Wednesday 20 August 2008

The Siadwell Principle


The title of this post does admittedly sound a bit like one of those brick-like books by Robert Ludlum, or someone, that you see all manner of sad bastards clasping under their arms at airports.

Anyway - it isn’t.

The Siadwell Principle is something altogether more profound.

It is an age-old concept, but one most recently demonstrated by Siadwell, a gormless Welsh geek created by John Sparkes, in an eighties comedy series I only dimly remember.
The sketch in question opened with Siadwell admiring his “Collection” - which was two pens and a comb. The joke was that he had just three things, only two of which were the same, but laugh not - this is a Damascene moment.
It not only establishes the principle that you need only three things to have a collection [two is merely a pair], but also if you have only two things that are the same, you can still create a collection if you can find something made of the same material and approximately the same length.
This is a vital dictum to the budding collector.

Imagine my joy when I bought this ready made collection yesterday. Not only that, the second-hand bookshop had a half price sale on and they cost me just £4.50 for the lot.

I will of course post about these books in due course, but right now I need a lie down - I am as excited as a paparazzo who has just photographed Amy Winehouse, using a pooter to blow Class A drugs up her mimsy.

4 comments:

VP said...

I'm obviously hanging around the wrong bookshops :(

emmat said...

I remember Siadwell! For ages I thought he was Jeremy Hardy! Oh, those were the days...

VP said...

I thought he was Shadwell - as in the tube station. I always used to say 'Shadwell here' to myself when ponedring the Underground map on my visits to London.

Unknown said...

There are some priceless clips of Siadwell on Youtube, though I can't find 'the collection'.