In the 1980s New York was regarded as a crime infested cesspit. Movies of the era reflect the decay even in Times Square. Ms 45 and The Warriors are just two examples.
Clive James carries on with the conceit that he is unsafe in New York even though this program was broadcast in 1994, way past the 70s and 80s, the decades of decay.
This is a New York where a mugger carrying a handgun is just around the corner. Clives visits personal bodyguard and even visits a security store. It sells items such as a bulletproof vest and a chemically enhanced green shaving foam.
Nowadays New York has cleaned its act up where you can safely wander about almost all hours of the day. Even places like Harlem is going through gentrification. Although the last time I visited New York, I went past a major landmark building and a few hours later a shooting incident had taken place there by a disgruntled employee.
Shown in 1994, this was a New York with the Twin Towers, it had been rattled by a terrorist incident. They would not survive the next one.
As with these kind of shows, Clive visits some must see places and must visit personalities. He goes to a club where they express themselves with modern poetry. Clive himself a man known for his prose is unimpressed.
Clive also meets Ivanka Trump. Then an ex wife of property tycoon Donald Trump. Now a former wife of the president of the United States. Clive meets her at the glitzy Trump Tower. I like to say I have stayed there but it is out of my price range, I did once visit it to use its bathroom.
It finally ends with Clive dressed up as a leather clad gay biker going to an avantgarde nightclub. At least in those days when Clive was on a lucrative exclusive contract with a television station. He could afford to look silly, he was laughing all the way to the bank.
I was less impressed watching this the second time, years after its original broadcast. Since then I have been to New York several times myself. It had lost its mystique and fear. It was not as threatening, weird or alien as Clive made out to be.
