The Execution of Gary Glitter

[howard male]

Anyone else see this last night on C4? I thought Hilton McRae was superb as Glitter, and the whole thing worked as far as it went.

[Neil Foxlee]

Howard, I can't believe you watched this. Perhaps you didn't read Charlie Brooker's piece in advance:

"Don't know about you, but sometimes I can't sleep at night for wondering what it might be like if Gary Glitter were executed. I just can't picture it in quite enough detail for my liking. Would they fry him? Gas him? Or pull his screaming head off with some candy-coloured rope? I can never decide, and it often leaves me restless till sunrise. Thank God, then, for The Execution Of Gary Glitter (Mon, 9pm, Channel 4), which vividly envisions the trial and subsequent capital punishment of pop's most reviled sex offender so you don't have to.

I can't believe what I'm typing: this is a drama-documentary that imagines a world in which Britain has a) Reinstated the death penalty for murder and paedophilia, b) Changed the law so Britons can stand trial in this country for crimes committed abroad, and c) Chosen Gary Glitter as its first test case. It blends archive footage, talking-head interviews with Miranda Sawyer, Garry Bushell and Ann Widdecombe, and dramatised scenes in which Gary Glitter is led into an execution chamber and hanged by the neck until dead.

He's not just swinging from a rope, mind. The Glitterphile is all over this show, like Hitler in Downfall. There are lengthy scenes in which he argues with his lawyer, smirks in court, plays chess with the prison chaplain, weeps on the floor of his cell, etc. Visually, we're talking late-period Glitter, with the evil wizard shaved-head-and-elongated-white-goatee combo that makes him resemble a sick alternative Santa. It would be funnier if they showed him decked out in full 70s glam gear throughout, being led to the gallows in a big spangly costume with shoulder pads so huge they get stuck in the hole as he plunges through. I assumed the Glittercution would feature dry ice, disco lights, and a hundred party poppers going off as his neck cracked. But here there's not so much as a can of Silly String. This is a terribly serious programme.

Yes. It's illegal to laugh at this, see; it's not a comedy show, but "an intelligent and thought-provoking examination of the issue" which "confronts viewers with the possible consequences of capital punishment in the UK". There's going to be an online debate afterwards and everything, which should help clear up all our thoughts about the death penalty. Let's face it, none of us really knew where we stood until we were "confronted" by the sight of Gary Glitter staring wretchedly at an expectant noose. It really crystallised things, y'know? Before, I always thought of hanging as an abstract, faraway event existing only in ancient woodcuts or the minds of passing clouds. This makes it so much more real. My sincere thanks, Channel 4, for the searing moral clarity I've been granted. By the way, is the real Gary Glitter going to be taking part in that online debate thing afterwards? That'd be awesome.

What with this and the previous Killing Of George Bush drama-doc a few years ago, the Channel 4 family is establishing itself as the home of thought-provoking celebrity death fantasises. Now they've whacked a president and strangled a paedo, what next? How about a two-hour drama-documentary that wonders what Britain might look like if al-Qaida attacked the Baftas? Lots of detailed close-up slow-motion shots of bullets blasting through the ribcages of absolutely everyone off Coronation Street, that kind of thing. It'd really kick-start that debate about terrorism we're all gasping for. Perhaps it could solve it altogether.

Or what about a mini-series showing what'd happen if you kidnapped a bunch of newsreaders and X Factor contestants and kept them on a remote island and glued masks on their faces and fed them LSD and MDMA for two years until they started killing each other and rutting the corpses and shoving bits of blunt stick in their eye sockets and howling at the sun? That'd help society explore its relationship with authority, celebrity, identity, controlled substances, sex, violence and sticks. And God knows we need to. Help us, Channel 4. Guide us. You're our moral compass. You're our only hope."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/ ... ry-glitter

[Adam Blake]

Nevertheless, Hilton McRae gave an excellent performance. I like to see a bit of TV drama now and then as an alternative to sport, game shows, soaps etc.
It's a shame the Guardian journalist didn't choose a more worthy target for his ire.

[howard male]

Neil wrote -

Howard, I can't believe you watched this.

Well, I can't believe that you can't believe that I watched it, Neil.

I'm not even sure what your problem with me watching it is. I felt it was an intelligent, relatively well written drama which didn't - as it so easily could have done - just ram a liberal leftist perspective down the viewer's throat. It was a curiously neutral and measured piece of work for Mr Brooker to get so worked up about, and much as I can often be amused by Brooker I certainly don't use him as the soul arbiter of what is or isn't worth watching on TV. After all, this is the man who wrote the risible and derivative zombie drama 'Dead Set' - a far more gratuitously unpleasant and pointless piece of TV than 'The Execution of Gary Glitter.'

[Neil Foxlee]

"Soul arbiter" is an interesting typo, but I didn't need Brooker to put me off. However, as I didn't watch it, I'm in danger of doing a Mary Whitehouse - pontificating about something I haven't seen - so I'll reach for my coat.

But first, I'll share a decidedly un-PC thought with you. When I heard this morning about the execution by lethal injection of the Washington sniper, John Muhammed, who shot ten people over three weeks, my first thought was: what if he had been executed by members of the victims' families taking one potshot each at him, but in such a way that he wouldn't die until the last bullet, or was given a shot in the head to finish him off? And the event had been shown live on TV?

I wonder if that would satisfy the supporters of capital punishment (which I, unsurprisingly, oppose). What would some people like to do to Mr Gadd, one wonders? Hanging's too good for him and all that.

[howard male]

Neil wrote -

However, as I didn't watch it, I'm in danger of doing a Mary Whitehouse - pontificating about something I haven't seen - so I'll reach for my coat.

That was indeed what I was concerned about Neil - and it seemed very uncharacteristic of someone who normally seems to operate with a very disciplined and rational mind. But at least you recognised the fact.

What impressed me most about the film was the fact that it didn't - in any obvious way at least - come down on one side or the other. Apart from the fact that it offered the rather disturbing statistic that 53% of Brits are in favour of bringing back the death penalty.

[Neil Foxlee]

It just worried me that you could have the most salacious programme that simultaneously laid claim to the moral high ground ('exploring issues of public concern'), just as popular newspapers do with some stories: having their cake and eating it. That doesn't seem to have been the case in this instance, but the danger is there.

Good word, salacious.

[Con Murphy]

"Soul arbiter" is an interesting typo,

'Soul Arbiter' by Brooker C and the PCs - sounds like a hit.

[howard male]

Con wrote -

'Soul Arbiter' by Brooker C and the PCs - sounds like a hit

I feel a SOTW list topic beckoning: Songs with the word 'soul' in the title.

[AndyM]

Charlie Brooker also helped to deliver the abortion that was 'Nathan Barley' - the worst TV comedy ever made. Please remember this next time anyone feels tempted to quote another of his tediously splenetic rent-a-rants at such length.

[Rob Hall]

Actually, the episodes of Nathan Barley that I caught weren't entirely without merit, though it was very patchy. I will say however, that it looked like they had an awful lot more fun writing and making it than we had watching it.