Capturing the fever of Travolta’s dancing days
Talk about stayin’ alive – disco should have been dead by 1977, but music impresario Robert Stigwood saw its wider potential. His faith in young TV star John Travolta and longtime clients, The Bee Gees, would help disco make the leap from fringe movement to genuine phenomenon when he brought both together in Saturday Night Fever.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the blockbuster dance movie that made Travolta a superstar, produced the bestselling soundtrack of all time (until The Bodyguard muscled in) and brought the music style back into the mainstream. For Saturday Night Fever: the Ultimate Disco
Movie (BBC Two), excitable Strictly
Come Dancing judge Bruno Tonioli revisited the streets of New York where the film was shot to tell its fascinating backstory and how it succeeded against the odds.
And it was a very fine documentary, packed with both fleeting sound bites but substantial accounts from those involved – Travolta waxed lyrical on how the film, which he describes as
“Taxi Driver with dancing”, raised his status as an actor at a time when a personal tragedy was unfolding – the death of his girlfriend, Diana Hyland. Barry Gibb similarly talked at length about how the soundtrack helped The Bee Gees to overcome a fallow period in their careers. There were contributions, too, from director John Badham, who fought off threats from the Mafia and filmed guerrilla-style on the streets, as well as the film’s costume designer and choreographer.
Most interesting was a segment with location manager Lloyd Kaufman, who hated the job because of the film’s low budget and had to scour the rattier hangouts of Brooklyn. As Kaufman cruised the streets with Tonioli, they were delighted to discover that Lenny’s Pizza, the shop where Tony Manero got his double-decker slice, still has the same signage from the Seventies. Going on-location, interspersed with archive clips of the time, helped to bring the hardbitten story – of working-class Italianamericans who lived for their weekends of disco dancing – to life.
Tonioli, meanwhile, wasn’t just plonked in there because of his fondness for a glitterball – he was a young dancer himself in New York in 1977 and recalled how the “fever” took hold. “I lived for disco,” he said, stabbing at the air with his finger while wearing Cuban heels and a white shirt unbuttoned to the navel. But most of all, he helpfully dissected the skill and athleticism of Travolta, whose incandescent performance prompted a dance craze. With the soundtrack ringing in the background, it was delightfully hard to sit still – a definite case of Friday night fever. Rachel Ward
Brexit should be boom time for our right-wing comic creations, whose chickens have taken back control of the roost. Alan Partridge is back on the Beeb, and last night that other blazer-lover, the Pub Landlord, welcomed ITV viewers into his boozer.
In an introductory skit, Richard E Grant played Santa, shivering next to a fireplace, and explaining that Christmas had been cancelled. It was up to Murray and chums to Make
Christmas Great Again. And after each ad break Grant appeared again, growing fatter and jollier as the spirit of Christmas was revived.
On this flimsy peg hung an hour of feather-light variety entertainment, filmed in front of a studio audience. There was a song and dance number, a bit of stand-up, a smattering of crowd participation, and some celebrity cameos. I know we weren’t expecting Pacino and Jagger, but surely the Pub Landlord could do better than Myleene Klass and Honey G, the novelty rapper from last year’s X Factor?
Murray is a far better comedian than the format allowed. The Pub Landlord is a brilliant creation, and after more than 20 years the performance is polished to a gleam. As usual he whipped the audience up, banging on about “beautiful British names” and Christmas dinner “with all the trimmings”.
A few years ago, the Pub Landlord’s xenophobic conceit seemed to be wearing thin. In the light of recent politics, he seems fresh and even prescient. The effect is unsettling: is he teasing those who mock the French, or us, the crowd who laugh slightly too loudly when he mocks the French? It’s no coincidence that in the best moments last night, as Murray claimed that Christmas was a British creation, he brought to mind other boisterous populists on both sides of the Atlantic. Ed Cumming
Saturday Night Fever: the Ultimate Disco Movie ★★★★
Al Murray’s Make Christmas Great Again ★★★