References in Popular Culture
It is mentioned in the 1970s television programme Are You Being Served? by the character Mrs Slocombe: "I haven't forgotten being flung flat on me back on Clapham Common by a land mine—and the German Air Force was responsible." to which Mr Lucas ripostes: "All the other times she was flat on her back the American Air Force was responsible."
It is cited in Morrissey's song "Mute Witness":
- And her silent words
- Describing the sight of last night
- 4 A.M. Northside, Clapham Common
- Oh, god, what was she doing there ?
It is also referred to in Squeeze’s 1979 single “Up the Junction,” which opens:
- I never thought it would happen,
- With me and the girl from Clapham,
- Out on the windy common,
- That night I ain’t forgotten.
On the second season of the television comedy Peep Show, the character of Mark Corrigan makes a reference to Ron Davies, stating "This is my moment of madness, my Clapham Common."
It also features in Agatha Christie's story The Adventure of the Clapham Cook.
It is also mentioned in Alan Ayckbourn's play Season's Greetings. In Act I, Scene 1 the character Harvey is a watching a fictional action movie on television and refers to the movie's protagonist when saying, "We could do with this chap round Clapham Common. He'd sort the little bastards out."
Read more about this topic: Clapham Common
Famous quotes containing the words popular culture, popular and/or culture:
“The lowest form of popular culture—lack of information, misinformation, disinformation, and a contempt for the truth or the reality of most people’s lives—has overrun real journalism. Today, ordinary Americans are being stuffed with garbage.”
—Carl Bernstein (b. 1944)
“Fifty million Frenchmen can’t be wrong.”
—Anonymous. Popular saying.
Dating from World War I—when it was used by U.S. soldiers—or before, the saying was associated with nightclub hostess Texas Quinan in the 1920s. It was the title of a song recorded by Sophie Tucker in 1927, and of a Cole Porter musical in 1929.
“The best hopes of any community rest upon that class of its gifted young men who are not encumbered with large possessions.... I now speak of extensive scholarship and ripe culture in science and art.... It is not large possessions, it is large expectations, or rather large hopes, that stimulate the ambition of the young.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)