Christopher Lee finally knighted: Another stake through the heart of the Ivory Tower crowd
(When he says “I’ll be back” you better believe him…)
If you haven’t heard of the English comedy quiz ‘Have I got news for you’ you haven’t really lived – or lived to see TV as it should be.
So, yesterday I was watching a few HIGNFY clips on Youtube and having a fun time of it, when, in an episode I must have missed the first time round, one of the two regular panellists, Paul Merton (blessèd be his name), came up with what must be the best idea I ever heard for a new TV show:
“Dig up a dead celebrity after five years and let people guess who it is.”
Brilliant.
Anyway, I had to think of that one when I read the following, very welcome bit of news in the Guardian, a few minutes ago:
“Christopher Lee, whose acting roles have terrified generations of film-goers, is knighted in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List. He is one of the most prolific actors ever, appearing in more than 250 film and television productions. His prolific career has seen him earn several Guinness World Records, including Most Connected Actor Living; Most Films with a Swordfight by an actor and Tallest Actor in a Leading Role. At the age of 87 he is still working hard, and his representative said he was unavailable for comment on the honour as he was filming in New Mexico.”
High time he got that knighthood too, I say.
It’s so stupid how most honours, from knighthoods to literary prizes, still are such highbrow affairs. The various worlds of creation are vast, numerous and often wonderful but you wouldn’t know it from the feeble noises that never quite make it beyond the heavily shuttered windows of the Ivory Towers.
If it’s not a part of the ever shrinking and ever more anaemic Canon, the Guardians of Culture don’t want to know about it.
Don’t get me wrong: I love the world of art. It’s just that I believe you can love the Stones as much as you can love Bach, or enjoy Shakespeare as much as Stephen King.
My problem with the Ivory Tower crowd is that they are such useless snobs. If they had lived in Elizabethan times they would have looked down upon Shakespeare as a common, commercial wordsmith, a foul-mouthed yokel upstart.
Hence my great joy, when I read that Stephen King got a medal from the National Book Foundation, for his ‘distinguished contribution to American letters’ – or when, like now, a fine but too often ignored actor like Christopher Lee is honoured for all he has done.
Not just because I do think they deserve it but also because I love the sound of gnashing Ivory teeth and Towering indignation.
(And here’s Stephen King on the subject of Ivory Towers, from the 4th minute on…)
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June 14th, 2009 at 22:37
Are there any gnashing teeth to be heard? I can’t imagine anyone taking exception to honouring someone of Lee’s stature.
Overdue – yes, I think I’d probably agree with that. But to this day it’s pretty hard to get a knighthood for acting. Michael Caine, Albert Finney, John Cleese, Timothy West, Patrick Stewart… none of them have been touched up by Her Maj yet, despite long and acclaimed careers. Consider how long it took for Sir Charles Chaplin.
June 14th, 2009 at 22:56
Well, you know, the English establishment never really approved of actors. For the longest time, theaters had to be built outside the town walls. Granted, there were also some (almost sensible) health reasons for that but actors & actresses were seen as dissolute characters; not quite in the same social league as prostitutes but close.
Later, plays became more socially accepted but that didn’t mean actors were suddenly welcome to join the better social strata (and actresses only so, while they were being bedded by the Prince of Wales of the moment – which did mean that a Hell of a lot of actresses did come in very close contact with royalty, of course…)
Anyway, in the highest levels of the establishment things don’t change very fast (if at all.) Antisemitism is still quite hot in certain highly refined circles, for instance, and I’m sure that, on the whole, thespians are still not considered to be Ascot material,
J.