It is Sunday 7.40 Remembrance Sunday 2012 and
I have experienced a typing disaster losing large chunks of my writing today by
not checking what has been saved and because of transferring material between
desk top and lap top because of browser problems on the desk top. What I shall
attempt to do during the rest of this evening only is resurrect what I can as
quickly as I can.
I watched the whole of Andrew Marr this
morning which lasted for an hour and a half before Jonathan Dimbleby presented
the Service and laying of wreaths at the Cenotaph, the marching of close on 250
representative groups as well as moving films and interviews with some of the
sounded soldiers and the families of those who have not survived during the
past year. It was a salutary reminder of the reality of military service and
there was the usual sense of horror at the number of those killed in the past
year especially the younger ones aged eighteen to 22.
Most of the first part of Andrew Marr was
taken up with the news of the resignation of the Director General of the BBC
after less than two months in office because of the fiasco of the decision of
Newsnight to indicate the name of the Tory Peer that had been named by an
original witness to Waterhouse and the John Jillings Inquiry who had handed in
some fifty sixty pictures taken for the member of staff who had hid them and
handed to the police. He claimed that the police had identified the Tory Peer
from the photograph. He had not seen a photograph of the former politician at
the time or subsequently until he past couple of days when he retracted the
accusation and made a public apology.
Later in the programme the Chairman of the
Trust Lord Patten was interviewed and he was scathing about what had happened
and how this reflected on the layers of management commenting that when he
spoke to the top management there was over a hundred and more than the top of
the Chinese government. I was left in no doubt there is going to be a great
clear out and a major restructuring once the new Director General is appointed.
Newsnight could also become a casualty.
This development could have implications for
the outcome of Leveson because if a regulated by statute service such as he BBC
and other broadcasting enterprises can be shown to be so fallible the argument
goes it would be better to stick with self regulation. This is the campaign
being waged with the Murdoch papers overjoyed at the BBC problems given that he
would like to see the enterprise broken up and privatised.
At a personal level my week commenced well
with a visit to see the consultant (registrar) at the Freeman’s hospital after
a further four month’s use of the Sleep Apnoea Treatment Machine CPAP. I was
delighted and pleased that there was a small reduction from four months ago and
further surprised that because of the record and my report it was decided that
I would need to call back until the following year November 5th. I
was not sure at first but decided this was a great vote of confidence.
While there I noted that two of three of the
continuous line of people being seen had not brought the CPAP machine and
record suggesting they were defaulting and did not bring the evidence which
could have seen their driving ability being questioned. Before the visit there was time to call in at
Simsbury
I have been good at the use of the Wii Fit
machine averaging half an hour a day
missing out on only one day in 18 when I was involved in other physical activity. I begin with a cross
county round the island light jog, through town buildings under caverns, along
the beach and waters edge under and over bridges and causeways of different
kinds. I usually undertake two long logs
during the session. A six minute boxing programme brings a good sweat involving
feet and as well as hands. I have also adapted a third programme called step
balance where one moves back and forth side to side or changing the direction
of feet on the balance board in time to music where the beat also changes from
rhythmic to fast. I am not quick enough or stable enough to follow the on
screen instructions but again by using one’s feet quickly on the board one can
achieve a good overall body work out and a reasonable score which gives
encouragement and the will to continue. There is a Ski jump and a heading
programme which does not yield much calorie burn but I have made some progress
in mastering.
I have also taken new steps re food control
albeit in small steps for example reintroducing fresh vegetables having seen
the packs of onion carrots Swede and parsnips on sale again. I have also
reduced bread which had become staples with potatoes and cheese again. I am
continuing with the two home made baguettes again but reintroducing the salad a
minimum of two days a week but usually on three days with quiche, prawns or
smoked mackerel as before, crab or salmon on Sundays. I have reduced the size
of the portion of sprats which I continue to enjoy and maintain a supply for
three months which I might extend to four or five as there is a significant
gap when the season ends in January and
does not open again until August. With
one exception I have having only one small can of Pepsi day with two or three
times the same quantity in still water.
The impact is that I have now halted the recent rise and moved back
towards 16 and a half stone which continues remain a barrier to be broken with
the target of doing so before Christmas. To day I broke faith with a cheese
toastie late on as a reaction to the mess up in writing this Blog. Now for a
coffee
There has been some good television and one
good film in that I went to see the new James Bond Skyfall in this year
celebrating fifty years of the films all of which are available on Sky!
I have experienced all the bond film, the
majority in Theatre over those fifty years commencing in 1962 with Dr No when I
was 23, followed by From Russia with Love in 1963, Goldfinger in 1964 and
Thunderball 1965 and then in 1967
when Connery appeared to end his role as
Bond in You only live Twice. George Lasenby was only OK in On Her Majesty’s
Secret Service to be followed by Shaun Again in Diamonds are Forever in 1971,
Live and Let Die in 1973 and the Man with the Golden Gun 1974 when the mantle
was taken over by the avuncular tongue in cheek Roger Moore who I regarded as
along with Lasenby and Dalton as not a success. Moore
The series had become a formula which a great
action opening, sometimes which appear to have little relation to the rest of
the film, a good and sometimes great song. gimmick devices some which were
ground breaking, beautiful women some who were killed, some were part of the
villainy and action sequences with thrills and spills. There are those like me
who feel the series reached the bottom with Timothy Dalton’s The Living
Daylights in 87 and Licence to kill two years later.
I thought Pierce Brosnan saved the series
after a break with Golden Eye 95 Tomorrow never Dies 97. The World is not
Enough 99 Die Another Day 2002 and Casino Royale in 2006. I was
uncertain about Quantum of Solace in 2008 with Daniel Craig but very satisfied
with his role and performance in Skyfall which like Dr Who entered a new
reality phase appropriate for the era.
The plot of SkyFall is not complicated, Bond
is sent to Turkey
Bond survives, naturally, as goes on one of
his disappearances with win women and song and is involved in a dangerous drink
and gamble with a scorpion in his write reminding of that similar Russian
roulette episode in a USA
Previously the person who had stolen the info
or to whom the info had been passed had managed to get into the MI6 computer
system and post the names of the first five agents saying that he would post
more. Several of these agents were killed before they could be removed from
their undercover locations.
M is at a meeting with Chairman of the
National Security Committee Ralph Fiennes (Mallory) when she is summoned back
to HQ only to be stopped before the explosion.
The deaths of six agents prompts Bond to
reappear at her home and request reinstatement which is agreed subject to
completion of successful physical and mental assessment, He fails badly in all
respects and walks out of the psychological testing when Skyfall is mentioned,
However M fixes the result so he is
reinstated and sent to Shanghai with the agent who shot him Eve ( who we only
later learn is called Moneypenny
suggesting the daughter of unmarried
Miss Moneypenny of the original books and film series.... (His daughter???!!!!!)).
They are following a lead which has
identified the man with whom he fought on top of the train after a great chase
through a city. He is followed to the top of a building where he shoots someone
in a building across the way and when Bonds attempts to engage and find out the
location of the missing info and who is behind the outrages, the man falls to
his death after a struggle. After searching the assassin’s gun case he finds a
gambling chip for a Casino which he attends with Moneypenny to find it brings
him a case with several million pounds and contact with an alluring eastern
woman Sévérine who appears to be charge. However he works out from a mark on wrist that she was taken as an
adolescent to be used in the sex trade and is therefore only a junior,
expendable as it transpires.
Bond joins her on a boat heading for the
island where her boss is located and which turns out to be a disused factory
where the boss Raoul Silva played by Javier Bardem has created his
communication password and security systems cracking monster computer system.
He executes Sévérine for having slept with Bond and bringing him to the island.
Bond who had been captured not only breaks free but with the help of the UK
airborne forces but captures and returns Siva to the UK where he is held in a
temporary secure MI6 in one of the many
underground buildings related to World War 2.
This brings us to what is the third main part
of the film when Silva escapes and makes his way in disguise to the Houses of
Parliament where M is facing a hard grilling before a Committee about the
effectiveness and methods of the service and whether she should stand down.
There is a great shoot out in which Fiennes distinguishes himself and rescues M
while Bond gives chase among the tunnels and Underground lines before the man
escapes.
Bond and M decides that the best thing to do
is to use her as bait as it is evident that the purpose of all that Silva has
done has been to kill M. Bond chooses to take her to the isolated family seat
in Scotland which he has not visited since his parents died when he was a young
boy. They are met by the former gamekeeper and watchman played by Albert Finney
in heavy make up and the trio plan a defence for the expected arrival of Silva.
He does not disappoint with two contingents
of mercenaries the first on the ground and the second airborne. There is much shooting and huge explosions
with almost all the mercenaries killed.
Finney escapes with M to an equally isolated church followed by Bond who
has another life threatening exchange.
Silva and M die.
During the film it emerged that Silva was not
just a first rate former agent who had gone over to the other side, so to speak
but what the son of M who she had ordered terminated after he had gone rogue
and endangered the rest of the service. The film ends with Eve taking up the
former role of Moneypenny and Fiennes becoming the new M.
The film is the most serious and darker of
the Bonds and with the absence of any serious love/sex interest on the part of
Bond. There is a great Theme song written and sung by Adele and all in all a
good two hours worth. I could have done without the over long adverts which
seemed to last well over half an hour.
By coincidence I switched on the TV
lunchtimes to find a Spy film on one of the ITV channels, the 1936 Secret
Agent starring a young John Gielgud with Madeleine Carroll as his fellow
spy playing his wife sent to Switzerland by R the head of the Secret service to
identify and kill a dangerous counter spy during World War I. They are assisted
by Peter Lorre in a comic Foreigner role playing sometimes a fool, sometimes
randy Mexican, sometimes a General and sometimes a serious agent. In
Switzerland Carroll is pursued by Robert Yong a playboy Englishman/American who
I spotted as the man they had come to kill almost from the outset.
Carroll plays a dangerous twit in her first
assignment she balks at having to kill the enemy whatever the circumstances,
you can tell the film was made in 1936 for this reason alone. She becomes attached
to Gielgud eventually to an extent that he agrees to leave the service for and
with her but when Lorre has an important lead before the couple are going
offer, Gielgud plays it out and in a huff she goes off and then tags on to
Young who she sees as the kind of guy she has been looking for.
Gielgud and Lorre follow the lead to a
chocolate making factory (it is Switzerland after all) which is a cover for
German intelligence HQ in that country and despite efforts to foil and capture
them they manage to find out that the man they are seeking is Young and when
they find Carroll is with him they think that she was more clever than they
previously judged and has worked out the position and is going to stop him.
The reverse is the position of course and it
is Young who captures and tells her the truth as they are on a troop train
going through part of Germany
The BBC Secret agent and spy drama series
Haunted did not end last week as planned so I will cover when it does.
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