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The Project (2002)
Meet the new boss...
We watched this in 2002 but that was before the invasion of Iraq the dodgy dossier, Dr Kelly etc.
Peter Kosminsky (The Promise, The Dying of the Light, Wolf Hall) is a fine director and I have never watched anything of his that has not been worth it
We recall The Project being very good as it highlighted the disillusionment many felt after Blair's first term but watching it again twenty two years later and with another New Labour government in power it was even more depressing and prescient. The micromanagement of Blair's administration has largely been forgotten but the obsession with control and the threats to anyone who dared to go against the Party line are remembered by some of us. And appear to be being repeated under Starmer.
Paul's (Macfadyen) cognitive dissonance between New Labour policies and their impact on ordinary people, as shown with his partner Lindsey (Wragg) a one parent family, was very well drawn. And one could see his ideals crumbling. Likewise Maggie (Harris) is conflicted between what she believed when she stood an MP and what she now finds herself having to support.
The drama also showed the two sides of this "New Labour" Party, the political "street thugs" played by James Frain as Harvey using dirty tricks and with a nod to Campbell, alongside the "Gucci socialists" portrayed by Anton Lesser as Stanley Hall.
The internal frictions between Blairites and Brownites was also repeatedly on display showing a party completely divided between the two major political figures. That was illustrated by a comment describing Blair as a "carpet-bagger" made by Richard (Riddell) to Paul at a party held at Hall's palatial London home to celebrate Blair winning the leadership contest in 1994.
The lavish expenses enjoyed by what was supposed to be a "socialist" government also highlighted the hypocrisy of Blairite politics. Alongside £300 a roll wallpaper for redecorating the Chancellor's office were champagne receptions, while his government made cuts to single parents and the disabled. The drama regrettably did not cover the Bernie Ecclestone incident.
Labour's dirty tricks against its own MPs is shown when it smears, via the tabloid press, a back-bencher Sian (Banham) who dares to vote against those cuts. Later Maggie also signs an Early Day motion against cuts for invalidity benefit but is threatened by the Chief Whip with having her career destroyed while at the same time he dangles the carrot that, if she removes her name a possible junior minister post awaits her after the next election. Given the final scenes we assume she has sold her soul while Paul despairingly leaves both his job and the Party.
All in all a disheartening but worthwhile trip down memory lane and why the BBC chose to show it now is anyone's guess. ;)
BBC2 Play of the Week: She Fell Among Thieves (1978)
A Right Ripping Yarn
I watched this again when it was repeated in June 2024 having not seen it since it was first broadcast in 1978.
It is an absolute hoot. The plot is very simple. Wicked Vanity Fair wants Jenny to be married so that her fortune is secure and then will presumably bump poor Jenny off to get the money.
Two young Englishmen with their faithful men-servants recognise Vanity Fair from her infamous days during the Great War and are determined to thwart her dastardly plan and arrest her.
That is about it. It was all filmed in and around Castel Coch in mid Wales which substituted (badly) for the south of France but it worked because it was not intended to be realistic. For example in the final scenes which naturally contain a car chase there is a sign pointing to "Biarritz" down an obviously woodland path somewhere in mid Wales. There is then a fast drive down a winding road through what I assume was another section of the Welsh landscape that is supposed to be one of those vertiginous mountain roads one finds in France and Italy.
I have not read the original book, but this production seemed to make a couple of nods to John Buchan another writer of "derring do" among the English upper classes prior to, and during, WW1 and Tom Sharpe brings his own sense of humour to the script where there is some laugh out loud black humour.
The cast is superb. Malcolm McDowell is excellent as gallant Richard Chandos, only seven years after playing Alex in Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange. Jonathan Lynn has a relatively short lived part as Gaston, and all prior to writing Yes Minister/Yes Prime Minister, and long before directing My Cousin Vinny; while the wonderful Simon Cadell has an even shorter lived role as Candle. It was lovely to see the late and sadly missed Bernard Hill playing Carson, Mansel's chauffeur/valet some four years before his superlative performance as Yosser, also to see Sarah Badel again after her superb Lizzie Eustace in The Pallisers. As for Dame Eileen what a difference from Mrs Croft in Gosford Park or Eleanor of Aquitaine in Robin Hood.
Overall it was an eighty minute very enjoyable romp down memory lane for a daft but enjoyable plot as well the opportunity to see so many faces before they became far better known.
Auf Wiedersehen, Pet (1983)
The past is a foreign country
We are re-watching series 1 & 2 and they still retain their humour and, to a degree, charm. Today the series would be decidedly non PC but it was of its time and the humour still works. Oz has lost none of his boorish British relevance.
We never understood why anyone thought that resurrecting the characters sixteen years later would be a good idea.
Too much time had elapsed and society was completely different with Thatcherism long gone and Blairite Britannia taking its place.
The political and social bite of the situations and comments from the 1983 and 1986 series no longer applied and while we understand that actors never turn down a role the spark had gone as the cast were all so much older and had pursued other things.
Timothy Spall in particular had done so much excellent work since 1986 while Kevin Whatley was no longer Neville but had become recognised as Morse's side-kick Lewis and would go on a few years later to star in his own series based on his namesake.
For us Auf Wiedersehen Pet was of its generation and decade. Far better to have left it at the end of series 2 with them all on Kenny's yacht being chased by the Spanish authorities, and with the viewer left wondering how it would all end.
Have I Got News for You (1990)
BBC Flagship programme
Reading all the moans and whines I felt I had to defend HIGNFY.
We have never missed a single episode of this series since it started in 1991. We have either recorded it on video or in later years caught up with it on BBC iPlayer.
Like all satirical news programmes some episodes are better than others depending on what is happening in the world and the dynamics of the chair and teams. However, it always worth watching and Ian Hislop's continued "truth to power" denunciations are ever more relevant at present as Britain's governing party since 2010 has now sunk so low and has been embroiled in so much sleaze and corruption it is almost beyond satire and is making Robert Walpole look honest.
As Ian once noted satire has never changed anything but it does hold the mirror up to those in power and allows us to mock and ridicule their pretensions, venality, and cupidity.
Long may HIGNFY continue.
Bodyguard (2018)
Mercurio's regular theme
We have just re-watched Bodyguard over the last two nights having not seen it since it aired in 2018. We were both struck by its prescience, namely corruption at top of the political hierarchy and all BEFORE Boris Johnson got elected as Prime Minister!!
Mercurio does have a thing about police corruption and involvement with organised crime as the series Line of Duty so ably depicted and this was no different. In fact watching it after re-watching all those series again we even noticed this series used a similar shot of the protagonist standing by a handrail several floors up in a modern building. The shot of the various individuals (Kate, Steve, and/or Ted) doing the same in Line of Duty used to make us laugh as it was used so often.
Nonetheless Bodyguard was an entertaining romp with in the final scenes a ray of hope for reconciliation and some closure.
Tamara Drewe (2010)
Could this film be made today?
This movie opened in 2010 before Jimmy Savile and Operation Yewtree made the news.
Would it even be considered today in the light of present sensibilities?
A young woman (Tamara) has a sexual relationship with a much older man whom she tried to seduce when she was a teenager but who rebuffed her advances. Meanwhile a fifteen year old schoolgirl.(Jody) is desperate to have her first sexual experience with her favourite Indie rock star, (I'd do him"). We even have her fantasy bedroom scene with Jody lying provocatively on the bed wearing a silk shirt and Ben (Dominic Cooper) looking smoulderingly at her from the bathroom wearing nothing but his black Calvin Klein boxers!
How would todays censorious Court of Public Opinion react to such behaviours and desires? A young woman sexually attracted from her youth to a man old enough to be her father? A minor (Jody) showing blatant sexual desire? How shocking. "Children" are not supposed to have such feelings.
Of course most people are aware that large swathes of teen girls regularly fantasise about having romantic/sexual encounters if not actual sex with their favourite rock/pop stars and a lot of fifteen year old girls are more than eager for a sexual relationship, often with someone older than themselves.
All that is brilliantly encapsulated and satirised in this enjoyable movie based on the graphic novel by that superb observer of human angst and repressed desires (especially among the middle and/or literary classes), Posy Simmonds.
With Glen (Bill Camp) an American academic on sabbatical writing his magnum opus on Thomas Hardy in Dorset (Hardy Country no less) it is, in some respects a light take on Far From the Madding Crowd. We even have a Gabriel Oak character in Andy (Luke Evans) .
A stellar cast with a fine director at the helm and an intelligent and witty script that gently satirises the literary groupies (or should that be aficionados?) that surround popular novelists as well as the literary pseuds and poseurs that are invariably to be found, this makes for a thoroughly enjoyable and very English romp with a rather public "domestic dispute" taking place within it.
Grab yourself a Dorset knob biscuit, a slab of Blue Vinny cheese, and a glass of good scrumpy and sit back.
The Dragon Has Two Tongues: A History of the Welsh (1985)
A nugget of Welsh gold.
I remember this from 1985 when it was first broadcast. It went out around 7 p.m. On Channel 4.
The two presenters, Gwyn Alf Williams and Wynford Vaughan-Thomas were both Welsh but on different sides of the divide in many respects.
Williams was the fiery Welsh Nationalist and Marxist, while Vaughan-Thomas was the sleek more conservative leaning Welshman.
I recall the pointed but (I think overall) friendly jibes that often flew between the two of them on their political interpretations of their shared history and culture.
Well worth another viewing if ever it comes along.
Channel 4 used to be such an innovative and high quality public broadcaster.
The Dig (2021)
An enjoyable film but...
We watched this last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. The contribution that Basil Brown made to archaeology and that particular discovery was emphasised and he was given the credit that academia, for some years, denied him..
In some respects it was a real life event used as an allegory with Britain on the cusp of another terrible war with Germany and with the threat of invasion. Meanwhile in the quiet Suffolk countryside an ancient burial ship is being excavated of another German invader whose people, fifteen centuries previously, had invaded and conquered the island and who had brought their culture and language, ruled the country and given England both its name (Engla land) and its broadly invented identity as an "Anglo Saxon" country.
We even got a hint of the "Anglo Saxon" warrior caste when the body of the young RAF pilot (another warrior) who has crashed and drowned is seen laid out (like a burial) in a small boat and brought to the shore.
The photography was glorious with lovely lingering shots taken at dusk and dawn of the countryside and the mounds, while the recreation of the ship burial was superb. All in all a slow somewhat Ingmar Bergman-like approach to both dialogue and cinematography which was hugely enjoyable.
Now to the buts. Did nine year old Robert really cycle from Woodbridge to Diss (30 miles/49 km) without anyone noticing?
Carey Mulligan was too young to be Edith Pretty who would have been 56 in 1939 and Ken Stott was too old to be Charles Phillips who would have been 38 in 1939.
The photographs of the excavation were taken by two teachers who were on holiday in the area and Edith's cousin Rory is an invention purely to provide a fictional love interest with "Peggy" Piggott whose marriage to Stuart Piggott actually ended in 1956. She went on to pursue her own academic career and in later life was in regular contact with Stuart .
Finally why did the screenwriter feel obliged to suggest that Stuart Piggott was gay? As far as I am aware there is no evidence to suggest that he was, so why was it introduced?
Or is having a token LGBTQ+ and/or a person of colour now de rigueur for all films?
Rob Roy (1995)
Superb to the last detail
We have just watched our DVD of this for the nth time.
How anyone can compare this with that travesty Braveheart is beyond comprehension. That this film had the misfortune to be released the same year echoes the 1997 Oscars when LA Confidential lost out to the melodrama of Titanic (the latter should have got one Oscar - for SFX).
No one can deny that Rob Roy has class as well as distinct echoes of BBC drama in its Golden Years.
It expects its audience to have some understanding of the period - no concessions are made to the historically uninformed. The language also catches the flavour of the time. From the opening comments at the Cockpit re the King over the Water, and Queen Anne's tragic loss of all her children, to the rigid hierarchies of the society. John Hurt's Marquess of Montrose' quip to the Duke of Argyll (Andrew Keir) concerning the honour Argyll shows him by serving him with his own hand (an English Duke takes precedence over a Marquess) down to the employment of the offence taken by various characters at "calling me familiar". All captures the behaviours and attitudes of this turbulent period; although I suspect much of the more earthy language did not make it past the censor for US television broadcast (barring cable)
The period detail is also spot on - down to the horn drinking cups in the bar, the clay pipes being smoked, even the lacing on Mary's sleeves showing how they would have been attached to the bodice of her dress.
The acting is also fine. John Hurt is always brilliant. Andrew Keir in one of his last roles as the Duke of Argyll is gracious, and Brian Cox as Mr Killearn plays the lowland Scot with his contempt of all things Highlander to perfection. However, like Hurt Cox never fails to impress. Liam Neeson is wonderful as the noble hero and Tim Roth perfect as the foppish and dastardly villain. Jessica Lange is also very good as Mary, you would hardly guess she was American, although Eric Stoltz as McDonald struggled rather more with his accent.
All in all it is a perfect film that illustrates one man's heroism against the odds, the historic cruelties of what England did to Scotland, and how "All men with honour are kings".
Four Kids and It (2020)
Why try and improve on perfection?
There is no mention in the film's details that this is a rip off.
Now TV even has the film described as "Sky original based on Jacqueline Wilson's novel"!
What?
Wilson simply plagiarised E Nesbit who wrote Five Children and It in 1902. Nesbit also invented the word Psammead- aka Sand Fairy.
I tried watching this but it only made me angry. Why set it in Cornwall? The original is set in Kent. Furthermore, Nesbit's Psammead was terrified of water - so why have it anywhere near the beach?
And of course in today's PC world the plot has to be made "relevant" with potential step siblings; thus commenting on today's divorces and second marriages, family tensions and so on.
Why does there have to be a villain who wants to steal the Psammead? Does everything have to come down to goodies and baddies? Are children unable to simply watch a story with a lot of humour that is premised on the old adage of "be careful what you wish for" when the wishes go horribly wrong?
The well known and very good children's author, Helen Cresswell, did a screenplay for a BBC production back in the 1990s. She should have known better. That was dire too.
Read the original - no one can improve on Nesbit.
Hot Air (2018)
Desperately disappointing
Steve Coogan is not only a very good comedian but he can also be a very good actor.
Having watched him in the brilliant Ideal Homes and then as Martin Sixsmith in the moving Philomena, not to mention his reprisal of his monstrous Alan Partridge in Alpha Papa I looked forward to his role in Hot Air. However, the film never seemed to work. It could not decide what it wanted to be. Was it a satire on shock jock right-wing radio pundits? Or an exploration of damaged human beings where "the sins of the mother" are foisted on to the children?
Coogan never seemed totally at ease in his character either. The brutal and selfish Lionel seemed a caricature and although Coogan is famous for his impersonations - starting out on Spitting Image in the 1980s - in this his American accent slips at times to leave him sounding slightly Irish.
Was I mistaken or was there a homage to Network and Peter Finch in the television debate when Lionel lets rip at the audience at home and in the studio? He wasn't quite "mad as hell" but he was certainly angry.
The ending of the movie with the "redemption" of of this monster by his young niece was also decidedly schmaltzy.
To use an old Elkan Allan rating "Don't waste your time"
Messiah (2020)
Very enjoyable little fiction
We"binged" the series last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. The final scene in the desert somewhere in North Africa was particularly resonant with Malik the (Muslim) shepherd boy giving Avi (the hate-filled Israeli agent) water.
A good little question mark ending as well concerning Al-Masih - is he or isn't he? Although neither of us is religious that was a clever little twist in what was, after all, a fantasy.
It could have been shortened by perhaps two episodes but over all a good entertainment.
My only request is that Netflix does not do another series. It won't work.
Some things are best left leaving the audience wanting more but knowing deep down that having more would be a disappointment.
Or to use Oscar Wilde's comment on a cigarette "It is exquisite and leaves one unsatisfied. What more can one want?"
The Sinner (2017)
Season 2: More holes than a swiss cheese
What a load of absolute rubbish.
The entire police service for the state appears to be run by four people. The entire series is set in a cliched New England setting, a small town with secrets, a community of oddballs living down a lane just outside the town, and of course cult issues with which various townsfolk are involved.
It was so hammy I had to see how it would pan out and ended up wasting more than five hours of my life.
It was like a protracted Hammer Horror movie. We even got a burning building in the final episode.
Find something much better to do, like watching paint dry.
The Love School (1975)
Another example of the BBC at its best
I had not seen this series since it was shown in the mid 1970s when I was a mere slip of a gel! :)
As with many of the BBC's 1970s historical drama productions this has finally been released on DVD and I bought a copy to see if it was as good as I remembered it and for Mr FC to watch - as he missed it back in the 1970s.
I have to admit that episode one left us very disappointed. John Hale was a good playwright (he wrote The Lion's Cub episode in Elizabeth R) and also screenplays for Mary Queen of Scots and Anne of the Thousand Days. However, in this episode he seemed out of his depth in a different historical period with entirely different historical characters.
There was far too much confused dialogue including a lot of shouting and (for want of a better phrase) over acting. We both got the feeling that the director, script, and actors were not really engaged with the characters.
Some of the less well known individuals were not clearly introduced either
(Woolner and Stephens being just two such examples) and several scenes showed the group as little more than overgrown schoolboys consuming prodigious quantities of tea and cake, when we would have thought chloral and absinthe might have been the preferred tipples of choice.
However, the first episode does open with a laugh-out loud line when Holman Hunt arrives at Millais' home clutching his copy of Ruskin and announces "Good news. I am not mad" which must rank as one of the best character introductions in a drama.
Having watched episode one we wondered what the rest of the series might be like and considered not bothering with it. However, we persevered and watched episode two (also by John Hale) that deals with Ruskin, Effie Gray, and Millais.
We were not disappointed. The actors seemed to have settled into their roles and the recreation of Millais' famous portrait of Ruskin (for whom David Collings was a dead ringer) was superbly done.
We have since watched the entire series and have thoroughly enjoyed it. Of course as with all old productions there is some background noise and a few minor glitches on the tape but none of that detracts from the drama.
Ben Kingsley was excellent as Rossetti and Patricia Quinn, Kika Markham, and Kenneth Colley were also dead ringers for their respective characters (Lizzie Siddall, Jane Burden - later Morris, and Burne-Jones) as was Frank Vincent for Swinburne (see Rossetti's painting of him for a comparison).
I must also comment on the artists who recreated so many of those wonderful paintings "in progress" as well as the drafts and sketches. There was no CGI in those days and the time and effort taken to reproduce those images must have been immense and painstaking.
So for those of us who remember the "Golden Years" of BBC dramas this was a thoroughly enjoyable trip down memory lane and at 75 minutes an episode there was enough time to deal with the various incidents in the lives of these brilliant and brilliantly flawed individuals.
Ideal Home (2018)
"Hey Everyone! I've got cocaine and birthday cake"
A delightful little "feel good" movie, and, as is true of so many comedians, Steve Coogan shows us that he is a very good actor.
The plot owes a little to The Birdcage/La Cage Aux Folles but without Albert/Albin's histrionics. The bickering gay couple are going through a bit of a crisis in their relationship and when the grandson of Erasmus (Coogan) turns up unexpectedly they are forced to reassess their relationship through the issues of looking after a child. Paul (Rudd) initially does not want the boy because although he" loves children in the abstract" he "doesn't want one in the house"! Angel/Bill is a traumatised and scarred little boy from the vicissitudes of his short life but gradually a loving relationship between Paul and Bill evolves.
Amusing scenes to look out for are Bill/Angel's presentation in class and Erasumus and Paul's reaction to it when they are called into school. Also the DVD stash that Bill/Angel shows the lady from Social Services.
Those of us who remember Paul Calf's Video Diary (1993) will also spot the "in joke" when Erasmus and young Bill/Angel go shopping in a supermarket. As the items (including several bottles of spirits) are put on to the conveyor at the check-out, the assistants asks Erasmus "Having a party?" To which he replies "Er, No". The only things missing were the luminous Frisbee and Fat Bob.
Overall it was thoroughly enjoyable 91 minutes and the end photographs, as the credits ran, were especially touching, reminding us that all children really need is TLC.
Whisky Galore! (2016)
Keeping the spirit!
A lovely reworking of Alexander McKendrick's 1949 classic adaptation of Compton McKenzie's novel, although, like the original, it did suffer from having non Scots in the lead female roles.
In 1949 Joan Greenwood, as was about as Scottish as a Japanese tartan and Ellie Kendrick and Naomi Battrick as Macroon's two young daughters in the remake, were not much better. There must have been some young Scottish actresses around who could have benefited from the work.
Gregor Fisher was brilliant as Macroon and Eddie Izzard superbly reprised Basil Radford's incompetent Captain Wagett (the name says it all).; while Annie Louise Ross ably filled the brilliant Jean Cadell's shoes as the dour Mrs Campbell. I also liked Fenella Woolgar's billiard playing Mrs Dolly Wagett
There were some slight changes to the original film with extra characters brought in but none of that spoiled it and the semaphore kids were an especial delight!
We watched it on a wet afternoon and came away feeling warm and fuzzy despite never having a dram between us.
Victoria & Abdul (2017)
People wearing historical costumes but behaving as they would today.
The title says it all. Historical characters behaving and speaking exactly as we would today. It's the equivalent of giving Spartacus a mobile phone!
Lee Hall is an excellent scriptwriter and has written some memorable film scripts (Billy Elliot and War Horse) and his radio dramas are superb. Stephen Frears is likewise a fine director.
You therefore have to ask, "What went wrong"? Were they having an off day?
Or have I completely misunderstood this film? Was it intended to be a comic take on this historical relationship?
The film certainly had plenty of laughs. We had Bertie telling his mother they would certify her (as if). Mohammed offering to "dish the dirty" and then lambasting the Raj while the Prince of Wales stood right next to him.
However, best of all was the scene with all the Palace household staff (including servants) plotting against Victoria because of her proposed knighthood for Karim, and being exhorted to oppose her by Dr Reid (Paul Higgins) channelling Jimmy Reid (the Red Clydesider and leader of the Govan shipyard workers in the 1970s).
All we needed was for Dr Reid to tell the rest of the Palace staff that "there would be no bevvying" and the impression would have been complete!
We also had various equerries and officials behaving like characters from a third rate comic opera. Which is another thing, why was Puccini singing? He was a composer, not a singer. Or was a cameo role by Simon Callow a touch of "luvviedom"? He wasn't in Mrs Brown but he and Dame Judi were both in Shakespeare in Love. Eddie Izzard is also a fine actor but I didn't feel his heart was in this role and where was Princess Alex throughout all his visits to his mother? She was his wife and Princess of Wales.
The time line was also very confusing, especially as Victoria started off very old and didn't seem to get any older. Was she really that doddery in 1887? She was only 68!
Overall, and to quote the former Sunday Times film critic Elkan Allan, "Don't waste your time."
Ghost Stories (2017)
Feeble
I doubt this would scare the proverbial rice pudding.
Very disappointing. A good cast, with a (generally) good writer but as always with horror/ghost stories the whole thing was very predictable and rather derivative. Hints of 1972's Asylum and some nods to The League of Gentlemen - which was not surprising.
Overall, don't wast your time. Read (or listen to it being read) an M R James or Sheridan Le Fanu ghost story. Those will really give you the shivers.
The Kominsky Method (2018)
Almonds and Raisins
With actors of this calibre in the two leads and an intelligent and understated script, what could go wrong?
The series reflects life with its joys, humour, and tragedy - hence my review title.
Alan Arkin gets all the best lines though.
We are really looking forward to another series but hope that both Douglas and Arkin are wise enough not to let it "run and run" as some series have done.
The best things (like Oscar Wilde's cigarette) are exquisite but leave you unsatisfied.
Darkest Hour (2017)
When in doubt, print the legend
This period of British and European history has been dealt with before and with a far better script.
Interestingly, this film along with Nolan's Dunkirk, have both been released as Britain prepares to leave the European Union and, according to some Brexiteers, once again plans to become a "global power". The rose-tinted approach to Britain's "Finest Hour" were once again very much on display here and the entire confection has clearly been aimed at an audience either too young or too uninformed to know anything about the reality.
Mr Wright does like his aerial shots, doesn't he? They were in danger of becoming somewhat tedious in this little piece we saw them so often.
And who wrote the script? We have Churchill and George VI having lunch with virtually no formality. Quite unlike the deference we know Churchill exhibited towards the monarchy. Then later we have George VI "popping round" to see Churchill at Number Ten and being received by Winston, who is in a slight state of deshabille, in what appears to his day bedroom (toffs have those apparently). Nor am I entirely sure Churchill would have kissed the King's hand after being invited to become PM, although such an action reeks of medieval "homage" "liege lord/man" and such like which will surely go down well with an American audience.
The history leaves much to be desired. There was no intent by the opposition (Labour and Liberals) to make Churchill PM and nor did Churchill abstain from the 8 May 1940 debate as the opening parliamentary scene shows. Likewise it was Chamberlain who suggested a coalition government, to which Churchill was opposed. Nor do I imagine Attlee was quite so bellicose in debate.
Then we have the "flotilla of little ships" scenario - where were the British and French navies? Anyone who has no knowledge of the events of late May 1940 will be left with the impression that the allied forces were rescued entirely by a motley collection of yachts and pleasure cruisers.
And it was not the entire British Army marooned in Dunkirk. Britain had its armed forces and its navy positioned across its Empire. This is another incidental that is forgotten in the starry-eyed "Little England" myth. Britain had a huge Empire that stretched around the globe. The forces at Dunkirk were the remnants of the BEF sent in 1939.
In the references to Nicholson at Calais, where were the the French and Belgian forces also fighting alongside the British? They never get mentioned.
The cherry on the cake for ludicrous nonsense was Churchill's trip on the tube. Where was his bodyguard? And what would Special Branch have had to say about his taking an impromptu ride on public transport?
The forelock tugging "salt of the earth" types including a Black Briton who quoted Macaulay were nauseating for both, hagiography and inaccuracy. I half expected them all to break into a chorus of "Land of Hope and Glory".
Contrary to such propaganda, Britain was far from united in its resolve to fight Hitler in 1940, as various historians, along with the contemporary Mass Observation accounts, have demonstrated.
The British government was seriously concerned about how the civilian population would react to, and cope with, total war, and there was a fear of what may ensue from the collapse of public morale.
The historical context of this film would have been far better served if such silly scenes had been omitted and we had been given insights into the American, French, and German viewpoints , in particular, Hitler's known ambivalence towards Britain.
Regrettably it seems that a fine actor like Gary Oldman, who was excellent in the part, has received his Oscar for one of his least memorable films, as unfortunately, did Al Pacino.
Silicon Valley (2014)
Side-achingly funny.
Whoever would have thought that a comedy series about a group of 20 something IT geeks could have a lady of mature years (along with her spouse) almost on the floor crying with laughter?
Well this is it.
And phrases and scenes still come back and make us laugh anew. The monkey's artificial arm, Jared's nocturnal German, and perhaps one of the funniest of all, Gilfoyle and Dinesh's SWOT board.
It must be good. We've already incorporated phrases into our family's lexicon. And we only do that with our very favourite comedies.
Really looking forward to series 3.
Becoming Jane (2007)
Nice costumes, shame about the script
As ever the old adage holds true. No matter how good the cast a film will fail if the script is weak. This was. Despite a stellar cast (and one of the great Ian Richardson's last appearances). This was not so much a biopic as a drama constructed from various scenes from Austen's novels.
Yes, the lady wrote from life, from her own intimate world but she observed acutely. Of course her characters are based on people she met, knew, or watched but to flagrantly take scenes from her novels and imply these were events in her life takes things just too far.
And how on earth could they shoot a film about Austen entirely in Ireland? Where was Bath? Austen lived there for five years and her father is buried there!