1. Comment #428697 by rod-the-farmer on November 1, 2009 at 3:45 pm

The video link is not working, unless you go to the BBC site.....

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2. Comment #428700 by /Mike on November 1, 2009 at 3:56 pm

Try doing a refresh, maybe something didn't load cleanly. All the image above does is link to the site as there isn't any embed code. I just tried and it works ok from my browser.

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3. Comment #428705 by submoron on November 1, 2009 at 4:05 pm

I went to the BBC link, got a blank white space where the video should be and found this on AOL http://video.aol.co.uk/video-detail/five-minutes-with-sir-jonathan-miller/1600167105.
Marvellous man; I enjoyed his Atheism Tape with Dennett last night and when are we going to get the whole series on DVD please?

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4. Comment #428708 by Friend Giskard on November 1, 2009 at 4:14 pm

Works fine for me.

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5. Comment #428713 by zbob on November 1, 2009 at 4:36 pm

The player worked fine for me and I loved that the volume control "goes to eleven".

From "This is Spinal Tap":

Nigel Tufnel: The numbers all go to eleven. Look, right across the board, eleven, eleven, eleven and...
Marty DiBergi: Oh, I see. And most amps go up to ten?
Nigel Tufnel: Exactly.
Marty DiBergi: Does that mean it's louder? Is it any louder?
Nigel Tufnel: Well, it's one louder, isn't it? It's not ten. You see, most blokes, you know, will be playing at ten. You're on ten here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you're on ten on your guitar. Where can you go from there? Where?
Marty DiBergi: I don't know.
Nigel Tufnel: Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do?
Marty DiBergi: Put it up to eleven.
Nigel Tufnel: Eleven. Exactly. One louder.
Marty DiBergi: Why don't you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?
Nigel Tufnel: [pause] These go to eleven.

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6. Comment #428715 by TIKI AL on November 1, 2009 at 4:46 pm

"It's only the idiotic and the trivial that can be worked out immediately" ...Miller

Can this be why Obama hasn't knee jerked 40,000 more troops into Afghanistan like McCain wants?

Jonathon could have had a coronary when that stupid alarm went off. My cat jumped halfway to the ceiling and scratched me during liftoff.

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7. Comment #428718 by KRKBAB on November 1, 2009 at 4:47 pm

zbob- I immediately noticed the "11" setting. It's a good thing Dawkins isn't going to Boston- not much of a college town. :)

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8. Comment #428719 by KRKBAB on November 1, 2009 at 4:50 pm

I just realized how stupid my Dawkins comment was; after listening to the J. Miller 5 Minutes- I clicked on the 5 Minutes w/Dawkins. The Boston thing only makes sense if you don't know the "Tap".

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9. Comment #428723 by zbob on November 1, 2009 at 4:55 pm

Ian Faith: The Boston gig has been cancelled...
David St. Hubbins: What?
Ian Faith: Yeah. I wouldn't worry about it though, it's not a big college town.

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10. Comment #428726 by SaintStephen on November 1, 2009 at 5:16 pm

Thanks, RD.net, for introducing me to Jonathan Miller. He's brilliant, apparently:

Consciousness worries me a great deal.

Me, too!

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11. Comment #428737 by glenister_m on November 1, 2009 at 6:35 pm

Nice metaphor for the problems of the concept of the soul.

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12. Comment #428741 by Quine on November 1, 2009 at 7:11 pm

Comment #428713 by zbob:

The player worked fine for me and I loved that the volume control "goes to eleven".

"Them memes, they be a-riding."

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13. Comment #428803 by 82abhilash on November 1, 2009 at 11:41 pm

Given Jonathan Millers general disgust with sound bites, it is a wonder he agreed to participate.

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14. Comment #428806 by beelzebub on November 1, 2009 at 11:50 pm

What an interesting, thoughtful 5 minutes!
BTW, am I the only one who thinks he looks uncannily like Spike Milligan?? :-)
Great stuff!

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15. Comment #428836 by Border Collie on November 2, 2009 at 1:49 am

"It's only the idiotic and the trivial that can be done immediately" ... Referring to whatever scripture in whatever holy book to simplistically answer difficult questions comes to mind. What a really great statement!

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16. Comment #428869 by Stafford Gordon on November 2, 2009 at 7:39 am

A very strong consistent and gifted man who always employs his native intelligence fully; very witty and funny too.

His production of "The Mikado" brings out all the satirical potential of the piece.

That was five minutes well spent.

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17. Comment #428880 by gcdavis on November 2, 2009 at 9:49 am

Sir Jonathan Miller is a national treasure, a true renaissance man, from his part in Beyond the Fringe and the birth of satire in the 1960’s to theatre and opera directing to date. One of his books The Body in Question, published in 1978 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Body-Question-Jonathan-Miller/dp/0712665994 is brilliant. Don’t confuse it with another more recent book of the same name,

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18. Comment #429119 by j.mills on November 3, 2009 at 12:21 am

I love the fact that the only book title you can read is behind Jonathan Miller's head and it says: "Radical"!

Heh! Perfectly timed ending on Richard's piece. Ricky Gervais' five mins is good too.

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