In my latest episode of the podcast with Mark Lamarr, we mentioned a number of the TV programmes in which he starred during the 1990s.
I don’t need a second invitation to luxuriate in some ‘90s nostalgia, so it sent me down a YouTube rabbithole, revisiting some classic shows from my teens.
In amongst them were some enjoyable guest appearances by Elvis Costello. I’ve picked out a few favourites that I remember watching at the time.
TFI Friday
Ah, to be a teenager in the UK in the mid/late-1990s. Everyone thinks their own teenage years were special, of course. Heck, even today’s teens may one day look back on the burning skip fire that is the 2020s with some fondness.
There was, though, undoubtedly something going on in the second half of the ‘90s in the UK: a sense of optimism and confidence. This was the high watermark of the anything-is-possible era of Cool Britannia, Britpop, Blair and Euro ’96. There was nowhere better to be a young person. A new dawn was breaking, was it not?
Curating the key cultural players of the period was Channel 4’s TFI Friday, a riotous hour-long mix of interviews and music and a bunch of features (Ugly Bloke, Freak or Unique) that presumably wouldn’t get beyond today’s commissioners.
With writers including the brilliant Danny Baker and superbly helmed by the outstanding broadcaster of the period, Chris Evans, TFI was essential Friday evening viewing.
Elvis Costello stepped into this arena on several occasions: an interview and solo performance ahead of the Concert for Linda, a live workout with the Attractions on the promo trail for All This Useless Beauty and a stunning bar room rendition of I Still Have That Other Girl with Burt Bacharach.
There was also this one-off charity performance of Ben E King’s Stand By Me, with Costello backed by the most marvellously eclectic band – Jools Holland on piano, Nick Mason on drums, lead guitar courtesy of F1 motor racing driver Damon Hill and backing vocals from three quarters of All Saints (disappointingly for my teenage – and, frankly, current – self, my favourite All Saint, Shaznay, was not there).
Clive Anderson All Talk
Barrister-turned-TV-presenter Clive Anderson hosted a couple of must-watch programmes in the mid-‘90s: the UK version of Whose Line Is It Anyway? and his chat show, Clive Anderson All Talk.
The latter was a test of mettle for its guests as they came up against the host’s notoriously sharp wit. Most took Clive’s playful jibes in good spirits. And then there were the Bee Gees.
This episode famously found the brothers, mainly Barry, riled by Anderson’s pomposity-pricking cracks, his reference to the group’s former name, Les Tosseurs (“You’ll always be tossers to me”), proving the final straw and provoking a walkout.
The degree of umbrage taken by the brothers correlated with their levels of hirsuiteness; the leonine Barry angrily departing first (“You’re the tosser, pal”), followed by a merely cheesed-off, pre-wig Robin and, finally, by a still-amiable, be-hatted Maurice. Clive ended the show with his head bowed but with TV gold safely in the can.
In truth, Anderson’s digs at the brothers were fairly tame in comparison with his acerbic comment to Cher: “You look a million dollars. Is that how much it cost?”
Showbiz trooper that she is, the Believe songstress took it in her stride and gave as good as she got.
Elvis Costello was not going to be found wanting in a battle of wits with Anderson when he appeared on the show to promote Extreme Honey in 1997. It’s an enjoyably knockabout conversation, with Costello delivering the sharpest comment of the exchange when Clive asked him if Let Them All Talk – used as the theme song to the show – was a favourite of Elvis’s: “No, that’s why I gave it to you”.
It ends with questions from the audience: a good one about attempting to cover Prince, a query about possibly recording a symphony and then a cheery chap asking about the Secret Lemonade Drinker advert.
Football Italia
In the early-1990s, Italian football was impossibly glamorous.
We were all captivated by the Italia ’90 world cup finals, Nessun Dorma and all that. Meanwhile, the domestic league, Serie A, featured a roster of the greatest players in the game.
Come 1992, it was the only league shown live on terrestrial English TV, with Rupert Murdoch having cast our domestic league to subscription-only satellite channels, in the process transforming English football for the better or stealing its very soul, depending on your viewpoint.
Sunday afternoons were now all about Channel 4’s Football Italia: a live match from Italy, hosted by the incomparable James Richardson and analysis from football experts including, on one memorable occasion, Elvis Costello.
The halftime chat is terrific, Elvis giving his views on the Juventus match he’d been to and, most entertainingly, Richardson working a host of Costello song references into his rundown of the halftime scores. Lovely stuff.
Richard and Judy
This one is from a few years later but worth revisiting mainly for The Madeley Factor.
Husband and wife team Richard Madeley and Judy Finnegan were TV royalty and their switch from morning programme on one channel to teatime on another was big news at the time.
Judy brought empathy, while Richard could be relied upon for some Alan Partridge-level asides: my personal favourite being the time he told a man who suffered with a stutter that his head looked like it was going to fall off. And there was that time he shot a guest on his show. Oh, hang on – that was Partridge. It’s easy to lose track.
Costello joins the pair for this 2003 episode to promote his new album, North. He braves the tedious small talk about his name and is quizzed about “breaking America” by Judy, who seems to think Elvis enjoys 1964 Beatle-level domination of the charts. If only the record-buying public were that discerning, Judy.
There are some classic Madeley lines of questioning here: do rock stars take summer holidays? What does Trudie Styler call Sting at home?
The real gold, though, is the closing shot of a baffled Elvis clutching his new novelty refrigerator. I would genuinely love to know if he still owns this.