"The James Whale Radio Show", a mixture of the occasionally sublime and the more often seedy
There was a kind of inevitability, however, that once late night TV (usually under the umbrella title of 'Night Time') was fully established, there would be the temptation for more explicit, dubious material to be broadcast that both the programme makers and TV bosses hoped would be barely noticed by the regulators and moral arbiters, as such would not be watching at such an ungodly hour, except for semi or fully drunken youths who would revel in such sleaze. Maybe the most prominent, but not certainly the most distinguished example of such was the ironically titled "The James Whale Radio Show", broadcast live from the early days of 'Night Time' in 1988 until the mid 90's, starring DJ James Whale at Yorkshire TV Studios in Leeds. (Whale had been working for some years at the city's main independent station, Radio Aire).
Whale's radio persona was that of a confrontational, voluble, rude and belligerent ringmaster, not afraid to berate callers to his show if they displeased him, or cut them off instantly by a quick flick of a control or volume button. The TV version of his radio talk show followed a similar pattern, looking as though it was actually being filmed in a radio rather than TV studio (it wasn't made clear whether this was used as mere effect), with frequent forays into what appeared to be be the main reception lobby at the Yorkshire TV studios. The show itself comprised a mixture of contemporary pop videos and serious debates with various politicians, public figures and celebrities of the day, and to be fair, some of these debates worked quite well, with Whale showing himself a decent interviewer and linkman at his best, with subjects such as the monarchy and disabled rights alternating rather uncertainly with showbiz style interjections featuring the increasingly unfashionable Bernard Manning as one example; Manning actually appeared on the programme more than once, in a period when the alternative comedy brigade, who by this time had taken over the mantle from more traditionalist, mainstream comics on TV, and had all but killed the racist and sexist humour that was Manning's trademark.
The best interview and maybe the best ever moment from the series' history was an interview with Spike Milligan who spoke about his mental health struggles, a remarkably frank and compassionate piece of television with Whale showing immense empathy and understanding over Milligan's manic depression and getting the deeply troubled comic genius to open up seriously (albeit injected with some typically well-timed comic one-liners) in a way he had never really expressed before in public. Even as recently as the 90's, this was still a period where depression and other forms of mental illness were rarely discussed in public or the media, or indeed taken seriously by the NHS, treating it as a taboo subject and an embarrassment to be swept under the carpet, with stigma, ignorance and prejudice still all too frequent before more enlightened attitudes and lobbying from mental health campaigners and charities broke down such barriers. So Whale deserves much credit for such an interview in an era when such a subject was still treated as an excuse to make cheap jokes, or to just dismiss as a made up lifestyle choice; Whale's line of questioning is perfectly judged and never inappropriate or offensive, and Milligan appears to appreciate his interviewer's sympathetic, sensitive attitudes and responds fluently, honestly and movingly. A piece of television that is totally compelling from beginning to end, obscenely underrated and may in fact have started the process of looking at mental illness from a new, less ignorant perspective in the years ahead.
Spike Milligan speaks movingly about his manic depression in a memorable interview with James Whale
Yet a sublime peak such as this was a rarity, and Whale more often than not teetered his show into the kind of boorish confrontation that confirmed his not always spotless reputation, walking out in the middle of one show in a rage, and letting the singer Sinitta rather haplessly take over in his absence, although he admitted in his autobiography years later that this was a deliberately pre-arranged stunt to bolster up some media hype (which got some attention from the tabloids). There were appearances from very risque female dancers in scanty, fetishistic costumes in several shows, and an infamous appearance from Wayne Hussey of the rock group The Mission, heavily drunk or worse, swearing profusely, with Whale having to forcefully remove Hussey from the set when the attempted interview collapsed into chaos. On a few occasions, Whale phoned up some well-known celebrities (having obtained their numbers by dubious means) on the mere pretence of irritating them, and let us not forget his pretty young female assistant Donna, a mute and rather stereotypical portrayal of a subversive, blonde bimbo. Various hoax callers turned serious debates into farce by shouting obscenities when put through live, which perhaps led the the series' end as Whale became a victim of his own penchant for conflict for the sake of it by the mid 90's; a further similar series followed in 1996 but this was pre-recorded with no live calls taken anymore after the embarrassing potty-mouthed interjections that had led to the previous series' demise, with Whale now coming across as more subdued and restricted, and he soon returned to his more natural home of the radio talk show, where he stills causes controversy in the present, after making inappropriate remarks and responses to a woman who claimed she had been "orally raped" in a phone call.He was suspended but later reinstated as host of his show.
Whale's show was certainly not 100% trash or sensationalism across the board, and indeed was very capable of intelligent, informative debate at its best, with the host a fine interviewer when the situation demanded, but there were lapses of taste and control rather too often for comfort, which were about to get worse and more excessive in other late night programming as the 90's turned into a new century, and would begin to seep even into programmes in peak time viewing.
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