Warming Up

Can you get to Gus Honeybun to Bill Hicks in one step? Of course you can.

Judi Spiers was one of the best co-presenters of the South West birthday rabbit slot and she was also a host on Pebble Mill at One, where unbelievably Bill Hicks guested in 1992 (as tweeted by BBC Archive today).

There are many things that seem wrong about this, most obviously the surprise that this was possible. Pebble Mill seems very much like a 1970s programme that you watched when you were skiving off from school and Bill Hicks is from the 1990s. So how did that happen?

Also how the Hell did Bill Hicks end up on this light entertainment lunchtime show? Even when deliberately toning himself down he is way too edgy for Spiers. Also did no one tell him what Pebble Mill at One was? The Venn diagram of people watching that and people who would like Bill Hicks would have a very slight intersection.

But it somehow happened and it’s an awkward and poignant chat. Hicks has about two years to live, but at this point (I think I am right in saying) does not know about the cancer that will kill him. He does say that he is unlikely to become old, but that’s more a lifestyle statement and he must have thought he’d have longer than he did. Otherwise he’d never have wasted 15 valuable minutes of life doing this.

It’s disappointing to see Spiers being a bit stand-offish and judgemental of Hicks. It doesn’t help that her early questions are so poorly thought out that Hicks can only really lightly take the piss, which I don’t think helps. I liked Spiers on South West telly - she seemed relatively young and cool and anarchic and you’d hope that she’d be more into Hicks, even if she didn’t know who he was. It’s not an awful interview and the tensions are subtle and maybe come from slightly misfiring banter attempts, but it’s not her finest hour. Still a big fan though Judi. No one worked with Honeybun as well as you.

It’s still a fascinating bit of telly and makes one hope that Hicks is living out his Elvis film idea and is secretly performing as a too old Bill Hicks tribute act. 

And can I also recommend (through gritted teeth of jealousy) Adam Buxton’s interview with Billy Connolly - a guest that I have been trying to get for many years. I haven’t even listened to all of it yet, but there is so much wit and wisdom about comedy and life in this. It’s a brilliant interview, from the UK’s best celebrity interviewer. 

Thanks to those of you who bid (successfully not) on the RHLSTP ebay stuff. There are three more items still to go, so please help us add more funds to the podcast pot and BID.