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| from Telegraph website |
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| from BBC website |
This remake made the grade but will this one?
I loved the 1980s series when I was a teenager and then devoured all the books. I often visit Rye, where the series was filmed, and still see it, not as an attractive south coast town but as Tilling, a hot bed of petty goings-on! Over there is 'Mallards'; these are the narrow streets that Susan Wyse travelled by Rolls Royce to order provisions from the grocer, relayed through her chauffeur of course; that's the church tower from where Mapp saw Lucia doing callanetics in the garden when she was meant to be too ill to meet Countess Faraglione, who might realise Lucia actually doesn't really know a word of Italian........
I will watch - but with trepidation. Geraldine McEwan, Prunella Scales and Nigel Hawthorne were absolutely perfectly cast as Lucia, Mapp and Georgie. Oh I really don't want to be disappointed.
Au reservoir!
I grew up with Paddington. With those five minute programmes which were shown on the BBC at the end of Blue Peter and before the evening news. Paddington was a cute and cuddly bear and the Browns and the surroundings were 2D drawings. Michael Horden narrated in his posh actor voice (Paddington carried a "sssueew-T-case"). Ahh, fond memories!
So when I saw the trailer for the new Paddington film, I was horrified. What had they done to him?! Why did Nicole Kidman want to stuff him for heaven's sake?! I really was in two minds about seeing it but when I had first heard that a film was being made, I told my little girl we HAD to see it and she was holding me to my promise.
Well, within the first minute I was absolutely hooked. I laughed and laughed. BUT. Call me an old prude, but the bits where Hugh Bonneville dressed as a tea lady were a bit much. Funny at first but it went back for more. I can't recall the exact lines but they were a bit fruity! My daughter was more concerned with telling me it was the man from Horrible Histories but I was more worried that the Natural History Museum could have such an old letch on the pay role. Where was HR?!
The thought of Paddington being stuffed also sent my seven year old on a crying and yelling session, the like I've never seen. While she was disturbed at the time, ever since she has kept referring to all the funny bits and pointed out that while Nicole Kidman's father, the hunter Montgomery Clyde, had been very kind, she was not!
So I thoroughly enjoyed the film after all but it could have done with more Paddington hard stares (there was just the token one), more of kind Mr Gruber and of grumpy Mr Curry too - a bit of a waste of Peter Capaldi.
Perhaps next time.......
No sooner had the last firework been set off and while the bonfires were still smouldering, the glossy Christmas tv ads hit our screens. Indecently early in my opinion. In fact, I fast-forward through the whole lot of them on principle. And as for the fuss made over John Lewis each year - well! They get more annoying each year.*
So why is it far too early for tv ads but just right for the Christmas sandwich?
Because the Pret a Manger Christmas Lunch sarnie is the best ever, that's why!
This article in the Independent made laugh and I'm glad I'm not alone! A couple of weeks ago I saw a large display of Christmas sammies in M&S. Great, I thought, the Pret one will be out too. So I went straight out of the M&S food hall and into a branch of Pret. (I told you I liked them!) No (Christmas) joy there though so I ended up getting the M&S version. V disappointing, soggy even! Luckily Pret joined in a couple of days later and I have been taking full advantage ever since.
Merry Christmas!
* IMHO the only JL ad worth watching is Always A Woman from 2010. It had me in tears at the opening bar every time I saw it, including just now when I was looking for it online! Can't beat a bit of Billy Joel, that's for sure.
So, what do you think of the Xmas sandwiches on offer and is The Stranger by Billy Joel one of the best albums of all time?!
Made in Dagenham
I chuckled at the sight of all the employees arriving for work carrying a thermos as it made me remember my Dad making up his with milky Mellow Birds coffee each morning.
I chuckled at Rita worrying that she wasn't dressed up enough for the Berni Inn as my family would only go to one of those on a very special occasion. Prawn cocktail for starters, followed by steak very well (over) done, then perhaps a slice of Black Forrest gateau from the sweets trolley and maybe an Irish coffee to finish.
I chuckled at the black and white news reels from 1968 showing the original lady strikers of Ford Dagenham as they most definitely didn't look like the hot-pant wearing glamour pusses of the film!
I stared at the actor playing Ford's US representative, trying to work out what I'd seen him in before. Later I discovered it was Richard Shiff/Toby Ziegler in the West Wing, beardless and very skinny.
I stared yet again at Rosamund Pike as she shone from the screen.
I wondered how equality of pay could still be unresolved over 40 years on.
The opener to new ITV series Downton Abbey bodes well. It is fascinating to see above and below stairs and how the servants knew so much about the goings on of the family.
My only complaint would be that the toffs didn't seem posh enough! Apart from Maggie Smith's character, they didn't seem haughty enough and the way the women in particular walked seemed off. They should have glided a bit more, been a bit more measured or something. Perhaps their corsets weren't tight enough! Some of the speech seemed a bit modern too.
It begins in 1912 so no doubt the story will move on to the Great War and all the men servants will sign up, never to return. I'll have a box of tissues at the ready.
Really enjoyed Roman Polanski's film The Ghost.
Watching Pierce Brosnan - always a pleasure, never a chore!
A beautiful, dramatic film with the bewitching Tilda Swinton
Thoroughly enjoying watching the daily re-run of Mad Men on BBC 4 or, to be more precise, watching Jon Hamm!
Really enjoying watching Tweed on BBC 4 and seeing how the gorgeous scenery of Harris inspired the cloth designs.
(photo from Visit Scotland)
A happy, warm film and full of colour - from the characters, the clothing and the walls!
