1439 My second most Favourite film and a good Emperor of sorts

I watched again the Shoes of the Fisherman, my second most favourite film to Casablanca. I watch every time it is shown on television, and I have a second printing in 1965 of the 1963 Australian edition of the Morris West novel. He is also the author of the more book also made into a commercially popular film, the Devils Advocate. There are several reasons why I can watch the shoes of the Fisherman time and time again and find new profundity.

Kiril, recently created Cardinal Lakota, spent twenty years in Russian Labour Camps in Siberia, before being released in a deal between the new Russian Leader, Kiril's former chief interrogator, and the Vatican, in the belief that he could act as a bridge in a world increasingly at the brink of catastrophe as the capitalist nations are unwilling to allow a China facing starvation to buy grain in their market. The reluctant Arch Bishop is first made a Cardinal to fulfil his allotted role and then is pressed into being the Pope when the incumbent suddenly dies. He quickly finds himself called upon to act as a bridge between China and Russia, and between China and Russia and Capitalism. At his inauguration ceremony as Pope he announces that the church will divest of its wealth to help feed the starving and he calls up everyone else to do likewise. So a romantic and idealist swipe at the way the Catholic Church has become corrupted by power and the money lenders? It is that and so much more.

It is a film which also explores the nature of Christianity and Catholic faith in the contemporary material and scientific world and achieving a balance between the forces of reaction and revolution, and between change and stability at a time of great threat and crisis. Today the environmental threat and the terrorist threat has replaced the communist threat as the means by which states can hold power over their people. Although this is not imply that the threats do not exist and require states to take action in defence of the prevailing values and power structures as the Roman Emperors once did against Christians and the against the Jews, Christian then fighting against Muslim, Non Conformist against Conformist, Muslim against Jew and on and on and on and on.

It is a film about so much more, the loneliness of hold office, the imprisonment by systems with their innate and healthy conservatism, the relationships between men and women and the nature of love and marriage, and the complexity of having principles and sticking to them whatever the circumstances.

Had I not noticed the showing of the film later into the evening I would have given first priority to Hadrian, a comprehensive consideration of his role and lasting influence in an excellent BBC documentary to mark the holding of a British Museum exhibition about the Roman Emperor. Like most people, I suspect, if I had learnt more about his life than he was responsible for the seventy odd miles of wall between Wallsend on the north bank of the Tyne a little way up river across from where I live at South Shields, and which continued on towards the Solway firth on the West Coast in what is now Cumbria. I had forgotten if I ever knew that this wall, stretches of which survive and are conserved along with the remains of the forts used to guard the British boundary to the Roman Empire, was the second shorter length of a wall which marked the northern limits of the empire across the rest of Europe, and that through North Africa and the middle east there were the southern stretches, shorter because of the natural boundaries of nature, desert and mountain, Nor had I known that he spent the greater part of his time in office touring the empire, not just improving the defences but development the 400 or so cities not just as places of power but also of recreation and culture. However his public works were designed to strengthen his own power and regard during his lifetime and in the belief that he was not just divine but a great one. Although he has come to be regarded as one of a group of five overall good Emperors, such an opinion is only held by non Jews because of the way he put down their rebellion against his determination to turn Jerusalem into a Pagan city, killing over half a million people, destroying their towns and villages by the hundreds. Despite his standing today he would have rightly been condemned and convicted of racist war crimes,

It was for me also a great day for sport as Durham had a tremendous win at the Oval and now heads the championship and with a game in hand over several close rivals I received through the post an application form for a ticket for 20 20 final which if deposited at the Box Office before play and we win the match could mean getting one of the 1000 allocated seats at Finals Day. I have only just realised that the sooner I get the application to the ground the better, so will make the trip later today, having previously considered waiting until Tuesday. Louis Hamilton also gained the first spot on the grid in the German Grand Prix, but England toiled at Headingley. There was also a great little film about six of the cars which have dominated races held at Silverstone, showing the changes in power and performance as well as safety over the years. This brought back many memories with Fangio and the Maserati, the Ford Lotus, the Benetton's and the recent lightweight electronic wizardry which makes the car react like wearing a glove.

I enjoyed the first of the semi finals of The last Choir Standing ion which five choirs competed for two places in the public week by week knock out phase. There were two programmes, and in the first the choirs sang twice with attention paid to choreography and to virtuoso performances within the choir, followed by one selected to the final and one eliminated. The three remaining choirs then sang again once in the second programme of the evening and one of these was selected, The judges went for a Liverpool community choir and younger choir from Wales. I thought a Scottish group edged the sing off, but what do I know. I certainly do know that those participating in the USA talent show are not as good as in the British series although again it is the singers who dominate.

I also took the first steps about understanding wireless internet technology and continued two days of odd meal mixtures with on Friday eating a Cornetto type cream before two bream fishes and for the evening meal on Saturday having a large plate of Chinese starters with a barbecue dip as the main course! It was that sort of day, cold and wet and which much reflection on the end of days.

1931 Young Musician of Year 2010, Wallander, Lewis, World Cricket Champs, Boy George and New Romantics

09.00 16th May 2010.There has been great joy and much satisfaction over the past days and yet a great sadness suddenly gripped me. I was thinking about a Wallander episode seen last night after and equally sad drama documentary on aspects of the life of Boy George. The highpoints were England’s win in the 20 20 World Cup Final against Australia and the Young Musician of the Year Final 2010.

15.00 It is the best day of the year for sunshine and warm temperature although there is a chill breeze outside during a walk through North Marine Park, down to Pier and as far as the half way gates which are closed when the weather makes continuing dangerous and then back through the amusement park into South Marine Park and then back up the hill home and a count of 2500 steps on the new step counter and fatness assessor. A start but a long way short of the 10000 steps a day to make the kind of difference I intended to achieve over the next six months.

09.15 In the Wallander, the Sniper, one of two episodes experienced last night, a fifteen year old perhaps sixteen year on boy set out on a killing mission in order to get close to an Eastern European crime boss, one of several who appear to have made Sweden a base for their operations. The objective is to kill the crime boss out of revenge for the death of his father. The boy is shot in the tum by one of the body guards and then goes to his isolated home where he has prisoner a young probationer policeman having said if that if he returns from his mission he will have to kill him too because he has seen his face. The dying young man cries out in the pain of his wound for his mother. What struck me was not just his pain and sadness but my own. As a young man had I been in that situation, then I would have had no one to have called out in that way. That is was I had felt at the time. Realising that caused great sadness and adds to the sense of failure in relation to my care mother. I was able to make the situation right with my birth mother over the past three years of her life.

The Wallander episode was of the usual high quality centring on the probationer policeman, Pontius, or similar name who in the previous episode, called The Leak, is accused of being timid and showing no gumption by his female partner who rushes off against orders after thieves who have robbed a security van and nearly gets both of them killed. In the Sniper Pontius who has appeared intelligently creative and studious in the past also behaves wildly putting at risk his future. The cause of his actions is the arrival of his father with the two year old son of Pontius from a marriage with someone picked by his father, an established lawyer. His former wife is also a lawyer and father wants his son to return home and work with him in his legal practice. Pontius also blames his father for the death of his mother and because of this background refuses to acknowledge his son, fearing that any relationship will entrap him back into a situation he found intolerable.

The crime story appeared complex involving a policeman from another area, his girl friend who was an associate of a criminal, a trader in guns as well as the major crime boss. How the boy was recruited to undertake the first assassination and has become such a skilled marksman is never fully explained, but it is Pontius who gets on his trail early on and nearly captures him. Just when it looks that the crime boss is going to get away with it again he is killed by the young boy. Pontius is saved and Wallander shows understanding about the young man’s predicament.

In the Leak the evidence points to information from a security firm resulting in its vehicles being attacked and robbed. The evidence also points to the young man who controls the routes which the security vehicles takes and who it caught playing online poker and attending a private poker game. In fact the young man has become an expert poker player and is making sufficient from the gambling to turn professional and leave his job with the security firm. The firm is operated by a former police colleague of Wallander who he meets at a police function. It is revealed that the boss is providing a criminal gang with the information for cash which he used to save up to retire in the sunshine with his wife. Pontius, who narrowly escapes being burned alive by the gang when he is captured at one point has managed to take a photograph which puts the police on the trail of the gang. One of the other members of the team retraces an orienteering run of a man who has been discovered shot on the shore, apparently having been swept down by the current. This policeman manages to find the hideaway which the gang have used and this leads to their capture. The wife of the security firm owner is shot by the gang leader who manages to escape capture.

Around noon watched a recording of David Miliband making his leadership speech from South Shields Town Hall. I liked most of what he said. He seemed nervous at times and made a couple of slip ups which he had to correct which helped to him along with the approach Cameron and Clegg and the new style of politics. He actually used the expression Progressive Politics which I would like to see the Party rename itself, suspecting and Cameron and Clegg will form a Progressive centre Party if they find their position is being undermined by dissenters.

The drama about aspects of the life of Boy George Alan O’Dowd was revealing as although I enjoyed the Culture Club records and was aware of his notoriety subsequently I had no knowledge of his background. He was one of six children of an Irish family although born in Bexley in 1961. There was limited information about how George became an ultra feminine homosexual and was able to join a London squat in Kentish Town with other similar orientated beings including, Marilyn (Peter Robinson) who is portrayed in the film as a feminine homosexual. In the Wikipedia notes on Marilyn it appears that he and George did not move into the squat until after they had met at the Blitz club- an establishment mainly catering for homosexuals and bisexuals who dressed up ostentatiously with extraordinary hair styles, flamboyant makeup and clothing. The film portrayed the young men in their late teens and early twenties, although I suspect many in the circle would have been younger, promiscuous and drug taking, some running away from care and other earning money as rent boys. While those able to perform as rock, punk and the new romantics quickly had the means to fund their lifestyle, it was not made clear how those like George were able to afford the clothing make up, club entrance drugs and food during the early years.

What quickly emerged in the film is that George wanted to be allowed to be himself in the world he made for himself and to be loved by one individual which eluded him. His father appears to have never given up on his son although he did not understand the whys and wherefore’s. George is said to have become a cloakroom attendant at the Blitz Club in order to survive but was sacked after the manager, Steve Strange, suspected George of stealing from the paying guests who included many notables of the day, including David Bowie and Spandau Ballet. George appears to have taken over the job when Marilyn left London for a time.

All three men have had colourful lives. In the film Marilyn goes off at one point with a wealthy young Scotsman but this relationships ends in tears as appears did the relationships of Boy George. It is known that Marilyn also worked as a cloakroom attendant at the Blitz club and possibly George took over the job when he left London for a time.

According to Wikipedia Marilyn went to live in Los Angeles in the early 80’s but then had a successful career as a solo singer after record companies tried to cash in on the popularity of Culture Club, David Bowie and such like, he became friendly with George’s brother Kevin, and he and Kevin appeared in court in 1986 charged with a heroin offence. He struggled to restart his career and after appearing in a few TV programmes about the era is said to be living quietly with his mother in North London admitting to health and financial problems.

Steve Strange born Steven John Harrington in South Wales became a singer with the group Visage but his name has remained more known for his involvement with trendy nightclubs commencing with the Blitz Club where Richard Egan was the DJ and reported to have exercised considerable influence over the creation and development of the New Romantic musical movement in the early 1980’s. Other names involved included Adam Ant, Ultra Vox, Duran Duran, the Human League with Brian Eno and Roxy Music also having an important influence.

Steve worked for Malcolm McLaren, the clothes designer with his partner Vivienne Westwood and who became the manager of the Sex Pistols and Adam Ant. At one point in the film George persuaded McLaren to give him a job as a singer in a new group but the group then persuaded McLaren to fire George before going on tour. Strange, as he liked to be called, formed Visage with Rusty Egan and Midge Ure and the band had considerable success in the early 1980’s and after leaving Blitz he and Egan ran the Camden Palace nightclub for a couple of years and then the Playground which was not successful when public and commercial interest in the New Romantics and glam rock changed. He then moved to Ibiza to become part of the early Trance club development and hosting what Wikipedia describes as exotic parties for such celebrities such as Sylvester Stallone. A heroin addict Strange suffered a nervous breakdown and over the last decade has published an autobiography and appeared on TV programmes.

While the drama concentrated on the years before the success of Culture Club there are scenes showing how his intense emotionality affected his life as a major performer and recording star. Culture Club was renamed from Sex Gang Children to reflected the English Transvestite, Jamaican-British, Jewish and Anglo Saxon mix of the band. Do you really want to hurt me was one of the early hits featured in the Drama with Karma Chameleon perhaps the most successful. Drugs commenced dominated George and his circle leading to an arrest for possession with a keyboard player dying from an overdose at George’s home The programme shows one moment of reconciliation with his father who remain steadfast in trying to help in son overcome his difficulties. He continued to record without success, wrote songs, created a fashion line, presented a radio programme became a DJ visiting continents, countries and more than thirty cities. In 2005 George was arrested while in New York and was sentenced to five days community service, a fine and ordered to attend a drug rehabilitation programme. The more recently he was found guilty of having imprisoned a male escort in his home and served fourth months of an 18th months sentence before being tagged and placed on a curfew for the balance of his sentence which is due to end over the next month or so I was left with the impression that George has rarely been happy in his life and then for only short periods which I find sad.

I only watched the early part of the Monte Carlo Grand Prix on Sunday after Jenson Button retired with an overheated engine in only the second lap. Lewis finished 5th behind the two Red Bulls in first and second position. This means that the two drivers now hold the same position in the driver’s championship with Button back to fourth behind Massa.

I was quietly confident about England’s chances in the 20 20 final in Barbados on Sunday evening, but did not expect the scoreboard to read Australia 8 runs for 3 wickets. I could not help letting a great yell when the third wicket fell, Hussey with White and then with his brother, Mike kept the Aussi’s in with a shout when they managed 147 runs for six wickets. There was a brief moment of nerves when Lumb went with only two runs on the board but then Kieswetter 63 and Petersen 47 thumped ball to take the game away and Paul Collingwood with a six and four tied the score and hit the winning run with the third ball. England had won with 7 wickets and 3 overs to spare.

I stayed up late on Saturday night watching a gothic extravaganza called Van Helsing with Hugh Jackman and Kate Beckinsale. The story is a mixture of Frankenstein and Dracula with Dracula‘s Bridge behaving as flying furies and their children causing mayhem by their thousands, Dracula has killed Frankenstein and uses his monster to awaken his children.

Van Hesling is himself a creature, but not of the dark, but none other than Gabriel who is sent by the Vatican to kill Dracula and destroy his offspring. Arriving in Transylvania he encounters Anna Valerious whose family has for generations attempted to kill Dracula and gain the means to enter heaven. Her brother was captured after saving Anna from the clutches of the Furies and changed into a werewolf. The film has made a lot of money twice its large budget but was disliked by most critics. I thought it was boring and predictable.

On Saturday evening I watched the five group winners repeat their 20 minute performances to gain a place in the final shown on Sunday. There was in fact a three month gap to enable three successful participants to prepare to perform a concerto of their choice with a full orchestras. Anna Doulas18 years had won the Brass competition and played Strauss Rondo from Concerto no 2, Saint Sans Romance in E and a piece by Krol. I thought she was good but was not in my top 3. Lucy Landymoore aged 17 years impressed me greatly with four pieces Zappa The Black age, Corea Children‘s Song no 1 Freidman Texas Hoedown which caught the attention of the audience most and Zivkovic- to the Gods of Rhythm. I was disappointed that she was unable to perform in the final under the new system although I was not unhappy that that her place went to the Flautist Emma Halnan 17 years who played In Ireland by Harty, the Largo from Bach’s Concerto in G Minor, the Spiral Lament of Clarke and 3rd movement of Suite Trois by Goard.

This brings me to two young musicians who I thought were exceptional exceptional and that one would be the winner. Callum Smart was the youngest in the final at 13 and his violin playing was not only technically perfect but he showed an emotional understanding and maturity beyond explanation. He played only two pieces Tzigane by Ravel and the Sonata no 3 by Brahms 1st Movement. He is also in this year’s final of the Yehudi Menuhin competition being held in Oslo.

And there was Lara Omeroglu playing Beethoven’s Sonata in B Flat, and Etude by Chopin and a Suite by Ginastra. It is difficult to put into words the impact this young woman has on an audience. She becomes, completely, intensely, emotionally engaged in what she is doing showing every feeling in her face and physical movement and she also immediately and totally engages the audience. In the keyboard final she faced the young individual in the competition the group finals Yuanfan Yang another prodigy destined to become a soloist and composer. He was awarded the special prize for the most outstanding competitor.
Because of the cricket on Sunday evening I decided to watch Lewis immediately following and the Young Musician on Monday morning. I enjoyed the Lewis which featured Alan Davies as a harmless conman who arranged quiz weekends at Oxford Colleges and posh nosh hotel for £500 with a prize money of £2500 which always was allegedly won by students or other employed for a fee to whom he provided the answers in advance of the various rounds of the competition. There were several red herrings and it was not possible to work out the murderer in advance other by guessing.

Previously, probably before the trips to Leeds and Nottingham, I started to watch New York New York, the 1977 Martin Scorsese film with Liza Minnelli and Robert De Nero. I was attracted because De Nero plays a jazz musician and while there was some early swing band music it was quickly evident that the jazz was not going to be at the level I had hoped in this two and half hour epic to merit staying up late.

Now the final of the Young Musician of the year which I will be listening to again and again over the remaining days when it remains available on the BBC i player as well as the semi final. KI heard the keyboard final on Monday evening. Callum Smart opened the final with the well known Violin Concerto in E minor opus 64 by Felix Mendelssohn. This is a familiar work which I have though Callum played as well as anyone two and three times his age. Clearly he has yet to have sufficient life experience to communicate emotions with a passionate intensity although he did demonstrate considerable maturity and well as technical brilliance.

However there was no inhibition about the playing of Lara Omeroglu who brought one judge to rears with her playing in the section final. To say her playing is awesome is an understatement, In fact I have no words to explain and express what happens when this young woman takes the stage. On Sunday night she performed the second piano concerto in G Minor, opus 22 by Camille Saint-Sains. Its is not a work I know I would have rushed out to buy had I listened to beforehand, or since, if it had not been for performance of Lara. She clearly has a remarkable mother who has brought up her two daughters alone since the break up of her marriage and where the elder daughter is also an accomplished Pianist attending college and has become her sister‘s biggest fan, shrieking in delight at the announcement of the winner. I was stuck how she had the same electrifying impact as Jacqueline Du Pres although hopefully not the same emotionally challenging life or tragic young ending.

1908 David Jason, Frost, Fanny Kemble Italian Job and Casablanca

It is time to pay tribute to that excellent British actor, David Jason (White) OBE, and to mark the end of his police detective career as Inspector Jack Frost, with 42 films over 17 years.

Tuesday April 6th became a good but tiring day. I wrote and undertook other artwork activities in the morning and then as the weather improved, managed to begin work again on one of the patio walls, covering liberally with a fungus preventive solution. Mid morning on Wednesday I repaired the damaged areas and late afternoon gave this section its first coat of a light pink designed to enhance the Mediterranean feel of space which I look out on.

The day did not begin well though, and for much of it I was not at my most alert or perceptive. I was not sure, if following the Easter Bank Holiday on Monday, the garbage would be collected in the morning and went, misguidedly, to look for the recently circulated Council leaflet which I could not immediately find, although I did find those for the previous two years. There appeared to be no collection this week and for a few minutes I thought the local council had lost its political marbles, as the General Election was being announced later in the morning and to take place on the same day as those for the Local Authority on May6th. I then woke up to the obvious that the leaflet covers the collection of the environmental and recycled waste such as, newspapers, bottles, cans, and in the future garden waste, cardboard when in June July new special bins are issued with compartments. Silly me.

After completing work on the wall I belatedly set off for Newcastle to buy a replacement Cafetiere. I had not anticipated I would need to do so for several years as the previous unit had a attractive metal cover which I thought would prevent the glass container from breakage. It is still a mystery to me how it broke, but it did and a replacement is required and I knew the previous search, only last year that there was no supplier in South Shields. I therefore returned to T Max or whatever the store is called in the Monument shopping Mall (TK Max after checking) and which can be entered directly from the Monument Metro station. I could not find the item at first, in part because the area for kitchen and household goods had been changed and because the selection was reduced to two types with only a couple on display. I selected one which looked more appropriate for me although the support was in plastic and the better looking one had a metal base, and was chunky and family size. My purchase proved better than I thought because the colour is bright read instead of that shown in the packaging, a dull cream, and has a super top which maintains warmth although I have yet to work out the locking and cleaning system.

My first intention had been to take the car to Hewarth and the Metro from there, returning via a supermarket shop at Azda, but as I set off I decided to go only as far as Jarrow to see if Wilkinson’s had any black work albums in stock. I managed to work out how to get to the nearest car park to the metro station and knew I would find carrying a full back bag onerous on the way back as getting to the station involves a good climb up stairs to cross over the line.

After buying the Cafetiere in Newcastle I could not immediately remember the way to the Wilkinson’s I had discovered just over a week ago before attending the opera relay performance of Hamlet. I decided to try and retrace the route taken on that journey and this was a good decision as on exiting the Granger Market, the three floor store was opposite. Office stationery was at the end of the escalator on the first floor and there were six black albums available and where after collecting I rewarded myself with a cup of hot tea and three fingers of chocolate wafer biscuit for £1.50.

I then made my way back to the Metro station and let the first trains for Pelaw and then for Sunderland pass forgetting I had decided to get off at Gateshead to go to the Wilkinson’s immediately by the station as long as one exists the right stairway. I then went to the wrong end of the platform and was confronted with a steep stairway and a heavy back load and was then faced with a further set of stairs to get the where the store is located after seeking directions from a willing member of staff, I then chose the longer slope in the opposite direction, having to double back rather a third set of stairs which led directly to the entrance of the store, This route took me close to where the famous Get Carter Car Park remains to be demolished although the fencing has been around the area for the new supermarket and shopping development for over a year. The effort was fruitless for although the store had a huge supply of the 20 page albums there were none of the 40 which I use to create three complete sets.

Already weary I made my way to Jarrow and the Morrison’s Toilet before returning to Wilkinson’s which is located close to the car park through the underpass tunnel. There were only two black volumes here but I felt this part of the trip worthwhile. I then went to Azda where I had created a list beforehand. As it was then after 5.30 I thought it was a good time to check if there was any reached sell by date bargains. There were. I bought two packs of smoked Cod fillets which will provide three meals for £5 at a saving of £2. The bargain of the day was two medium size whole chickens, usually £7 for the special price of £4.10. There was also a pack of four Eccles cakes reduced by one third. There were also standards savings with £1 off grapes, another £1 of frozen small meals. Three packs of bacon for £5 and a massive £2 off the vitamins. This resulted in an overall reduction of £13 which was just as well on the monster restocking which included some beef sirloin, pork and lamb chops, Olives, large and olives stuffed, some bacon chops slices, brown sauces, biscuit crackers, mixed bean salad, salami and another Indian and Chinese meal feasts. I enjoyed a few liquorice twists on the way home.

I knew that after unpacking and food I would be sleepy, but there was time for Babylon 5 and a programme celebrating the coming to an end of the series A Touch of Frost before an early for me bedtime.

David Jason is only a year than me and first came to national attention as Del Boy Trotter, the elder brother of Only Fools and Horses which was a noble successor to Steptoe and Son. The series provided the best love moment in all of British TV comedy, has repeatedly voted by viewers in countless polls, when David goes to rest his shoulder on a bar top and finds that someone has opened the to collect glasses and he falls down. Does not sound hilarious but is one of the few times I have roared with laughter given the context in which the incident occurs and the background to the character and the series.

I did not enjoy his role as Grandville, in open all hours, but there was sheer delight in the whole series of the Darling Buds of May, His work both as a comedy actor and in serious drama has bought award after award with four national comedy awards and five national TV award, BAFTA fellowship and a Comedy Lifetime achievement award. To celebrate its 50 years ITV held a poll to find its greatest 50 stars which David topped.

His personal life became the basis for the character of Jack Frost a lonely detective married to his work after nursing his former wife during the period before she died of cancer. This is what happened to David after eighteen years of marriage although he subsequently married again and became a father at the age of 61.

A touch of Frost was produced for the first time by Yorkshire TV for ITV in 1992 and has always concentrated on single story films usually 100 minutes in length spread over 2 hours with the advertisements. There were six short films of 75 mins and the final over two nights episodes. During all the time of series Jack remained his own man, always on the side of the victims of crimes and with a determination to apprehend the villains, but without ever comprising the rights of everyone. His dislike of paperwork of any kind led to a chaotic office, relying in his real life brother ( Arthur White) who acted as head of the records office to remember previous cases which often helped to resolve contemporary mysteries.

Throughout the series, the bane of his series life was Superintendent Mullet, played by Bruce Alexander as a rather stock figure looking after his own back, playing golf with some who were major suspects, a conformist and media conscious. He had support from his colleague Detective Sergeant George Toolan, played by John Lyons who for the past five years had played on stage in the world’s longest running play- The Mousetrap. Married, George had a life outside of the police which Frost had become resigned to not having one again. For one series Frost took under his wing a young police detective and they shared a home together. However in a dramatic end of season moment views were left wondering if Jack, the Young Man or the villain had been killed as of camera two shots were heard in a stand off. The young man did not survive.

Jack came lose to having a serious heterosexual relationship at least once, but the problem was always the nature and hours of work and the need not to disclose information ion current cases which remains a barrier to those not in the police now and forevermore.. He was in this respect like Morse, always coming close to a relationship but something always intervened. In an end of series review Jason explained that everyone knew that if he did marry his main character would change and the programme would also fundamentally change, mentioning Midsummer Murders as the best example of a married lead investigating officer.

Unaware that there was be a final two part programme I watched the first part on the i player and was surprise that the opening focus appeared to be a raid on a dog fight. This did not immediately seem to me to be the stuff of an end of series finale. However it proved to be linchpin pin in more than one way. The raid had come about with the assistance of the local RSPCA team manager who and struck a warm relationship with Jack.

The raid was a failure in that by a stroke of luck the owner was delayed and he and his son and sons friend from next door arrived after the raid has taken place, They suspect the police was tipped off by a former friend from school, Brian, who been taken to a previous fights, had walked out and became a volunteer with RSPCA as a consequence. The father of one of the two boys turns out to be a professional villain whose main income is from illegal drug importation and distribution. He has a smart lawyer and lawyer/barrister girl friend who is also having a relationship with another member of the legal firm.

This father tells the boys to rough up their 6th form former friend and in the melee a knife is pulled and Brian is killed, launching a murder inquiry for which the boys are arrested having been identified by the unit manager. In one of a several twist the young who possessed the knife wants to own up but his father bullies him into pleasing innocence as he also bullies his wife and the parents of the other boy who has gained a place at an Oxford College.

As merits a final story in a series which has aimed at presenting the reality of contemporary policing are number of other story lines. A woman is knocked off a bicycle by an apparent youth and this is followed by threats to Jack with the tyres of his car slashed and a brick thrown through a window. As this coincides with threats to the manager of the animal rescue centre the audience is quick to assume there is a connection. There early indications that this is not so with the mugging have echoes in a case twenty years before and attacks on his home also having chords with what happened previously. Eventually through the collar of a cat found at the scene of another crime the criminal is found to be the daughter of a former colleague and family friend of Jack who he reported for fixing evidence and which had resulted in the conviction and imprisonment of innocent people. Her mother had died broken hearted by what had happened and her father had also recently died after spending years trying to bring down Jack with complaints about his behaviour and attempting to get back his career and reputation. In a roof top scene the girl pulls a gun and it she is who is shot and not Jack in this instance.

A little girl is knocked off the back of a bicycle ridden by her mother early one morning by the apparent stolen car of the solicitor who defends the drug dealer in relation to the operation of the dog fight, and his son and friend in relation to the death of their former school friend. She is in hospital in a coma. There is a small amount of cocaine in the boot of the car and this is traced through CCTV to having been bought from an employee of the drug dealer, which a man at the Met police has a major interest in, and who is identified as being responsible for setting fire to the animal rescue centre from which the manager is rescued as requires brief hospital treatment. In order to receive sympathetic attention from the police the solicitor discloses information about the distribution centre operated by the drug dealer. He also admits that he was alone when he returned home after a mixture of drugs and drink and remembers nothing what happened until the following morning. A post delivery van had passed the car stopped in a lay-by while the driver had been sick and because of this he had been unable to identify the individual except to say that there had been a female passenger in the vehicle. It is established that the female friend and the other legal colleague had called to collect their portion of the cocaine and finding their colleague beyond waking they had borrowed his sports car for a joy ride. The woman admits that she was the driver at the time the accident occurred.

The information supplied to Frost was passed on to the Metropolitan Police, the Drug squad and Interpol and they mount a joint operation on a farm which the drug dealer uses to intercept the arrival of a shipment.

Meanwhile driven by guilt the son of the drug dealer hangs himself and his mother leaves her husband never wanting to see or speak with him again. The friend who caused the manslaughter pushing Brian not knowing that the other had pulled out a knife, tells his parents that he is going to own up his part to the police believing this will end his place at Oxford University (this is not necessarily the position as his parents evidently have the means to pay for his place without state help). His parents should be prosecuted for their participation in the cover up whatever their motivation and the pressure from the drug dealer.

There was one additional story in the final film. This is the relationship between Jack and the manager of the animal rescue centre. She is a divorcee with two teenage children living in a cottage type house is a pleasant rural community. They go out for a meal and it is quickly apparent that they are attracted to each other. Their relationship is severely tested. She is nearly killed in the fire, she is threatened as are her children Jack is also nearly killed and their relationship also comes under scrutiny from the ex husband who has maintained a good relationship with the children and a relaxed one with his former wife since going on the wagon. He also has a penchant for anyone in a skirt. The realization that his former wife has found someone herself and that this will alter the relationship with his children drives him back to drink and he rams the car bringing Frost and Toolan to the Church just as they were getting out to be given buttonholes by Superintendent Mullet. Just as with EastEnders a number of different endings were filmed with only the writer and producer knowing which was to be used on screening day. In the alternatives Frost, Mullet and Toolan are each killed and in the final version shown, it is Toolan who has a heart attack and cannot be revived. Therefore everyone is able to shed a tear at his passing and the series ending. There is a final situation in which he explains to his new wife that Toolan had felt sorry for him because he knew that the reason why Frost put everything into his work is that he had nothing else in his life of value. Frost says that this was true but no longer. His life will now change for the better.

In the post series programme David also revealed that he was not retiring and that a new programme was already being planned, in production or even completed, he did not say which but that a new programme was coming. This is good news

There was opportunity on Thursday to view a film about the life of Fanny Kemble, the 19th century actress who married a Southern US Cotton, Tobacco and rice plantation owner believing he respected her views about independence and personal freedoms. Alas she quickly found out that he was a liar and fully supported the slavery system in operation on his estates, even if the life he provided was less brutal and savage than many others. The film concentrates on her growing awareness of the actual situation, her work for better conditions for the slaves and support for an escape route to the North. The film ends with bringing her double life to an end, separating and divorcing from her husband and returning to stage in the USA to support herself.

In real life she had already written and published a diary about her experiences among Northern US society. Pierce Butler was the grandson of one of the original settlers and the empire he inherited was vast, selling over 400 slaves at one auction after his business failed following the Civil War and the ending of the slavery. Fanny paid a high price for her opposition to her husband’s way of life losing custody of her two daughters until they reached the age of 21. She was 23 when she first travelled to the USA and 25 when she married. Divorcing and returning to the stage when she was 38. She continue to write, diaries and memories including Residence on a Georgian Plantation, and two plays, Her eldest daughter married the writer and author of the Virginian. The youngest daughter tended to support her father’s approach to life and wrote a book about her experience of their way of life. She married clergyman and their daughter was at the bedside of her grandmother when she died at the age of in England at the age of 84 where she had returned for the last years of her life. She became a friend of the then young novelist Henry James who wrote Washington Square based on family story she had disclosed to him.

Earlier in the week I saw the original Michael Caine version of the Italian Job. Although it has become classic with the three Mini car chase through the streets of Turin I found the film outdated that portrayal of criminals and the prison regime embarrassing and misleading. Noel Coward as the toff top criminal Bridger was hilarious although unintended, and Benny Hill played his favourite role as a dirty middle aged man. There are a few magic moments but the film could have been title Alfie goes to Italy.

I also saw my 101 showing of Casablanca one afternoon recently. This demonstrates that some films never date and remain enjoyable no matter how many times they are experienced, even if one becomes word perfect. I enjoyed every second and still get emotional when the Marseillaise is sung or when Bogart explains that in the great scheme of things their relationship is not worth a hill of beans, You must remember this, of all the gin joints in the world you walk into mine.............

The General Election was announced on Tuesday and the last Prime Minister’s Question Time of Parliament took place on Wednesday lunchtime. While the politicians are behaving as they have the past at such a time, refusing to give direct answer to specific question it is evident the media is not going to accept this and we have already seen persistent and insistent questioning which exposed the dishonesty and attempted manipulation of the politicians. This time the public is not going to be fooled and unless there is an immediate change in the approach there are going to be surprises and shocks on election day.

1881 a day of struggle with The Queen of Sheba and Babylon 5

Thursday morning commenced with Melvyn Bragg discussing the Indian Mutiny with Faisal Vervji, Shruti Kapila and Chandrika Kaul and how an issue about Indian army gun cartridges oiled by animal rather than vegetable fat appears to have precipitated the uprising. I could not generate enthusiasm for the rest of the programme or a ludicrous film styled as comedy with Bette Davis playing a bank robber to raise money for her two adult children. The night has been full of a dreams and the dawn damp and murky. A cereal started the day followed by two pieces of bacon in two small rolls and a double helping of coffee. MI was flagging by lunchtime and despite the good food start I was no in the mood for salad so indulged with an instant meal of two sausages in gravy with a few chips and beans followed by a banana.

While I attempted to work I watched what I thought was the previous missing original 1921 version of the Queen of Sheba. However this and subsequent versions, including the 1952 remake in colour centres on the relationship between the sons of King Solomon, sons of Kind David, of Jerusalem and the Queen of Shea and her slave maid. The two sons go to Sheba pretending to be the two envoys from the state of Gad who have strayed into their territory and been captured revealing their mission to establish a truce with Sheba and her other allies. The two men first encounter the Queen, then the Princess and her slave, without knowing who they are, at an oasis outside the city walls and when they learn there is a secret underground passage under the city. While the Princess is immediately attracted to the youngest son and the eldest to the slave, despite the latter being engaged to a Princess from a state with whom his father is seeking an alliance. Apart from their deception the two complications are first the son of the states leading other family who also trains and commands the army, and then tradition, when the King dies, Sheba becomes Queen and has to dedicate her life to the state and its Gods. She is committed to war against Sheba with her allies. I was so tired that I missed the final moments of the film after the brothers manage to escape after their cover is blown when the two actual envoys also escape from Jerusalem and arrive in Sheba and the younger son of Solomon fights the Sheba champion outside the gates of the city with both armies poised, only to find that the champion is none other than the Queen, who he overcomes and takes into the city when he discovers who he has been fighting. She is told by his father she can leave the city and he hopes she will do so with her army. I had to leave the room and missed the last moments of the film so missed the ending and credits. Fortunately after a later search I found out that the film was made in 1952, also in Black and White, as the Italian La Regina de Saba and my impression that the Queen would marry the Solomon’s son with the blessing of his father and her advisers was thus confirmed

By early afternoon I was so tired that I could just about keep awake watching a familiar episode of Bergerac so I took to my bed again and slept for close on two hours, feeling even worse when I woke again and struggled downstairs.

Having written of the first three episodes of the 4th season of Babylon 5 and planning not to write again until the season had reached the half way or a significant point, I quickly discovered that within three further episodes the second age of Earth and come to and end with persuading the Shadows and the Vorlons to depart this area of the universe by retreating to beyond the Outer Rim. To understand these three episodes it is helpful to reprise the first three of the season.

As previously written at the end of the first episode of the fourth season The Hour of the Wolf 401 we learn that Sheridan has survived somewhere deep inside the planet Z’ha’dum, used by the Shadows as their home planet and where he has lit a fire and is confronted by an old man who asks to share the fire and has a devil like appearance! Because, rather than in spite of, the retreat of the Shadow craft from around the space station, the other worlds and races start to relax and allow their warcraft to return home thus preventing Ivanova and Delenn leading an all out attack on the now vulnerable Z’ha’dum after the reported Thermo nuclear explosion.

In his message to Delenn, before departing for the planet, Sheridan explains that in his flip to the future when engaging with Babylon 4, he had been warned by Delenn not to go to Z’ha’dum, as he has also been by Ambassador Kosh, but he suspects the reason for being able to foresee the future is to have the opportunity to try and change it. While confirming his love for Delenn who had became understandably anxious about the arrival of his wife, he adds that he has a duty to try and change what happens and avoid the destruction of Centauri Prime, also witnessed during his time travelling, and of other worlds and their people if he can.

Delenn and deputy Ivanova who is now operational head of the independent space station, together with telepath Lyta who comes to see the replacement of Kosh and who is then asked to stand down, decide to go on a mission to Z’ha’dum in the White Star to find out what happened to Sheridan having received accurate information that there was a thermo nuclear explosion on the planet and that two of the bombs brought to protect the base by G’Kar are missing. Above the planet they become mesmerised by a force from below but fortunately clever Lennier has applied a fail safe device which if he fails to button press, the ship his jump gate moved away and this is what happens thus linking with Lost.

Londo Mollari has been recalled home to become an adviser to the new Emperor who he quickly finds out has become more vain and psychopathically mad than he remembers of him, believing that he is destined to become a God even if this means his planet and half the universe are killed and destroyed at the behest of the Shadows. Mollari then learns that the Emperor has agreed to a request from the Shadows to make the planet their home and they arrive in force, Mollari summons Vir to return home to help him kill the Emperor. Vir is reluctant.

During a period when the remaining members of the Babylon 5 War council are in mourning over the loss of Sheridan, Lyta visits Ivanova and Ivanova asks Have you ever heard of the Hour of the Wolf ? “My father told me about it. It’s the time between 3.00 and 4.00 in the morning. You can’t sleep, and all you can see is the troubles and problems and the way your life should have gone, but didn’t. All you can hear is the sound of your own heart. I’ve been living in the hour of the wolf for seven days, Lyta, seven days. The wolf and I are now on a first name basis. In times like this my father used to take one large glass of Vodka before bed. To keep the wolf away, he said. And then he would take three very small drinks of vodka, Just in case she had cubs while she was waiting outside. It does not work.”

For me the Hour of the Wolf in the terms stated by Ivanova remains an important aspect of my life which I welcome as it reminds of who I have been so that I can write effectively about the previous experience of my life for public and private interest. I use whisky, not to fend off the wolf but occasionally to fend off the cold, cold of the head and cold of the environment. Some years I invest in a bottle of single malt. This is for pleasure. This remind of one of the great songs of Billy Holiday, Set em up Joe, its three o’clock in the morning. For me the Hour of the Wolf can happen at any time. The night is creative time when the unconscious filters into the semi conscious of waking and where as a child I was terrified but since early adulthood I have slowly learnt to make the beast into a pet.

In the Search for Garibaldi (402) G’Kar comes across evidence of the Starfury which Garibaldi used when he joined the fighters defending the space station from the expected second Shadow attack. G’Kar investigates and is helped out in a fight by Marcus and they discuss their motives before Marcus gains more information, and G’Kar insists on investigating further alone. Marcus reluctantly agrees. Before he can leave, G’Kar is captured by those who recognise who he is and return him as a prisoner to Centauri Prime for the bounty.

Delenn has been undertaking a fast purification ceremony as part of her mourning for the loss of Sheridan, and Franklin, of all people, warns her of the course she is taking, given that she has become more human than Minbari and needs energy for the fight ahead. His words have influence.

Londo talks with the captured G’Kar and explains to him how he will die at the hands of the Emperor in a long torturing death but offers him a way out if he helps him to get rid of President. G’Kar agrees on the understanding that his people will be free from Centauri rule. London agrees to this. London appears genuinely concerned at the plight of G’Kar

Commander Sheridan has talked with his companion, Lorien, trying to work where he is, alive or dead or as the old man suggests in between. The old man then discloses that he is not just one of the Old One‘s but the original One and says that Sheridan has a piece of a Vorlon, Kosh, inside him. He explains that Vorlons can break off pieces of their consciences and put these into other organisms. He tells Sheridan that he needs to stop questioning, being afraid of death and uncertain of his role and just being and that is the way out an forward. He then emphasises that dying for something is easier that living for something and Sheridan completes the jump into the void calling our for Delenn. He is that seen at the feet of the old man, presumed dead, but is he?

In the third episode The Summoning (403) there are partial answers to the what happened to Sheridan and to Garibaldi, as Ivanova and Delenn organise their remaining forces for an all out attack on Z’ah’dum, against the mounting concern of the other planetary systems.

G’Kar is tortured twice to the point of death because he will not scream out in pain and Londo persuades him to do so otherwise he be killed and his developing plans to use G’Kar to help kill the President will fail. Londo is whipped by an electronic whip of increasing intensity where no one survives forty lashes. Londo reaches 39 before he cries out and the President satisfied honours his agreement to give G’Kar to London for his previous good works. The reluctant Vir, pleading that their must be another way to rid the country of the President, now agrees with London that he must be assassinated.

The deputy security chief follows up news of the whereabouts of Garibaldi’s craft and he attacks the freighter on which it has been located which unexpectedly blows up after a life pod breaks free. This contains the body of Garibaldi which appears to be brought to life just when it is retrieved by the Space Station recovery team. There is the implication that something has happened to Garibaldi who back on the station is unaware that he has been missing for two weeks, that Sheridan is missing presumed dead and the alliance has broken up with the departure of the Shadows from outside the station.

Ivanova has been giving herself a good talking to and learning Minbari. Delenn and Marcus hide their amusement at her incomprehensible efforts and she agrees to Marcus accompanying her on a mission to investigate what appears to be report of one of the First Ones is on the move. During their expedition they discover a time right in which thousands of Shadow craft have assembled.

At the space station Lyta is asked by Delenn to try and find out from Kosh’s replacement what the Vorlons are up to. Lyta is reluctant because her connection with the Vorlon has become Sadomasochistic and at one point he appears to have killed her for complaining about his behaviour and attempting to read his mind. She informs Delenn that it is they have become expendable in the battle between the Vorlons and the Shadows. Ivanova returns from her expedition to find there is a secret open gathering of protect against the proposed attack on Z’ah’dum led by two Ambassadors from the non aligned worlds. Just as it looks as if they have won, Sheridan appears with Lorien from a mystery craft which has over ridden normal entry procedures and driven straight into a landing bay. Sheridan is able to change opinion proving that those who believe Z’ha’dum is invincible and a planet from which no outsider returns is wrong. He gives a stirring speech about uniting to rid the universe of the Shadows for the sake of the people and their children’s children.

It is confirmed that the Shadows have abandoned their previous commitment to protect the younger worlds from the Shadows and that as a consequence of all out war between the two ancient races a whole planet of three million beings has been disintegrated with echoes of the Hitchhikers Guide and the obliteration of earth to create a new space highway.

I was right in my assumption that the first three episodes of the 4th season of Babylon 5 heralded the major development of the whole series to-date.

In Falling towards Apotheosis (404) Commander Sheridan devises a plans to try and prevent the next Vorlon target being obliterated, a planet of 6 billion sentient beings on which the Shadows have forced an outpost. He is able to assemble a war fleet of thousands upon thousands of craft from almost every planet system in the know universe, with the exceptions of the Narns who are still licking their wounds and the Centauri who also in line for a Vorlon planet break up because of providing a base for the Shadows.

The first task is to get rid of the Vorlon Ambassador from the station and this is why he has kept Garibaldi away from the meetings of the War Council. He wants Garibaldi to take a small security and invite the Vorlon to depart, knowing that the Vorlon will use his powers to find out what the Security chief and the station is planning if he refuses. This is preliminary for Lyta to disclose that there is part of Kosh transferred to Commander Sheridan which he decides to free to removal all opposition on the station and enable the full Kosh spirit to return to his people. She successfully persuades the Ambassador to leave his quarters where he is ambushed, and with help from the spirit of Kosh, is forced out of the station. Sheridan is also helped by Lorien the first One who discloses to Delenn that he is using his remaining life force to protect Sheridan and was how he was able to revive him after he jumped into the chasm. He discloses that he is able to repair Sheridan but the Commander has only a remaining lifespan of twenty years. This is a shock to Delenn who had expected he would live to the 100 or more years which earth beings had become accustomed. Sheridan is positive that the issue is the quality of their lives and relationship and not their duration, which is evidently the right approach, given their position in the middle of the war between the Vorlons and the Shadows in which they are not expected to survive.

Londo put his own plan into action how to remove the Shadows from his home world. He suggests to the President that he should hold the trial and execution of G’Kar on the Narn planet. Before they depart the President decides to remove one of G’Kar’s eyes because he dislikes the way he looks at him

In the Long Night (405) the scene is set for confrontation between the Vorlon and the Shadows. Sheridan received information on how planets are being . Missiles are driven into the core of the planet and then detonated causing disintegration from within. He furthers the plan for an all or nothing defence of the next planet in line for destruction by the Vorlons and sends Ivanova with Lorien to collect the remaining other First ones, promising she will be part of the final defence of the worlds in the known universe, when she has completed the mission.

On Narn Vir has secured a device which will kill the President giving the impression he has a heart attack. G’Kar is paraded through the streets of the capital of his d in chains to bring home the superiority of the President over the people. The scene is obviously modelled on the Way of the Cross.

In order to deliver the device to his body Londo has arranged for the chains of G’Kar to become loose but this part of the plan fails as the President has replaced with stronger metal. However G’Kar has the mental strength to overcome the physical and breaks free distracting everyone’s attention away from the assassination of the President by Vir. Londo is made the new Prime Minister while a decision is taken about a new President. He is able to carry out his commitment to G’Kar to leave the Narn world. G’Kar is hailed a hero but only in so far as the clamour is for revenge and to attack Centauri Prime in retaliation for what they and the Shadows have done to their planet.

London finds Vir drunk in reaction to having participated in the assassination and delivered the fatal blow because he was the least likely person to be suspected of doing so.

The Shadows have also launched their planet destructor and Sheridan put into place his final ploy to bring the Vorlons and Shadows in the same area of battle.

The great confrontation between the three forces occurs in Into the Fire (406).

Meanwhile on Centauri Prime Londo requests Mr Morden to remove his Shadows from the Planet. To ensure there are no tricks Londo arranges for the accompanying Shadows to be killed. Morden still refuses to ensure the Shadow fleet departs saying that the vessels will react to any attack. However Londo is ready for this and explains and pressed a remote control with blows up the whole island all the Shadow craft within it. He had arranged for the majority of the island population to escape, leaving behind a skeleton number. Morden is taken prisoner and Londo then fulfils London wish of seeing his head on a stake so that he can wave at his lifeless eyes. Londo has been advised that it was Modern and not Lord Refa who had murdered his mistress.

Trying to avert bloodshed and with the Shadows advancing Sheridan attempts to establish communication with the Vorlons and they get into communication with both Sheridan and Delenn. The two advise the Vorlons that there is no longer need for them to treat the younger races as children and defend them their way from the Shadows. They have united and capable of standing on their own feet and defending themselves. It is at this point that that the First One orders both the Vorlons and Shadows to return to their lives beyond the rim of the human form sentient world and to make their situation more palatable the and other others remains First Ones will accompany them. They obey and the threat from both advancing fleets ends.

Sheridan tells the Vorlons and the Shadows : to live on as we have is to leave behind joy, and love, and companionship, because we know it to be transitory, of the moment, We know it will turn to ash, Only those whose lives are brief can imagine that love is eternal. You should embrace that remarkable illusion. It may be the greatest gift your race has ever received.

However when the series was first screened we knew this was not the end of the story, particularly the relationship between the earth world and Babylon 5. We now know there were in fact 40 more episodes stretching of a 5th season, another eight weeks of back to back episodes. The end of any battle is only a stage in a war and the end of any war is only the beginning of a peace and that peace will only come with forgiveness and the establishment of peaceful relationships between all the warring parties.

1880 Inglorious Basterds, British Islands and a mislaid phone

What a day Wednesday 17th February 2010 has been so far. I stayed up last night watching on Sky Box Office having invested the princely sum of £3.99 for the privilege, Inglorious Basterds, the latest Quentin Tarantino film, and had intended to write about the experience, completed the notes on Martin Clunes visit to a handful of the 1000 islands which surrounds the British main island, and completed the boxing and display shelving reorganisation of completed sets, together with identifying the 50 to 75 incomplete volumes of work in hand into some order for action.

Having switched on the computer and checked my mail in box the screen stuck momentarily then went to Luxor Majong which was not my intention, but where I had reached the last stages of the game for the fifth time in succession, and although having lost a couple of lives, I did not anticipate overtaking the highest score to-date, I hoped to get close to indicate the improvement in visual acuity and prolonged attention which I have sharpened as a consequence of the game and my work activities in general.

It will be evident that the intelligent and worthwhile thing to have done is to have closed the game and continue with planned activity, however the interaction with my existing operative system and programmes is that it continues to run in the background but without my usual ability to reopen until I restart the computer which takes time. Before playing the game therefore I decided to make my I am alive daily text but could not find the phone. Given that I had made the call yesterday morning and had not been out of the house it should have been a simple task to locate the phone which is usually on the desk, which admittedly had become cluttered, being charged behind me on top of some lever arch files with sets in the making, and sometimes falls between, or at the back of them, or is one of my outside coat pockets.

It was not at these places, and I would have sworn an oath before a magistrate or judge to this effect. I then made a quick search of everywhere I had been in the house the previous day. I then made a quick search of everywhere I had been the house the previous day, which included two rooms on the second floor, three rooms of the first, the bathroom off the landing as well as the areas of landings themselves, together with all four rooms on the ground floor as well as the hallway. No it could not be found, so much for improved visual acuity but a lot of dust and need to tidy was evident.

I spent a good hour on this task, used the land line to make the call and completed the Luxor Majong, reaching 16 million points for the second time only, made a chicken salad lunch which I did not enjoy, while watching the tale end of bargain hunt and then found the phone on the cleared desk under my nose. I did not consider the stupidity a complete waste, but they did changed from that planned. Freedom is the ability to change plans at a moment’s notice.

I made a note to buy a second inexpensive phone to cover for this periodic event and completed the boxing and sorting on the second floor for the day, having almost completed this phase of the task overall before moving onto completing the fifty to seventy or so albums and files of work in hand. A cup of coffee and a few liquorice twists and I was set to begin writing or was I?

It is now 2.20pm and I feel tired but will press on if I can. I remind myself that I can change my mind and decide to finish the sorting in hand papers in this room, and check the TV watching over for the rest of the day after perhaps forty winks on the settee. Quentin Tarantino and Martin Clunes can wait.

It is six pm afternoon after a relaxed afternoon with some working followed by a High Tea of chicken drumsticks, a diet coke and a mix of green and red grapes. I did not enjoy the meal as much as I have in the past.

I am still not sure what to make of Inglorious Basterds a violent fiction film about the second World War. I begin with the story.

SS Colonel Hans Lander, brilliantly portrayed by Christoph Waltz, has been assigned to located known missing Jews and calls upon a farmer and his three teenage daughters previously investigated by the local forces because of rumour he was hiding one of the four known Jewish families in the areas. The man exudes charm and Bonhomie and also shows his a clever and cunning persistence. He slowly forces the farmer to identify where the family is hiding below the wooden floors of the house in exchange for the lives of his daughters. One of the daughters of the Jewish family escapes and although she is seen fleeing across the field Landa allows her to escape.

Somewhere else a group of ruthless Americans, headed by Brad Pitt, have assembled to kill Nazi’s behind German lines after the allied invasion is met with resistance. Pitt wants each member of the group to acquire 100 scalps, literally, He also marks all the victims with a Swastika on cut out in the forehead.

In Paris, three years after the murdering of her family, the daughter who escaped, Shosanna, is the owner of small cinema in Paris which she runs with her partner who is a negro. She is pursued by a young German private who is holidaying in Paris after becoming a hero of the Third Reich, a sharp shooter who manages to kill some 300 American soldiers before they give up and bypass the town he is defending.
Dr Goebbels, Minister of propaganda, has made a film of the event with the private playing himself the her. The film was to have had a premier in the main cinema in Paris attended by the Nazi Top brass but at the suggestion of the private, Goebbels is persuaded for the event to take place at the cinema run by the disguised Jewess.

One of several farcical aspects of the film is that there are two plots to destroy the Nazis attending. The first is by the Jewess owner whose partner is to lock the auditorium when the visitors are inside and also ignite all the available highly inflammable nitrate piled high film behind the screen at the point when an addition to the film is interposed in which the Jewess proclaims who she is and what is to happen.

Back in London Churchill agrees to a plan for a German speaking Englishman to attend the premier with assistants to blow up the cinema with dynamite. The assistants will include Brad Pitt and some of his group and they will gain entry via one of Germany’s leading film actresses who is working for the Allies.

For one of the many improbable moments in the film they meet in cellar bar where there is much drinking of snaps by a group of soldiers and their friends who are celebrating the birth of the child of one of their number. The internationally known actress has joined them and is playing a parlour game. She leaves them to join the English agent and two of Pitt’s German speaking assistants who are to enter the cinema with her. She is asked by the celebrating soldier for an autograph which she gives but the young man is drunk and keeps pressing his attention so that the English agent demands that he leaves in an accent which arouses suspicion of the soldier and a member of the SS also in the bar. His explanation of living on a mountain village with a unique accent and being the escort of the actress is accepted until he signals for three more drinks raising his fingers the English rather than the German way. There is a standoff as the two men and others brandish weapons followed by a fire fight in which everyone in the bar is killed with the exception of the actress who is wounded in the leg. She is rescued by Brad Pitt who at first is suspicious that she has survived but convinced he arranges for the coup to continue, especially after the news that Hitler has also decided to attend.

Unfortunately they do not take account of Landa who is given the job of providing security for the event and his investigation of the scene in the bar yields not only one shoe of the actress but also the autograph. However his approach is to allow the action to continue although it is evident that he knows what is going on when speaking in fluent Italian to Pitt whose knows a few words in an atrocious accent. He demands to see the actress privately, and strangles her after revealing why he knows she is an agent. He arrests Pitt and they leave the theatre with his two assistants still in place with high explosives strapped to their bodies,

He explains to Pitt that he knows the war is lost and will agree to the bomb plot continuing if he can secure American Citizenship, wealth and position in the United States. This is negotiated via a radio with London. Meanwhile the boyfriend of the cinema owner has secured the entrances to the auditorium and is about to set fire to the film behind the screen waiting for the moment when the owner tells the audience on screen they are to die. Unfortunately she cannot make her escape after switching the reels because the film star enters and demands her favours because of the honour he has done her by arranging the Premier at her theatre. In an exchange of gun fire, both die. Meanwhile in the Theatre, Hitler, Goebbels and Goring are enjoying the spectacle of the private systematically killing the American soldiers accompanied by a cheering audience. By brilliant timing the remaining two bomb plotters have left the main auditorium, disarmed the two guards outside Hitler’s Box just as the screen ignites into flames. After killing Hitler’s and his companions the open fire on the retreating no where audience and then the cinema explodes. Landa then drives Pitt to the advancing allied lives and surrenders to him. Pitt who is committed to the deal, nevertheless carves a Swastika into the forehead of Landa.

The film has been ten years in the making with a number of different scripts starting out on a Good, the Bad and the Ugly film noir take on the ending of World War II and hen developed into the Dirty Dozen type of thing. He had completed writing without settling on an ending by 2002 when he learnt that a number of other WW2 were in the making, The film has many guest appearances including Mike Myers of Shrek and Austin Powers fame, and some sixty on line critics heap praise on Tarantino, so again I ask the question what is really all about/ Making money folks, nothing less, nothing more. The young kids who play computer war games will love it. What German cinema audience have, is another question.

Martin Clunes is a likeable middle aged comedy actor who retains boyishness. He came to attention as one of a duo of pathetic characters in Men Behaving Badly, and then in 2004 with Doc Martin as a county Doctor based on fishing village in Cornwall also a programme which never appealed to me. I was interested to see what he did with the opportunity to visit a selection of the reputed1000 islands mostly uninhabited, around the UK. While there continues to be aspects of his personality which I continue to react negatively, the three hour long programmes are interesting and do provide an answer to the question is life on a small island different to that on the main island of England, Scotland and Wales, three countries with their cultural and historical differences as well as the significant variations within each nation, so that the cities, especially London have become unrecognisable and cultural distinct from those of my childhood and youth.

Bruce Springsteen Live In New York : My Love will not let you down; Prove it all night. Two Hearts; Atlantic City; Mansion on the Hill; and The River.

What emerged from the three programmes is that continuous living does require individuals who are hardy, self reliant and can live without the requirement most of us depend on, easy transport, access to a supermarket and entertainment activities from cinema and theatre, to international and fast food restaurants and spectator sports, as well as Television, the Internet and electricity and running water.

In the first programme Martin commenced with the Northernmost part of the UK, the Outer Hebrides, and the lighthouse Rock of Muggle Flugga, no longer manned and with a heady and dangerous vertical 360 steps with unkempt and dangerous handrails. For someone who has a problem with heights, he bravely struggled to reach the top to start the programme.

He then visited the northernmost populated island of Unst which has more in common with Scandinavia than the British main island and were he met the elected Chief Viking and his family. There are the remains of thirty long ships on the island which was under Norwegian control for 600 years thereafter. I may have confused this island with another where the emphasis is on a strongly religious community which until recently had padlocked the children’s playgrounds on Sundays.

He also dropped in on the eccentric southern Englishman from Bromley who has bought a lump of rock the size of a football field and declared independence from the British and Scottish governments the grounds that there is no evidence of the UK or Scotland having been granted sovereignty. You are required to have your passport stamped before setting down on Forvik unless you purchase land or become a full citizen with the price recently educed form £200 to £20. The Island is officially known as Forewick Holm and comprises 3,5 acres or 10000 square metres and is in disputed ownership between the eccentric sailor Stuart Hill who lives in Cunningsburgh in the South of the main Shetland Island and Mark King of Papa Stour. Stuart Hill is known as the former village blacksmith in village in Suffolk for 20 years before trying to sail round the UK in a 15 foot dingy and having to be rescued with 5 separate Life Boat launches and 2 Helicopters at public expense. He has a primitive construction on the island and which in addition to citizenship he is attempting sell small plots at he sea shore entitling owners to have sea access. His main aim is to establish independence for the Shetland whose local administration is therefore kindly towards him

Bruce Springsteen Live in New York: Youngstown; Badlands; Out in the Street; Born to Run; Tenth Avenue Freeze out, Land of Hope and Dreams. Switch to Music player and Jungleland, Born in the USA, Don’t look back.

The main interest of the second programme is the Isle of Man with a population of 80000 has an independent Parliament of 24 with a full range of Ministers and judiciary and local government, its own currency and low tax economy with no inheritance tax, corporation tax, except banks at 10%, stamp duty or capital gains and income tax at 18% together with a ceiling on the maximum which any individual or capital can pay. There are not members of the EEC and have no speed limit on some roads. As with Jersey it is a place which attracts rich tax avoiders.

The other visit which appealed was to the Piel island at one end of Morecombe Bay off Barrow in Furness. It is half a mile offshore and can be reached across the sand at low tide similar to Holy Island here in the North East Coast. It only has one building a pub, restaurant, now owned by the local council and who held a competition to become the new landlord which includes the ancient right to be crowned kind and his daughters to be known as princess and have the right to self style themselves including their bank accounts. The successful couple had visited the island since childhood family outing visits. The 50 acre island is in the shadow of the eight largest inhabited Island in the UK and bird sanctuary of with a population of 13000 in its 13 square kilometres and connected to the mainland by a road bridge since 1908.

For the third programme I thought Martin was visiting the Isle of Wight but this turned out to be Guernsey of the Channel Islands which also has semi independent status followed by Sark with is feudal leadership of some 80 families and where the only motor vehicles are licensed tractors. Interest on Guernsey centred on a multi millionaire who commuters to the city by his private jet at a cost of £2000 a day.

At least Martin did to one Island I have visited, St Mary’s of the Scilly Island. I have observed another closely, St Michael’s Mount in Mounts Bay Cornwall a quarter of a mile off shore by a low tide causeway and with a castle and a small village of employees on this privately owned island in association with the National Trust. The Scilly Islands cover 5 square miles at southern tip of the British Isle with five of the 140 inhabited, mostly rock falls. The journey by ferryboat takes several hours from Penzance and the wealthier residents some 1600 on the main island use planes or helicopters. I anticipate this is the first of a further series depending on what was the original viewing figures. In addition to avoiding the Isle of Wight there was no Caldy in Wales, Skye in Scotland, Sheppey on the south east coast or Holy Island here in the North East.


From My space music player Bruce Springsteen live in New York Land of Hope and Dreams, Tenth Avenue Freeze Out, Badlands, the River, Atlantic City, Prove it all night and out on the Street, Youngstown. Mansion on the City, Atlantic City.

1879 Three violent Fantasy adventures: Babylon 5, Thunder Point and Codename Wild Geese

It is Monday 16th February and again I had an interrupted night going to bed at 12.30, sleeping for no more than an hour and waking restless, getting up, writing, playing games on the computer until 4 am before returning to bed and a good sleep until 8,30, getting up to put out the rubbish wheelie bin and the environmental box piled high with empty cans of vegetables and Pepsi cola, returning to bed for a good hour. I have had some cereal and will have a coffee soon. 11 am approaches after playing a long round of 1 million points Luxor Majong to reach 11 million points.

Writing up the first three episodes of the 4th season of Babylon 5 I realised that they make a good introduction piece as both Commander Sheridan and Security Chief Garibaldi return from the dead. I know the feelings associated with such a situation only too well

As previously written at the end of the first episode of the fourth season The Hour of the Wolf 401 we learn that Sheridan has survived somewhere deep inside the planet Z’ha’dum, used by the Shadows as their home planet and where he has lit a fire and is confronted by an old man who asks to share the fire and has a devil like appearance! Because, rather than in spite of, the retreat of the Shadow craft from around the space station, the other worlds and races start to relax and allow their warcraft to return home thus preventing Ivanova and Delenn leading an all out attack on the now vulnerable Z’ha’dum after the reported Thermo nuclear explosion.

In his message to Delenn, before departing for the planet, Sheridan explains that in his flip to the future when engaging with Babylon 4, he had been warned by Delenn not to go to Z’ha’dum, as he has also been by Ambassador Kosh, but he suspects the reason for being able to foresee the future is to have the opportunity to try and change it. While confirming his love for Delenn who had became understandably anxious about the arrival of his wife, he adds that he has a duty to try and change what happens and avoid the destruction of Centauri Prime, also witnessed during his time travelling, and of other worlds and their people if he can.

Delenn and deputy Ivanova who is now operational head of the independent space station, together with telepath Lyta who comes to see the replacement of Kosh and who is then asked to stand down, decide to go on a mission to Z’ha’dum in the White Star to find out what happened to Sheridan having received accurate information that there was a thermo nuclear explosion on the planet and that two of the bombs brought to protect the base by G’Kar are missing. Above the planet they become mesmerised by a force from below but fortunately clever Lennier has applied a fail safe device which if he fails to button press, the ship his jump gate moved away and this is what happens thus linking with Lost.

Londo Mollari has been recalled home to become an adviser to the new Emperor who he quickly finds out has become more vain and psychopathically mad than he remembers of him, believing that he is destined to become a God even if this means his planet and half the universe are killed and destroyed at the behest of the Shadows. Mollari then learns that the Emperor has agreed to a request from the Shadows to make the planet their home and they arrive in force, Mollari summons Vir to return home to help him kill the Emperor. Vir is reluctant.

During a period when the remaining members of the Babylon 5 War council are in mourning over the loss of Sheridan, Lyta visits Ivanova and Ivanova asks Have you ever heard of the Hour of the Wolf ? “My father told me about it. It’s the time between 3.00 and 4.00 in the morning. You can’t sleep, and all you can see is the troubles and problems and the way your life should have gone, but didn’t. All you can hear is the sound of your own heart. I’ve been living in the hour of the wolf for seven days, Lyta, seven days. The wolf and I are now on a first name basis. In times like this my father used to take one large glass of Vodka before bed. To keep the wolf away, he said. And then he would take three very small drinks of vodka, Just in case she had cubs while she was waiting outside. It does not work.”

For me the Hour of the Wolf in the terms stated by Ivanova remains an important aspect of my life which I welcome as it reminds of who I have been so that I can write effectively about the previous experience of my life for public and private interest. I use whisky, not to fend off the wolf but occasionally to fend off the cold, cold of the head and cold of the environment. Some years I invest in a bottle of single malt. This is for pleasure. This remind of one of the great songs of Billy Holiday, Set em up Joe, its three o’clock in the morning. For me the Hour of the Wolf can happen at any time. The night is creative time when the unconscious filters into the semi conscious of waking and where as a child I was terrified but since early adulthood I have slowly learnt to make the beast into a pet.

In the Search for Garibaldi (402) G’Kar comes across evidence of the Starfury which Garibaldi used when he joined the fighters defending the space station from the expected second Shadow attack. G’Kar investigates and is helped out in a fight by Marcus and they discuss their motives before Marcus gains more information, and G’Kar insists on investigating further alone. Marcus reluctantly agrees. Before he can leave, G’Kar is captured by those who recognise who he is and return him as a prisoner to Centauri Prime for the bounty.

Delenn has been undertaking a fast purification ceremony as part of her mourning for the loss of Sheridan, and Franklin, of all people, warns her of the course she is taking, given that she has become more human than Minbari and needs energy for the fight ahead. His words have influence.

Londo talks with the captured G’Kar and explains to him how he will die at the hands of the Emperor in a long torturing death but offers him a way out if he helps him to get rid of President. G’Kar agrees on the understanding that his people will be free from Centauri rule. London agrees to this. London appears genuinely concerned at the plight of G’Kar

Commander Sheridan has talked with his companion, Lorien, trying to work where he is, alive or dead or as the old man suggests in between. The old man then discloses that he is not just one of the Old One‘s but the original One and says that Sheridan has a piece of a Vorlon, Kosh, inside him. He explains that Vorlons can break off pieces of their consciences and put these into other organisms. He tells Sheridan that he needs to stop questioning, being afraid of death and uncertain of his role and just being and that is the way out an forward. He then emphasises that dying for something is easier that living for something and Sheridan completes the jump into the void calling our for Delenn. He is that seen at the feet of the old man, presumed dead, but is he?

In the third episode The Summoning (403) there are partial answers to the what happened to Sheridan and to Garibaldi, as Ivanova and Delenn organise their remaining forces for an all out attack on Z’ah’dum, against the mounting concern of the other planetary systems.

G’Kar is tortured twice to the point of death because he will not scream out in pain and Londo persuades him to do so otherwise he be killed and his developing plans to use G’Kar to help kill the President will fail. Londo is whipped by an electronic whip of increasing intensity where no one survives forty lashes. Londo reaches 39 before he cries out and the President satisfied honours his agreement to give G’Kar to London for his previous good works. The reluctant Vir, pleading that their must be another way to rid the country of the President, now agrees with London that he must be assassinated.

The deputy security chief follows up news of the whereabouts of Garibaldi’s craft and he attacks the freighter on which it has been located which unexpectedly blows up after a life pod breaks free. This contains the body of Garibaldi which appears to be brought to life just when it is retrieved by the Space Station recovery team. There is the implication that something has happened to Garibaldi who back on the station is unaware that he has been missing for two weeks, that Sheridan is missing presumed dead and the alliance has broken up with the departure of the Shadows from outside the station.

Ivanova has been giving herself a good talking to and learning Minbari. Delenn and Marcus hide their amusement at her incomprehensible efforts and she agrees to Marcus accompanying her on a mission to investigate what appears to be report of one of the First Ones is on the move. During their expedition they discover a time right in which thousands of Shadow craft have assembled.

At the space station Lyta is asked by Delenn to try and find out from Kosh’s replacement what the Vorlons are up to. Lyta is reluctant because her connection with the Vorlon has become Sadomasochistic and at one point he appears to have killed her for complaining about his behaviour and attempting to read his mind. She informs Delenn that it is they have become expendable in the battle between the Vorlons and the Shadows. Ivanova returns from her expedition to find there is a secret open gathering of protect against the proposed attack on Z’ah’dum led by two Ambassadors from the non aligned worlds. Just as it looks as if they have won, Sheridan appears with Lorien from a mystery craft which has over ridden normal entry procedures and driven straight into a landing bay. Sheridan is able to change opinion proving that those who believe Z’ha’dum is invincible and a planet from which no outsider returns is wrong. He gives a stirring speech about uniting to rid the universe of the Shadows for the sake of the people and their children’s children.

It is confirmed that the Shadows have abandoned their previous commitment to protect the younger worlds from the Shadows and that as a consequence of all out war between the two ancient races a whole planet of three million beings has been disintegrated with echoes of the Hitchhikers Guide and the obliteration of earth to create a new space highway.

I watched had an odd novel and film concept in which in the final days of the Third Reich, Hitler entrusted to his aide Martin Borman with a case in which it is suggested were documents which would ensure Hitler’s plan would be continued after his death The film, Thunder Point is based on a novel in the Sean Dillon series by Jack Higgins in 1993. The novel suggests that Borman had indeed left Germany but the U Boat in which he travelled had been sunk in the West Indies. A former British intelligence officer has maintained a search for the missing documents which were said to have implicated the former King and Duke of Windsor in the plan and when the document was discovered and brought to British intelligence in the UK he is killed in a faked accident.

There have been several novels and films of this genre, treasure hunters for sunken vessels, usually in the Caribbean so the locations can be picturesque, and the women beautiful and flaunting their assets. The men appear to have considerable means, often an expensive boat, and hiring private planes to over view an area is also no problem. In this instance the man has accumulated a huge debt from his bank and is danger of losing his isolated forest and lake Canadian home because he plans to sell the case to the British government for £1 million in order to hide the fact that the former King who became the Duke of Windsor was implicated in the Nazi ideology and the great plan to conquer and then rule the world

Unfortunately the British intelligence official is in fact a secret member of a Nazi organisation. This is not so preposterous as other aspects of the film given the extent to which the Communists were able to recruit a number of British agents into being double spies over a long period. It is has always struck me that with the capitalist establishment anti communist rather than fascist, the possibility of extreme ring wing sleepers going undetected was there with support for South Africa the obvious example. In the USA there was the support for various fascist states, notably for the Afghanistan, so called freedom fighters against the Russians.

The British double agent hires, an expendable former IRA operative who he rescues from execution for his freelancing activities in the Balkans, to find the case which is now missing and where it is thought the dead man’s ward will know its whereabouts. This is one of a number of incredulity widening aspects because the hired man is then hunted by other Nazi organisation employed operatives when he attaches himself to the ward who is hostile to all aspects of the situation and the kind of life led by the former IRA man but she is drawn to him and relies on his protection when several attempts are made to force her to reveal the whereabouts of the case, something which she does not know.

here is situation upon situation of implausibility with deaths and much physical violence before the case is located and then lost to the Nazi organisation. Her adopted father has given her a letter in the event of his death and contain a clue to the whereabouts of the case. Unfortunately he has left another cryptic message in her locket which she has placed on top of the coffin at the burial. In the locket the message refers of a relative, a nun who died previously and is buried in a vault at the convent. The man had visited he convent, gained access to the convent vaults and prized open the stone which means her name and closed again without attracting the curiosity of the sisterhood and similarly the ward and her new protector are able to do this!
In the last part of the film the papers are burned after they have been faxed to the last survivor of Hitler’s contemporary aides who inhabits Washington suggesting a sequel. The ward is killed but the IRA man lives to fight other adventures.

The whereabouts of Martin Borman was known for several decades after the War and there was much speculation and alleged sighting as well as claims as when and where he had died. DNA tests involving relative does appear to have laid this mystery to rest although given the extent to which individuals are relocated for the cooperation with governments, and the extent to which others of their ilk have been able to secretly survive, nothing can be certain.

The action takes place in the West Indies, in London and in Canada where the former security man was based. The Winter Olympic Games are being held in Canada for the second occasion but I have failed to become interested so far.

An even worse film about mercenaries is Codename Wild Geese. The similarity between aspects of the two films is remarkable. The men are hired to destroy a shipment of drugs belonging to a ruthless Thailand drug General within his stronghold defended by an army described as rapists and murderers. The pit of the get away helicopter is released from prison two years early because he is the best in the business but unfortunately although the raid is moderately successful with only a few loses, one of the group is a double agent and sabotages the helicopter so they have to make their way home on foot. They come across a mission within the ruins of a church reminding of various Mexican bandit films, the Magnificent Seven rather than the Dirty Dozen in which the priest hides white girl reporter take hostage for random and a wounded and dying mercenary, while they go off to blow up train as it slows down to cross a bridge (over River Kwai style) on its way to collect another drug horde from a second storage compound. After the success but further loss of life the reduced group return to the mission to find everyone killed except the priest crucified and dying and the girl hidden away with the body of the dead comrade. This fuels their resolve to destroy the second compounds but before they can achieve this objective they discover that their link man is in fact a baddie and in the pay of the man who hired them with the full knowledge the British and USA authorities. Basically the man operated the second compound in competition and delighted at the removal of their revival they are horrified to learn the decision to proceed to their accumulated supply and set out to stop the remaining members of the group which are reduced to the leader, the girl and the pilot. They find a small helicopter which has a kind of flame throwing device which is used to destroy the compound and the remaining guards as well as the operational baddie. The hero returns to kill the man who employed him and the British and Americans official unofficial coordinators congratulate on a job which worked out far better than expected and the group leader and pilot got off to fight another box office adventure. There was one moment in the film when the project administrator at the training camp causes the wrath of some of those involved by checking on the next of kin to receive the £30000 payment in the event of their deaths. The irony is that the money had come from drug trafficking.