The Strange World of Gurney Slade
The Strange World of Gurney Slade is a surreal six-part British television comedy series devised by
Plot
The series follows the character of Gurney Slade, played by Newley, through a series of mundane environments with fantastical elements. Slade is the only continuing character, and is often heard in voice-over expressing his thoughts. Though we learn much about the character's inner life, we learn very little of Gurney Slade's history or background. He appears to be a character in a typical family-oriented TV show who abruptly tires of the artificial environment he's apparently trapped in; the first episode opens with Slade breaking the fourth wall of a television sitcom and leaving the set, to the protestations of its director.
Slade spends the rest of the series simply wandering from one (generally sparse) environment to another, ruminating on life in an often free-associative way. During his wanderings, he sometimes encounters a range of odd people (and at least one talking dog), all of which may be entirely creations of his own imagination. In episode four, Slade is put on trial for being a TV character who wasn't funny in the first three episodes.[1] Other episodes introduce other meta-fictional elements into the proceedings. The series concludes with a final episode in which Slade, in a TV studio, appears to be little more than a machine-like performer whose every move is controlled by outside forces.
Cast
- Anthony Newley as Gurney Slade
- Edwin Richfield as Husband
- Douglas Wilmer as Prosecuting Counsel
- Charles Lloyd Packas Tinker
- Una Stubbs as Girl in Park
- John Bennett as Napoleon Bonaparte
- Anneke Wills as Girl on Airfield
- Bernie Winters as Albert
- Hugh Paddick as Fairy (episode 2)
- Graham Stark as Fairy (episode 6)
Production
Development
Prior success as a pop vocalist led
Newley explained at the time: "There is no rhyme or reason for what I do, I merely take life and turn it upside down. We hope to achieve humour without setting out to be deliberately funny."[3] The surrealism of the series was considerably ahead of its time for a 1960 television comedy.[3] In a New Musical Express (NME) interview during 1973, David Bowie described the series as "tremendous", commenting that "there's a lot of Monty Python in there - left-handed screws and right-handed screws".[4]
Title
The name
There is also a 1944 novel by Warwick Deeping called Mr Gurney and Mr Slade, also known as The Cleric's Secret.[citation needed]
Theme tune
An arrangement of the show's theme tune, which featured a prominent flute part, by composer Max Harris was released on a 7" single together with the "Gurney in Wonderland" theme from episode 1. The single version was later utilised for the "animated clock" sequence on the BBC children's show Vision On.
Broadcast
The ratings were disappointing, and it was moved from
The Strange World of Gurney Slade was repeated in 1963,[6] and the first episode turned up as part of Channel 4's TV Heaven series in 1992.[4]
Home media
The whole series was released as a Region 2 DVD by Network DVD in August 2011.[7]
A Blu-Ray release came to fruition in 2020. https://networkonair.com/all-products/3234-strange-world-of-gurney-slade-the-blu-ray-
Critical works
In September 2020 Obverse Books published the book The Strange World of Gurney Slade, by author Andrew Hickey, as the sixth volume of its Silver Archive series of monographs on genre television.[8]
References
- ^ Sweet, Matthew (16 August 2021). "The Strange World of Gurney Slade". Tortoise. Retrieved 16 August 2021.
- ^ Wright, Catriona (2003–2014). "Strange World of Gurney Slade, The (1960)". BFI Screenonline. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
- ^ a b "The Strange World of Gurney Slade", Television Heaven website
- ^ a b c Dick Fiddy "The Strange Tale of The Strange World of Gurney Slade", Network DVD booklet, March 2011
- ^ a b The Listener, 21 April 1988, p. 16
- ^ "Television and Radio Programmes". The Glasgow Herald. 6 September 1963. p. 18.
- ^ Olympia Zographos "The Strange World of Gurney Slade DVD review", cultbox.co.uk DVD Review, 8 August 2011
- ^ "SA06 – The Strange World of Gurney Slade", Obverse Books website product page