I have overwhelmed myself with what I need to write about: The Leveson Inquiry, the Home Affairs Committee Report on the August riots and the transcript when editors and senior executives of British newsprint were questioned by the Joint Committee on Privacy and Injunctions, recent films and TV, preparations and other activities associated with the season and my Christmas present to my self. The consequence is that I flit from one thing to another without being able to settle. It is sometime since I experienced such a situation. On the positive side I have not been tempted to indulge in comforting eating or alcohol. I then sat myself down on Sunday and worked hard on the 11th Leveson developments before collapsing into the evening stupor of tiredness and loss of will.
I arranged for the annual car service on line for a fixed price with a small discount to which was added a new pair of front windscreen wipers. I did not relish the walk from the garage or back to the garage but survived and I need to walk more as long as able to keep the cold from my chest.
The soft wool hat serves its purposes which I have now lost when collecting the car yesterday evening after a new petrol tank was fitted. Today a purchased a new set of hat and gloves for £6. The hat makes a significant difference regardless of how I look. I also bought a new small telescopic umbrella because my previous one had become damaged.
I have previously mentioned my irritation and concern when having taking my vehicle to the nearest dealer for the petrol tank repair or replacement as requested by a joint maker/DVLA notice I had first discovered the vehicle has an original registration which was changed to get the present individual tailored plate and on being told a new tank would be required became concerned when a month passed without news, and even more so on learning the required item was not in stock in the UK and it not clear how long it would be before the required numbers would be available.
I rang the UK customer service and warned of the potential criminal consequence if there was an accident because of the failure to replace the tank. This appeared to have the desire effect and a replacement was made available to the garage to the surprise of staff that drew my attention that their regular customers were still waiting. I decided not to reveal what I had said.
I misjudged the time from home to the garage arriving early. I had not worked out how to get home and debated going for a bus to Gateshead Metro interchange but then spotted what appeared to be a walk over the various ground level roads by an over pass which also went beneath the fly over from the Durham to Gateshead Road until just before the Tyne Bridge crossing into Newcastle.. The walkway brought me close to the district police headquarters and the Civic centre and across a couple of main thoroughfares to the interchange centre. Getting down to the Metro level requires ingenuity. On the way I noted that the Get Cart carpark has finally been demolished and the new shopping centre is underway. As I approached South Shields it commenced to snow.
The first of the winter and while it not look to settle it then quickly change into a mixture of slippery slush. I made a quick move across the road from the station to the Weatherspoons for a coffee and bacon roll. They had run out of coffee so I settled for a bacon roll at £1.19 and then made by way up the rest of the hill in a blizzard.
Fortunately it had stopped and mostly cleared by the time I was advised the vehicle was ready for collection. I was in no mood for the up hill walk from the Gateshead interchange to the garage and went for a taxi but the driver was not impressed with such a short journey commission. I enquired about a bus but after waiting several minutes noting that it had stopped raining I made the walk which I am sure did me good although the walkway was treacherous slippy and great care had to be taken. Job done.
Another task completed was to return the latest gas and electricity meter readings online fearing the worst. I am £20 in credit for electricity and while I have not checked the precise figures for gas the covering email advised that there will be about £50 reduction over the coming year in the monthly direct debit. Excellent news although there has not been a major cold spell until this weekend.
The good humour was destroyed when I received yet another you owe £1500 tax demand from Inland Revenue. I have previously received the same documentation, contacted my local occupational provider who advised the notices were a mistake and ignore them and in due course I received a letter of apology from the tax office, followed by the news that the senior tax man was taking early retirement and blow me down if the same set of papers arrived again just before Christmas and at the weekend. I contacted the occupational provider again who provided a new recorded message to say the mistake continues and that in due course each individual will be advised of the true position later to day Monday. The level of incompetence is extraordinary. Sack those responsible I say.
South Shields has been all over the front pages of the national newspapers because of Little Mix winning the X Factor. A group of four young girls, two from South Shields, were thrown together after not passing muster as potential individual singers at Boot camp. They quickly recovered from the disappointment of rejection to become the best diva and worked extremely hard successfully getting through the judges houses stage when eight groups were culled down to four. They also survive the first grand cull before a live audience when the 16 were reduced to 12 and then later with a double sending home. For the first half of the live series they enjoyed excellent comments from all the judges with forecast they could become the next UK girl group. There was then a blip when Garry Barlow and Louis Walsh expressed concern and even their first number in the semi finals did not please some of the judges. However whatever the judges said the public responded ending the girls into the final face off with a male soloist from Merseyside and a following day of continuous interview on TV, radio and photo shoots. The two girls from South Shields are Perrie Edwards and Jade Thirwell and it will be interesting to see if they become individual household names as Cheryl Cole from Newcastle and her X factor winner protégé Joe McEldery who won the competition two years ago,
I have previously reported that 20000 local turned up for his free concert in the park on a glorious July Sunday last summer although the audio system was not up to the size of the audience. He uniquely also won the from Pop Star to Opera Star competition this year, sung at the Remembrance Saturday concert and service at the Royal Albert Hall and for the Royals Christmas entertainment show. I did not get to his record signing for his second album at Azda a week ago.
All the Little mix girls came to South Shields for visits to the homes of the local girls at for a concert at the Temple Park Leisure centre. They returned during the week for a launch of their single bid for the Christmas Top twenty special. It is looking good for them.
I have also enjoyed this year’s Strictly Come Dancing competition which had an extraordinary line up of celebrities some biting the dust early on. Former Minister and John Major girlfriend Edwina Curry and impressionist Rory Bremner, the Olympic Boxed Audly Harrison lasted longer than expected, former East Ender’s Anita Dobson- married to Queen Guitarist Brian May at sixty years showed remarkable energy and enthusiasms with the comic star Russell Grant someone who I have not liked before came over as a good sport who never took himself seriously and enhanced his personal reputation no end. The footballer Robbie Savage also did well but did not recover from the death of his close friend Gary Speed.
The surprise of the series was another older competitor the Australian former Ramsay Street star and singer Jason Donovan reached the final and was runner up. The judges also took to another soap actress with a strong regional accent starring in the series Doctor. She showed the ability to perform traditional ballroom dances against her natural character which impressed the judges as well as firing on all cylinders in the fiesta dances such as the Jive and the Charleston. There is also a special word for Lulu who I first came across when she burst onto the a cinema screen singing Shout in new faces type special, went on to marry one of the Gibb brothers and to continue performing seeing her concert in South Shields three summers ago. She lasted to week 6. Alex Jones from the One Show and a former ballet trained dancer also reached the semi finals while Dan Lobb former tennis player and TV presenter made no impression leaving in week three. Another Australian also from Neighbours who became a singer and model Holly Vallance also reached the semi final. The misfit was Nancy Dell’olio who was the partner of former England national football manager Sven-Goran Eriksson and which only leaves the winner, a drummer in the group McFly who showed genuine talent and was a worthy champion of the Glitter Ball trophy.
I am having to leave various TV series until after Christmas as they end over the coming week notably Merlin and The Boardwalk Empire.
Blue Bloods has already ended with an episode Thanksgiving in which the grandfather has a stroke but survives and where the family arrange to hold the traditional dinner at the hospital. I cannot remember the other story lines although the Assistant DA is confronted with a challenge when a mutual attraction admirer turns out to be on the Feds closely watch list as an international alleged picture and artefact thief. This is a partial truth as he works returning stolen Jewish treasures by the Nazis to their rightful descendent family owners. I will do a separate piece on Romanzo Criminale and the Sopranos and catch up on some films.
Brother Sun and Sister Moon is the story of the early life of Saint Francis of Assisi in a Franco Zeffrelli production and which interested me because Donovan had contributed the song track including the title number.
There have been a number of films about the life of Saint Francis including the Flowers of St Francis in 1950 which I saw as a school boy as well as another film in 1961. Brother Sun Sister Moon came next with three others following the latest in 2007 none I can recall seeing.
Brother Sun \and Sister Moon accurately represents his early life as the young man about town son of a wealthy cloth merchant who together with his companions goes off in the finest armour to fight with Catholic church blessing. He had six brothers and sister who are not shown in the film.
The film telescopes his experiences of fighting in two wars during 1201 -1205 and becoming a captive during one for a year. The film does cover a period of illness and the apparent effect of armed conflict on his outlook on life. The film plays around with the chronological sequence. It tends to overdramatise his identification with the poor and beggars. In the film his father becomes excessively wealthy exploiting the wars controlling scarce resources and getting nobles to surrender their valuables in exchange of essentials. There does appear to have been conflict with his father because Francis identified with his mother, a French woman, learning her language and cultural interests. It is supposedly correct that he did give all his possessions at one point to a beggar and also sold off his fathers possessions in order to give to charity and fund the rebuilding of a derelict church outside of the city. The film ends with a mission to Rome to see the Pope and ask what he was doing wrong after being rebuked by the local bishop egged on by one of his former friends. Alex Guiness plays the Pope.
The film has a romantic sixties slant and introduces early on the daughter of another noble who Francis encounters giving alms to lepers and later during the film Francis and his small band are seen administering to the leper colony who live out of the town. There is the suggestion of romantic relationships early on between Clare and Francis but when he adopts celibacy she also joins the group and later he established an Order of nuns for her with the Little Clare sisters coming from daughters of the Poor. Much is made in the film of his visit to Rome when the Pope is portrayed with his court in great splendour and where the group dressed in the rags of the poor are met with ridicule and hostility and told to address the Pope with a prepared formal dress. However Francis decides to be his true self and impresses the Pope who is reminded of his original faith and gives his blessing
Francis is also known to have established a lay order for those who wanted to marry and this aspect is also covered in the film. The film covers his love of nature and animals and is beautiful shot in terms of the techniques of the era.
Zefrelli was known for his version of Romeo and Juliet and there are elements in this production coupled with the poetic romanticism of Donovan. The film creates a mood of peace and gentleness which appears appropriate.
I tested my Bluray player not with an H Day or 3D film but The Bridge over the River Kwai a film released in 1957 when many families, such my own extended network were still affected by the loss of sons in Japanese prisoner of war camps. The film is a fictional account of the building of the Burma Siam railway in which an estimates 80 to 100000 civilians perished and 13000 prisoners of war. The treatment of the prisoners was much worse than depicted in the film. Alec Guiness plays a tradition career British commanding officer who with his men is brought to a camp where the Japanese commander is under pressure to complete a bridge over the river in time for the arrival of a train.
Already at the camp is William Holden an American who spends his time trying to survive by bribing guards to get out of the work parties and get extra rations. He is bemused by the British Commander who immediately takes on the counterpart who insists that the officers should undertake manual labour with the rest of the men despite this being banned by the Geneva Convention. Guiness survives being imprisoned in the oven a corrugated metal box and eventually does a deal with the captors to complete the bridge to high standards as long as he is given control over the men. This brings concessions in terms of medical care and Red Cross deliveries.
Meanwhile William Holden has escaped and his would are treated by local villages before making his way to a British base in Ceylon. Here he is approached by Jack Hawkins to accompany small mission to return to the site and destroy the Bridge ideally with the first train. With Hawkins injured they managed to reach the camp just before completion and train arrival and mine the bridge to detonate as the train arrives. It is Guiness who spots that the bridge is mined as the water drops from the tidal flow revealing the network of explosives. Eventually Guiness realises he has put the mission in jeopardy and falls on the detonating box as he dies and the train arrives with successful and spectacular consequences.
The film won seven Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor Alec Guiness, and Screenplay. Editing Cinematography and Music with the theme Colonel Bogey a hit [parade success. The film also won three Bafta awards, Golden Globes and other awards and remains in several top 100 lists, 10th as recently as 100 war films in 2005.
I arranged for the annual car service on line for a fixed price with a small discount to which was added a new pair of front windscreen wipers. I did not relish the walk from the garage or back to the garage but survived and I need to walk more as long as able to keep the cold from my chest.
The soft wool hat serves its purposes which I have now lost when collecting the car yesterday evening after a new petrol tank was fitted. Today a purchased a new set of hat and gloves for £6. The hat makes a significant difference regardless of how I look. I also bought a new small telescopic umbrella because my previous one had become damaged.
I have previously mentioned my irritation and concern when having taking my vehicle to the nearest dealer for the petrol tank repair or replacement as requested by a joint maker/DVLA notice I had first discovered the vehicle has an original registration which was changed to get the present individual tailored plate and on being told a new tank would be required became concerned when a month passed without news, and even more so on learning the required item was not in stock in the UK and it not clear how long it would be before the required numbers would be available.
I rang the UK customer service and warned of the potential criminal consequence if there was an accident because of the failure to replace the tank. This appeared to have the desire effect and a replacement was made available to the garage to the surprise of staff that drew my attention that their regular customers were still waiting. I decided not to reveal what I had said.
I misjudged the time from home to the garage arriving early. I had not worked out how to get home and debated going for a bus to Gateshead Metro interchange but then spotted what appeared to be a walk over the various ground level roads by an over pass which also went beneath the fly over from the Durham to Gateshead Road until just before the Tyne Bridge crossing into Newcastle.. The walkway brought me close to the district police headquarters and the Civic centre and across a couple of main thoroughfares to the interchange centre. Getting down to the Metro level requires ingenuity. On the way I noted that the Get Cart carpark has finally been demolished and the new shopping centre is underway. As I approached South Shields it commenced to snow.
The first of the winter and while it not look to settle it then quickly change into a mixture of slippery slush. I made a quick move across the road from the station to the Weatherspoons for a coffee and bacon roll. They had run out of coffee so I settled for a bacon roll at £1.19 and then made by way up the rest of the hill in a blizzard.
Fortunately it had stopped and mostly cleared by the time I was advised the vehicle was ready for collection. I was in no mood for the up hill walk from the Gateshead interchange to the garage and went for a taxi but the driver was not impressed with such a short journey commission. I enquired about a bus but after waiting several minutes noting that it had stopped raining I made the walk which I am sure did me good although the walkway was treacherous slippy and great care had to be taken. Job done.
Another task completed was to return the latest gas and electricity meter readings online fearing the worst. I am £20 in credit for electricity and while I have not checked the precise figures for gas the covering email advised that there will be about £50 reduction over the coming year in the monthly direct debit. Excellent news although there has not been a major cold spell until this weekend.
The good humour was destroyed when I received yet another you owe £1500 tax demand from Inland Revenue. I have previously received the same documentation, contacted my local occupational provider who advised the notices were a mistake and ignore them and in due course I received a letter of apology from the tax office, followed by the news that the senior tax man was taking early retirement and blow me down if the same set of papers arrived again just before Christmas and at the weekend. I contacted the occupational provider again who provided a new recorded message to say the mistake continues and that in due course each individual will be advised of the true position later to day Monday. The level of incompetence is extraordinary. Sack those responsible I say.
South Shields has been all over the front pages of the national newspapers because of Little Mix winning the X Factor. A group of four young girls, two from South Shields, were thrown together after not passing muster as potential individual singers at Boot camp. They quickly recovered from the disappointment of rejection to become the best diva and worked extremely hard successfully getting through the judges houses stage when eight groups were culled down to four. They also survive the first grand cull before a live audience when the 16 were reduced to 12 and then later with a double sending home. For the first half of the live series they enjoyed excellent comments from all the judges with forecast they could become the next UK girl group. There was then a blip when Garry Barlow and Louis Walsh expressed concern and even their first number in the semi finals did not please some of the judges. However whatever the judges said the public responded ending the girls into the final face off with a male soloist from Merseyside and a following day of continuous interview on TV, radio and photo shoots. The two girls from South Shields are Perrie Edwards and Jade Thirwell and it will be interesting to see if they become individual household names as Cheryl Cole from Newcastle and her X factor winner protégé Joe McEldery who won the competition two years ago,
I have previously reported that 20000 local turned up for his free concert in the park on a glorious July Sunday last summer although the audio system was not up to the size of the audience. He uniquely also won the from Pop Star to Opera Star competition this year, sung at the Remembrance Saturday concert and service at the Royal Albert Hall and for the Royals Christmas entertainment show. I did not get to his record signing for his second album at Azda a week ago.
All the Little mix girls came to South Shields for visits to the homes of the local girls at for a concert at the Temple Park Leisure centre. They returned during the week for a launch of their single bid for the Christmas Top twenty special. It is looking good for them.
I have also enjoyed this year’s Strictly Come Dancing competition which had an extraordinary line up of celebrities some biting the dust early on. Former Minister and John Major girlfriend Edwina Curry and impressionist Rory Bremner, the Olympic Boxed Audly Harrison lasted longer than expected, former East Ender’s Anita Dobson- married to Queen Guitarist Brian May at sixty years showed remarkable energy and enthusiasms with the comic star Russell Grant someone who I have not liked before came over as a good sport who never took himself seriously and enhanced his personal reputation no end. The footballer Robbie Savage also did well but did not recover from the death of his close friend Gary Speed.
The surprise of the series was another older competitor the Australian former Ramsay Street star and singer Jason Donovan reached the final and was runner up. The judges also took to another soap actress with a strong regional accent starring in the series Doctor. She showed the ability to perform traditional ballroom dances against her natural character which impressed the judges as well as firing on all cylinders in the fiesta dances such as the Jive and the Charleston. There is also a special word for Lulu who I first came across when she burst onto the a cinema screen singing Shout in new faces type special, went on to marry one of the Gibb brothers and to continue performing seeing her concert in South Shields three summers ago. She lasted to week 6. Alex Jones from the One Show and a former ballet trained dancer also reached the semi finals while Dan Lobb former tennis player and TV presenter made no impression leaving in week three. Another Australian also from Neighbours who became a singer and model Holly Vallance also reached the semi final. The misfit was Nancy Dell’olio who was the partner of former England national football manager Sven-Goran Eriksson and which only leaves the winner, a drummer in the group McFly who showed genuine talent and was a worthy champion of the Glitter Ball trophy.
I am having to leave various TV series until after Christmas as they end over the coming week notably Merlin and The Boardwalk Empire.
Blue Bloods has already ended with an episode Thanksgiving in which the grandfather has a stroke but survives and where the family arrange to hold the traditional dinner at the hospital. I cannot remember the other story lines although the Assistant DA is confronted with a challenge when a mutual attraction admirer turns out to be on the Feds closely watch list as an international alleged picture and artefact thief. This is a partial truth as he works returning stolen Jewish treasures by the Nazis to their rightful descendent family owners. I will do a separate piece on Romanzo Criminale and the Sopranos and catch up on some films.
Brother Sun and Sister Moon is the story of the early life of Saint Francis of Assisi in a Franco Zeffrelli production and which interested me because Donovan had contributed the song track including the title number.
There have been a number of films about the life of Saint Francis including the Flowers of St Francis in 1950 which I saw as a school boy as well as another film in 1961. Brother Sun Sister Moon came next with three others following the latest in 2007 none I can recall seeing.
Brother Sun \and Sister Moon accurately represents his early life as the young man about town son of a wealthy cloth merchant who together with his companions goes off in the finest armour to fight with Catholic church blessing. He had six brothers and sister who are not shown in the film.
The film telescopes his experiences of fighting in two wars during 1201 -1205 and becoming a captive during one for a year. The film does cover a period of illness and the apparent effect of armed conflict on his outlook on life. The film plays around with the chronological sequence. It tends to overdramatise his identification with the poor and beggars. In the film his father becomes excessively wealthy exploiting the wars controlling scarce resources and getting nobles to surrender their valuables in exchange of essentials. There does appear to have been conflict with his father because Francis identified with his mother, a French woman, learning her language and cultural interests. It is supposedly correct that he did give all his possessions at one point to a beggar and also sold off his fathers possessions in order to give to charity and fund the rebuilding of a derelict church outside of the city. The film ends with a mission to Rome to see the Pope and ask what he was doing wrong after being rebuked by the local bishop egged on by one of his former friends. Alex Guiness plays the Pope.
The film has a romantic sixties slant and introduces early on the daughter of another noble who Francis encounters giving alms to lepers and later during the film Francis and his small band are seen administering to the leper colony who live out of the town. There is the suggestion of romantic relationships early on between Clare and Francis but when he adopts celibacy she also joins the group and later he established an Order of nuns for her with the Little Clare sisters coming from daughters of the Poor. Much is made in the film of his visit to Rome when the Pope is portrayed with his court in great splendour and where the group dressed in the rags of the poor are met with ridicule and hostility and told to address the Pope with a prepared formal dress. However Francis decides to be his true self and impresses the Pope who is reminded of his original faith and gives his blessing
Francis is also known to have established a lay order for those who wanted to marry and this aspect is also covered in the film. The film covers his love of nature and animals and is beautiful shot in terms of the techniques of the era.
Zefrelli was known for his version of Romeo and Juliet and there are elements in this production coupled with the poetic romanticism of Donovan. The film creates a mood of peace and gentleness which appears appropriate.
I tested my Bluray player not with an H Day or 3D film but The Bridge over the River Kwai a film released in 1957 when many families, such my own extended network were still affected by the loss of sons in Japanese prisoner of war camps. The film is a fictional account of the building of the Burma Siam railway in which an estimates 80 to 100000 civilians perished and 13000 prisoners of war. The treatment of the prisoners was much worse than depicted in the film. Alec Guiness plays a tradition career British commanding officer who with his men is brought to a camp where the Japanese commander is under pressure to complete a bridge over the river in time for the arrival of a train.
Already at the camp is William Holden an American who spends his time trying to survive by bribing guards to get out of the work parties and get extra rations. He is bemused by the British Commander who immediately takes on the counterpart who insists that the officers should undertake manual labour with the rest of the men despite this being banned by the Geneva Convention. Guiness survives being imprisoned in the oven a corrugated metal box and eventually does a deal with the captors to complete the bridge to high standards as long as he is given control over the men. This brings concessions in terms of medical care and Red Cross deliveries.
Meanwhile William Holden has escaped and his would are treated by local villages before making his way to a British base in Ceylon. Here he is approached by Jack Hawkins to accompany small mission to return to the site and destroy the Bridge ideally with the first train. With Hawkins injured they managed to reach the camp just before completion and train arrival and mine the bridge to detonate as the train arrives. It is Guiness who spots that the bridge is mined as the water drops from the tidal flow revealing the network of explosives. Eventually Guiness realises he has put the mission in jeopardy and falls on the detonating box as he dies and the train arrives with successful and spectacular consequences.
The film won seven Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor Alec Guiness, and Screenplay. Editing Cinematography and Music with the theme Colonel Bogey a hit [parade success. The film also won three Bafta awards, Golden Globes and other awards and remains in several top 100 lists, 10th as recently as 100 war films in 2005.
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