Nicholas Pegg

Yes, I understand music licensing can be tricky for amateur panto companies, which does feel a bit harsh. Mind you, even in professional productions, some songbooks are pretty much no-go as either the costs are prohibitive or they just say no. Disney, ABBA and the Beatles are classic examples.

And even more finally, the glorious closing number We Go Together. A lovely song and another triumph of choreography, giving each member of the gang a final moment, like a sweet panto walkdown curtain call. In fact, I used this song in a Peter Pan that I directed many years ago. Worked like a dream.

And finally to the graduation funfair scene, and the strangest song in the film. You’re The One That I Want was Grease’s first big hit, and it’s so familiar that its oddness tends to be overlooked. A late addition, it sounds neither 50s nor 70s… a pop song out of time. But a total, brilliant banger.

Sure, it’s a bit of a fairytale… but they both change themselves. Sandy going all spandex slapper gets all the attention, but Danny has already renounced his leather greaser persona and gone square for Sandy. I’m okay with that.

And so on to the Thunder Road showdown, where the fragile masculinity of our heroes is affectionately mocked - Danny isn’t that cool after all - yet when the score picks up the strains of Greased Lightning during the race, it’s a ridiculously rousing punch-the-air moment. I love this film.

Rare moment of mild negativity: if there’s one song that Grease wouldn’t be much worse off without, it’s Sandy. Perfectly good song, but it’s just Danny doing his version of Hopelessly Devoted To You, over an hour later. (Yes, I know Hopelessly Devoted was written later, but it’s a better song.)

Just reaching the dance-off scene. An amazing sequence of choreography / comedy / drama happening all at once. Travolta on fire on the dance floor, first with Olivia Newton-John and then with the criminally under-appreciated Annette Charles as Cha-Cha. This is Grease’s Saturday Night Fever moment.

Travolta gets the whole sports montage sequence in which the running joke is that he is a complete dick. Throughout the film he is awkward and gauche and less cool than Sandy. She rocks!

Hardly an original observation, but I haven’t said it yet and it can’t be said enough: the gold medal goes to Stockard Channing. From those malevolent eyes at Travolta in the car park, to Sandra Dee, to that terrific song There Are Worse Things I Could Do, she gives the film its grit and its heart.

Can recommend watching it right through with the sound turned on before finalising any opinions.

Yes! It seems to be summer for the whole film, and any passages of time are either ignored or very well hidden.

I guess you had to be there to understand what a massive deal Grease was in 1978. My dad took me and my brother to see it at the ABC in Nottingham. We queued for two hours, only to be turned away. Back to the car and dad found a screening in Hucknall. Top parenting. Have never forgotten that day.

Close second.

Greased Lightning! What a cracking number, so brilliantly staged that when it fantasy-shifts back to the crappy old car at the end and Travolta says ‘Come on guys, let’s get to work,’ it’s genuinely moving. And I say that as someone who doesn’t give a toss about cars.

The other thing that slightly freaks me out about Grease is that at the age of 10, the whole thing looked and sounded like an amazing alien world to me. Way back when my parents were teenagers. But in 1978, that was only 20 years ago. Make a film with the same gap now, and it would be set in 2006.

Grease is a bracingly peculiar film, though, isn’t it? I was 10 years old when it came out and I was in love with the music and the story without knowing the first thing about a US High School, which was apparently a place frequented by thirtysomethings who lived with their (invisible) parents.

Strong agree. The last-minute addition of Hopelessly Devoted is one of Grease’s funny little miracles. And until the last refrain, the whole thing is filmed in a single unbroken shot. Wonderful. (In my student days, when the vocal register was a bit higher, it was my karaoke of choice. Major cringe)

Well, yes, like many a high school film of its vintage, there are regrettable flaws on the sexual politics front. But Sandy cosplaying as a slapper is at least slightly mitigated by the thing that everyone forgets, which is that Danny has also capitulated, abandoning his leathers and going straight.

Fair point.

YouTube video by Boxoffice Movie Scenes Summer Nights | Grease | CLIP

On a whim, rewatching Grease. I humbly submit that Summer Nights is the greatest film musical number ever. The choreography is knockout. Everyone’s singing so well. The song is deceptively clever: Sandy’s romance versus Danny’s macho lad-mag version of the same story. And they’re all so beautiful. 💯

Oh, same here. A glittering galaxy of stars and all that, but compared with the Ustinov films it feels so plodding.

Stone cold brilliant, but surely the Peter Ustinov Death on the Nile is its closest rival. Magnificent from top to toe. Or is that just me?

“I intend to adumbrate two typical instances from separate epistopic interfaces - “

“That’s as may be, sir, but you’re still under arrest.”

Watching Blake’s 7. The dialogue is great.

“You could rely on him not to get you killed unnecessarily. He never wasted troopers.”

“That’s something, I suppose.”

“Major, when you’re up to your neck in slime and lasers, that’s everything.”

(That’s Trooper Par. Shares his name with an ABBA lyric.)

In the garden today: it stopped raining for long enough to focus on a crocus. Spring is just around the corner.

In the garden today: it stopped raining for long enough to focus on a crocus. Spring is just around the corner.

Dear Grauniad, I yield to nobody in my appreciation of Kenneth Williams, but I’m not entirely convinced by your headline writer’s choice of criterion for ‘subversive genius’.

Sad to hear we have lost the much-loved Des de Moor, a passionate champion of music, real ale, walking and Doctor Who. His album and live show ‘Darkness and Disgrace’ offered a unique celebration of the songs of David Bowie. Des’s partner Ian is raising funds to give him the send-off he deserves.

“Refrain from referring to World War Two. I evoked it once, but I believe I carried it through with impunity.”

Really proud to have been a part of this collaboration with Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. We gave five wonderful students their first professional job - and a wonderful job they made of it too. I can’t wait for you to hear it.