Category: Film, TV & Radio

From Z To Somewhere Else

A recent post about Dr Zhivago leads me to London Spy, a recently concluded psychological thriller on BBC TV. The journey has a few stops on the way so, if you’d care to come for the ride, all aboard!

A Post About Post

I recently listed a few of the abundant, high quality crop of novels published in 1932. 1847 wasn’t so dusty either: Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Vanity Fair and The Macdermots of Ballycloran were all published. You haven’t heard of The Macdermots? Nor me until now.

Hatchard Job

Gifford’s name has cropped up a few times here and, as he has never sent in his legal team to sue the socks off me, here he is again. He has drawn my attention to a poll conducted by Hatchards to pick the best novel of the past 200 years.

When I Was Five

“A house in Kensington and £2,000 a year.” Sounds a bit like some thing from the pen of Muriel Spark, doesn’t it? Well, you’d have to sell the house these days. When I started in the City I never aspired to a residence in Kensington but I thought that I could jog along on £4,000… Continue reading When I Was Five

What A Waste

Here is Sam Mendes with the cast of Sceptre. The rating 12A for a film means that it is suitable for children aged 12 and over. Children under 12 must be accompanied by an adult. Recent James Bond films have all been given this classification and need it commercially to the extent that the director… Continue reading What A Waste

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose

(That’s the only French content in this post.) This is what the old Odeon in Kensington High Street will look like after it has been re-developed as flats with seven cinema screens in the basement. Looks good to me. The Art Deco facade has been preserved but the conservationists are still furious. 

Hitch

He directed more than fifty films between 1925 and 1976. My mission this winter is to watch the lesser known ones that I have never seen or heard of. So last night I saw Alfred Hitchcock’s Topaz, released in 1969.

The Man Who….

This post is about someone who wrote more than 170 novels, 18 plays and 917 short stories. In 1928 a quarter of all books sold in the UK were by this author. One more clue: this person wrote the screenplay for King Kong.

Two Nights in Kunduz

This is what I wrote in 2008 about two nights I spent in Kunduz, now perhaps captured by the Taliban. What I didn’t write then, was that on the first evening, walking through the streets, I felt for the only time on that trip to Afghanistan very much in danger and that, returning to our… Continue reading Two Nights in Kunduz