Somerset Maugham with Malcolm Muggeridge

Two priceless brilliant old fairies at play here.

I know Muggeridge wasn't strictly speaking a puddle jumper but he had a high camp manner which was peculiarly endearing.

The volume on this clip goes wonky at the six minute mark but recovers after ten seconds.

This was shown during prime time on the only TV channel that existed in the fifties.

Compare the erudition of these two with what we have today......... look upon Simon Cowell grunting monosyllabically at Noel Edmonds and despair.

I know that I'm not comparing like with like but where is today's equivalent of this interview ?

The nearest we get is Melvin "Bouffant Boy" Bragg interviewing Dame Alan Bennett to plug his latest volume of tiresomely repetitive whimsy.

If I have to hear those threadbare anecdotes about his mad Mam, daffy Dad and dysfunctional aunts just once more I'll take the gaspipe.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Somerset
• Maugham
• Malcolm
• Muggeridge
• Panorama

[Hutch41]

These "satirists" (who in fact were nothing of the kind.....they were simply a pack of jackanapes and prancing buffoons) wouldn't dare make a film offending Muslims.

The satirists of old had courage.....the Python mob only had disrespect.

Yes Moby Dick is hard unrewarding work......Dostoevsky was a ghastly twat.....and Fielding was splendid-ish, but a fearsome bore socially by many accounts.

[Hutch41]

Why do you state "a pact with the devil" ?

Why couldn't it be a pact with God ?

I don't believe there is anything of the Devil in either of them.

[NewarkChe]

@priapus56 Maugham is my favorite writer, bar none. I am quite surprised that he never won a Nobel Prize. Of Human Bondage was a masterpiece, but my personal favorite is The Narrow Corner.

[priapus56]

Thank-you so much for uploading this. Maugham has been my literary hero since I was 17. (I'm 55 now and still admire his work.) I have always wanted to watch any interview he gave. At last I have seen one. Of Human Bondage should be required reading in any English Literature course.

[zippgun1]

I've the book they're discussing somewhere. Muggeridge was always on tv in my younger days-a medium he despised, until in his last years he got rid of his set. I rather liked him, but was a little disappointed in Malc the agnostic turning into a religious fanatic later and making a fool of himself over "The life of Brian". Agree with Muggeridge about "Moby Dick." Was Dostoyefsky really that horrible? Fielding-a splendid fellow all round, Maugham does him a bit of an injustice

Fascinating clip.

[YuTuboTuTubas]

this man made a pact with the devil...he is so great!!!!!