T S Eliot - Romanzo Criminale TV - The Sopranos TV - Donnie Brasco 1997 - RocknRolla 2008 - Scarface 1932 - I Died a Thousand Times 1955 - David Attenborough TV - The Exorcist 1974 - Lilly Tomlin - Robert Browning - William Shakespeare - James Cagney - Smashing Pumpkins - Terry Pratchett - Ex Machina 2015 - Ray Donovan TV - Kate Williams TV - Fawlty Towers TV - New York: World’s Richest City TV - Black Mass 2015 - Weird Weapons TV - Nikolai Gogol TV - MonsterQuest TV -
I think we are in rat’s alley. T S Eliot, The Waste Land
I might be a rat but I’m not one of the dirty guys. Romanzo Criminale s2e9 starring Francesco Montanari & Vinicio Marchioni & Alessandro Roja & Marco Bocci & Daniela Virgilio & Andrea Sartoretti et al, Rat’s confession, Sky Cinema 1 2012
No wonder the papers are calling this the Year of the Rat. The Sopranos s6e1: Members Only, Tony, HBO 2006
If you’re a rat then I’m the biggest fucking mutt in the history of the Mafia. Donnie Brasco 1997 starring Al Pacino & Johnny Depp & Michael Madsen & Bruno Kirby & Anne Heche & James Russo & Zeliko Ivanek & Gerry Becker & Andrew Parks & Robert Miano et al, director Mike Newell, Lefty
This dirty fucking rat is still lurking somewhere among us. RocknRolla 2008 starring Gerard Butler & Tom Wilkinson & Mark Strong & Toby Kebbell & Tom Hardy & Idris Elba & Karel Roden & Thankdie Newton & Dragan Micanovic & David Bark-Jones et al, director Guy Ritchie, commentary
[rozzer slugs gangsta] Come on, you rat. Scarface 1932 aka The Shame of the Nation starring Paul Muni & George Raft & Ann Dvorak & Karen Morley & Osgood Perkins & C Henry Gordon & Vince Barnett & Boris Karloff & Purnell Pratt & Tully Marshall et al, director Howard Hughes
Those rats. I Died a Thousand Times 1955 starring Jack Palance & Shelley Winters & Lori Nelson & Lee Marvin & Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez & Lon Chaney junior & Earl Holliman & Perry Lopez & Dennis Hopper et al, director Stuart Heisler, Palance
Naked mole rats: the colony is perpetually tunnelling. David Attenborough, The Trials of Life IX: Friends and Rivals, BBC 1990
The elephant and the mole rat are curious creatures: they are both extremely wrinkled. Attenborough’s Natural Curiosities: Young Wrinklies, Eden 2013
The naked mole rat … amazingly long-lived. ibid.
The colony would not survive if all its members didn’t work together. ibid.
Naked mole rats never see the light of day. ibid.
One of the most widespread and adaptable mammals on the planet, the brown rat. David Attenborough, The Life of Mammals VI: Opportunists, BBC 2002
Georgetown: We’ve got rats in the attic. The Exorcist 1973 starring Ellen Burstyn & Max von Sydow & Jason Miller & Linda Blair & Lee J Cobb & Mercedes McCambridge & Kitty Winn & Jack MacGowran & Father William O'Malley & Robert Symonds & Barton Heyman & Arthur Storch & Titos Vandis & Eileen Dietz et al, director William Friedkin
Even if you win the rat race you are still a rat. Lilly Tomlin
Rats!
They fought the dogs and killed the cats,
And bit the babies in the cradles,
And ate the cheeses out of the vats,
And licked the soup from the cooks’ own ladles,
Split open the kegs of salted sprats,
Made nests inside men’s Sunday hats,
And even spoiled the women’s chats
By drowning their speaking
With shrieking and squeaking
In fifty different sharps and flats. Robert Browning, The Pied Piper of Hamelin st2
How now! a rat? Dead, for a ducat, dead! William Shakespeare, Hamlet III i
That dirty, double-crossing rat. James Cagney, Blonde Crazy 1931 starring James Cagney & Joan Blondell & Louis Calhern & Noel Francis & Ray Milland & Guy Kibbee & Polly Walters & William Burress & Maude Eburne & Nat Pendleton et al, director Roy Del Ruth
Despite all my rage
I am still just a rat in the cage. Smashing Pumpkins, Bullet With Butterfly Wings
But there was more to it than that. As the Amazing Maurice said, it was just a story about people and rats. And the difficult part of it was deciding who the people were, and who were the rats. Terry Pratchett, The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
Caleb: What was the real test?
Nathan: You. Ava was a rat a maze. And I gave her one way out. Ex Machina 2015 starring Domhnall Gleeson & Oscar Isaac & Alicia Vikander & Sonoya Mizuno & Symara A Templeman & Elina Alminas & Gana Bayarsaikhan & Tiffany Pisani & Clarie Selby & Corey Johnson et al, director Alex Garland
He’s [Mickey] a fucking rat. Always has been. Ray Donovan s5e12: Time Takes a Cigarette, Ray to Daryl, Showtime 2017
As recently as 2019 exterminators were called in because rats were seen tearing through the royal kitchens [Buckingham Palace]. Kate Williams, Secrets of the Royal Palaces s1e1, Channel 5 2021
It’s my hamster. Fawlty Towers: Basil the Rat s2e6, Manuel to Basil, BBC 1979
Oh I see he’s a homing rat, is he? ibid. Basil
He put Basil in the ratatouille? ibid. Manuel to Polly, with Sybil & Health Inspector
Would you care for a rat? Just the biscuits then please, Polly. ibid. Basil
An estimated two million rodents call the Big Apple home. New York: World’s Richest City s1e2, Channel 5 2022
Before we start I want you to know something: I’m not a rat. You understand? I want that on record before we start. Black Mass 2015 starring Johnny Depp & Joel Edgerton & Benedict Cumberbatch & Rory Cochran & Kevin Bacon & Jesse Plemons & Peter Sarsgaard & Dakota Johnson & Corey Stoll et al, director Scott Cooper, opening scene
1941: British special ops come with something we can only call unusual: they procure rats … as weapons of mass destruction. The UnBelievable with Dan Aykroyd s1e4: Weird Weapons, History 2024
There’s an Inspector-General coming … I had a sort of presentiment of it: all last night I dreamt about a pair of monstrous rats. Nikolai Gogol, The Government Inspector, Governor; viz BBC 1957
In America’s biggest cities there are legends of a monster living right under our feet. Eyewitnesses saw they’ve seen super-rats as big as cats. Are these urban legends or rate evolving into something quite unexpected? MonsterQuest s2e6: Killer Rats