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FRED DIBNAH PEOPLE!

15:29 / 09.11.04

Fred, gone. And Emlyn Hughs. And the dad from Dallas

I know celeb deaths happen all the time, but I liked Fred.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

15:32 / 09.11.04

Yes. Gutted.

Apart from the fact that he seemed like quite a likeable chap, his passing means Haus and I will never be able to do our Judaic steampunk arena-based TV game show. EVER.

15:42 / 09.11.04

I was late for work this morning cos they had the Fred Dibnah story on the history channel - i only caught the last 20 minutes but it was ace- he really seemed to care about his craft- he made me laugh a lot with his wry asides- I really, really hope they repeat his doco's on terrestrial tv cos they're really worth seeing.

Sadly (or maybe not) a generation too early to make silly d list celeb money/ career like Maureen from driving school or the ugly dinner lady from the cruise... and always more of a star because of it...

(I really really fucking hope in 40 years time if forums like this are still going nobody puts RIP Jade from big brother.. if they do i'll be coming out of my own coffin to kneecap ya!)

16:46 / 09.11.04

I don't mean to speak ill of the dead, I really don't, but come on, Fred b***** Dibnah ?

Fred's average evening: Eight hours down his local on Old Speckled Hen, drinking himself into a fit of baleful nostalgia for the days when *them bloody kiddies* were put to work down't pit, or ont' shift at mill for tuppence ha-penny an hour and a clip round the ear ( *and* they were happy, ) before heading back home to beat the whippets to death.

And he was rarely *off" terrestrial TV... I mean they've got to go sometime, these people.

Although I am sorry about your and Haus' TV show, Stoat - That's the kind of thing that ought to be on there, dammit.

05:05 / 10.11.04

Erm... Is this an ironic thread or isn't it ? Reading back over it, I don't know any more.

09:16 / 10.11.04

I don't remember Dibnah going on about how great it was that people suffered in factories, or how todays kids ought to be crushed under mill wheels. He was in love with the engineering and the gleaming brass and all that, but I always thought it stopped there. Never got the sense that he was bitter and upset about social progress. Could be wrong, of course, but that's the impression I got.

09:21 / 10.11.04

He got told off by the council for building a mine shaft in his back-garden.

14:52 / 10.11.04

I seem to have it in my head that Dibnah was known to hold some fairly unpleasant opinions about the role of women and the status of ethnic minorities. Unfortunately I have no idea where this information comes from.

15:08 / 10.11.04

i dunno about any of that- but the Fred Dibnah story on History channel was a pretty good observational documentary...

Maybe mumsy was involved and scarred your perceptions...

(**shrugs**)

15:36 / 10.11.04

Well, he was northern, working class and 66 yrs old (not all his life - I've checked - but still) so it wouldn't be a huge surprise if that were true. But at least if he did hold unpleasant views he kept 'em off the telly. Unlike that wanker J Clarkson, who takes every opportunity to crow-bar in praise for Thatcher and gripes about environmentalists etc. Sorry, that's completely irrelevant, but I wanted to crow-bar it in.

18:17 / 10.11.04

I think it was more pater, to be honest.

I've got no idea if Dibnah really did hate children ( though I do know for a fact that John Noakes used to neglect Shep if they were filming on location, ) but he always struck me as a bit of a walking Hovis ad, painting this idealised picture of the Industrial Revolution etc ( " those lovely old machines " ) without ever acknowledging the grim social conditions that went hand in hand, apparently.

15:23 / 11.11.04

Alex:
"he always struck me as a bit of a walking Hovis ad, painting this idealised picture of the Industrial Revolution etc ( " those lovely old machines " ) without ever acknowledging the grim social conditions that went hand in hand, apparently."

We don't need Dibnah to tell us that everyone lived in a shoebox and died of TB fifty times a day, do we? Everyone knows that, it's a given. Taken as read. A comforting certainty. It was part of the appeal of his progs that he didn't bung in the obligatory disclaimers. "Now, before you all pack up and go and live in the 19th Century..." *

It is true that he failed to adopt a mancunian accent, an ironic trucker cap and a mocking approach, but Dibnah still never struck me as the misty-eyed romantic sort, selling a vision. He was an enthusiast, with hands-on experience of many of the things he talked about. I reckon if he had an agenda it wasn't "let's go back to Victorialand", it was "let's preserve these amazing artefacts".

Now that Derek Thingummy, he's a miserable old sod.

* Thinking about it, I'm not sure that he didn't ever mention the grim social conditions - I'm sure there was a lengthy bit about the hideousness of working in a cotton mill on one of his progs. He was certainly very keen to explain how bloody dangerous things were, and it's thanks to Dibnah that I will do everything I can to dissuade my son from working with massive, coal-fired boilers.

23:51 / 11.11.04

...his passing means Haus and I will never be able to do our Judaic steampunk arena-based TV game show. EVER.

Oh, you so will. And Dibnah can still appear, in the ‘Olivier in Sky-Pilot’ sense of the word. After a lifetime in telly, there must be enough footage around to lash together some kind of holographic CGI Fred. A sinister, virtual Fred Dibnah, projected onto billowing clouds of dust thrown up by collapsing towers. With that voice, except all booming and echo-y, like an industrial age wizard of Oz. Or, er, Gamesmaster.

...what exactly was this show about again?