The Strange World of Gurney Slade

Anthony Newley absolutely blows you away in this pioneering television piece that experiments with breaking down the fourth wall as his character addresses you the viewer directly.The first indication of this is him walking off mid scene and leaving the set to air his stream of consciousness to you and his cue the title music delivery at the start of the show.David Bowie loved this show and it's easy to see why.

A pioneering comedy series, postmodernist before there was such a thing, and a wonderful demonstration of Anthony Newley's genius in the art of self-mockery.

The Newley character, playing the lead in a ghastly domestic soap opera, suddenly walks off the set in disgust, but to his horror finds he can't escape the cameras.

A slight, pathetic figure in a shabby raincoat, he wanders about London - seen and unseen - talking to himself, a dog, a dustbin, dancing with a girl who's come down from an advertising poster... He's looking for some answers, but finds the world is surreal, absurd, trivial and bewildering. Like Alice.

The theme tune - wistful but jaunty - (which Newley summons up with a piano-playing action of the hand) - expresses his character unforgettably.

The series probably altered the history of comedy, and forty years on we still get allusions to it in advertisements.

I was reminded of this tv series recently when watching one of Tony Newley's old films on Talking Pictures. In 1960, at the age of 9 I was a fan of Newley as a singer. At that stage I wasn't even aware of his acting career. So, when he appeared in Gurney Slade, I assumed it was something new for him. Which it was; but not in the way I thought. My interest in most media was a bit alternative e.g. The Goons etc. which my parents couldn't quite understand, but were quite happy for me to indulge in. Thus, for me Gurney Slade was a joy. So far out. I hadn't a clue what was going on. Each episode seemed to consist of a vague situation or challenge arising from chance encounters and which needed to be resolved. But in between there were a series of weird, puzzling and quite barmy occurrences. Note, I didn't say surreal since I hadn't heard the word at the time. Way ahead of its time, I suppose I caught up with its premise by the time Monty Python appeared. In the meantime I contented myself intriguing my schoolmates by relating the episodes and walking around whistling the quirky, jazzy theme tune!

Although I saw this series when I was much younger, my parents had seen it and they told me it was never fully appreciated back then. After rewatching it, I'm going to label it as an unjustly neglected show that should've done better than it originally did.

In Gurney Slade, he practices the art of self-mockery and elevates it to the nth degree. Shades of early British anarchic comedies combine to make a television show that follows the adventures of an actor--or so we think--as he moves from set to set in a grimy British background.

The sets are minimal, and the acting seems improvised at times, but it's all part of the madness that was Newley's imagination, and that's exactly what it was then--and is it now. The episodes are few, but the payoff in the finale, with echoes of The Twilight Zone, is a tour de force of acting and horror combined.

This is a show, that, IMO, should be watched again by anyone who's interested in seamlessly breaking the fourth wall. It's that good.