For Better or Werts : TV Worth Watching

WEIRD & WILD: The incredibly strange Jonathan Ross show

A QUICK UPDATE . . .

. . . because the guests chatting with British talker Jonathan Ross on BBC America this Friday (July 10) at 8 p.m. ET include the incredibly strange William Shatner (discussing "legal sprinkling").

Also Glenn Close. And Eddie Izzard. And Lily Allen.

Top that, Americans!

ORIGINAL POST --

The Incredibly Strange Film Show has to be one of my all-time favorite series, exploring the heights -- or should I say depths? -- of indie B-moviemaking in all its bloody, breasty, low-budget glory. The perpetrator of this loving '80s look at the likes of Russ Meyer, Ray Dennis Steckler and a dozen other gonzo directors was Jonathan Ross, a breezy Brit who conducted low-life interviews and screened sleazy clips with the gusto of a truly irredeemable pop culture junkie.

(Takes one to know one.)

Now Ross puts that jones to weekly use as host of Friday Night With Jonathan Ross (Friday at 8 p.m. ET, BBC America), a London-based chatfest that also takes everything and nothing seriously. And while it couldn't possibly reach the giddy greatness of Incredibly Strange -- masked Mexican wrestler El Santo! -- Friday Night has been keeping Brits amused since 2001 with interviews of actors, rockers and other fame hangers-on. (Most frequent guest: Ricky Gervais.) BBC America picked up the show this month, so far airing outings featuring Hugh Laurie, Ben Stiller, Dustin Hoffman and Jack Black.

This week's BBC America show (July 3) gets lost with Matthew Fox, whom Ross pumps for Lost finale information, then badgers into speaking about spanking.

Next week: Who knows?

4 Comments

Sarah said:

I discovered this show when I was watching clips on youtube (with my favorite guest John Barrowman)and fell in love and was so excited when I saw it was going to be on BBC America that my friday nights haven't been the same since.

July 2, 2009 12:18 PM

Jon88 said:

"Next week: Who knows?" Ooh! Ooh! I do! It's Sandra Bullock and Emma Watson. They're scheduled for Friday on BBC1, and we get the show on a one-week delay. (Um ... you weren't really asking, were you?)

July 2, 2009 12:34 PM

Diane Werts said:

Hi, Jon -- always trying to show us up. We love you anyway. Feel free to add info to our posts anytime!

Diane

July 2, 2009 12:49 PM

David Dean said:

Ahhh, "The Incredibly Strange Film Show." Thanks to that, I discovered Jackie Chan much earlier than I would have; and, because of their episode about Tsui Hark, and especially "A Chinese Ghost Story," I made a point to check out every single film at the 1988 two-week extravaganza of Hong Kong cinema at the Film Forum. John Woo! Maggie Cheung! Chow Yun-Fat! Brigitte Lin! And, with jaw suitably dropped, fell in love.

July 2, 2009 7:05 PM

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Diane Werts has been glued to the tube since she can remember, growing up in a household where the TV came on first thing in the morning and stayed on till bedtime and beyond. She worked for the USA Film Festival, then for The Dallas Morning News writing about everything from Shakespeare to macrame art to rock music (and has the hearing loss to prove it). She moved to New York's Newsday to edit their glossy TV magazine, then returned to writing about television, specializing in its stranger permutations. She's a past president of the Television Critics Association.

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