The Manchester Passion

21:18 / 14.04.06

Presumably other Barbeloids are watching BBC2's The Manchester Passion. First impressions so far are mixed: I'm not sure it's holding together. The songs themselves make one long to hear the originals again (Moz's You're Gonna Need Someone On Your Side deadpan-delivered from Deano from The Dream Team was particularly unsettling to me) and there's something a bit... I dunno, amateurish about the whole thing. Slightly silly church hall am-dram: Legz Akimbo meets The Passion of the Christ with added (token/cipher) Black Soul Woman which, as we all know = Credibility.

And Tim Booth looks awful.

Thoughts?

Spaniel

21:21 / 14.04.06

And Tim Booth looks awful

Perhaps he should SIT DOWN and have a rest.

21:21 / 14.04.06

Christ almighty, Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now. I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Oh, smother me, Mother.

(Were you there when they crucified my Morrissey?)

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

21:25 / 14.04.06

It's risibly po-faced too, face-clawingly pleased with own 'audacity'. The music of Manchester! It's, like, divine! Like Jesus! Do you see?

21:28 / 14.04.06

Keith Allen?

And you're all watching this?

Jesus.

Spaniel

21:29 / 14.04.06

I'm not watching it, and it looks to me like Ganesh is indulging in a spot of masochism.

21:33 / 14.04.06

This is quite mesmerisingly bad. I was just thinking, "hmm, Sit Down's standing up (ho ho) quite well" and allowing myself a dash of nostalgia, then the shitting Sally Army appear and get brassy on my ass(y). And it's all deadly serious.

Does 'Mary' get to do anything other than wander about being soulmamatastic and doing her best to invest fucking M People with meeeaning?

Presumably the 'media' bits are staged. Either way, they're cringeworthy. "Naveen, you're a Muslim". If I were there, I think I'd be mortally embarrassed. Do these people have no shame?

21:35 / 14.04.06

I quite like Keith Allen. He was superb in Bodies.

You're right, though; watching this is, itself, a form of self-scourging...

21:38 / 14.04.06

Angels? Isn't Robbie from Stoke?

matthew.

21:39 / 14.04.06

It's like Ganesh is flailing himself with his trunk....

Hmmm... I wonder if that painting will appear in the Manchester Passion...

21:41 / 14.04.06

"Arrested on trumped up charges - of course, that couldn't happen today, could it?"

Woargh, bit of politics! Do you see what he did there? Eh? Eh?

Those involved are going to regret this in the morning.

21:43 / 14.04.06

I might have to turn this off shortly.

I am flabbergasted by how bad this truly is, they're putting subtitles on the soulful Virgin Mary's stage spots. None of them can sing. This is called the Passion. Why have they hired everyone from a small town Amateur Dramatics Society thus making it impossible to tell the story without a narrator?

21:46 / 14.04.06

NNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO NONONONONONONONONO.

KEITH ALLEN IS SINGING. I AM IN HELL.

21:48 / 14.04.06

Oh, dear. I plugged this. I am complicit. WONDERWALL?

21:49 / 14.04.06

And he's singing arsing Wonderwall. Because Jesus is, like, y'know, a wall. A really really wonderful wall.

It's so clunkily Do You See.

21:51 / 14.04.06

Can we at least have a bit of JCS-referencing with "Ever Fallen In Love?" between Magdalen and Christ, please?

Spaniel

21:51 / 14.04.06

I wish I was watching, I just can't bring myself to. It sounds amazing.

21:51 / 14.04.06

The only way they can save this for me is if Keith Allen breaks into Kinky Afro and the crowd start dancing like Bez.

21:53 / 14.04.06

And OMG!1! Jesus is in an orange jumpsuit. DO YOU SEE? DO YOU?? DO YOU SEE??!

21:55 / 14.04.06

I want a not-at-all-staged media bit beginning "Marc, you're a gay".

21:56 / 14.04.06

Is that the same font they use for Songs of Praise? Oh, no, it's the same angles. It's the friggin' SoP OB team, isn't it?

21:58 / 14.04.06

You know I don't get the impression that Mary cares that her son is about to be cruicified.

21:58 / 14.04.06

I CAN SING THAT SONG BETTER! FFS.
(Sorry, annoyed that good songs are being crucified.... !!11!!11!!oneone)

22:00 / 14.04.06

Wot no naked porny crucifixion? Just Deanosus hanging off a relatively oversized clock? What's the point of that?

22:00 / 14.04.06

Okay, the standing in front of the clock singing is the best bit. Shame they had to FUCK IT UP with the apostles and Mary singing Angel.

Alex's Grandma

22:00 / 14.04.06

I can imagine this being the anti-matter equivalent of the Pistols at the Free Trade Hall - for decades to come, people in Manchester will be denying they went anywhere near it.

Oh God, and the orchestral version of 'I Am The Resurrection' now, ctross-cut to 'Angels', yet ... Let this burden pass from me, indeed.

22:03 / 14.04.06

It's like the concept of 'trendy vicar' expanded city-wide. If I wanted my teeth to hum, I'd have left the foil on my chocolate egg.

22:03 / 14.04.06

In short I do not feel passionate about the passion. There is now even less chance of me becoming a Christian then there was an hour ago. Amazing really since the intention was 0% and is now in minus numbers.

22:04 / 14.04.06

Those still watching should be made happier by the promise that The Lost World of Friese-Greene is wonderfully middle-class and eccentric. Isn't Strictly Ballroom on now, somewhere?

22:04 / 14.04.06

And not even a money shot. Tt.

22:07 / 14.04.06

It's like the concept of 'trendy vicar' expanded city-wide

I suspect this project was envisioned by a hasty youth worker. Sad really since it could have been lovely if it had been done in the right way. I bet walking behind that cross was fantastic but they didn't bring it across at all.

22:08 / 14.04.06

There is now even less chance of me becoming a Christian then there was an hour ago.

Ahh, but don't you see: we are all Christians now; like Pierced Scottish Bloke said, Christianity's just like punk. Jesus loved all the freaks and weirdos and shit (apart from teh gays, obviously). If you like music and/or Manchester, you like Jesus. QED.

Or something.

22:12 / 14.04.06

Or you could just turn over to Channel 4 for some cheese with good dance steps.

matthew.

22:13 / 14.04.06

So is it over yet? Have you all stopped watching it, you silly Leopold Blooms!