When the Going Gets Clough

Caught In The Net is fascinated to see what Americans, who’ve clasped Frost/Nixon to their collective bosom, make of Michael Sheen’s latest film, The Damned United, when it hits cinema screens on March 27.

A highly – some might say totally – fictionalised account of Brian Clough’s 44-days in charge of Leeds United during the ‘70s, its use of such gafferspeak as ‘have a nibble’, ‘sick as a parrot’ and ‘get in there my son!’ is likely to bamboozle a nation that still finds the law of relativity easier to comprehend than the offside rule.
By all accounts, it’s a BAFTA-winner in the making, with the trailer viewable at [link]www.youtube.com/watch?v=63Dkh16Od98[/link] and behind the scenes footage residing at [link]www.youtube.com/watch?v=hx47RHpQeNQ[/link]. There’s also a great video interview with Sheen at talksport, and words of wisdom from Old Big Head (“If I had an argument with a player we would sit down for twenty minutes, talk about it and then decide I was right”) at thinkexist.com/quotes/brian_clough.
We’re indebted to avid CITN reader Grainne Keane of Montreal for sending us the link to [link]www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxmVVbf6OuI[/link] where there’s totally surreal footage of a Bollywood movie that was made a few years ago in Bray. Yes, you read right, Bray.
Almost a dozen all-singing, all-dancing Indian films were shot here as a result of the government’s (then) generous tax breaks for the celluloid industry. Bord Failte were in on the act, giving Mumbai bigwigs guided tours of Ireland’s top beauty spots which, judging by this clip, included Bray DART station.
Incidentally, the toe tapper in question, ‘Kan Moodi’, reached number 2 on the Tamil charts back in 2003.
If you’d like to find out more about the genre, and Indian goings-on here, visit www.bollywoodireland.com.
After that it’s but a mere mouse-clock to www.i-hacked.com/content/view/274/48/ where there’s a hypothetical guide to hypothetically breaking into electronic road signs and hypothetically warning of ‘Zombies Ahead’.
The same message was also hacked on to the foxnews.com homepage recently, causing considerable distress to all the crypto-fascists who work there.
Which just leaves time for quick visits to james.nerdiphythesoul.com/bennyhillifier/speedup.php?id=oHg5SJYRHA0 (give your videos the Benny Hill treatment); www.anorak.co.uk/money/201318.html (the greatest letter of complaint ever sent); rathergood.com/kraftwurst (“We are the pork products”); www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTihsJQHt48&NR=1 (Christian Bale’s uncut rant); and www.youtube.com/watch?v=EidWp-IrUiM (the original of the species, as borrowed by Messrs. Mathews and Linehan for the Eurovision episode of Father Ted).