In what could be a perfect storm of three generations of Welsh culture, Nicky Wire of the Manic Street Preachers has revealed he is writing a Dr Who script based on the last days of Dylan Thomas.
Eye-liner wearing bassist and full time tall man Wire – who has not been commissioned to write a script – used his July blog (in fact, or written in the form of, a long interview) to reveal: “On a completely different tip, I’ve been trying to write a script for Doctor Who called Do Not Go Gently. The idea is centred around Dylan Thomas’ last days in New York. Of course it’s going to have a massive fucking monster in it too.”
The revelation, which comes as the Manics prepare to release their 10th album, Postcards From a Young Man, has sent the interwebs predictably nutty.
From their earliest days, the Blackwood-formed band, have been enthusiastic media-pranksters with an interest in situationism, and if Wire (whose brother, the poet Patrick Jones, has also played the media cleverly) wanted to drum up some extra publicity he couldn’t have done it better.
Nonetheless, the Manics have also had a literary bent from the get go and Wire took over lyric-writing duties from the missing and presumed dead guitarist Richey James Edwards – if any rock star were going to turn TV scriptwriter, Wire wouldn’t be a bad bet (I’ve checked Ladbrooke’s site and there isn’t a betting category for this).
The original blog, is here, and you should read it, it’s a long and considered look at where the Manics stand musically, politically and culturally.
