Two had a half days have passed since continuing my contemporary chronicle. Having programmed myself to get up on Sunday before 9 am to watch the Andrew Marr show I failed. I joined in the Sunday Supplement discussion of football in advance of the friendly between England and Spain on Wednesday and the position of David Beckham. Those who write about football or front discussion programmes have created an issue because it now looks that David will play more games for England than Bobby Moore OBE. On my way to the pictures earlier to day I heard on the car radio an excellent portrait of Bobby by a journalist broadcaster Jonathan Pearce who had come to know Bobby and his family during the last five years of his life. He portrait was rounded emphasising his lifelong commitment to football and his general demeanour but that he also liked to party and was part of the first football celebrity couple in the 1960‘s. He played 108 times for England commencing in the days when substitutes were not allowed and outside of the World and European Cup years about half the present number of Internationals took place. He was captain of the team which won the World Cup at Wembley in 1966 and a statue of him is outside the new Wembley Stadium. After his professional playing career ended he became a manager and successfully operated several business. He died of cancer at the age of 52 and it was only with his death that the extent to which he contributed to football was appreciated across the land when representative of fan associations came to the next match and then attended the memorial service in Westminster Abbey, which was only the second held in honour of a national sports’ hero.I suggest that apart from filling discussion time, the reason for the debate is the resentment some feel about David Beckham’s continuing career. They resent his wealth, his celebrity lifestyle and that he disregards their criticism. The debate is a false one because Bobby would have been the first to congratulate David on gaining more caps and in any event he has a long way to go to equal the record of Peter Shilton, the goal keeper who played 125 times in goal, a fact which makes the debate a non event.
There was also a discussion of two managers thought to be under sentence of the sack. The first was Tony Adams at Portsmouth. His departure was announced early Monday morning although he was informed on Sunday. There was expectation that Steve Gibson would come under pressure from frustrated fans to sack Gareth Southgate after the Boro looks doomed to relegation. Steve has a problem because he made Gareth manager when still a player and without having taken managerial qualifications, however as seen with the once mighty Leeds, Portsmouth from n earlier Generation, Derby, Notts Forest, the two Sheffield Clubs and Sunderland previously it easy to slide from first to second and third divisions, or Premiership, Championship and second division as they are now known. The surprise was left until Monday when the 7motnh old manager of Chelsea was sacked. His failure is that the club is only fourth in the table and the fans do not like the stile fo play whey they find boring. The sacking was fixed with a pay off reputed to be £6 million and an arrangement with the Russian Football Federation to allow the national coach to commute to London and manage Chelsea.
The day was made not by the BAFTA’s but by Anne Widdecombe who presented a programme about the Reformation in the History of Christian series on Channel Four. I anticipated that a raised Protestant who converted to Catholicism would have something interesting to say and I was not disappointed, but her level of objectivity did. She is the most impressive of the presenters so far in this respect. She reminded that after a 1000 years of dominating Europe, the Catholic church had become not just powerful with the Monasteries owning a sixth of England, may have said the British Islands, but corrupt. It was sale of indulgences which angered Martin Luther. I can remember the reaction when during Religious Instruction/history at the John Fisher School one of the more radical priests disclosed that most of the relics circulating and venerated in the middle ages were dubious if not well intentionec creations but the sale of indulgences was one of many things church could not be proud off. It was thing to promise salvation to the mercenary soldiers who joined the Crusades but in the 15th and16th centuries anyone with money or goods of value could have his slate of sins wiped clean whatever these were.
The programmes have so far overlooked the contribution the church made to the development of art, culture and learning in the Middle Ages. The Monasteries had become places of higher as well as general learning, and possessed important libraries. The church also sponsored artists like Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo. However the period was also marked by the election of Roderico Borgia as Pope.
Anne then covered the fact that had not Henry VIII been such a murdering lecher wanting a male heir (she put this more politely) Henry would not have separated the Catholic Church from Rome and made himself its head. The position would have been different if Henry and his son had been content to maintain the church as it had become but the wealth of the Monasteries posed too great an attraction. So combined with Luther’s declaration of the Pope as the anti Christ Catholicism became outlawed, the monasteries sacked and their lands confiscated. Elsewhere, especially in Germany the church broke up into competing sects each intolerant of everyone else. Anne The programme focussed on how devote Catholics managed to survive the repression in England and Holland, interviewing the descendents of one Catholic family who had maintained their faith, kept priests hidden yet remained loyal to their country, and then to Holland where in the roof of a large building a church was created and decorated, providing services for 150 worshippers who would have been known to their neighbours who chose to look the other way.
However it was not a one way development in which Catholics were persecuted and Protestant churches flourishes.The programmes featured two situations, one where Catholic neighbours massacred neighbours, including stabbing a pregnant woman as she was giving birth and throwing mother and child to be, out of the window into the street. In England Anne attended the bonfire celebration at which not Guy Fawkes is burned, but the Pope who ordered the burning of 11 Protestants in the town of Lewes. I have stayed at Lewes a pleasant County town outside of Brighton full of antique and art shops,but without knowing that it remains such a hotbed of anti Catholicism. 11 burning crosses are marched through the streets beforehand reminding of the Klan in the USA and then the crowds shout burn him as torches are thrown on to the large bonfire topped by the effigy of the former Pope. Although Protestant and Catholic churches have learnt to live alongside each other without resorting to bloodshed since then, the programme ended with reference to the one part of Europe where the bomb and the gun has only recently been put away: Northern Island. She interviewed an unrepentant Ian Paisley who calmly admitted he still regarded the Pope as anti-Christ and then a clip was shown when Dr Paisley attempted to shout down the Pope when he addressed the European Parliament and as he was called to order and then stewards called to eject him from the chamber he could be heard shouting,’ the anti Christ.
There were few surprises or disappointments at the British Academy Film awards, now held at the Opera House Covent Garden.Slum Dog Millionaire dominated, scooping all the awards with the Curious Case of Benjamin Button also successful. I have now seen all five nominated Best Picture films something not usually the situation, also Milk, Benjamin Button. Frost Nixon, Milk and the Reader. The same films with the same outcome applied tot he award for film Director. Again in relation to adapted Screenplay except that Revolutionary Road replaced Milk which was included in the original screenplay category. Here there was delight because In Bruges won and an apology given to the people of Bruges for some the comments included in the film. Also in this category were the Changeling and Burn after Reading two other films experienced and enjoyed in theatre. I have not seen the highly thought of French film I’ve Loved you so long which won the award for Foreign Language film and to be added my must see list.Slum Dog won Editing where Dark Knight was included another must see addition. The Changeling and In Bruges also featured. This was followed with Sound where Wall-E a third must see and Quantum of Solace. Music provided the fourth award with Mama Mia included, a travesty is failed to win this award, The Fifth award was for Cinematography. Benjamin Button won three award for Special effects outdoing all the special effects films such as Dark Knight, Iron Man and Quantum, Make Up and Hair was the obvious one together with Production design.The media was of course more interested in best and supporting actor roles. Mickey O’Rourke won again and as did Kate Winslet- for The Reader. I would have given the male award to Frank Langella for his Nixon performance. I am yet to see Penelope Cruz who got supporting for Vickie Christina Barcelona, and Health Ledger was inevitable for his Dark Night Performance.There were two curious award on the night. The first was OK marking the 75 year contribution of Pinewood and Shepperton Studio’s to British Cinema. The second was the star award of the night, the last in the programme, the award of the Fellowship which went to Terry Gilliam who has contributed a few off films. The Life of Brian and the on TV Monty Python’s Flying Circus. So small has been his contribution that they kept showing the same clips of the same films, perhaps three times in some instances. It was odd.
The latest episode of 24 was also an odd mixture because the Opposition Leader who had won the election but was prevented from taking office is rescued with his wife and the machine used by the ongoing President is destroyed and further catastrophe avoided. However the chief villain escaped and the condition of the husband of the President is still unknown.
I had intended to enjoy Roast Chicken and Roast potatoes for Sunday lunch but when I came to put in the oven I noted that the base had not defrosted despite putting out mid evening. Fortunately I had also put out a half round joint of Gammon so decided to have some of this with the potatoes for a latish lunch. The potatoes were crisp and the best yet. I went onto cook the chicken and used a half of the breast to make a salad for the evening. On Monday I used a second portion for a stir fry with a large onion, a courgette which was past its prime and a salad pepper. I have taken to the Hot Cross buns which I devour without spread. Today, this evening I used the remainder of the chicken with a curry sauce and Egg fried Rice. Cherries and Bananas and cuppa soups made up the rest of meals during the three days with the exception today when going to the pictures at midday, I bought a prawn sandwich and enjoyed two hot cross buns before going into the show.
I was in the mood for Tchaikovsky in the morning listening to two version of the 1812 overture. This piece has a special place in my history for after first hearing during that summer in 1956 when I purchased a Prom half season ticket went five or six times a week , I had then taken my birth and care mothers, and their elder sisters to a Tchaikovsky night at the Royal Albert Hall one Sunday and when the 1st Piano Concerto played, some Swan Lake and a Symphony, I think the Pathetique rather than the 4th. The Philadelphia Symphony Eugene Ormandy conducting had a moving choral introduction and real cannon fire on a record which includes the March Slave and the fourth Symphony. I enjoyed this symphony on hearing it live and then when I left my first job in 1957, a clerk in motor vehicle licence taxation Middlesex County Council in a seven or eight storey building in the Victoria Bridge Road, now Random House Publishing a few yards from the Thames embankment and the Tate Gallery, I asked for a record of the work as my leaving present which impressed the section head who was the brother of Lord Wilmot a sometime government Minister., especially as the workd was conducted by Herbert von Karajan I listened to the Pathetique and some ballet music including the Romeo and Juliet Overture with Leopold Stokowski NDR Symphony Orchestra, but not the Piano concerto. The second 1812 version was with Daniel Barenboim.
On Monday I listened to a double album of Chet Baker. I was introduced to his music in the mid 1950’s, when he was still comparatively unknown, by a work colleague at Middlesex House, along with Dave Brubeck and the MJQ, Modern Jazz Quartet, who I went to see at the Royal Festival Hall with his sister who had two tickets and had broken up with her boyfriend. This same friend also took me to the Cy Laurie Jazz Club and Humphs 100 Oxford Street, usually Friday and Saturdays as on Saturdays. He would go dancing wearing his Teddy Boy suit at the Streatham Palais. Chet subsequently went on to achieve international recognition making his home in Holland after a conviction for drug use and imprisonment in the USA. Before all that he came to the UK with Gerry Mulligan and I saw them at Davis Theatre Croydon along with Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and a host of Jazz starts who toured the UK for the first time in the late 1950’s and 1960’s It was also at the Davis that I attended the film Rock around the Lock with Bill Haley where for the first time young people in the UK danced in the aisles of the cinema to the horror of the older generation, much like the reaction in the first film of the Blues Brothers. Chet performed on some 125 records both as a trumpet player and later as a popular vocalist. He died as he lived with traces of drugs in circumstances which were recorded as accidental but where the suspicion of murder or suicide had lingered. His home state has a Chet Baker Day and there is a statue of him in Amsterdam. He is also recognised in of several Halls of Fame in the world of Jazz.
A feature of the BAFTA’s as it at the Oscars is the remembrance of those who died over the past year. Usually there a handful of the most significant names. Last year there was a crop: Paul Newman, Charlton Heston, Van Johnson, Mel Ferrer, Cyd Charisse Patrick McGoohan, Anthony Mingella, Harold Pinter. Isaac Hayes, Sydney Pollack and Richard Widmark were all part of my life. Enriching and motivating, among several others. I must note their work in someway, sometime.
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