I am enjoying life too well. I would like to believe that this has been achieved through many years working hard and seeking redemption for sins committed, sins unintended, so that it is a state which will continue. I hope two major decisions taken over recent months have contributed. The immediate challenge is to tackle weight and fitness if there is to be any prospect of reaching eighty. Yesterday was a so so start to the new campaign. I had a croissant and a little coffee, then a portion of prawns with shells and fruit salad for lunch. A Danish with coffee mid afternoon. The coffee was £2.10 from a garage machine, after the Costa Coffee outlet said their machine had blown up earlier in the day and was Ok but I still baulk at paying more for an individual cup than a whole packet from the supermarket. For evening meal there was soup with a second croissant acting as a roll and a mixed salad with the second piece of salmon and slice of smoke mackerel followed by grapes.
The previous evening I watched an excellent one hour episode of Taggart with a contemporary theme. Two Polish Migrant workers are shot dead from close range in what first looks like a professional hit and then from a message to a radio station are said to be random assassinations against the influx of migrants from Poland in particular and central Europe.
For some of the team the phone call appears to confirm that the victims were chosen because of their nationality but others are not convinced especially when it appears that the telephone call is a made up relayed tape from a public call box where there are no CCTV cameras. It could be a false trail to take the police away from the actual motivation and culprit
The first victim is a comparatively recently arrived building worker who has openly criticised the way the hiring and placement firm operated and had joined forces with a young female lawyer and social activist with a Polish parental background. She is then professionally used by the detective team as an interpreter and her involvement becomes known to then hiring boss who is the prime suspect when her home is firebombed. This he admits but not the murders. The second victim has lived in Scotland for six years, works as hotel receptionist and is married to a native businessman she met while he was visiting Poland. There appears to be no connection between the two although as the hour long programme progressed it is first established that both attended Catholic mass on Sundays and then that the two were on the same flight from Poland to Scotland when the building worker first came to the UK. It is then found that the two are related and are cousins.
The husband is revealed as the killer because he had tried to eradicate all traces of Poland from her life and the arrival of the relative had changed the position, resurrecting feelings for her homeland. This is unusual motivation for murder but credible given the personality of the husband.
The sub plot in the relationship which develops between DI Robbie Ross played by John Mitchie, (whose grandparents were Italian interned during the second world war) and the Polish lawyer, activist cum interpreter. Romances, let alone serious relationship rarely if ever last in these series so it will be interesting to learn if this one has legs, especially as Robbie saves her life. In contrast to the two hour Lewis on Sunday this episode was believable and fully engaged the single hour.
The State Dinner is the seventh episode of the first series of the West Wing and is a classic example of inviting a head of state from a country whose regime one disapproves and then drawing attention to their shortcomings in official pubic speeches rather than frank but private discussions.
The White House Press are only interested in the details of the dresses and accompaniments to be worn at the dinner, whereas three other events become the concern of the President and his staff. This may be accurate as a reflection of public interest in froth rather than substance but was one of several question marks about authenticity. Two of the “situations” would attract instant 24 hour media attention in real life.
One is a hurricane which is heading for Atlanta where the grand parents of Charlie live, and who as established as the personal assistant to the President, he is promised help by White House staff to find what has happened to them. If you have got power which not use it for colleagues, an issue which occurs again later in episode and the series. The hurricane changes course and heads for where a fleet battle group has reassembled. President’s like everyone one else have to sit and wait, having no control over the conduct of nature’s forces.
The second situation concerns a siege involving a white separatist who brandishes a gun sold by the security services as part of an entrapment and where Mandy Hampton, Public Relations adviser, counsels caution, suggesting that a negotiator should be used. Unfortunately he is shot at first opportunity and is struggling for his life, which causes her distress, rightly for not listening to the more experienced. The third situation is an announced strike where the employers and union have failed to reach a settlement. The president is able to intervene and threatens to nationalise the industry and have the union members placed in the national service if they fail to reach agreement before the strike is due to commence. Apparently this approach previously resolved a real life situation. I have no means of checking but if ti happened it is further insight into how the USA ticks.
The main interest is on a private meeting between Toby and Josh, seeking the help of the Presidential aide, aid from the aide, for the release of a French journalist and friend. They are told to go to Hell after Toby’s drafted speech, in welcoming the President refers to the non democratic nature of the regime. The one weakness if this episode is why there is the state visit was arranged anyway as their appears to be nothing over which the two nations can bargain. There is a delightful vignette where it is necessary to use a kitchen hand who speaks the dialect of the visitor and a second language but has no English while the official interpreter can speak the second language of the kitchen hand and can translate into American.
Deputy speech writer Sam continues his relationship with the high class call girl who wants to graduate in law and leave her lucrative night job. They meet at diner for a snack. She has to go to get ready for her date, a wealthy man who books her when he is in town but she does not know where they are going that evening. He turns out to be a Democratic Party financial backer rewarded with invites to major social functions such as the state dinner and greets the three staffers Leo Josh and Sam saying what a great job they are doing and introduces his companion. While he goes off for drinks Sam tries to buy out the girl that evening for $10000 dollars as the wife of the President arrives. This is her first appearance, Stockyard Channing, who came to fame in Grease. Before then the girl asks Sam, what is it you do here exactly? He replie, It’s never really been made clear to me.
Enemies is the 8th and final episode on the first disk of the complete series. This is the first episode not written by Aaron Sorkin. I thought this worked well and proved to highly topical in that it concerned the efforts to pass a Banking Bill where the banking community is opposed seeking deregulation. At the last moment two senators attach a land use strip mining deal in order to scupper the bill knowing that the Presidential Team will not accept. Early on the President has kept Josh up until 2am showing off his knowledge of the 44 National Parkland areas and which he has visited. Josh has a last minute brainwave being a creative genius and advises the President that he can accept the Bill and then use the Antiquities Act to prevent strip mining by declaring the land the 45th national parkland under the legislation.
The Vice President is asked to set the Cabinet meeting off until the President arrives and suggests to the group that their first priority is to work with Congress to get things done. The President then immediately arrives and checks what the Vice President has said and chastises for not prefacing his remarks that their priority is to serve the interests of the American people and the clash is leaked to the media friend of C J who has started to take a personal interest in her. She prevents the leak widening by giving the journalist a half hour exclusive interview, the same length as Prime Minister’s Question Time, and half that of the Prime. Ministers monthly press conference. The Vice President is upset at being accused of being the leak which is traced to the secretary verbatim note taker. Later the Vice President asks the President why he is so hostile towards him and the President explains that he was forced to beg the Vice President to run and deliver the South to win the Presidential election after the President had beat him in the primaries for the Democratic Party nomination.
The most interesting aspect is that this was the first meeting of the Cabinet in six months and the third of the administration. The President is not convinced that any meetings are necessary, finding them mind numbing, Leo McGarry Chief of Staff reminds that they are constitutionally required. This may be the equivalent of the Privy Council to the Queen rather than the British Cabinet Government system which not only meets weekly but where there are several Cabinet sub committees ongoing and until Thatcher the Prime Minister was always regarded as the first among equals.
The minor plot is the relation between Leo, his wife and his daughter who he meets for breakfast at his hotel and where a cup of coffee is $6.50. He wants to know how his wife is and who has decided upon divorce. The daughter does not want to be drawn into taking sides or giving information out which her might not wish her to do so. She accepts the subscription opera tickets as his wife does not want to go and misses the fact that he was in effect asking her to go with him. She asks Sam the deputy communications director who is reluctant and seeks approval from Leo. Leo asks him to work on a Presidential birthday message for an assistant secretary of transport as a means of spiking the outing and the President twigs what is going on and asks Sam to put his personal imprint when he gets a staffer to produce and acceptable response. When she finds this out, the daughter blows up in the presence of the President and he goes through the list of activities her father has undertaken during the day including ensuring that the President has not broken the law and is about to be indicted. She goes to the second act with her father and Sam declines joining them for coffee in the interval as he is taken up with getting the message right and in this he is joined by his boss. They comment that they have difficulty in locating their talent but one explains to the other that it is somewhere in the building.
The programme is brilliant in communicating that these are exceptional men and women who deal with a multitude of important and varied issues of government and party every day 24/7 but who have the same behavioural issues as everyone else in terms of personal relationships, being bored and excessively involved, understanding and also blind when emotions are aroused. It is doubtful if anyone can function at the level required for more than a few years.
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