Recently we watched a series of BBC plays starring Judi Dench. They date from 1973 to 1991 when she was going through her 'fat' phase. Voluptuous she might have been but since in each part she was called on to play the sexual attraction, I can hardly say that it worked.
The three plays were "Amelie", the Feydeau farce, translated and adapted by Caryl Brahams and Ned Sherrin and starring Patrick Cargill, Bill Fraser and Helen Cherry;
"Make and Break" by Michael Frayn and starring Robert Hardy, Martin Jarvis, Ronald Hines and Frank Windsor; and "Absolute Hell" by Anthony Ackland with Bill Nighy, Charles Gray, Betty Marsden, Francesca Annis, Anthony Calf, Nathaniel Parker, Ronald Pickup and Ray Winstone.
I am afraid I was not happy with any of them. I thought that they were an illustration of the book of Ecclesiastes - Life without God and the title of the third play gave it away - Absolute Hell.
The farce was just silly. Even in 1973, Judi Dench was 39 and no oil painting and too old for the lady's maid who is supposedly attracting a plethora of lovers. The Michael Frayn is a clever play about a workaholic boss who is only interested in making money and prepared to indulge in shady practices to succeed. He is provided by Frayne with opportunities to change. There is an evangelical Christian who witnesses to him. He might have been talking Swahili. The boss just doesn't recognize the language. He is also provided with a Catholic conscience in the Ronald Hines character, but he continually hedges around it and eventually has what he fears is a heart attack. When it proves to be a false alarm he is back to his wicked ways but his conscience has died of fright.
"Absolute Hell" is set in a 1945 night club in London. The characters indulge in drunkenness, bitchiness and mechanical and illicit sex. The title describes the action.
This is a box set. The first four plays are the same play from the point of view of each different character, "Talking to a stranger". They were so bad I couldn't finish them. There is Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard" and Ibsen's "Ghosts" and two modern plays, "Can you hear me thinking" and "Going gently" still to watch.
Showing posts with label TV. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TV. Show all posts
Monday, July 25, 2011
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Midsommer Murders
There has been a lot of fuss about the alleged racist remarks by Brian True-May, the producer of the TV series Midsommer Murders. For those who haven't seen it on cable or daytime television, it is set in rural England: Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire or Oxfordshire, where in these Olde Worlde villages a couple of murders are committed every week in usually quite bizarre ways in order to be solved by the unflappable Chief Inspector Barnaby and his sidekick DS Jones (Jones is the third of his sergeants, the series has been running for so long). In fact the actor, John Nettles, who was once Jersey detective, Bergerac, has just retired to be replaced by Neil Dudgeon, who plays Barnaby's cousin of the same name and rank. Dudgeon has appeared twice before earlier in the series, playing villains.
True-May's great sin was to declare that there has never been a black or brown face in the show, because that would detract from the impression of rural England. Although London is thoroughly multicultural, villages like Great Missenden, where True-May lives, has far less than 0.1% members of ethnic minorities. The villages of Midsommer reflect that 'native Englishness' and True-May wants it preserved. The PC brigade have been all over him, though why they should mind is a mystery to me. There is such a thing as an off switch. I came across this extract from an essay by George Santayana, written in 1922, which expresses quite well this notion of 'Englishness':
Instinctively the Englishman is no missionary, no conqueror. He prefers the country to the town, and home to foreign parts. He is rather glad and relieved if only natives will remain natives and strangers strangers, and at a comfortable distance from himself. Yet outwardly he is most hospitable and accepts almost anybody for the time being; he travels and conquers without a settled design, because he has the instinct of exploration. His adventures are all external; they change him so little that he is not afraid of them. He carries his English weather in his heart wherever he goes, and it becomes a cool spot in the desert, and a steady and sane oracle amongst all the deliriums of mankind. Never since the heroic days of Greece has the world had such a sweet, just, boyish master. It will be a black day for the human race when scientific blackguards, conspirators, churls, and fanatics manage to supplant him.
Although Inspector Barnaby has moved with the times and now drives a Volvo, in the past he has stuck to Rovers and Jaguars and his spirit remains in 1922. This is Agatha Christine without the Art Deco, and what's wrong with that? Over 250 murders in quaint English villages? Hot Fuzz! It's a fantasy! Every bit as much as The Prisoner or Wallace and Grommit.
True-May's great sin was to declare that there has never been a black or brown face in the show, because that would detract from the impression of rural England. Although London is thoroughly multicultural, villages like Great Missenden, where True-May lives, has far less than 0.1% members of ethnic minorities. The villages of Midsommer reflect that 'native Englishness' and True-May wants it preserved. The PC brigade have been all over him, though why they should mind is a mystery to me. There is such a thing as an off switch. I came across this extract from an essay by George Santayana, written in 1922, which expresses quite well this notion of 'Englishness':
Instinctively the Englishman is no missionary, no conqueror. He prefers the country to the town, and home to foreign parts. He is rather glad and relieved if only natives will remain natives and strangers strangers, and at a comfortable distance from himself. Yet outwardly he is most hospitable and accepts almost anybody for the time being; he travels and conquers without a settled design, because he has the instinct of exploration. His adventures are all external; they change him so little that he is not afraid of them. He carries his English weather in his heart wherever he goes, and it becomes a cool spot in the desert, and a steady and sane oracle amongst all the deliriums of mankind. Never since the heroic days of Greece has the world had such a sweet, just, boyish master. It will be a black day for the human race when scientific blackguards, conspirators, churls, and fanatics manage to supplant him.
Although Inspector Barnaby has moved with the times and now drives a Volvo, in the past he has stuck to Rovers and Jaguars and his spirit remains in 1922. This is Agatha Christine without the Art Deco, and what's wrong with that? Over 250 murders in quaint English villages? Hot Fuzz! It's a fantasy! Every bit as much as The Prisoner or Wallace and Grommit.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
The Pacific
I have one of those hard-drive TV recorders and during my convalescence I have been catching up on some of the programs that I missed. I have now finished watching HBO's The Pacific.
A Tom Hanks/Steven Spielberg collaboration, it attemts to do for the war against the Japanese what Band of Brothers did for the war against the Germans.
The Pacific war was very different from the European war, and we in Europe don't know much about it. It was a dirtier and more brutal war against an enemy that would not surrender. In a way it was a religious war. Emperor worship was a religion of honor/shame. Christian America believed in sin/forgiveness. Honor/shame takes no prisoners.
In the end America won, not because its soldiers were braver or more virtuous, but because it had better technology.
At one point civilians were ushered forward by the retreating Japanese forces. One woman offered her baby to the American soldiers only to be revealed to be wearing a suicide bomb belt. This could only have been meant to be for us to draw a resemblance to Islamic terrorists who have a similar honor/shame life view. Perhaps the answer in Afghanistan is better technology.
A Tom Hanks/Steven Spielberg collaboration, it attemts to do for the war against the Japanese what Band of Brothers did for the war against the Germans.
The Pacific war was very different from the European war, and we in Europe don't know much about it. It was a dirtier and more brutal war against an enemy that would not surrender. In a way it was a religious war. Emperor worship was a religion of honor/shame. Christian America believed in sin/forgiveness. Honor/shame takes no prisoners.
In the end America won, not because its soldiers were braver or more virtuous, but because it had better technology.
At one point civilians were ushered forward by the retreating Japanese forces. One woman offered her baby to the American soldiers only to be revealed to be wearing a suicide bomb belt. This could only have been meant to be for us to draw a resemblance to Islamic terrorists who have a similar honor/shame life view. Perhaps the answer in Afghanistan is better technology.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
The end times for Lost, 24 and Ashes to Ashes
Several long-running TV series have come to an end. After 6 years of nerve-tingling, cliff-hanging excitement "24" has finished its TV run though at least one movie is planned. Jack Bauer has taken his morally ambivalent torturing to a large screen.
The series has suggested that there is evil in high places and that power and compromise with evil are inescapable. In such an environment can the torture of evil men be wrong? If there were some foolproof way of defining evil that might be an argument. However, all too often the definition of evil is 'those who are opposed to us'. Probably his time had come. After the end of Bush-Cheney perhaps the question no longer needs to be asked. I would appreciate feed back on this point.
Then we have seen the end of three similar series: "Lost", "The Prisoner" and "Ashes to Ashes".
In all three there was a resemblance to the doctrine of purgatory. In "Lost" we followed the adventures of a group of people who apparently survived an air crash on a remote and untraceable island in the Pacific. The characters were all flawed, though most had attractive features at heart. We were met with improbable happenings like dead men coming back to life, polar bears in the tropics, black smoke that could be summoned by certain individuals to destroy their enemies with brute force, people who ostensibly immortal who never aged and time travel. The whole thing had an air of mystery. Again the series seemed to be about the conflict between good and evil, with the time on the island being about purging the evil from the good characters. There was even an alternative universe where people who were killed during the series met up had the issues resolved before assembling in a multi-religion 'church' acting as an ante-room to a great white light in the sky.
'The Prisoner' was an attempt to revive the Patrick McGoohan cult classic with Jim Caviezel, last seen as Jesus speaking Aramaic in "The Passion of the Christ" reprising the McGoohan role. Here the alternative universe appeared to be in dreamland and the series didn't really work.
"Ashes to Ashes" was a follow-on from "Life on Mars" which didn't work in the American version with Harvey Keitel but was awesome in the UK version. The setting was a 1980s police station run by an unreformed copper, Gene Hunt, who was sexist, racist and brutal, but who knew the difference between white hats and black hats. Beneath his hard exterior he was all strawberry cream. It turned out that was a place where cops killed in the line of duty went to sort out their 'issues' after death. Gene Hunt was the 'ferryman' sent to guide them to the bright light on the 'other side'.
What these shows demonstrate is a dissatisfaction and frustration with the injustice that is apparent in this world and with people's inability to live up to their ideals. This is precisely what the Christian message gets to the heart of.
We are all sinners and try as we might we cannot do what is right. We continually fall short and no matter how many second-chances we get we will always fall short. But God has provided a way that we can become clean. His son, Jesus, lived a perfect life and was then sacrificed on the cross to take the punishment our sins deserve. In an act of incredible grace he offered this payment for all. For those who accept this free gift there is an eternal home with God, for those who don't there is judgment to come. But he delays that judgment until all who will come do come. Why are we suffering now? Because of the patience of God in not inflicting retribution on those who given umpteen chances may yet repent.
The series has suggested that there is evil in high places and that power and compromise with evil are inescapable. In such an environment can the torture of evil men be wrong? If there were some foolproof way of defining evil that might be an argument. However, all too often the definition of evil is 'those who are opposed to us'. Probably his time had come. After the end of Bush-Cheney perhaps the question no longer needs to be asked. I would appreciate feed back on this point.
Then we have seen the end of three similar series: "Lost", "The Prisoner" and "Ashes to Ashes".
In all three there was a resemblance to the doctrine of purgatory. In "Lost" we followed the adventures of a group of people who apparently survived an air crash on a remote and untraceable island in the Pacific. The characters were all flawed, though most had attractive features at heart. We were met with improbable happenings like dead men coming back to life, polar bears in the tropics, black smoke that could be summoned by certain individuals to destroy their enemies with brute force, people who ostensibly immortal who never aged and time travel. The whole thing had an air of mystery. Again the series seemed to be about the conflict between good and evil, with the time on the island being about purging the evil from the good characters. There was even an alternative universe where people who were killed during the series met up had the issues resolved before assembling in a multi-religion 'church' acting as an ante-room to a great white light in the sky.
'The Prisoner' was an attempt to revive the Patrick McGoohan cult classic with Jim Caviezel, last seen as Jesus speaking Aramaic in "The Passion of the Christ" reprising the McGoohan role. Here the alternative universe appeared to be in dreamland and the series didn't really work.
"Ashes to Ashes" was a follow-on from "Life on Mars" which didn't work in the American version with Harvey Keitel but was awesome in the UK version. The setting was a 1980s police station run by an unreformed copper, Gene Hunt, who was sexist, racist and brutal, but who knew the difference between white hats and black hats. Beneath his hard exterior he was all strawberry cream. It turned out that was a place where cops killed in the line of duty went to sort out their 'issues' after death. Gene Hunt was the 'ferryman' sent to guide them to the bright light on the 'other side'.
What these shows demonstrate is a dissatisfaction and frustration with the injustice that is apparent in this world and with people's inability to live up to their ideals. This is precisely what the Christian message gets to the heart of.
We are all sinners and try as we might we cannot do what is right. We continually fall short and no matter how many second-chances we get we will always fall short. But God has provided a way that we can become clean. His son, Jesus, lived a perfect life and was then sacrificed on the cross to take the punishment our sins deserve. In an act of incredible grace he offered this payment for all. For those who accept this free gift there is an eternal home with God, for those who don't there is judgment to come. But he delays that judgment until all who will come do come. Why are we suffering now? Because of the patience of God in not inflicting retribution on those who given umpteen chances may yet repent.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
HE Bates
When I was a teenager I was asked by my headmaster who my favorite author was. I replied, H. E. Bates. My headmaster had never heard of him. Herbert Ernest Bates, CBE (16 May 1905 – 29 January 1974), better known as H. E. Bates, was an English writer and author. He wrote well over a hundred novels and collections of short stories.
His best-known works include Fair stood the Wind for France, Love for Lydia, The Darling Buds of May, and My Uncle Silas.
We have been watching the TV series of The Darling Buds of May, which we missed first time around. It stars David Jason and marked the screen debut of the beautiful Catherine Zeta-Jones (Mrs Michael Douglas). The series is marked by a generosity of spirit that is heart warming. It was first shown during the 1991 recession.
H. E. Bates wrote five books involving the Larkin family, the titles of the first four of which were used as episode titles for the TV series. The first book (much butchered) was made into a movie called The Mating Game, starring Tony Randall and Debbie Reynolds. Pop Larkin was played by David Jason who can also be seen on cable in Only Fools and Horses and Inspector Frost; Ma Larkin, his common law wife, was played by Pam Ferris who was a hit in Roald Dahl's Matilda and can be seen in Rosmary and Thyme on cable, Philip Franks played Cedric Charlton (Charlie) and is currently in Heartbeat as the local copper. He has lost his golden locks and now has short grey hair. As for Miss Zeta Jones, she is as beautiful as ever.
One odd fact about the TV series: Charlie and Marriette have a son, John Blenheim, who is played by a girl, Daisy-May Bates, the great granddaughter of H. E. Bates.
His best-known works include Fair stood the Wind for France, Love for Lydia, The Darling Buds of May, and My Uncle Silas.
We have been watching the TV series of The Darling Buds of May, which we missed first time around. It stars David Jason and marked the screen debut of the beautiful Catherine Zeta-Jones (Mrs Michael Douglas). The series is marked by a generosity of spirit that is heart warming. It was first shown during the 1991 recession.
H. E. Bates wrote five books involving the Larkin family, the titles of the first four of which were used as episode titles for the TV series. The first book (much butchered) was made into a movie called The Mating Game, starring Tony Randall and Debbie Reynolds. Pop Larkin was played by David Jason who can also be seen on cable in Only Fools and Horses and Inspector Frost; Ma Larkin, his common law wife, was played by Pam Ferris who was a hit in Roald Dahl's Matilda and can be seen in Rosmary and Thyme on cable, Philip Franks played Cedric Charlton (Charlie) and is currently in Heartbeat as the local copper. He has lost his golden locks and now has short grey hair. As for Miss Zeta Jones, she is as beautiful as ever.
One odd fact about the TV series: Charlie and Marriette have a son, John Blenheim, who is played by a girl, Daisy-May Bates, the great granddaughter of H. E. Bates.
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