On the impossibility of knowing whether Chris Morris is joking or not

So I went to a showing of Four Lions followed by a Q&A with Chris Morris, Sam Bain and two of the film’s stars. Very funny film that’s also full of pathos – you should go see it if you haven’t already.

However, Chris Morris did discuss some of the research he’d done, which involved talking to some very odd people, as you’d expect from a film about suicide bombers. And there was one story he told that shows you just how hard it is to tell if he’s making things up or not.

The story was that he’d been to see a guy who, as a teenager, had put a fake bomb in WH Smith’s to protest about The Satanic Verses. Now he’s working as a security guard for the Crown Prosecution Service – to be precise, as a nightwatchman. Even though he’s afraid of the dark.

So one night a moth sets off an alarm on the eighth floor of the building he’s supposed to be guarding, and he calls the police, not just because he’s afraid of the dark, but because he thinks the moth is possessed by the spirit of his cousin who wants to get back at him for something.

What do you think? BS or not?

PS There was another story about how he persuaded some guy that it was possible to train crows to talk. Again…

Thursday’s intermittent regulars news

Doctor Who

Film

British TV

  • Lunch Monkeys starts work on second series
  • Lindsay Duncan, Imogen Poots, Toby Jones and Douglas Booth join Matt Smith in Christopher And His Kind
  • David Baddiel to star in online football sitcom for Dave [subscription required]
  • Watch to rebrand [subscription required]
  • Rusty and others ask Beeb to cut US imports to make more UK kids shows [subscription required]

US TV

Wednesday’s news after all

Doctor Who

Film

British TV

  • Funny or Die UK to close [registration required]
  • David Jason going cockney again for tele movie
  • ITV considering remakes of Sapphire and Steel, Charlie’s Angels
  • Rab C Nesbitt gets a 10th series  

US TV

Tuesday’s Ness and Stacey everywhere news

Doctor Who

  • Joanna Page to play long-lost relative of the Doctor?? [spoilers??]

Film

British TV

  • Ruth Jones and Mark Heap to star in The Great Outdoors for BBC4…
  • …and Ruth Jones to play Hattie Jacques for BBC4 as well
  • S4C gives out £7m in contracts for kids’ TV [subscription required]
  • HBO programmes to be available on mobile network 3
  • 25% of Brits now have HD TV

US TV