Even deeper joy

Following my post about Professor Stanley Unwin the other day, I received this email from my friend Mark Jones, in Cardiff.

"I saw your posting about Stanley Unwin and wondered if you've ever seen his 1960s TV series The Secret Service.

"It is truly bizarre. As it was made by Gerry Anderson it's a mix of long-shots of Unwin which then cut to his Supermarianation double for close-ups. He plays a country priest who works for B.I.S.H.O.P. (British Intelligence Special Headquarters Operation Priest) and owns a device which he uses to shrink his gardener Matthew for special ops. He lapses into Unwinese quite regularly to confuse the bad guys.

"Sadly it also confused the show's producer Lew Grade, who thought it wouldn't catch on in America. Sadly it didn't catch on over here either. But all 13 bonkers episodes are now available on DVD. It helps if you drop some acid before viewing, needless to say.

"Think of it as Thunderbirds meets Sergeant Pepper and you've just about got it."

I do remember seeing a lengthy clip of this, maybe even an entire epsiode, years and years ago, but I had no idea it was out on DVD. I'm on Amazon as I write...

EDIT: My colleague, fellow birdwatcher and moth-botherer Mike Weedon has pointed out that Tim Unwin, a fellow inmate of Media House, is actually the Prof's grandson. Respect.

Deep joy

Great piece here about Professor Stanley Unwin - Wayne Burrows says: "While many examples of creative linguistic mangling are seen as difficult and experimental, with the riotous dream-prose of Finnegans Wake by James Joyce or the beautifully slippery poetry of J H Prynne high on many readers’ lists of works to avoid (more’s the pity), it can also be noted that in other contexts, exactly the same poetic and literary procedures can result in widespread popularity. Professor Stanley Unwin’s deadpan twists to ordinary speech and such tropes as the radio lecture are a perfect example."

If you haven't the slightest idea what Wayne's talking about, look up the Prof on YouTube - there's any number of videos of him in full flow. Utter genius.