There has been a variable mixture of watching and listening experiences over the past few days. My first choice is a Chinese film Seventeen years which was a revelation. A middle age Chinese couple have daughters by previous marriages and the daughter of the wife kills the daughter of husband and serves seventeen years in prison. She is discharged in time for the Chinese New Year celebrations because of exceptional good behaviour and after her family fails to respond to an advisory letter a prison officer accompanies the young woman, she has become, to the parental home, only to find they have moved, and it is late in the day when they are found. The wife admits to receiving the letter about the visit but puts off telling her husband for fear how he will react. He is stunned by the arrival and goes off to sit in the dark in the bedroom while his wife prepares food for their guests as well as having tea from a keep hot container.
Eventually the husband is able to talk and confront his step daughter. He explains that he has dreaded this day and had thought of moving out of the home, and he would have done this had his wife told him in advance. Then in one of the most truthful and moving moments in the cinema he communicates his love for his wife, the loss he has felt and his wish for them to become a family and the prison officer discretely and with equal sensitivity leaves them together. For once fundamental issues of crimes and punishment within a family are dealt with honestly, realistically and with great love and understanding. It is one of the best films I have seen this year and was shown on the Australian Sat channel World Vision. I appreciate that the film can be regarded as a propaganda message to the Chinese people about how easily a small incident, in this instance a few coins of little value can lead to such great tragedy and years of suffering within the family and one suspects that in real life the outcome will never be as good, but this does not take away from what I have said about the film overall.
I also part watched a Japanese film about two brothers who become infatuated with the same girl and when she dies, one brother is accused of her death and her other brother and their father support, until the trial when it is first revealed that the girl had a lover which begins to explode the defence and then when the brother is supposed to provide good character testimony he stuns everyone, especially the defence lawyer by revealing that he witnessed his brother push the girl off the bridge. The film moves to several years later but it was at this point I decided I needed to concentrate wholly on something else and that I would watch the film with attention another time as it has also been listed several times on the new World Movies channel. I only mention now because of the similarity between aspects of the two films.
The unexpected highlight was Last Choir Standing where I watched the second programme in what has become a formulae series on the main terrestrial channels as the decade has progressed. In this instance the choirs have no commercial ambitions and comprise people of all ages who like to sing and who would like to win the contest or progress to the final stages when week by week one choir is eliminated. They varied from a long standing police choir from Hereford of mainly retired officers who want to do well for their comrades and partners who have departed and appear to be one of the front runners, to a community group with disability members who were put through along with several other in order to give them encouragement rather than having any chance of making the final groups who are then subject to the public vote. I am a sucker for such programmes as has been frequently revealed before but I had another interest which is part of my own story, one of those parts which is likely not to be significant enough or of interest to others in any standard account of a life.
The St Elphege School was a small fee paying preparatory school for Catholic children with small classes which employed a music teacher who gave a piano recital at the Wigmore Hall to which pupils a small group of pupils were invited but where I was unable to attend because of illness. The performance was recorded for radio broadcasting if I remember She formed a school choir and we were entered into a choir competition which if I remember correctly there was only one or perhaps two other competing schools in our category. We were such a small school that this was the only activity I remember in which we competed with other schools and although we performed surprisingly well the aspects which the judges mentioned is that we all did not smile and looked terrified, which we were. In my first year at the John Fisher school we were all briefly tested asked to sing a few notes for selection for the school choir and I was one of several who was laughed at when attempted to reproduce the required phrasing. I was a great fan of a previous BBC programme which I believe only lasted one series in which people who could not sing were helped to perform on stage.
I fell in love with all kinds of music at a young age as a means of self expression and have continued to envy those able to sing and play musical instruments with my own failures at the piano with one horrendous stage performance as a first stage pupil, the learning of the clarinet my way but being unable to progresses and the one performance on the washboards as part of a skiffle group singing Mama don't Allow at the Croydon Treasurer's department annual dinner and dance!
I therefore also enjoy the Got Talent contests and have been surprised at the USA edition with features Sharon Osborn the "professional" of this kind of programme, David Hasseloff as the true American judge along with Jerry Springer as the kindly master of ceremonies and Piers Merchant playing Simon Cowell. He performs surprisingly better than expected but it remains a surprise that has made it to this big time kind of TV, suddenly. The aspect which surprises me most is that the level of talent in these programmes is not dissimilar to that of the UK programmes thus indicating the great loss of genuine variety and novelty acts including the absence of comedians which used to be a staple component of any variety show. Some of the turns which were selected for the last twenty and to perform in the two top ten heats were poor.
I have watched some of the first Test Match against South Africa in which England were put into bat a scored a magnificent six hundred runs with Peterson 150 against his formed homeland and Bell 199 and others contributing substantial innings. South Africa were then bowled out with a first class across the board English Performance with spin man Panasar taking four wickets and were then asked to follow on. Everyone expected that that the game would have been over yesterday and that England would have won by an innings or only having to make a few runs for victory. At the end of play South Africa had amassed the great part of the deficit for the loss of only one wicket and therefore there is the prospect of an amazing defensive reaction today to create an unexpected draw and moral victory in the circumstances.
Meanwhile the farce re Yorkshire, Nottingham and Durham in 20 20 continues. Last Thursday evening it was announced hat Yorkshire were to be eliminated from the competition and that Durham would play Nottingham in the revised quarter final. Darren Gough on his own and the teams. Behalf let it be immediately known that it was likely they would appeal and were given to 5pm Friday to appeal, no doubt after getting legal advice that they had grounds arguing that the penalty was not justified by the offence and no doubt also using the refusal of the Board to allow individuals players to play in the New Indian competition which no doubt also affected the interests of the retiring Mr Gough. Yorkshire backed him and I understand the appeal is to be heard to day. Durham and Nottingham are therefore left in a hopeless situation. I received a personal reply from the Durham Chief Executive to my letter of complaint to the club chairman which went some way to convincing that the major responsibility for what happened rests with Yorkshire and the Board, although I still need convincing that the situation could not have been sorted one way or the other before the public were let into the game. The Chief Executive has since admitted that the reputation of the club has been damaged adding that it was not of their making, which I accept is substantially true but not entirely. A few weeks ago the Durham fast bowler Steve Harmison expressed concern about the implications of the development of the 20 20 format for the rest of cricket. I was interested by his reaction which is typical of a man who had put his family relationships first and prefers a life which involves being home for about once a month every year and where the development of 20 20 will only increase the pressure involving more time away from a family. I begin to thin the 20/20 development is a curse upon cricket.
Eventually the husband is able to talk and confront his step daughter. He explains that he has dreaded this day and had thought of moving out of the home, and he would have done this had his wife told him in advance. Then in one of the most truthful and moving moments in the cinema he communicates his love for his wife, the loss he has felt and his wish for them to become a family and the prison officer discretely and with equal sensitivity leaves them together. For once fundamental issues of crimes and punishment within a family are dealt with honestly, realistically and with great love and understanding. It is one of the best films I have seen this year and was shown on the Australian Sat channel World Vision. I appreciate that the film can be regarded as a propaganda message to the Chinese people about how easily a small incident, in this instance a few coins of little value can lead to such great tragedy and years of suffering within the family and one suspects that in real life the outcome will never be as good, but this does not take away from what I have said about the film overall.
I also part watched a Japanese film about two brothers who become infatuated with the same girl and when she dies, one brother is accused of her death and her other brother and their father support, until the trial when it is first revealed that the girl had a lover which begins to explode the defence and then when the brother is supposed to provide good character testimony he stuns everyone, especially the defence lawyer by revealing that he witnessed his brother push the girl off the bridge. The film moves to several years later but it was at this point I decided I needed to concentrate wholly on something else and that I would watch the film with attention another time as it has also been listed several times on the new World Movies channel. I only mention now because of the similarity between aspects of the two films.
The unexpected highlight was Last Choir Standing where I watched the second programme in what has become a formulae series on the main terrestrial channels as the decade has progressed. In this instance the choirs have no commercial ambitions and comprise people of all ages who like to sing and who would like to win the contest or progress to the final stages when week by week one choir is eliminated. They varied from a long standing police choir from Hereford of mainly retired officers who want to do well for their comrades and partners who have departed and appear to be one of the front runners, to a community group with disability members who were put through along with several other in order to give them encouragement rather than having any chance of making the final groups who are then subject to the public vote. I am a sucker for such programmes as has been frequently revealed before but I had another interest which is part of my own story, one of those parts which is likely not to be significant enough or of interest to others in any standard account of a life.
The St Elphege School was a small fee paying preparatory school for Catholic children with small classes which employed a music teacher who gave a piano recital at the Wigmore Hall to which pupils a small group of pupils were invited but where I was unable to attend because of illness. The performance was recorded for radio broadcasting if I remember She formed a school choir and we were entered into a choir competition which if I remember correctly there was only one or perhaps two other competing schools in our category. We were such a small school that this was the only activity I remember in which we competed with other schools and although we performed surprisingly well the aspects which the judges mentioned is that we all did not smile and looked terrified, which we were. In my first year at the John Fisher school we were all briefly tested asked to sing a few notes for selection for the school choir and I was one of several who was laughed at when attempted to reproduce the required phrasing. I was a great fan of a previous BBC programme which I believe only lasted one series in which people who could not sing were helped to perform on stage.
I fell in love with all kinds of music at a young age as a means of self expression and have continued to envy those able to sing and play musical instruments with my own failures at the piano with one horrendous stage performance as a first stage pupil, the learning of the clarinet my way but being unable to progresses and the one performance on the washboards as part of a skiffle group singing Mama don't Allow at the Croydon Treasurer's department annual dinner and dance!
I therefore also enjoy the Got Talent contests and have been surprised at the USA edition with features Sharon Osborn the "professional" of this kind of programme, David Hasseloff as the true American judge along with Jerry Springer as the kindly master of ceremonies and Piers Merchant playing Simon Cowell. He performs surprisingly better than expected but it remains a surprise that has made it to this big time kind of TV, suddenly. The aspect which surprises me most is that the level of talent in these programmes is not dissimilar to that of the UK programmes thus indicating the great loss of genuine variety and novelty acts including the absence of comedians which used to be a staple component of any variety show. Some of the turns which were selected for the last twenty and to perform in the two top ten heats were poor.
I have watched some of the first Test Match against South Africa in which England were put into bat a scored a magnificent six hundred runs with Peterson 150 against his formed homeland and Bell 199 and others contributing substantial innings. South Africa were then bowled out with a first class across the board English Performance with spin man Panasar taking four wickets and were then asked to follow on. Everyone expected that that the game would have been over yesterday and that England would have won by an innings or only having to make a few runs for victory. At the end of play South Africa had amassed the great part of the deficit for the loss of only one wicket and therefore there is the prospect of an amazing defensive reaction today to create an unexpected draw and moral victory in the circumstances.
Meanwhile the farce re Yorkshire, Nottingham and Durham in 20 20 continues. Last Thursday evening it was announced hat Yorkshire were to be eliminated from the competition and that Durham would play Nottingham in the revised quarter final. Darren Gough on his own and the teams. Behalf let it be immediately known that it was likely they would appeal and were given to 5pm Friday to appeal, no doubt after getting legal advice that they had grounds arguing that the penalty was not justified by the offence and no doubt also using the refusal of the Board to allow individuals players to play in the New Indian competition which no doubt also affected the interests of the retiring Mr Gough. Yorkshire backed him and I understand the appeal is to be heard to day. Durham and Nottingham are therefore left in a hopeless situation. I received a personal reply from the Durham Chief Executive to my letter of complaint to the club chairman which went some way to convincing that the major responsibility for what happened rests with Yorkshire and the Board, although I still need convincing that the situation could not have been sorted one way or the other before the public were let into the game. The Chief Executive has since admitted that the reputation of the club has been damaged adding that it was not of their making, which I accept is substantially true but not entirely. A few weeks ago the Durham fast bowler Steve Harmison expressed concern about the implications of the development of the 20 20 format for the rest of cricket. I was interested by his reaction which is typical of a man who had put his family relationships first and prefers a life which involves being home for about once a month every year and where the development of 20 20 will only increase the pressure involving more time away from a family. I begin to thin the 20/20 development is a curse upon cricket.
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