Community | November 14, 2011 | Comment on this video (1)

Stephen Fry and friends on the life, loves and hates of Christopher Hitchens - Promo

CurrentUK
The respected author, journalist and intellectual Christopher Hitchens has been committed to writing and speaking with passion on a wide range of topics and is well-known for his socialist and atheist views.

Now aged 62, Hitchens is fighting a well-publicised battle against cancer and is too ill to participate in a public conversation with Stephen Fry that was due to take place on Wednesday 9th November. Instead, Stephen will be joined by close friends and colleagues of Hitch who will talk about his beliefs and discuss, in his own words, ‘the things that make life worth defending.’

Current UK will be screening the entire conversation on Sunday 20th November from 9pm on Sky 183, Virgin 155.
  1. groups:
  2. tags:
    Religion,  Atheism,  Sean Penn,  Christopher Hitchens,  2 more
  3.     
    |
    Embed video:
    |

1 comment // Stephen Fry and friends on the life, loves and hates of Christopher Hitchens - Promo // Video

  • pixel_farmer
    • 0
      pixel_farmer  

    • Yes OK I'm a big fan of Fry and the grouping of all those anti religious free thinkers was almost guaranteed to get me viewing last night BUT the production was a total mess.
      From a purely technical point of view it was dreadful.
      Sound quality for something which should have been warm and intimate was boomy and echoing from the size of the venue, despite the use of several microphones.
      The camera work was amateurish and uninspiring. Made my eyes itch.
      The set incorporated a mega TV screen suspended 20 feet over the set which required Fry and Dawkins to adopt ridiculous neck breaking poses to view it - Didn't the budget allow for another monitor down at their level ?
      Losing Sean Penn and never re-connecting ?!
      Come on now, we are in the 21st C - man walked on the moon 40 years ago and we can still make telephone calls.
      Why was it done in this venue ? The audience contributed nothing.
      A cosy armchair / sofa set up would have been far more fitting, if clichéd.
      No contribution from Hitchens: yes know he's not well but something more than emails from Ian McEwen would have been appropriate.
      Why was poor Richard Dawkins there at all for the little he managed to contribute ?
      Why this continual, smug, mutual back slapping, Stephen ? All became rather nauseating. (Sorry Stephen I still love you but you pushed my patience last night.)
      I realise you don't feel it's necessary to dress up for TV but a little more effort in tidying up before going on air would have been welcome. You seemed to have dressed for radio.

      The discussion lacked focus and direction, despite interesting and humorous injections from all concerned.

      Almost forgot : the ad breaks !
      So many and almost identical. really really really irritating.
      I would like to know the advertising revenues that were accrued from their showings last night and whether the advertisers felt they got value for money or, as in my opinion, the repeating over and over of the same message was detrimental to their brand.

      I stuck it out to the end 'cos I'm a fan of Fry, Hitchens and Dawkins and believe they contribute to our culture and understanding of the world but don't expect me to sit through another production like that without me going all "Charlie Brooker" on your arses.

    • 6 months ago
from the community

top videos