Weird Night

As I was working on what I was going to write about Don't Look Now it got me thinking about Nic Roeg which led me to The Man Who Fell to Earth... I remember an evening on BBC 2 late '94 when I would have been 12 years old called Weird Night where they showed a series of unusual TV programmes and movies. It's mentioned here on the BFI website, but I swear on my life that The Man Who Fell to Earth was also shown (can anyone confirm this?). Needless to say it really had a profound effect on me, it was one of those instances that properly changed my understanding and appreciation of film and probably life in general. My mum said to me I should stay up and watch it as I was a huge fan of Bowie and she said I'd probably like Martin a lot too, so that's exactly what I did. Seeing Romero's Martin, David Lynch's short The Grandmother and The Man Who Fell to Earth is a lot of cult weirdness right there to absorb at the grand old age of 12. I remember sitting on the sofa struggling to stay awake at 2am but so utterly enthralled that I couldn't stop watching.

There are a few stand out events from my childhood that I think really had an impact on who and what I am as a person today... going to see a stage production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show on my 8th birthday, watching my first 18-rated video (The Howling 3), going to my first show (The Cure), and Weird Night which introduced me to 3 of my favourite filmmakers all in the space of a few hours.