Slashdot Mirror
Geoffrey Perkins Is Dead At 55
Dynamoo writes "Legendary comedy writer and producer Geoffrey Perkins has died in a road accident in London. Perkins was until recently the head of comedy for BBC TV. Earlier in his career he produced the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio series, and was a writer, director, and producer of many comedy shows including Spitting Image, The Fast Show, and several others. He also invented the game of Mornington Crescent. The world will be a less joyful place without him."
The Slashdot editors do realize they've posted a British-centric story at 3:44 AM London time...
Perkins was until recently the head of comedy for BBC TV. Earlier in his career he produced the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio series, and was a writer, director, and producer of many comedy shows including Spitting Image, The Fast Show, and several others. He also invented the game of Mornington Crescent.
HTH, HAND.
And thanks for all the laughs.
I guess we'll have to wait until England wakes up to find out who this was...
Anyway, this still makes the case for ROBOCARS!
... someone explain all the rules to me again?
The Fast Show was one of my favourites. So long and thanks for all the laughs Geoff.
The link in the summary goes to a page "explaining" the rules for Mornington Crescent.
It goes into great detail about the origin of the game and its history, but from what I can see the closest it comes to explaining the actual rules is:
"When the game was first played it was based on the 1952 pocket A-Z and a simple formula dictating to which pages one could move and to which pages one could not move."
Sure would be nice if it said anything about the formula...
The Independent is reporting that he might have fainted and stumbled onto the road before getting hit.
Also, Anyone else wonder how someone managed to hit him, drive away and not realize it? I understand he was hit by a lorry and not a smart car, but I remeber a few years ago I hit a cat and I sure felt it.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/police-seek-new-evidence-on-death-of-comedy-guru-geoffrey-perkins-913928.html
The BBC Hitch-hiker radio broadcasts were far and away the best versions of Douglas Adams' story of Arthur Dent, Zaphod Beeblebrox, the destruction/creation of Earth, and the search for the question. While I enjoyed the books somewhat, the original radio series was a spectacular production that couldn't be topped.
Geoffrey Perkins will be missed.
Douglas Adams died at 49, now Perkins at 55... maybe the Universe is killing off people who know The Question.
Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
Well, I suppose I'll start, then.
Bond Street.
Hey, you neglected to say what road! It is, of course, quite relevant that it was Marylebone High Street, as that of course is rather high for him to have shifted over from Town Hall Approach Road.
Why is that? the people at Top/Fifth Gear know how to drive... especially on "streets" where its all in slow-mo compared to what they are used to/have done...
Hammond had a crash in a jet-car...injured, sure... lived, walks, basically fine... cause he had "gear"... some guy who drives to and from work, maybe the odd venture out on the weekends... is far more likely to fuck-up, and when the shit hits the fan they panic, unlike a professional driver who can stay relatively aware of whats happening, and prepair...etc...
Exactly! Who here can honestly say that a pasty faced old person with an AK-47 doesn't look awesome?
Cow Cube
Fifth Gear is from Channel 5, not the BBC. Hence the name - FIFTH Gear.
As Charlie Martin points out:
this week, it looks like the Obama campaign's "Chicago Rules" have turned out to be bringing a knife to a gunfight.
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
Hammond had a crash in a jet-car...injured, sure... lived, walks, basically fine...
He did develop a taste for celery though so it's not all a bed of roses ;)
some guy who drives to and from work, maybe the odd venture out on the weekends... is far more likely to fuck-up, and when the shit hits the fan they panic, unlike a professional driver who can stay relatively aware of whats happening, and prepair...etc...
I think there's something to say for people pointing and laughing at danger and stealing its lunch money. Clarkson, Hammond and May (well maybe less so for Captain Slow) have cavalier attitudes (which appeals to my sense of 'ah, screw it') and being of a less panicky, laugh in the face of danger disposition may help cope when things go wrong (to a degree) because you may prevent yourself making it worse.
To quote Red Dwarf:
KRYTEN: Good god! Emergency, emergency! Adopt crash procedure!
RIMMER: (Runs back to rear compartment.) Where's the card? Who's got the
card?!
LISTER: What card?
RIMMER: The plastic card, the plastic card with the cartoons of the crash
procedure on it!
LISTER: Don't panic, man!
RIMMER: It should be in the netting behind the seats. Haven't we got to
sit behind a woman clutching a baby? What's the drill?!
LISTER: Look, I know what is it!
RIMMER: What?
LISTER: Sit down, tuck your head between your legs and brace yourself.
RIMMER: (Bracing) Now what?
LISTER: Then you open the in-flight magazine and start reading. Thing
is*, the articles act as a sedative. I mean, look at this: "Contents
List: Salt, an Epicure's Delight; Classic Wines of Estonia; Flemish
Weaving the Traditional Way." (To the CAT, whose head is lolling) Don't
fight it, man, let it take you.
RIMMER: How can you be so mind-bogglingly flippant? Don't you know
what's going to happen? We're going to crash!
LISTER: You've got to stay calm! It's a well-known fact, the more
relaxed you are, the less likely you are to be injured.
KRYTEN: Good luck, everybody, here it comes!
Wishful thinking maybe, but as far as wishful thinking goes, I like it.
"Three eyes are better than one" -- Lieutenant Columbo
...if you believe in such a thing.
Hammond can also remember phone numbers now, something he never used to be able to do.
Recent studies have shown that celery actually contains chemicals which help the brain repair itself in the case of an injury, making Hammond's taste for celery very interesting.
The world will be a less joyful place without him
The world is a more joyful place because of him.
Somehow along the way I made a bad choice in life and now must live with 0 Karma.
Dude, remind me again what we are "in danger of" here?
"In danger of" falling head-over-heals in love?
Here she is as the starting point guard on the state championship women's basketball team [playing with a STRESS FRACTURE, no less]:
.
Here she is early in her career as a sportscasterette:
And here she is as Governorette of Alaska, sitting on a Grizzly Bear couch, with a stuffed King Crab on the coffee table, wearing flip flops and red toenail polish to work:
Again, I ask you in all seriousness - what's not to like here?
I'm not even sure that Angelina Jolie is qualified to play this chick in the movie version, and AJ played Lara Croft, for Goodness's sake.
I guess this is one of those situations where you had to be there... in the U.K., that is? I'm fairly well versed in movies and social memes and even some of what goes on outside my own country's borders, but I had no idea who Geoffrey Palmer was. The OP seems to presume that in fact we all knew who he was and agreed with his alleged importance. If he was that important, I think his influence would have penetrated even my bubble of American isolation.
I remember Geoffrey Perkins from the days of the radio series Radio Active. Geoffrey played the gleeful and shameless bully Mike Flex, who was always making the life of Mike Channel (Angus Deaton) a living hell.
The series itself was a spoof of the low-budget and lower-standards private radio, the personality defects of the characters, and the toxic atmosphere they created. Each program was also a spoof on a particular genre of programme series, for instance: Round Your Parts (local interest), Probe Round the Back (consumer affairs) and God Alone Knows. After a few series on Radio 4 the show transferred to TV for it's swan song KYTV "You'll never be stuck with KY Telly".
I once sat opposite Mr Perkins on a train, coming back from Waterloo one evening. He looked busy, so to my lasting regret I didn't disturb him to say "thanks" for the Guide, KYTV, etc. And now I never will be able to, and that makes me sad.
Sean Ellis
Follow OfQuack's antics on Twitter.
True true. I was being tongue-in-cheek, as I'm sure was obvious.
What happened to the Hamster was likely the exception not the rule and you are right it is very interesting. Not many people come out of a crash like that better off than before, making him a walking, talking miracle.
(Course we have to thank the emergency services, particularly the air ambulance, for their responsiveness or it could have been a very different tale).
What is also pretty neat is that this at least 'anecdotedly' supports the idea - from the article I linked - that
brain inflammation of the kind he suffered is reduced by luteolin - a compound found in celery, green pepper, parsley and chamomile
and even though
the team also notes that, despite the experience of Hammond, the effect of luteolin on humans is still not fully understood
we can have some confidence that it helps in some positive way. Fascinating stuff.
What I wonder is if the body was specifically craving the luteolin or whether it was more coincidental.
"Three eyes are better than one" -- Lieutenant Columbo
No, but it's not slahsdot.us either. It's slashdot.org (i.e. international)
The guy produced HHHGTTG. Probably one of the most quoted books/plays/films on slashdot.
America, Home of the Brave.
King's Cross!
And the shorter and more apt version:
DON'T PANIC.
"Kill 'em all and let Root sort 'em out"
Fifth Gear only happened because the BBC cancelled the original Top Gear; the old Top Gear was turned into Fifth Gear by Five. Top Gear, as we know it now, was almost totally Clarkson's making.
Oh shit, where is my musket? Did I renew my subscription to the militia?
Perfidious Albion.
If you like Hamster, you really should read his book (or get the audio version like I did). Fascinating and scary stuff what he went through.
And I think it was probably actually craving it. Seems way too coincidental that he'd just happen to start liking celery.
Regardless, I'm still happy Hammond is okay. He's apparently the prime candidate to anchor the F1 coverage when it returns to the BBC next season.
And I am still very sad about the death of Geoffrey Perkins.:(