While most people would admit that Viv Stanshall's work in music and film was an acquired taste, this profile should whet anyone's appetite. Using a mix of archive footage of Bonzo appearances (Canyons of Your Mind, of course, amongst them) and various stuff after, with interviews with the likes of Neil Innes, Rodney Slater, and Stephen Fry, it manages to make a fair assessment of the increasingly bizarre songwriter, who died ten years ago next March at the unfairly young age of 51.
Part of BBC4's 'originals' series which have focused on the most off-the-wall contributors to the world of music, this is in-depth TV at its best, and made me for one go back to the songs I already knew about and seek out some I didn't. The series itself underlines yet again that we are fast running out of people like Viv, true creative spirits who make the world that bit better while they're in it.
Part of BBC4's 'originals' series which have focused on the most off-the-wall contributors to the world of music, this is in-depth TV at its best, and made me for one go back to the songs I already knew about and seek out some I didn't. The series itself underlines yet again that we are fast running out of people like Viv, true creative spirits who make the world that bit better while they're in it.
