H<\/span>urrah! Today is the Guide\u2019s 250th instalment, an anniversary celebrated the world over, with concerts and ticker tape parades and 10-part documentaries about its historical significance. You\u2019re 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\u2019t sound like anybody is terribly fussed about it<\/a>.<\/p>\n To mark both anniversaries, this week\u2019s Guide is a \u201cspecial relationship\u201d special, with 25 of the most unlikely US\/UK pop-cultural crossovers \u2013 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<\/a> at the Oscars.<\/p>\n Olivia Rodrigo and Colin the Caterpillar<\/strong><\/p>\n American celebs have long been seduced by M&S\u2019s wares \u2013 Billie Holiday once bought pyjamas from a Nottingham branch<\/a> with a roll of banknotes produced from her stocking \u2013 but Rodrigo has gone further than most, professing her love for the store\u2019s edible eruciform mascot in multiple interviews and even onstage at Glastonbury. Does she really like it though? On her first encounter<\/a>, she attacked it with the enthusiasm of the McDonald\u2019s CEO when served one of his firm\u2019s burgers<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mel Brooks and <\/strong>The One Show<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cWhat a crazy show this is,\u201d the veteran comic exclaimed on the Beeb\u2019s teatime magazine programme, baffled by one of its characteristically jarring segues between jolly celebrity chat and affecting personal stories. Brooks is right \u2013 in fact, the One Show might be the true home of the unlikely US\/UK crossover<\/a>, a place where Harry Hill can pelt Jermaine Jenas with bread while Dakota Fanning looks on in horror.<\/p>\n Stanley Kubrick and Beckton Gas Works<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/span>Bring it home \u2026 Full Metal Jacket.<\/span> Photograph: Everett Collection Inc\/Alamy<\/p>\n Having spent years researching the Vietnam war for Full Metal Jacket<\/a>, the great American director realised there was only one place that could represent the Imperial City of Hue in the film\u2019s climactic battle scenes: a soon-to-be-demolished gasworks near the Isle of Dogs. Kubrick didn\u2019t want to travel, and the gasworks\u2019 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\u2019s video for The Smiths\u2019 the Queen is Dead, and in the opening scene of 12th Bond film For Your Eyes Only.<\/p>\n Frankie Boyle and Grand Theft Auto IV<\/strong><\/p>\n The lawless Liberty City, GTA IV\u2019s New York avatar, hides a surprising secret: head into the city\u2019s Split Sides comedy club in one of the game\u2019s add-on episodes and you can watch deeply off-colour sets from Ricky Gervais and Frankie Boyle<\/a>. Makes more sense when you remember the heavy British presence at GTA\u2019s producer, Rockstar \u2013 but it\u2019s still probably very jolting while playing the game stoned at 2am.<\/p>\n The Lemonheads and a Yorkshire secondary school Snoop Dogg and Mary Berry<\/strong><\/p>\n Bake Off is big in the States, and Snoop is a master self-publicist, so it probably wasn\u2019t 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\u2019s hard to deny that Snoop calling Berry his \u201chomegirl<\/a>\u201d was quite fun.<\/p>\n Nicolas Cage and an episode of Wogan<\/strong><\/p>\n This was a landmark live TV moment<\/a> for anyone of a certain age: a wide-eyed Cage racing on to Terry Wogan\u2019s 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<\/a> that he was play acting as his character from Wild at Heart, though admitted he was \u201cobnoxious and a little wild\u201d.<\/p>\n Andi Peters and Toy Story 2<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019m not sure why now but it seemed impossibly exciting at the time that Children\u2019s 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\u2019ll-miss-it role<\/a>, <\/strong>which he recorded while <\/strong>filming a behind the scenes doc on the making of the film for Channel 4. Peters\u2019 line reading was, ahem, spirited \u2013 but Tom Hanks and Tim Allen are probably not in danger of losing out on roles any time soon.<\/p>\n The cast of the Sopranos and The Big Breakfast<\/strong><\/p>\n File under fever dream<\/a>: David Chase, James Gandolfini and several other Soprano\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Pro wrestlers and GMTV<\/strong><\/p>\n 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\u2019s Scorpion Death Lock<\/a>. Not a wise move, judging by Frizzell\u2019s groans and the sounds of joints cracking.<\/p>\n Joe Cornish, Tom Cruise and the doodle<\/strong><\/p>\n 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\u2019 room, but eventually the full truth \u2013 and Cruise\u2019s shonky doodle of Snowy the dog \u2013 was revealed: you can hear the whole tale here<\/a>. Sigourney Weaver and Doc Martin<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/span>Big screen meets little screen \u2026 Sigourney Weaver on Doc Martin.<\/span> Photograph: ITV<\/p>\n What on earth was the Alien star doing rocking up as an American backpacker in a 2019 appearance on ITV\u2019s cosy crime series? Apparently it was down to Weaver\u2019s long friendship<\/a> with one of the show\u2019s stars, Selina Cadell. (Doc Martin fans, if you can\u2019t remember the episode it was the one where a facehugger burst out of Martin Clunes\u2019s chest).<\/p>\n Orson Welles and Anglia Television<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cOrson Welles visits Norwich\u201d sounds like a TV pitch recorded on Alan Partridge\u2019s dictaphone, but the Citizen Kane director really did briefly decamp to East Anglia<\/a>; in need of a payday, he voiced the narration for Anglia Television\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n David Dimbleby and Gore Vidal<\/strong><\/p>\n 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 \u201cI don\u2019t know who you are!<\/a>\u201d at Dimbles.<\/p>\n David Letterman and Wembley <\/strong>stadium<\/strong><\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to The Guide<\/span><\/p>\n Get our weekly pop culture email, free in your inbox every Friday<\/p>\n<\/div>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n There\u2019s 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\u2019s hideous collaboration, Come on You Reds. Deeply weird viewing<\/a>.<\/p>\n Seth Rogen and Celia Imrie<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/span>Infamous \u2026 Celia Imrie\u2019s fart.<\/span> Photograph: BBC<\/p>\n When Rogen\u2019s show The Studio won international series at this year\u2019s television Baftas, the star used a chunk of his acceptance speech runtime to mock British TV royalty<\/a>: he ribbed on host Greg Davies for sitting in a \u201clittle chair\u201d, and Celia Imrie for her now-notorious Traitors flatulence. \u201cI\u2019m sure this woman in the green dress is a very skilled and talented woman \u2026 all I know is that she farted on a reality show,\u201d he announced to a guffawing audience.<\/p>\n Bill Hicks and Pebble Mill<\/strong><\/p>\n In 1992 Hicks was the most transgressive, exciting comedian in the world, condemned for his \u201crevolting\u201d language in parliament<\/a> 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 \u2013 Hicks was on his best behaviour and the result was a funny, fascinating interview<\/a> touching on censorship, theology and the reincarnation of Elvis.<\/p>\n The Beastie Boys and a Tory backbencher<\/strong><\/p>\n Even more controversial than Hicks were the Beastie Boys: ahead of the rap trio\u2019s 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)<\/a> for being \u201cobscene and violent\u201d, undermining \u201cfamily values\u201d and encouraging \u201cantisocial activities like glue-sniffing.\u201d Also among his objections: the 21-foot hydraulic penis that was part of the band\u2019s stage setup.<\/p>\n Alison Hammond and Harrison Ford<\/strong><\/p>\n Cheeky junket interviews are a dime a dozen these days, but when Alison Hammond sat down<\/a> 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: \u201cBleak, dystopian, an absolute nightmare, to be honest with you \u2013 that\u2019s just my interviewing technique\u201d<\/p>\n John Bercow on the US Traitors<\/strong><\/p>\n John Bercow on the Celebrity UK Traitors would have been largely unremarkable \u2013 but the former Commons Speaker on the US Traitors<\/a>? Now that\u2019s enjoyably odd. He came, he shouted \u201corrrderrr\u201d a lot, he was murdered after 10 episodes. Unlock!<\/p>\n Kelsey Grammer and Bristol Rovers FC<\/strong><\/p>\n 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<\/a> 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 \u2013 but doesn\u2019t seemed to have returned to the Memorial Stadium.<\/p>\n Larry Hagman and Shooting Stars<\/strong><\/p>\n Similarly, American A-listers should be baffled and actually a little disgusted by our comedy shows. Don\u2019t laugh along, just look as contemptuous as Hagman \u2013 JR from Dallas \u2013 did when Bob Mortimer handed him a \u201cfartridge\u201d<\/a> (part partridge, part fart, as you might have guessed).<\/p>\n Matt Berry and the Academy Awards<\/strong><\/p>\n 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 (\u201cAntonio Banderrrrassss<\/a>\u201d).<\/p>\n Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet and lime bikes<\/a>\/<\/strong>scouse rappers<\/a>\/Susan Boyle<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/span>Anything for a bit of attention \u2026 Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet rides a bike.<\/span> Photograph: Dave Benett\/WireImage<\/p>\n You\u2019re pandering far too hard, Timmy \u2013 but we appreciate it.<\/p>\n To read the complete version of this newsletter please subscribe<\/a> to receive The Guide in your inbox every Friday<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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At the height of their mid-90s fame, Evan Dando\u2019s 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<\/a> to capture a more family-friendly performance than most Lemonheads gigs: \u201cDon\u2019t do any drugs. Drink a lot of tea instead,\u201d Dando told the audience.<\/p>\n
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Kurt Cobain, Courtney Love and Newport, Gwent
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The story that Kurt and Courtney got engaged in Newport\u2019s sadly now shut venue TJ\u2019s is probably apocryphal \u2013 the Welsh venue\u2019s character of an owner, John Sicolo, never missed a chance to burnish the club\u2019s \u201clegendary\u201d status. Still it\u2019s a great tall tale, so let\u2019s print the legend, eh.<\/p>\n
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