Clive James

Birth Name: Vivian Leopold James

While at Cambridge, Clive began a fruitful songwriting partnership with Pete Atkin. With Clive's lyrics and Pete's vocals and musical settings, they released six critically-acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful albums in the early 70s before Pete moved on to audio production at the BBC. Clive toured with Pete in a words and music show promoting the final album. They have recently re-united on stage and in the studio for more of their trademark songs, which have been described as "somewhere between The Kinks and Steely Dan" (quote from NY Times). Show less «

Searching through my Netflix hoard, I accidentally fell into a pit called The Last Heist (2016), a m...Show more »

Searching through my Netflix hoard, I accidentally fell into a pit called The Last Heist (2016), a mess that would be of zero interest if it did not attempt to combine two normally distinct plot formats: the gang of highly organized thieves cracks the vault, but there is inside it a psycho who collects eyeballs. This particular shambles might even have been worth the time that I risked my own eyeballs watching it, if it had contained even a single actor I wanted to see. Show less «

Television talked about everything, so I thought if I talk about television I'll be talking about ev...Show more »

Television talked about everything, so I thought if I talk about television I'll be talking about everything too. Show less «

The Americans are the ones who've surprised us. When I was a TV critic, it was just axiomatic that A...Show more »

The Americans are the ones who've surprised us. When I was a TV critic, it was just axiomatic that American TV was worthless. Now the box sets coming out of America, I've got a room full of them. I watch them all the time. Show less «

Stop worrying, nobody gets out of this world alive.

I had a great time as a critic. It was like writing a poem, actually. Writing a column and writing a...Show more »

I had a great time as a critic. It was like writing a poem, actually. Writing a column and writing a poem are very similar. The essay and the poem are very close forms, you really, really try to pack it tight. And the column was packed tight. It had a joke paragraph and a serious paragraph. I write poems the same way; I think, "What comes next? How do I end this?" Show less «

I try to see everything that Idris Elba has done since he knocked me out in Sur écoute (2002)...Show more »

I try to see everything that Idris Elba has done since he knocked me out in Sur écoute (2002): he is the most kingly British star since Richard Burton, and acts rather better. But even the majestic Idris is at the mercy of the script. It must give him status, or his stature is wasted. Show less «

As a Denzel Washington fan, I try to see every movie he has made. When I was still flying, I would w...Show more »

As a Denzel Washington fan, I try to see every movie he has made. When I was still flying, I would watch a Denzel movie two or three times on the trot, just to study the way he timed a sardonic smile - even today, I time a sardonic smile at my granddaughter's dog. Show less «

There's no question that the center of television has been hollowed out by reality shows, which I ne...Show more »

There's no question that the center of television has been hollowed out by reality shows, which I never watch. It was just a complete accident that I saw Abigail Titmuss and Rebecca Loos in those lounge chairs beside the swimming pool in the Caribbean, adjusting each other's bikinis. It was a complete accident I watched that for four nights. Show less «

[on Marilyn Monroe] She was good at playing abstract confusion in the same way that a midget is good...Show more »

[on Marilyn Monroe] She was good at playing abstract confusion in the same way that a midget is good at being short. Show less «

Clive James

Clive James's FILMOGRAPHY

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