Tripping Over Tripitaka*

Yes, I was one of those late seventies, early eighties snot nosed kids** who loved Monkey. To the extent, that even today, I've been known to involuntarily shout out 'Mun-kay' at the top of my voice in a tourette-like-fashion at socially inconvenient times. So I'm obviously one of the punters that this Guardian article is aimed at. Unlike Sam Delaney, I was already clued up to the fact that the series was based on a 16th century Chinese novel called Journey To The West, but that is only because I once caught Red Deathy reading it. (Belated congrats on the 200 post, btw.)

From watching a documentary on the original programme a few years back - you know the type, narrated by Andrew Lincoln (allegedly) and scripted by Stuart Maconie (probably) - I was delighted to discover that half the dub voices in the english language version were provided by Miriam Margoyles, and that the bloke who played Monkey in the original series considered himself a classical actor and couldn't understand all the kitsch fuss in the West over the series. It has the thumbprint of the seventies all over it.

Let technorati overload on a thousand blog posts blooming on Monkey and the Water Margin.

*Glad to discover from having a quick read of one of the many Monkey fansites out there that it turns out that Tripitaka was played by Masako Natsume. It set's my mind at rest. **In the event of this post ever being adapted into a short film, could the composer for the film please have some Madness playing in the background here? Anything but 'Baggy Trousers' will set the tone for the scene.