Category: Film, TV & Radio

A film about a summer romance between a twenty-five year old man and his employer’s seventeen year old son in Italy during the 1980s may well not be up your strada but I have seen it and will try and make you change your mind.

Reading, Rithmetic and Rock ‘n Roll – that’s the three Rs you learn at a progressive school in New York City, right? Wrong, that’s what you learn at Ireland’s last boarding prep school, Headfort in Co Meath.

I bought this BBC box set almost three years ago after I watched a few of the interviews staying with friends in France. It was when I stopped using shampoo.

My uncle, christened Henry, was always called Henty; my friends are the Dodds. How did they become intertwined? Well, we must look back to the 1960s when I had crushes on Illya Kuryakin (Man From U.N.C.L.E.) and Simon Dee. I gave the latter top billing a while back in a post about The Italian Job, in… Continue reading Cyril Nicholas Henty-Dodd

Jean-Pierre Léaud – does the name ring a bell? If you are a cineaste you will be shouting “yes, 400 chimes”. He was the boy in François Truffaut’s autobiographical 1959 film, Les Quatre Cents Coups. He went on to make four more films in the series depicting the same character, Antoine Doinel, growing up.

Fear not, The Empire Trilogy has nothing to do with Star Wars but it is about three films. They were made in the 1930s, directed by Zoltán Korda and produced by his older brother, Alexander.

Queen Victoria reigned for 63 years and 216 days. She spent just seven days of her reign in Wales, not because it rains as she was partial to rainy Scotland.