Glued to the Box

TV Criticism

by Clive James

A collection of the Australian-born writer's TV criticism published in the London Observer during the period between 1979 and 1982. This is a paperback edition of a volume first published by Jonathan Cape in 1983. Clive James' earlier volumes of TV criticism include Visions Before Midnight (1977 & 1981) and The Crystal Bucket (1983). They have been published in a single volume with a new introduction and index as Clive James on Television (1991).

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays, Tv, Criticism

Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

An expatriate Australian broadcast personality and author of cultural criticism, memoir, fiction, travelogue and poetry. Translator of Dante.

Reviews

[David Lai · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clive James had an outstanding talent for imagery; one of his famous lines is in this collection, when he describes Barbara Cartland's eyes as like the corpses of two crows that have crashed into a chalk cliff. There are numerous other laugh-out-loud descriptions, too.

He is morally and culturally fastidious -- and more right-wing than I remembered -- indulging his righteous scorn to the full when reviewing the many programmes on the telly about the Jewish Holocaust (it must have been the thing in the late 70s/early 80s, and I do remember some of the ones he writes about), and taking presenters and others to task for their inarticulacy, triteness or vacuity. But part of his stock in trade was mocking people's appearance, accent and so on, and many of his comments would probably not get into print now, as perhaps offending modern sensibilities regarding race, sex and sexuality.

The book seemed to get harder to read as I neared the end. Too much moralising, perhaps.

[David Short · Rating 5 out of 5]

The original serious television reviewer, renowned for his sharp eye and wit

[Romana Challans · Rating 5 out of 5]

Always witty, and sometimes sad, this series of articles written as a television critic was my introduction to his writing. It has been a long favorite book - you know the sort, the one you pick up to read while having a bowl of soup on a winters day, or to soothe yourself to sleep. The one you always have in your bookshelf.

[Nell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another good read bringing back memories of crap TV