Tuesday 25 October 2016

First Class weekend to London October 2016


I am midway on my journey to London from Newcastle on the 10.26 Virgin train Friday 14th October 2016 and it has not been an auspicious start. I had planned today well getting everything read yesterday with washing and drying closes and having everything ready to pack in the case and shoulder pack and the alarm set of 7. However, although to be bed at 11.30pm I could not get off and rose twice to go to the toilet instead of my now usual once. I felt OK waking with the alarm and after getting myself ready, dressing and packing I brought the car to the back for loading before any of the workmen arrived with vehicles for the major work going on in an adjacent property and one immediately across the back lane

It was not raining, no wind with a reasonable temperature, I left the heating and lights off and there is much sign of autumn along the route with brown to orange leave but not great reds which rarely occur or at least I have opportunity to observe. Traffic was having but I had a good run from reaching the Tyne Bridge and there was a parking place close to the entrance of the carpark at the station and no queue in purchasing the weekend ticket for £23 making the cost of travel £100. The assistant confirmed that the weekly parking ticket is only available to those holding season tickets so in December for my week in London if I travel by train I will take a taxi.

The cost of the travel is offset by food and drink available travelling first class and in the lounges. This was the first of two disappointments, the first is that the former 10.30 train, now 10.26 stars at Edinburgh and.  Virgin staff member in the First class lounge explained that the previous five starts from the city are now to two at 12.30 and 16.30. However, all was well because of having been allocated a seat in the quiet coach there were two single facing seats free at the centre of the coach enabling my case to fit in the space behind a four seat table and also the shoulder pack alongside. However, there were no menus and the food was pathetic in that there was no breakfast option, however this as made up for in other ways as follows. At the station a coffee and a large fruit juice and to packets of biscuits, still water and an important edition of the Times Newspaper £4.50 value and on the train two Bells whiskies with ginger and ice, a large glass of red, an odd hot dish a sort of veg curry and a sort of couscous, two packets of crisps, one piece of cake and two coffees  which at £16 is conservative value at £20.50 overall and given that Wi-Fi id now free through the train with free films to views precious would have brought the value to the cost of the first class single fare. Just seen some really deep reds as we approach Huntingdon and more on the Thames link train from St Pancras to East Croydon There was a quick connection and one of the new 12 carriage trains almost empty. The fare £4.05 was offset by the need to visit the first class Lounge at Kings Cross for the loo where I came across Brendan Foster catching a train North. The second time in thirty years previously on a flight from Newcastle to Heathrow me in standard and he at the front in the days when he was an Olympic runner and Director of Culture and Leisure at Gateshead Council. I enjoyed another coffee, bring with me water, biscuits, banana and crisps and the free for everyone Evening Standard.

The lift to the street at East Croydon station was not working but a young man stepped as I was tackling the second and third flights downward. I prefer the Premier Inn superior accommodation and ambience. This reminds time to turn the heating on to 24 degrees I think should be fine. I have a disability room which means they have removed the sofa/bed but the double bed is huge with appropriate linen whereas the visit to the Travel Lodge there were two single beds together and separate linen which was pointless but good training if I need to go into hospital but even then the linen is more practical.

Next revised plans for the next two days followed some interesting news re what is now the Jay statutory Inquiry.  Found out at the desk that the adjacent multi storey car park is only being refurbished, was planned for December but likely to take longer so that in the interim there is half price at the Bridges.

It 2pm on Saturday. I have been to central London and back om an unsuccessful attempt to sort out my Cineworld subscription for use in London and more that in a moment. Yesterday evening I successful completed a review of King Lear, although made the mistake of putting the Relay visit as Thursday when it was Wednesday and correct this morning and head one version as Patrick Troughton when it was his son David. I also cannot reference Twitter on here but OK on the travel laptop which I did this morning before setting up. Change the appearance of the Artman general Blog which enable uploading again but oddly the Theatre site was now OK in the black background edition. Will start the Thursday evening lecture when I finish this and have tried a nap. I manage to get to sleep open mouth using the breathing machine getting up at least once possibly twice and going through to 7.  Went for Wetherspoons breakfast at 10ish which I enjoyed with two coffees £4.35 and decided not to go up to London as planned for the Cineworld Leicester Square as there was a slight drizzle. However, on return the room was not done and then mini panic as I went out of the room forgetting to bring with me the pass key card and domestic who could not speak English did not help. So went up to London after finding bank closed re Virgin cheque taking with me the Season ticket which I have started to read and where with amendments to the story line the stage play appears to faithfully reproduced so far. Purchased a travel card for £8 which is cheaper than the two singles to a London station at £4.05 each with the rail card. Must check what the Oyster card charge is for the single journey. Purchased a pack of tissues for £1 as went through what I brought with almost continuously having to blow my nose. 

 Victoria station was jam packed as was the entrance to the Victoria line. I made my way to end of the platform which meant on departing the train at Green Park I was at the exit to the Piccadilly line which involves a good walk. Alighting at Leicester Square I went I search of the location of the Cineworld. There are two Cineworld’s within short distance, a large one within the Trocedero which closed when the building became a hotel with a different entrance, nearly 600 rooms allegedly budget at £100 to £150 a night! There is a cinema, a new chain called picture House again with an entrance at the junction with Great Windmill Street and Shaftestbury which for a time accepted Cineworld Cards. There is a small Cineworld with three screens in the Haymarket, here are two Vue’s and two Odeon’s and the Famous Empire. There was another cinema demolished on a site where there is going to be a new Edwardian Hotel. Fortunately, I turned around and looked back and saw the sign the Empire has become Cineworld just so they are yet to sort out the Unlimited card and I was given a customer service number to change the subscription so out of curiosity I went the one in the Haymarket and they explained that unless I am going to visit more than once a more it is possible to pay an additional fee of £2 but one cannot do this on line one must go to the Box office. This was said to be the position for the Imax where an additional premium has also to be paid but this can be done on line outside of London.

I returned to East Croydon and my room debating whether I should give the play at National Theatre a miss, changed mind and went back up to London taking the non-stop train to London Bridge where platforms at one end have been update as well as the main entrance to the station but still there are parts where work is continuing through to 2018. It was two stops back to Waterloo where it commenced to rain harder than previously. Because I was attempting to gain a credit within 24 hours and there were seats to be sold it was unlikely mine would be resold and I attempted to stay for the two and half hours but after half an hour I gave up a returned to Victoria on the 507 bus and a train to Southampton via East Croydon.

I was early and took an aisle seat in the second carriage. A group of young men arrived and filed four seats at a table next row. At least one moved further along the train. One who appeared to be the leader of the group made a phone call talking loudly so whole carriage could heard what he saying. He was arranging a lift for the group at Cosham some 90 mins away and which I checked is on the outskirts of Portsmouth and said he would give another score if the person took them to where they wanted to go. A member of the group appeared to asking when they have some ffing drugs and appeared placated with the beer that had been brought on board. The batter continued and looks of the faces of those in adjacent sets revealed the anxiety about what was to come. Fortunately, our rescue came from an unexpected source.

One of the rest of the group returned to advise that there were seats available in the first four carriages of the train. This suggested the real group leader. In the mean time we learned that the reason for one person being included in the outing is that they brought in an average of £7000 a month in the business, by they left before we could gain some insight into the business in question. The seats were quickly occupied by three young women with the fourth by a male a little later before train the departed. It is not clear what he said which provoked outbursts of hysterical laughter. It was something to do which his recent visit to LA and the discussion also   appeared to relate to the fashion industry but the cause of hysteric remains a puzzle. As anticipated the lift was repaired and I called in at the local co-op for a meal deal and some more strong mints and tissues

On returning to my room and a change of clothing and time to view the last part of Strictly Come Dancing with some very good performances with one meriting 39 from 40 points, and the first hour of the X Factor before one off Danish Film Department Q. The Keeper of Lost Causes based on a book and which been followed by two other films although these are not to be shown. Watching the Saturday evening series in a language other than English has become an  important regular event in my life with Inspector Montalbano my favourite because of the intertwining of the love of Mediterranean food with his detective skill and the Young Montalbano series has also  been exceptional, similarly to the recreation of Moorse following the death of leading and irreplaceable action John Thaw, followed by the series from the books of Henning Mankell, the Detective Wallander, where Kenneth Branagh has also made brilliant English versions of the Detective and the Danish political series Borgen on Coalition government which ranks alongside the West Wing for the White House reality and the Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister series here in the UK. Romanzo Criminale and Corleone focussed on the Mafia and separate Roman criminal gangsterism with the Tunnel also being notable and meriting some writing to remind me of their experience

On Saturday evening 15th October 2016 hoping to be engaged and taking away the disappointment of not being able to go and see a play at the National Theatre where I had bought an expensive ticket and the theatre was unable to give me a credit towards a future production. I watched Department Q in anticipation but conclude that there was something nasty about this work, perhaps because it came too close to the reality of the terror of what being imprisoned is like. Over the past year there has been a series of films about the taking of young women and keeping them for the sexual pleasure of one man with currently on BBC TV Missing and 13.

The one off of three films begins with interest when one of a team of three detectives is murdered, a second finds himself paralysed, the third who was also shot but survives to physically recover is relegated to permanently close the accumulation of cold cases and is appointed an enthusiastically Muslim with a taste for loud contemporary music. The sense of guilt and failure of the one who survives and the despair and frustration of second is immediately real, with the urge to get back to work understandable and the anger and frustration at being given a desk job and having to work with someone new and cannot possibly understand how one is feeling

The assistant selects the first batch of cases with a parade of photographs and which includes one, Carl, the reluctant boss knows something about the case of a young woman politician who is believed to have committed suicide disappearing from a ferry leaving her brother with what first appears to be severe learning difficulties from head injuries in a car accident which killed their parents.

The unravelling of what actually happened is thorough and clever and early on we learn that the young woman was in fact kidnapped and is being kept in a decompression chamber which limits the confined area and also enables the perpetrator to changing levels of physical unpleasantness. There is a credible method for of food and water dealing with sanitation and the provision of food and water but it stretches credulity that the woman is able to survive this limited environment for year upon year. The juxtaposition of being a witness to the horror and the brutality the young women experience and the difficulties the detectives face adds to the tension which the film creates and where it is clear that the motive for the imprisonment is not sexual but with the perpetrator insisting on having voyeuristic pleasures in her increasing discomfort making it plain he is seeking a prolonged painful death as the outcome but not why.

We learn that the perpetrator as boy was in a car travelling in the same direction as his prisoner who exchange looks as one of the cars overtakes the other, and he girl for some reason places her hand of the face of the person in front thus it is suggested causing the accident which kills parents, his sister and leads to physical and emotional condition of the girl’s brother who she now cares for. The boy is placed in a children’s home and portrayed as disruptive and violent, befriending another, who as an adult appears to have been a conference with the girl who has become a politician attends. At least this is the impression first gained as the detectives identify the friend as the likely suspect as he is identified as being on the ferry from which the woman disappeared, believed committed to suicide.

That the detectives commenced to find out what happened by going out of the basement into the field was never intended and opposed, particularly by the detective originally in charge of the investigation into the death. When it is established that the perpetrator has committed suicide over the side of a small boat, a fishing enthusiast, on a lake, the two are ordered to close the case and return to the others which the disobey and are suspended. Fortunately, they quickly discover that the dead man is not the perpetrator. Because they learn that the brother is more traumatised than physically damaged, the assistant who is a practicing Muslim, to provide the obligatory representative diversity now required has the temperament to sit with the young man until he is able to obtain responses to a collection of photographs taken at the political event and which include photos of the perpetrator. The breakthrough occurs when a witness does not identify the perpetrator as the man at the conference which the brother has identified from the photographs taken at the political event. It is at this point we understand that the perpetrator has killed his friend in order to switch identities to get to the conference after seeing a TV report of the girl as a budding politician.

It is at this point we are asked to accept another coincidence which challenges rationality, although nothing like the challenges posed by the film Inferno which I was to see the Sunday lunchtime. The perpetrator now lives in an isolated ramshackle farm assortment of buildings with his disabled mother who survived the crash but was unable to care for him as a child and where his father had work involving diving and a decompression chamber within the home. The detectives arrive do not accept the story that he is away from the mother and leave when Carl realises that the pile of petrol cans means that there is a generator which has been petrol power in order that the increase in energy use cannot be recorded but why would the authorities take an interest anyway for which there could be a number of legitimate reasons.

They return meet up with the perpetrator who at first denies and then puts up a desperate fight to complete the murder of his victim, wounding the assistant with a gunshot and almost killing Carl with a ligature. It is the assistant using extreme violence who stops and kills the assailant.  The woman survives maintained in a pressure container in an attempt to undo the adjustments to her body caused by the years of captivity in which despite the limitations of her confinement she has concentrated on remaining physically fit and sane. The two detectives are rewarded with medals and Carl told he can re-join his former team. He declines wanting to continue Department Q with the assistant and an assistant to administrative and secretarial help and no doubt to provide the female interest. For whatever unknown reason this did not become the ongoing TV series similar to Cold Case here in the UK, but there have been two other ones off films in successive years.  I can only assume this is because of the gratuitous violence used and the protracted voyeuristic scene making it more a film for the cinema than the TV.

Despite the head cold which continued to stream I had some good sleep and was eager for a traditional breakfast again at the George Wetherspoons where I arrived around 10 am and was able to secure a bench seat to one side paying some attention to the young couple with what appeared to be three girls under the age of five or six. I then  made my way passed the new Box Park food and drink project at the corner of Dingwall Road where the former Theatre used to be and was said to being replaced and the area approaching the large area approach the station  which appears to consists  of two levels of restaurants and wine bars with a large vaulted  transparent ceiling space  accommodating  seats to eat and drink as well as be entertained and with a scheduled opening at the end of the month with two days of local south land bands but where there was every evidence of several weeks if not months of work still to be undertaken. I look forward to taking a good look when I next visit.

I took the first available train to Victoria which meant crossing over platforms and entering the train as it was almost ready to depart with an additional stop at Selhurst before Clapham Junction, then taking District line train to Westminster for the Jubilee line and to Canary Wharf where I hoped I would remember how to get to the West India Dock Cineworld. I had look up on the Mini London AZ. Unfortunately, the route did not come back and I had to ask the way until the otherwise finding excellent street signings and the last part became familiar.

I had first got to know the Cineworld at the former West India Docks when my eldest daughter lived in Stratford and from where the Docklands Light Railway goes direct with the alternative Jubilee line goes to Canary Wharf and central London in the opposite direction and the walk from there. The car park adjacent to the new build multiplex which is also part of a large fitness centre was also used and where the new purpose modern lots of glass building runs parallel to the former dock storage buildings with restaurants on the ground floor and loft apartments on the upper.

Canary Wharf the subject of IRA terrorist major bombing because the former Thames river dockland had become London’s second financial centre with a number of tower office blocks including the tallest in the UK before the building of the Shard and proving work for over 100000 people who mostly commute, hence being a transport hub and providing a huge area of basement level retail shopping with a combined area of one and half million square metres. The bombing took place in 1996 just before Tony Blair became Prime Minister, did £150 million of damage and where although a 90-minute warning was given two people died and a number were injured, some permanently.

Canary Wharf is located on the Isle of Dogs, a peninsular connected to the land at the top with a busy motorway separating West India docklands with the Millwall inner and outer docks in the south and the Thames Limehouse, Greenwich Reach and Blackwell Reach parts of the Thames surrounding. There are no bridges with the Blackwall Tunnel separating South London at North Greenwich from East London to one side and the Rotherhithe Tunnel and Tower Bridge to the other. In terms of security it is a good location and where the area is now constantly monitored and patrolled 24/7. Canary Wharf Jubilee station is huge and cavernous and with direct entry into the basement level shipping precincts. Not remembering This I exited from the station into the large plaza and attempted to make way to the connecting bridge which connects the Canary Wharf South Dock over the Middle Dock to still name West India Northern dock and where ocean going ships can still be moored as happened   during the 2012 Olympic games in particular and also visiting naval vessels. Having crossed the Bridge and making my way passed the Brown’s Restaurant where I have sat out once for Sunday lunch, registered and received a constant flow of emails and offers ever since. Before crossing the bridge there is a pub in the corner of an office block which provides less expensive food and large screenings of Premiership Football.

The Cineworld has 11 screens with entrances on the second and fourth floors and within area of comfortable seating at ground level and additional seating at other levels where there are other concessions. I was going first to see the film Inferno at 12.40 arriving at 12.35 and then at 18.30 for the 25 Anniversary film of a live production of Miss Saigon which was to end with encores by the original cast.

It is just as well I had not heard Dr Mark Kermode’s reaction to The Inferno before deciding that I could combine a 2D version of the film with the Miss Saigon anniversary after the afternoon showings were cancelled at Wandsworth and where I originally booked and was not being relayed at all to the Cineworld within the 02 arena at the Millennium Dome.  I was able to book an aisle seat which was not possible at Wandsworth which used a smaller theatre.

I have noted that despite the advertising of some films in 3D there has been an overall reduction in those available and where in this the film was also available in Imax.  The main enjoyment from this films comes from its locations in Florence, Italy and Istanbul, particularly the last scene on the Basilica Cistern. However, the story is pants from start to finish although Tom Hanks does his best. The film is based on the 2013 Dan Brown novel who wrote the successful book which led to the De Vinci Code film which I found interesting, entertaining and plausible.   I make no apology for the plot spoilers as national showings of the film are at their end.

I will also avoid the irritating mixture of present action and flashbacks. The film is about a billionaire geneticist with his own international security service who is concerned that the world will not be able to feed itself because of the exponential growth in population and with a reduction in major world wars and major losses of population because of pandemics, starvation, unclear water and other natural disasters which has been a feature of the past couple of hundred years the population will quickly become unmanageable.  His solution is to create a plague which will decimate at last half the population through an airborne virus and which will leave hundreds of thousand badly disfigured and disabled and in fact a Dante Inferno hell on earth.

The first point to be made is that if such a virus can be created and this is possible despite the world ban, and it comes into the hands of someone with the worldwide financial power and doing anything for a price security team, Spectre and Smersh immediately come to mind as originators of the possibility, they are unlikely to be found out in time and caught. However, it is likely that various intelligence services are on the lookout but also have knowledge of the whereabouts of the communication HQs from which the various independent security and intelligence organisations operate and which enable democracies with laws prevent assassination, torture and other lawless activities to place contracts to undertake off the books projects.

In the instance of this film the body which gets wind of the plot and set out to prevent activation of the virus is the World Health organisation with its team led by a former love relationship of Tom Hanks, a Harvard professor with the ability to decipher codes and an in depth knowledge of the works of Dante.  He wakes up in a hospital in Florence with a vague memory of having a syringe in his neck area which has left a rash and removed his immediate memory of who he is and, why he is in Florence. He is told and believes by the English speaking attractive doctor, aptly named Sienna who knows who he is from having attended one of his lectures as a girl that he is suffering from a bullet wound which narrowly affects his scalp and therefore raises the issue of how come such a limited injury has the effect it is claimed to have. Moreover when it is agreed to contact the US embassy for help a hired female assassin arrives dressed as  a local police motors cyclist who starts shooting people  and  attempts to get through the various doors which are shut as Sienna opts to try and get Hanks out of the hospital to the safety of her apartment and where  in the hospital and in the apartment Hanks starts to have hallucinations of the end  of world according to  the  terror  the virus is destined to unleash and it is only towards the end of the film that  it is disclosed that Sienna is in fact the partner of the billionaire who has committed suicide rather than reveal how the virus is to be activated and when after he has sent the world an ultimatum for change in a video. To add to the plot someone purports to also be a member of the WHO organisation has knowledge and wants to get hold of the virus to sell on the international market.

Because of the possibility of being stopped the billionaire has provided  a second option in the form of an elaborate series of clues provided in the death mask and paintings of Dante and his view of Hell which has been depicted in Sandro’s Botticelli’s Map of Hell and  which is contained in what appears to be a secured vial, first thought to be the virus container  but is in fact a kind of pen projector (Faraday) which reveals a changed version of the map and only Hanks appears able to interpret with the practical assistance of Sienna.

The search leads them from Florence to Venice where Hanks in wanted by the police locally because he and the Museum Director are seen stealing the death mask Tom and Sienna work out has been taken back to Florence, is retrieved and on the base of it is a further clue which   leads them to Istanbul.  We also learn that after the death of the billionaire the head of his intelligence operation attempts to follow previous instructions and ensure that Hanks get the information and with the help the staged female assassin using blanks is part of the plot get Hanks to help Sienna doctor ensure release of the virus. However, as the action develops the orders are to kill Sienna and capture Hanks. The doctor kills the assassin through making her fall through the priceless decorated ceiling of the Museum as the two attempt to escape crossing the rafters. They also manage to kill the arms dealers when in Venice and at this point the double dealing of Sienna is revealed.  Hanks is reunited with his former love at the WHO and they are also assisted by the former head of the Billionaires private security service.

This takes them to Istanbul and the Cistern where a gala evening party is being held with orchestral music among the columns and red floodlit waters which is very specular and beautiful.  The virus is in already in a container in the waters which is housed by the authorities in a secured way before Sienna can set off explosion to cause the its release and dies along with some of her local pre-arranged helpers.  Hanks and the head of the WHO rue their passed missed opportunity and that the present requirements of their work means they are kept apart, but are they? The world is saved to continue on its path of self-destruction as before but the audience leave the theatre entertained by the spectacle.

However, those with knowledge of the book, appreciate a very different outcome. The virus has already been released into the water with Sienna attempting to stop and destroy fearing that the authorities would retain and that it would fall into the hands of those seeking to convert into weapons. The impact is that about a third of population will become sterile thus having a positive effect on future population. Sienna does not die and is given amnesty because she is a doctor and knows of the work is given a job with the WHO. She and the female head of WHO work together but decide not attempt to reverse the sterilization accept that the billionaire had a point.  A message which understandably Hollywood and the USA government would not want to have shown and where I suggest some of the more recent plague outbreaks may not be as natural as might be supposed.  I also suspect on terms of rational thinking that other ways to control human behaviour have been decided, including the use of addictive substances as well as digital communications.

At the Cineworld I noted a 20% concessions at a Wetherspoons with instructions to turn right on leaving the cinema complex and going past the fitness centre at the end of which there was the entrance to the car park and across the roadway an older closed building. I decided to cross over the road to the back of the wharf warehouse building and had to take great care because of a lot of surface water after a downpour and where it was still raining l used the hood on the coat rather than attempt to open the small umbrella I keep in its left side pocket. The Wetherspoons occupies what in in fact a separate restored Category 1 building which especially from the rear appears a fully integrated part of the former warehouses of the see more about this venue


19th century engineer-architects, George Gillks and John Rennie. The building has been the offices of the West India Docks Building and also housed the Docklands Development Corporation when the development was being created. The Ledger has a fabulous inside with the main bar a high clear ceiling reminding of a pub in the center of Nottingham owned by a rival chain which has been closing some of its establishments. I sat in the raised area at the back overlooking the rest of this area. There are three large areas to the side of the dividing corridor to the front portico seating nearly 700 inside and couple of hundred outside which is a feature of all the restaurants and bars which make the ground level of the warehouse.

I still had a ticklish dry cough and although it was after four did not feel immediately like a full meal so treated myself to a cold pint of Fosters, enjoying noting the diners around and continued to read The Season Ticket by Jonathan Tulloch studying the written Geordie. I still needed lots of tissues but congratulated myself for having commenced this venture.  Around five I felt hungry enough and ordered a basic beef burger, chips and with a diet Pepsi for £5.50 less the 20% discount.  Fortunately, a little while later I noted a staff member taking back to the kitchen what looked like my dish and I remembered I had said the table number for breakfast 70 and not the present table 24 or was it 26? I found a staff member who quickly brought me the meal, I already had the drink, and discovered that I had ordered the chicken burger or a mistake had been made. The chicken was dry and tasteless so I wished it had been the beef I had order a curry which I had fancied. There was a real ale festival underway and also at the George in Croydon and I knew that I would return even though the Wandsworth Cinema is closer to hand and I plan to take out the London subscription extra to attend the Imax at the Empire in Leicester Square, when the e ticketing is available.  The Museum of London Dockland is nearby together with workshops and the area remains a very interesting part of London which the casual tourist does not tend to explore.

Although early I made my way to outside theatre 5 at the Cineworld and proved identical to theatre ten at lunch time. I sit on the first row to one side of the tired seating with the metal support frame on which one can rest a foot on place the coffee or ice cream on the lower strut. Usually I have the small row of three or four seats row to myself apart from the young woman who sat next to me for a recent Opera relay at Bolden. In the morning a solitary male occupied the seat against the walk and later that evening two women, the seats nearest the wall with others sitting behind in both instances. I was early and able to get seat and because the previous show did not end until 6 and cleaning theatre took time it was like 6.20 when the large waiting audience were allowed to take our seats.

Along with the film Casablanca Miss Saigon is the one work which I can experience time and time again.  When it opened in 1989 I had on impulse gone to see if I could get a ticket for a matinee performance after a morning meeting of a national committee. As the start approached and there was still a number of others waiting a young woman jumped out of a taxi and said she had spare ticket for the stalls for which I willing paid the full price arriving at our good seats just as the curtain was rising.  At the interval she complained it was Madam Butterfly, true but only at the level of the basic story and where I believe she failed to appreciate the great tunes and the political aspects of USA imperialism in Asia.  My family had been to see Les Miserables on a family visit to London and I had gone to see Les Miss on my own, not appreciating its length and having to leave early to meet up with the family for the evening performance of Miss Saigon. Of course this meant going to see Les Miserables again as well as seeing Miss Saigon at least once or even twice after that. I remain convinced that I have written about the work before but cannot presently locate the evidence and could not find wo tape recording of the show among the 200 tapes in my collection which is odd.




You Tube has come to rescue with the full sound track while I write. The musical retains its hold because of the music, the song, the story and its topicality with the Syrian boat people replacing those from Vietnam as they made their way to Bangkok and onwards to the USA and to here in the UK. Most of all the musical remains important to me and others who because of parental and subsequent circumstances feel ourselves to belong to the Bui Doi, the dust of life children without a meaningful identity and without a meaningful home.  On Sunday 16th of October the relay was in fact a film of the actual anniversary production which took place the previous month.

The latest production makes the use of back screen projection but all the element of the original production is included where in the after show it was admitted that over the year’s emphasis of the acting has become stronger and I felt there is now an even greater edge to the production than the original.

I saw Lee Solanga in the title role of Kim, Miss Saigon as a 17-year-old and she returned to the stage as a mature middle aged person with all the ability to project the emotion of experience she will not have had in the first production.  Lee vied as the star of show with Jonathan Pryce who played the Vietnamese bar owner, brothel keeper, pimp and fixer, the Engineer, for which he won awards, and I found that in some respects the new Kim is outshone by the latest ethnic correct actor who is brilliant as Engineer and praised by Jonathan Pryce who made some great jokes introducing the dancing girls for the showing stopping number towards the end, The American Dream as his careers. Humour there was but despite the glitz of the spectacle this is a very serious work of timeless significance.

The show open with an overture and the sound of a helicopter as we are introduced to the Engineer and his bar brothel as the Americans are about to cut and run. Kim aged 17 years is the latest recruit from the country, as her parent died under the bombing and she fled to the city in search of means of survival with prostitution the only source available. The creators of the show avoided the problem of Madam Butterfly who is underage as 17 years’ old’s remain in a number of USA States but the reality is that children have been forced into the bar brothels sometimes sold by their parents as the only means of their survival or to get sufficiently ahead to break from their cycle of survival poverty. In every town where there is some form of military, or naval base, and  from the last century the airbase, or places sympathetic to the need for fighting men to have relax and recreation breaks when they are at war or far from home, the problem has existed and early on in my work in child care, I was allocated a mother with three children, all by different USA service men, from an airbase in the recent constituency of former Prime Minister David Cameron and where the first was the product of a visit to the base dance when she was only 15.

Every night at the bar run by the Engineer, he appoints one of the girls Miss Saigon the premium lady of the night, and when one become available, he auctions a young virgin, the fresh meat to quote the words of the lyricist by Alain Boubil who also created the original French Lyrics, along with Claude-Michael Schonberg who created the music and the story. They created their first work together in 1973, Les Revolution Francaise and it was in 1978 that they commenced work on what has become their more famous creation, Les Miserables which opened in Paris in 1980.  but it was when the decision was taken to translate the Lyrics into English and for productions to commence in London and New York that through Cameron Mackintosh their work received international recognition. Cameron Mackintosh started theatre life as a stagehand and he is also responsible for to other worldwide ongoing shows, The Phantom of the Opera and Cats. It is also notable that Cameron has donated part of the proceeds of Miss Saigon to a Foundation in support of refugees.  One of the highlights of the anniversary after show was the arrival of Alain, Claude and Cameron in the American Dream Car as the number was performed by Jonathan Pryce with Jon Jon Briones. 

Miss Saigon first opened in 1989 in London and then in 1991 in New York, revived in London in 2014 and opens again in New York next year, It opened in Tokyo 1992 followed  Toronto  1993, Germany Stuttgart, not Berlin  and Hungary 1994, Holland and Austraila1996, and then New Zealand and Sweden with Estonia in 2002, Denmark 2004/2005 and Finland, then Korea 2004 and most interesting perhaps of all Bangkok in Thailand in 2012, also Austria,  Finland and the Philippines and  revivals in Japan in 2004 and again 2008-2009 and 2012, 1914 and 2016 in South Korea, in Canada and Holland. A production has also toured in the UK. The number of productions is mentioned because changes have been made over the years to take account of changing times, the different countries and their varied audience.

The storyline is established with the arrival of young single USA service men into the bar  with John  now  played by a Black actor arranging to buy Kim ( paraded as  a Virgin)  for his troubled friend Chris and where the presence of Kim is seen as a threat by the experienced Gigi who portrays a young woman still dreaming of finding an American who will sweep her off to the USA and where she and Kim sing the first of the haunting songs in the show, “The Movie in my Mind” and this is soon followed  by “the Dance” with its haunting saxophone and in which the Engineer arranges for the Kim and  Chris who are  genuinely attracted to each other to go  to her room away from the bar.

It is then the number “Why, God” which elevates the work away from a simple sexual exploitation story to the perspective of the USA servicemen in a strange country with a challenging culture and which in my view makes it more significant than Madam Butterfly where Pinkterton always comes across as fitting in only for the purpose of having a young wife and without questioning his role.  The difference is reinforced when Kim gives an account of what happened to her family and how she is in her present situation “Sun and Moon” and Chris wants the relationship to become serious entering into a marriage ceremony according to local tradition and custom, having in effect purchased Kim from the Engineer who wants a Visa to get to the USA as he realizes the USA’s role in the country is ending. This is reinforced by John in a phone call who declares that the situation is falling apart and the USA is abandoning the people as it did in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya subsequently, along with the UK and other interventionist countries, unwilling to devote the resources to establish effective and lasting governments before departure.

This leads to another pivotal moment when the young man, Thuy, betrothed by their parents when adolescents aged thirteen arrives and is stunned to find what has happened. Kim’s rebuke that he changed sides leaving her during the week her parents were killed justifies her new circumstances but those able to take a more detached view of events will have sympathy for the young man brought up in one tradition and coming to recognise that the insurgent army represented the way forward for the majority of people after decades of colonial exploitation by the French and then the USA Americans. His sense of betrayal is matched by the lovers forced to separate in the haunting “Last Night of the World”.

There is then the powerful statement of the success of Ho chi minh, the leader of the revolution with “the Morning of the Dragon” in which we learn that the Vietnamese young nan Thuy has become a commander with authority and demands that the Engineer locates Kim if he wants to retain his freedom. The juxtaposition between the realities of geo politics and the complex emotional relationships between individuals of different cultures is then powerfully portrayed by “I still believe” in which Kim and the present USA wife of Chris unite in their respective love and appreciation of his and their situation.

The intensity of the story is further heightened when Kim and the Engineer is located and Thuy attempts to use his new power to force marriage or she to risk death by his men. Kim defends her situation by introducing her son by Chris which infuriates Thuy more and he issues the ultimatum of survival through without the child, a symbol of his enemy. In desperation she kills Thuy using the weapon Chris had given her for protection when he returned the base in the attempt to secure passage for his bride. Kim pleads with the Engineer help her go to America which he ridicules before realizing that that her son is that of Chris and their entry ticket if he poses as her brother “Let me see his Western nose.” In the new production it is possible to project film of the boatpeople crossing between Vietnam and Thailand, not lost on the Cineworld audience now familiar with the attempts of the Syrians and others to reach mainland Europe. Before the final chorus of the Exodus at the closure of the first act Kim warns of want is to come, “I’d give my life for you.”

Before writing of the Second Act It Is a good point to mention the substantial subsequent change in USA Vietnam relations which occurred with President Clinton came into office and that within a couple of years of the opening of the show in the USA there was official recognition followed by trade agreements in 2000 and 2007 and over one and half million Vietnamese Americans and a large cultural exchange of Vietnam student studying in the USA and making their subsequent homes in the country.

The choice of the number which opens the second Act of the musical is therefore of significance in understanding that the work was always intended to be more than entertainment or to duplicate the tragic sexual exploitation story of Madam Butterfly but of all children like me caught in a no man’s land of no identity and no homeland.

The Bui Doi, the Dust of life is our song and we stretch throughout human history to the children at Calais and the children, the products of Isis and the woman and girls they are using. John on returning home has achieved maturity as a human being and sanity as a former soldier by representing an organization seeking to trace the fathers of the children abandoned in Vietnam and across Asia and receives a report that Kim is alive with a child, a bar girl in Bangkok and he contacts Chris with the news. 

This throws Chris into turmoil because he has not told his wife of the relationship and is someone who he genuinely loves as she attempts to cope with the distance between them and his nightmares, the consequence of his experience and relationship in Vietnam.

We learn that in Bangkok the Engineer has become an employee, an on commission hustler with Kim the experienced bar girl both surviving on dreams of getting to the USA, “What a waste” girls available for the sexual tourist for only10 cents an hour, the offer of boys, first girl free and himself for extra fee. Chris has arrived with his wife and John goes in search of Kim and meets up with the Engineer “Chris is here”, but John cannot bear to tell Kim the truth after witnessing her continuing devotion and belief he has come for her and for his child. The bar owner arrives and warns them both because of the child on the premises. John goes off to bring Chris but the Engineer does not trust the situation fearing he will excluded and persuades Kim to go to the hotel after finding out the address.  

Thuy reappears as a ghost cursing Kim that she will not fulfill her dream and next there is a return in time to the fall of Saigon with Kim and Chris desperate to get to each other are separated by the compound, just as the German people were by the Berlin Wall, the Syrian and others by the European Wall, and Trump and the Republicans and their proposed wall with Mexico and the last helicopter arrives to take the remaining solders and Vietnamese away communicating the panic and despair of those left behind as those  more recently experienced  in Iraq, in Afghanistan and Libya and no doubt in Syria once the threat to Europe and the USA has been contained.

Kim prepares to go to the hotel, dressing as Chris knew her while singing a reprise of “the Sun and the Moon.” At the hotel she encounters Kim’s wife quickly recognizes who Kim is while Chris makes his way to the bar. Kim is shocked by the news that Chris has married and feels betrayed because of the vows he made and demands that Chris comes and tells her the truth. When Chris returns to the hotel there is another number which again raises the work above others, including the Opera Madam Butterfly, a she tells the reality of young men out of college being sent to war in lands with different cultures for reasons they do not understand.

What is now to happen is inevitable and the couple debate staying in Thailand to ensure the future of Kim and his son, as at first his second wife cannot accept the possibility of returning to the USA with the son. Before the end there is a spectacular reminder of the American Dream with a chorus line of Marilyn Monroe blondes as the dream car, and yes there is now an internet site selling the Cadillacs and the Chevrolets called Dream Cars, comes on the stage which the Engineer humps at one point, and ends with a lit Statue of Liberty young woman emerging from the back seat.

To ensure she keeps the vow to her son she dresses him as an American and kills herself thus ensuring Chris and his wife takes her son but we the audience know this is likely to doom the marriage and create lifelong problems for the child.

At the Cineworld West India Dock there was a brief five-minute interval between the two Acts and then ten before he 25th anniversary celebration when all the original London cast comes on stage and with the principal singers giving encores with the artists from the present production. It was a memorable and where it was evident the audience had a similar reaction. I have ordered the official video of the evening with copies for family members.

The performance ended about 9.30pm and as it was not raining I was able to make my way back across the bridge towards the Canary Wharf centre following others who seemed to know what they were doing.  I was able to ask and establish that it was possible to get to the Canary Wharf station by walkthrough the basement level shopping centre which was well looked after by security staff.  I arrived at the fast train to East Croydon notice board around 10.20 if not before and where no train was listed and then two trains just before 10.50 and 10 50 which seemed a very long time to wait. Also on the board was the 10.32 to Brighton via Worthing but with no platform listed, at least not until just before 10.30 so I made my way having considered other trains and got a good seat as the train set off sharply at 10.32. I could only assume there had been a question about the driver given that the train had been in for some time and there was an only a few for everyone to get on board.  Because it went Brighton the long way around it was not crowded.   I arrived in Croydon just as the Coop was closing at 11 and was able to get water, tissues and mints.

I then stayed up later although I cannot remember what I did and this had the outcome of not waking until 9 a good hour later I that I wanted. Fortunately, I had prepared well the night before and although I did not rush I was making my way to the station going to the front entrance just before 10. There was a lot of activity at what is Box Park and it is still not clear what is to be built between the apartment block bordering the side entrance to the station and box Park. The site blurb explains the choice of Croydon for the second former shipping container retail centre after Shoreditch, Croydon has been the emerging face of south London for some time now, establishing itself as the new home of the capital’s street art movement and the ‘Silicon Valley’ of the south. Because of this, Croydon’s formerly unforgiving reputation is beginning to subside and big things are on the horizon. While Croydon is often the on the receiving end of a fair amount of abuse for its brutal post-war architecture and its part in the 2011 riots, it’s often easy to forgot Croydon’s cultural impact. Croydon is the home of Peep Show, Dubstep and the BRIT School – where former alumni include Amy Winehouse, Adele and Katy B.

Croydon is hyper connected too. You can be in central London in 14 minutes and the south coast in under 40! Gatwick Airport is a mere quarter of an hour away and West Croydon’s “ginger line” connects the town to every bustling square inch of south east London – from Peckham to Shoreditch. Croydon is changing rapidly and while areas like the restaurant quarter, in south Croydon, and Matthews Yard are well established; the town centre has lost some of its biggest and cherished dining spots, bars and nightclubs. Boxpark Croydon aims to revitalise Croydon’s changing social and dining landscape by delivering the same unique experiences of our Shoreditch site and planting them in the heart of Croydon, with a couple of twist. The emphasis therefore is on food and drink using in effect reconditions containers.


Despite the later start to my day, the usual Monday morning delayed trains and having to stand all the way to into London, noting with interest the conversation in Spanish of a small group who had fist blocked my getting onto the train  by their  luggage and that of others, I arrived at Kings Cross First class lounge at  11am, and getting a seat close to the entrance, finding a copy of the Times and enjoying fruit juice, coffee, pan au chocolat, crisps, banana and bringing with me  two packs of the biscuits. It was also difficult to work out the right train to Newcastle and indeed, I was not the first getting on to train but did find two individual seats facing, unoccupied at the centre of the quiet coach thus enabling luggage to be stored and full single table to use.  I enjoyed a curry, a whisky and ginger, and later Pepsi declining further liquid refreshment twice although I did have two coffees. I had two packets of crisps, a muffin and one packet of biscuits   and felt most content. I was able to do some writing and use the Internet. I used the loo in the First Class Lounge on arrival in Newcastle but did not stop further making my way to car on a bright afternoon and going back home where the back lane was clear of the skip. It was when I commenced to check emails that the intention to quickly write up what had been a very good visit despite the raging head cold and the disappointment of not seeing the National Theatre play.


I was notified that the Home Secretary was to be asked an urgent question concerning the sudden departure of the third chairperson of the inquiry into past child sexual abuse involving institutions following the appearance on Friday of a  the front page articles, three  full inside pages and an editorial purporting to give the truth of what she had suddenly packed her bags and left and had been given a payoff  although unde the contract she was required to give notice unless  the contract was terminated because she was in breach of the conditions. Layers for the former chairperson were said to be considering legal action against the Times newspaper. As the exchange in the House of Commons commenced at just after 3.30 I had to wait until mid-evening to read the transcript.  There was to be a special meeting of the Home Affairs Select Committee the following afternoon with the first the new appointed Chairperson and former panel member together with two of the three other panel members and after them the Permanent Secretary of the Treasury was set to return to clarify what had previously been said. Usually it takes time to get the transcript but this became quickly available and the following lunchtime a question to the Prime Minister also elicited an admission which changed the perspective. The exchanges aroused some national possibility about the admission of the Prime Minister that had had known aspects of the problems within the inquiry, but since then there has been nothing reported. Yvette Cooper has been appointed chairperson to the Home Affairs Select Committee. I am still working on the implications of these developments for the future of the inquiry while awaiting the further clarification from the chairperson on changes being made especially to the programme of announced hearings.

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