I was listening to Michael McIntyre on Desert Island Discs yesterday and was struck by what a nice guy he appeared to be. Funny, self deprecating and charming he came across as very likable and, although I have only seen him perform on TV for ten minutes or so, I thought that I'd like to hear more from him. The most telling thing that came across in his interview with Kirstie though was his comment on the criticism that he has faced since becoming successful (after an incredibly long period trying to get a break). He was clearly hurt by the nastiness heaped upon him by fellow comics like the hilarious Stewart Lee who suggested that McIntyre spoon fed his audience with warm diarrhoea. He said that he went to an awards ceremony with his wife (who had bought a new dress for the event) and then spent the evening listening to this sort of stuff directed at him. I wondered what he had done to deserve it. He is clearly popular - sold out the O2 Arena four nights running- so why the knocking from the "in crowd" celebrities, the sort who regularly post their bile on Twitter. What's wrong with being nice? OK we don't want to live on an anodyne diet of nothing but sugar and saccharine but there's nothing wrong with the odd chocolate biscuit. So keep it up Michael. Don't be hit by the bitterness. I will look forward to seeing your act.
Which leads me seamlessly to another example of nice prevailing over nasty when Tom Pellereau, the young innocent amongst the wolves on The Apprentice, won against three competitors who would have sold their grandmothers for the opportunity. It's a very interesting tweak to the format with the winner going into partnership with Alan Sugar and I hope that gentle Tom with his holding his hand up before speaking is a big success. Highlight of the show had to be Jim's response to Margaret Mountford's request to describe himself without using cliche "you get exactly what it says on the tin".
Sadly, nasty prevailed over nice when Chris and Colin Weir agreed to publicise their amazing £161 million lottery win and Twitter and the rest of the internet was awash with comments on their size. Let's face it, even if they had looked like a pair of catwalk models, the sort of people who write this stuff would have found an angle to be bitchy about. I'm sure that the couple will have the last laugh. At least £13k per day income should be enough to sweeten the bitterness.
There won't be a lot of nice in this week's film choice. We're off to Liverpool on Wednesday to collect more stuff for the caravan from John Lewis and then off to FACT to see Spanish film Cell 211 which is a prison thriller. Reviews were pretty good. We'd love to go and see the latest Harry Potter movie which is excellent by all accounts but we're still ploughing through the earlier Potter films after a friend kindly sent us a boxed set as a gift. We're going to take them to the caravan for a rainy day.
In the meantime I'll leave you with a bit of Michael McIntyre - harmless enough.
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