I will have to check out the Clarkson show after this essay, but the bucolic setting and storyline reminded me of the original All Creatures Great and Small with Robert Hardy, Peter Davison, and Christopher Timothy. The ways in which they ruined that show in the new version just sickens me. Herriot's wife Helen has an outsized role with a ridiculous leave him at the altar scene and a drawn out courtship in which she torments her future husband over several seasons. Mrs. Hall, the mid 60’s housekeeper, a tiny role in book and original has been turned into a literal superwoman, a combination of Mata Hari and George Smiley, and this year features a romance between her and Siegfried! Thus a show about 3 male vets and the animals has been turned into a show about two women lecturing and correcting 3 hapless men who couldn’t pull their socks up without help.
I loved the original All Creatures Great and Small with Robert Hardy and Peter Davison. I knew about the remake, but avoided watching because I knew it would be a woke trainwreck.
We tried watching it. What they have done with Mrs. Hall’s character is risible even by the wokest of standards. She was the star of every episode we struggled through and had to solve even their professional problems. How a woman with her past and connections could end up as a housekeeper in the backwater Yorkshire Dales is confusing….oh! It must be the patriarchy!
Everytime we venture into the 21st century to watch a show we are sure to come away angry and/or depressed. We do like Vera and MacDonald and Dobbs, the latter sounds like a woke fiesta with a black senior detective and an eccentric older white man but is surprisingly free of political commentary. (Dobbs occasionally has words come out of his mouth that sound like they were read straight off a DEI course or a white man’s mea culpa for everything ever but this is blessedly limited to once every few shows.) The lead is engaged to a tradesman and is very normal. Later seasons of Vera are sprinkled with “me too” , and it gets heavy handed in the recent seasons.
Great article. The only mainstream show I can think of that’s still currently on television and aimed at a triple digit IQ is Michael Portillo’s Railway Journeys. Yeah Portillo’s outfits are a little thespian but there’s zero diversity and the US episodes in particular are excellent.
One of the most notable things about the show is an almost extinct example of the elite NOT countersignalling the English people, namely the English people who do real work and hold "old fashioned" customs and values.
Clarkson, as fish out of water urbanite, often seems bemused by his new neighbors and friends, but they are clearly depocted as FRIENDS. Any other show would likely have focused on how uuneducated, racist, homophobic and inept these "yokels" are, and Clarkson doesn't do this.
It's sad that this seems to be the only case in a decade where a popular show doesn't go out of its way to insult the native population that grows the nation's food.
Dirty Jobs accomplished something simiilar in the US. Mike Rowe's mission was to show a bunch of urban office drones what real work looked like, and that your septic tank guy, roofer and leather tanner deserves respect- maybe more than you
Watching that show feels really good, like your nervous system is subtly hinting that living something/somewhere like this is how you should be existing in this world…
I honestly can't watch anything made in the past 10 years. I'm really glad that you've found this oasis of sanity in the desert of madness that is modern entertainment. I watch movies and television shows from the 80s, 90s (and even the early 00s) and its so pleasant. Normal Whites, all heterosexual, the women don't hate the men, the men aren't incompetent or effeminate. The women are still allowed to be beautiful. Obviously there's some propaganda woven in but it's fleeting and almost subtle.
By comparison, modern entertainment is utterly obnoxious, an affront to the eyes and mind. It's a wonder this show even got made. It never would here in America.
Yes to all that. I try to temper this when talking to the kids but I slip on occasion. Been watching LoTRs trilogy with the lad, he suggested we watch the ring of power series afterwards; I was perhaps a bit too assertive in my response. Cranky, Dad confirmed.
There's little risk pushing the LOTR analogy too far. One of the reasons it resonates so much, and so timelessly, is there is always an evil eye, forever watching. There will always be the formless antagonist, ruthlessly committed to ugliness and chaos, threatening to breach the borders of order and beauty that good people work to construct. Not to say this describes the government perfectly, of course, but the more nonsense that is accepted, the more a thing begins to resemble the purely evil archetype described in those books.
I've been so heartened by the failure of shows like Rings of Power. It rekindles a little hope and faith in our fellow man. I didn't realise Clarkson's farm was doing so well, but it's the other side to that lovely coin. Much like the rise in the popularity of Classical FM that you've pointed out before.
I became a dog owner recently and read somewhere that Classic FM is good for settling a dog. So it went on. And now stays on pretty much all the time. It was 6 music before then but oh, the news section s, what propaganda.
I tried getting into it, and found the parts describing the practicalities of farming very interesting but the format wasn’t really for me.
However it made a pleasant change to dislike a tv series merely because it wasn’t to my taste rather than because it was an attack on my race, ethnicity, heritage and culture.
I did find myself bingeing on Around The World in 80 days with Micheal Palin a few weeks ago. If you were born late 70s/early 80s and want to see how much your culture has changed in your lifetime i don’t think there’s a better example I’ve seen.
I must say I am not a fan of Clarkson. I thought top gear used to be a decent programme pre Clarkson. The presenters showed you a car, put it through it's paces then gave you their honest opinion. Then Clarkson and that awful tit May turned the show into tory boy shite humour.
My lads watch Clarkson's farm and enjoy it. Perhaps I will stop being a cynic and give it a go.
I live in Chadlington where his farm is located. It really is a little haven in our troubled times. Thankfully we don't get much trouble from fans of the show coming to visit. However, his farm shop which is a mile outside the village is mobbed everyday it is open. There must have been thousands of people through it all queuing up for a hour or two. They mostly look like townies on a day out with the family. My wife and I wonder what the pull is to come all that way to what is a fairly unremarkable farm shop, many better ones near by. I think Morgoth is right about it. It is a sign of the loss of meaning and belonging in people's lives that they are desperate to fill. And I hope possibly people reconnecting with our land, our nature, and our food.
Uplifting insights, MG, many thanks. It's a 'blood and soil' thing too, no? Searching for similar 'entertainment' (in reality an affirmation, however lighthearted, of all that is natural, good and true in the British nature) a lot of us have also turned to YT - not, I hasten to add, for political content, but its opposite: British people getting on with life together, facing, solving problems. A technical dunce myself, I've found myself watching car repair channels, one really good one with a family team involved. They buy a written-off Lamborghini and through sheer genius, doggedness and good humour put it back on the road for a fraction of its real cost. The bloke, Matt Turner, has got his dad (who helps him) a Ferrari in this way. But more than the cars, it's a British family portraying all the quietly inspiring virtues that once made our country such a stunning place to live..... - had we but known it! (never find out what you've got till you lose it, etc) - Well, there is hope yet. I think they'll push us so far that Southport will seem like a tea-party.
Clarksons Farm and Bob Mortimers fishing series have been the only things worth watching in the last couple of years.
They make you wistful for a life before iPhones and DEI Dr Who.
Oh I haven't even watched Mortimer's fishing. I'd just given on mainstream entertainment.
I'll watch that.
Definitely worth a watch, the premise probably sounds shit but it’s just very relaxing with a good few chuckles thrown in.
Yeah mainstream tv really is on its arse though.
It’s superb, agree one of the only things worth watching in recent years.
I will have to check out the Clarkson show after this essay, but the bucolic setting and storyline reminded me of the original All Creatures Great and Small with Robert Hardy, Peter Davison, and Christopher Timothy. The ways in which they ruined that show in the new version just sickens me. Herriot's wife Helen has an outsized role with a ridiculous leave him at the altar scene and a drawn out courtship in which she torments her future husband over several seasons. Mrs. Hall, the mid 60’s housekeeper, a tiny role in book and original has been turned into a literal superwoman, a combination of Mata Hari and George Smiley, and this year features a romance between her and Siegfried! Thus a show about 3 male vets and the animals has been turned into a show about two women lecturing and correcting 3 hapless men who couldn’t pull their socks up without help.
I loved the original All Creatures Great and Small with Robert Hardy and Peter Davison. I knew about the remake, but avoided watching because I knew it would be a woke trainwreck.
Thank God for DVDs...
We tried watching it. What they have done with Mrs. Hall’s character is risible even by the wokest of standards. She was the star of every episode we struggled through and had to solve even their professional problems. How a woman with her past and connections could end up as a housekeeper in the backwater Yorkshire Dales is confusing….oh! It must be the patriarchy!
Everytime we venture into the 21st century to watch a show we are sure to come away angry and/or depressed. We do like Vera and MacDonald and Dobbs, the latter sounds like a woke fiesta with a black senior detective and an eccentric older white man but is surprisingly free of political commentary. (Dobbs occasionally has words come out of his mouth that sound like they were read straight off a DEI course or a white man’s mea culpa for everything ever but this is blessedly limited to once every few shows.) The lead is engaged to a tradesman and is very normal. Later seasons of Vera are sprinkled with “me too” , and it gets heavy handed in the recent seasons.
Thanks for everything you do Morgoth.
Hope more and more people will chip in and financial support this great Substack.
Thanks for the support. Over all I'm happy with Substack and I hope it can carry on.
It's the British State that concerns me.
Great article. The only mainstream show I can think of that’s still currently on television and aimed at a triple digit IQ is Michael Portillo’s Railway Journeys. Yeah Portillo’s outfits are a little thespian but there’s zero diversity and the US episodes in particular are excellent.
I like locomotives and trains. I watched several of Portillo's railway shows in 2022 and 2023.
If you find this kind of show compelling, I HIGHLY recommend Tales from the Green Valley
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHTfH-qEHx4
It's about 5 people rebuilding and running a 16th century farm for a year, living and working just as they did 400 years ago.
A very good series. The Victorian farm series made later is also worth a watch
Great recommendation and that started a series of other shows. There are some very reactionary comments from the normee people who run the old farm.
The link you posted brings up a message saying “not available in your country” but a search on YT gives this link which works in GB:
https://youtu.be/dRj1YYnsBGk?si=myub9BzsUxlG5Kk2
One of the most notable things about the show is an almost extinct example of the elite NOT countersignalling the English people, namely the English people who do real work and hold "old fashioned" customs and values.
Clarkson, as fish out of water urbanite, often seems bemused by his new neighbors and friends, but they are clearly depocted as FRIENDS. Any other show would likely have focused on how uuneducated, racist, homophobic and inept these "yokels" are, and Clarkson doesn't do this.
It's sad that this seems to be the only case in a decade where a popular show doesn't go out of its way to insult the native population that grows the nation's food.
Dirty Jobs accomplished something simiilar in the US. Mike Rowe's mission was to show a bunch of urban office drones what real work looked like, and that your septic tank guy, roofer and leather tanner deserves respect- maybe more than you
Watching that show feels really good, like your nervous system is subtly hinting that living something/somewhere like this is how you should be existing in this world…
Excellent review 👍🏼. My kids love Gerald. I'd also argue that Top gun maverick hits the mark with what audiences really want.
I honestly can't watch anything made in the past 10 years. I'm really glad that you've found this oasis of sanity in the desert of madness that is modern entertainment. I watch movies and television shows from the 80s, 90s (and even the early 00s) and its so pleasant. Normal Whites, all heterosexual, the women don't hate the men, the men aren't incompetent or effeminate. The women are still allowed to be beautiful. Obviously there's some propaganda woven in but it's fleeting and almost subtle.
By comparison, modern entertainment is utterly obnoxious, an affront to the eyes and mind. It's a wonder this show even got made. It never would here in America.
Yes to all that. I try to temper this when talking to the kids but I slip on occasion. Been watching LoTRs trilogy with the lad, he suggested we watch the ring of power series afterwards; I was perhaps a bit too assertive in my response. Cranky, Dad confirmed.
This article made my Sunday - superb work. Thanks Morgoth.
There's little risk pushing the LOTR analogy too far. One of the reasons it resonates so much, and so timelessly, is there is always an evil eye, forever watching. There will always be the formless antagonist, ruthlessly committed to ugliness and chaos, threatening to breach the borders of order and beauty that good people work to construct. Not to say this describes the government perfectly, of course, but the more nonsense that is accepted, the more a thing begins to resemble the purely evil archetype described in those books.
I've been so heartened by the failure of shows like Rings of Power. It rekindles a little hope and faith in our fellow man. I didn't realise Clarkson's farm was doing so well, but it's the other side to that lovely coin. Much like the rise in the popularity of Classical FM that you've pointed out before.
Yes, I hadn't considered the Classic FM connection in relation to this.
I became a dog owner recently and read somewhere that Classic FM is good for settling a dog. So it went on. And now stays on pretty much all the time. It was 6 music before then but oh, the news section s, what propaganda.
I tried getting into it, and found the parts describing the practicalities of farming very interesting but the format wasn’t really for me.
However it made a pleasant change to dislike a tv series merely because it wasn’t to my taste rather than because it was an attack on my race, ethnicity, heritage and culture.
I did find myself bingeing on Around The World in 80 days with Micheal Palin a few weeks ago. If you were born late 70s/early 80s and want to see how much your culture has changed in your lifetime i don’t think there’s a better example I’ve seen.
Thanks for this.
I must say I am not a fan of Clarkson. I thought top gear used to be a decent programme pre Clarkson. The presenters showed you a car, put it through it's paces then gave you their honest opinion. Then Clarkson and that awful tit May turned the show into tory boy shite humour.
My lads watch Clarkson's farm and enjoy it. Perhaps I will stop being a cynic and give it a go.
I live in Chadlington where his farm is located. It really is a little haven in our troubled times. Thankfully we don't get much trouble from fans of the show coming to visit. However, his farm shop which is a mile outside the village is mobbed everyday it is open. There must have been thousands of people through it all queuing up for a hour or two. They mostly look like townies on a day out with the family. My wife and I wonder what the pull is to come all that way to what is a fairly unremarkable farm shop, many better ones near by. I think Morgoth is right about it. It is a sign of the loss of meaning and belonging in people's lives that they are desperate to fill. And I hope possibly people reconnecting with our land, our nature, and our food.
Very interesting, do you think he's persecuted by the local council?
Uplifting insights, MG, many thanks. It's a 'blood and soil' thing too, no? Searching for similar 'entertainment' (in reality an affirmation, however lighthearted, of all that is natural, good and true in the British nature) a lot of us have also turned to YT - not, I hasten to add, for political content, but its opposite: British people getting on with life together, facing, solving problems. A technical dunce myself, I've found myself watching car repair channels, one really good one with a family team involved. They buy a written-off Lamborghini and through sheer genius, doggedness and good humour put it back on the road for a fraction of its real cost. The bloke, Matt Turner, has got his dad (who helps him) a Ferrari in this way. But more than the cars, it's a British family portraying all the quietly inspiring virtues that once made our country such a stunning place to live..... - had we but known it! (never find out what you've got till you lose it, etc) - Well, there is hope yet. I think they'll push us so far that Southport will seem like a tea-party.
Jeremy John Wade, underwater detective.
You may like River Monsters too.