Chris Barrie has updated his website

[Bargain Bin Holly]

http://www.chrisbarrie.co.uk/

He mentions the weather, tanks, and his dislike of people requesting his appearance on podcasts; but he also included this tidbit on future Red Dwarf and Brittas Empire:

“At the risk of repeating something I seem to have said many times over the last umpteen years, I simply do not know if/when we will be doing more Red Dwarf. Over the winter of 2015/16 when we made series 11 and 12, some common sense momentum seemed to be building, but, since then, the project seems to have juddered to a halt. In the desert of silence I do encounter the occasional droplet of positivity but that’s it. If the droplet ever becomes a trickle, I shall of course leap to the keyboard and let you know.

The Brittas position is not dissimilar. Since the promising newspaper articles of a couple of years ago and the enthusiasm of the Reunion last year, it all seems to have gone all quiet on the Whitbury front. All I can do is continue to express my desire to recreate the chainsaw voiced ogre and that is something I shall certainly keep doing.”

Thanks to Chris Barrie Fans for making this known on Twitter.

Topic

[Flap Jack]

I think the key moment where people started majorly turning on David Baddiel was when people started urging him and other celebrities to unfollow Graham Linehan on Twitter – over his transphobia – and he reacted as if this was cancel culture run amok, made 1984 comparisons.

[Ian Symes]

Yeah, I unfollowed Baddiel as I decided to enact a zero tolerance policy on people putting unchallenged transphobia into my timeline. Shortly after which, he started plugging a “gender critical” book one of his friends had written. It’s a policy that’s seen me unfollow a disappointing number of famous people, and even a few people I used to count as friends.

That said, I love Fantasy Football and The Mary Whitehouse Experience so much that I’d still consider myself a fan of his, despite disagreeing with him about a lot of things and the general feeling that he’s probably a bit of a tosser in many regards. It’s complicated.

[The Data Doctor]

Gosh, I didn’t know about any of that. Shows how much I pay attention to Twitter. All i knew was that he was critical of Jeremy Corbyn, which I know put a lot of people off. Yeah, he probably is a knob, but then a lot of these showbiz types seem to be. 

[Dave]

I’m looking forward to CB’s November update explaining how the latest re-release of Three Lions is part of the Great Reset programme.

[Jenuall]

Saw Baddiel at Hay Festival this year and my kids got him to sign a few of his books – he was a mild level of a dick about the whole thing, certainly in comparison to most of the other kids authors who were there and being very approachable/charming

[Flap Jack]

Had the displeasure of meeting David Baddiel at a charity do once. He was surprisingly full of himself, and VERY unfunny.

[Jonathan Capps]

As if by magic, Jason Lee has just had an interview about the racist abuse he received as a result of Baddiel’s caricature of him on FF and his very belated apology efforts.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/nov/21/jason-lee-interview-david-baddiel-apology

After looking into the Dankula thing I’m now wondering what Baddiel’s RT actually means, now. I don’t take any pleasure in ‘cancelling’ past heroes but it feels more important than ever to try and stick to some principles and challenge the things these very socially powerful people put out into the world.

[Flap Jack]

I think I’m still inclined to chalk the Chris Barrie retweet up to idiocy rather than malice, but as you say, we’re not exactly short on reasons to dislike the guy.

We can also add “releasing a new version of ‘Three Lions’ to promote a World Cup that the entire country should be boycotting” to the list.

[Jenuall]

True, it’s a disgrace that it’s happening and everything about the tournament is horrendous.

But have you also considered the fact that it’s coming home?

[Dollar Pound]

this thread is simply the maddest thing in the universe

[Dollar Pound]

people are queueing up to get their picture done with cb because he’s cool and handsome and funny and in their favourite show.  you guys are absolutely bananas

[Flap Jack]

people are queueing up to get their picture done with cb because he’s cool and handsome and funny and in their favourite show. you guys are absolutely bananas

Sorry to break this to you dollarpound, but I’m afraid that Chris Barrie used up all of his “star in a beloved show, get excused for doing bad things” credit on the production of A Prince Among Men. He doesn’t have any left for antisemitism.

[RunawayTrain]

Sorry to break this to you dollarpound, but I’m afraid that Chris Barrie used up all of his “star in a beloved show, get excused for doing bad things” credit on the production of A Prince Among Men. 

Oh come on, he redeemed himself with his engineering shows after that!  They were great.

[No amount of goodwill covers becoming a full-on conspiracy nut though, just to be clear.  Or indeed anti-Semitism.]

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

I think the key moment where people started majorly turning on David Baddiel was when people started urging him and other celebrities to unfollow Graham Linehan on Twitter – over his transphobia – and he reacted as if this was cancel culture run amok, made 1984 comparisons.

Oh yeah that reminds me, Stephen Fry was in the news recently over his comments about what’s going on with JK. What with him being Stephen Fry and everything, you’d expect him to be the voice of reason and help to mend those burnt bridges. Instead he somehow managed to upset all parties involved. Come on Stephen, you’re supposed to be better than this. 

[Rudolph]

I suppose the best outcome here is that blowing up on Twitter might be cause for Chris to explain himself a bit. Hopefully apologising instead of doubling down.

[Ben Saunders]

“based” is colloquially the opposite of “cringe”. It is used by right wingers online to refer to people with non-leftist views, but it’s also used ironically a lot of the time so it’s not that simple (i say it a lot). It originates from Lil B who used to call himself “Based God”, taking the old insult “basehead” meaning crackhead. It has since been utterly recontextualised. Timewave is based.

[Ben Saunders]

also what the fuck? Chris Barrie going on about NWO conspiracies? he is a 60-something Englishman but man. Can’t wait for the next RD special to be about a mutant virus that was secretly engineered by… nah that plot’s been done

[Smeg4Brains]

people are queueing up to get their picture done with cb because he’s cool and handsome and funny and in their favourite show.  you guys are absolutely bananas

Oh well, in that case let him spout as much dangerous nonescense as he wants 🙄

[loadoftottnumb]

My very important thoughts. 

Chris Barrie is great, I don’t like these website updates but I think he’s more of a conspiracy nut than an anti-Semite. 

David Baddiel is ok, Three Lions was great, any subsequent re-releases have been rubbish. 

Jeremy Corbyn has good and bad points, I can understand a Jewish man being critical of him. 

It’s nWo for Life 

Football IS Coming Home. 

[Ben Saunders]

It’s easy to get washed up in conspiracy theories, especially when you’re an old man who’s seemingly inexperienced with this whole internet thing. Right-wing nutters are very aware that “the elite” is codeword for The Jews, but ordinary people can be easily duped into believing this kind of stuff without necessarily realising the broader picture of what it all really means. So I hope Chris is just a daft old man who doesn’t really know what he’s talking about, and not a full-fledged KKK member.

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

Oh yeah, there was an interesting debate between Baddiel and Miriam Margolyes about antisemitism, which I presume is part of his Jews Don’t Count documentary. It was interesting they both had very different takes in the role that Israel plays in modern antisemitism, because David believes it’s an entirely independent issue and seems to take umbrage at the suggestion that Jews should be accountable for the actions of a foreign Jewish state, while Miriam firmly argues that Jews internationally have an obligation to call Israel into account when they act out in a way that reflects badly on Jews worldwide, and that Israel has in some part been responsible for giving antisemitism an outlet through which it might be dressed up as legitimate criticism, and it is true that the international Jewish community do bear the brunt a lot for the actions of the Israeli government in addition to that unfortunate pervasive baseline antisemitism. I think they both make a lot of good points.

[Moonlight]

It just makes it all the more frustrating that, at least where I live, conservatives have basically conflated literally any and all criticism of the government of Israel with fascistic antisemitism because it gives them a pretense to enjoy brown people being ruthlessly subjugated while putting up a façade of mock social justice, something they absolutely fucking hate UNLESS being seen as socially conscious can score potshots against the “left”.

And by “left” I of course do not mean the actual left, but conservatives don’t know the difference and don’t care to learn. To them, anyone to their left = Democrats = all forms of socialism = Stalinism and, no, they cannot define socialism.

I cannot imagine it’s much different in the UK.

[Jonathan Capps]

I cannot imagine it’s much different in the UK.

Pretty much. There was a massive panic at Corbyn gaining traction because the people in charge of the media hate the idea of anything other than full on capitalism, and so he was (in my opinion) unfairly smeared with accusations of anti-semitism. The irony being, most of the same people are on board with the TERFs, who use implied anti-semitism all the time (Soros invented the transes!) and ignore how many honest to goodness racists are on board with them.

[Moonlight]

My dad earnestly thinks Soros collaborated with the Nazis at a time when we would have been a small child, based on a single quote of his that doesn’t even come close to saying that.

But then he’ll call Democrats antisemites when they criticize an apartheid state for doing apartheid, just because the victims are Muslims – still one of the archenemies of the western right.

[RunawayTrain]

Pretty much. There was a massive panic at Corbyn gaining traction because the people in charge of the media hate the idea of anything other than full on capitalism, and so he was (in my opinion) unfairly smeared with accusations of anti-semitism. The irony being, most of the same people are on board with the TERFs, who use implied anti-semitism all the time (Soros invented the transes!) and ignore how many honest to goodness racists are on board with them.

Let’s be honest, that’s one of the main selling points for the people who are buying.

(And for some context, our right-wing media is kind of Fox-lite.  Still within slingshot distance of reality rather than completely unhinged, but all the same mental gymnastics and the same playbook.)

[Moonlight]

My parents don’t like their own parents and relatives watching FOX because it’s too extreme. This confuses me because I’ve never heard a shitty right-wing talking point on there that doesn’t sound identical to their beliefs. I don’t want to ever talk politics with them but I’m genuinely really curious what specific aspects of FOX News they consider too extreme for their tastes when I can’t tell the difference.

I can’t even begin to afford to move out, and I don’t necessarily want to because things are generally good here (I don’t want to give the impression they’re genuinely bad people, they’re just brainwashed). But it’d be nice for a socialist who puts the L in LGBTQ to not have to listen to family foaming at the mouth about how all queer people are pedos, or that people who in reality want democracy in the workplace actually want to send all white people to gulags. I’m functionally not allowed to defend myself without revealing that I’m basically everything they’re politically opposed to.

So, yeah, it stings to see the actor of a character I relate to so deeply talking like my family. Almost enough for me to not notice I just publicly came out.

Oops.

[Flap Jack]

Thanks for sharing that, Moonlight. From a B to an L. 🏳️‍🌈

It goes to show how easy it is for nice or “normal” people to succumb to conspiracy-theorising/reactionary thought. The fact that your parents reject Fox News while essentially 100% agreeing with them doesn’t seem too outlandish to me, because often what makes believers so certain is the self-enforced belief that they arrived at their conclusions independently. So maybe that factors into it somewhat.

[Ian Symes]

Glad and honoured that you were comfortable sharing that with us, Moonlight.

[Jonathan Capps]

[Moonlight]

I’ve wanted to say it for a while but, historically, bad things happen when I do. Even with certain people I trusted my life to.

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

Damn, I’m really sorry to hear that. Don’t worry, you can rely on us.

Well, some of us.

Well, one of us.

Maybe.

[Jonathan Capps]

[Moonlight]

The best part about that GIF in this context is they’re actually feigning emotional support with no genuine intention.

[Jonathan Capps]

Yeah but imagine that scene but with genuine affection.

[Jenuall]

[Moonlight]

[clem]

Way to go, Moonlight 👍

[Unrumble]

[Stephen Abootman]

[Moonlight]

Unrumble figured out where my current name comes from. A+. Also, I really appreciate the support. I’m not used to getting it on this particular topic.

[Jenuall]

[Moonlight]

[Nick R]

[Moonlight]

[Warbodog]

(Kochanski face is the in-built apology).

[Flap Jack]

[Dave]

[Unrumble]

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

[Dave]

[Author]

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