MovieChat Forums > Goodnight Sweetheart (1993) Discussion > The question is not how Gary knew the Ad...

The question is not how Gary knew the Adele song Hello"...

posted 8 years ago by baz-almighty
6 replies | jump to latest

Firstly unless anyone wasn't paying their full attention, he knew it because he first heard it in the taxi when his daughter offered him a lift. He asked the cab driver to turn the song up on the radio. I'm no Adele fan myself, but obviously he had never heard of her. She released her first album in 2008. This song was released in 2015. Gary was missing between 1999 and 2016.

As we already know he first heard it in the taxi, the real question is how did he learn it so quickly?

I guess the BBC couldn't fit in all the answers in a 30 minute episode not knowing whether it would be popular enough for recommissioning it, so it was left to our imaginations.

It could be that he just has a photographic memory for lyrics and a fantastic musical ear. But I am geek enough to want more sense from such a great show instead of suspending belief, and that photographic memory theory just doesn't work for me.

Well first of, Gary told Yvonne and Ron that he couldn't get a bus back as he only had old money. So on that notion, he had no modern currency to buy the song manuscript from a music store.

But then Gary is very shrewd. After all, he used to have an antique shop back in the 1990's and so knows a thing or two about collectables, even three now. So it makes sense that he would resort to selling anything he brought with him from 1962, as after all this was a continuing theme in the original series.

But what could he sell? He was still wearing the same clothes when he travelled back to 1962 (who'd want his silly hat anyway?). I didn't see anything else on him which he could sell.

My theory: He sold some of his old money to collectors.

OK, old coins pre-1947 are worth a little more because they have real silver in them, but it's highly doubtful that he would still have any on him in 1962. Unfortunately coins post-1947 are only worth their face value, so unless he had a complete set of coins from a particular year (which is pretty doubtful) then he isn't really going to get much at all for them, and would likely take a lot longer to sell anyway, unless he had very large pockets.

This leave banknotes. Fortunately this is where I think we can stop suspending belief, as old British banknotes are worth a lot more to collectors. Just check eBay.

Also it is plausible that Gary may still have coin/banknote collecting contacts in 2016 who used to visit his store up until 1999 (assuming that he naturally had some). He'd only need to sell maybe a couple of old 1960's banknotes or maybe even just one to afford the song manuscript.

But even if this is the most sensible explanation. It still leaves me with another question which I'm unable to fully answer.

What was so sensible of Gary putting such trivialities like learning this song first, above finding out if he can even return back to 1962?

For all he knew the time portal may close at anytime again. But this is Gary Sparrow, I guess he never really did fully understand the word "priorities", doh.

[–] eyeandeye-1 8 years ago

the real question is how did he learn it so quickly?

I commend your attention to detail but I think you’re overthinking this tbh
But as a fellow stickler for detail I will add these points.

1) As I’m sure you know and inferred with your theories, time is compressed in a screenplay/this sitcom- so we don’t know how many times he heard it outside of what we were shown.

2) Even discounting the previous point Gary never heard it for the first time in the taxi; it was playing from the moment he arrived in 2016 and when he went back to the Hoof & Claw to leave. Just as anything that is done repetitiously it enters your subconscious. There are many songs I do not like or even remember consciously listening to (as in paying attention to the lyrics) that I know simply because they have been played ad nauseam on the radio throughout the day. To add, Hello isn’t a complex song.

3) Technically, we don’t know if he knows the entire song, because he only sings the chorus!

I know a few professional singers and can testify that just as dancers can rapidly memorise choreography and actors their lines, learning a song in a few hours is child’s play and a chorus would be minutes work!

For all he knew the time portal may close at anytime again

I'd say that it's inferred that he's aware of this possibility simply by his relief when he returns at the end of the episode, mixed with the knowledge that the portal is probably 'open for business as usual' from here on.

[–] paulbeardsley 8 years ago

I know a few professional singers and can testify that just as dancers can rapidly memorise choreography and actors their lines, learning a song in a few hours is child’s play and a chorus would be minutes work!

This. It's strongly hinted that Gary has this skill - and as my wife pointed out, "It's a nice touch that Michael has inherited Gary's ability to learn a song so quickly."

So this is permanence, love's shattered pride.
What once was innocence, turned on its side.

[–] lilactime2014 8 years ago

Music to me is a foreign language. I always think of Musicians as being like like the character Neo in "The Matrix". A "musician" can see just see/ hear the notes as something they understand just like Neo sees the numbers.

Some, like Kate Bush, could never read music and I think it was Irving Berlin in Goodnight Sweetheart when Gary was being interrogated who could not read music either. Gary *cannot* read music. He hears it and can repeat it. I reckon two or three listens and he would have it.

'tler

[–] NotAmyMerrick 8 years ago

Yes you are right, it's when he goes into the bank and finds Mainwaring, Wilson and Pike from Dads Army.

[–] lilactime2014 8 years ago

And that brings up another area where the new series could gain traction, interacting with the first of the new wave of sit-com and carry on stars like Sid James, Tony Hancock, they did the main wartime ones. They have George Formby / Dad's Army in the original series, but as we move into the more "modern" era it opens things up, meeting the Beatles for example. What with Gary having nicked half their songs already....

Having said that the new series would need more than gimmicks, the war gave a 6 year narrative to the original series. Marks and Gran need to pin the series to something - The Cold War seems most likely...I am slightly too young to remember the early 1960s so they need something memorable like a war.....

'tler

[–] Old_Notty 7 years ago

Just on the issue of having pre-1947 coins on him, this would have been highly possible; coins stayed in circulation for a long time (I remember having Victorian pennies in change when growing up in the 60's), and florins (2s/ 10p) and shillings/5p were in circulation after decimalisation in 1971.In around 1972 there was a spate of hunting for pre-1947 coins when it was realised that the value of the silver in them exceeded the coin's face value, so they would certainly have been snapped up if he had had any to sell in 2016. Any other pre-decimalisation coins would also have been of interest to collectors - in a market yesterday I saw a basket of old 1d coins for sale at 50 p each.