‘ THE HUGE POPULARITY oi iilck Park's Creature Comforts shorts demonstrated that a generation oi viewers who had grown up with Tony Hart’s Morph still had a soft spot ior little Piasticlne characters. li you’re one oi them, check out Channel 4’s new adult animation series Crapston Villas which looks likely to become a iixture in Friday night’s post-pub telly line up. Set in a dilapidated london tenement, each episode iocuses on the bizarre inhabitants oi one the ilats, with voices supplied by the likes oi Jane Horrocks, Alison Sieadman and Felix Dexter.
See TV highlights.
were actively involved in that company. But that was
lS MICHELLE GAYLE the black Kylie Minogue? We reckon she‘s heading that way. In a similar soaps-to-singles chart transformation. Gayle is best known as the feisty Hattie from EastEnders. though we first heard Gayle's vocal talents as the class B-girl rapping in Grange Hill. Now some years and four hit singles later. Gayle is eager to shake off her Albert Square image. A recent series of raunchy publicity photos are rather reminiscent of the SexKylie image turnaround. ‘The older generation only know me through my acting.‘ she says. ‘but more people are now knowing me for my music. You can’t forget what happened in the past. but at the moment l’m not interested in acting — Ijust want to focus on my music.’ But despite the glamour-puss image, life can be as humdrum for poor Michelle as for anybody else. ‘l get bored with everything so quickly.‘ she purrs in an accent dithering between Brixton and the Bronx. ‘and l adore toying with my image. messing my hair. that kind ofthing.‘ (Rory Weller)
Michelle Gayle plays Club X. Glasgow on Sat 28 Oct.
EVERYTHIHG’S PRETTY MUCH on the surface in a Steven Seagal movie. but the iorrner martial arts tutor and men master still manages to hint at an enigma within himseii. Rumours have long abounded about his unspecliied participation in past US government ‘securlty’ operations, but Seagal - the softest spoken oi the screen action stars — has kept tight-llpped ever since one oi his pupils, Mike Ovitz (until recently head honcho oi all-poweriul Hollywood agency CAA) helped him into the movie business. Wait a minute: that was CAA that Seagal whispered, not CIA? Explain yourseli, man. ‘The best way ior me to answer that would be to saytitatl. . .Imean, thetruthoithematteris, you know . . . l’ve always said I didn’t work tor the CIA, I’ve always denied that. i do have a lot oi iriends there, and I have had relationships with them overseas, and have worked on different . . . projects . . . with iolks that
many, many, many years ago.’ Well, ehm, that’s clear I then. CIA, CAA, maybe C&A, given his natty wardrobe in Under Slege 2. See Film listings.
GROUCHY AMERICAN STAND-UP Rich Hall is a ionner David letterman gag writer and Saturday lllglrt live comedy team member, but that didn’t stop him slumming it in Edinburgh ior three weeks during the Festival. Hall showed that breathing the rareiled air oi American network television had not blunted his ability to work a live audience. Fans oi literate stand-up comedy would be advised to catch him on one oi his Scottish dates. See Comedy listings.
2 The list 20 Oct-2 Nov 1995