GRAMPIE
by
T.J.Hurford
copyright: T.J.Hurford. 1996
All Rights Reserved
Grampie is an 'in your face' seventy five? year old man. He is caring, honest and hard-working. His early years are somewhat shrouded in the fog of time as he rarely talks about them.
Grampie has been 'called in by his worried Grandchildren, themselves now adults, to try and 'win back' their own wayward teenage children who have embraced the 'yob and yoof' culture.
These children are persuaded to come to the old man's birthday celebrations but only because, privately, they hope to 'nick' a few bits of 'gear'. Grampie meets them and is a revelation. Looking like a cross between Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Eric Clapton with Italian suits, cowboy boots and long hair. He is haggard and looks 'lived in'. He tells them what he did when he was a young man, a long time before they were born. His stories are not sermons and he is helped by being able to communicate through the language of music. He is well up on their bands and having been in one himself, the songs from which they still listen to, he can tell speak in their 'language' telling them where he went wrong and advising them not to make the same mistakes which have given him poor health and disgusting symptoms. He tells them in gross detail, showing disturbing photographs. (see George Clooney in 'Intolerable Cruelty' when he has to speak to the head of the law firm where he works, VERY funny. 'Living Without Intestines Magazine').
His influence and the reforming of his ultra famous rock band which gives them 'bragging rights' with their friends at school, puts the teenagers back on the straight and narrow. They tell him their problems and he always seems to have a solution based upon his own experiences.
The young people visit him each week without needing to be forced by their parents. Grampie has not only been there first, he has seen it AND done it. He has learnt through bitter experience. Grampie has witnessed extremes of violence, greed and debauchery.
Grampie knows all about drugs. An ex-morphine addict to suppress the pain from numerous motorcycle accidents and gang fights, he only weened himself off this addiction by becoming an alcoholic. He managed eventually after years of misery to clean himself up by being told of the illnesses that he has afflicted on his body, the death of his long-suffering wife and the revelation of seeing an interview with himself on television which he has kept to remind himself what a prat he used to be. He shows them and weeps with the memory. They are so moved that they swear to themselves they will never make the same mistakes although they do revere some aspects of his lifestyle.
The series would be a no holds barred morality tale with drugs, alcohol, swearing and death all covered with a veneer of black humour and great rock music. The 'lessons' are made through 'consequence'-style images based on the experiences of an old man: "You kick a cat in the street and the cat runs out into the road, causing a car to swerve to avoid it, and the car smashes into a bus queue of school children killing a load of your mates and your girlfriend whose older brothers come round and fire-bomb your house. Your Mother dies in the blaze and you take to drink and kill someone in a fight and you go to prison for life where you are gang raped by the other 'lifers' and you hang yourself from shame and you know what?. Nobody gives a shit. All because you didn't have the patience and downright compassion to make friends with that cat instead of mistreating it. What if it had turned out belong to that really great looking girl down the road. It has hurt its paw and you take it home. The owner is really REALLY grateful. You move in with her and she's into health and fitness so you give up drink and drugs because the alternative is losing her and you get a good job because the dole money you have saved by not doing 'stuff' has allowed you to smarten up your image. You and your girlfriend buy a great set of 'wheels and you move out of the old town and into a flat in the city and life is just GREAT.
In other words, the Gaia effect as applied to consequences. A butterfly flaps its wings and on the other side of the planet a wave tosses a swimmer onto the beach just as a 'Great White' is about to nibble her little toties.
Grampie shows through a colourful animation?, that self help and understanding can conquer most things if you only learn to recognise which direction to take at the fork in the road.
end
copyright: T.J.Hurford, 1996
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
No comments:
Post a Comment