With John away, Luke gave tQ regular and all-round excellent scribe Jude Rogers a shout to see if she’d be up for coming on a special edition of the Low Culture podcast about Withnail & I, Bruce Robinson’s 1987 masterpiece – a searing, hilarious, beautiful portrayal of complex male relationships, the brokenness of post-war England, and the failure of the 60s counterculture. Jude and Luke discuss gender in a film in which there are after all only about three female characters – is Withnail & I simply for blokes, or is something more complex, and sensitive, at play? Jude points out that we’re all invited to fall in love with Paul McGann’s character, for his beauty, his monologues, his excellent wardrobe and collection of books. Where does Marwood and Withnail’s relationship sit? Is it alcoholic codependence, or is there a deeper queer undertone? And what of Uncle Monty, the one character with a relatively developed back-story, who is arguably not the monster he might at first appear – that, perhaps, is Withnail himself. Talking about masculinity in this way of course connects with how the film was much-abused by 90s lad culture, when Chris Evans bought Withnail’s coat at auction, and it was released on DVD with extras including a tawdry Withnail drinking game. We’ve also got some incredible anecdotes about the film and its legacy courtesy of Paul McGann, including one that’ll make the average tQ reader think very differently about the work of Richard Curtis. Luke remembers the time Richard E Grant raced him up some stairs, got in Bentley, yelled “SCRUBBERS!” out of the window, and then offered to lend him the motor for the evening. Jude points out that Withnail & I will be very familiar to anyone who has lived in an absolute dump of a flat while waiting for a slice of luck to take them away to follow their dreams. Then there’s the wonderful soundtrack, Luke’s desire to bring back the word “oomska” by using it in both his books (and indeed wherever he can), and how one of Withnail & I’s finest and under-discussed themes is the dangerous myths of an idyllic countryside – the perfect piece of art to dispel all that nonsense about the Nature Cure. And finally, what does the film say about us today, when like Monty, Withnail and Marwood, we remain, alas, “shat on by Tories, shovelled up by Labour”.
Thanks to Alannah Chance for editing the podcast, and all of you for supporting the work of tQ. Subscribers can log in to listen to the podcast below, or find it on their usual podcast platforms.
