1. Patrick Moore: Still presenting the Sky At Night on the BBC, as he has been so doing for the last 53 years.
2. David Attenborough: Feisty, curious and energetic as ever.
3. Christopher Hitchens: smart, funny, mad, bad and dangerous to know and STILL kicking. Even when he's way off base he's entertainingly way off base.
4. Patrick Leigh Fermor: The travel writer's travel writer. He's now well into his nineties and apparently going strong. If you haven't read A Time Of Gifts then stop what you are doing right now and order the book from somewhere.
5. Helen Mirren: she can do no wrong as far as I'm concerned. Yes, even Caligula.
6. Stephen Fry: the youngest national treasure on my list, but he is, isn't he? Bless him. He writes, he acts, he directs. My only problem with Fry is that QI programme which I find a bit obnoxious.
7. Robert Plant: utterly confounding expectations after all these years. He can't quite sing those high register Zep songs anymore so he's had to improvise, and more power to him for that. He likes what he likes and he does what he does and he's charming and funny as this little appearance on Letterman shows.
8. Michael Caine: always good even when he's bad if that makes any sense. Everybody in Britain can do a Michael Caine impersonation. Some better than others.
9. Stephen Hawking: Hawking still hasn't got a Nobel Prize, which makes me ask, what's the point of Nobel Prizes then?10 (tied) Ruth Rendell and PD James ... the Queens of crime, par excellence.
...
Are there any American National Treasures? I dont know if the concept really works across the Atlantic but I suppose... Gore Vidal, Jacques Barzun, Camille Paglia, Bob Barker, Werner Herzog, Bob Uecker, John Daly, Clint Eastwood...???
29 comments:
Werner Herzog an *American* National Treasure? Has it come to that?
(Greetings from Germany.)
Ekkehard,
Yeah I was a bit worried about that one. But he does have an American passport doesnt he? And he's lived mostly in the US for what...30 years?
Of course by that logic, I should have made Christopher Hitchens an American national treasure too shouldnt I?
and speaking of Herzog, he's still firing on all cylinders
Oh and in case anyone missed this late comment on my last post, I think what we have here is a very good candidate for a Japanese National Treasure.
Bill Oddie?
Jonathan
Speaking of Bill Oddie:
Alan Partridge's Mid Morning Matters, episode 9
...the Bill Oddie part begins at 7.00
The Japanese have what they call "Living National Treasures". I saw a show on them once. However, don't think they really commemorate badasses.
Jacques Barzun has the same problem as Herzog, if it is a problem, but we have to take our national treasures where we find them.
I think I kind of side with Dame Judy though. It might be enough to just be called Dame.
Oops. Try again.
I would think Clint Eastwood, and Bob Hope if not being alive at the moment isn't a disqualification.
I would take Helen Mirren out. Do Americans think Mirren is posh? She strikes me as a true Essex girl that took elocution.
Colin Dexter is my national treasure. I love him. I couldnt say enough nice things about him.
Seana
Ahh now that is interesting.
Glenna
Clint Eastwood yes but being dead does disqualify you I'm afraid.
Frankie
I think I'd like her even better if that were true. But its not, she's the daughter of White Russian exiles.
I can fake posh so I can hear it in Helen Mirrens voice. Everyone in London is an exile from somewhere. Crazy here today.
I loved learning on a 60 Minutes interview last year (I think) just before the Oscars learning that she had got her start in show biz crying in the punters for a carnival nearby.
I was reading an interview with Ann Beattie in the new Paris Review and I came across a kind of American equivalent of Dench's comment. Beattie said "I don't think any serious writer wants to be called the spokesperson for their generation."
It's too much, isn't it?
Frankie
With London it was always thus.
Seana
I guess I'm not a serious writer then. I would LOVE that shit.
For awhile.
It's interesting because she was sort of the 'it' girl, and then she was not.
Such is fame.
In America, we keep our treasures hidden for the most part. Partly so that they are not stolen, but mostly so hipsters can brag about their knowledge of them. It's all about the upmanship.
Patrick Moore? He might be good on space and that but try him on women, gays or ethnic minorities and you might be forgiven for thinking Mosely was back. He makes Nick Griffin look moderate.
Attenborough would be my number one by a country mile.
I generally agree about Helen Mirren but I saw her with Alan Rickman in Antony and Cleopatra and even seeing her well exposed boobs in the flesh didn't stop it being one of the worst productions of anything I have ever seen
Rob
He says dodgy things about gays?
Hmmmm, thats interesting because, well, probably better say anymore...
The mystery fiancee? Apparently he was once asked her name and replied 'I can't remember'
Id like to add that Patrick Moore has a gland problem. He only eats baked beans on toast. Also he isnt gay. He just doesn't like women much or silly people. He said there should be a TV channel for women and one for men. His views make me chortle with amusement.
Rob, I wonder if that was the same production of Antony and Cleopatra I saw, with Alan Bates and Frances de la Tour, the latter of whom bared all. It was the first time I'd ever seen full frontal nudity on a legitimate stage, and it worked well.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Peter, I saw that production and workshopped it with the cast. I booked the RSC education people to come and do a workshop with the uni drama soc. and Alan Bates and de la Tour tagged along.
Alan Bates was absolutely charming but so drunk he couldn't stand up to speak to us. Frances de la Tour insisted on doing her nude scene but the RSC guy managed to convince her not to.
The Mirren / Rickman production was at the National and was utter tripe. It was the first time I had ever been at a show which was booed at the end
Wow, I bet the booing was close to a first for Rickman, Mirren and Shakespeare.
I did not love the production I saw, mainly because I had not prepared for it by reading the play first. De la Tour's insistence on nudity at the workshop seems like a bit of acterly vanity, but here's why I liked it on stage: She plays Cleopatra throughout the evening as a coquette whose wiles gradually become more desperate. And then she throws off her clothes and the artifice -- visible evidence that she is no teenager.
======================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Rob
How could you resist saying "Oh Miss Jones...er, put your kit back on."
There was a bit of Rigsby gurning behind her back which I instantly felt guilty about.
Peter, good point. I thought it was nice to see them portrayed as I've always imagined them, past their primes. Bates and de la Tour were like aging rockstars clinging on to their ever-fading notoriety
Love your list even if it does include mention of Camille Paglia. But hey, Helen Mirren gives you a pass. Also I find Robert Plant's album with Alison Kraus to be meaty and satisfying. Stephen Fry is hilarious on twitter as Mrs Stephen Fry. So good on ye.
Also, please send the letter to Hitchens tout de suite.
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