Off Kilter - Jonathan Meades on BBC Four
Cult TV Presenter Discusses the Architecture of Aberdeen
Sep 20, 2009
Over the years Jonathan Meades has mastered the form of the television essay. A wry, sardonic presence with a fascination for the world around him Meades has turned his idiosyncratic view on a diverse array of topics. Meades presenting style involves wandering around in a suit, speaking directly to the camera, while occasionally images appear on screen emphasising or subverting the meaning of what he is saying.
Jonathan Meades Visits Aberdeen for Off Kilter
When the Scottish Executive was dreaming up a list of things to promote for the benefit of foreigners with a Scots ancestry and plenty of cash it is doubtful Aberdonian architecture would have featured prominently. Jonathon Meades however opened his four-part series with a love-letter to a city whose name had haunted him since childhood. Admittedly this grief was caused by the name of a particular breed of cow which tended to be the main ingredient in a can of corned beef, a food Meades described as being salt beef’s “evil twin.”
What is wonderful about Meades is his ability to make the familiar seem new and strange; to turn our attention on the ordinary and make us look closer or see things in a different way. Even those who know Aberdeen may have been surprised by how good the city looked in Off Kilter.
For Meades cities remain unknowable places. Jigsaw puzzles rebuilt by successive generations, they are from far away in time. Aberdeen is unusual because granite, the main building material used in the city never shows the wear and tear of age. The past and the present are interlinked. Granite buildings are often described as being forbidding, but Meades disagrees claiming they have a “magnificent austerity.”
Aberdeen’s History
Meades delved into Aberdeen’s history and the work of two of the city’s most noted architects John Smith and Archibald Simpson, as well as showing the effects of what he called “doctrinal headbutting” between the various factions of the Kirk led to them all trying to outdo each other by building better churches than their rivals.
Meades had little time for Donald Trump’s plans for yet another golf course in Scotland. The billionaire intends to build a course outside the city but Meades mocked Trump’s ideas, his lifestyle and his hairstyle. There were also a few harsh words for plans to turn part of the city centre into an underground car park.
Aberdeen Football Club
It was strange seeing Jonathon Meades standing outside the Merkland Road entrance to Pittodrie Stadium, home of Aberdeen Football Club. Super-Size Me’s Morgan Spurlock has also visited the stadium recently and even interviewed manager Mark McGhee about the origins of Groundskeeper Willie from The Simpsons. For a club so used to being patronised by the Glasgow-based press and it is good to see them getting some national and international attention.
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