Category: Film, TV & Radio

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

Cheap Lane

Some of the best things in life are free, others cost much less than the pleasure they provide. The reverse is also true. Does an expensive car, house or holiday really give value for money?

Downhill

Downhill is a British film released last year, directed by James Rouse. It was his first movie (he usually directs film and TV advertisements) and describes four school friends walking the coast to coast path across England from St. Bees on the Irish Sea to Robin Hood’s Bay – 192 miles. It’s good but not… Continue reading Downhill

Travel Feature

  I can just about remember Alan Whicker’s TV shows in the 1960s, portraying a world that not many viewers in the UK would be able to visit. No cheap air travel and a £50 limit on how much money you could take with you were the first two hurdles.