I was a latecomer to the work
of Ray Gosling, which I put down to not living in the East Midlands for quite a
large period of my life. Regional television is pretty much over these days, so
watching Gosling’s work on Inside Out was
out of the question unfortunately. Once he was in my radar though, I did as
much research as possible. Footage of his documentary presentation is a little
thin on the ground on YouTube, which is a shame really as more people deserve
to see this work. You simply could not go to the television companies these
days and suggest half of the things that he did on the television or radio back
at the height of his success, because there’s too much compliance and too many
focus groups involved.
The sad thing about the
reports of his death that I have read so far is the mention of his notorious appearance
on Inside Out. You know the one; he
admitted to the mercy killing of a former boyfriend who was dying of AIDS.
Eventually he admitted that he had made it up for television and was prosecuted
for wasting police time. Work dried up after this, but he never lost what it
was that made him unique.
Although I never had the
pleasure of meeting him, I have spent the evening in the same room as him
on January 31st this year. During The Alan Sillitoe Season, there
was a screening of his first documentary Two Town Mad,
from 1962. According to the passage in the brochure from Lakeside Arts Centre,
(which was frighteningly close to hand as I sit writing this blog, on my office
notice board); Ray Gosling introduces the documentary film
he made for BBCTV in which he gives a spirited comparison of the two Midlands
towns in the early 60s. This wasn’t really what happened. What
happened was that we were told that Ray Gosling was unable to make it along,
and that we would watch the film anyway before talking about it. All of a
sudden the doors burst open and shouting was heard, before the drunken
shambling figure of Ray Gosling appeared to a hearty round of applause. One
gets the feeling that he was being hidden away because of his drunken state,
but after the screening he shouted his way through something resembling a
Q&A session. He was brilliant of course.
His style of documentary making
has perhaps influenced me more than I realise. I have mapped out a lot of ideas
for filming next year, mostly things that have been turned down by television.
The last short item I pitched to Inside Out was in my opinion a very good piece
of television potentially; a light-hearted article about something that still
gets under the skin of everybody in Nottingham. They turned it down because it
didn’t (in their opinion) fit in with the seriousness of the programme, so I
have decided to go ahead and make it myself and put it on YouTube. This is
where Gosling missed the boat slightly, had he been in better health in his
later years (both financially and physically) then he could have ruled social
media. With a hand held camera and a computer, he should have spent his final
years doing what he did best, documenting human life before going home and
uploading it. Not only that but I imagine he would have been a brilliant
blogger, and his tweets would have been fucking amazing.
Farewell Raymond Arthur Gosling, may you rest in chaos.
