RIP, continued ....

Roy Barraclough (1935-2017), aged 81. Sad indeed to read of the passing of another British television legend, Roy Barraclough, from the golden age of CORONATION STREET when his devious Alec Gilroy presided over the Rovers Return pub
 with his wife Bet Lynch. Roy and Julie Goodyear were a priceless double act. Roy was also a panto dame, had a long career on stage and television, and was also equally memorable with the late Les Dawson as that gossiping double act Ada and Cissie. Glory days indeed (unlike now with those dismal characters and storylines).

Peter Sallis (1921-2017), aged 96. Another veteran of British theatre, film and television. In a long career he clocked up over 150 credits, from all those early films roles and television series like THE PALLISERS, THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS, FIRST OF THE SUMMER WINE, the WALLACE & GROMIT cartoons, LAST OF THE SUMMER WINE. He also did a lot of theatre appearing with all the great names of his era. 

People we like: some current British actresses ....

We ran a post the other week on some current British actors we like (see below), so here are some of the current British actresses wowing us …

Olivia Colman of course is approaching National Treasure status, with her great work in the BROADCHURCH series, as well as being Mrs REV., and also compelling in THE NIGHT MANAGER, among others.

Ditto Sarah Lancashire, who has come along way from being Raquel in CORONATION STREET. She is electrifying in the HAPPY VALLEY series (where Siobhan Finneran - no longer O'Brien in DOWNTON ABBEY or living it up in BENIDORM - was also stupendous as her sister), and also in LAST TANGO IN HALIFAX, which also features Nicola Walker.

Does anyone do grim and glum like Nicola Walker?  She first drew our attention in SPOOKS some years ago,  was stunning in SCOTT & BAILEY, and shared honours in LAST TANGO IN HALIFAX with Sarah Lancashire. Also on stage recently in the revival of Arthur Miller’s A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE with Mark Strong.

We also like Elizabeth Berrington, equally at home in comedy and drama, and in everything from WATERLOO ROAD to STELLA via THE TRACY ULLMAN SHOW and CAMPING.

Thandie Newton has re-invented herself in LINE OF DUTY which has another great role for Vicky McClure, who has sort of crept up on me, not having noticed her much before, though she was impressive in THE SECRET AGENT last year.

Of the newer girls Keeley Hawes continues to impress, 
I missed her though in the previous series of LINE OF DUTY, but she is fun in THE DURRELLS. 

Then there is Gemma Atherton, currently getting better and better and more noticed.

These and more are all evidence that British drama is thriving, good to see roles too for older actresses like Anne Reid. That SCOTT & BAILEY duo, Suranne Jones and Lesley Sharp, are also at the top of their game …

Dame Vera

We were celebrating those veterans like Olivia DeHavilland and Kirk Douglas turning 100 - here is another one: Dame Vera Lynn.

Watching the 1980s British TV series WISH ME LUCK (now on dvd) about the French resistance in World War Two and the work of British female agents in France - more on that later, we enjoyed it at the time - there is a passing reference to popular wartime singer Vera Lynn. The series ran from 1987 to 1990 and is of course set in the 1940s, and yet Vera Lynn, now a Dame, is still here at age 100 and has a new album in the charts and its a big seller. 

So here are congratulations to "The Forces Sweetheart" with that rich popular voice and those songs like "We'll Meet Again" which certainly boosted morale during that time of conflict. 

In 1952 she became the first British artist to score a Nr 1 hit in America, a decade before 'The British Invasion'. She has been described as "as much the voice of the Second World War as Winston Churchill".

Absolute Beginners, 1986

ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS was not quite a success in 1986, but Julien Temple's film is a fizzing delight now, perhaps a proto music-video film. It looks fantastic with all those day-glo colours and is quite impressive with those recreations of Old Compton Street in London's Soho, and the seedy tenements of Notting Hill and Portobello Road. It is 1958, so racial tensions are simmering as the new teenagers discover all that new music .....

A musical adaptation of Colin MacInnes' novel about life in late 1950s London. Nineteen-year-old photographer Colin is hopelessly in love with model Crepe Suzette, but her relationships are strictly connected with her progress in the fashion world. So Colin gets involved with a pop promoter and tries to crack the big time. Meanwhile, racial tension is brewing in Colin's Notting Hill housing estate...

Temple (I loved his documentary LONDON THE MODERN BABYLON a few years ago, and his pop videos include Bowie's JAZZIN' FOR BLUE JEAN and Culture Club's DO YOU REALLY WANT TO HURT ME?) has a great eye for staging numbers, brings in an eclectic cast to support his leads: Eddie O'Connell as the young photographer hero and young Patsy Kensit - a perfect Bardot type here - as the aspiring designer. There's Ray Davies of The Kinks doing a terrific number and none other than Mandy Rice-Davies as his wife. James Fox is the reptilian fashion designer. And then there is David Bowie as the slick ad man. One watches entranced, THEN Sade comes on to deliver that slinky number "Killer Blow". So, whats not to love?  One to re-watch again soon. 

Be My Guest, 1965

I was a teenager in 1965, seeing all the movies, but never came across this one, Perhaps it played for a week as a supporting feature at the local Odeon or ABC and then vanished for ever. Even its star David Hemmings barely mentions it in his entertaining memoirs.

A family inherits a seaside hotel and has trouble filling it up until their son's rock group begins packing 'em in. This film was one of several British films from the mid-sixties which offered the added inducement of a guest appearance by Jerry Lee Lewis.

This is one of those 'happy-young-people-making-music' movies popular then - though its the mid-60s with Beatlemania at its peak, its like A HARD DAY'S NIGHT, THE KNACK or BILLY LIAR never happened. It harks back to 1962's SOME PEOPLE and TWO LEFT FEET, both also featuring the young Hemmings,   He is the lead here, just a year before being cast by Antonioni as the face of Swinging London in  BLOW-UP in 1966, and he cheerfully goes through the motions. This one is directed by one Lance Comfort. 

Its of interest now only for him and co-star one Stephen Marriott, who went on to become Steve Marriott of The Small Faces group. We liked them a lot, he had started as an actor, and was an Artful Dodger in OLIVER on stage. 

Also interesting for me is that long opening tracking shot along the Brighton coastline showing the whole city front then. I lived there for several years. It was also the time of those old trains where one could sit in the guard's van, along with deliveries, just like they do in A HARD DAY'S NIGHT. What on earth though is Jerry Lee Lewis doing here? - perhaps he was touring the UK at the time.

Another Hard Day's Night

Thats a good way of starting the new year, with the joyous A HARD DAY'S NIGHT, reminding us oldies of what 1964 was like when the world was, as it seemed to us teenagers then, fresh and young. I was a Beatle fanatic so seeing them up close like this, and then in colour in HELP! in '65 was sheer bliss. Here is my 2014 review: (now for EIGHT DAYS A WEEK).

London's British Film Institute is celebrating the 50th anniversary of The Beatles first film A HARD DAY'S NIGHT, with an extended run of 34 screenings. I have the dvd but it would be nice to pop along and see it on the big screen again. It is very special to me. Prior to then, movies with pop stars were lame efforts like those early 60s Billy Fury and Cliff Richard vehicles (see music label), even the Elvis films were starting to look tired - then Richard Lester came along with Alun Owen's witty script and turned it all upside down. It was like a French New Wave zany comedy and not just to expoit the worldwide success of the Fab Four. It is both comedy and almost documentary showing the boys as prisoners of their success, and also some of those songs are staged and filmed like the first pop promos. Lester also included some veteran British players who play perfectly with The Boys. 

It chronicles a few days in the life of the band, on trains (Patti Boyd is one of the schoolgirls), in the studio, trying to get some space for themselves as they are pursued by hysterical fans, clueless reporters, a fretful manager and Paul's grand-dad (Steptoe's Wilfrid Brambell) the essence of a "dirty old man" though they keep saying how clean he is here! The moptops are all individuals - we all had our favourites - and are all great here. The great Victor Spinetti (see label) is a scream as the neurotic tv studio director driven to distraction by the Boys. Add in that dry Scouse humour as the four lads ooze charisma and charm, and of course those songs!. Lester too keeps it all flying - it revolutionised screen musicals at a time when Hollywood was still churning out moribund embalmed versions of stage shows like MY FAIR LADY. Jacques Demy in France though was doing something similar with his UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG - and the later LES DEMOISELLES DE ROCHEFORT. 1965 saw Lester with The Beatles again and more pop promos but in colour this time, with HELP! I love that one even more ...

A HARD DAY'S NIGHT covers a very special moment for me, being 18 and new in London, and loving the Beatles and their music. That summer I had to stay out in London all night, as I went to see a late night French movie (at the old Academy in Oxford Street) and could not get home to the suburbs - no late night transport then! - so as dawn broke I was walking down Regent Street (where I would later spend over 20 years working) as the sun was rising over the old London Pavilion cinema where A HARD DAY'S NIGHT was playing, so the posters and pictures were everywhere. It suddenly felt good to be 18 and new in London as dawn was breaking .... its one of those moments that stay with one! 

A movie buff friend of mine, not a pop lover, was "disappointed" with A HARD DAY'S NIGHT when he saw it recently, but as I said, you would not judge it as an ordinary film. Lester created a perfect defining 1960s moment, capturing the youth of 1964 with the very individual Beatles seen up close and surrounded them with some perfect British players like Anna Quayle, Norman Rossington and the marvellous Brambell and Spinetti. And then there are the songs - like early pop videos with that gleaming black and white photography. 

Ethel & Ernest

A late year treat was the BBC's 90 minute animated feature ETHEL & ERNEST, a lovingly crafted portrayal of the marriage and life of Raymond Briggs' parents covering their meeting in 1928 and married life through wartime Britain (its very THIS HAPPY BREED) and their inevitable getting older and decline through the 60s and 70s, as their son, young Raymond, grows up, goes to college and gets married.  One may need a tissue at the forlorn end. 

In 1928 London milk-man Ernest Briggs courts and marries house-maid Ethel, their son Raymond being born in 1934. When World War II breaks out Ethel tearfully allows him to be evacuated to aunts in Dorset whilst Ernest joins the fire service, shocked by the carnage he sees. As hostilities end they celebrate Raymond's return and entry to grammar school and the birth of the welfare state though Ethel is mistrustful of socialism and progress in general. Raymond himself progresses from National Service to art college and a teaching post, worrying his mother by marrying schizophrenic Jean. However father and son console each other as Ethel slips away but before long Raymond is mourning his father too though both Ethel and Ernest will forever be immortalized by Raymond's touching account of their lives. 

I have liked Briggs' style of drawing and those marvellous books, particularly FUNGUS THE BOGEYMAN and of course THE SNOWMAN, SANTA CLAUS, THE WAY THE WIND BLOWS etc. and this new one is equally inventive and touching. Ethel and Ernest are perfectly voiced by Brenda Blethyn and Jim Broadbent, and Luke Treadaway is young Raymond. Directed by Roger Mainwood. It is really the story of all our parents who grew up then, and endured World War II - my mother was in London during the Blitz and told us all those stories about the doodlebugs, rationing, bomb shelters etc. This film brings it all to life. I loved it. Ethel though seems a bit dim at times, but Ernest is a real salt of the earth chap. 

Festive cheer

Our Strictly Come Dancing marathon is finally over, with the deserving winner Ore Oduba, a BBC sports presenter who had never danced before, but he and dance partner Joanne Clifton certainly ramped up the dances in a great final with runners-up Danny Mac and Louise Redknapp. Here is Ore and Joanne's stupendous tribute to SINGIN' IN THE RAIN from the final (with Gene Kelly's widow in the audience), and we also love Danny and Oti's charleston from a few weeks back.

Other favourites are, again, Jay McGuinness and Aliona doing that inspired version of the PULP FICTION dance, which surely won it for them last year. 

We also love previous winner Louis Smith in that delicious charleston with Flavia Cacace, and back in 2011, another delicious charleston with Holly Valance and partner Artem. 

4 British classics ....

As mentioned we moved house back in May, downsizing to an apartment 10 floors up, with great views. So we have been re-sorting and getting settled ok. A box of dvds though seems to have gone astray, maybe thrown out by mistake ..... I have had to re-buy several I had to have, but at least they are very cheap now. 

There were 4 essential British classics I had to have back:

THE BLUE LAMP - the 1949 thriller with a young Dirk Bogarde in his break-out role as the spiv with a gun in grim postwar London - its still terrific now, with great location filming. This is the one where PC Dixon of Dock Green (Jack Warner) gets shot by Dirk, but was later resurrected for that long-running TV series, which I remember seeing when new in London in the '60s.

POOL OF LONDON - a museum piece from 1951 showing the busy docks of London around London Bridge and surrounding bombsites after the war - its all different now of course with the new City Hall by London Bridge, ships can't moor there any more. A sterling British cast of the time headed by Bonar Colleano and Earl Cameron  as sailors on leave getting involved with crime and robbery, and there's that early inter-racial romance ....

SAPPHIRE - a fascinating re-view now from 1959, with the murder of that girl whose body is found on Hampstead Heath, as we follow detectives Nigel Patrick and Michael Craig as they discover that the girl, Sapphire, was passing for white - we follow the investigation through the London night clubs and to that ordindary suburban family. Yvonne Mitchell is marvellous as ever here. Those gals passing for white just can't resist those bongo drums, as detective Michael Craig realises in that seedy Notting Hill clip-joint ....

VICTIM - London in 1961 with those homosexuals being blackmailed, as we see all sections of society from titled toffs to grubby bedsits, taking in the famous Salisbury (gay then) pub, and the bookshops around Charing Cross Road, as barrister Melville Farr (Bogarde again) determines to find the blackmailers who have caused the death of the young man (Peter McEnery) he had been seeing, to the consteration of his wife Sylvia Syms, who does not understand ....

It was only after ordering them I realised all four are of course directed by Basil Dearden (killed in a car crash in 1971 aged 60) - one of the great directors of British films, but not as lauded as the Schlesingers, Loseys or Richardsons were. 

Other British classics of that post-war era, which I like a lot, and are reviewed here, at British/London  labels include IT ALWAYS RAINS ON SUNDAY, HOLIDAY CAMP (both 1947), and  DANCE HALL from 1950. The early '50s also provided those enjoyable entertainments like TURN THE KEY SOFTLY, THE WEAK AND THE WICKED, THE GOOD DIE YOUNG, IT STARTED IN PARADISE (with Kay Kendall in a small role before hits like SIMON AND LAURA). Then there's those enjoyable Rank romps like AN ALLIGATOR NAMED DAISY, THE SPANISH GARDENER, CAMPBELL'S KINGDOM, DANGEROUS EXILE, PASSPORT TO SHAME and more, keeping the likes of Dirk Bogarde, Glynis Johns, Joan Collns, Yvonne Mitchell, Stanley Baker Michael Craig, Laurence Harvey, Diana Dors, Belinda Lee busy ...
So British cinema in the 1950s was very productive too, the Forties may have been the golden era of David Lean, Michael Powell, Carol Reed, Anthony Asquith, and the Sixties to early Seventies saw the new crowd of Tony Richardson, John Schlesinger, Joseph Losey, Richard Lester, Clive Donner etc. before the Trash merchants took over. 
The Fifties also saw that British War Era as they re-fought World War II keeping Dirk in uniform, along with Richard Todd, Kenneth More, John Mills, Jack Hawkins, Peter Finch, Stanley Baker, Michael Redgrave etc: THE SEA SHALL NOT HAVE THEM, THE CRUEL SEA, SEA OF SAND, DUNKIRK, THE DAM BUSTERS, REACH FOR THE SKY, THE MALTA STORY, APPOINTMENT IN LONDON, THEY WHO DARE, ILL MET BY MOONLIGHT, BATTLE OF THE RIVER PLATE, YANGSTE INCIDENT etc. 

Jackie Trent "Where are you now my love" ....

Black and white mid-Sixties London. The song is Jackie Trent's "Where Are You Now My Love". The girl is Ann Lynn (England's Monica Vitti), with Brian Phelan - in a clip from FOUR IN THE MORNING, a downbeat 1965 British movie by Anthony Simmons, which also featured a young Judi Dench. We reviewed it before here at British/London/Dench labels. 

Jackie (1940-2015) was a great singer and song-writer with lots of hits, both singly and with husband composter Tony Hatch. 

An Olly double bill: The System / The Triple Echo

Back to 1964 and 1972 for these interesting Oliver Reed films, from that time when the British film industry was thriving ... This is my 2008 IMDB review of THE SYSTEM (now getting screenings on UK tv):

"A blast from the past for those young in the early 60s is the belated DVD release of THE SYSTEM (US Title: THE GIRL-GETTERS) made in 63 and released in 64 - when I saw it aged 18 when it would have played here in the UK for a week on release as part of a double bill and then promptly vanished without trace until I saw the DVD yesterday. It comes with a nice 8 page booklet too setting the film in context which is a model of its kind, if only more DVD re-issues followed suit! (The Best of British Collection: "films that entertained the post-war generation"). Its the kind of movie that talks to you if you are the age of the characters on screen ...

The film directed by Michael Winner with marvellous black and white photography by Nicholas Roeg (and a title song by The Searchers!) is set in one of those English seaside towns (Torbay and Brixham in Devon) following a gang of young men, led by the then very charismatic Oliver Reed, and their amorous pursuits over the summer and is actually a perfect compendium of European cinema trends of the time - there are Antonioniish moments (the tennis game here has a real ball) and it ends like LA DOLCE VITA in a Felliniesque dawn at the beach as the disillusioned characters realise the summer is over. Fellini's I VITELLONI is also a reference here. The script by Peter Draper anticipates elements of DARLING and BLOW-UP (particularly that long scene with Reed and Merrow at his apartment, and yes, her blown-up photos are pinned to the walls too - he too is a photographer becoming disillusioned with it all). 

It sports a great cast of English young players of the time (Barbara Ferris, Julia Foster, Ann Lynn, John Alderton) as well as reliables like Harry Andrews. Of the young cast David Hemmings (rather in the background here) would two years later personify the 60s when chosen by Antonioni for his lead in BLOW-UP. Jane Merrow (Hemmings' girlfriend of the time, and a replacement for Julie Christie who was doing BILLY LIAR) is perfect as Nicola the cool rich girl whom Reed falls for but she plays the game better than he does and is in complete command of any romance, as he realises she was just toying with him for the summer, so its payback time for all the 'birds' he discarded. (I got to meet her myself and had a nice long conversation with her when she was doing a play in 1966, while David was off filming BLOW-UP; she also co-starred in another favourite THE LION N WINTER in '68).

Winner of course may be a figure of fun now [he died in 2013], one forgets that in the '60s before those DEATH WISHES etc his films caught the moment as well as any by Richard Lester (THE SYSTEM could be Winner's THE KNACK), Losey, Schlesinger or the underrated Clive Donner, with titles like THE JOKERS and I'LL NEVER FORGET WHATS'ISNAME where Reed was meant to be his character from THE SYSTEM five years later.

In all its a perfect early '60s movie full of sounds and faces and the mood of that time just as the Swinging Era was taking off. For anyone interested in English cinema or remembers the era, its a real pleasure to see again 50+ years later !"

THE TRIPLE ECHO is perfectly 1972 too, though set in wartime England in the early Forties, and Glenda gets that 1940s look perfectly right with her swagger coats and perms. This is from a H E Bates story and is a perfect little British film of its era, as directed by Michael Apted. 
Brian Deacon is good too as the soldier who deserts to stay with Glenda on her remote farm, after fixing her tractor, and who disguises himself as her 'sister' and finds he likes it as he makes the mistake of leading on Olly's brute of an army officer .... as per my review, Glenda/Reed labels. Good to see it on television again too. They tried to jazz it up for America titling it SOLDIER IN SKIRTS with a lurid poster, but it is so much better than that. 

RIP, continued ....

Caroline Aherne (1963-2016) aged 52. The first half of 2016 has certainly been tough: not only David Bowie gone but also Prince, not only Victoria Wood but now also that other gifted British comedy genius Caroline Aherne, who bestrode the comedy world like a colossus in the 1990s, with shows like THE FAST SHOW, THE MRS MERTON SHOW and THE ROYLE FAMILY. If you are not familiar with them try to rectify that - I have just ordered a compete run of THE FAST SHOW as I missed a lot of it at the time, for Caroline's very funny contributions: 

that over-chatty checkout girl,the weather girl and that bossy wife Renee and her her henpecked husband Roy. It will be bliss to see them again. It will be poignant though seeing THE ROYLE FAMILY now, where her bone-idle selfish Denise was just one very funny strand, and MRS MERTON was a must too with her barbed putdowns. Caroline though, as well-documented in the press, had problems coping with fame and eventually walked away from it as she coped with several cancers and a problematic private life. Her comedy genius shines on and she will be much missed. We simply loved her. Below: Caroline with ROYLE FAMILY co-stars Liz Smith and Sue Johnston in 2002. 

Scotty Moore (1931-2016), aged 84. Elvis's first guitarist whose early background was in jazz and country music. He was one of The Blue Moon Boys in 1954 the year they first worked with Presley on hits like "That All Right" which had the bluegrass "Blue Moon of Kentucky" on the B-side. The hits like "Jailhouse Rock", "Heartbreak Hotel, "Hound Dog" followed before the inevitable rift with Presley and his manager.

Chips Moman (1937-2016), aged 79. Anyone with any regard for soul music would know of Chips Moman, the legendary song-writer ("The Dark End Of The Street" which Aretha and others covered so  well and her "Do Right Woman Do Right Man") and guitarist (again, on Aretha's "I Never Loved A Man"), and record producer. He also revived Elvis's career in the late 60s by including songs like "In The Ghetto" and "Suspicious Minds" in his new act. Other artists he worked with include Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Neil Diamond, Tammy Wynette, and Dusty Springfield's "Dusty In Memphs" album recorded at Muscle Shoals.

John McMartin (1929-2016), aged 86. While the name might not ring a bell surely the face will. In his 60 year career he worked across all three actor's mediums regularly: stage, tv, and film, being Tony-nominated 5 times - he created the role of Oscar in SWEET CHARITY opposite Gwen Verdon and reprised it in Fosse' 1969 film with Shirley McLaine, and also went on to star in Sondheim's FOLLIES on stage. Films included ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN, BRUBAKER, PENNIES FROM HEAVEN, KINSEY and lots of television including THE GOLDEN GIRLS, PHYLLIS, LAW & ORDER, MURDER SHE WROTE, FURTHER TALES OF THE CITY.

Michael Cimino (1939-2016), aged 77. The last Hollywood maverick? We loved Cimino's THUNDERBOLT AND LIGHTFOOT in 1974, a terrific caper movie and one of Eastwood's best; THE DEER HUNTER in 1978 is certainly a key film of the era, though I only ever needed to see it once, while I like so many others simply hated HEAVEN'S GATE.  The rest of his films just did not interest me at all.

As The Telegraph's obituary put it: he was the Oscar-winning American director whose rise and fall occurred at a speed unprecedented even in Hollywood.

Cimino enjoyed critical acclaim and commercial success with only his second film, the Vietnam war epic The Deer Hunter (1978). But his third, the western Heaven’s Gate (1980), was delivered so far over budget that when it flopped it practically bankrupted the studio, destroyed Cimino’s career, shifted power back from the auteur-director to the executives and became a byword for directorial folie de grandeur.

RIP, continued

Muhammad Ali (1942-2016) aged 74. A giant has indeed departed. The newspaper coverage and special supplements over the weekend testified to that. An interesting comment likened him to Marlon Brando and Elvis Presley in that he too was a game-changer who changed American life and attitudes. Presley though meekly went into the army when told to do so and was never quite the same again (at least he was sent to Germany in those days, not Vietnam). Fascinating to read of Ali's refusal to be drafted and his wit, grace, style and looks certainly made him unforgettable. His courage in later years is astonishing too. Boxing is a sport I would not have been interested in then or now, but Muhammad Ali certainly was The Greatest. He has been in our life since the early 1960s.

Sir Peter Shaffer ( 1926-2016), aged 90. Another stage titan departs at a venerable age. Playwright Peter Shaffer was a giant of postwar British theatre, producing a string of dramatic – and cinematic – triumphs, bringing ritual, magic and music  back to the theatre. His hits were not only popular with audiences on both sides of the Atlantic, but highly regarded too winning Oscars and theatre awards. After FIVE FINGER EXERCISE came THE ROYAL HUNT OF THE SUN (which I saw at The Old Vic in 1966 when I was 20 - I can still visualise that stunning scene where the conquistadores climb the Andes to reach the Inca kingdom, and Robert Stephens' stunning performance as Atahualpa - Christopher Plummer was equally effective if different in the 1969 film)), THE PUBLIC EYE and THE PRIVATE EAR double bill, EQUUS - also stunningly theatrical - and AMADEUS, as well as other writing and scripts. (.It was his twin brother Anthony who wrote SLEUTH). We also saw his hit play LETTUCE AND LOVAGE, with Maggie Smith. Hits don't get any bigger. 

Carla Lane (1928-2016), aged 87. Another titan of British entertainment departs - television scriptwriter Carla Lane wrote that series THE LIVER BIRDS which we loved, as well as BUTTERFLIES and BREAD, which also celebrated Liverpool. She was also a very powerful advocate for animal rights and accomplished more than most. She was one of the most highly paid scriptwriters of her generation, and returned her OBE in disgust at how animals are treated. A nice story is how she saved a wasp from being hoovered up and emptied the hoover on the floor to rescue the dusty insect. Much of her work focused on women's lives: frustrated housewives, working-class matriarchs, and those single girls sharing a flat in Liverpool and coping with dating and life's ups and downs. 

Bill MacIlwraith (1928-2016), aged 88. British dramatist and screen-writer who wrote one hit play THE ANNIVERSARY which I saw on stage in 1966. Bette Davis played the monstrous mother in the 1968 Hammer film version. He also scripted that amusing series TWO'S COMPANY about an American writer and her British butler (Elaine Stritch and Donald Sinden) and he also scripted several episodes of the 60s British series THE HUMAN JUNGLE with Herber Lom at the Harley Street psychiatrist. We liked that at the time too. 

Laughter in the Dark, 1969

Or: The Burton film that wasn't .... Tony Richardson's LAUGHTER IN THE DARK seems a very rare movie now, there are only 3 comments on it on IMDB - It had a short London run back in 1969, but I caught it on its one screening on BBC2 here, and it then vanished until I got a copy from my pal Jerry - a rare movie hound, always tracking down esoteric items.

This Tony Richardson film caused some publicity at the time, as it was began with Richard Burton who did a few scenes before being sacked for being drunk and causing problems. His replacement was the equally erratic Nicol Williamson, and its an ideal role for him, (he had just done HAMLET at The Roundhouse in 1968, also filmed by Richardson).

Nicol Williamson, Anna Karina and Jean-Claude Drouot star in Tony Richardson's bold adaptation of the Nabokov novel. Updated to 1969 London from pre-Hitler Germany of the early '30s, it's the story of a successful art dealer (Williamson) who becomes so enamored with a degenerate usherette/grifter (Karina) that he literally destroys his life. He loses his wife, his daughter, his job and his eyesight, and finally his life.

Williamson, in a role meant for and started by Richard Burton, gives a great performance, playing an even more obsessive Humbert Humbert. Drouot (from Agnes Varda's LE BONHEUR)  is excellent as the malevolent artist/gigolo who is Karina's real love. The casting of Karina is a bit odd and her French accent is never accounted for. Nevertheless she successfully conveys pure evil. It is one of the international roles she was doing at the time (as in JUSTINE, Visconti's THE STRANGER, MICHAEL KOHLHAAS etc). Siân Phillips (before she became a grande dame) is Williamson's no-nonsense wife. Cast also includes Peter Bowles, and it captures that late Sixties London high life perfectly. Like the films of Nabokov's LOLITA and KING, QUEEN, KNAVE (John-Moulder Brown label) it is another mordantly funny heartless tale, and maybe one of Richardson's most effective films.
A nice in-joke here is that the cinema where Karina works is the old NFT (National Film Theatre, now the BFI Southbank in London, where I idled away a lot of the Seventies) - as the cinema did not sell refreshments in the audiorium. (It was also used as the cinema in Winner's I'LL NEVER FORGET WHATS'ISNAME). 
As recorded previously, Richardson had a problematic '60s after the enormous Oscar-winning success of TOM JONES in 1963, bankrolling his and Woodfall's following films, as he indulged himself with Jeanne Moreau in MADEMOISELLE and THE SAILOR FROM GIBRALTAR, and the expensive  THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE in 1968, all of which under-performed, putting it mildly, so big things may have been expected of LAUGHTER IN THE DARK, but as Losey found out, the Burtons were losing their box office cachet by then ...

Dona Herlinda thinks the world of you

We are back online after almost a month! BT seemed unable to connect it to this new apartment block we moved into over 3 week ago! But you know, one could practically live without it, as we decanted ourselves into our new living space and got used to high-rise living 10 floors up - great views, particularly at night! Now we are back, starting with a brace of too little known gay items from the 1980s - both full of pleasures. Here is what I wrote on the Mexican DONA HERLINDA AND HER SON and the 1988 British comedy WE THINK THE WORLD OF YOU, a few years ago. Great to see them again ..

This 1986 film from Mexico is as delightful now as it must have been then. Director Jaime Humberto Hermosillo presents a comedy of manners raising the lid on sexuality in Latin America, and how a family can resolve things so everyone gets what they want.

Widowed Dona Herlinda wants what she sees as every woman's right: to be loved and cherished and for her only son to be married and provide her with grandchildren. But Rodolfo is gay and in love with Ramon, a music student. But with goodwill on all sides, including that of Olga, the bride-to-be, all ends happily as Dona Herlnda makes Ramon part of the family. This charming comedy is perceptive, discreet, unshocking and witty and recommended to all but the most blinkered. 

Rodolfo is the surgeon son of Dona Herlinda, a wealthy widow, expertly played by Guadalupe del Toro, Rodolfo is having a relationship with Ramon, a music student, but they can never find time to be alone at the cramped house where he lives. Dona Herlinda, who obviously must know what is really going on between her son and Ramon, invites the young man to move to her large house in Guadalajara, but she also wants Rodolfo to marry and present her with a grand-child. The film is endearing, the characters very much alive, and the many twists and turns on the story make this movie funny and poignant at the same time. Arturo Meza (Ramon), Marco Antonio Trevino (Rodolfo) and Leticia Lupercio (Olga) suit their roles perfectly. Hermosillo seems the only openly gay Mexican director and he is still making movies. I shall have to investigate further ...

Rodolfo, who must cover his true nature, begins to see Olga, a young woman from his same circle. He proposes and marries her, breaking Ramon's heart in the process. Dona Herlinda, who is more intelligent than she is given credit for, pulls strings to keep Ramon at her home and decides to expand the house so that Rodolfo and Olga can move in with the grandson and live together happily ever after. Olga wants to study and travel so the arrangement suits her, and the boys can be together too.

Of course, the film is in simple terms a fun story, but deep inside it touches a lot of themes that have been taboo in so many societies. Usually mothers aren't as accepting as this Dona Herlinda, who acts as a procurer for the son she loves by inviting the young lover, Ramon, to come live with her. One deeply amusing scene has Dona Herlinda and Ramon together at a music event, while Rodolfo and Olga are away on honeymoon. Ramon is affected by the music and begins to cry, as Dona Herlinda without a word passes him a hankie. It ends with the expanded family all together as the son toasts his wonderful mother, who smiles serenely back at us.

Hermosillo seems a very interesting director, I should see other of his films, I caught one on television once, another gay related story, starring Fassbinder's muse Hanna Schygulla. His movie reminds me a lot of Almodovar of whom more later.

I particularly like WE THINK THE WORLD OF YOU in 1988, an engrossing drama from the novel by J R Ackerley with Bates as the solitary civil servant who falls for the neglected Alsatian dog of his sometimes lover, a spiv well played by Gary Oldman. The marvellous cast includes Liz Smith and Max Wall as Oldman’s malevolent parents and Frances Barber as his opportunistic wife all out to make capital from Bates’ involvement with Oldman. Both Alan and Oldman play it perfectly together and the scenes with Alan and the dog are a joy as is the 1950s period detail. Man and dog are happily re-united at the end as Oldman after a spell in jail has to settle for dull, if noisy, domesticity with that screaming infant!

Or as the BFI put it: "OK, so its not as great as Ackerley's perfect novel, but its an intelligent, entertaining gay movie - rare in Britain. Alan Bates plays the literary gent bosotted by ex-sailor boy Johnny (Gary Oldman) and his grotesque working class family and their Alsatian dog. Baically its more about class than anything else, and therefore typically British. Often witty and astringent, and finally moving". UK 1988, director: Colin Gregg." 
Bates playing gay again (as he did in BUTLEY, NIJINSKY, AN ENGLISHMAN ABROAD, 102 BOULEVARD HAUSSMAN) is a joy as usual - and Oldman, a year after his Joe Orton in PRICK UP YOUR EARS - see recent review, gay label - is compulsive as usual, while Frances Barber in one of her early roles is perfection as the grasping wife. 

RIP, continued

Madeline Sherwood (1922-2016). Immortal as 'Sister Woman' or Mae Pollitt in the 1957 CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF, Sherwood was a Broadway actress of note, with some other good movie credits, as in SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH, PARRISH, HURRY SUNDOWN and THE FLYING NUN from 1967-1970. She had trained with Lee Strasberg at The Actors Studio and created the role of Abigail in Arthur Miller's THE CRUCIBLE in 1953. But she will always be the vicious, greedy Sister Woman whom Gooper (Jack Carson, right) married to please Big Daddy ...

Barry Howard (1937-2016). Barry was one of the stars of popular 80s British sit-com HI-DE-HI as the waspish Barry Stewart-Hargreaves, part of the holiday camp dance team with his equally supercilious wife Yvonne (Diane Holland). How we enjoyed watching them. He was also a great panto dame, often with that other camp sitcom star John Inman (Mr Humphries of ARE YOU BEING SERVED?). Barry had a long career on tv and stage - a great entertainment stalwart. 

Camping with Scott & Bailey + Fr Brown & the Doc

but Lady Felicia and Mrs McCarthy steal the show.

British TV is going through one of its quality periods with so much good stuff on one's recorder/Sky Box is practically working overtime!

HAPPY VALLEY and THE NIGHT MANAGER may have finished, but there is a new series (just 3 episodes) of the terrific SCOTT & BAILEY (we worked through the first four series over the winter months) - Sally Wainwright's gripping series of police investigations into murder cases set in Manchester. This new series is not written by her though, and somehow is not the same without Amelia Bullmore (centre) as the detectives' snappy DCI Gill Murray - she retired in the last series (Amelia also wrote several episodes). The new series too is more grim and downbeat, while we still enjoy the backstories of Janet Scott (Lesley Sharp) and Rachel Bailey (Suranne Jones) and their complicated lives. Both actresses are exemplary, as usual. Wainwright in the previous series also provides great roles for actors like Nicola Walker and Joe Duttine (CORRIE's amiable window cleaner) or Kevin Doyle (DOWNTON ABBEY's nice Mr Molesley),Geoge Costigan, Tracie Bennett, Rupert Graves, Danny Miller, Sally Lindsay, Lisa Riley, or Ellie Haddington  to get their teeth into, often as those damaged killers ...

Two female detectives, one motherly with family problems, the other emotionally immature with disasterous relationships, have varying levels of success applying their eccentric outlooks on life to their police cases and private lives.

Tucked away in the afternoon slot though has been 4 series of FATHER BROWN, based - very loosely - on the G.K. Chesterton stories of the priest detective. These series have apparently nothing to do with the stories, and are total fiction as the investigating cleric is based in a pretty 1950s (great period detail) Cotswold village, and he is aided and abetted by local posh Lady Felicia (Nancy Carroll) and his parish clerk/housekeeper Mrs McCarthy (Sorcha Cusack - having a lot of fun here). 

The friendly rivalry between the women keeps the series watchable and they get to wear some great '50s fashions and hats. Lady Felicia often wears gloves too and little mink stoles, and has a roving eye for any presentable man (Nancy Carroll is as fascinating as Honeysuckle Weeks in FOYLE'S WAR another discovery a while back). Mark Williams anchors it all as Father Brown often dealing with outlandish plots and annoying local chief detective Tom Chambers. The 45 minute episodes are fun and ideal afternoon viewing - must be a formula that works as there are over 40 episodes in the 4 series. 

We did not discover DOC MARTIN until its last series, so it is also fun going back to early series as we follow the grumpy, often rude doctor (Martin Clunes) in that ideal Cornish village Portwenn (actually Port Isaac in Cornwall) and the amusing stories that arise with the various locals and his slow romance with school-teacher Louisa (Catherine Catz). Quality casting here with Eileen Atkins, Stephanie Cole, Selina Cadell and Claire Bloom (as his icy mother, below) all of course marvellous, as is Stewart Wright (left) as the love-lorn policeman, and there is an adorable dog, eccentric locals, and lovely scenery - another winning formula then, Created by Dominic Minghella, there have  been 54 episodes in 7 series since 2004, so a lot of catching up!

Dr. Martin Ellingham, a London-based surgeon, relocates to the picturesque seaside village of Portwenn, establishing himself as the area's general practitioner. He grew up in the area having been raised by his now widowed Aunt Joan Norton. His reasons for leaving London and the high-paid life of a consultant are not clear initially but related to a phobia about blood he has recently developed. He soon meets several of the locals and eccentricity abounds. Martin's situation is made more difficult by what can only be referred as an almost complete lack of an acceptable bedside manner. He is gruff, abrupt and intolerant, not only in issues related to medicine, but to life in general. He and the headmistress of the local school, Louisa Glasson, are clearly attracted to each other and despite their awkwardness, slowly develop a relationship. They do marry and have a baby and then separate and then .... Catz and Wright are also in a rather good new BBC comedy series, I WANT MY WIFE BACK, and there is also that great other BBC comedy BOOMERS about those retired couples with amusing roles for the likes of Alison Steadman, Stephanie Beacham and Russ Abbott. 

CAMPING is another of those quirky Sky series (STELLA, MOUNT PLEASANT, STARLINGS) offbeat comedies that draw one in and one never knows or expects what is going to happen next. CAMPING is written by Julia Davis (who also directs the first 4 episodes) who also plays Fay the new girlfriend of Tom (Rufus Jones) who has left his wife and who feels young and groovy again, to the consternation of friends Robin (Steve Pemberton) and his bossy conrol-freak cow of a wife Fi (Vicki Pepperdine - a new discovery for me). Other friends on their camping holiday are ex-alcoholic Adam (Jonathan Cake) and his downtrodden wife Kerry (marvellous Elizabeth Berrington). The creepy campsite manager is David Bamber who stumbles across Fi pleasuring herself when her bad manners and one of her migraines leaves her behind as the others go on a fishing trip. Then there is that scene at the hospital, and at the antiques shop where Tom and Fay cannot control themselves ... The scene is set for amusing confrontations as Adam hits the booze and is jealous of Tom and Fay's constantly having sex, then Tom has to return to London as his wife is in a coma after an overdose and Fay is on the loose ..... how is it all going to end? There are only 6 episodes, but we are hooked, as is my friend Martin. It is a series though one will either love or hate, It is a jet black cringe-inducing comedy which "descends into a hell of bitterness, grief, jealousy, sexual experimentation, drugs, insanity and possibly murder." Control-freak Fi too is worried her son will grow up gay, eating mozzarella and other foods gays eat, and she is incensed when well-meaning husband Robin leaves a fossil for the son to find on the beach ... then at the hospital she has further demands to make on the doctor examining her son.

Brace yourself for a holiday to remember. A group of old friends go on a camping holiday in Dorset to celebrate a birthday. However, tensions and emotions quickly start to rise.