Friday 3 December 2010

Colin


Fresh from the hilarity of the City fans chanting of my name at the Salzburg match the other night, it's time for my annual festive 12 parter to start. This year, I am writing about a great war film. Hope you enjoy it.

I used to watch Shoestring regularly. I think it was about a sleuthing DJ in Bristol. Some light research proves me correct, and adds the forgotten detail that he was a traumatised computer expert before becoming Radio West’s ‘private ear’, and the programme was possibly shown on a Sunday night, around 9 o’clock. I actually really enjoyed it at the time, but (and Dave Gorman recently mentioned this in relation to a strange episode in his life where he watched the pilot of The Six Million Dollar Man at the Cannes Film Festival. The programme, he said, just looked so terribly dated, and ended up causing much hilarity among the audience) I’m sure the same would not apply now. A regular contributor to Shoestring was The Sound Engineer, played by Colin Maitland. I had a great deal of difficulty turning up a picture of Mr Maitland via Bing image search (it’s extremely irritating to be directed towards people who are either a) Colin Maitland, but not the Colin Maitland; b) people called Maitland but not Colin; or worst of all, c) people called Colin but not Maitland!) and, although his images appear to be in short supply (fame is fickle, isn’t it?) Google demonstrated its superiority by displaying two pictures of the main man immediately. Followed by loads of people who aren’t him.

Colin was born in 1942 in Birmingham. He played perhaps the least famous member (one could perhaps say even, the least famous of the 'Back Six') of the Dirty Dozen – Seth Sawyer. All I can seem to discover about the character is that he was sentenced to 20 years hard labo(u)r. And that he dies (by means of a very specific weapon) after being shot down from a roof. It looks as if Colin’s personal life after the Dirty Dozen may have been just as much of a slog. Well, not really, but you get my drift.

Prior to his big break, he appeared as Charlie Sedgewick in Lolita (1962) and as Seaman Jones in The Bedford Incident (1965) which is a ‘highly rated Cold War submarine thriller’. I saw Lolita, didn’t particularly enjoy it, but can’t recall watching The Bedford Incident, though reading about it, I think I would like to. In neither film can I remember Colin Maitland.

It just goes to show how hard it must be to break into the big time. The Dirty Dozen was the number 1 box office film of 1967, and made a net profit of over $18,000,000 – a pretty tidy sum over 40 years ago I would imagine. How much of this money got through to someone like Colin is anyone’s guess. Probably not a huge proportion of it, but one would have thought that the part would at least look pretty good on the guy’s CV and provide him with a springboard for greater things. But it was not to be.

15 comments:

EP said...

Maybe he decided he preferred Bristol to Los Angeles. No one could blame him. By-the-by, trying your "Colin Maitland" search on Bing and then Google image search brings up exactly the same image of the same dodgy-looking geezer in a white outfit and big headphones in the no 1 spot. I've no idea if that is the actual Colin Maitland mind.

Myeral said...

There is quite a difference. See: http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=colin+maitland&FORM=BIFD compared to: http://www.google.co.uk/search?aq=f&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=colin+maitland
I think the first picture is him in Shoestring, but the one I wanted (which I couldn't attach yesterday) is the one now at the bottom of the blog post.

EP said...

Ah - that's an image search on Bing vs a web search on Google I think. It's nice to the get the inline pictures with the web search I admit. Still, the first and main images that both searches brings up is the same?

Myeral said...

In fact, in both cases, I entered the name and then hit the 'Images' button. Both engines (as you rightly say) brought up the same first image, but it was the ones after the first one which made the difference. Bing is the default at my office, and I really struggled to find the image of Colin from The Dirty Dozen, whereas Google returned it straight away. Is all I'm saying.

Cat R said...

Mice I take this Opportunafish to offal heart congRATS to micelf for 2be eucharistingly hosting the whale cup come 2222.
And yess, Shoestring. I am most interested.

Cat R's Physchitrist said...

Jesus Christ.

Some crows said...

I seen a SECOND string, and I seen I BANJO string, but I ain't NEVER seen no SHOE string!

String said...

There's a shoe fly.

A recognised fly expert said...

No there isn't.

String said...

Yes there is.

A recognised fly expert said...

No there isn't.

w windsor said...

Damme, that feline is not a patch on my Kate's puss.

a h fly said...

Buzz buzz buzz

String said...

Okay then, how about in that song:
"Shoe fly don't bother me?"

A recognised fly expert said...

My goodness, you're right!