Current mood: THE FAMILY SHED...
Category: THE FAMILY SHED... Art and Photography
I don't like TV much and on the many occasions I've not had one, I've never missed it...
This so, very occasionally, I get surprisd by the box, and this has happenned 3 times in the last week..
On each occason the surprise has been in the form of documentary..
Here we go with the first...
The family Greenhalgh are from Bolton
About 8 of them live in a terraced house, and led by Mr Greenhalgh Snr's wild fantasisms, they've made themselves a career out of faking high quality ancient art works for no apparent reason..
Their son Shaun, is the craftsman...
It's the same old story of individual genius fights over institutional idiocy:
Rejected by art schools, Shaun has no friends and no love for humankind, so he retires to the family garden shed, and sets about faking a whole and completely diverse bunch of artworks that go on to fool 'experts' by the tonne..
He does Gauguin Statues, Assyrian Reliefs, L S Lowry paintings, Roman Silver Plates, the list goes on...
The peak of the Greenhalgh families creations is the Amarna Princess..
Created in the shed by Shaun, The Princess is sold to Bolton museum for £440,000. Reputed to be an Egyptian Relic, it's passed as real and bought after a host of inspections, including one by know nothing Queen..
Well, as you'll have no doubt worked out, the gravy boat ends, and all the police can do is make some shitty video of the inside of the Greenhalgh's house and bring some convictions...
Yes boss, upon breaking in, the rozzers find the place to be an Alladins cave of self taught artistic skill.
Shaun is found to be sharing a bedroom with 2 elderly relatives and so he produces incredible copies...
And what do the authorities do???
BANG UP THE GENIUS FOR 4 FUCKING YEARS!!!!
But it's not all bad
Mr Greenhalgh Snr gets away with it.
He's well into his eighties and as the court case approaches he finds the need for a wheelchair. His neighbour recalls having never seen Mr G in a wheelchair before the court case - 'it was a sudden decline'....
The judge recommends a custodial sentence, but can't give it because Mr G senior is too 'ill'...
(father and son)
And that's about it, except programs that highlight a criminal operation, often end with the inevitable 'DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME KIDS!!!!' moral warning...
But not this time.
The doc ends with the friends and neighbours of the Greenhalghs in the local boozer toasting the families success!!!!
PURE TV GOLD!!!!
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