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My father was a film-maker. He always said he wanted to go like Humphrey Jennings, the legendary director who stepped backwards over a cliff while framing a better shot.

A. A. Gill

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A. A. Gill
Age: 62 †
Born: 1954
Born: June 28
Died: 2016
Died: December 10
Journalist
Writer
Edinburgh
Scotland
Aa Gill
Blair Baillie
Adrian Anthony Gill
Adrian Gill
Better
Makers
Humphrey
Wanted
Shot
Framing
Always
Director
Legendary
Like
Shots
Cliff
Directors
Stepped
Father
Cliffs
Death
Maker
Film
Backwards
Jennings

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America didn’t bypass or escape civilization. It did something far more profound, far cleverer: it simply changed what civilization could be.
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You either get the point of Africa or you don't. What draws me back year after year is that it's like seeing the world with the lid off.
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Breakfast is everything. The beginning, the first thing. It is the mouthful that is the commitment to a new day, a continuing life.
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The reason that chefs become chefs is that they're not allowed into rooms with windows.
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I still secretly believe that afternoons are the time for the test card and you shouldn't watch television when the sun is out.
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Science fiction is never about the future, in the same way history is rarely about the past: they're both parable formats for examining or commenting on the present.
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We like to see death as an unfair conspiracy, and what we want is a magic practitioner, a combination of Dr Watson and Sherlock Holmes.
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Americans think the only funny Brits are John Cleese, Benny Hill and whoever makes our toothpaste. They're not laughing with us, they are laughing at us.
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Television gives us the gift to see ourselves as we'd like to be seen.
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The truth and the facts aren't necessarily the same thing. Telling the truth is the object of all art facts are what the unimaginative have instead of ideas.
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I don't know how long a child will remain utterly static in front of the television, but my guess is that it could be well into their thirties.
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Facts are what pedantic, dull people have instead of opinions.
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Beautifully shot, impeccably paced, it was a clear, unrelenting look at the National Trust, its friends and enemies, and it makes you want to burn your passport and beg the Luftwaffe to have another go.
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Is it a particularly British trait to so utterly adore truly appalling men, from Tony Hancock through to Steptoe and Alf Garnett, Captain Mainwaring, Rigsby, Del Boy, Victor Meldrew and on to David Brent from The Office. The most deeply adored characters are all simply vile.
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Nobody ever forgets their first night in the bush. It's among the precious, meagre handful of life firsts that remain indelible.
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Celebrity is a national drama whose characters' parts and plots are written by the tabloids, gossip columnists, websites and interactive buttons. The famous don't actually have to turn up to their own lives at all.
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A lobster bisque ought to be the crowning glory of the potager. And this one was excellent. Silky as a gigolo's compliment and fishy as a chancellor's promise.
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Like most parents, I've been stumped by homework, the big questions, such as: 'What is the point of geography - the pilot always knows where we are going?'. Answer: 'If you didn't know any geography, people would think you were an American, and you wouldn't be able to put them right because you wouldn't know where they live.'
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Sport is how poor kids from poor countries pass through the eye of the needle to riches and recognition.
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