The Word, Series 3, Episode 5, 27/11/92

The Word – S3E5 (27 Nov 1992): “Grunge, Gunge & Galliano”

Manchester wears black for **Factory Records’ funeral**, the studio wears its best smirk for **AIDS Day**, and we open with **Galliano** jazz-preaching unity while the crowd wonders if berets are back.

We beam to **Seattle** for Thanksgiving, where Katie finds a “circus” that makes Billy Smart look like Antiques Roadshow: **Jim Rose’s sideshow** features a man siphoning **beer → stomach → bile → pint glass**. It’s performance art if your performance is “ruin dinner.”

Back home, rising comic **John Thomson** turns the working men’s club handshake into anthropology and debuts **Bernard Brighton Rock**—like old-school bigotry put through a crystal shop and a conscience.

Stateside gossip sluice: we rubberneck **Whitney & Bobby’s honeymoon**, peek at the **Jacksons** mini-series, and meet LA parents who gift their teens **\$5k nose jobs** because nothing says “Sweet 16” like cartilage.

Live tunes keep the floor from sticking: **The Aloof** simmer, **The Lemonheads** drop a one-off “Purity” and try not to grin, and **Galliano** bookend the sermon with more brass than a town hall.

Also tonight: gobbling (Katie’s turkey impression), gobsmacking (bile beer, sorry again), and the annual reminder that on The Word, **high culture** means the camera’s pointing up.