Landmark: Laurel and Hardy's The Music Box

Arts & Ideas

BBC

Society & Culture

4.2 • 599 Ratings

🗓️ 8 January 2019

⏱️ 47 minutes

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Summary

Lucy Porter, Neil Brand and David Quantick join Matthew Sweet to talk about Cric e Croc or Flip i Flap or even Dick und Doof though, if you're not Italian, Polish or German, it's far more likely that Hollywood's most famous comedy duo will be known to you simply as Stan and Ollie.

Laurel and Hardy to give them their more formal title won the hearts of cinema goers all over the world in the '30s and '40s with films such as Way out West, Sons of the Desert and The Music Box, the sublime short which is the focus of this edition of Free Thinking. With the release of a new film about their life Stan and Ollie - starring John C Reilly and Steve Coogan, and a month long season of their work already underway at the British Film Institute in London - Matthew Sweet is joined by the standup comedian, Lucy Porter, the Emmy award winning writer, David Quantick and playwright and musician, Neil Brand to pay tribute to their achievement and enduring appeal.

Producer: Zahid Warley

Lucy Porter begins a nationwide tour of her show - Pass it On - in February 2019. The BFI Laurel and Hardy season is on now at London's Southbank and runs until 26th January 2019.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that is some level of genius. It also helps that it's a long time ago, right?
0:23.3	It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream van plays music when it's out of ice cream.
0:28.8	Listen to evil genius on BBC Sounds.
0:33.3	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:37.2	So, you've succumbed.
0:39.2	You heard the Arts and Ideas podcast calling to you, like that pie in the fridge.
0:44.6	Well, my name's Matthew Sweet, and I'm here to tell you that really there's no need to feel guilty.
0:50.3	Give in to your desires.
0:51.9	We all need ideas.
0:53.3	We all need the arts. And you're going to get them right here, right now, after this short message.
0:59.6	Why does music move us? How does it do it? Well, if these are questions that have been firing you up, I've got the very podcast for you.
1:08.8	I'm Tom Service from BBC Radio 3 and from Schubert's symphonies to
1:12.7	video game music from how to start a piece of music and when to end it. From background music to
1:18.5	bird song, from Beethoven to Beyonce, from Bach to the future. Thank you very much indeed.
1:24.6	The listing service podcast is your guide to how music works,
1:29.0	and all kinds of music to,
1:30.9	the mastery and mechanics behind the magic.
1:34.2	Just search for the listening service on BBC Sounds
1:37.0	and learn more about the music we all love.
1:41.1	All that I know most surely about morality and obligations I owe to Laurel and Hardy.
1:47.2	All that I know about chimney sweeping too, and boat repair,
1:51.0	and how to remove a paintbrush when it gets glued to your chin during an industrial accident.
	...

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