Absolute Beginners! If you were part of the British film scene in the mid-80s, you knew it as the coolest project in development: a lavish, experimental musical from punk director Julien Temple, adapted from Colin MacInnes’s cult novel, with a cast including Patsy Kensit, Sade, Edward Tudor-Pole, Bruno from Strictly and – standing atop the film as though it were a giant globe – David Bowie.
Then the film came out, and nobody went to see it. A film made in the 80s about the 50s with stars from all decades, it confused people at the time, but has since amassed a noteworthy cult following. This week on Pop Screen, Graham and Mick reassess Temple’s epic folly, asking: is it that bad? Which of its stars escape with their dignity intact? And have you, or anyone else you know, ever had it blue?
Sadly, the days when creative young men could live in a squat with a troupe of tap-dancing jazzbos has passed. Today, you need money to survive, and if you give a little to our Patreon you get a lot, including one exclusive Pop Screen episode per month. Don’t forget to subscribe to our Facebook and Twitter as well!
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Join Graham and Aidan as they ask what a finished version of The White Room might have looked like, and also piece together the career of the KLF from their origins in the illegal days of sampling to their recent, thoroughly unexpected, Spotify comeback. It’s not quite the Lost Continent of Mu, but it’s definitely the weirdest place Pop Screen has yet visited.
THE SECOND MONTHLY PATREON EXTRA FOR POP SCREEN
Absolute Beginners // David Bowie – Archive
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