23 replies to this topic

[RacingMonk]

Sad to hear Clive James is gone......best season reviews ever.

[garyfrogeye]

I used to love his end of season reviews, funny in parts and carried gravity when needed.

[Charlieman]

I discovered Clive James from his TV reviews and travel commentary in the Observer. He clearly had a lot of fun covering F1 -- which included learning to drive!

[arttidesco]

Sad to hear Clive James is no longer with us, self effacing wit such as he had in buckets is in such short supply at the moment too. RIP 

[bradbury west]

I think I recall him being a tidy driver too. Getting on for 30 years ago at one of the GPs there was a journo race in Fiat Turbos. I think one of the C&SC guys was very quick, but Mr James acquitted himself very well, so he could do that of which he spoke. Altogether a very talented man, well read, erudite, a joy to hear or read, and, critically, self effacing and with the great talent to make people laugh.
Perhaps someone will opt to check out the event and date.
Roger Lund.

[Ian G]

Sad News,we got most of his BBC shows here on the ABC and he was warmly welcomed when he returned unlike the reception for some expats.

He had a decade long relationship in his later years with Leanne Nesbitt,former wife of Dr. Geoffrey Edelsten(Sydney Swans AFL) which raised a few eyebrows.

 

Really enjoyed his wit and general personality,.......RIP.. 

[Tim Murray]

I think I recall him being a tidy driver too. Getting on for 30 years ago at one of the GPs there was a journo race in Fiat Turbos. I think one of the C&SC guys was very quick, but Mr James acquitted himself very well, so he could do that of which he spoke.

I’m not sure if this is the one you’re thinking of, Roger, but Clive drove in the celebrity race supporting the 1987 Australian GP. As Charlieman said, he hadn’t learnt to drive before so had to be taught, his instructor being a certain Stirling Moss.

The resulting TV programme was very entertaining:

https://youtu.be/y2qmskArmWg

Clive was definitely an enthusiast - here are his scathing views on the Ferrari team orders scandal at the 2002 Austrian GP:

https://www.theguard...mulaone.comment

RIP Clive, one of my favourite people.

[JacnGille]

Sad news

[Repco22]

So sad to hear that. Loved his humour and still chuckle at the hill trolley passage from his 'Unreliable Memoirs'.

                                                                                          RIP Clive.

[bradbury west]

Many thanks, Tim. Poor memory, despite enthusiasm, got the better of me in haste. I am sure Mr James would delight in parodying my effort at a tribute. I almost got some of it right.
That is the programme on You Tube, most entertaining.
The fact that he did as well as he did after just passing his test, with no other experience other than as a spectator, is a credit to him, and mindful of his sardonic and self effacing humour, he might even have been sandbagging a bit. Being inept was the basis of his narrative. To finish midfield may have been too near the glory end. That was the essence of his humour.

The C&SC writer in the Fiat race , elsewhere, was the excellent Mike McCarthy, he of "the auld bassoon" Austin A 90 rally car.
Roger Lund.

Edited by bradbury west, 28 November 2019 - 09:36.

[mariner]

I was slightly surprised that none of the obituaries I saw on-line mentioned his motor racing  stuff. Maybe his range was so wide it wasn't big enough?

 

I will always remember his ability to sum things up in a sentence . I think it was after a Las Vegas GP that he said " the drivers going off to candlelit dinners with their accountants"   superb

[Roger Clark]

It’s not really relevant to this forum but I would like to mention his song writing with Pete Atkin. This is from Driving Through Mythical America:

 

Four students in the usual light of day

Set out to speak their minds about the war
Unaware that Eddie Pru was on the way
Things had to snap before they knew the score

They were driving through mythical America

A Rooney-Garland show was in the barn
Fields was at the Pussycat Cafe
No-one had even heard of Herman Kahn
And Jersey Joe was eager for the fray

[Bloggsworth]

I think I recall him being a tidy driver too. Getting on for 30 years ago at one of the GPs there was a journo race in Fiat Turbos. I think one of the C&SC guys was very quick, but Mr James acquitted himself very well, so he could do that of which he spoke. Altogether a very talented man, well read, erudite, a joy to hear or read, and, critically, self effacing and with the great talent to make people laugh.
Perhaps someone will opt to check out the event and date.
Roger Lund.

 

IIRC he was taught to drive by Stirling Moss, though that may have been a TV "thing." His "Unreliable Memoirs" are superb. Just watched his talk with Mary Beard, notable for the lack of self-pity.

 

In one of those curiosities of life, 10 years ago I was standing beside him at the launch of Liane Strauss' second poetry collection at a book shop in Marylebone High Street, when he turned to his 'companion; and said "I don't feel very well, can we go." It must have been the first symptoms of his lukemia.

Edited by Bloggsworth, 28 November 2019 - 11:14.

[PayasYouRace]

His season review narrations were superb. A great mix of humour but also knowing when to be serious. Sad to hear he’s gone.

[Bloggsworth]

It’s not really relevant to this forum but I would like to mention his song writing with Pete Atkin. This is from Driving Through Mythical America:

 

Four students in the usual light of day

Set out to speak their minds about the war
Unaware that Eddie Pru was on the way
Things had to snap before they knew the score

They were driving through mythical America

A Rooney-Garland show was in the barn
Fields was at the Pussycat Cafe
No-one had even heard of Herman Kahn
And Jersey Joe was eager for the fray

 

He was told by Pete Atkins record company that they would never be successful as the lyrics were too literate...

[absinthedude]

RIP....the kind of person for whom the word "wit" was meant. 

 

One little anecdote...I think it's the 1986 FIA F1 review video where he is explaining the death of Elio de Angelis where he describes "the law of averages banging his gavel". What a superb choice of words and one that I shamelessly admit I have used many times since. 

[ensign14]

Would it be off of me to point out that Commonwealth judges have never used gavels...

[john aston]

Probably, yes. 

[BRG]

I was always an admirer of all of his work.  His involvement with F1 was just a little bonus. 

 

The thing that stuck in my mind was his comment as a skydiver came down before the start of a race - something like "And there's Bernie Ecclestone returning from his discussions with God"

[Glengavel]

One of my favourite quotes re Murray Walker: Even in moments of tranquillity, Murray Walker sounds like a man whose trousers are on fire.

[ellrosso]

Yes Glengavel, the Murray Walker quote was a cracker!  RIP Clive James - thoroughly enjoyed his humour for so many years. He certainly loved his Kogarah childhood.

[king_crud]

I think it was the 86 review, Clive's impression of Gerhard Berger: "sh*t zing"

Edited by king_crud, 02 December 2019 - 16:21.

[Charlieman]

In these grim and frustrating times, BBC repeats of the Clive James travel documentaries are keeping me amused. I was sad when he fell ill and impressed by his endurance and desire to keep working. 

 

His observations of the world seem a strange place today, but that was true for most people when the films were recorded. Part of the brilliance of his F1 reporting was how he pointed his finger at its unwitting craziness.

[RobertE]

He once described Arnold Schwarzenegger as resembling "A brown condom filled with walnuts..."

 

For that alone...!

 

Bless him. I met him at a PEN dinner - he was a delightful man.