Category: Film, TV & Radio

The Jet Set

Like Pooh’s friend Rabbit, I have many friends and relations, amongst them Sir Peter Bazalgette who steps down as boss of the Arts Council next year, but will not disappear into his Notting Hill burrow.

Walkies

There has been a lot of chat about PG Wodehouse here but, hitherto, Barbara Woodhouse has been given the cold shoulder. She was what we call in England a “national treasure”, you are free to call her barking mad which is appropriate as, like many Britons, she was bonkers about dogs.

Get Smart

You’re an occasional visitor to London and you’ve finally got smart. You have an Oyster card to pay for tube and bus journeys. Actually you probably have multiple Oyster cards accumulated when you have forgotten to take one with you.

Nie Yinniang

Hou Hsiao-Hsien is a Taiwanese film director. He is a perfectionist and has spent almost eight years making his latest film, Nie Yinniang. Here it is called The Assassin, although “yinniang” actually means “hiding woman”, and it could be called The Woman in Black.

Figaro, Where?

The Metropolitan Opera in New York has been broadcasting Saturday matinees live to cinemas in Europe for ten years. It’s a super way to see tip-top productions with the bonus of watching what’s going on back-stage and hearing the singers being interviewed.  Only been around for ten years but already I have my favourite moment.… Continue reading Figaro, Where?

Rebellion

Have you been watching War and Peace on the BBC? I haven’t either but what I’d like to see is Rebellion on RTE (the Republic of Ireland broadcaster). Just to bring you up to speed, 100 years ago, in 1916, when the rest of the world was concentrating on the First World War, Ireland had… Continue reading Rebellion

Man in Taxi

Man in taxi* was the sobriquet bestowed on an old friend by Wikipedia. He was mentioned  because of a curious incident that took  place on the evening of 24th March 1974.

SS-GB

I meant to tell you about Masters of the Everyday: Dutch Artists in the Age of Vermeer, the current exhibition at The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace. It is a remarkably good show. I’m not writing about it because afterwards on my way to lunch. I took this picture on The Mall.

Rapunzel – The Blonde Years

There is one room at Barmeath that I’m pretty sure I have never been into. It is on the upper floor of a turret and was approached by an external, rather rickety, wooden staircase.