Bob Dylan clowns with the host of Ready Steady Go! Cathy McGowan. Ready Steady Go! was a groundbreaking music show that played a key part in shaping the youth culture of the era.
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I hate television. I hate it as much as peanuts. But I can’t stop eating peanuts.
– Orson Welles
The Simpsons: Milhouse voice actor Pamela Hayden retires from show after 35 years
After almost 700 episodes playing Bart’s bespectacled and beleaguered best friend, the voice actor is moving on to other opportunities
Pamela Hayden, the actor behind beloved Simpsons character Milhouse, has announced her retirement from the show after 35 years and almost 700 episodes.
“The time has come for me to hang up my microphone,” Hayden, 70, said in a statement on Wednesday. “It’s been an honor and a joy to have worked on such a funny, witty, and groundbreaking show … I’ll always have a special place in my heart for that blue-haired 10-year-old boy with glasses.”
Hayden has been a mainstay on The Simpsons since it premiered in 1989, playing Bart’s best friend Milhouse Van Houten as well as school bully Jimbo Jones, Ned Flanders’ sons Rod and Todd, Chief Wiggum’s wife Sarah and Lisa’s friend Janey Powell. But as she said in a video tribute shared by the show, Milhouse was her “main guy”.
He was also a fan favourite: “People would come up to me and they quote Milhouse lines,” Hayden said in the video, which included clips of the character over the years.
“Pamela gave us tons of laughs with Milhouse, the hapless kid with the biggest nose in Springfield. She made Milhouse hilarious and real, and we will miss her,” said Simpsons creator Matt Groening.
Named after former US president Richard Milhous Nixon, Milhouse first appeared in a Butterfingers commercial when The Simpsons was a regular segment on The Tracey Ullman Show, and became a key character when the show debuted as a half-hour series.
The only child of Kirk and Luann Van Houten, Milhouse is smart, shy and somewhat gullible – and consequently often led astray by best friend Bart, and targeted by bullies.
“People are always saying what a nerd he is, but one thing that I love about Milhouse is he’s always getting knocked down, but he keeps getting up,” Hayden said in the show’s video tribute. “I love the little guy. It’s this wonderful analogy for life.”
‘Something special’: Mackenzie Crook and Toby Jones on bucolic comedy beauty Detectorists, 10 years on
The open-hearted paean to friendship and a quiet life has become a global hit after charming viewers the world over. As it turns 10, its stars reflect on how they made TV magic
By David Renshaw
Finding junk and talking bollocks.” That’s how Lance (Toby Jones) describes the life he and his best mate Andy (Mackenzie Crook) live in Detectorists, the gentle and beloved BBC sitcom that began 10 years ago this month.
It’s exactly this low-key charm that has led to the show’s success. The tale of two detectorists (never call them metal detectors, that’s the equipment) spending their days scanning the fields of the fictional town of Danebury is an unflashy look at the lives of two middle-aged hobbyists. Their pursuit of something, anything, that has been held by a Roman, or perhaps an item from the Saxon ship buried somewhere in the local area, is partly about dedication. But it’s also about escaping from the world around them, taking themselves away from the rabble of north Essex to enjoy a bucolic life alone, together.
“I deliberately set out to write something uncynical and removed from the awkward ‘cringe comedy’ that was prevalent at the time,” Crook (who also played Gareth in The Office) says, as he reflects on the show. He points to the series being made cheaply and airing on BBC Four, a channel made for obsessives precisely like Lance and Andy, as being key to the show’s slow-burn success. “Those who found it felt they’d discovered something special.”
This has continued, with Detectorists’ presence on Netflix opening it up to an international audience. Many recent converts discovered the show during lockdown, when exploring the great outdoors was fraught with risk. In France, it is described as “a delicious little thing that only British television knows how to produce”. German numismatic website Coins Weekly is a fan, too. Detectorists couldn’t be less Hollywood, yet the LA Times praised its “almost Shakespearean” quality. In 2018, after collecting a Bafta for his role as Lance, Jones talked about cycling through New Orleans, when two guys stopped him outside a bar to tell him, “Man, we love the Detectorists!” Back at home, Oscar-nominated actor Carey Mulligan said she bought a detector after watching the show.
Looking back, you’re struck by the fact that, while Detectorists is routinely very funny, it’s not a sitcom chasing belly laughs. The action is captured at the speed of life, with long scenes directed by Crook filled with little more than Lance and Andy searching for the bounty they hope will change their lives. The two characters both have jobs – Andy is an agency worker and Lance a forklift truck driver – but work doesn’t dominate their lives. You need the luxury of time to be a detectorist, something that 10 years later feels about as rare and valuable as precious metals.
Jones underlines this point, explaining that, “Lance has a good life and he’s aware of that. Unlike so many people, he has the time to join a club and spend days wandering in the countryside with his best friend and to have a chat over a pint. It’s part of Andy and Lance’s quality of life that makes Detectorists so appealing.”
The show’s exploration of relationships – the ones that work and the ones that need more time and care – lies at the heart of its muddy-booted soul, particularly in terms of male friendship.
Nick Cave on The Late Show
The lead singer and songwriter of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds joins Stephen for a discussion of his latest album and some of his most powerful artistic experiences, including recording a song with Johnny Cash as the legendary artist was near death. Enjoy Stephen Colbert’s extended conversation with Nick Cave and check out his latest album ‘Wild God’ when it comes out on August 30th.