Incidently,I was rereading J R Ackerley’s letters (Duckworth 1975)the other day,and was reminded how many men of an older generation were mashed upon the young Cliff. The chubbybum of “Expresso Bongo” may be a world away from the old trouper of today but I think he retains a touch of sparkle.
- Penseivat
April 19, 2016 at 4:25 pm -
Thimbling,
I can recall taking a girl I wised to impress to see that film, but who failed miserably after giggling when the character “Bongo Herbert” was introduced by Laurence Harvey, and then each time he appeared! With a name like I just couldn’t take it seriously. Sadly, the choc ice I bought her lasted longer than our subsequent relationship.
As far as the late David Bowie is concerned, didn’t he make an appearance at a tribute to Freddie Mercury, where he referred to the many friends Mercury had, and said that he had probably slept with most of them, before getting down on one knee and reciting the Lord’s Prayer? Musn’t speak ill of the dead, but I thought it was rather sanctimonious and couldn’t help thinking he was praying that he wouldn’t be taken with what killed Mercury. Perhaps someone was listening? A laughing gnome, perhaps?- Thimbling
April 19, 2016 at 5:49 pm -
Penseivat,
To be honest I don’t remember much about the film other than CR’s teenage chubbiness.I did see a stage production of the original musical(not the London one with Paul Scofield) and feeling that it had more bite than the film, but it’s all so long ago. I’m told the film has just been re-released on DVD.Perhaps I should have a look at it;then again perhaps not.
Thinking about the subject of the film,I wonder how very different the pop world of 1958 was from todays?
- Thimbling
- Eric
April 20, 2016 at 2:42 am -
The fact that the dreadful coverage of the raid on Cliff’s house was nominated for a Royal Television Society Television Journalism award really sums up the amoral media we have today.
- Jamie
April 20, 2016 at 11:49 am -
Sir Cliff has one of the worst Solicitors for hanging on to rich clients for as long as they can in the bussiness! BCL COPELAND under Paul Morris & Ian Burton. Eg for 18 months before the Max Clifford case they did zero PI work. None! Nowt! Nothing! They phoned me 2 days after he went to prison?! But they took another 3 months to get back in touch to tell me that Max has another solicitor from another company I’ll be working with. So for 15 months that’s what I did. Maxs own daughter did her best to keep her own solicitor & me out of the loop & it was she who hired the pair of us. When it became clear Maxs daughter Lied to the pair of us on a daily basis that was that. So poor Max has to stay where he is or the stuff we have on his own daughters involvement could lock her up. So long term BCL got the sack & me and solicitor number 2 resigned.
So what about Sir Cliff?
He’s been bled dry by the same useless Soliciors who if you try phoning them up with info, the answer you get is “do you realise Sir Cliff is paying £150 for this call” ?? Yes I kid you not!! So no one has yet passesd on the failures of his own Soliciors who will bleed the man till the police hopefully drop the case.
I have all their private moby numbers if any of you are Sir Cliff Fans & maybe you can all tell his Soliciors how crap they are.
I have a 400 page dossier on who really did set Sir cliff up & the last person who was going to pass this on to sir cliff was Cilla Black until she died just one week after contacting her. Sir Cliffs media arm PHL will only pass messages to the very Soliciors who have screwed him! The guy who is Sir Cliffs Media man is ex news of the world editor Phil Hall & I think he’d rather sell a story on his own client than represent him. Other than flying to Barbados how on earth do I get an evidence bundle to Sir Cliff?BBCR2 banned Sir Cliff Songs a long time ago & the BBC thought it a good idea to get MW-T who in his own words who supplied all 3 of Sir Cliffs alleged abusers!! None of them phoned Yewtree, the local police nor the NSPCC who fielded all the allegations but they somehow tell a guy who has 21k Twitter followers from the day he joined Twitter in 2009 that Mr Sir Lord MW-T would be the person to contact? I think not as its seems to be a huge coincidence that MW-T has provided a lot of alleged ‘victims of celebs’
Ok going off on the beaten track is the BBC put out that program about abuse at the BBC blah blah & MW-T thought oh shit I’m off on holiday or that’s what I’ll tell my followers just in case people ask me a ton of questions and want answers!!
The Whole Yewtree/Kaddie & Midland et al investigations Stink to high heaven.
- Moor Larkin
April 20, 2016 at 12:19 pm -
and if you think that’s a bit wild, there’s always http://www.guardianlies.com/section%202/page2.html …
- Jamie
April 20, 2016 at 3:08 pm -
Argh. You may have stumbled on something Mr. Larkin as it was Al-Fayed who recommended BCL Copeland to Clifford & Sir Cliff? But he’s now on their books around the same time Sir Cliff got questioned for an allegation of rape already thrown out in the 80’s to come back and bite Al-Fayed on his backside. Also like Sir Cliff, Al-Fayed is still fighting this allegation for about 20 months all With the same useless solicitors.
- Jamie
- Duncan Disorderly
April 20, 2016 at 1:06 pm -
Um, right.
- Eric
April 20, 2016 at 2:32 pm -
Oh the very same Phil Hall who totally stuffed Hello! when he took over and cost them over 3 million quid in legal costs and damages to Michael Douglas over his wedding photos. And that was within a year of becoming editor. Mind you as ex-NoTW he may well be the right person for Cliff. He more than anybody knows the art of dirty tricks.
- Moor Larkin
- Jamie
April 20, 2016 at 2:55 pm -
Yes agree on that Anna, maybe Mr. king or someone who knows Sir Cliff could point out I’ve a Bundle of evidence to get him off the hook for good. Yes Eric it’s the Same Phil Hall who coat ‘Hello’ £3m. I deal with Neil McCloud who works for Phil Hall &…….he can’t even pass a simple message to Sir Cliff or those very close to him. What to do? Anyone on here with any celebrity clout? Paul ‘O’ Grady maybe?
Answers on a postcard Please….
- Doris Butler
April 20, 2016 at 10:12 pm -
The programmes on BBC4 last Friday evening showed quite a lot of Cliff so I wonder why certain programmes are biased.
- Peter Raite
April 21, 2016 at 10:49 am -
I think the more mundane explanation is that the doucmentary was probably being put together at a time when the outcome of the investigation into Cliff Rcihard was still unsure. Given that he agreed to be re-interviewed by South Yorkshire Police in November, barely six months ago, this is highly probable.
- Moor Larkin
April 22, 2016 at 10:38 am -
and how that affects “history” is precisely the issue, surely?
- Moor Larkin
- Timbo
April 21, 2016 at 9:01 pm -
Snake hipped? I remember an article about how the young Cliff would order his trousers without pockets in order to dissimulate his rather chubby figure. That was before he got and stayed rake thin.
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