30th July 2007 The second, and presumably last, series, of Rome came to its triumphant and stunning conclusion. I cannot really praise this brilliant series enough; for me it sets a benchmark for historical television series - and this is despite its lurid exploitation of sex and violence. It is interesting to examine though why …
Category: television
Malcolm and Barbara, Linebaugh, Fallen Angel (OP)
13th August 2007 Last week we watched Paul Watkins' remarkable documentary 'Malcolm and Barbara', which recorded how Malcolm fell ill with and eventually died of dementia. Filmed over a number of years the documentary was at times almost unwatchable in its unsparing presentation of the reality of dementia. Sadly, the programme's message was obscured by an absurd media …
Continue reading Malcolm and Barbara, Linebaugh, Fallen Angel (OP)
December Miscellany (2009)
December, as may be surmised from the comparative paucity of blog entries, was not a good month. This should come as no surprise to me as it is, with January, one of the two worst average months. Although this might indicate some form of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) this is not so as February is one of the …
November Miscellany
Overall November has been another good month despite some bad days at the end compounded by a resurgence of back trouble. This month's miscellany is dominated by television (and quite a bit of it bad television at that!) but that is partly because I have hived off comments on other forms to separate blogs ('Three …
October Miscellany (2009)
Continuing with Caryl Churchill I reached Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (1977). I thought from the title that this was likely to be among my favourite of Churchill's plays and so it proved. Using her ensemble techniques she covers the radicalization, and then the confrontation with and suppression of the radicals, which occurred during the course of …
September Miscellany
There is not that much for me to write about this month as much of it was spent in the grip of Depression (although I manage to find a topic!) ; this does however give a chance for a brief discussion of some topics which rarely get aired, first among them video games, my favourite …
July Miscellany (2009)
I re-read, with more concentration, Caryl Churchill's Fen (1983). It is a remarkable piece of work mainly concerned with the lives of a number of women in a Fen village. There are a couple of male characters - Mr Tewson, the landowner, and Frank, for whom one of the women, Val, is leaving her husband and …
May Miscellany
Let's start with the best. May was a remarkable month for original television films featuring two absolute gems, and what is more gems of completely different kinds. I have already written about Compulsion (see blog of 14th May); here I turn my attention to The Unloved co-written and directed by Samantha Morton and screened on Channel …
Compulsion and The Changeling
An ITV film called Compulsion written by Joshua St Johnston and directed by Sarah Harding was shown on television on 4th May. It was claimed that Compulsion was 'inspired by' Middleton and Rowley's Jacobean tragedy The Changeling; as I could not even recall if I had seen, let alone read, this play I was impelled …
April Miscellany (2009)
A documentary film first. Afghan Star directed by Havana Marking, which won a prize at the 2009 Sundance Festival, told the extraordinary story of the introduction of an American Idol/X-Factor type show in Afghanistan. Music was banned by the Taliban and the producers of the show (Afghan Star) obviously faced considerable problems when they decided to …
Moving Toyshop 