Philip Larkin: Love and Death in Hull

Philip Larkin: Love and Death in Hull (Channel 4)
A decent documentary on Philip Larkin's life as the 'Hermit of Hull'. I apologise for the poor video quality, it's the only one I could find. I suppose that this being Larkin, the VHS bleakness fits.
Home is so sad. It stays as it was left,
Shaped to the comfort of the last to go
As if to win them back. Instead, bereft
Of anyone to please, it withers so,
Having no heart to put aside the theft
And turn again to what it started as,
A joyous shot at how things ought to be,
Long fallen wide. You can see how it was:
Look at the pictures and the cutlery.
The music in the piano stool. That vase.

[@catherinewatson1555]

Thanks for posting this. No wonder he thought his parents f***ed him up. A flawed human (aren't we all!) but a great poet. His exquisite poetry grows out of his flaws. He expresses the darker side of us all.

[@bridgetgoodall7999]

More than that.....the bitter truth about human existence!

[@Phorquieu]

Simply brilliant as an example of what a documentary of a life should be! Straight to the core of the matter right from the start! Holds a person's interest by the details of a life! Very well done! Thank you so much for posting this! You've done a great service!

[@fatfrreddy1414]

Congrats to all concerned, for a beautiful and stimulating programme...

[@muhammadrashid1313]

I love Larkin because he didn't pretend to be anything....in his work he is simply a man...this documentary is a beautiful try about his life and work

[@stellaboulton9531]

Yes!

[@bollockowithalob]

Many thanks for uploading. Rest in Peace, Philip Larkin

[@HowToVideosAndTips]

KZbin is full of treasures if you know where to look!

[@onurkarakose5751]

My god you're right

[@yogeshtak9223]

Can you suggest more pieces like this? Perhaps a channel (other than this, of course)?

[@xz9376]

Thanks for loading the film. It's charitable to hear Larkin's own voice.

[@Golfgtiguy]

I enjoyed watching this tonight . 👍On a funny note he did look a bit like Sergeant Bilko .

[@Besseloff]

He one described himself in his middle age as looking like a pregnant salmon.

[@kinkyplunk]

Larkin never said "depression is to me what flowers were to Wordsworth." What he actually said, in relation to Hull, was "DEPRIVATION is for me what flowers were to Wordsworth."

[@dominic9983]

What will survive of us is love is an extremely ironic line, and although I've only started I'm very worried about this documentary.

[@ItsMe-yn6ql]

This is debatable however (though I do agree)

[@stellaboulton9531]

You'll cope.

[@johnholmes912]

well, i met him several times, and can tell you that Larkin was nothing like the way he is invariably portrayed in these docus

[@dominic9983]

@@johnholmes912 Can you expand on that?

[@michaelbradley6004]

He didn't get the gift of appreciation. Sad when one can't be grateful for life and its ups and downs. Learning to breath. Seeing others truly suffer. I really love people like this though. Somehow surviving my childhood, I get him, a brother.

[@13strange67]

A very serious ( if not profoundly miserable ) Eric Morecambe

[@richardlitwin4046]

"It might have been planned by the Army" -- funny.

[@46metube]

The guy was a complete stick.

[@oliverarcher6831]

Can you explain what he meant by this?

[@uptoapoint7157]

A wonderful programme. it is easy to see why Larkin got along so well with Kingsley Amis. Both were real people who did not accept the pretentious veneer of the cultural commentators.

[@awesomemouse]

I was looking for Larkin Love...

[@johnkeane1419]

What a legend. I wonder what hyper-optimistic Americans make of Larkin?

[@brianw.5230]

I'm a pessimistic American and like him. 👍

[@Arjmm]

Not an American but as far as I can guess probably an idiot and a fucking bore.

[@JHarder1000]

The idea of Larkin being in love has tragi-comic overtones.

[@danasheys9300]

What if he had a child to love him when he eas older? He got what he deserved there Also liked that song they were singing on that tape recording

[@sunsetmeli4292]

His saddle is set at least two inches too high on those ride pasts.

[@grendlsma]

Did you ever plan to finish posting Under Milk Wood?

[@helenamoniqueclarke8135]

Certainly not a perfect man. But talented...

[@MannyJazzcats]

Nobodys perfect

[@Thomas-fu8vp]

A poet cannot possess or be possessed.He creates. He is not qualified to engage in ownership. Others do such things. A poet has no license to this regard.His blood runs directed towards the light, at a speed incomprehensible to Others.

[@gavinreid8351]

A bit ridiculous that a documentary about a poet and language should censor Fuck.

[@DrSylva22]

After seeing this you-tube ... I don't recommend Larkin's poems to children... Made me very depressed...! I'm an optimistic person ... I came to life to enjoy and help Not to make others miserable by thinking about dying ... all the way...! I say... I say... Give Love "Yes" and Nothing else Dr. Sylva Portoian

[@AleksandarBloom]

sylva portoian Well, for some reason people think that poetry should be life affirming, cherry and uplifting - of course that's totally wrong, no aspect of life should be ignored nevermind if you are optimist or pessimist, death and decay are most predominant aspect of your life, no mind-set will change reality. Being optimistic doesn't mean you are extremely stupid person that ignores fact but that you are able to live despite unavoidable end and create value by your self and not expect it. Larkin can't make you miserable unless you are all-ready deluded in kitschy fantasy's. Cheers.

[@JamesMc2051]

sylva portoian There's space for art about everything, not just the life affirming. It is depressing but sometimes people get depressed and they need to find some recognition of their feelings outside of their own head otherwise they can get very alienated and even more vulnerable.

[@DrSylva22]

I have poetry book "Delete Depression -Type inspiration"

[@AleksandarBloom]

sylva portoian I have Leonid Andreyev.

[@lordmaximus5]

Why would you want to like in the ignorance of happy happy happy. The world is a brute fact and things are often miserable so don't turn your head away from the truth because it makes you uncomfortable- depression and suffering are apart of the human condition.

[@benedictjlarkin9296]

My God, great poet, but the young conservative vibe wrecked his life.

[@Vercingitarix]

distill all his worth, you have a cankor. He is a tangential abhorrence. If you found him in the field you'd put him down. Go elsewhere. Larkin will not survive beyond the hokum of late century churl.

[@PJMcInerney]

Nonsense… a brilliant poet / not such a nice man -

[@markritson]

Superbly depressing.

[@46metube]

The gloom is addictive.

[@carpenoctem775]

Neglectful and abusive parents affect children negatively. I can understand Larkins attitude.

[@sarahpalin-l7t]

My dissertation was about the paradox running through Larkin's poems. I wish I could have met him. I think his poetry is profound and is actually as life affirming as it is about death. As I said, it is paradoxical. His work is beautiful.

[@archiet2205]

Completely agree. His poems are so profoundly moving to me. My favourite for sure.

[@nigelmcclatchey4490]

If they bleep the words out while reading the poetry, it is no longer poetry!

[@ob2395]

“Man hands on misery to man. It deepens like a coastal shelf.” The best lines of 20th century British verse.

[@HowToVideosAndTips]

also High Windows: He And his lot will all go down the long slide Like free bloody birds.

[@zachho5346]

what make my hands down

[@pedroskywalker6793]

A great poet but a questionable human being.His reactionaries and right wing bigoted views are hard to ignore in some of his poems.

[@pedroskywalker6793]

@@branthomas1621 I fell the same with Baudelaire.He was a genius but his social views were kind crazy.He hated absolutely everything of his time.He detested women and progress.

[@sarahpalin-l7t]

It's very true

[@eastwood1941]

If they're afraid to say "fuck", they shouldn't be making this film...

[@PhilipGeorgeHarfleet]

This is one of the finest programmes I've discovered on KZbin. Absolutely engrossing and enthralling. Having known so little about Philip Larkin, other than a couple of his most famous poems, I am now on a quest to find everything I can about this lone and brilliant and sad and fearful and unique man. Thank you so much for this most intriguing and enjoyable documentary. Great job, much appreciated.

[@gavinmaitland80]

Read A Girl In Winter. One of his only novels. Quietly devastating.

[@sarahpalin-l7t]

I too believe he had a brilliance indeed

[@matthewstokes1608]

@@gavinmaitland80you must read Jill as well… Both are excellent.

[@neilmcneill9519]

The video quality does not matter. it's the words that mean a lot!

[@matthewjamesappleby5834]

Wonderful video! But I think there's a small innacuracy at 16:32. Instead of "Depression is to me what daffodils were to Wordsworth", the quotation should be "Deprivation is to me what daffodils were to Wordsworth".

[@Unfunny_Username_389]

good catch

[@mikedowd2094]

Replace the names Philip Larkin with that of Stephen Patrick Morrissey, and you will find a great deal more in common than simply the opening 5 seconds of this introduction, to that of 'Seasick Yet Still Docked'

[@brucefleming208]

13:55 'I rather like being on the edge of things. One doesn't really go anywhere by design, you know. You put in for jobs and move about.' Turns left, with hands in raincoat pockets. Walks up fish quay. Quite simply, the coolest man on the planet.

[@MrAristaeus]

This is wonderful. Although as a side note, isn’t it curiously stupid and simultaneously violent to bleep out the swear words in his work?! Just for the sake of appearances... or worse, the appearance of “the appearances”. Larkin dedicated his life to his craft: we owe it to him to hear each of his poems in their uncensored and unapologetic fullness. It’s akin to presenting a documentary on Michelangelo and blurring out the (depiction of) genitalia.

[@medes5597]

Your latter example actually happened. It's only in the last hundred years that David has been displayed as he should be. Prior to that he had a fig leaf added by prudish art "critics"

[@TheJoecardiff]

Hull is in east yorkshire

[@nuraaish]

Wasn't expecting this to be so good!! Loved it - thanks for sharing

[@ajcomics2590]

The letter to Norman was actually my grandfather his cousin

[@angryangora]

I'm reading Martin Amis's nonfiction novel Inside Story. There's too much kooky-ex-girlfriend in it, but the reminiscences of Larkin (and other writers) are moving and enlightening.

[@christopherbrookfield4785]

I think that This Be The Verse must be just about the only poem which I can recite by heart. It is so musical, rhythmic, and true, I think. It echoes my own sentiments, so much. And, of course, he did follow his own advice, here, pretty much. He could not completely escape from the pull of his mother. He was an interesting, paradoxical character. And unromantic, who believed in love. An atheist, who believed in the spiritual, or other. And, obviously, a genuinely gifted poet. 😇

[@splinterbyrd]

Freud said that obsessive-compulsive disorder about death is the result of unresolved childhood conflict.

[@johnsmith-bx4rn]

Does it mean scared of death or looking forward to it

[@splinterbyrd]

​@@johnsmith-bx4rn I think either; just thinking about it all the time, and feeling overwhelmed by it. I get it all the time, which is odd because I'm the least afraid of being dead of everyone I know. Yet it's there all the time, like a large grey wall I'm trying to push through but can't. Perhaps it's more a case that I find death overwhelmingly boring. That's worse, far worse than it being something scary.

[@dave_goldcrest]

Easily the best post-war English poet. You don't have to agree with his politics to admit that.

[@h.harrison5841]

Thanks for posting. Who is responsible for the idiotic censorship?

[@existentialangst9400]

H. Harrison Channel 4. It was broadcast with the bleeps already in it.

[@main7096]

+H. Harrison I am. What are you going to do about it?

[@Choco582]

Arab is censoring us???!!!!

[@Arjmm]

​@@Choco582shouldn't it be Arabs are censoring us?

[@AnthonyMonaghan]

Larkin would have probably found the censoring of the word FUCK quite amusing...Hull is in East Riding. Interesting they never made mention of his love of Jazz.

[@robicenco1]

His love of jazz should have been mentioned as it was an important part of his life, showed a different side to him than the bleak one this documentary (understandably) focuses on, and inspired at least one of his best poems. But he was depicted listening to jazz several times during it so it wasn't completely ignored.

[@gavinreid8351]

East Riding of Yorkshire.

[@AnthonyMonaghan]

@@gavinreid8351 Indeed.

[@johnshort5003]

It couldn't have been much fun growing up in that family. Good documentary.

[@FOXHOUND4143]

What an amazing documentary!! Thanks to whoever uploaded this. Larkin is my favourite British poet

[@JoachimderZweite]

And so today dropping through the endless KZbin garbage I landed upon this Pearl and learned about this Poet. Beautiful! What else is there to say?

[@cockylora123]

Congratulations on finding Larkin. I hope you are young and enjoy his poetry for the rest of your life.

[@JHarder1000]

Like Geoffrey Hill, A great poet of Stoic reaction. Unlike Hill, he had no God to comfort him.

[@markhooper4532]

Winnie Wallace...Great documentary about fun Philip. Seems he was looking for company and sex. The women in his life wanted love and commitment leading to marriage. He was too immature in his ways and his women were to needy.

[@Snaildriver]

43:50 lmao

[@gjingodjango]

16:40 correction. He said deprivation is to me...

[@MikenasFlohr]

An important correction, well spotted.

[@unstopitable]

Beautiful poems. Tragic life. His "freedom" became his prison.

[@nozecone]

"Larkin blamed these trips on his renowned hatred for anything foreign" (5:45). No - try "Larkin blamed these trips FOR his renowned hatred for anything foreign." No time for proofreading, I suppose.

[@nozecone]

+nozecone Or, "Larkin blamed his renowned hatred for anything foreign on these trips."

[@andrewking1018]

Awesome, extreme pedantry. You've got me so excited

[@guidoahsam8043]

Badacid trip?

[@nozecone]

Yeah, I get you - who cares what words mean, anyway? So what if professional writers don't know any better than to say the opposite of what they mean .....

[@guidoahsam8043]

i like ths Larkin pillip man. He know death. Make me feels good!

[@winifredatwell3982]

Pretty much confirms what is now understood of him. Larkin made misery beautiful. He was a writer of genius and an unlovely person. We should remember the work and tuck the knowledge of the man's character and personality away where they can't hurt his artistic reputation.

[@stellaboulton9531]

How do you really know what he was like at all? '....an unlovely person' ?? You could say 'he seems ...' but it appears to me anyway very arrogant and presumptuous of you to pronounce so decidedly on him.

[@HoneyBee-yi8ks]

stella boulton, they have seen the letters, or at least heard that they were sexist in them. That’s enough to say he was ‘unlovely.’ Plus, he had two girlfriends at the same time, both unknowing of each other. Infidelity is also ‘unlovely’. He also agreed with his father’s political views, who was a nazi sympathiser. That’s ‘unlovely’. Don’t be so self-righteous. They did not assume, they presumed using the facts given to them, which is reasonable.

[@HoneyBee-yi8ks]

stella boulton what makes a person ‘unlovely’ is subjective to opinion, and you cant decide the OP’s opinion. So yes, according to them, Larkin was unlovely using the facts presented.

[@johnholmes912]

he was very funny and great company.

[@philnewton3096]

Distracting bleak minor 3rd inside a perfect 4th ?Who takes it upon themselves to embellish the background.?

[@yacovmitchenko1490]

An unhappy man who succumbed to nihilism, Larkin wrote some memorable verse. His poems about death are not among the deepest I've read, but they remain compelling. I suspect that he feared life, first and foremost, which is probably why he feared death. He observed things from a safe distance, never quite surrendering himself to love, thinking that he was protecting himself, when in fact he wasn't fully alive. His negative, pessimistic views about the world, his metaphysics, stemmed from a kind of egoism. He mocked marriage - and what he said about it I actually agree with, to some extent. But it's a simplistic view: there are successful, rewarding marriages, challenging though they may be. Parents do transmit misery to their children, but they're also capable of love; there are many fruitful family relationships, however imperfect. His personal angst presents a cramped, distorted picture of family life, although it's understandable given his personal history. My suggestion is that his angst, egoism, and fear of life led to a limited - and often glib - type of poetry. His inability, or unwillingness, to participate fully in life, to love, fed his fear of death. His cynicism lacked the subtlety, the brilliance of an Oscar Wilde or Shaw. Had he not been dominated by the 3 aforementioned culprits, his poetry might have been deeper and more expansive. I think Larkin was a very good poet, though not quite a great one. No, he was not among the greatest English language poets of the 20th century - certainly not up there with Yeats, Stevens, or Frost.

[@johnholmes912]

he was not unhappy; he was full of a sarcastic type of joie de vivre

[@yacovmitchenko1490]

@@johnholmes912 I guess that's why he succumbed to alcoholism. If you're compelled to drink heavy liquor (lots of it) even before you've begun your day's work, there's something deeply wrong with you. It's a (poor) substitute for something that's missing in your life - or an escape.

[@jonharrison9222]

He always finished his day’s writing before a glass or two of gin, thank you…

[@medes5597]

Stevens?! Over Larkin?! Christ what drugs are you on

[@existentialangst9400]

This is a terrific documentary - I recorded it onto VHS a long time ago. I have a question, though: Has ANYBODY got the brilliant BBC docu-drama which starred Tara Fitzgerald and Hugh Bonneville - broadcast by the BBC more than a decade ago? I recorded it (again on VHS) at the time but the first 10 minutes or so are missing. Please, if anyone has this gem, post it -I've looked EVERYWHERE but it is not to be found.

[@buckreeder]

I want this too. it was great.

[@buckreeder]

I want this too. it was great.

[@buckreeder]

I want this too. it was great.

[@HaFannyHa]

The drama has at last been uploaded onto KZbin. It's under the title of 'Love, Life and Jazz'

[@frannieo1707]

Yes! It was called 'Love Again', as far as I remember. It was great. Which I could get it on DVD.

[@sjbechet1111]

If you ever feel like you are the only one who understands what he was saying read what Clive James said about his work.

[@jonharrison9222]

Already have.

[@Inflatablegarfield]

Brilliant documentary, thanks for the upload.

[@etontrifle]

too true, They F*** you up... pathetic

[@dovic86]

judging from this documentary, looks like Krapp's Last Tape, Samuel Beckett's play, should have been titled Larkin's Last Tape

[@helenamoniqueclarke8135]

The cup is half empty and the water is evaporating. Glory means little to the dead themselves.

[@JMag1]

How ironic that such a brilliant mind had such a dim view of the world, of life, of his fellow man.

[@brianw.5230]

So did Arthur Schopenhauer, Emil Cioran and Blaise Pascal. (My favorite) 😀

[@Arjmm]

​@@brianw.5230none of them are brilliant minds

[@brianw.5230]

@@Arjmm how so?

[@francisdec1615]

Don't forget King Solomon, Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Leopardi, Zapffe.

[@Choiceof3]

Thanks for uploading this.

[@user-xn2hf9re8r]

thanks for posting - watched this twice in 1 wk as so fascinating

[@terencebarrett2897]

Absolutely brilliant, and picture quality,atmosphere, and how people were" all adds to realness now mmm, just listened to radio 4 ,and the NOW typical English language being spoken, accepted, even taught by our teacher's, fink , axe,sumink ,it was a typical program xxxxx ,,put drugs,needles in to your arm,getting pregnant,jail, "child put in social services hands" I'm sorry but nobody,makes you drink,inject drug,get pregnant etc etc,that's your responsibility, people have died in wars for peace,, what a present,and what a future

[@kevinwhelan9607]

"The Mower"- anyone who isn't familiar with his work should start there. Also: "Poetry of Departures", "The Old Fools", "Whitsun Weddings". Les Murray- a devout Catholic - put his atheism and general negativity down to depression, and indeed wrote his own rejoinder to what might be called his own credo, "Aubade". Of course, given his family, how else was he going to turn out? But whatever about that, read the poems: the importance of love was at the core of much of his best work❤

[@_PoeticJustice_]

Please check out the following video for more content about Philip Larkin: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rZKwgoydbchroq8

[@33Crazydude]

Very interesting documentary indeed

[@trevscribbles]

44:00 ...they really were quite pitiful people.

[@kevinwhelan9607]

It's an odd sort of racist who had a deep love of jazz and the black musicians who wrote and performed it. I wish the program had addressed this striking paradox.

[@ajandthedogs]

Norman, is my grandfather who married Gill hence his book Jill

[@worldwidehandsome3417]

Ooo I’m from Hull heheh

[@Cleisthenes2]

I like to think Philip would have found 12:11 quite amusing

[@BlimaWormtong]

Get aut az earli az jou kan and don/t hav ani kidz jourself

[@debhurd8898]

It's the perfect poem for an antinatalist.💥

[@pauldonald827]

fascinating documentary of one of my favourite poets

[@Calvbread]

'What remains of us is love.' - 10th April 2019

[@jonharrison9222]

You’ve mangled the line and left out the line before.

[@connoroleary591]

The Channel Islands and the Isle of Man are not "dull far-away places". Nor is Hull in the north of Yorkshire, but very much in the south of the county.

[@simonfirth2495]

Nor is Hull in the south of the county but very much surrounded by the East Riding of Yorkshire.

[@Ledprostate]

So this is the man whose poetry I'm reading. Too bad he had such a grim, sorrowful view of life.

[@johnholmes912]

they alwas seem to give that impression; but the Larkin I knew was a witty boozer

[@davidreid8075]

Close to a reality breakthrough but failed at the last few hurdles.

[@janeairvintage7416]

Have still got single glazing and wood chip wallpaper

[@gymnopedija]

I'm afraid that's all I have of Under Milk Wood - I would have posted all in one go if I had it all.

[@SalemHill]

gymnopedija I

[@marclayne9261]

A great documentary.......I just ordered 2 biographies....on Larkin.....

[@SuperBagshot]

channel islands aren't dismal

[@elainewallace-e1o]

Even Larkin looks humourless.

[@julianmeek545]

Good documentary - a bit darker than the Omnibus ones done in 1993. They made one mistake - Larkin died December 2, 1985 and not on November 30 as the narrator says. Maeve Brennan, who is shown in the film, died soon after it was made...

[@0987977]

Simply awful. My once held high esteem of Larkin has plummeted after hearing him (and his lover) singing that song.

[@core-nix1885]

Do you want a star on your knickers?

[@jrpipik]

Yes. Calling him "a man of his times" is ridiculous. This wasn't the 18th century, his life overlapped much of mine and the moral and scientific idiocy of racism was well known to the world, certainly to anyone as studied as Larkin. Any "man of his times" would know better.

[@Arjmm]

By lover you mean Kingsley Amiss?

[@josephjohnston6826]

Hull is in North Yorkshire? East Riding then Humberside then East Yorkshire. The people in this documentary are desperate.

[@markcook8700]

I think I enjoyed his poetry more before I found out how much of a pessimist he was. I wonder how much better his work might have been had he a more transcendent aspect to his personality.

[@brianw.5230]

Does anyone know the song at 26:15? Thanks!!!

[@whosafraidoferiknrding4470]

According to my iPhone, it's "Four Cows" by The Bill Wells Trio

[@BlimaWormtong]

"I/m Down In Dhe Dumps" 6y Bessie Smith

[@brianw.5230]

Anyone have a link? Thanks

[@philnewton3096]

at 22;45 the Eflat minor triad is a sort of repetitive 5 finger exercise, Wht instrument is it? Beingin a minor key ok but the repitition could have bored PL?

[@Johnconno]

'When I feel awfully trapped a weekend in Birkenhead usually cheers me up.'

[@philnewton3096]

26;36/40/10 Is that a harmonica with an electric keyboard-A kind of blues?

[@Unfunny_Username_389]

Great - thanks!!!

[@SirPeter6464]

Great stuff.

[@ОлегОленев-я3о]

Sounds like a fun guy :^ )

[@OrthodoxChristian809]

Thank you for uploading :-)