It is 2.45 pm on 23rd February 2011 and after a difficult night when sleep eluded and struggling down just before 9 am I have succeeded in two missions set for the week. I have managed to become wireless connected again on the desk top and one lap top, with the latter able to transfer to the television. That took the greater part of the morning but I will spare myself going over the difficulties. More recently I renewed my cricket subscription obtaining the substantial discount on the full price for elders before February 28th. I also checked out the position for the occupational and state pensions for 2011-2012 and there is to be a modest increase of 3.1% which will not compensate for the increases in household and motor vehicle energy costs. Local government colleagues find their salaries frozen for the second year in succession and the loss of jobs in front line services is dramatic in the area that I know most about
I move on from such depressing information. It is catch up time and I begin with Case 39 a film which interests because if features a child care protection social worker and team (in the USA). The film stars much admired Renée Zellweger as the idealistic and missionary doing best for the child care work and Ian McShane as a Police Detective, with the third member of the closely working trio is a psychiatrist played by Bradley Cooper.
Case 39 is a referred child who appears withdrawn, and not eating and when the worker investigates the behaviour of the child indicates abuse and that of her parents meriting close examination. With difficulty the worker establishes a connection with the ten year old child who phones her later one evening saying she is fearing for her life. Before then, the worker’s seniors and the police advise that they cannot intervene without some evidence of abuse. After receiving the call the worker and the detective gain entry by breaking into the house where they find the parents trying to kill the child in the oven after having dug a grave in the basement. The parents are locked up in psychiatric institutions unfit to plead and the child placed in a short term residential unit prior to finding foster parents. She persuades Renée to provide her a home until foster parents can be found and for a short while the arrangement works to the satisfaction of both.
Things then begin to develop in strange and unexpected ways and shortly after the child starts to attend a counselling group, one of the boys in the group murders his parents after receiving call which appears to come from the home of the worker. Because the child is suspected of being involved she has a psychiatric evaluation with Bradley Cooper during which the child elicits that his fear is that of bees. When he is back home he receives a call which is the sound of bees and then the horror begins as bees start to come out of his ear and other parts of his body in ever increasing numbers although he appears to get rid of individual ones down the toilet bowl. Eventually he manages to snap his own neck and dies.
This incident arouses even more concern especially after Renée finds that the girl has been examining her private possessions and records. She visits the former home of the girl and her parents and finds that they have strengthened their bedroom door and have also place several substantial bolts to lock themselves in. She visits the psychiatric institution where the parents are being held with both self abusing from fears which the staff do not experience. The husband reveals that everyone connected with them, parents, their two other children and friends all died in what they regarded as suspicious circumstances. The father explains that they did not regard the girl as their daughter but some evil creature. Having moved in on Renée they are fearful that the girl will now get rid of them. They had to wait several months before making the attempt to kill the girl as she was able to read their minds and they had to wait until they were able to drug her to sleep. Both parents then die in mysterious circumstances.
Renée attempts to speed up the search for foster parents and she then goes for help to her Detective friend who at first dismisses her concern but then discovers that there was a phone to the Psychiatrist from Renée’s cell phone after she has removed the landline phone. The Detective is then besieged by killer hounds when he leaves his office and after finding one of the creatures sitting behind him in his car he attempts to shoot but manages to blow part of his head off.
The girl becomes more open towards Renée ordering her to do as she is told. Renee concludes that the only way is to kill the herself and manages to drug her to sleep and then sets fire on the house. But the girl reappears and the two are escorted by the police to a temporary place to spend the rest of the night. Renée goes off at speed in a different direct trying to frighten the girl and the girl retaliates with a psychic horror memory of the past. At this point the worker has become so desperate that she locks the car and drives off the levee into the water. The child has now emerged in its true demon form and there is a fight in which Renée is able to escape. During the making of the film the set and studio were destroyed by fire and although the cast were present no one was seriously injured. The release of the films was also beset with difficulties in the various countries where it was shown. The film has been much criticised and failed to attract audiences and just about broken even from its original $27 million. I found it a convincing portrayal of how minds can appear to influence other minds to self harm or commit untypical acts of behaviour.
This is not the first films which has used telephone or the television to send subliminal messages getting people to act against themselves or other members of society.
A new BBC TV series is Silk which covers familiar territory of life in Chambers and the central Criminal Court where Rumpole, Kavanagh QC Judge John Deed have set the standard. The interest in Silk is the determination of a long standing female barrister in the her later 30’s to become a QC. She reconciles successfully defending criminals on the basis that teh British law is founded on the principal of non guilty unless proven.
In this first episode she takes on a 20 minutes guilty plea case where a male rival from her Chambers for the next round of QC’s appointments represents a co defendant. He attempts to get a lower sentence for his client on the grounds that the pregnant girl was high up in the chain having been pregnant on five previous occasions to make the drug run, swallowing condoms filled with drugs. serving short prison sentences and having her children removed. Unfortunately because the barrister has concentrated on the case and the brief solicitor is not available does not study this background information and makes a passionate plea for mitigation which fails to impress the judge and the client gets 14 years with the other individual 8. Later the girl reveals that she wants a long sentence to keep her away from the gang who rape her until she pregnant to then makes runs until she is caught. The children have been removed from her and she has not contact with them. Later she the barrister finds her colleague snorting cocaine at a Chamber’s drink’s party for instructing solicitors and there is a scuffle in which her new male pupil pushes the man downstairs to return the mobile phone which his teacher had intended to use to call the police.
The main case involves a pensioner who has been beaten on the head severely and among the item taken is his distinguished service medal for rescuing a comrade. The barrister appears to be making a mess of the defence to the horror of the instructing solicitor by eliciting that when the criminal left he had yawned the door before leaving, putting his gloved hand to his mouth before using the door handle yet the investigating officer had not taken the DNA. This she successfully alleges is because the criminal has been treated lightly by the courts on three previous convictions. The police were determined to fit the accused for the crime She is also able to show that the slides of those in the line up was fixed by highlighting in two ways which led the victim to identify the accused on the basis of the only showing features, his eyes. Later she receives an envelope in which is the medal in its case.
There were also two other TV shows on the same theme of bending the rules to achieve a just result. It was the 109th episode of the latest 6th episode series of Taggart, first shown in Scotland last year and in the rest of the UK this year. I am a Taggart fan since its inception and will try and catch up on missing episodes if they are available or await until they appear of satellite TV in 2013.
In this episode John Mitchie as DI Robbie Ross whose drinking and gambling has seen him in previous scrapes beats up a drug pusher who has been providing his girl friend when she has been trying to get off, under his care and staying at his flat he comes under investigation by Complaints.
The main concern is a street murder where two college students have been taking photographs of the same spot over a 24 hour period as an assignment. The male student is placed in protective custody when he admits he was aware that members of a notorious Glasgow criminal gang and were involved with killed busker shortly before the death. Also seen on CCTC was a senior Council officer responsible for contracts. He denies any knowledge of the crime or involvement with the criminal gang. While Robbie is suspended Blythe Duff as Jackie Reid as been made up to Detective Inspector and takes charge of the case and with help of a new female Detective Constable, and Robbie, is able discover the truth. The busker was not killed by the criminal gang but the female friend of the student photographer who had been raped him a couple of years before and recognised him from the photographs taken. However two other deaths occur. Robbie reveals the whereabouts of the other photographer when the Glasgow gang kidnap the girl friend from his home. The photographer is shot dead at his place of safety. The kidnapped girl friend is also found by Robbie, dead. The reason for these deaths is that the gang has been paying off the Council Contract’s manager for business he has given to them. The photographic film of the payment was not destroy but could not be handed in to the police as it also revealed the revenge murder. Jackie and the Chief Inspector go out of their way to protect Robbie from arrest and further investigation but he is then warned by them that he has had his last chance and needs to change his lifestyle and behaviour.
Bending rules and covering up for wrong and bad reasons was the subject of the latest production of Blue Bloods “Officer Down” ion which a dedicated policewoman intervenes when she encounters and armed robbery at a bank and is killed although she manes to fire and wound one of the three men. The programme focuses on the efforts of the entire police force of the city who are ordered to stay on shift until the murders are apprehended. All the members of the family are involved in someway with the rule bending Detective son taking the lead. Even the retired Commissioner grandfather gets involved when he finds that the one of the wanted men is the son of a former villain with whom he grew up and who organised the killing of a police killer in days gone by. Eventually the son of this man is caught and the Detective gives him the choice of revealing the location of the leader of the gang or being executed. The third robber is also the son of another gangster and he is the wounded man and is found dead in the trunk of an abandoned hire car. The third man and organiser is located and gunned down as he tries to fight his way out. In the build up to the finale there is a moving burial service attended by the family and representatives of the force in which the daughter the preteen daughter of the killed officer has been dressed in a police uniform and oversize hat. When the Commissioner finishes his eulogy she gives him a salute. There is more of the reality and the youngest son with his law degree enquires about the badge of the alleged secret society within the force that some believe was responsible for the death of the eldest brother. He is attempt is brushed off.
The opportunity was taken to revisit the 1960’s Clive Donner film Here we Go round the Mulberry Bush and which brought Barry Evans to the screen for the first time. He plays a sixth former who earns pocket money delivering goods for a supermarket using a bicycle. He spends his entire life fantasising about girls and women and has four relationships which includes Adrienne Posta. One can be described as simple and common and another as upper class and carefree when all that Barry is seeking is an ongoing sexual relationship. He and his friend constantly boast of each other’s exploits and at the end of the film have both become bus conductors continuing on their Merry go round. The film was shot in Stevenage New Town has contemporary Music and would appeal to the weekend film goers of the day but would probably be ridiculed by contemporary 12 to 15 years olds although it was released on DVD for the first time last year, presumably because there are brief flashes of flesh. July Gleeson, Angela Sinclair, Sheila White, Diane Keen and Vanessa Howard play the other birds!
I move on from such depressing information. It is catch up time and I begin with Case 39 a film which interests because if features a child care protection social worker and team (in the USA). The film stars much admired Renée Zellweger as the idealistic and missionary doing best for the child care work and Ian McShane as a Police Detective, with the third member of the closely working trio is a psychiatrist played by Bradley Cooper.
Case 39 is a referred child who appears withdrawn, and not eating and when the worker investigates the behaviour of the child indicates abuse and that of her parents meriting close examination. With difficulty the worker establishes a connection with the ten year old child who phones her later one evening saying she is fearing for her life. Before then, the worker’s seniors and the police advise that they cannot intervene without some evidence of abuse. After receiving the call the worker and the detective gain entry by breaking into the house where they find the parents trying to kill the child in the oven after having dug a grave in the basement. The parents are locked up in psychiatric institutions unfit to plead and the child placed in a short term residential unit prior to finding foster parents. She persuades Renée to provide her a home until foster parents can be found and for a short while the arrangement works to the satisfaction of both.
Things then begin to develop in strange and unexpected ways and shortly after the child starts to attend a counselling group, one of the boys in the group murders his parents after receiving call which appears to come from the home of the worker. Because the child is suspected of being involved she has a psychiatric evaluation with Bradley Cooper during which the child elicits that his fear is that of bees. When he is back home he receives a call which is the sound of bees and then the horror begins as bees start to come out of his ear and other parts of his body in ever increasing numbers although he appears to get rid of individual ones down the toilet bowl. Eventually he manages to snap his own neck and dies.
This incident arouses even more concern especially after Renée finds that the girl has been examining her private possessions and records. She visits the former home of the girl and her parents and finds that they have strengthened their bedroom door and have also place several substantial bolts to lock themselves in. She visits the psychiatric institution where the parents are being held with both self abusing from fears which the staff do not experience. The husband reveals that everyone connected with them, parents, their two other children and friends all died in what they regarded as suspicious circumstances. The father explains that they did not regard the girl as their daughter but some evil creature. Having moved in on Renée they are fearful that the girl will now get rid of them. They had to wait several months before making the attempt to kill the girl as she was able to read their minds and they had to wait until they were able to drug her to sleep. Both parents then die in mysterious circumstances.
Renée attempts to speed up the search for foster parents and she then goes for help to her Detective friend who at first dismisses her concern but then discovers that there was a phone to the Psychiatrist from Renée’s cell phone after she has removed the landline phone. The Detective is then besieged by killer hounds when he leaves his office and after finding one of the creatures sitting behind him in his car he attempts to shoot but manages to blow part of his head off.
The girl becomes more open towards Renée ordering her to do as she is told. Renee concludes that the only way is to kill the herself and manages to drug her to sleep and then sets fire on the house. But the girl reappears and the two are escorted by the police to a temporary place to spend the rest of the night. Renée goes off at speed in a different direct trying to frighten the girl and the girl retaliates with a psychic horror memory of the past. At this point the worker has become so desperate that she locks the car and drives off the levee into the water. The child has now emerged in its true demon form and there is a fight in which Renée is able to escape. During the making of the film the set and studio were destroyed by fire and although the cast were present no one was seriously injured. The release of the films was also beset with difficulties in the various countries where it was shown. The film has been much criticised and failed to attract audiences and just about broken even from its original $27 million. I found it a convincing portrayal of how minds can appear to influence other minds to self harm or commit untypical acts of behaviour.
This is not the first films which has used telephone or the television to send subliminal messages getting people to act against themselves or other members of society.
A new BBC TV series is Silk which covers familiar territory of life in Chambers and the central Criminal Court where Rumpole, Kavanagh QC Judge John Deed have set the standard. The interest in Silk is the determination of a long standing female barrister in the her later 30’s to become a QC. She reconciles successfully defending criminals on the basis that teh British law is founded on the principal of non guilty unless proven.
In this first episode she takes on a 20 minutes guilty plea case where a male rival from her Chambers for the next round of QC’s appointments represents a co defendant. He attempts to get a lower sentence for his client on the grounds that the pregnant girl was high up in the chain having been pregnant on five previous occasions to make the drug run, swallowing condoms filled with drugs. serving short prison sentences and having her children removed. Unfortunately because the barrister has concentrated on the case and the brief solicitor is not available does not study this background information and makes a passionate plea for mitigation which fails to impress the judge and the client gets 14 years with the other individual 8. Later the girl reveals that she wants a long sentence to keep her away from the gang who rape her until she pregnant to then makes runs until she is caught. The children have been removed from her and she has not contact with them. Later she the barrister finds her colleague snorting cocaine at a Chamber’s drink’s party for instructing solicitors and there is a scuffle in which her new male pupil pushes the man downstairs to return the mobile phone which his teacher had intended to use to call the police.
The main case involves a pensioner who has been beaten on the head severely and among the item taken is his distinguished service medal for rescuing a comrade. The barrister appears to be making a mess of the defence to the horror of the instructing solicitor by eliciting that when the criminal left he had yawned the door before leaving, putting his gloved hand to his mouth before using the door handle yet the investigating officer had not taken the DNA. This she successfully alleges is because the criminal has been treated lightly by the courts on three previous convictions. The police were determined to fit the accused for the crime She is also able to show that the slides of those in the line up was fixed by highlighting in two ways which led the victim to identify the accused on the basis of the only showing features, his eyes. Later she receives an envelope in which is the medal in its case.
There were also two other TV shows on the same theme of bending the rules to achieve a just result. It was the 109th episode of the latest 6th episode series of Taggart, first shown in Scotland last year and in the rest of the UK this year. I am a Taggart fan since its inception and will try and catch up on missing episodes if they are available or await until they appear of satellite TV in 2013.
In this episode John Mitchie as DI Robbie Ross whose drinking and gambling has seen him in previous scrapes beats up a drug pusher who has been providing his girl friend when she has been trying to get off, under his care and staying at his flat he comes under investigation by Complaints.
The main concern is a street murder where two college students have been taking photographs of the same spot over a 24 hour period as an assignment. The male student is placed in protective custody when he admits he was aware that members of a notorious Glasgow criminal gang and were involved with killed busker shortly before the death. Also seen on CCTC was a senior Council officer responsible for contracts. He denies any knowledge of the crime or involvement with the criminal gang. While Robbie is suspended Blythe Duff as Jackie Reid as been made up to Detective Inspector and takes charge of the case and with help of a new female Detective Constable, and Robbie, is able discover the truth. The busker was not killed by the criminal gang but the female friend of the student photographer who had been raped him a couple of years before and recognised him from the photographs taken. However two other deaths occur. Robbie reveals the whereabouts of the other photographer when the Glasgow gang kidnap the girl friend from his home. The photographer is shot dead at his place of safety. The kidnapped girl friend is also found by Robbie, dead. The reason for these deaths is that the gang has been paying off the Council Contract’s manager for business he has given to them. The photographic film of the payment was not destroy but could not be handed in to the police as it also revealed the revenge murder. Jackie and the Chief Inspector go out of their way to protect Robbie from arrest and further investigation but he is then warned by them that he has had his last chance and needs to change his lifestyle and behaviour.
Bending rules and covering up for wrong and bad reasons was the subject of the latest production of Blue Bloods “Officer Down” ion which a dedicated policewoman intervenes when she encounters and armed robbery at a bank and is killed although she manes to fire and wound one of the three men. The programme focuses on the efforts of the entire police force of the city who are ordered to stay on shift until the murders are apprehended. All the members of the family are involved in someway with the rule bending Detective son taking the lead. Even the retired Commissioner grandfather gets involved when he finds that the one of the wanted men is the son of a former villain with whom he grew up and who organised the killing of a police killer in days gone by. Eventually the son of this man is caught and the Detective gives him the choice of revealing the location of the leader of the gang or being executed. The third robber is also the son of another gangster and he is the wounded man and is found dead in the trunk of an abandoned hire car. The third man and organiser is located and gunned down as he tries to fight his way out. In the build up to the finale there is a moving burial service attended by the family and representatives of the force in which the daughter the preteen daughter of the killed officer has been dressed in a police uniform and oversize hat. When the Commissioner finishes his eulogy she gives him a salute. There is more of the reality and the youngest son with his law degree enquires about the badge of the alleged secret society within the force that some believe was responsible for the death of the eldest brother. He is attempt is brushed off.
The opportunity was taken to revisit the 1960’s Clive Donner film Here we Go round the Mulberry Bush and which brought Barry Evans to the screen for the first time. He plays a sixth former who earns pocket money delivering goods for a supermarket using a bicycle. He spends his entire life fantasising about girls and women and has four relationships which includes Adrienne Posta. One can be described as simple and common and another as upper class and carefree when all that Barry is seeking is an ongoing sexual relationship. He and his friend constantly boast of each other’s exploits and at the end of the film have both become bus conductors continuing on their Merry go round. The film was shot in Stevenage New Town has contemporary Music and would appeal to the weekend film goers of the day but would probably be ridiculed by contemporary 12 to 15 years olds although it was released on DVD for the first time last year, presumably because there are brief flashes of flesh. July Gleeson, Angela Sinclair, Sheila White, Diane Keen and Vanessa Howard play the other birds!
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