Saw the John Lloyd interview on Arena with Melvyn Bragg at the weekend. Pretty sure I’ve seen it before, but I found it fascinating and moved to record the pertinent facts relevant to my agenda.
Very explicit about “scientific management” being the death of innovative comedy and creativity generally, since Spitting Image days. (Shearsmith and Pemberton might disagree.)
Weirdly, never associated him with being the same John Lloyd responsible for The Meaning of Liff with DNA (Douglas Adams) – obvious I guess, when you think of QI.
Responsible for producing much Rowan Atkinson (and Ben Elton and Stephen Fry) material – Not the Nine o’Clock News, Blackadder and the insanely expensive / lucrative Barclaycard ads. Given the entertainment / media context it was immensely reassuring to hear his commentary on general management decision-making, right up to levels of governance.
The scientistic meme really is ubiquitous. Melvyn, please join up those dots with your In Our Time resources please, please, please.
The meme gets half way around the world, before the truth even gets its boots on. Quoted by Gove (from attrib) in the (so obviously false) story of his aversion to – nay, banning of – US Literature.