Meet Justin Time: The Homemade Talk Show Host Who Pulls No Punches

I had an email from one of my former students, Will Ross, the other day.  It was short and sweet (which was surprising considering the reams he used to write for classwork just, I suspect, to extend my marking misery). Regardless, he moved on to pastures (and professorial victims) new and I thought I’d seen the back of him. But oh no – he just had to share his latest video with me because “I remembered that Welsh people have a sense of humour too”.  I should refer him to something widely but incorrectly attributed to Dylan Thomas: “The Welsh pray on their knees on Sunday, but prey on their neighbours for the rest of the week”.  It’s a bad play on words, but if you enjoy that kind of thing, then watch Will’s video; it’s full of them…

We have former roving but sadly disgraced (don’t ask) reporter Justin Time - who occasionally changes his name – reduced to producing his own TV Chat Show at home.  Never mind, he has the coup of the century – any century - an interview with Adolf Hitler (who just happened to be in the area promoting his new vegetarian cookbook and believes that Justin still works for the BBC).  Justin doesn’t spare the sometime dictator – he goes straight in for the kill with a series of questions that are a combination of probing, persistent and provocative. No, sorry. They’re puerile, preposterous and piss-taking – which is what makes them funny. I must admit I missed a few of the punchlines the first watch, but Mr Time quickly beats the boy from Branau into a corner where there is just one (not even a last) resort…

I think if Terry Jones had had access to video technology, then this is exactly the kind of thing he would have been making in his Colwyn Bay living room.  It’s rough around the edges, for sure, but it did what it set out to do – provoked laughter.  Have a watch – and yes, of course I am featuring this just in case Will is hailed as a comic genius in ten years.  I will also be available for interview (for a small fee) where I can expound on Will’s classroom antics, but could I have Louis Theroux rather than Justin Time, please?  He might let me off more lightly.

The Watch - A Short Film by Will Ross

The Watch is a short film made by one of my young students, Will Ross.  I should hasten to add that I don’t teach film studies, film-making or – honestly – anything to do with the silver screen.  However, I do teach English when people listen and part of that is the structure of something short, sweet but very creative. I wanted to share this short as I think it shows great promise both in terms of the way it is structured and put together in general, given that I suspect it was made on a budget of approximately… let’s see… zero pounds.

Created under the Willitham Films™ global trademark(!), this comedy short tells the story of a young chap (a kind of everyman for psychopaths) who has lost his precious watch, and the extremes to which he will go to have it back in his possession.  You do need to watch it to the end to really appreciate its structure, but it has a running time that even a gnat wouldn’t find too challenging.  So, please watch it!

Hats off to Will here.  It’s an entertaining and engaging short, well-paced and with a number of familiar tropes from film history thrown in.  Will is clearly highly visually literate, with a voice perfectly suited for the expressive, wordless performances of the silent film era.  Sorry, I meant face (one colleague who watched this said he was reminiscent of Harold Lloyd). Joking aside, this is the kind of film that only someone who loves film would make.

I am now looking forward to the day that Will is able to extract huge amounts of license fee payers’ money from the BBC (possibly by force) and wreak his own kind of comedy-havoc on to the world in general but on a budget.  I am fairly certain that this will come to pass.