Radio West Pier reviews

CATHOLIC HERALD 28/01/08

Fishy Or What

By Cristina Odone

Radio West Pier is an interesting phenomenon, one that appears in cyberspace, but one that has a hidden religious message, whether its protagonists, Jah Scooterman and his sidekick, Rico Mortis, know it or not. The show is ostensibly broadcast from an underwater radio shack underneath the derelict West Pier in Brighton. It is a mixture of surreal comedy, dialogue, sketches, spoof interviews, music and mystifying visuals. Now, you are probably wondering why, out of all the digital ephemera out there, I have picked this show out as something of interest to a Catholic readership.

Let me start with the two main characters, Jah Scooterman and Rico Mortis. The latter is a dogsbody, a seemingly clueless media runner bullied and exploited by the wily Scooterman. His earthly suffering is all too apparent; you only have to listen to him having his nostril hair pulled out for Scooterman's amusement. He is made a scapegoat for the destruction of the West Pier in Episode Three in a fiery apocalypse but gains redemption by coming up with ideas to save the show, only to have Scooterman, like Judas, betray him at the end by stealing the copyright. A Christ-like figure, persecuted and betrayed, whose surname, Mortis, is reminiscent of an embalmed grace, in extremis.

Rico Mortis is paid in mackerel, a currency in fish, itself the symbol of St John, the fisher of men. Referring back to names, Jah Scooterman puts one in mind of a religion owing more to ganja than to God. However, even Rastafarians would be uneasy with the opening Scene in Episode Three when Scooterman is upside down naked, his loins covered with a starfish; a suggested image of an inverted crucifix. Furthermore, his guile comes to the fore when he corners an unwary traffic warden in Episode Two to ask how long he could park his bowling ball.

Should we read too much into this show? The fact that Rico Mortis is the shack's de facto carpenter, the trade of Christ himself? The send-up of Mystic Reg, the spiritual "guru" of DIY enthusiasts,in Episode One, seems to strike a blow for rational faith opposed to astrology. And we are invited to laugh at the twisted "artist" Jan Van Frotterspleen, who uses live insects to make murals. I leave it up to the readers to decide whether they're watching an online missal, perhaps a Eucharist of thoughts of faith already planted in alternate seedbeds of the soul's intellect.

Review of Radio West Pier by The Angling Times 1/10/07

" Radio West Pier has nothing of any conceivable value to offer anglers."