Frost Over The World - Ben Elton - 09 Nov 07

[fynnab]

Great interview. very clever guy, love his books :D

[1hutch0]

what a great bloke ....

[stevalianarbone]

Good point!

PS Did Ben Elton make documentary?

[Evdoksia]

I didn't know Ben Elton. I know great SciFi, i know literature. And i LOVED Blind Faith.. Very smart, to the point, very well written both in literary and sci-fi terms

[lotuspm]

Ev Love

[ghdtreb]

my only problem with b.elton is he made his name slagging off the establishment in the 80's, now he's very much a firm member of it! His is a very acute comedian but a bit fo a tedious author. I do prefer Stephen Fry for comical literature.

[bootymanager]

He's very derivative. Look at 'Blind Faith', 'Dead Famous' and all the American Idol shit. He does rip off a fair bit of gear. He's a bit of a thinker, but too populist and does, with the greatest respect to him, 'borrow' a fair bit of stuff. He's making sense here.I would love some of those arseholes who have chinese characters on their arse and someone wrote 'gullible cunt' in chinese. It would serve them fucking right.

[erasmus2012]

I wrote Ben Elton 8 pages of comedy routines & gave it to him back stage years ago it would have been nice if i got a nice letter from him saying thanks I wasn't after royalties or anything I was just wanting hisappr4ciation. Some of his Mr Bean episodes particularly the religious sketches were virtually stolen from me but who would know that today? Anyway I still think hes a great comedian.

[Faidenne]

After watching this, I see so much of Elton in his leading characters; Newson in 'Past Mortem', Coleridge in 'Dead Famous'....

[Richie77777]

I do like Ben Elton, he talks a lot of sense. I think he has always had his finger on the pulse.. in his 80s standup people wanted to rant against Thatcher. And has been relevant of the time in his books. eg, "Dead Famous," he satorised reality tv.. (namely a parody of big brother) in which someone was murdered in the house; in, "Past Mortem," school pals get back in touch over Friends Reunited, (which was a big at the time). And someone is murdered.

He takes what is going on and pushes it..

[imangrynow]

Manning is revolting Ben is hilarious but Paul Merton is EVEN better!

[farleigh17]

and Peter Cook was the best.

[narbularity]

Thank fuck !

[iandecu]

I think he makes lots of sense - however - I think the book is dreadful, rubbish Orwell rip off, way too far fetched to be believable or scary. The Eden book he also wrote is a much better (still silly) read.

[imangrynow]

Oh i loved it i've got a signed copy! :D

[tubelogin1]

black adder's great and then it begins its dive. now, clearly, the dude's too old to grasp the web thinking it to be some evil monster in the making. he's got it wrong, btw, it's the distrust in the mainstream that makes people 'believe', the endless BBC and CNN lies and crimes of the EU/US governments.

but he's a little mainstream bitch now wishing for the fat times when only he and atkinson ran the show.

[imangrynow]

Well i'm 18 and i'm with him on almost all of it btw he's late 40s not v old!

[Bluecube100]

he is a clever man and yes he has produced some awful shite and sucked up to Jeffrey Archer when he took over from Wogan but he did in the eighties front saturday night Live which provided a much needed alternative to bigoted humour and of course co wrote Blackadder and the Young Ones - we all fuck up but he did do some REALLY good stuff!!

[simonjenkin]

Eugh. I think I feel sick. What he said actually made sense. It was concicse and to the point and above all, true. It almost makes me want to forgive him for working with Queen and Andrew Lllllloyd Wether or doing that shite ITV show where he just made jokes while sitting next to a model or the fact that he was never THAT good a comedian anyway, just exciting and fresh and slightly original.

I can't forgive him though, I just can't.

[junkradio]

Decent comedian but a complete hypocritical bellend when it comes to his politic views.

[imangrynow]

I think he's right on when it comes to politics!

[theGetRealGuy]

Mr Elton is Cracking the Illusion of the Information Society Making every Individual Powerfull when true Human Power is in the ability to unite togeather for all, week or Strong, Winner or loser. Celebrities are a side show. a circus to got with the bread.

[msbehaviour]

Yet again Ben Elton serves up a healthy dose of cynicism coated with comedy, and makes me want to try a little bit harder to prevent his vision ever coming true. I think Blind Faith should be mandatory reading in any religious studies programme.

It was so horrific that I had to keep reading it in short bursts, and then go outside to listen to crickets, and look at my view of One Tree Hill to remind myself that thankfully I now live in New Zealand.

[eirikpilot]

My feelings exactly. Horrific, yet not so far from reality in our time. As you say, we must prevent it from happening. There's a straight line from our culture now, to the situation in his book, and lets not forget the environment also(lake London, the shores of Notting Hill)!! Mandatory part of religious studies, great idea. So... Ev Love!!(evolve) :-)

[bagombosnuffbox]

Elton's comments about the anti-intellectualism in the media are nicely covered in Neil Postman's - 'Amusing Ourselves to Death'. If you use torrents I believe it's still floating about as an audio book. Certainly worth a listen; you realise how stupid we are all becoming in the name of entertainment.

[dizzyonefourfour]

I went off Ben Elton big time in the 90s, and was appalled that he admitted to being hoodwinked by Blair about the need to invade Iraq.

Having said that... this book is very good. It is bitingly satirical and very scary - a wake up call for those who think the way Britain is going as a society at the moment is not the start of a decline into an authoritarianism.

[yeahscotty]

Amazing interview.. thanks AlJazeera!!

[R055HP]

I said 'pray' on purpose!

[R055HP]

Excellent book. I pray the funeral pyre of knowledge upon which Trafford burned does not come to pass.

[RichardBUnique]

Ben Elton is such an intelligent well rounded comedian. I actually had the pleasure of meeting him last year where he signed a few things for me and I also had two pictures taken with him during the "Get A Grip" tour. He was such a pleasant person to talk to.

[bennn1000]

ben you are always good to watch. so aware, so right.

[msgg81]

Brilliant !