Guardian story on 20th anniversary, UK fest, etc.

[TheArm]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/ ... a-festival

Twin Peaks: 20 years on this supernatural soap is still celebrated

A 32-hour marathon in Battersea and the inaugural Twin Peaks UK Festival next month prove the show is just too damn fine to be forgotten

When Twin Peaks first aired in the UK, 20 years ago this weekend, 8.15 million viewers tuned in to discover its macabre premise: a wayward teenager, Laura Palmer, continues to influence the lives of townsfolk long after her death. In the real world, too, the show has enjoyed an uncanny second life, lauded by an obsessive new generation of fans, despite having barely graced terrestrial screens since 1992.

Tomorrow, 500 people will pack out London's Battersea Arts Centre to watch a 32-hour Twin Peaks marathon: every episode, both seasons, back to back. Sounds like a punishing ordeal? Actually, tickets sold out in three hours. Demand was so great it caused the venue's website and phone system to crash.

A few weeks later, on 27 November, assorted Dale Coopers and Log Ladies will attend the inaugural Twin Peaks UK Festival. Guests of honour include actor Michael J Anderson aka Man From Another Place (the backwards-talking dwarf to you and me), and Julee Cruise, who sang on the soundtrack.

So what is going on here? Why is David Lynch's supernatural soap opera ' which was axed by ABC after a sharp ratings tail-off during its second season ' suddenly being venerated anew?

On one level it's that now-familiar story of a show generating post-cancellation buzz thanks to strong DVD sales (see also: Futurama and Family Guy). Certainly, a 20th-anniversary box set, released in March, sparked renewed interest ' not least because season two hadn't been available on DVD in the UK previously.

It's also clear that this pre-internet-age cult has been served well by online communities. One Facebook group devoted to it has more than 120,000 members. BBC 2 has never repeated Twin Peaks ' but episodes can be downloaded from iTunes, or streamed, with dubious legality, via sites such as TV Shack.

But neither factor explains why the Twin Peaks festival should launch this year. Could it just be that the show has simply found its moment? That having embedded itself deep in people's subconscious, its true influence is only now becoming apparent? Certainly Twin Peaks, with its plangent soundtrack and air of menace, left a particular impression on young viewers and 20 years on, those kids now control the entertainment industry ' people like JJ Abrams, who created Lost, a show whose willingness to both baffle and delight viewers owes everything to Twin Peaks. Moreover, from a viewer's point of view, in a culture where Twilight and True Blood are mainstream fare, the supernatural elements no longer seem so bizarre.

There's also the obvious point: Twin Peaks is just too damn fine to be forgotten. For all the talk of it being surreal or disturbing, I've always thought the show's true power was that, from the title sequence onwards, it constructs a beautiful, immersive world that you just want to crawl inside. Perhaps it's not so much a question of, why are we celebrating Twin Peaks now? The real mystery is: why did we ever stop?