Draw Breath

At the risk of simply turning into an aggregator for Crooked Timber, Kieran Healy has done us all the important service of producing a catalogue of Irish public service ads. I certainly remember the Green Cross Code starring Judge from Wanderly Wagon and reading this mention of him has sent me into a bout of WW nostalgia.

None of the ads Kieran mentions are around for us to look at, but here's a clip from Wanderly Wagon, Judge's star-vehicle:

You know, in case you're wondering why the Irish are disturbed fantasists.

On the subject of which (and by way of tenuous thematic meanderings), be thankful you didn't have a Swedish childhood.

Unless, of course, you did.

In which case you'll remember the collective psychosis that was produced by Vilse I Pannkakan. If you aren't from the country that brought us Strindberg then Vilse I Pannkakan involved a David Icke impersonator in conversation with a group of more or less sinister characters who lived underneath a giant pancake. As the series went on the pancake went increasingly rotten and I'm reliably told that the finale involved the characters waving goodbye as the pancake was flushed down the toilet. Think Bosco (Judge's nemisis apparently) in a mashup with Lost, Waiting for Godot and the Shining. Here's the deceptively gentle intro: