I think I’ll be eternally grateful to Ranjeet for introducing me to Blackadder. If I remember correctly, the one time I was at IITM was the time around when a bunch of people were trying to adapt the epic court-martial scene from “Corporal Punishment” in Season IV (the entire season is indescribably epic) for the stage. So he showed me a couple of episodes from IV, and I remember being unable to follow the accent properly. With his help, I got an inkling of the brilliance that was contained in the show. The first thing I did when I got back to college was download the entire 4 seasons, start watching, and sharing the files with “[by urgu]” appended to all the filenames. Not that many people cared to take the thing from me via DC, of course. Blackadder threw open new doors to some inimitably British traditions of wit and comedy. It also proved to me beyond doubt, once and for all, that “the guy who plays Mr. Bean” isn’t mute after all.
It never occurred to me to look up Hugh Laurie’s Wiki page prior to this video, of his appearance on Inside the Actors’ Studio. In fact, I was taken by surprise when the subject of his depression came up. Clinical depression isn’t something one usually expects someone as immensely awesome as Mr. Laurie. I chanced upon this video, link-hopping from some old Fry-Laurie sketches, and found this a very good interview of the man. (How he found out he was depressed: “Boredom wasn’t an appropriate response to exploding cars”) Please watch all the parts of the video - there’s an absolute gem at the end, Laurie’s performance of his hilarious song, “Mystery”.
I’m reading The Gun Seller. It reads like the thriller novel P.G. Wodehouse never got around to writing! On a completely unrelated note, I’m reading a collection of short stories written by Edgar Allen Poe on the side, my favourite so far being The Black Cat. It does seem incongruous to enjoy material evincing two completely polar opposites of theme and character simultaneously, but what the hell. My long hours of utter and complete boredom have only begun.
