Why is the captain in The High Life (BBC, 1995) named Hilary Duff?

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The series is 60% terrible and unfunny, 8% guilty-funny, 2% actually-funny, and 30% I CAN'T BELIEVE THE CAPTAIN'S NAME IS HILARY DUFF. In the UK. In 1995. Please discuss.

― nabiscothingy, Wednesday, 11 February 2004 20:02 (twenty-two years ago)

I just don't know what to think.

― nabiscothingy, Wednesday, 11 February 2004 20:05 (twenty-two years ago)

funny name.

― RJG (RJG), Wednesday, 11 February 2004 20:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Maybe the people who programmed the Hilary Duff-bot watched and enjoyed The High Life and used the name for their robotic creation.

― El Diablo Robotico (Nicole), Wednesday, 11 February 2004 20:07 (twenty-two years ago)

....

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 11 February 2004 20:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Nabisco - I'm guessing the email address I have for you at your old workplace doesn't work any more. Could you send me the new one? (Hello!)

― Anna (Anna), Wednesday, 11 February 2004 20:24 (twenty-two years ago)

Maybe the people who programmed the Hilary Duff-bot watched and enjoyed The High Life and used the name for their robotic creation.

_Small Wonder II: Through the Portal of Time_

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 11 February 2004 20:31 (twenty-two years ago)

Small Wonder II: The Long Hard Road Out of Hell

― El Diablo Robotico (Nicole), Wednesday, 11 February 2004 20:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Eesh, you win.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 11 February 2004 21:01 (twenty-two years ago)

It's a very Scottish name. This was the latest 'Scottish' comedy on the beeb at that time. That's it.

― pete s, Wednesday, 11 February 2004 21:05 (twenty-two years ago)

I hearted "the High Life" at the time. It was the campest funny show on the BBC by a mile then and now.

― darren (darren), Wednesday, 11 February 2004 21:37 (twenty-two years ago)

http://kiswebdesigns.com/rosamundepilcher/nan2.jpg

On your left, Patrick Ryecart, aka Hillary Duff.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Thursday, 12 February 2004 03:00 (twenty-two years ago)

The programme is good.

Don't knock it.

― the beebfox, Thursday, 12 February 2004 13:15 (twenty-two years ago)

no it wasn't.

― jed_ (jed), Thursday, 12 February 2004 13:52 (twenty-two years ago)

Ohhhhh yes it was (me and Lixi watched it LAST NIGHT on DVD actually and larffed like dranes)

― Sarah (starry), Thursday, 12 February 2004 14:55 (twenty-two years ago)

The megalomaniac biscuit overlord hostage episode = k-classic.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Thursday, 12 February 2004 15:01 (twenty-two years ago)

Why is a nymphomaniac in Woody Allen's Husbands & Wives called Harriet Harman?

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 12 February 2004 15:05 (twenty-two years ago)

If you watch enough of if you'll find yourself going "DAMN DAMN DAMN" complete with hand gestures completely unaware of you actions. (Yes I was playing Pang whilst watching it, again).

― Sarah (starry), Thursday, 12 February 2004 15:08 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't understand. who/what is hilary duff?

― dog latin (dog latin), Thursday, 12 February 2004 15:59 (twenty-two years ago)

two years pass...

this is the only hilary thread on ile:(

― charltonlido (gareth), Thursday, 23 March 2006 01:42 (twenty years ago)

And it's the wrong one at that. OR IS IT?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 23 March 2006 01:47 (twenty years ago)

Late-breaking news: a little while after posting this thread, I totally came around to this show. The title sequence alone has turned into one of my favorite funnies of ... a long time. Also I learned to play the theme tune on guitar, and then forgot it again. Good times.

― nabiscothingy, Thursday, 23 March 2006 03:13 (twenty years ago)

Is this that show with Alan Cummings as a fantastically camp air steward?

― Trayce (trayce), Thursday, 23 March 2006 03:22 (twenty years ago)

Yes

― Ed (dali), Thursday, 23 March 2006 06:25 (twenty years ago)

Why is the goth friend in Mean Girls named Janis Ian?

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 23 March 2006 06:27 (twenty years ago)

Because of the part of Janis Ian's "At Seventeen" -- after all the stuff about rich-relationed hometown beauty queens and people with "ravaged faces / lacking in the social graves" -- that goes like this: "Remember whose who win the game / lose the love they sought to gain!"

― nabiscothingy, Thursday, 23 March 2006 08:20 (twenty years ago)

Pardon me, GRACES. There are a bunch of other Janis Ian references in there, too -- it's really clever!

― nabiscothingy, Thursday, 23 March 2006 08:21 (twenty years ago)

why are you, or have you ever, been watching the high life nabisco??!!?!?

it had terrible music, i remember that

― ambrose (ambrose), Thursday, 23 March 2006 10:53 (twenty years ago)

I have the theme music stuck in my head now.

We're living the high life!
We're living it well!
We're living the high life!
Where everything's SWELLLL!

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Thursday, 23 March 2006 10:59 (twenty years ago)

why are you, or have you ever, been watching the high life nabisco??!!?!?

indeed!

― Real Goths Don't Wear Black (Enrique), Thursday, 23 March 2006 11:01 (twenty years ago)

"Why is the captain in The High Life (BBC, 1995) named Hilary Duff?"

This is the easiest question of all time to answer if you are a former groupie of Victor and Barry.

Firstly, Duff is a) Scottish slang for something of low quality; b) vaguely rude as in "up the duff" meaning pregnant, c) a not uncommon Scottish name.

Secondly, Hilary was the name of Alan Cumming's wife at the time.

― everything, Thursday, 23 March 2006 20:11 (twenty years ago)

Actually I think they were divorced by 1995. Sorry.

― everything, Thursday, 23 March 2006 20:17 (twenty years ago)

There were bootlegs available for rental at my local video store! (I can't explain it either, but don't tell the BBC.) It looked funny, so I rented it.

One of many gorgeous things about the opening sequence = the Busby Berkeley-style air-freshener arc-spray. Also the giddy way they mime all of the words. Also the little guitar ornament after the first "we're living the high life." Also everything else.

I liked the one with the Air Scotia Christmas Rave.

― nabisco (nabisco), Thursday, 23 March 2006 20:28 (twenty years ago)

If you don't consider The High Life to be totally pants, I can recommend Alan Cumming and Forbes Masson's two albums "Are We Too Loud?" and "Hear Victor and Barry and Faint". You can probably still get them at Lismor Recordings if they still exist (cassette only of course).

― everything, Thursday, 23 March 2006 20:34 (twenty years ago)

I should watch this for the first time.

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Thursday, 30 March 2006 09:12 (nineteen years ago)

haven't seen this since it was on but think we bought it on DVD for our american flatmate's birthday, a few years ago

remember the scots movie star in one episode called "guy wersh" which is a funnier name than "hillary duff", except for there being a hilary duff

― RJG (RJG), Thursday, 30 March 2006 09:24 (nineteen years ago)

This is one of Mrs. Trifle's favourite sit-coms, but then she would watch Alan Cummings asleep if she could (but I don't let her).

― Ned T.RIfle II (Ned T.Rifle II), Thursday, 30 March 2006 09:37 (nineteen years ago)

returning to the proper hilary duff - gareth do you have any hilarity albums i could burn off you? i love her but i don't know whether to get her greatest hits cd (which doesn't have 'the math', my favourite hilarity song, on it) or the album with 'the math', and i can't afford both.

― The Lex (The Lex), Thursday, 30 March 2006 09:37 (nineteen years ago)

Alan Cumming was married?

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy (Kerr), Thursday, 30 March 2006 09:55 (nineteen years ago)

I haven't seen the program since it was on but I did like it at the time. Would like to see it again.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy (Kerr), Thursday, 30 March 2006 09:55 (nineteen years ago)

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