TRASHFUTURE - *PREVIEW* Britainology 90: Withnail & I

Episode Date: September 29, 2024

Thank you to the fan who commented that we should continue to explore Richard E. Grant's career. As such, we've watched the 1987 film WITHNAIL & I and.... enjoyed it? But it's very hard to escape the notion that 1987 Britain conjuring 1969 Britain looks indistinguishable from 2024 Britain in terms of vibes, aesthetics, degree of shitness, you name it. We hope you enjoy this! Get the whole episode on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/112992157 MILO ALERT Check out Milo’s UK Tour Here: https://miloedwards.co.uk/live-shows Trashfuture are: Riley (@raaleh), Milo (@Milo_Edwards), Hussein (@HKesvani), Nate (@inthesedeserts), and November (@postoctobrist)

Richard Griffiths, he wasn't a posh man, but he sort of by virtue of becoming a sort of a fated British actor has become posh in that way that people... There are certain careers in the UK that enable you to transcend into the status of poshness and being kind of like, you know, Shakespearean actor is definitely one of them. Yeah, so I mean, what can I say? Let's just start from the beginning. So this film, one of the opening shots of this film is the eye and with Nail and I, Marwood,

reading tabloid headlines. And I think one of the opening shots is one about like someone getting a sex change. And he starts sort of like doom and gloom. He's in a greasy spoon, yeah. Yeah, about like, you know, look how society is falling apart and there's rapes and murders all over the place and I can't even stand being in this place because I'm falling apart. I can't handle it.

And what you learn is that they've been up for 60 hours on speed and they're on like an ultra bender. And it's effectively they are two actors who live in a shitty disgusting flat in Camden. And one is yes Marwood, the the sort of narrator the eye, the other is with no who is and so I'm going to be honest with no being played by Richard E. Garan. Yes, I I presumed or rather I from the the plot and from the the things that take place, it became obvious to me that Widnall was the posh one and Marwood is not. And I think it's because of the fact, but it wouldn't necessarily have been apparent

to me right off the bat, I think. Or rather I would say that my read as an outsider would be that one is more flamboyant than the other, but that like, the things, the attributes strike me as like, both of them being like, like, either coming from some kind of like comfortable standing, definitely not being like working class, I suppose. And I don't really know, I can't really divine much more than that. So I'm interested- I don't know if Marwood is really supposed to be working class, but he's supposed to be not posh. But obviously in Britain, that is a wide spectrum. He's definitely not working class.

But whereas I feel like there, was it Danny, the drug dealer, he is kind of like, sort of like cockney hippie vibe. Like he's sort of like, yeah, like guy in, I don't know, Mick Jagger's entourage who gets arrested for beating someone up outside of a club and there's a story about it later. That's the kind of vibe. Like menacing, weird, hippie, cockney, druggy guy who thinks that you shouldn't cut your hair because your hair like receives vibrations from the earth. Yeah, he's actually a Sikh. He has deep seated beliefs about not cutting your hair.

That's, you know, a lot of hippies, they go more like Hindu mysticism, but he's gone more niche, which I respect, you know. Yeah. So I wrote in my notes off the top here, just little snippets. The first note was average British kitchen. The second was, which drug is it that makes you this annoying? The third is I recognize that from, there's an album track on the Ride album,

Going Blank Again, called Cool Your Boots, that starts with the snippet of, even a stop clock is right twice a day, or even a stop clock gives the right time twice a day. I didn't know what it was from. And so hearing it, I was just, but when the song opens, that sample is played, and then before any music comes in.

So it was very clear to me, I was like, this is 100% what it's from, but like it just completely took me out of place for a second. Well, this movie is very much, I think one of the most referenced movies of all time. Even if you're not familiar with this, I guarantee if you spent any time on Twitter.com, you'll be familiar with the screenshot where it's like, we've gone on holiday by mistake.

Where they're still in the rain, grimacing. Begging the farmer for food in the rain, and they're just like wet and begging. I've seen that screenshot many times. It's sort of like the frame is shot from the perspective if you were in the tractor looking down at them. Yeah, I've seen snippets of this or stills of this. My other notes were normal drinking culture when he drinks the, what I believe is kerosene,

like lantern fuel or lighter fuel. Yeah, it's lighter fuel, yeah, lighter fluid. Roncinol, whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, there's, famously there is a with Nail and I drinking game, which, where you have to just drink everything that they drink in the movie.

And a lot of people elect to skip the lighter fluid. Yeah, one presumes, yeah. I mean, in fairness to the- Yeah, but I think even if you just drink the alcohol they drink, it's punishing. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I would say, and I suppose the next scene or the next note in my notes just says drug guy. So that was when Danny is in the frame and I'm like, oh, okay.

I see this is drug guy. This is loose drug user as opposed to respectable drug user who's drinking lantern lighter fluid right now. Yeah, yeah. Danny very much bringing the energy of, you know, like certain type of British drug dealer. Not the, actually the worst kind of drug dealer to have because he's gonna be in your house and you're gonna have to indulge a lot of like really annoying chat about the Mayans. I mean, this is not a value judgment, but since I'm not a drug user, like my only drug encounters in the United Kingdom have been either buying stuff off of like a darknet exchange and having it delivered royal mail to buy weed and then once buying weed from a

guy and having to meet him in like Dulwich Village, which is an interesting place to meet someone to buy drugs. It's hard to be inconspicuous when you're the only person walking on the street. But yeah, I'm not familiar with it, but I feel like it's a thing that you see referenced both in British and American films, oftentimes about sort of like, this guy sells this drug, so we have to hang out with him

and we want him to leave, but he won't. But in this case, there's an argument between Withnall and Danny and Danny basically with those like I can basically do twice of any drugs you do and nothing will happen to me because I'm a machine. All I do is take drugs and be insane. And he offers him this like basically some kind of pharmaceutical pill that just looks like a yellow jacket. And basically he's like, the single, the single fuck you up and paralyze you and so on and so forth. And he, but then would no more or less just insults him and he leaves. And they he says, he says the pill costs two pounds and they both like scoff at this level of

expenditure, which I feel like I'm just trying to like cast, cast my mind back to 1969 and how much money two pounds would have been. Yeah, I mean, you know, there's comparison sites and things like that online. I do recall one time seeing a thing in your parents' garage, like they had the old Essex magazines and they were selling new build houses near Bishop Stortford in these magazines. And it was like a three-bedroom or a four-bedroom detached family home for 7,000 pounds. And that was in the late 60s. So I guess 1,3500th of that house is how much that pill costs. So potentially a lot of money, I don't know.

I also, I'm gonna be real with you. This doesn't come up that much aside from a few things like shillings to make phone calls, but pre-decimalization currency in the United Kingdom still just, it's like you invented a language and everyone's in on the joke and I'm the butt of the joke. Okay. It would be 28 pounds in today's money. So those of you at home can decide how much you would pay for a pill that fucks you up and paralyzes you and is it more or less than

28 pounds to me? Yeah, exactly. Is it worth it? I mean, I remember years ago, my friend reading like Arrowhead or some kind of drug forums online. This had been like I remember years ago, my friend reading like Arrowhead or some kind of drug forums online, this had been like over 20 years ago, and reading some story about some guy who was like, yeah, I took some pill or some substance on Friday night. And then basically like, had this hallucination that I was like that a giant picked me up and took me into the clouds and taught me all about civilization and the human experience for 100 years and it lasted 100 years.

And then when the thing ended, it was like Sunday afternoon. It was just a weekend had passed. I think that pill might be worth 28 pounds. But if all it does is just paralyzes you, like you accidentally took ketamine when you were thinking of taking something else, I don't really think that's worked it. Cause I mean, 28 pounds can, you know,

you can probably go down the takeaway and get a decent meal for that. Like I'm not trying to be like, well, it's a banana. What could it cost $7? But prices in Britain have gotten really bad. I do know that 28 pounds is not enough to get you a meal for two people on Deliveroo because I've fucking seen that shit. But you know, down the takeaway, down the Shallamore kebab house, you can get a kebab

and a drink for like six pounds cash. So you know what? Like, yeah, 28 pounds. I'd say go to the kebab house. I reckon out of London, like if you know what? Like, yeah, 28 pounds. I'd say go to the kebab house. I reckon out of London, like if you're talking like suburban home counties, you could get an Indian for two for 28 quid if you weren't going too crazy. Two mains, one rice, one naan, something like that.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's just, it is just very funny. Yeah. Cause like, now that I live in Switzerland, like I cook way more because delivery stuff is insanely expensive and there's just not as many options. But there are some times when you look on sort of like Piss Take Delivery Restaurants in London and the cost of mains is not that far removed from the cost of mains in Switzerland. A country where the minimum wage in Geneva is like 21 pounds an hour, I think. So where like if you work full-time minimum wage in Geneva is like 21 pounds an hour, I think. So we're like if you work full-time minimum wage in Geneva, you make basically 45,000 pounds a year. But then yeah, you go down the street to get a Lebanese takeaway and you know, a little box of the stuffed

grape leaves is the equivalent of 10 pounds. Like kebab plate where it's just like some salad, some hummus, some bread and a meat is like 19 pounds. So deliver, really taking the piss. The pill, probably not worth it. Not worth 28 pounds unless you meet a giant and spend a thousand years getting enlightened and what's the right word, edified about the mysteries of human experience. Yeah, we should get that giant on the podcast. Yeah, I bet you the giant could tell us

a lot. Yeah. Yeah, I want his bird's eye swathe view of British culture.