awards nominations and whatnot

People Not too long ago, Claire Danes was endorsing paint. Now that her new show Homeland has been a hit with awards nominations and whatnot, she's being invited to slightly more fashionable events. But she still finds time to be kissed by students in drag:

"Actress Claire Danes was treated to a day of celebrations after receiving the Woman of the Year award from Harvard University's Hasty Pudding Theatricals society on Thursday. The honour, which has been bestowed annually since 1951 to starlets including Elizabeth Taylor and Angela Lansbury, includes a parade through Harvard Square, dinner and a golden Pudding Pot."

Oh the photos. Such photos.

"Geez, Julie. You’re so defensive!"

Film Julie Delpy's Two Days in Paris which has always seemed like the evil version of the Before series now its own sequel, Two Days in Manhattan, also written by her and now co-starring Chris Rock. Salon has an interview with them, which includes this moment up front when Deply quite rightly harranges the interviewer for his approach:

"Salon: Chris, the only thing from black culture he can come up with is Salt ‘n Pepa. I’m not even sure why that’s funny, but it is.

Julie Delpy: Why are you talking to him? I wrote it!

Salon: I know you wrote it, but he’s in the scene. I was talking to both of you.

Chris Rock: Geez, Julie. You’re so defensive!

J.D.: It’s just that when you’re a woman filmmaker, people always think the guys have written their own dialogue.

C.R.: Right, and when it’s a comedy people always think the best stuff is ad-libbed. Always!

It sounds good natured but this does happen a lot, interviewers immediately addressing the male when both genders appear. Of course, the one disappointment with the film (which does otherwise sound excellent) is that it kyboshes my assumption for where the third Before film would be set given Jesse's background.

"a last meal of Starbursts and Skittles"

Architecture  From the New Yorker in 2003.  Jumpers: The fatal grandeur of the Golden Gate Bridge.  Please don't read this if you don't think you can cope with it. I barely could:

"Kevin Hines was eighteen when he took a municipal bus to the bridge one day in September, 2000. After treating himself to a last meal of Starbursts and Skittles, he paced back and forth and sobbed on the bridge walkway for half an hour. No one asked him what was wrong. A beautiful German tourist approached, handed him her camera, and asked him to take her picture, which he did. “I was like, ‘Fuck this, nobody cares,’ ” he told me. “So I jumped.” But after he crossed the chord, he recalls, “My first thought was What the hell did I just do? I don’t want to die.”

From the Wikipedia: "On October 10, 2008, the Golden Gate Bridge Board of Directors voted 14 to 1 to install a plastic-covered stainless-steel net below the bridge as a suicide deterrent. The net will extend 20 feet (6 m) on either side of the bridge and is expected to cost $40–50 million to complete. However, lack of funding could delay the net's deployment."  The project's website indicates that's still the case.

"His Hamlet is far from mad"

People The actor Nicol Williamson has died. The announcement was made on his official website in this statement from his son:

"It’s with great sadness, and yet with a heart full of pride and love for a man who was a tremendous father, friend, actor, poet, writer and singer, that I must bring news of Nicol’s passing. Dad died peacefully in the early hours of the 16th of December after a two year all out, balls to the wall struggle against esophageal cancer. He gave it all he had: never gave up, never complained, maintained his wicked sense of humor to the end. His last words were ‘I love you’. I was with him, he was not alone, he was not in pain."

Always one my favourites thanks to his seminal appearance in Merlin in John Boorman's Excalibur, he was also the first Hamlet I reviewed at the other place, where I said:

"On first appearance, Nicol Williamson might seem a bit old for the part. Certainly, I've seen Claudius's who look younger. But that does a disservice to his performance, which commands every scene he appears in. His Hamlet is far from mad; he's using a bluff technique to search for the why's of his father's death and how he's reacting to it. Unusually. in the intimate moments, during the soliloquy's he's at his most vulnerable, as though he's unable to come to terms with these feelings, and only really comes to life when he has someone to relate himself to."

Here's an except:



Valerie Nelson has already produced an excellent obituary for the LA Times.

neither Maria Eagle or Garston and Halewood are mentioned

Journalism A few days ago ...

From: Me
To: reader@guardian.co.uk
Date: 2012-01-22 09:18:40
Subject: How Ed Miliband's cuts policy is dividing Labour's heartlands correction

The geography in this piece about cuts to Library services in Liverpool is a bit muddled

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/jan/20/miliband-labour-cuts-liverpool-reaction

At first I thought "hold on -- Woolton's solidly LibDem"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woolton_%28ward%29

Then I realised that what you meant was a safe Labour was the parliamentary constituency of Garston and Halewood run by Maria Eagle, which also includes:

Allerton and Hunts Cross (in Liverpool);
Belle Vale (in Liverpool);
Cressington (in Liverpool);
Halewood North (in Knowsley);
Halewood South (in Knowsley);
Halewood West (in Knowsley);
Speke-Garston (in Liverpool);

But neither Maria Eagle or Garston and Halewood are mentioned which has created a lack of clarity, which also isn't helped by mentioning Woolton in the opening paragraph and then spending the rest of its duration talking about *Walton" which does lend its name to a parliamentary constituency.

Take care,

Stuart.

Today:

from: reader@guardian.co.uk
to: Me
date: Wed, Jan 25, 2012 at 4:54 PM
subject: RE: How Ed Miliband's cuts policy is dividing Labour's heartlands correction

Thanks Stuart -- the earlier reference (para 2) to "a safe Labour constituency" should have specified Garston and Halewood. I'll amend this text and add our usual explanatory footnote shortly.
Best wishes.

So ...

Which means:

33.  Correction published by The Guardian.

Peter Moffat's millennial lawyer drama

TV Finally, at last, and probably due to the moderate success of its spiritual clone Silk:

Set in Leeds and partially filmed in Liverpool, North Square was Peter Moffat's millennial lawyer drama and a piece which quietly influenced most of the similar dramas which came in its wake, not least Trust and Outlaws (not that anyone watched those either).   It's available on 4oD but for those of us without unlimited internet access, this dvd release will be very welcome.  The Amazon page has a decent synopsis. Whoever designed the box art is also clearly a fan, knowing full well that Phil Davis stole the series.

"no loopholes, no offshore bank accounts"

Politics Actor Mark Ruffalo offers an alternative State of the Union address:

“We, from this moment on, will disallow private contributions to our public campaigns. We will insist that the richest people in this country pay their fair share of the taxes, no loopholes, no offshore bank accounts. They have enjoyed all the things that government has to offer to make their lives safe and to pretend they have done it alone is a lie. They could not have done it without a safe, stable government ..."

Or in other words, "My fellow Americans ... mic check!" [via]

“It’s Saturday night tea time in 1977 all over again!"

Audio  Despite this being the fourth time I’ve begun writing this review not really knowing where to start, the pressure to perform on my shoulders, I can’t imagine what it must have been like for Nicholas Briggs and his fellow writers at Big Finish having finally given the opportunity to script for the Fourth Doctor knowing that Tom Baker himself will be saying the words.  Ever since they won the Who license in the late 90s, in almost every interview, the question has always bubbled away, “Will Tom Baker ever record for you?” and all along they’ve essentially been biding their time and hoping.  Even when Tom began appearing in the AudioGo stories, there still seemed to be a question mark.  Had it been too long?  Was there too much politics?

Brilliantly, amazingly, the answer to both questions is no and there can be no greater testament to their patience and the passion that’s gone into this new series than Tom mentioning in the big Doctor Who Magazine story that he regrets not having worked for them before and that despite having recorded a couple of year’s worth of material, he’s itching to do some more.  Well done lads (and ladies).  But the AudioGo series creates a secondary challenge of trying to produce new material that’s significantly different enough to make the project worthwhile.  Paul Magrs’s scripts have been somewhat about fulfilling the listener's expectations of Tom’s apparent eccentricity, his Have I Got News For You and convention appearances distilled into drama.

Cleverly, Big Finish have decided to return to first principles and attempt to recreate the sound and style of the original stories.  As Tom’s voice over in the trailers suggest, “It’s Saturday night tea time in 1977 all over again!"  So we have the classic TARDIS team of Fourth and Leela, Tom consciously reproducing his earlier performance and Louise Jameson magnificently returning to the savagery of a role which has matured over a number of Big Finish’s spin off series across the years.  Not only that, Jamie Robertson’s score pastiches and updates Dudley Simpson’s familiar studio ensemble and each of the hour long stories is being released in two half hour episodes with a proper cliff hanger in the middle (perfect for a BBC Four Extra broadcast).

This first story, Destination: Nerva, even breaks us back into the period gently by segwaying directly from The Talons of Weng-Chiang into a pacey return to Nerva Station from The Ark in Space and later Revenge of the Cybermen, at an earlier point in its history when it's still a space dock.  Like all good Doctor Who, the story works best for the listener without knowing much in the way of a prior plot synopsis, so I won't say much more other than to note that Briggs’s script neatly updates the odd mix of Victoriana and bloody body horror that ran through the Hinchcliffe-Holmes period.  It’s almost a surprise not to hear Dr. Matthew Sweet crop up in an extra interviewing a historian from the British Museum in order to investigate the underlying themes.

As the cover indicates, heading up the supporting cast is Raquel Cassidy, now properly ensconced in the franchise thanks to her appearance in nuWho and mostly recently reading James Goss’s AudioGo, The Art of Death.  Cassidy’s always at her best with beleaguered characters and she gives the space dock’s doctor Alison her classic weary sigh and cynicism, with a tragic underpinning that's potentially one of the script's few breaks from its classic Who influences.  Aided by his actors, Briggs is also able to create what feels like a realistic working environment in just a couple of scenes, though the focus is always on the Doctor and Leela, carefully balancing the need to produce a relatively unassuming story with a sense of occasion.

Because this opening story’s biggest success is how seamlessly it recreates the chemistry between the Fourth Doctor and Leela after all these years, Big Finish once again fulfilling our expectations then surpassing them.  As those of us who pay attention know, Tom’s character changed considerably across his tenure and it’s interesting to be reminded exactly how brusque he could be with his companion in this period, and how alien the two of them could be despite one of them supposedly being human.  But we’re still gifted with one of those rare moments when Leela giggles and we can’t help giggling too.

Doctor Who: Destination Nerva from Big Finish is out now on CD and to download. Review copy supplied.

Well, spoilers.

Film Remember how I'm perennially complaining about how the rights to various Marvel characters have been smeared across so many film studios, it means we're unable to enjoy one of the best elements of the comics, that they all live in the same universe.

Well, spoilers.  Let's hope so.

Meanwhile, Jenny Agutter's in The Avengers?

Luckily, Kermode corrected her on all counts

Film   Oddly I've seen more of the films nominated for Oscars this year than Baftas though as we'll see I'm making the assumption that it'll be a foregone conclusion.  Which probably means it won't now.  Given my approach to watching cinema, the Globes, Baftas and Oscars tend to become pretty important because they guide the films that become a must see through Lovefilm in the coming months and it's rare that I'll not see something which has been nominated.  Which means there's at least three films in here which can no longer be avoided.  Sad face.

Best actress in a supporting role

Bérénice Bejo, The Artist
Jessica Chastain, The Help
Melissa McCarthy, Bridesmaids
Janet McTeer, Albert Nobbs
Octavia Spencer, The Help

Gauging the reaction, I've developed the opinion that when it comes to the Oscars, The Artist will sweep.  It can't help it.  It speaks backwards to the history of the industry and Hollywood seems to be pleased that its silent back catalogue might shift some units and it has a bit with a dog.  Bejo will benefit, even though it would be neat to see Sooki with a statue.

Best actor in a supporting role

Kenneth Branagh, My Week with Marilyn
Jonah Hill, Moneyball
Nick Nolte, Warrior
Christopher Plummer, Beginners
Max von Sydow, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

If you listened to the frustrating BBC Radio 5 coverage of the nominations you will have heard Shelagh Fogarty who clearly has a limited interest in films, giving away the ending of The Artist, smirking that she hadn't heard of this Jennifer Lawrence (who was announcing the nominations) and trying to sound with it by suggesting that Christopher Plummer will win this because of "his body of work", perhaps because she hasn't heard of identically aged Max Von Sydow either.  Luckily, Kermode corrected her on all counts at least in mentioning von Sydow's contribution to the history of film.  Nevertheless, she's probably right.  Plummer may win.  I wish is was either Max or Ken.

Best actress in a leading role

Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs
Viola Davis, The Help
Rooney Mara, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady
Michelle Williams, My Week with Marilyn

Inevitably, although the real controversy in this category is the appearance of Rooney Mara who if the artwork, trailers and clips I've seen are anything to go by is doing (inadvertently or no) a cover version of Noomi Rapace's Lis Salander performance which was totally ignored last year.  Of course I can't really judge until I've seen the whole thing...

Best actor in a leading role

Demián Bichir, A Better Life
George Clooney, The Descendants
Jean Dujardin, The Artist
Gary Oldman, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Brad Pitt, Moneyball

Pass the broom, we're sweeping here too.  Like so many of these categories, almost the same list as the Baftas but with Bichir in for Fassbender.  At this point, I know I got my Clooney choice wrong there.  It'll be Oldman for a bronze mask.  Oh well, too late now.


Best director

Michel Hazavanicius, The Artist
Alexander Payne, The Descendants
Martin Scorsese, Hugo
Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris
Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life

But good god that's a strong field.  Indeed with the final three it looks like a 70s field, presumably the one with the locusts in Days of Heaven.  Like I said when I was working through his back catalogue, one of the benefits of Woody's one film a year approach is that now and then he produces a truly great piece of work amongst the really good.  I will of course be watching Midnight in Paris once I finally get around to seeing You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger.  It's about time.

Best original Screenplay

The Artist
Bridesmaids
Margin Call
Midnight in Paris
A Separation

Traditionally this is Woody's categories, but the cleaners are still in, so The Artist it will be.  Unless the voters can't get their head around a silent film with a script (having seen Hugo).  But it's also great to see Bridesmaids being offered something.

Best adapted screenplay

The Descendants
Hugo
Ides of March
Moneyball
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

If The Artist is sweeping, this'll be Hugo's consolation prize along with some craft awards.  Note how none of the cast has been nominated in a film which does straddle between technical marvel and a big emotional story.

Best foreign language film

Bullhead
Footnote
In Darkness
Monsieur Lazhar
A Separation

Again seems inconceivable that the film which has been nominated elsewhere wouldn't win this at least.

Best animated film

A Cat in Paris
Chico And Rita
Kung Fu Panda 2
Rango
Puss in Boots

Wouldn't that be fascinating?  Can't imagine it'll be anything else.

Best picture

War Horse
The Artist
Moneyball
The Descendants
The Tree of Life
Midnight in Paris
The Help
Hugo
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Best part of the telecast was when it seemed as though there were eight nominations then Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close appeared over Jennifer's head, a film I'll admit to not having even heard of despite it being released next month in the UK, being about 9/11 and having Tom Hanks in the cast.  I like that.  Reminds me of the bygone days when I'd treat myself to a copy of the US edition Premiere Magazine's preview issue to look at all the films which wouldn't be seeing the inside of the UK for at least six months.

Art direction

The Artist
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2
Hugo
Midnight in Paris
War Horse

Unless the academy decide that they have to give Harry Potter something after all these years.  I remember last year Deathly Hallows was being considered as Best Picture material for the same reason as Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, the commemorative thank you.  Unfortunately, that second film was deeply anti-climactic, at least for me and certainly didn't have the heart-wrenching through line of Peter Jackson's film.

Cinematography

The Artist
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
The Tree of Life
War Horse

Unless the academy decide that they're desperate to give a proper 3D film an award, although as I said at the time, I enjoyed Hugo despite the 3D rather than because of it.

Costume design

Anonymous
The Artist
Hugo
Jane Eyre
W.E.

Anonymous has been nominated for an academy award.  They'll be sticking that on the box and I'll now have to watch it.  [stoney face]

Film editing

The Artist
The Descendants
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
Moneyball

In some respects this becoming like the multiple choices I used to do in primary school when you had to fill in a blob amongst other blobs down a sheet of paper.  If we ran out of time, we were instructed to fill in all the blobs in the single column on the assumption that we'd have to get some of them right.  Well, The Artist is going to win some of these.

Sound editing

Drive
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
War Horse

Therefore confirming that unlike the British, who gave The Artist a nomination for Sound, the Americans in the academy are without irony.   It'll probably be Hugo.

Sound mixing

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
Moneyball
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
War Horse

 Although the more obvious question is why Drive has better sound editing than Moneyball and vice-versa.

Visual effects

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2
Hugo
Real Steel
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Transformers: Dark of the Moon

See above.

Make up

Albert Nobbs
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2
The Iron Lady

I'm with Kermode on this.  Seems unlikely that the people who made Streep look like Thatch wouldn't be covered.

Music (original score)

The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn
The Artist
Hugo
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
War Horse

The BBC's PM programme took Bernard Hermann's widow to see The Artist in the past couple of days to see if she agreed with Kim Novak.  She didn't.

Music (original song)

The Muppets
Rio

Two songs which'll please the producers of the ceremony.

anti-intuitive

Film Mark Kermode reviews Madonna's W.E. in that kind of anti-intuitive way which still forces you to want to see the film:



This a film so rubbish, it makes Simon Mayo bust out of his usual apparent disinterest and join the discussion to point out the indigenousness of some of the script. Not in the video is the moment elsewhere in that programme when Simon admitted that it was a rare occasion when he tactfully failed to indicate when interviewing the person involved whether he liked the film or not.

Elizabeth Day also interviewed Andrea Riseborough the other week and I'm still not sure if she wasn't deliberately riffing on the classic Harmony Cousins spoof (which is nearly ten years old now and still a cautionary tale).  The "If she were a Chinese dish, what would she be?" moment nearly made the tea fall through my nose. 

"Tapping into the fear of industrialisation"

Books Stephen Cole’s The Ring of Steel continues a seam of these audio exclusive Eleventh Doctor adventures hoping to give the listener something which the television series in the Moffat era has categorically turned its back on, the epic (expensive) alien invasion story with casts of thousands looking to the sky. Vampires in Venice perhaps qualifies but that was set in the past and didn’t threaten the whole planet, also true of Victory of the Daleks. There have been no Sontaran stratagems or aliens in London in the past couple of years and all the Atraxi were really interested in was Prisoner Zero and not the planet’s natural resources.

Tapping into the fear of industrialisation creeping into our great wildernesses, Cole has the Doctor and Amy land on Orkney in the near future and straight into a local protest against a power generating company using the islands a base of operations with the inevitable pylons blotting the landscape. Fairly soon, the protest turns nasty and not just between the company and plackard wielders. Pylons come to life, roads begin to melt and refashion themselves, a kind of chaos straight out of a Roland Emmerich film when he’s not trying to rewrite literary history (not that Doctor Who would ever do such a thing).

In other words squint and we’re right in the middle of old Who’s season ten, with Malcolm Hulke or Barry Letts putting a group of locals under threat from whatever environmentally unfriendly evil the BBC’s sfx team can pull together given the lack of time and money available to them. Cole has great fun recalling moments generally seen through the noise of a reverse standards conversion, visors pulled up to reveal the “wizened faces” of employees who’ve had the life force sapped from them or the Doctor utilising his sonic screwdriver whilst simultaneously flying a helicopter. All that’s really missing is the Master dragging on a massive cigar from a safe distance.

Oddly in a story it's hinted is set in the period when Amy had forgotten about Rory’s existence, Arthur Darvill's reading. Arthur’s audiobook style is very much to emphasise-every-other-word-in-a-deliberate-fashion which sometimes works against the text, though Cole’s also landed him with the challenge of every character barring the Doctor having a Scottish accent, all of which he fights to keep distinct both from Amy and each other, largely succeeding. He’s aided by some excellent sound design, the whips and scorns of the pylons cutting across the speakers, helping to increase the atmosphere of a generic but not unenjoyable adventure.

The Ring of Steel by Stephen Cole is available now from AudioGo.

"in the wee hours"

TV Elizabeth Day interviews Louise Breakley who plays Molly on Sherlock. The opening answer speaks for itself:

"Oh God. I think I use Twitter almost like I'm talking to myself and then forget people actually read it. The party was so much fun. They don't give you any canapes. It's a trick to get you absolutely twatted. I ended up in the Groucho club in the wee hours, assaulting someone for not wanting to marry me. Today I'm feeling poorly, a bit weak. I'm drinking Lucozade."

Her Twitter avatar is a picture of Keith Moon!  Don't ever lose it Louise!

The Titlebar Archive: Alison Balsom

Music Alison Balsom's new album Seraph is another example of her championing new composers and so widening the range of music available to trumpeters and transforming the image of an instrument often left in the hands of male soloists. James MacMillan's title track crosses string accompaniment surely influenced by Bernard Hermann (there's a lot of that about lately) with an often painful melody that captures (I think) the melancholy fractures of a personality oscillating between self-delusional happiness and utter despair with hints of nostalgia.  In the second movement it's even as though her trumpet and a violin are sharing a very private grief.

Not a happy album by any means and certainly not as accessible as her earlier presentments of Hummel or Bach or re-orchestrations of Italian Violin Concertos, the music which I've loved across the years.  Perhaps the most piercing, because of its familiarity, is the cover of Nobody Knows which plays out against a simple set of chords and tiny piano intrusions, a painful, funerary polar opposite to the usual gospel interpretations.  Nevertheless if you're in the right mood, Seraph is well worth seeking out (it's on Spotify too).  The title bar is from the inlay of her earlier, happier album Caprice.  The sitting on steps shot on the front of Seraph is too vertical for both her and her instrument to sit comfortably in the 980x200 pixel space.

For an instant hit, here she is Hummeling at the Classical Brits:

Mr. Toad made The Wind in the Willows famous

Books As the introduction (written back in the 80s by Grahame biographer Peter Green) rightly identifies, although Mr. Toad made The Wind in the Willows famous, his action packed adventures are the least evocative and I’d go further to say he’s the least interesting of the characters. The best chapter, Dulce Domum, in which Mole desperately seeks to return to his own home despite its humbleness is an intoxicatingly emotional description of the inescapable connection most of us have to our own familiar four walls however else we might imagine they seem to others (and nearly had me in tears by the time the carol singers arrived). The loyalty between Ratty and Mole is also especially touching, not unlike that between Sherlock and Watson, the former often riding roughshod of the latter’s feelings until he realises he’s gone too far, guilt sets in and he shambles about making amends.

"the psychology of his protagonist's adventures"

Books  Now that time paradoxes have become a staple part of Doctor Who, trust James Goss, one of the more experimental of the spin-off writers to turn one into a big dumb – if beautiful – object and more than that a museum piece  at the heart of one his creepiest stories yet.  But as ever Goss's artifice doesn’t end there, as his new story The Art of Death is narrated by Penelope, the invigilator charged with the care of its viewing gallery and almost the entire story takes place within that chamber or else in the surrounding corridors and rooms.  The Doctor and his friends, lost in time, variously drop into her life when she’s most in peril slowly uncovering the mystery of the paradox and the crystalline monster which plagues Penelope’s existence.

Some of which might sound relatively familiar.  As well as much talk of cracks in time, the structure is also superficially similar to The Girl in the Fireplace and my favourite bit of Who of last year, Jonathan Morris’s Touched by an Angel.  With less room to extemporise, Goss focuses more closely on the psychology of his protagonist's adventures, keeping the focus on Penelope rather than the regulars, and how our lives can be superficially controlled without us realising the consequences of our actions before it’s too late.  At times she’s excruciatingly human and in one sequence Goss draws out a very specific type of ritual humiliation in a way which is even scarier than when the monster’s in full attack mode.

The always amazing Raquel Cassidy acts Penelope’s story with realistic detachment and as is often the case with Goss’s scripts part of the entertainment is guessing why she’s chosen to offer us her story.  Within that we’re not entirely sure if her interpretations of Matt, Karen and Arthur are Cassidy's or the character's but she achieves a decent interpretation of them all (perhaps thanks to having acting with them in the last series), her Amy understandably the most recognisable.  Goss also deserves credit for finding Rory’s voice too, that kind of bewildered strength mixed with staccato speech which other writers often default as “generic bloke”.  This is an excellent edition to Goss’s back catalogue.  Surely it’s about time he worked for television?

Also out this month is a Vintage Beeb re-release of the classic Doctor Who Sound Effects vinyl, an artefact I’ve been searching for since borrowing a copy from Liverpool Central Library years ago.  It’s a collection of noises from 70s episodes, originally produced by sound engineers Dick Mills and Brian Hodgson, some (sonic screwdriver) more iconic than others (Cloning and Miniaturisation Process).  Many were repurposed for other BBC programmes with the Gallifreyan Staser Gun brandished by the cops on Magrathea in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.  Interestingly the original sleeve notes featured working titles for stories with The Enemy Within once again losing out to something else. (The Invisible Enemy).

Doctor Who: The Art of Death by James Goss is out now on CD and to download.  Doctor Who Sound Effects (Vintage Beeb) is released on the 2nd February 2012.  Review copies supplied.

"before we figured out what the algorithm was"

Film The few of you who've been reading this for a while may remember the old Scene Unseen series from back in 2004 and this short piece about the entertainingly confrontational audio commentary on Steven Soderbergh's film The Limey. Now on the eve of his retirement, Soderbergh explains to The AV Club the film's editing process which turned a film that didn't work into something which I think we can all agree is something of a classic:

"It was shot and cut chronologically. It was written that way, and it was done that way, and it didn’t work. I’m not saying that’s the script’s fault. I’m just saying it didn’t work. It had to be rethought from frame one. And before we figured out what the algorithm was, I thought we were in trouble. I remember the day—God, this would be January 1999 — Out of Sight had just won the National Society Of Film Critics awards for picture, director, and screenplay, and I got a call from Stacey Sher, one of the producers, going, “I’ve got great news, it was just announced that blah blah blah.” And I remember thinking, “I really don’t care. I would trade that for one edit that would work.”

Later in the interview he talks about poor reception for The Good German, which, with its mimicing of ancient film artifice is probably an interesting film to revisit in the wake of The Artist.

"buy a jumper in C&A"

Commerce Tom de Castella at the BBC talks eloquently about brand nostalgia:

"You pop out of the house, cash a cheque at Midland Bank, hire a television at Radio Rentals, buy a jumper in C&A, pick up some screws at Texas DIY, do the weekly shop at Gateway, before repairing to Lyons Corner House for a cup of tea and an individual fruit pie."

Liverpool certainly feels that, some of us wistfully looking at the Wetherspoons on Great Charlotte Street and remember its previous tenant Blackers, a department store which closed so long ago now I remember buying peripherals for my Acorn Electron (a First Byte Joystick Interface!) in the closing down sale.

Not mentioned is how Boots (the chemist) has retained its old fashioned logo despite everyone else in the high street shifting to some derivation of boring old Helvetica, which means the company retains a sense of continuity stretching back to our childhood.  It's a sense of comfort which simply doesn't exist with Superdrug.

"except for a couple of domestic problems"

Film Back in the late 70s, writer Stephen Gallagher was attempting to put together a musical based on the life of actor Douglas Fairbanks. As part of his research he entered into a correspondence with Fairbanks's son who wasn't entirely sure his father's life was dramatic enough to sustain the drama:

"I do want to warn you that the idea had already occurred to two or three other people over the past fifteen or twenty years, and even though they have been well-known playwrights and theatre people the projects have come to nothing because, except for a couple of domestic problems, my father's life per se was not sufficently dramatic to justify a play. His career was indeed spectacular and he was unquestionably a great creative artist and producer but beyond that the material is not rich enough to sustain a complete play. Any detailing of domestic sidelights would be likely to lead to complications as some of the people are still living - such as my step-mother.

His step-mother being Mary Pickford. Thrilling stuff.

"40 or 50 times"

Web Luv & Hat tackle Tumblr:

"Well done, Tumblr. Well done for liking the same slightly geeky, slightly culty, slightly alternative things as EVERYONE ELSE ON FUCKING TUMBLR. You’re such an individual. That photo of a cupcake that’s only been reblogged 995 times? Hardly anyone has seen that more than, say, 40 or 50 times. You’re right to reblog it. You’re doing the world a favour. You have such good taste. Admittedly you didn’t have any part in its creation, and you’re just dumbly human centipeding it down the internet because it’s easier than making something yourself, but pat yourself on the back anyway."

Incidentally this blog has its own Tumblr, which as you can see I never have found a use for.

Hello from ant1mat3rie on Vimeo.

The Titlebar Archive: Mark Kermode's Signiature

Books Having missed his personal appearances, I was quite pleased to find this half-priced signed copy of Mark Kermode’s The Good, The Bad and the Multiplex in Waterstones on Bold Street just after Christmas. It’s a surprising squiggle, not least because he merges his initials together then runs his pen on hoping the reach a D and seemed like a perfectly reasonable alternative to having his face looking out at you for a week. Plus since my primary typing finger’s been out of action thanks to a papercut, such a tiny injury, so strangely debilitating, it was a nice way to note what had become again my primary way of storing information that wasn’t my brain.

Taking a break from the Oxfords, I spent last week reading through this and his earlier semi-autobiography It’s Only A Movie.  They run perfectly into one another. The first offers a ramshackle account of his life and career from sneaking into horror films to working at City Life Magazine in Manchester, Time Out London, the Radio and thence famously being shot at in LA while interviewing Werner Herzog. The second offers a ramshackle account of his frustrations with modern cinema, the multiplex experience, 3D, the British coming even though they’re already here andthe  film criticism discipline in general.

For someone’s who’s an avid listener of these radio slots and video blog there aren’t many surprises since his reviewing style already demands a fair amount of biography submerged with opinion and even as he apparently extemporises into film criticism whole sections feel like transcripts of his greatest hits, especially the section on Sex and the City 2 or Transformers. This is the Kermodian version of comedy books released before dvd, where Jasper Carrot or Woody Allen’s sets would be repeated in prose, albeit with a far more discursive style that meanders from the point like a Ronnie Corbett monologue and just as funny.

Nevertheless, the tone of the second book is almost entirely pessimistic. Kermode fears that the advent of digital projectors, the way films are delivered, is irrecoverably spoiling those elements which brought him to the medium in the first place, the sense of history inherent within a piece of celluloid, that it has a transportative capacity irretrievably obscured as the screens its presented on become ever smaller. As he’s said in the past, it used to be that films as they were run through the projector were effectively performed to the audience or viewer and there was a collective excitement akin to theatre or music which can’t be replicated on television.

Having spent the best part of a couple of years watching films on television, usually alone, my worship of the medium has shifted from being an experience akin to a church service to something more like private prayer. The screen is smaller, true, but there are other benefits. The seats are comfier. You can pause the film if you need the loo, follow your own schedule and there are fewer random distractions. Also even with a Lovefilm account it’s far, far, cheaper and selection of films huge. But I know that just as I’ve killed the high street through internet shopping, if I’m not careful I’ll kill the cinema too.  Perhaps I need to expand my displays of devotion again.

Harry Potter's consolation prize.

Film The Bafta short list is out so it's time for the first of my annual look at a list of films I haven't seen at a ceremony I don't usually watch.

Best Film

The Artist
The Descendants
Drive
The Help
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

The Artist. For all the inevitable backlash it is exciting for an essentially silent film to keep winning these awards, especially if it helps to promote interest in the birth of cinema and help educate viewers on a different kind of performance. I'm amazed BBC Four haven't rescheduled some of the material from their old season of silent films.

Film Not in the English Language

Incendies
Pina
Potiche
A Separation
The Skin I Live In

It's a change that we're seeing a short list of film which have already been released in the UK and, judging by the box office figures published in Sight & Sound, been seen by a welcoming audience.

Outstanding British Film

My Week with Marilyn
Senna
Shame
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
We Need to Talk About Kevin

That's who I think will win it and well done. My first choice was Marilyn but TTSS had something of a breakthrough and Gary Oldman's well loved by the academy.

Director

The Artist - Michel Hazanavicius
Drive - Nicolas Winding Refn
Hugo - Martin Scorsese
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - Tomas Alfredson
We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lynne Ramsay

It may do the double though the disparity between the best director/film categories is interesting, especially the lack of Hugo (the one film I have seen) above, demonstrating how miscellaneous the whole process of choosing one film over another is.

Original Screenplay

The Artist
Bridesmaids
The Guard
The Iron Lady
Midnight in Paris

The biggest selling Woody Allen film of all time, though if The Artist is sweeping, it has no chance.  I've seen Bridemaids too incidentally, though its appearance above Chalet Girl is astonishing, frankly.


Adapted Screenplay

The Descendants
The Help
The Ides of March
Moneyball
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Even if it's The Artist that sweeps, this'll be Tink's consolation prize.

Cinematography

The Artist
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
War Horse

Even if Tink sweeps, this'll be The Artist's consolation prize.

Editing

The Artist
Drive
Hugo
Senna
Tinker Tailor Solider Spy

Logically with two car films and two works about film history the vote will be split.  But again these are the battleground categories between spies and artists.  Perhaps this'll be a year when there's a neat carve-up between the films but it feels unlikely.

Production Design

The Artist
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2
Hugo
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
War Horse

Scorsese's consolation prize.

Make Up & Hair

The Artist
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2
Hugo
The Iron Lady
My Week with Marilyn

Just on the basis of the poster.  

Costume Design

The Artist
Hugo
Jane Eyre
My Week with Marilyn
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Unless it's one of those ceremonies in which case it'll be Jane Eyre.

Special Visual Effects

The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2
Hugo
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
X-Men: First Class

Harry Potter's consolation prize.

Documentary

George Harrison: Living in the Material World
Project Nim
Senna

Its been on television.

Sound

The Artist
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2
Hugo
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
War Horse

If Bafta's in an ironic mood.

Original Music

The Artist
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

If Bafta's in an ironic mood.

Animated Film

The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn
Arthur Christmas
Rango

Spielberg's consolation prize.

Leading Actor

Brad Pitt (Billy Beane) – Moneyball
Gary Oldman (George Smiley) - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
George Clooney (Matt King) – The Descendants
Jean Dujardin (George Valentin) – The Artist
Michael Fassbender (Brandon) – Shame

It's the cast of Ocean's 14, isn't it? Again, sweeps, sweeps so I'm chickening out and giving Danny the award.

Leading Actress

Bérénice Bejo (Peppy Miller) – The Artist
Meryl Streep (Margaret Thatcher) – The Iron Lady
Michelle Williams (Marilyn Monroe) – My Week with Marilyn
Tilda Swinton (Eva) – We Need to Talk About Kevin
Viola Davis (Aibileen Clark) – The Help

Surely?  Even in a sweeps night?   Also, no Kristen Wiig?  Really?

Supporting Actor

Christopher Plummer (Hal) – Beginners
Jim Broadbent (Denis Thatcher) – The Iron Lady
Jonah Hill (Peter Brand) – Moneyball
Kenneth Branagh (Sir Laurence Olivier) – My Week with Marilyn
Philip Seymour Hoffman (Paul Zara) – The Ides of March

I'm sure he's very good but this just proves that even if you're Jonah Hill you can expect to receive an award nomination at some point.  Looking at both these categories, its interesting that unlike the screenplay categories, they're not split between "in the role of a real human" and not.   Plummer may get it thanks to his Globes win.  We tend to do that quite a lot.

Supporting Actress

Carey Mulligan (Irene) – Drive
Jessica Chastain (Celia Foote) – The Help
Judi Dench (Dame Sybil Thorndike) – My Week with Marilyn
Melissa McCarthy (Megan) – Bridesmaids
Octavia Spencer (Minny Jackson) – The Help

For obvious reasons.  I know, I say that every year, but it's true. Unless the jury is stacked full of Gilmore Girls fans.  It's going to be Dench again isn't it?

OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER

ATTACK THE BLOCK - Joe Cornish (Director/Writer)
BLACK POND - Will Sharpe (Director/Writer), Tom Kingsley (Director), Sarah Brocklehurst (Producer)
CORIOLANUS - Ralph Fiennes (Director)
SUBMARINE - Richard Ayoade (Director/Writer)
TYRANNOSAUR - Paddy Considine (Director), Diarmid Scrimshaw (Producer)

Please?

ORANGE WEDNESDAYS RISING STAR AWARD

ADAM DEACON
CHRIS HEMSWORTH
TOM HIDDLESTON
CHRIS O’DOWD
EDDIE REDMAYNE

"Thor's my hero."  Felicity Jones was in the long list.  Why is she not here?  Why!?!  WHY!?!

Stephen Fry's presenting the ceremony this year.  I might watch after all.

The Titlebar Archive: Happy Endings

TV Always desperate for something to cheer me up in the post-Christmas neutral zone, the first season of Happy Endings was just perfect, offering  twenty minute bursts of old school relationship comedy.  This screenshot is from teaser to the "Mein Coming Out" episode, from early in the first season when Penny meets the perfect man who happens to have fairly notorious surname and Max is putting off coming out to his parents. In typical style, the teaser features an entirely in-connected element, in this case Jane's all night cookfest creating a surreally abundant breakfast buffet.  Here, Alex momentarily looks longingly at her ex-fiance Dave as he munches on a streak of crispy bacon and we're not entirely sure which she's longing for most.

You probably missed Happy Endings if you were in the UK.  Unlike its spiritual predecessor Friends which spent a decade in prime time on Channel 4, the sitcom was hidden in a weekday slot on E4 then repeated in the wrong order on the main channel at four in the morning.  Catching up with it over a few days, I was amazed at the density of the dialogue, the ingenuity of the storytelling which in some places rivals Steven Moffat's Coupling and the fearlessness of the performances as dignity often goes out the window for a good joke.  The "Dave of the Dead" episode is one of the best reposts to hipster culture I've seen, the title alone suggesting the ultimate destination for a perfectly pitched parody of the clothes, the music, the films and the food.

"Ewan McGregor looked after me."

Life The Guardian's pulled together some of my favourite people to talk about their career firsts. For some reason I'd entirely blanked on Trainspotting being Kelly MacDonald's first film:

"Ewan McGregor looked after me. We had that quite intimate scene to do together. At every stage of the audition process, they'd told me there was a sex scene in the film. "Would you be OK with that?" "Yeah, of course!" But it didn't compute. It was only on the day of shooting that scene that I suddenly thought, "Oh shit, I've got to do this thing." I didn't want it to be a really gruelling, awful day, so I thought if I went for it 100% then I wouldn't have to keep doing it. But I was so naive that that was the day I got my mum and my brother to visit the set. How nuts is that?"

Perhaps in that case, when this happened, she was as nervous as I was.

The Opinion Engine 2.0:32/31:Despite the fact that bloggers claim to prefer anonymity, all blogs are intrinsically narcissistic - discuss.

Question asked by Franchesca Puehler.

About Before heading off into the psychoanalytical second half, it’s important to address the initial premise of the question, why bloggers claim to prefer anonymity. From my own experience, when this blog was very young, when even close friends didn’t even know what a blog was and my readership was practically zero, I felt much freer in my ability to write about myself.

That’s eroded over time as more people read the blog, especially people I know and although at first I attempted to misdirect and dissemble, now I simply send links to everything on my twitter feed and Facebook (both narcissistic media too) and try not get too personal It’s just simpler, if much harder.

Total anonymity is different, of course, because it increases the potential freedom even further because not even Google will make the connection (assuming you’re not using your Google account to post to Blogger).

Then you really do have the ability to say how you really feel and if you’re writing on a controversial topic still enjoy watching the feedback, perhaps even join in via a sock puppet.

In that case, anonymity is seductive.

This isn’t something I’ve ever done, but the few anonymous bloggers who’ve either outed themselves or been revealed against their will, have talked about the onrush of freedom it provides.

Which is the paradox.

You're much more open when you’re talking to no one, but blogging only becomes validated when it has a readership. Anonymous bloggers can retain a readership but a readership who don’t know who they are. We’re all narcissistic but in a sense it’s a narcissism which kills the very thing which fuels it.

It has been suggested to me that I should begin an anonymous blog if I really wanted to return to the past style, but my life is unfortunately far less interesting now and I enjoy the challenge of offering you something to look for between the lines, even if most of the time it is just white space.

But on reflection narcissism does provide a useful guide for when it’s about time to stop blogging, in other words if any of the following (seen at the Wikipedia and quoted from this citation) become true:

Positive: Narcissists think they are better than others.

Inflated: Narcissists' views tend to be contrary to reality. In measures that compare self-report to objective measures, narcissists' self-views tend to be greatly exaggerated.

Agentic: Narcissists’ views tend to be most exaggerated in the agentic domain, relative to the communion domain.

Special: Narcissists perceive themselves to be unique and special people.

Selfish: Research upon narcissists’ behaviour in resource dilemmas supports the case for narcissists as being selfish.

Oriented toward success: Narcissists are oriented towards success by being, for example, approach oriented.

Because arguably, now that I think about it, blogs are always at their most boring when they’re embracing these tendencies. Interesting.

Best give up now then.

"I always saw us having galleries in Liverpool, London, LA or wherever"

Art The Ceri Hand Gallery is soon to be moving from its base in Liverpool to the capital and Hand herself has given a useful interview to Double Negative:

"TDN: Why are you leaving? How are you feeling about it?

CH: I am in the middle of the experience, so it’s changing daily! On the whole, making the decision was the hardest thing. Now I have, I feel quite upbeat and matter of fact about it. We never had it planned… I always saw us having galleries in Liverpool, London, LA or wherever we thought best for our artists. However, we simply don’t have the resources currently to keep exporting our artists work to London and run our programme in Liverpooltoo. We aim to do ambitious shows, usually with big builds, so we didn’t want to scrimp on quality or do less in Liverpool, but we had to do something to increase visibility and sales for our artists, quickly.

It's easy for some us to forget that many of these independent venues are also businesses and have to go where the work can be sold. She mentions that the market has flattened somewhat here abouts which is certainly a concern.

the British Animation British Animation Awards screenings at FACT.

Plug! I've had an email from FACT Liverpool:

"Hi Stuart,

Just wanted to let you know about the British Animation British Animation Awards screenings at FACT. They take place on the 23, 24, and 25 Jan with a different programme of shorts being shown on each. They have always been really popular in the past and the audience is invited to rate each short on a scale of one to five.  I have attached the Press Release and here are a few links to some of the shorts."

Thanks. Excellent. Find below links to the videos and the fuller press release:

He probably had Virginia Madsen in mind when I was writing this.

Life  Putting Christmas decorations away the other day, I stumbled upon a bag of papers which had been bunged on a shelf during a clear out and completely forgotten about.  They're a mess of old GCSE and A-Level essays and scripts and other bits and bobs and I thought I'd embarrass myself or at least give myself a dose of perspective and post them up here in the coming weeks.

And so to the seventeen year old version of me in the first year of his A-Levels.  He's a lunchtime prefect in charge of the school computer room and has been studying John Donne for three months.  Both of these facts are the only way to account for the following attempt at metaphysical poetry using some kind of weird computer metaphor. He probably had Virginia Madsen in mind when he was writing this. 

Notice the dot-matrix printing.  If ink-jet had been invented then, the school certainly couldn't afford it.  He must have typed it in using 1st Word Plus running on one of the school's many Acorn Archimedes machines though goodness knows how he managed it without being spotted by one of kids in there playing the Lander demo.  Until he banned them for playing games.

ELECTRIC DREAMS

As I deliver mail around our offices

So your computer pulses, telling its circuits what to do.

And as your fingers caress the keyboard

I wonder if one day I'll do the same to you.

The emerald words upon the screen which

Contrast against the bold azure within your eyes

Are as hidden from me as the

Thoughts you hold within your mind.

The smile you gave me as I passed

Is stored within my memory for all time.

And the warmth of coffee upon my leg

Is like the verve I feel within my heart.

Your voice is all I can hear

As the carriage liaises with the page,

And so the tape spools through the cartridge,

Your words flow into my mind.

As a socket gives your computer the power to process

So your touch has made me electric.

And as we dance I feel more than your caress

I feel your love as well.

The register opens as you have

Opened your heart to me.

And as I am given just my change

I hope I will not take more than I should receive.

The touch of your lips against mine

Is like a turtle without a shell.
And so a hacker violates a network

Am I violating you?

Our language now is faster

Than that between any terminals,

Our thoughts being a database

Of all we need to know.

Stuart Burns L6A1.

[The first four lines of the final stanza are just awful though to be fair to him, he probably wasn't aware of the implications.  He'd led a very sheltered life, what with going to an all boys school.  Either that or he'd been reading the Donne a bit too well.  This Turtle would have been the source of the imagery.  See what I mean?]

"Romney is kind-of okay, in his Stepford Husband way"

Politics Elizabeth Wurtzel on Mitt Romney:

"I'm not sure why it occurs to no one that the GOP electorate might actually plain and simple like Mitt Romney. In fact, I hate the Republican party, I probably complain about Ronald Reagan in therapy more than I do about either of my parents, but I think Romney is kind-of okay, in his Stepford Husband way. I like Mitt Romney because, forgive me, he is what he is. Romney is simply this guy who is a last bastion of something old-fashioned and good in some ways: he has had a world-class education -- of which he should be very proud -- he's been civil and decent, he's been bipartisan and tolerant, and he's been spinning like an unhinged weathervane for so long he probably does it just for kicks -- which makes him exactly like a politician. Yep, that's what he is."

Don't worry, all of his faults are also in there too but if you do hate the Republicans and you're watching a race like this you do ultimately do have to deal with a single question.  If god forbid Obama loses, which of these jokers would be the least horrific president.  It's awful to admit, but Romney fits the bill.  Unfortunately.

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

Books With just a vague memory of the film adaptation starring Bing Crosby, some notion of the influences it has had on Doctor Who, and the cover illustration as a guide, I approached A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court expecting a typically structured but entertaining story of a man out of time and although Twain/Clemens’s tale begins in that mode, it quickly tips over into a far darker meandering satire on Western imperialism and industrialisation. The protagonist Hank Martin is a loathsome figure and even though the story’s told from his POV, I slowly became more and more protective of the Arthurian characters who barely seem to deserve the treatment the Yankee gives them. But that’s Twain/Clemens’s point I think; how the modern versions of us, apparently so sophisticated, are desperate to sap the magic from the world, be it in nature or man itself. A difficult read but a transportative one.  This is psychogeographical literature.

The Titlebar Archive: Sherlock

About  I was once rather more proactive about selecting the title bars for this blog (click here to carry out some real blog archaeology and see some older examples in a different format.  Look at those typos).  I've decided to do something similar this year.  A new illustration each week of whatever cultural event I've enjoyed or found most interesting with a post like this one at the end to explain myself.  Firstly, Sherlock and an attempt to find a shot of him thinking, though on reflection I think this is the moment from the tail end of the first series when he deliberately tears up in order to extract some information from a witness.

My first thought after watching the opening episode of the second series was "Why isn't Doctor Who this clever?" then quickly felt a bit guilty since Moffat's reimagining of the key sci-fi franchise often is that clever, what with the jacket continuity error that wasn't last year and the messy timeline of River Song.  His style is looser, more comfortable when writing for older viewers, perhaps even less straight jacketed by what's gone before because Sherlock's a page one reinvention rather than a continuation with all the baggage.

Almost within seconds of the episode finishing Twitter was filled with adoration but in the following hours and days some feminist criticism nearly overshadowed the achievement, largely centred around the treatment of The Woman or Irene Adler, turned, they saw, from the one woman who bested Holmes to someone not just bested by him but also unable to cope with her mission without the help of Moriarty,  I've decided to hold off my opinion until all three have been broadcast.  Almost.

Moffat for his part, has as ever has come out fighting with an interview to Wales on Sunday in which comes across as being deeply hurt by the accusations which have been flying around:

“I think it’s one thing to criticise a programme and another thing to invent motives out of amateur psychology for the writer and then accuse him of having those feelings,” he said.

“I think that was beyond the pale and strayed from criticism to a defamation act.

“I’m certainly not a sexist, a misogynist and it was wrong.

“It’s not true and in terms of the character Sherlock Holmes, it is interesting. He has been referred to as being a bit misogynist.

“He’s not; the fact is one of the lovely threads of the original Sherlock Holmes is whatever he says, he cannot abide anyone being cruel to women – he actually becomes incensed and full of rage.”

That's demonstrated in the episode with his protective attitude to Mrs Hudson. None of the commentary I've seen has noticed the fact that in defending his not a housekeeper, Sherlock threw her attacker out of the window several times and that it also became apparent that some of her understandable tears were a classic piece of misdirection on her part in order to hide something important making her a very strong female character indeed.

most of the action in Pride and Prejudice

Books One of the benefits of finally reading a book of which I’ve seen numerous screen versions is in increasing my understanding of the art of the adaptation which in Austen’s case requires much more than transcribing quotes and turning prose into stage directions. Although there is some conversation, most of the action in Pride and Prejudice occurs in reported speech leading to much invented dialogue, the screenwriter also having to make sense of rapid scene changes, days often passing in a matter of words. It’s a charming book, rightly loved, but a slow read. The writer often pastiches other contemporary novelistic styles making some sections oddly incomprehensible to my untrained eyes, which are also replaying versions of scenes from those adaptations and forever comparing them to their literary origin.  My favourite character after Lizzy is still her father, an inspiring symbol of tolerance searching for peace within the domestic chaos of his surroundings.