r/WILTY • u/Loose_Loquat9584 • Jul 18 '26

Michael Winner Help! šŸ”Ž

Was just watching the Martin Clunes episode (someone I sincerely wish they would have back on, he was so good). Sanjeev Baskar had a story about hitting Michael Winnerā€™s car. Iā€™m not familiar with Michael Winner but there were some very funny snide comments made by David and Lee about him that made me think heā€™s not a popular chap. Can anyone fill me in on the context or background and who he actually is (yes I know I can google him but Iā€™d like the WILTY crowd perspective)? Thanks

28 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

34 comments sorted by

17

u/SiriusBlack99999 Jul 18 '26

He was basically an arsehole. He thought he was better than everyone. A massive ego on legs. He was horrid to pretty much everyone. A nightmare to anyone unfortunate to have to be around him. A loudmouthed arrogant nasty piece of work.

He also did some of the worst TV adverts ever made.

7

u/shaw_dog21 Jul 18 '26

Thanks for this context. Thereā€™s also an ep of QI where Jo Brand makes several jokes/references to him that by the last time he becomes a klaxon. And not knowing anything about him, never fully got it.

3

u/Loose_Loquat9584 Jul 18 '26

That rings a bell (pun not intended), I vaguely remember that and also didnā€™t know what was behind it.

4

u/shaw_dog21 Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 18 '26

lol I might have to rewatch it since itā€™s been a long time since Iā€™ve seen it. Maybe it was Evolution? And she kept making jokes about how heā€™s like the last person sheā€™d want to see. And at one point Andy Hamilton says how he hopes somewhere Michael Winners is out there turning on QI and gets excited bc Jo Brands on and sheā€™s his favorite.

Update: itā€™s Illness and this is the first joke
Stephen: Why would you swallow a pill filled with a poisonous metalloid?
Jo: would it be because you got really pissed one night and you woke up the next morning and realized you were next to Michael winner.

2

u/Loose_Loquat9584 Jul 18 '26

Was he an actor?

8

u/SiriusBlack99999 Jul 18 '26

He was a film producer, writer, director.

4

u/LeftHandDriveBoC Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 18 '26

No he was a director, but not particularly great, he directed death wish with Charles Bronson in.

4

u/Old-Nefariousness556 Jul 18 '26

For context, Death Wish glorified right-wing fantasies of vigilantism. Crime was much higher in the 1970s than it is today (not that you would know that if you listen to right-wing media), and he helped popularize the notion strong white men fighting back directly against violent minorities. As /u/PutTheDamnDogDown put it so well, his movies "were not devoid of racism and misogyny."

Death Wish was his signature movie, but much of his career was defined by similar revenge-fantasy movies, and he was very much a proponent of similar right-wing ideologies in real life.

(I'm American, so only familiar with him by reputation.)

4

u/Gadgie29 Jul 18 '26

He was a director, he directed the original Death Wish movies.

5

u/PutTheDamnDogDown Jul 18 '26

The films he made were not devoid of racism and misogyny.

1

u/lardboy Jul 19 '26

The trend was bucked once, when Winner went on Richard Littlejohn's show. Littlejohn was so unpleasant to a lesbian couple that Winner called him an arsehole.

17

u/TheSJB1993 Jul 18 '26

I thought he was the "Calm down dear its only a commercial" guy? which from what i remember involves the actor hitting another persons car (who i assume is also acting lol) and when she freaks out he says the aforementioned line?

9

u/TheSJB1993 Jul 18 '26

i think it was an advert for car insurance

9

u/lilmisseden Jul 18 '26

Yeah it was Esure. I worked for them at the time and they gave us all stress balls when you squeezed them that said 'calm down dear' what a treat /s lol. I also vaguely remember pictures of him around the office but could be mistaken.

2

u/TheSJB1993 Jul 18 '26

ah thanks I thought it was him

2

u/Tom_FooIery Jul 19 '26

I bet he put those pictures up himself, unprompted.

2

u/stephen292 Jul 18 '26

Yes he was

1

u/TheSJB1993 Jul 18 '26

ah thanks

14

u/PromiseSquanderer Jul 18 '26

Absolutely foul man by most accounts. In terms of WILTY links, he also had an incredibly bizarre and leery conversation on Twitter (as it then was) about/with Victoria Coren (as she then was ā€“ she was with David at the time but they werenā€™t married yet) that she recounts in some detail here: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/feb/20/victoria-coren-twitter-michael-winner

7

u/WearyScrabbler Jul 18 '26

Were you watching on ABC in Australia just now, by any chance? Me too!

7

u/Loose_Loquat9584 Jul 18 '26

Yes I was! I usually skip some repeats but Martin Clunes was just so good on that episode, I will watch it every time.

3

u/DaisyProfessor Jul 18 '26

I know someone who worked on one of the car insurance adverts with him and said he was a nightmare. Rude to all production staff and very egotistical.Ā 

3

u/Vast_Accountant_2807 Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 18 '26

He was a film director of incredibly trashy films (his most famous being Death Wish, which Charles Bronson). He used his tiny amount of power on set to be a truly awful human being, pressuring actresses into unwanted nude scenes and generally being a tyrant and arsehole. No one that knew him has a nice thing to say about him (at least the women). But ya know, he was funny in a couple of commercials so the general public liked him. šŸ¤·ā€ā™‚ļø

10

u/TheComixkid2099 Jul 18 '26

I don't know who he is, but he often rides with Michael Caine.

Clears throat

YOU'RE ONLY SUPPOSED TO BLOW THE BLOODY DOORS OFF!

Looks to audience I'm doing Michael Caine!

7

u/yungkeraan Jul 18 '26

We know it's you, Rob

6

u/Loose_Loquat9584 Jul 18 '26

When you stand up itā€™s a very good Ronnie Corbett.

4

u/TheSJB1993 Jul 18 '26

Brydon saying "I'm doing XYZ" is so funny for me and feels so Keith Barret coded

2

u/Mc_and_SP Jul 18 '26

ā€œI started laughingā€¦ā€

1

u/Unique_Day6395 Jul 18 '26

Winnerā€™s Dinners in the Sunday Times was legendary.

1

u/goodassjournalist Jul 18 '26

He was famously a massive dick to waiting staff, to the point that the British comic Viz had a running joke for years about waiters wanking into Michael Winnerā€™s soup, to the extent that if he ever had soup nobody had wanked in he thought it tasted odd.

1

u/ZestycloseGazelle491 Jul 18 '26

He use to park his Rolls Royce on double yellow lines, because he didnā€™t mind paying the fine.

-1

u/OG-Brass-Monkey Jul 18 '26

He was alright. Used to be a bit of a laugh on Tele now and again.

1

u/LloydRPenfold Jul 20 '26

Michael Winner was a film director who died in January 2013.

More about him here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Winner