Christmas is usually a time for reflection and reviewing the past year. I have given up sending a review of developments to friends as hearing about achievements or great experiences is usually of no interest to others and hearing about disasters and problems even less so.
And yet I continue to write the Blogs, although not as frequently as before, and which combines notes of how I am using the remaining time of self awareness, with reflections back, often going over and over the same event, from a different perspective, including that of time. I am driven to do this which I regard as a form of Performance art. The similarity between my way of thinking and that of Sophie Calle in terms of approach to output continues to encourage although I know that the quality of the output is so different. The closeness confirms the belief that with the number of human beings existing and with the inheritance of the abilities, visions and experiences of those who no longer possess physical self consciousness, near duplications of thoughts and outlooks will occur more than is usually recognised.
I am still behind in writing catch up with Il Travatore today after some ironing and vacuuming before settling down to the end of the year TV experience, and then a piece on films and then it will be Calle before the Forsyte Saga and a return to the work mainstream. My priority is to get some fresh milk.
I look forward to contacts telling me about their lives and experiences and always have but because of what I do and the way I am, not as many do as I would like. I remain filled with curiosity about the experiences of others and similarities and differences between us. I welcome the interaction with others even in this form of communication.
This year because of the weather and away from home Christmas became even more TV watching than planned and included a wide range of viewing suitable for the whole age range of families from Newcastle at St James to England trouncing South Africa in Durban to Igglepiggle and the Ninky Nonk of the Night Garden with High School Musical 3, Eastenders and the Royal Family with Gavin and Stacey, to the return to Cranford, Dr Who and the Day of the Triffids. On return there was i player catch of Babylon 5 and Spooks.
I do not regret the break away from work and writing. I am refreshed, to quote a line from The Wicker Man seen again on TV last night, although I wish I could have said regenerated in the sense of adding time to that allotted to this body
Traditionally Christmas and New Year were times of family visits to a live football match with Crystal Palace in South London the club where the extended family would go during this season and at Easter. The consequence was that I continued to go to the Palace when I became an adolescent and could travel on my own, leading to getting to know the faces majority of the core 100 or so who would stand on the terraces opposite the centre circle and main stand as the club faced re-selection to the old Third Division South for three successive years and where the total number of supporters was in the hundreds.
This year, for the first time in decades, I have no plans to attend a live game over Christmas New Year and in fact I have not been to a live game since the start of the season in August. I would have returned to St James Park to enjoy the clubs success leading the Championship had it not been for the continuing involvement of the owner Mike Ashley. There is no incentive to make a sale as if the club achieves promotion back to the Premiership the net worth will soar once more. Although to a live football game became traditional Sunderland and Newcastle teams always appeared to have too much Christmas pudding and the games were never brilliant displays and draws and defeats were more common that wins to tell the grandchildren about. Watching the hard fought, boring 0.0. Newcastle Draw on Monday early evening I remembered how cold watching live can get at this time of the year, even with clothing layers and headgear, water bottle and soup in a flask and side flask of something stronger. I was so pleased with myself that I had not invested in any ticket and best of all a season ticket. Newcastle remain six points clear at the top oft eh championship but have played one game more than West Brom in second place. They are however 8 points clear of Notts Forest ion third with the same number of games played and whopping 14 points clear of the fourth and fifth clubs although these have one or two games in hand to play. The crucial game will be between Newcastle at home to West Brom on January the 18th, a game which is also on the TV. Newcastle has the best squad of players in the championship so even with injuries and suspensions they should gain automatic promotion.
Sunderland should also avoid being in the relegation dog fight as the season’s end approaches this April and May. A difficulty winning games at home and away since beating Arsenal has created a gap between them and those competing for a place in Europe although they remain in mid table at 10th. They drew home and away over Christmas. They play next at home after the New Year winter’s break.
England through Paul Collingwood and Graham Onions prevented a defeat against South Africa in the first Test match which did not augur well for the rest of the series. When South Africa appeared to recover from a shaky start at Durban on a good wicket but with changeable weather a draw seemed the best prospect for the second which commenced on Boxing Day. Then over the past couple of days England’s batsmen rose to the occasion with Cook 118 and Bell 141 forming the backbone of a first innings of 575 for 9 which gave a lead of over 200 runs. Paul Collingwood also made 90 on top of his 50 and 26 not out giving him an average of over 80 for the series so far. Then something amazing happened just after I returned from today’s shopping and sorting outing. Swann and Broad brought South Africa to their knees with 50 for six wickets at one point and 76 for 6 at closure. Although some drizzle is forecast for tomorrow it could be all over by the time I get up in the morning. It was, almost, as three further wickets had fallen and the last while I was getting ready to go out. England therefore won by an innings and 98 runs with Swann a match total of nine wickets for 164.
It has been a good day so far with paying off the credit card balance before going out to Sunderland for a repair of my glasses where a frame holding side screw had fallen out. A chips on both lenses was noted, one when the glass lens slipped from the frame, but I do not know how the other ship came to be. Both are at the edge and do not affect viewing which is a relief. I then returned to South Shields where I collected the DVD set of the Forsyte Saga from the post office having attempted to deliver as I set off for the trip. I then visited Argos to check out inexpensive bagless vacuum cleaners after my present appliance packed up for some reason. I favoured one cost just over £40 not the cheapest and then found because of a sale the price was reduced to £29 plus £5 for a three year maintenance replacement insurance. After checking it out on return it works much better than the last, gathering a sock before I could prevent it and having to get out of the flexible tube.
The last call was to Halfords where I found their radio and Sat organiser was not in until tomorrow morning and with his first appointment at midday. Still to do is haircut, sending the information on gas and electricity use and some ironing as well as vacuuming the rest of the house. I will do this over the rest of the week.
There was a time when my evenings were governed by Eastenders, Coronation Street, Emmerdale and even Neighbours. My interest was threefold. I enjoyed considering the extent to which fictional entertainment came close to real life and how contemporary issues were interwoven with the continuing stories and it was a way to relax after the realities of the day. The original soap was The Archers which I listened to from the first episode for several years and then caught up on the week with the Sunday compilations. Over the past five years I have rarely bothered to see a programme but this year I watched the Christmas special as yet another murder occurred at the Queen Vic with the focus on the extended and Butcher families although the original families of the Beales and Fowlers was represented by the one character who has been a constant over the decades, Ian Beale, married four times. He was 16 when he joined the series in 1985 playing a 14 year old so he is now a 41 year old playing 39. He is just one the suspects to have murdered Peggy Mitchell’s former husband Archie who was threatening to expose his recent one night stand with the infamous Janine Butcher, who in turn was in a rage having been thrown of the Vic by Archie who had used her gain possession of the pub from Peggy and who was incensed that Janine was playing around and not just with Ian.
The third candidate for the murder is Peggy Mitchell, played by Barbara Windsor and brought in to the series to boost ratings in 1991, replacing the original actor after three months. The character is brassy, calculating and ruthless and not the Babs we came to love in the Carry on films. She has tried to get her son Phil to murder Archie before. The fourth character is Phil an alcoholic who has returned to drinking. Phil and his brother who was played by Ross Kemp until he decided to make a career outside the soap, are criminal thugs. Phil arranges for an alibi and looks like the prime suspect. However first arrested is one of Archie’s’ daughter who blames her father for the loss of her unborn child. I think that covers the suspects and you will have to watch the programme to find out as I will not.
Christmas day evening viewing on the BBC had an odd feel about it because the Eastenders was followed by the one of the planned last showings of the Royal Family. The Family comprises Ricky Tomlinson of Brookside and subsequent cinema roles. Wikipedia describes the character played by Ricky as sarcastic and temperamental, Jim spends his days in his armchair watching the television and doing as little as possible. Jim has a short temper, and regularly berates his family, and his mother-in-law Norma, though on occasion shows a more caring side, especially in moments when his family needs him. In the Special he resists going abroad on holiday and settles for a caravan on a site where all the facilities are closed, there is no chip pan and the telly is on the blink. He spends the night sharing a bed with his son in law, farting, eating and drinking.
His wife Barbara lives for her family, though her caring nature is often taken advantage of by Jim and Denise. Barbara worked part time at the bakery, and for a time was the only member of the family to have a job. She is often forgetful and a little scatter-brained. She and Denise chain smoke. The character is played by the excellent Sue Johnston also of Brookside as the wife of Ricky and who become a key character in the long running Waking the Dead series.
The couple only have one daughter, the married, Denise, extremely lazy and self-centred. She married to Dave in the first series, and they have two children, Little David and Norma, though she rarely parents her children, instead passing duties onto everyone else. Denise is known for filling ash tray upon ash tray. She is played by Caroline Aherne. the comedian and actress who created the Mrs Merton character. Caroline remains an outstanding writer who has a constant struggle to overcome clinical depression. She co-wrote the series. The fifth core member of the cast is her husband Dave. A nonentity who everyone treats with contempt, He is dim witted but well meaning. The fourth is the son of family who became a successful businessman although he was a figure of fun for the rest of the family and treated as their slave, unemployed and with no prospects. He did not feature in the Christmas special.
The essence of the series was to present the working class as moronic layabouts, looking for handouts and enjoying a life of drink, cigarettes and watching TV. It is difficult to understand the enthusiasm of the working class to watch the programme, especially on Christmas day. What was just as baffling is that the next programme was Gavin and Stacey the work of Mathew Horne and James Corden. Mathew is a product of the Southwell Minister School near Nottingham and James has a long list of credits from and TV credits as writer and actor especially the History Boys. I disliked their double act in Big Brother’s Big Mouth and the episode of Gavin and Stacey follows on in the style of the Royal family but has greater charm.
For the last three years of the life of my mother I played her tapes of the Telly Tubbies a programme designed for infants from about one year through to a hundred year old reverted to babyhood. The Night Garden is made by the same production team and is a worthy successor.
Over the past two nights I enjoyed a contemporary version of the Day of the Triffids, the 1951 John Wyndham story. This apocalyptic story tells of a three ‘legged’ plant able to move and communicate which has been bio chemically engineered in the Soviet union and accidentally released into the wild. On one hand they possess a deadly whip like venom while on the other they yield an extract which is superior to vegetable oil. The main character, Bill Marsden, is in hospital with his eyes bandaged when the world is struck by a meteor shower which renders the majority of people blind, after which he walks around London seeing civilization collapsing round him. He meets a young woman who has also survived and they fall in love and decide to leave London. Before leaving they encounter a group of sighted people aiming to establish a colony in the countryside where polygamy will be practiced to rapidly re building the sighted population. His approach is opposed within the group and by a man called Coker who wants to save as many of those who have been blinded as possible and insists that every sighted person should have a disabled person handcuffed to them for looking after. Mason and his girl friend are captured and handcuffed to such individuals. The practicalities of this is never explained
Eventually Bill and Josella come together again with a sighted young girl who they treat as their daughter and attempt to establish a self sufficient colony in the countryside. The problem is the Triffids who are carnivorous plants and are becoming more numerous. They learn of a successful colony on the Isle of Wight involving a reformed Coker. Their progress is halted by the intervention of a despotic new government led by Torrence, previously encountered in London. They escape the clutches of this organisation and make it to the Isle of Wight where they work to find a way to destroy the Triffids and reclaim the earth for humanity. The writer acknowledged his debt to H G Wells for his similar work, The War of the Worlds.
In 1957 there was the first of two radio adaptations in six episodes with Patrick Barr as Bill Marsden. The second was in 1968, also in six episodes and both directed by Giles Copper. This production also featured the Marjorie Westbury in a supporting role. I remember listening to both.
The 1962 British film had Howard Keel in the role of Bill Marsden with the Triffids depicted as gigantic asparagus shoots. The Triffids are non human manufactured but arrived from a earlier meteor shower. Some of the action takes place in Spain where an escape is achieved by use of music played by an ice cream van. The earth is taken back when it is discovered that the Triffids cannot cope with sea water. Jeanette Scott, Mervyn Johns and Kieron Moore also feature in the film. I have only seen the film once in Theatre at the time and once on TV since
In 1981 the BBC created the first TV adaptation in six episodes, The series closely followed the book. balancing the threat posed by the Triffids by the behaviour of individuals and groups as civilization is destroyed. The creatures achieve ascendancy forcing the surviving humans to live in isolated rural communities and islands.
Each of the Triffids plants was human controlled from inside made up of a frame covered in latex and sawdust, a neck of fibreglass and a flexible rubber head coated with grunge. The series has been shown from time to time since on the BBC1 1984 and BBC 4 2006 and 2009, UK Gold 2004 and 2005 and the Sci-fi channel 2006. I remember seeing this series only once. I say remember in the sense of knowing but I have no visual image to build upon.
The 2009 Christmas to New Year version was reduced to three hours in two episodes and has Eddie Izzard as the calculating and ruthless Torrence with a hankering for Joely Richardson who plays the leading girl and who is a nationally known TV front of camera personality. Brian Cox is the scientist father of Masen and Venessa Redgrave as the despotic head of a Convent prepared to sacrifice the blind to the Triffids in order for her Order of nuns to survive.
The latest production is also more focussed on the theme that the world has created the situation by mismanagement of the planet and failure to work together across country boundaries, languages, political systems and faiths. It also highlights that individuals will exploit situations of crisis for their own ends and that civilized living and democratic process are fragile and not as deeply rooted as most would wish and government’s like us to believe.
The BBC also provided two 90 minutes episodes of Cranford, the Victorian novel of Elizabeth Gaskell first published in 1851 as a serial in a magazine edited by Charles Dickens, although the Christmas special is a fabrication extending the story from that of the novel..
The fictional town of Cranford was written with the Cheshire town of Knutsford in mind. Because of its serial nature the story is collection of episodes about the lives of a number of characters in the town and which today provides a good view of the behaviour and manners at the time of great exhibition and as the industrial revolution commenced to impact on rural England and the other parts of the British Islands. There is a narrator Mary Smith from Manchester (Lisa Dillon) who stays with Miss Matty, Matilda Jenkins played in the TV series by Judi Dench who lives with her dominating older sister the moral Guardian for the town played by Eileen Atkins and who dies early on in the novel.
Among the ladies of the town are Miss Pole, a career spinster and gossip played by Imelda Staunton; The Honourable Mrs Jamieson a widow with aristocratic connections who considers herself superior to the town ladies played by Barbara Flynn and who has a beloved dog; Julia McKensie plays another widow and Betty, a former Milliner who own a cow which she loves as a daughter and where the two characters are combined in the TV adaptation, There is Peter Jenkins, the long lost brother who returns from India at the end of the book and played by Martin Shaw. Thomas Holbrook is an admirer of Matty, a farmer who dies a year after a trip to Paris(Michael Gambon); Captain Brown (Jim Carter) a retired officer dependent on his half pay with two daughters. One of his daughters is played by Julia Swalha who leaves to marry after her sister and father die. Major Gordon is the friend of Captain Brown. Lady Glenmire Mrs Jamieson’s poor but aristocratic sister in law who marries Dr Hoggins and both these characters do not appear in the series. Martha is Matty’s maid who she treats as a companion and equal. In the TV series Martha has a fiancée, a carpenter who has an important role in the specials as his wife dies and he leaves the town in search of work in the city with his young son and this has a great effect on Matty.
Francesca Annis plays Lady Ludlow the local aristocrat with a large house and estate. She has a son with no interest in her or the estate and lives abroad with the consequence that her Ladyship relies on her prudent estate manager with socialist views and who take an interest in a bright poor local boy who when he dies leaves his estate worth £20000 to the boy with £1000 to be used for his education at Shewsbury School and rest to when he is twenty one with the intention of returning to head a school to provide education for the working classes. However the rest of the money is to go to redeeming the mortgage with is required to keep the estate going because the funds have gone to keeping the son in the lifestyle he believes is his right. The money is to be returned to the boy with interest by the time he reaches his majority. There are several other characters where I do not know if they are in the book or not including a magistrates, two doctors, one of who has a relationship with the eldest daughter of the vicar.
The series of five episode commences in 1842 when Dr Harrison arrives to assist the existing doctor and gets into conflict when he refuses to amputate a compound fracture sustained by Jin Hearne, the local carpenter and performs a new and risky operation which brings him the esteem of the townsfolk. Edward Carter begins his interest young Harry Gregson offering him a job and an education and we are introduced to the ladies of the town and some of their ways.
In the second episode there is news of the approach of the railway and development is in the lives and loves of Major Gordon and Dr Harrison. Deborah Jenkyns accuses Captain Brown over deception in promotion of the railway but she dies from what appears to be a brain tumour,
In the third episodes a friend of Dr Harrison arrives and causes great mischief by sending a romantic card to one of two spinsters and this bit of fun causes Dr Harrison great harm. Harry Gregson’s father is arrested for poaching but saved by the intervention of Lady Ludlow following an appeal from Mr Carter. Matty is reunited with Thomas Holbroke. Their marriage plans had been prevented because of family disapproval when they were young and because of scandal involving her brother who fled to India. Sadly Thomas dies following his return from Paris of pneumonia and Matty feels she has become a widow.
Matty loses he income when the bank fails but unbeknown to her friends rally and the bank pretends there has been an accounting error. The railway comes closer to the village and needs to pass through the estate but instead of selling the property Lady Ludlow wants to keep the community as it is and takes a mortgage in order to fund the lifestyle of her absent son in Italy.
Mr Carter finds out about the mortgage and that her Ladyship may not have the funds to meet the repayments and uses his own savings on the understanding his estate will be repaid with interest upon his death if not beforehand. Matty increases her income by selling tea from her home. Dr Harrison’s relationship with the daughter of the vicar is cemented when he saves her from an attack of typhoid. An accident on the railway fatally injures Mr Carter and his Will reveals the bequest to young Hugh. Major Gordon returns from India where his proposal for marriage to Jessie Brown is accepted. He brings back Matty’s brother. The series ends with the marriage of Dr Harrison to the daughter of the Vicar. And that was to have been that as the book was fully covered.
In the Christmas 3 hour special the story is developed from this point with Judi Dench, Julia McKensie, Imelda Staunton, Barbara Flynn and Deborah Finlay playing their original roles and with nine other actors playing original or new roles including Jonathan Pryce.
The son of Lady Ludlow returns but too late to for his mother who dies after waiting all day for him despite failing health. He attempts to trick Hugh out of his inheritance with a bankers note for £5000 after pretending that this will save the estate and the jobs it provides. He then sells the estate to the railway development but his action is thwarted by someone who appears to work for Lady Ludlow or may be a relative who works together with the Vicar. They ensure that Hugh goes to Shrewsbury school where he is the victim of bullying and abuse. He nearly dies in a railway accident when the train hits the domesticated cow but is brought back to good health and is found a place at Manchester Grammar School as a day boy with his protector moving to the city to provide a home for him.
The main story concerns a family known to Matty which leads to the daughter establishing a romantic association with the son, William, of a salt manufacturer Mr Buxton (Jonathan Pryce who has bought a home in the area) and who disapproves of the match because he wants his son to marry into county stock. He abandons his son and takes up with the girls brother who diverts £60 of the £160 paid for the demolition of four cottages in the path of the railway and where the tenants had been promised rehousing. Mr Buxton offers to provide an escape for the wayward brother abroad if his sister agrees to accompany him abroad and give up her relationship with his son. Matty discovering this situation finds William who is working for Captain Brown and the railway development and he arrives as the train his the cow and is derailed. He rescues his fiancée while her brother makes off with the money for the trip and then gets near fatally injured while helping the rest of the passengers. He survivors and the match is eventually approved by Mr Buxton.
There is great excitement when an aristocratic relative, a widow arrives to visit widow Mrs Jamieson, and who upsets the ladies of her circle by suggesting her relative will want to move only with County people because the Cranford ladies do not have the social position. However she has shunned London and the Court and befriends the ladies after being welcomed by Captain Brown who she marries by special licence much to the horror of Mrs Jamieson who shuts herself off the rest of her society. She is joined in this approach by Miss Pole.
Miss Matty decides to use the profits made from her tea selling activities to revive the local community centre and invites a conjurer to provide entertainment after his previous visit had to be cancelled. While one of the ladies argues that it is conjuring by use of hands and devices rather than magic, he confounds her with some of the tricks. The evening ends with a visit from Mrs Jamieson who is brought to the event by Matty’s brother with the suggestion of a close relationship between the two being established.
A key moment in the first episode was when the carpenter left for Manchester with his son and Miss Matty realised that without the railway all the young people would leave. She persuades all the ladies to join her on a special outing arranged by Captain Brown and they are joined by Mr Buxton who is persuaded by the event and the son to sell the land with the four cottages essential for the railway to continue into the town centre. When the town becomes full of drunk navies working on the line and the accident causes death and serious injury she begins to feel she has made a mistake. At the social evening, the magician uses a cabinet in which he makes the sceptic spinster disappear in order for her to reappear holding the baby son of the carpenter who also appears in the audience to say he is returning to Cranford because the railway will enabling him to make a living there. Matty had helped care for his son after the death of its mother. I suspect there are at least a couple of other Christmas specials in the pipeline if the key characters remain available.
There was no feel good ending to the latest series of Spooks as the work of the secret Nightingale Group of security service agents and others funded by the Chinese reaches it climax as it prepares to blow up a hotel where the Pakistan President is staying so as to bring war and nuclear war between India and Pakistan closer. The plot goes even better than planned as the plotters also capture the British Home Secretary, incapacitating him so he cannot leave the hotel when the bomb plot is discovered. In this series we have already experience the death of Jo Portman and now Ros Myers, Head of Section and former senior case officer is also sacrificed as she tries unsuccessfully to rescue the Home Secretary. Fortunately Lucas North manages to bring out the Pakistan President who ensures that the confrontation with India does not escalate. Lucas experiences the assassination of his girlfriend the US agent Sarah Caufield who is shot in the head when recovering in hospital from being shot in leg by Ros. The lead CIA plotter is blown up by the bomb. The MI5 unit is therefore decimated with only Harry, Sir Harry Pearce remaining from 2002 and the return of Ruth Evershed the analyst who features 200202006 and then was brought back in the present series after her faked death and establishment of a new life with a Greek boyfriend and his son. The role call of departed agents, usually killed in the line of duty has to be deliberate story reality writing?
And yet I continue to write the Blogs, although not as frequently as before, and which combines notes of how I am using the remaining time of self awareness, with reflections back, often going over and over the same event, from a different perspective, including that of time. I am driven to do this which I regard as a form of Performance art. The similarity between my way of thinking and that of Sophie Calle in terms of approach to output continues to encourage although I know that the quality of the output is so different. The closeness confirms the belief that with the number of human beings existing and with the inheritance of the abilities, visions and experiences of those who no longer possess physical self consciousness, near duplications of thoughts and outlooks will occur more than is usually recognised.
I am still behind in writing catch up with Il Travatore today after some ironing and vacuuming before settling down to the end of the year TV experience, and then a piece on films and then it will be Calle before the Forsyte Saga and a return to the work mainstream. My priority is to get some fresh milk.
I look forward to contacts telling me about their lives and experiences and always have but because of what I do and the way I am, not as many do as I would like. I remain filled with curiosity about the experiences of others and similarities and differences between us. I welcome the interaction with others even in this form of communication.
This year because of the weather and away from home Christmas became even more TV watching than planned and included a wide range of viewing suitable for the whole age range of families from Newcastle at St James to England trouncing South Africa in Durban to Igglepiggle and the Ninky Nonk of the Night Garden with High School Musical 3, Eastenders and the Royal Family with Gavin and Stacey, to the return to Cranford, Dr Who and the Day of the Triffids. On return there was i player catch of Babylon 5 and Spooks.
I do not regret the break away from work and writing. I am refreshed, to quote a line from The Wicker Man seen again on TV last night, although I wish I could have said regenerated in the sense of adding time to that allotted to this body
Traditionally Christmas and New Year were times of family visits to a live football match with Crystal Palace in South London the club where the extended family would go during this season and at Easter. The consequence was that I continued to go to the Palace when I became an adolescent and could travel on my own, leading to getting to know the faces majority of the core 100 or so who would stand on the terraces opposite the centre circle and main stand as the club faced re-selection to the old Third Division South for three successive years and where the total number of supporters was in the hundreds.
This year, for the first time in decades, I have no plans to attend a live game over Christmas New Year and in fact I have not been to a live game since the start of the season in August. I would have returned to St James Park to enjoy the clubs success leading the Championship had it not been for the continuing involvement of the owner Mike Ashley. There is no incentive to make a sale as if the club achieves promotion back to the Premiership the net worth will soar once more. Although to a live football game became traditional Sunderland and Newcastle teams always appeared to have too much Christmas pudding and the games were never brilliant displays and draws and defeats were more common that wins to tell the grandchildren about. Watching the hard fought, boring 0.0. Newcastle Draw on Monday early evening I remembered how cold watching live can get at this time of the year, even with clothing layers and headgear, water bottle and soup in a flask and side flask of something stronger. I was so pleased with myself that I had not invested in any ticket and best of all a season ticket. Newcastle remain six points clear at the top oft eh championship but have played one game more than West Brom in second place. They are however 8 points clear of Notts Forest ion third with the same number of games played and whopping 14 points clear of the fourth and fifth clubs although these have one or two games in hand to play. The crucial game will be between Newcastle at home to West Brom on January the 18th, a game which is also on the TV. Newcastle has the best squad of players in the championship so even with injuries and suspensions they should gain automatic promotion.
Sunderland should also avoid being in the relegation dog fight as the season’s end approaches this April and May. A difficulty winning games at home and away since beating Arsenal has created a gap between them and those competing for a place in Europe although they remain in mid table at 10th. They drew home and away over Christmas. They play next at home after the New Year winter’s break.
England through Paul Collingwood and Graham Onions prevented a defeat against South Africa in the first Test match which did not augur well for the rest of the series. When South Africa appeared to recover from a shaky start at Durban on a good wicket but with changeable weather a draw seemed the best prospect for the second which commenced on Boxing Day. Then over the past couple of days England’s batsmen rose to the occasion with Cook 118 and Bell 141 forming the backbone of a first innings of 575 for 9 which gave a lead of over 200 runs. Paul Collingwood also made 90 on top of his 50 and 26 not out giving him an average of over 80 for the series so far. Then something amazing happened just after I returned from today’s shopping and sorting outing. Swann and Broad brought South Africa to their knees with 50 for six wickets at one point and 76 for 6 at closure. Although some drizzle is forecast for tomorrow it could be all over by the time I get up in the morning. It was, almost, as three further wickets had fallen and the last while I was getting ready to go out. England therefore won by an innings and 98 runs with Swann a match total of nine wickets for 164.
It has been a good day so far with paying off the credit card balance before going out to Sunderland for a repair of my glasses where a frame holding side screw had fallen out. A chips on both lenses was noted, one when the glass lens slipped from the frame, but I do not know how the other ship came to be. Both are at the edge and do not affect viewing which is a relief. I then returned to South Shields where I collected the DVD set of the Forsyte Saga from the post office having attempted to deliver as I set off for the trip. I then visited Argos to check out inexpensive bagless vacuum cleaners after my present appliance packed up for some reason. I favoured one cost just over £40 not the cheapest and then found because of a sale the price was reduced to £29 plus £5 for a three year maintenance replacement insurance. After checking it out on return it works much better than the last, gathering a sock before I could prevent it and having to get out of the flexible tube.
The last call was to Halfords where I found their radio and Sat organiser was not in until tomorrow morning and with his first appointment at midday. Still to do is haircut, sending the information on gas and electricity use and some ironing as well as vacuuming the rest of the house. I will do this over the rest of the week.
There was a time when my evenings were governed by Eastenders, Coronation Street, Emmerdale and even Neighbours. My interest was threefold. I enjoyed considering the extent to which fictional entertainment came close to real life and how contemporary issues were interwoven with the continuing stories and it was a way to relax after the realities of the day. The original soap was The Archers which I listened to from the first episode for several years and then caught up on the week with the Sunday compilations. Over the past five years I have rarely bothered to see a programme but this year I watched the Christmas special as yet another murder occurred at the Queen Vic with the focus on the extended and Butcher families although the original families of the Beales and Fowlers was represented by the one character who has been a constant over the decades, Ian Beale, married four times. He was 16 when he joined the series in 1985 playing a 14 year old so he is now a 41 year old playing 39. He is just one the suspects to have murdered Peggy Mitchell’s former husband Archie who was threatening to expose his recent one night stand with the infamous Janine Butcher, who in turn was in a rage having been thrown of the Vic by Archie who had used her gain possession of the pub from Peggy and who was incensed that Janine was playing around and not just with Ian.
The third candidate for the murder is Peggy Mitchell, played by Barbara Windsor and brought in to the series to boost ratings in 1991, replacing the original actor after three months. The character is brassy, calculating and ruthless and not the Babs we came to love in the Carry on films. She has tried to get her son Phil to murder Archie before. The fourth character is Phil an alcoholic who has returned to drinking. Phil and his brother who was played by Ross Kemp until he decided to make a career outside the soap, are criminal thugs. Phil arranges for an alibi and looks like the prime suspect. However first arrested is one of Archie’s’ daughter who blames her father for the loss of her unborn child. I think that covers the suspects and you will have to watch the programme to find out as I will not.
Christmas day evening viewing on the BBC had an odd feel about it because the Eastenders was followed by the one of the planned last showings of the Royal Family. The Family comprises Ricky Tomlinson of Brookside and subsequent cinema roles. Wikipedia describes the character played by Ricky as sarcastic and temperamental, Jim spends his days in his armchair watching the television and doing as little as possible. Jim has a short temper, and regularly berates his family, and his mother-in-law Norma, though on occasion shows a more caring side, especially in moments when his family needs him. In the Special he resists going abroad on holiday and settles for a caravan on a site where all the facilities are closed, there is no chip pan and the telly is on the blink. He spends the night sharing a bed with his son in law, farting, eating and drinking.
His wife Barbara lives for her family, though her caring nature is often taken advantage of by Jim and Denise. Barbara worked part time at the bakery, and for a time was the only member of the family to have a job. She is often forgetful and a little scatter-brained. She and Denise chain smoke. The character is played by the excellent Sue Johnston also of Brookside as the wife of Ricky and who become a key character in the long running Waking the Dead series.
The couple only have one daughter, the married, Denise, extremely lazy and self-centred. She married to Dave in the first series, and they have two children, Little David and Norma, though she rarely parents her children, instead passing duties onto everyone else. Denise is known for filling ash tray upon ash tray. She is played by Caroline Aherne. the comedian and actress who created the Mrs Merton character. Caroline remains an outstanding writer who has a constant struggle to overcome clinical depression. She co-wrote the series. The fifth core member of the cast is her husband Dave. A nonentity who everyone treats with contempt, He is dim witted but well meaning. The fourth is the son of family who became a successful businessman although he was a figure of fun for the rest of the family and treated as their slave, unemployed and with no prospects. He did not feature in the Christmas special.
The essence of the series was to present the working class as moronic layabouts, looking for handouts and enjoying a life of drink, cigarettes and watching TV. It is difficult to understand the enthusiasm of the working class to watch the programme, especially on Christmas day. What was just as baffling is that the next programme was Gavin and Stacey the work of Mathew Horne and James Corden. Mathew is a product of the Southwell Minister School near Nottingham and James has a long list of credits from and TV credits as writer and actor especially the History Boys. I disliked their double act in Big Brother’s Big Mouth and the episode of Gavin and Stacey follows on in the style of the Royal family but has greater charm.
For the last three years of the life of my mother I played her tapes of the Telly Tubbies a programme designed for infants from about one year through to a hundred year old reverted to babyhood. The Night Garden is made by the same production team and is a worthy successor.
Over the past two nights I enjoyed a contemporary version of the Day of the Triffids, the 1951 John Wyndham story. This apocalyptic story tells of a three ‘legged’ plant able to move and communicate which has been bio chemically engineered in the Soviet union and accidentally released into the wild. On one hand they possess a deadly whip like venom while on the other they yield an extract which is superior to vegetable oil. The main character, Bill Marsden, is in hospital with his eyes bandaged when the world is struck by a meteor shower which renders the majority of people blind, after which he walks around London seeing civilization collapsing round him. He meets a young woman who has also survived and they fall in love and decide to leave London. Before leaving they encounter a group of sighted people aiming to establish a colony in the countryside where polygamy will be practiced to rapidly re building the sighted population. His approach is opposed within the group and by a man called Coker who wants to save as many of those who have been blinded as possible and insists that every sighted person should have a disabled person handcuffed to them for looking after. Mason and his girl friend are captured and handcuffed to such individuals. The practicalities of this is never explained
Eventually Bill and Josella come together again with a sighted young girl who they treat as their daughter and attempt to establish a self sufficient colony in the countryside. The problem is the Triffids who are carnivorous plants and are becoming more numerous. They learn of a successful colony on the Isle of Wight involving a reformed Coker. Their progress is halted by the intervention of a despotic new government led by Torrence, previously encountered in London. They escape the clutches of this organisation and make it to the Isle of Wight where they work to find a way to destroy the Triffids and reclaim the earth for humanity. The writer acknowledged his debt to H G Wells for his similar work, The War of the Worlds.
In 1957 there was the first of two radio adaptations in six episodes with Patrick Barr as Bill Marsden. The second was in 1968, also in six episodes and both directed by Giles Copper. This production also featured the Marjorie Westbury in a supporting role. I remember listening to both.
The 1962 British film had Howard Keel in the role of Bill Marsden with the Triffids depicted as gigantic asparagus shoots. The Triffids are non human manufactured but arrived from a earlier meteor shower. Some of the action takes place in Spain where an escape is achieved by use of music played by an ice cream van. The earth is taken back when it is discovered that the Triffids cannot cope with sea water. Jeanette Scott, Mervyn Johns and Kieron Moore also feature in the film. I have only seen the film once in Theatre at the time and once on TV since
In 1981 the BBC created the first TV adaptation in six episodes, The series closely followed the book. balancing the threat posed by the Triffids by the behaviour of individuals and groups as civilization is destroyed. The creatures achieve ascendancy forcing the surviving humans to live in isolated rural communities and islands.
Each of the Triffids plants was human controlled from inside made up of a frame covered in latex and sawdust, a neck of fibreglass and a flexible rubber head coated with grunge. The series has been shown from time to time since on the BBC1 1984 and BBC 4 2006 and 2009, UK Gold 2004 and 2005 and the Sci-fi channel 2006. I remember seeing this series only once. I say remember in the sense of knowing but I have no visual image to build upon.
The 2009 Christmas to New Year version was reduced to three hours in two episodes and has Eddie Izzard as the calculating and ruthless Torrence with a hankering for Joely Richardson who plays the leading girl and who is a nationally known TV front of camera personality. Brian Cox is the scientist father of Masen and Venessa Redgrave as the despotic head of a Convent prepared to sacrifice the blind to the Triffids in order for her Order of nuns to survive.
The latest production is also more focussed on the theme that the world has created the situation by mismanagement of the planet and failure to work together across country boundaries, languages, political systems and faiths. It also highlights that individuals will exploit situations of crisis for their own ends and that civilized living and democratic process are fragile and not as deeply rooted as most would wish and government’s like us to believe.
The BBC also provided two 90 minutes episodes of Cranford, the Victorian novel of Elizabeth Gaskell first published in 1851 as a serial in a magazine edited by Charles Dickens, although the Christmas special is a fabrication extending the story from that of the novel..
The fictional town of Cranford was written with the Cheshire town of Knutsford in mind. Because of its serial nature the story is collection of episodes about the lives of a number of characters in the town and which today provides a good view of the behaviour and manners at the time of great exhibition and as the industrial revolution commenced to impact on rural England and the other parts of the British Islands. There is a narrator Mary Smith from Manchester (Lisa Dillon) who stays with Miss Matty, Matilda Jenkins played in the TV series by Judi Dench who lives with her dominating older sister the moral Guardian for the town played by Eileen Atkins and who dies early on in the novel.
Among the ladies of the town are Miss Pole, a career spinster and gossip played by Imelda Staunton; The Honourable Mrs Jamieson a widow with aristocratic connections who considers herself superior to the town ladies played by Barbara Flynn and who has a beloved dog; Julia McKensie plays another widow and Betty, a former Milliner who own a cow which she loves as a daughter and where the two characters are combined in the TV adaptation, There is Peter Jenkins, the long lost brother who returns from India at the end of the book and played by Martin Shaw. Thomas Holbrook is an admirer of Matty, a farmer who dies a year after a trip to Paris(Michael Gambon); Captain Brown (Jim Carter) a retired officer dependent on his half pay with two daughters. One of his daughters is played by Julia Swalha who leaves to marry after her sister and father die. Major Gordon is the friend of Captain Brown. Lady Glenmire Mrs Jamieson’s poor but aristocratic sister in law who marries Dr Hoggins and both these characters do not appear in the series. Martha is Matty’s maid who she treats as a companion and equal. In the TV series Martha has a fiancée, a carpenter who has an important role in the specials as his wife dies and he leaves the town in search of work in the city with his young son and this has a great effect on Matty.
Francesca Annis plays Lady Ludlow the local aristocrat with a large house and estate. She has a son with no interest in her or the estate and lives abroad with the consequence that her Ladyship relies on her prudent estate manager with socialist views and who take an interest in a bright poor local boy who when he dies leaves his estate worth £20000 to the boy with £1000 to be used for his education at Shewsbury School and rest to when he is twenty one with the intention of returning to head a school to provide education for the working classes. However the rest of the money is to go to redeeming the mortgage with is required to keep the estate going because the funds have gone to keeping the son in the lifestyle he believes is his right. The money is to be returned to the boy with interest by the time he reaches his majority. There are several other characters where I do not know if they are in the book or not including a magistrates, two doctors, one of who has a relationship with the eldest daughter of the vicar.
The series of five episode commences in 1842 when Dr Harrison arrives to assist the existing doctor and gets into conflict when he refuses to amputate a compound fracture sustained by Jin Hearne, the local carpenter and performs a new and risky operation which brings him the esteem of the townsfolk. Edward Carter begins his interest young Harry Gregson offering him a job and an education and we are introduced to the ladies of the town and some of their ways.
In the second episode there is news of the approach of the railway and development is in the lives and loves of Major Gordon and Dr Harrison. Deborah Jenkyns accuses Captain Brown over deception in promotion of the railway but she dies from what appears to be a brain tumour,
In the third episodes a friend of Dr Harrison arrives and causes great mischief by sending a romantic card to one of two spinsters and this bit of fun causes Dr Harrison great harm. Harry Gregson’s father is arrested for poaching but saved by the intervention of Lady Ludlow following an appeal from Mr Carter. Matty is reunited with Thomas Holbroke. Their marriage plans had been prevented because of family disapproval when they were young and because of scandal involving her brother who fled to India. Sadly Thomas dies following his return from Paris of pneumonia and Matty feels she has become a widow.
Matty loses he income when the bank fails but unbeknown to her friends rally and the bank pretends there has been an accounting error. The railway comes closer to the village and needs to pass through the estate but instead of selling the property Lady Ludlow wants to keep the community as it is and takes a mortgage in order to fund the lifestyle of her absent son in Italy.
Mr Carter finds out about the mortgage and that her Ladyship may not have the funds to meet the repayments and uses his own savings on the understanding his estate will be repaid with interest upon his death if not beforehand. Matty increases her income by selling tea from her home. Dr Harrison’s relationship with the daughter of the vicar is cemented when he saves her from an attack of typhoid. An accident on the railway fatally injures Mr Carter and his Will reveals the bequest to young Hugh. Major Gordon returns from India where his proposal for marriage to Jessie Brown is accepted. He brings back Matty’s brother. The series ends with the marriage of Dr Harrison to the daughter of the Vicar. And that was to have been that as the book was fully covered.
In the Christmas 3 hour special the story is developed from this point with Judi Dench, Julia McKensie, Imelda Staunton, Barbara Flynn and Deborah Finlay playing their original roles and with nine other actors playing original or new roles including Jonathan Pryce.
The son of Lady Ludlow returns but too late to for his mother who dies after waiting all day for him despite failing health. He attempts to trick Hugh out of his inheritance with a bankers note for £5000 after pretending that this will save the estate and the jobs it provides. He then sells the estate to the railway development but his action is thwarted by someone who appears to work for Lady Ludlow or may be a relative who works together with the Vicar. They ensure that Hugh goes to Shrewsbury school where he is the victim of bullying and abuse. He nearly dies in a railway accident when the train hits the domesticated cow but is brought back to good health and is found a place at Manchester Grammar School as a day boy with his protector moving to the city to provide a home for him.
The main story concerns a family known to Matty which leads to the daughter establishing a romantic association with the son, William, of a salt manufacturer Mr Buxton (Jonathan Pryce who has bought a home in the area) and who disapproves of the match because he wants his son to marry into county stock. He abandons his son and takes up with the girls brother who diverts £60 of the £160 paid for the demolition of four cottages in the path of the railway and where the tenants had been promised rehousing. Mr Buxton offers to provide an escape for the wayward brother abroad if his sister agrees to accompany him abroad and give up her relationship with his son. Matty discovering this situation finds William who is working for Captain Brown and the railway development and he arrives as the train his the cow and is derailed. He rescues his fiancée while her brother makes off with the money for the trip and then gets near fatally injured while helping the rest of the passengers. He survivors and the match is eventually approved by Mr Buxton.
There is great excitement when an aristocratic relative, a widow arrives to visit widow Mrs Jamieson, and who upsets the ladies of her circle by suggesting her relative will want to move only with County people because the Cranford ladies do not have the social position. However she has shunned London and the Court and befriends the ladies after being welcomed by Captain Brown who she marries by special licence much to the horror of Mrs Jamieson who shuts herself off the rest of her society. She is joined in this approach by Miss Pole.
Miss Matty decides to use the profits made from her tea selling activities to revive the local community centre and invites a conjurer to provide entertainment after his previous visit had to be cancelled. While one of the ladies argues that it is conjuring by use of hands and devices rather than magic, he confounds her with some of the tricks. The evening ends with a visit from Mrs Jamieson who is brought to the event by Matty’s brother with the suggestion of a close relationship between the two being established.
A key moment in the first episode was when the carpenter left for Manchester with his son and Miss Matty realised that without the railway all the young people would leave. She persuades all the ladies to join her on a special outing arranged by Captain Brown and they are joined by Mr Buxton who is persuaded by the event and the son to sell the land with the four cottages essential for the railway to continue into the town centre. When the town becomes full of drunk navies working on the line and the accident causes death and serious injury she begins to feel she has made a mistake. At the social evening, the magician uses a cabinet in which he makes the sceptic spinster disappear in order for her to reappear holding the baby son of the carpenter who also appears in the audience to say he is returning to Cranford because the railway will enabling him to make a living there. Matty had helped care for his son after the death of its mother. I suspect there are at least a couple of other Christmas specials in the pipeline if the key characters remain available.
There was no feel good ending to the latest series of Spooks as the work of the secret Nightingale Group of security service agents and others funded by the Chinese reaches it climax as it prepares to blow up a hotel where the Pakistan President is staying so as to bring war and nuclear war between India and Pakistan closer. The plot goes even better than planned as the plotters also capture the British Home Secretary, incapacitating him so he cannot leave the hotel when the bomb plot is discovered. In this series we have already experience the death of Jo Portman and now Ros Myers, Head of Section and former senior case officer is also sacrificed as she tries unsuccessfully to rescue the Home Secretary. Fortunately Lucas North manages to bring out the Pakistan President who ensures that the confrontation with India does not escalate. Lucas experiences the assassination of his girlfriend the US agent Sarah Caufield who is shot in the head when recovering in hospital from being shot in leg by Ros. The lead CIA plotter is blown up by the bomb. The MI5 unit is therefore decimated with only Harry, Sir Harry Pearce remaining from 2002 and the return of Ruth Evershed the analyst who features 200202006 and then was brought back in the present series after her faked death and establishment of a new life with a Greek boyfriend and his son. The role call of departed agents, usually killed in the line of duty has to be deliberate story reality writing?
