Hurrah! Today is the Guide’s 250th instalment, an anniversary celebrated the world over, with concerts and ticker tape parades and 10-part documentaries about its historical significance. You’re probably already a bit exhausted by all the wall-to-wall coverage, in fact. Also tomorrow, the United States of America might be celebrating some birthday or other, though it doesn’t sound like anybody is terribly fussed about it.
To mark both anniversaries, this week’s Guide is a “special relationship” special, with 25 of the most unlikely US/UK pop-cultural crossovers – those moments where American celebrities find themselves rubbing their stardust, intentionally or otherwise, all over weird corners of British popular culture, or vice versa. Read on for tales of Orson Welles in Norwich and Matt Berry at the Oscars.
Olivia Rodrigo and Colin the Caterpillar
American celebs have long been seduced by M&S’s wares – Billie Holiday once bought pyjamas from a Nottingham branch with a roll of banknotes produced from her stocking – but Rodrigo has gone further than most, professing her love for the store’s edible eruciform mascot in multiple interviews and even onstage at Glastonbury. Does she really like it though? On her first encounter, she attacked it with the enthusiasm of the McDonald’s CEO when served one of his firm’s burgers.
Mel Brooks and The One Show
“What a crazy show this is,” the veteran comic exclaimed on the Beeb’s teatime magazine programme, baffled by one of its characteristically jarring segues between jolly celebrity chat and affecting personal stories. Brooks is right – in fact, the One Show might be the true home of the unlikely US/UK crossover, a place where Harry Hill can pelt Jermaine Jenas with bread while Dakota Fanning looks on in horror.
Stanley Kubrick and Beckton Gas Works
Bring it home … Full Metal Jacket. Photograph: Everett Collection Inc/Alamy
Having spent years researching the Vietnam war for Full Metal Jacket, the great American director realised there was only one place that could represent the Imperial City of Hue in the film’s climactic battle scenes: a soon-to-be-demolished gasworks near the Isle of Dogs. Kubrick didn’t want to travel, and the gasworks’ condemned status meant that it could be blown to bits as part of the production. Beckton has played an outsized role in pop culture over the years, used as the backdrop for Derek Jarman’s video for The Smiths’ the Queen is Dead, and in the opening scene of 12th Bond film For Your Eyes Only.
Frankie Boyle and Grand Theft Auto IV
The lawless Liberty City, GTA IV’s New York avatar, hides a surprising secret: head into the city’s Split Sides comedy club in one of the game’s add-on episodes and you can watch deeply off-colour sets from Ricky Gervais and Frankie Boyle. Makes more sense when you remember the heavy British presence at GTA’s producer, Rockstar – but it’s still probably very jolting while playing the game stoned at 2am.
The Lemonheads and a Yorkshire secondary school
At the height of their mid-90s fame, Evan Dando’s grunge-poppers took an unlikely detour to Minsthorpe High School in West Yorkshire, after receiving a letter from pupils asking them to perform in its gym. Live and Kicking was there to capture a more family-friendly performance than most Lemonheads gigs: “Don’t do any drugs. Drink a lot of tea instead,” Dando told the audience.
Snoop Dogg and Mary Berry
Bake Off is big in the States, and Snoop is a master self-publicist, so it probably wasn’t a surprise that the rapper raved about the show in an interview with the Daily Star, declaring that he wanted to open a bakery with its exacting judge Mary Berry. Still, it’s hard to deny that Snoop calling Berry his “homegirl” was quite fun.
Nicolas Cage and an episode of Wogan
This was a landmark live TV moment for anyone of a certain age: a wide-eyed Cage racing on to Terry Wogan’s chatshow, doing somersaults and kung fu kicks while a visibly confused Wogan looked on. The interview that followed was no less bizarre: Cage later said that he was play acting as his character from Wild at Heart, though admitted he was “obnoxious and a little wild”.
Andi Peters and Toy Story 2
I’m not sure why now but it seemed impossibly exciting at the time that Children’s BBC presenter and Ed the Duck sidekick, Andi Peters, had a small voice part in Toy Story 2. He played Baggage Handler 2 a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it role, which he recorded while filming a behind the scenes doc on the making of the film for Channel 4. Peters’ line reading was, ahem, spirited – but Tom Hanks and Tim Allen are probably not in danger of losing out on roles any time soon.
The cast of the Sopranos and The Big Breakfast
File under fever dream: David Chase, James Gandolfini and several other Soprano’s big hitters sharing uneasy banter with Johnny Vaughan, Liza Tarbuck and Gail Porter at 8.21am on Channel 4. They all look completely at sea, except Lorraine Bracco who is having an absolute ball.
Pro wrestlers and GMTV
In a far more spirited breakfast TV display than the Sopranos cast, wrestlers Sting and the British Bulldog flexed their muscles on GMTV, where host Martin Frizzell volunteered to be put in Sting’s Scorpion Death Lock. Not a wise move, judging by Frizzell’s groans and the sounds of joints cracking.
Joe Cornish, Tom Cruise and the doodle
It took years for Adam Buxton to coax his Adam and Joe co-star Cornish into telling the world about his strange encounter with Tom Cruise in the Tintin writers’ room, but eventually the full truth – and Cruise’s shonky doodle of Snowy the dog – was revealed: you can hear the whole tale here.
Kurt Cobain, Courtney Love and Newport, Gwent
The story that Kurt and Courtney got engaged in Newport’s sadly now shut venue TJ’s is probably apocryphal – the Welsh venue’s character of an owner, John Sicolo, never missed a chance to burnish the club’s “legendary” status. Still it’s a great tall tale, so let’s print the legend, eh.
Sigourney Weaver and Doc Martin
Big screen meets little screen … Sigourney Weaver on Doc Martin. Photograph: ITV
What on earth was the Alien star doing rocking up as an American backpacker in a 2019 appearance on ITV’s cosy crime series? Apparently it was down to Weaver’s long friendship with one of the show’s stars, Selina Cadell. (Doc Martin fans, if you can’t remember the episode it was the one where a facehugger burst out of Martin Clunes’s chest).
Orson Welles and Anglia Television
“Orson Welles visits Norwich” sounds like a TV pitch recorded on Alan Partridge’s dictaphone, but the Citizen Kane director really did briefly decamp to East Anglia; in need of a payday, he voiced the narration for Anglia Television’s series Great Mysteries there, although he was said to be very bored and left as soon as he recorded his first takes. The whole story is dramatised on the Sky Arts series Urban Myths, home to another unlikely UK/US crossover: a separate episode tells the story of an afternoon Bob Dylan spent in the leafy north London enclave of Crouch End.
David Dimbleby and Gore Vidal
Election night 2008. America has its first Black president in a history-changing moment, and on BBC One, two curmudgeonly old men are having a massive and slightly confusing set-to about nothing in particular. The highlight: undoubtedly Vidal growling “I don’t know who you are!” at Dimbles.
David Letterman and Wembley stadium
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There’s a long and proud tradition of American talkshows crossing the pond to lazily mock British culture. As part of a 1995 Late Show trip to London, which took aim at such easy targets as pie and mash shops and beefeaters, David Letterman and his bandleader Paul Shaffer had a slightly psychedelic kickabout in a completely empty Wembley stadium, soundtracked by Manchester United and Status Quo’s hideous collaboration, Come on You Reds. Deeply weird viewing.
Seth Rogen and Celia Imrie
Infamous … Celia Imrie’s fart. Photograph: BBC
When Rogen’s show The Studio won international series at this year’s television Baftas, the star used a chunk of his acceptance speech runtime to mock British TV royalty: he ribbed on host Greg Davies for sitting in a “little chair”, and Celia Imrie for her now-notorious Traitors flatulence. “I’m sure this woman in the green dress is a very skilled and talented woman … all I know is that she farted on a reality show,” he announced to a guffawing audience.
Bill Hicks and Pebble Mill
In 1992 Hicks was the most transgressive, exciting comedian in the world, condemned for his “revolting” language in parliament and banned from some US venues. Magazine show Pebble Mill, meanwhile, was the most milquetoast programme on British TV. Combining the two would be a disaster, right? Actually no – Hicks was on his best behaviour and the result was a funny, fascinating interview touching on censorship, theology and the reincarnation of Elvis.
The Beastie Boys and a Tory backbencher
Even more controversial than Hicks were the Beastie Boys: ahead of the rap trio’s 1987 tour the tabloids called for them to be banned from the UK. Joining this crusade was the Conservative member for Leicester East Peter Bruinvels, who condemned the Beasties (pdf) for being “obscene and violent”, undermining “family values” and encouraging “antisocial activities like glue-sniffing.” Also among his objections: the 21-foot hydraulic penis that was part of the band’s stage setup.
Alison Hammond and Harrison Ford
Cheeky junket interviews are a dime a dozen these days, but when Alison Hammond sat down with Harrison Ford and his Blade Runner 2049 co-star Ryan Gosling for a boozy, freeform This Morning interview, the pure chaos of the thing felt quite thrilling. Hammond might be one of the few people to make Ford laugh in public, thanks to a killer opening line: “Bleak, dystopian, an absolute nightmare, to be honest with you – that’s just my interviewing technique”
John Bercow on the US Traitors
John Bercow on the Celebrity UK Traitors would have been largely unremarkable – but the former Commons Speaker on the US Traitors? Now that’s enjoyably odd. He came, he shouted “orrrderrr” a lot, he was murdered after 10 episodes. Unlock!
Kelsey Grammer and Bristol Rovers FC
Enough with Ryan Reynolds, Snoop et al pretending to be invested in lower-league football: far better for Hollywood celebs to find the sport confusing and tedious. They should follow the lead of Frasier Crane himself, yawning his face off at a League Two match between Bristol Rovers and Rochdale in 2014. Grammer was then-engaged, and is now married to, the daughter of Rovers coach Alan Walsh, and has since bought a house in Somerset – but doesn’t seemed to have returned to the Memorial Stadium.
Larry Hagman and Shooting Stars
Similarly, American A-listers should be baffled and actually a little disgusted by our comedy shows. Don’t laugh along, just look as contemptuous as Hagman – JR from Dallas – did when Bob Mortimer handed him a “fartridge” (part partridge, part fart, as you might have guessed).
Matt Berry and the Academy Awards
OK this was only a few months ago, but it still feels like a sleep-deprived hallucination for those of us working on awards night: Matt Berry, with his booming voice, playing Oscars announcer and extravagantly pronouncing the names of every star in attendance (“Antonio Banderrrrassss”).
Timothée Chalamet and lime bikes/scouse rappers/Susan Boyle
Anything for a bit of attention … Timothée Chalamet rides a bike. Photograph: Dave Benett/WireImage
You’re pandering far too hard, Timmy – but we appreciate it.
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.theguardian.com ’
