Category: Film, TV & Radio

Banjo Boy

When I was at Durham University I saw John Boorman’s 1972 Deliverance for the first time.  It is a chiller/killer/thriller that starts innocently.

Aristocrats

Appropriately, bottles of Jameson and Hennessy rub shoulders alongside the programme for Aristocrats by Brian Friel. I went to the matinee on Saturday.

Upstairs, Downstairs

My memory plays tricks. I thought I watched Upstairs, Downstairs upstairs in the library at Barmeath with a TV supper on this tray and my terrier squashed beside me in an armchair. That was how I watched lots of other TV while my mother and grandparents were downstairs in the dining room.

Allelujah!

Yesterday morning’s Ancient World Breakfast Club (AWBC) talk was given by Dr Aggeliki Kompoholi who teaches at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.

Stella Street

Over Christmas 1997 BBC Two showed Stella Street. Each episode was ten minutes and there were three or so every night spread over the evening. It is completely bonkers in a very good way.

Black Robe

There is usually a fair bit of variety here, the idea being to encourage you to log on tomorrow when there might be something more interesting, so today you have every right to feel aggrieved. Only last month there was a post, Douglas, about acclaimed cinematographer Dougie Slocombe and now here’s another distinguished man-behind-the-camera.

Picnic

This picture is in the National Gallery of Victoria. It inspired Joan Lindsay’s 1967 novel Picnic at Hanging Rock. Some great novels have a great first sentence.

Alphabet Soup

I have a fiendishly difficult quiz for you today. Here is a list of men (clue: no women) and I simply want you to guess which one of them has this alphabet soup after his name, KT, GCVO, GBE, CB, TD, PC and what these ten men have in common.

Douglas

He was born in London in 1913 but brought up in Paris where his father was correspondent for the Daily Herald. A degree in Mathematics from the Sorbonne gives no clue as to the direction his life took.