The Gambler , Jonathan Rendall

GIOBOY, I was late to the repeats of this 3 parter both last Saturday and the Saturday before on More4, so also looked for the catch up and if it was on YouTube.

It seems as though it's unavailable for some reason - as seen in this article which I found:

http://www.sabotagetimes.com/people/the-brutal-truths-and-wild-lies-of-jonathan-rendall/

"Published in 2000, it was swiftly followed by a 3-part Channel 4 TV series called ‘The Gambler’, that is still unavailable on-or-off-line."

The third part is being repeated on More4 this coming Saturday night at 12:30am (Sunday morning really)

Was that the programme where ch4 gave someone £20/50k to gamble with?
I seem to remember the bloke going straight to a phonebox to place a £50 yankee, cant remember much more about it, but i wouldnt mind seeing it again.

3rd and final part of 'The Gambler' on More4 at 00:15 in 8 minutes time.

Remember; you can't catch up with this anywhere, it's not available. Think they've only shown it again because Rendall died earlier this year.

It's on now.

let's hope some kind soul puts it on a torrent  - fingers crossed

How did he die, TT? He seems terribly young to have died but it would appear that he lived life pretty hard.

Probably died of embarrassment at some of the ridiculous bets he was having.

pixie 12:17 How did he die

- When Jonny was found dead at his home in St Georges Street, Ipswich, on 23 January, police estimate he had been there alone "for a number of days". Mutual friends say it was longer than a week, others reckon perhaps two.

Piecing together the endgame of his turbulent life has proved as difficult as the man himself could often be. The moment and cause of his death remain uncertain, although the coroner's verdict was one of natural causes, and to those familiar with his lifestyle, that amounted to a result.

Beaten to the quote by Make My Hay!
I'd just been looking up the Guardian piece which I read last week about him, as above.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2013/feb/09/jonathan-rendall

He was obviously very highly regarded for his literacy skills by his fellow peers (there are tributes to him on The Observer and Independent sites also) but it seems like he was always a loose cannon.

It's sad that he died alone and wasn't found for a number of days.

I knew someone who knew him very well as they were both Sports Journalists at the time and good friends. He said that Johnny was as wild as feck, which was quite something because my mate lived very much on the edge too, so I'm glad it wasn't suicide.

Sorry, I should add, thanks to MMY and TT for their replies.

You're welcome, pixie.
The articles point to his heavy drinking in later years being a possible contributory factor to his death.

It seems he had a particular talent for writing about boxing in particular:
 
"He went on to write about that only bout in This Bloody Mary Is The Last Thing I Own (1997), his memoir of a decade devoted to the sweet science, as he liked to call it, the sibilants hissing on his tongue. Where he couldn't land fluent blows in the ring, he had no such difficulty in print. The entire book – Jonathan Rendall at his brilliant best – is a bravura performance lacing screwball comedy with a romantic celebration of failure."

http://tinyurl.com/c8kx9h5

Thanks. It would appear he burnt himself out in the end. Shame because he was a great talent and quite a character by all accounts.

Aye, pixie.

Up, for Moonaxed

Thanks to Moonaxed mentioning he'd seen it on Virgin, I've just checked to see if the Channel4 site has it now - and it does.

The Gambler:

Episode 1:    http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-gambler/episode-guide/series-1/episode-1

Episode 2:    http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-gambler/episode-guide/series-1/episode-2

Episode 3:    http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-gambler/episode-guide/series-1/episode-3

I must admit I didn't enjoy these programmes one bit. Without wishing to sound hectoring or carping, I thought they were a dreadful indulgence by C4. The actual betting activity shown was generally plain awful, and an object lesson of how not be gamble.

Not for me I'm afraid. I'll stick with my tried and tested surefire route to riches backing first time out 2YOs from the powerful Queenie Watts yard, owned by the man possibly soon to be known as Dr Moron No-Cash.