News - PAUL MERTON: Our response

27 Jan 2010

It’s been an enormous blow to me, and the many others involved with Bristol’s latest Slapstick festival, to find ourselves being forced to respond to a storm arising from a ‘Press Release’ on Paul Merton’s website that is overwhelmingly misleading and unfair.

This year’s Slapstick Festival has been our busiest, best-supported and most successful yet and we had hoped to be celebrating its success now, rather than dealing with unfair and unfounded criticisms.

But Paul’s claims, and his personal attacks on me, cannot go unanswered, so with the backing of the festival steering group, here is a response to some of the issues raised by Paul in his press release. 

The first point we need to make is that no-one from Slapstick has ever said or implied that Paul is not a crowd-puller. The scale of the audiences he attracts on tv, radio and in theatres show that Paul is one of Britain’s most popular entertainers and Slapstick remains very grateful to him for attaching his name to the festival, and for the many wonderful shows he has hosted for us over the years.

We also need to make it clear that Paul most certainly has not been “sacked” by Slapstick.  To keep the festival fresh and attract new audiences, we suggested to Paul, through his agent, that we vary the format of the opening Gala for 2010 and offered him several other ideas and venues during the festival, in case the changes didn’t suit him. 
The exact words of my email to his agent in July were: “Of course, as you know, Paul would be welcome to do almost anything with us, either at Slapstick or at any other time of the year, so if Paul wants to explore other shows or ideas I'm sure we could accommodate most things, for this January or beyond”. To this, I added:  “If it's really only the Gala show that Paul would like to host then I do hope he will want to be on board with us once more in 2011 and on into the future."

To our dismay, Paul’s agent’s reply was that not only did Paul not like our various proposals, but that “he has asked me to let you know that he hereby withdraws from any future involvement with the Slapstick Festival.” Since then, we have made various efforts to reassure Paul that we value him but, as he insisted that all correspondence had to go through his agent, lack of direct contact may explain why Paul has formed some inaccurate impressions about the day-to-day running of the festival.

Unlike the big budget, well-staffed, production companies with whom Paul usually works, Slapstick is run mostly by unpaid volunteers whose main qualification is that they love silent films and visual comedy and are willing to put in the hours, energy and passion that enable others to enjoy them, too.

The festival is run by a bona fide not-for-profit film society - Bristol Silents - which meets all of the standards of governance required by public funding bodies and sponsors, and has a steering group who advise on festival appointments and plans. 

It is true that there was once a printing error on an item of festival artwork but this was picked up in plenty of time for the error to be corrected before it went public. It is also true that one advertised speaker had to pull out at short notice but a very good substitute was found and the event was a huge success. It is not true, however, that Paul’s previous events have been slighted on our website. If he visits the ‘past events’ section, he will see, as ever, that he is mentioned many times and always in complimentary terms.
One of the saddest aspects of all this is how it is overshadowing Slapstick’s achievement in building new audiences for a film genre Paul genuinely loves.  On a tiny budget, with limited time and helpers, we’ve built a programme and festival that commands international respect, brings celebrities of the calibre of Lord Attenborough, Kenneth Branagh, Barry Cryer, Terry Jones, Phill Jupitus,  Michael Palin and Eric Sykes to Bristol, and gives enjoyment to many thousands of people of all ages.

Along the way, over 10 years, we have forged good, rewarding and lasting relations with our guests and ticket-holders, with most returning again and again.

We’ve all been enormously cheered by the many messages of support and encouragement we are getting, and by the response to Slapstick 2010. I’m delighted to report that the recent festival was a huge success and our 14 special guests in attendance were delighted to take part in the festival.

With lots of interesting names and ideas already being discussed for 2011 we look to the future now. 
Chris Daniels

With the support of festival steering group members David Sproxton (Director of Aardman Animations), David Robinson (Patron of the Festival and Director of Pordenone Silent Film Festival in Italy) and Mo Sutton (Producer, Richard Williams Masterclass)