Movies & Books Into Movies

[bellamarie]

Oh! Oh! Oh! I was skimming through Netflix movies and came across The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.  I generally hate Saturday nights, because there is nothing to watch on TV.  I watched this movie and was thrilled with how they were able to bring these characters to life.  I was a bit disappointed they left out some major parts of the book, mostly to do with Elizabeth.  They did not show just how much she suffered at the hands of the Germans, before they killed her.  But then they didn't show much of the occupied time at all.  I suppose if they had included all in the book, the movie would have been way too long. I still am so happy I was able to watch it.   

[PatH]

My!  I didn't realize it had been made into a movie.  When was it made?  I just checked; we read it here in 2009!  Time flies.

[rosemarykaye]

Did people enjoy it Pat?

I started it a while ago but I found the format unbearably twee and felt I could see where it was going from page one. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood.

My daughter-in-law gave me the DVD, so perhaps I should give that a try.

Rosemary

[PatH]

A lot of people did,Rosemary.  I don't remember if some didn't.  The mood changes some as the story goes on, getting less twee, and some of the characters change too.  I don't know whether you would like it or not.

[ginny]

 Tomereader, really, that was so  profound.  Thank you for that.

I've never been a weeper, I don't know why.  I just don't.  Or didn't. Until now.

Do any  of you find your taste in movies has changed recently? What are you looking for in all these offerings we now can see in our home "theaters?"   I had taped all the Midsomer Murders but am having a problem getting into them. I still like the one best with the man and the ghost horse which appeared outside his window, that was classic. If you are a fan of that series, I think I probably have most of the recent ones, I like that new detective,  will you recommend one?

I think the new  Doc Martin which our PBS is not showing but I saw it on Prime or one of them is the best of all the series, and I'm delighted they are making a new one too.

What episode, if you watch them, is your favorite? I still like Dr. Mirth best, of the Father Brown series,  and it was one of the first ones. I still yearn for Shakespeare and Hathaway 3. I am not sure why , if these films ARE available, they don't show them on these subscription channels. What are they waiting for?  And what IS that bizarre channel showing what appear to be stolen versions of them?

What's the best new series you  have seen? I was so taken with the Danish one I'd like to try something else, too.

I did watch Knives Out when it came out on Prime or Netflix, for the 2nd time and I liked it then, too. I like Daniel Craig and his "Southern Accent" is a hoot. It's kind of an And Then There Were None, big spooky house, family wanting inheritance, etc.

Still watching Michael Portillo and learning a GREAT deal of surprising things. It's an invigorating way to eat breakfast and start the day.

What are you watching? Any binge watching in our group?

[rosemarykaye]

Oh but of course Ginny!

Currently binge watching Doc Martin (recorded from when it was all repeated on the Drama channel), Monarch of the Glen (annoyingly I’ve just come to the bit where 3 or 4 episodes are missing from my recording as we brought the recorder up here from Edinburgh and didn’t at first realise that this had wiped off all its instructions & that we needed to reprogramme it....so I’ve gone from Stella and Archie starting to look a bit smoochy to Stella having completely disappeared and Archie and Lexie apparently engaged (and I must say so far their relationship is far from convincing - Molly [Susan Hampshire] and Hector [Richard Briar]’s marriage seems so much more real).

Also binge watching A Place to Call Home (now on series 3). And dipping in and out of Friday Night Dinner - an especially hilarious episode last night (which I watched for light relief after A Place to Call Home!) involving a dead crow, a vegetarian, a ventriloquist’s dummy and the very weird and brilliantly played neighbour Jim.  Although all the actors are excellent (it’s a very small cast and almost everything takes place in the family house), Mark Heap as Jim and Paul Ritter as Dad are outstanding.

I’ve got lots of Father Brown recorded, must get back to that. And we also have a backlog of repeats of Vera (Brenda Blethyn) which I’m generously keeping till my husband comes back tomorrow.

I never got into Midsomer Murders, but I do enjoy an episode of Rosemary and Thyme every so often.

[Frybabe]

For The Expanse fans, the ninth book, when released, will be the last in the series. The Amazon Prime TV series will be releasing Season 5, but no date yet. It was almost complete by the time COVID-19 hit.

[ginny]

Not much activity here, I expect we're all busy with Fall activities. I haven't watched any TV now but the news for some time.

But am still enjoying what I call  "Breakfast with Michael,"  the Great British Railway Journeys series. I'm now in the 5th year.  It's a great way to start the day and the HISTORY I've learned!! The archival film, and the interesting people and places we've been, just spot on. He needs some kind of medal for that thing. I love to start the day with his positive attitude, and his enthusiasm for the things he's seeing and the people he meets. A great 15 minute start for any day. And a very good substitute for travel if you can't go.


What,  if anything, is everybody watching?

[rosemarykaye]

I do watch something most evenings, but if David is watching as well it's what is euphemistically known as 'compromise'....so no Bake Off (new series - I haven't even started it yet), no Doc Martin and preferably (for him) no Monarch of the Glen.

We saw Vera on Friday but I think I'd seen it before and I could hardly keep my eyes open.

Last night we watched the film Brassed Off which is quite a nice story about a colliery band in Yorkshire at the time of all the pit closures in the 1980s. The music was great, but the story was, I felt, predictable, and not nearly so good as Pride, set at the same time and one of my favourite films. There were some very funny bits though.

We will soon gird our loins and move on to series 3 of Line of Duty, but I do think I need a little break in between each series, they are so intense.

My friend recommended Honour, a drama based on the true story of a female police detective who persisted in investigating the disappearance and 'honour' killing of a Kurdish girl in the UK. I'm not sure if I can face it, however well acted it may be.

I found my DVD of The Crown and suggested watching that last night, but it was not popular!  So I will watch it during the week, so many people have said how brilliant it is.

Rosemary

[Tomereader1]

Re: "The Crown" - - Rosemary, it's beautiful.  I can't think of where my DVD has gone, but I would be watching it again. 

I was trying to watch "Lawrence of Arabia" last night, but only made it to the intermission, and had to go to bed early. (Slept 12 hours, and I am an insomniac - - it's 3:18 AM right now and I'm at the computer thinking it will make me sleepy).

[Frybabe]

It is a very long movie, Tomereader. When I first saw it at a local movie house, there was in actual intermission to give watchers a little break. Except for one or two scenes, the movie is true to his book.

I have not been watching any movies lately, although I have added a few to my watchlist. Most of them are ones I've seen before and liked, like Rango, Stargate, and an oldie WWII movie or two like A Bridge Too Far.

[ginny]

Oh I wondered about the new Great British Bake Off, and  if you were watching it,  Rosemary, the new cast looks fascinating. I hope we can get it here soon, sometimes we can get the new ones almost immediately and sometimes like now they are showing Mary Berry (whom I like and would watch anyway).

I loved The Crown, too,  Tomereader, and  am looking forward to the new one whenever it comes out. What IS it about 3 am? Is it the Witching Hour? No matter what I do,  there  I am, too, for no good reason at all.  And you know it's somewhere around 3 am without even looking at a clock.

Frybabe,  and Tomereader,  I've had a hard time with Lawrence, I've tried the movie a couple of times, have never seen it through.

I LOVE those old movies with the Intermissions. In showing film on Hannibal  to a face to face class last week  I hit on Victor Mature on Youtube in Hannibal (boy those scenes through the Alps with elephants are something ELSE) but it starts out with a magnificent opening  that you know precedes an "old tyme movie" with an Intermission and all the trimmings. I do feel for one of the extras, though, who finally got a part in a big movie,  whose lines seem to consist of "Keep moving, keep moving."

 

[Frybabe]

Ginny, Lawrence was a difficult man, I think. Putting together what he wrote and what others who knew him wrote, I believe he was something of a loner and a rogue soldier, had friends and allies, but for the most part I don't think he liked people very much, especially women. I think he loved the desert and its solitude. He often confounded his superiors and went "off script" during the war. At Damascus, after the war and when the allies were deciding what to do with the region and how to divvy it up, he tried to stand up for carving the region along tribal lines and to give them some measure of self-rule. He was by no means a politician and could not hold his own against the allied politicians and the tribal infighting to gain status and power. Plus, during the war he made promises to the Arabs on behalf of the British Empire without consultation which the British Government declined to honor. After the war he very much disliked the notoriety and fame he got and rejoined another branch of the military (RAF) under an assumed name. He began a correspondence with Robert Graves at some point; I  used to have a book of their letters to each other.  He wrote another book or two. The Mint, which I also read, was about his time in the RAF. Prior to WWI, Lawrence was a trained archaeologist who spent several years in Arabia (forget where exactly). His knowledge of the area, customs and languages  proved both a help and a pain in the butt to his commanders. This is a very simplistic view of a very complex and enigmatic man.

[PatH]

I wouldn't call that simplistic, I'd call it giving us a good place to start.

[rosemarykaye]

Frybabe - thank you for all that very interesting information about Lawrence, I knew very little about him and have not seen the film. The only films I think I have ever seen with interludes are Carousel and The Sound of Music - or did one of the Harry Potter ones have one?

I finally watched the first part of the latest Bake Off last night on catch-up.  I am not sure about some of the competitors, but I think I always feel like that at the start of the series. This week was Cake Week, and one of the entrants said she didn't like cake - how can you be a baker and not like cake?!!  My friend and I were discussing the series on our walk this morning and we agreed that the contestants are now given so little time to make such elaborate things that they really can't help but have them unfinished when they are told to stop. It was still fun though, and Matt Lucas, who has replaced Sandy Toksvig, is very good - he's very gentle and kind, and works well with the others. I prefer Prue Leith to Mary Berry - Prue's humour is so much wickeder, though she's still kind to the people whose bakes end in disaster.

The other series I have started watching is All Creatures Great & Small (new version) - although Channel 5 has seen fit not to add the first episode to their catch-up channel, so I had to start at episode 2 - not that it makes that much difference for this particular programme!  Diana Rigg is great at Tricky-Woo's owner, and the guy who plays Tristan is Calum Woodhouse, the actor who plays Leslie in The Durrells - he is perfect for the part. Samuel West (son of Timothy West, who with Prunella Scales did all those canals programmes) is also very good as Siegfried.

Rosemary

[Frybabe]

Diana Rigg passed away at the age of 82 on Sept 10. She must have worked just about right up to her death from cancer. IMDB lists the mini-series Black Narcissus, and a horror film (of all things), Last Night in Soho,as being in post-production.

[ginny]

  I am so envious of your seeing the new Bake Off, Rosemary!

All we've seen so far are the profiles the program put up and I thought they looked interesting, which ones are you not sure about, the one who didn't like cake? hahahaa Perhaps one of those purist bread makers, then? I once tried to get into that but the proofing killed me, along with the lack of a proofing oven, it looks so easy on the show. THEY have proofing ovens. I've ruined many a batch trying to get it right. The King Arthur Flour (yes that's their real name) people used to do demonstrations around the country,  and I attended one. They make it look so easy! Of course you need to use their flour, maybe that's the secret. Anyway, there are not enough people here to be making great loaves of bread, we're not big bread eaters in the first place.

I agree on the complexity of some of the categories. I still remember the lion from the past. They ought to have a Champions Contest.  I think they did once for charity? But it was a one off if I recall. I'd like to see the top winners back for an entire series, I am pretty sure they have enough winners and second place winners  to make a quorum.

You have to hand it to them, however. Watching somebody else cook and then the results eaten when you have no idea what it tastes like really and still have an interesting program takes some skillful presentation.


I'm glad to hear that Matt Lucas is good. What happened to Sandy , was it  Tovig? Why did she quit, do you know?  I actually like Mary better than Prue, for what it's worth...for some reason I am not thinking they are equal in credentials, but I may be wrong.

[rosemarykaye]

Frybabe - yes, from what I have read in the Radio Times, Diana Rigg did indeed work right up to the last. Not having seen her on screen for many years, I must say I was shocked to see how old she looked in this, but, on reflection, given she was 80+, I think she still looked amazing, and her acting had not lost anything, she was as sharp as a knife and looked as if she was enjoying every minute.

Ginny - re the Bake Off, yes, I didn't take to the woman who doesn't like cake!  But having said that she turned out to be extremely good at it all, even cake making.  There was also a rather over-confident younger woman, but I'm worried that I was probably just prejudiced by her being so slim and effortlessly glam....There's a very enthusiastic 18 year old Edinburgh university student (male) whom I liked (he did well).

Pru Leith (who was born in South Africa) has had her own cookery school, restaurants, etc, and is a very successful businesswoman. She's also a novelist. Not sure if I mentioned the programme I saw a while ago in which she accompanied her adopted Cambodian daughter (now grown up and a successful film maker with her own young family) back to her birthplace to try to trace her 'real' mother? It showed a very different side to Pru - she and the daughter are clearly very close and the daughter emphasised what a happy childhood she had had in England, but Pru was beating herself up for having never thought about maintaining any links with the daughter's family - as she said, in those days you just didn't - and she showed how vulnerable and self-doubting she could be, which is not something you ever see on Bake Off.

Mary Berry is of course very English; she studied cooking at college and then at the Cordon Bleu school in Paris. I think she started her working life demonstrating cooking appliances for the Bath Electricity Board. She's been extremely successful and is considered something of a 'national treasure' in the UK (alongside people like Judi Dench, Alan Bennett and Maggie Smith), but she had a terrible tragedy in her life when one of her three children was killed in a car crash at the age of 19, just a couple of miles from her home.

I think Sandy Toksvig just wanted to do other things.

As for making bread - I used to try this frequently as a teenager and it never worked - I expect the yeast was far too old, and also - like you - we just did not have anywhere warm to make it rise. I know all that kneading is supposed to be therapeutic, but I just get bored, and even our local Co-Op here sells such good bread that I just could not be bothered making it now. Also, again as you say, there are only 2 of us here. I did have a bread-making machine once, but I was forever forgetting to turn it on, or forgetting to put in a vital ingredient - and if I did do it right, I then ate so many huge tranches of the stuff that I made myself feel sick. When we had the lockdown I did buy a couple of packets of bread mix, and I did use one, which came out well, but to be honest even our local shops always had plenty of bread, so it was unnecessary, and I did get fed up with all those people posting photos of the loaves they had made on Facebook - 'look at me! I have turned into Earth Mother!' - did they expect a medal or something? I bet they're all back to sliced white again now.

My mother says my aunt, with whom she lived for a few years, made bread daily - but I suppose in the 1940s married working class women had a very circumscribed life, rarely leaving the home except to get the groceries, so they were around for all that rising, 'knocking back' and whatever other mysteries bread requires. Also shop bread in those days was probably not great - even when I was a child in the 1960s it was pretty limited in London.

My friends in County Waterford (Ireland) make soda bread, which is delicious - but they have huge families, so no chance of it going stale!

Rosemary

[PatH]

My mother would make bread in the 1940s, not because she had to, but because we all liked it.  She would make 6 loaves at a time, and I don't remember how long that lasted, but the first loaf was half gone by the time it was cool.She didn't knead it by hand; she had a big pot, with a lid with a crank going through it, ending in a big dough hook, turned by hand.

I would occasionally make bread, but as Rosemary points out, you have to be around for some time.  Finally, my husband got a bread machine and declared bread making was men's work.  So for a few years, we had a lot of home made bread.

[rosemarykaye]

Pat - isn’t it strange how some parts of cooking are deemed (by men of course!) to be ‘men’s work’?

My friend’s recently-retired husband has decided to be a bread baker - he is in charge, of course, but she seems always to be having to run home to check the dough when he’s out, go to the supermarket to get the ingredients...

And every man I know thinks he’s the bees’ knees at barbecues!  I loath barbecues but my husband is always trying to persuade me to let him have one. Sometimes if I’m away he has a barbecue just for himself. He also takes charge of the grilling of fish (in case, heaven forbid, I overcook it), the making of curries (no surprise there) and also of scrambled eggs. I have no idea how the eggs come into it. I don’t mind, I enjoy cooking less and less as the years go by. I still like cake making, which thankfully he is not interested in (apart from eating the results.)


Even on Bake Off, Paul Hollywood’s thing is bread rather than cake, though I imagine he does know quite a bit about the latter too.

Some well-known male cooks here do include a few recipes for cakes in their books - eg Nigel Slater does a great  lemon cake and also a Demerara marmalade one, but these are two recipes in a book of hundreds. But on the whole most cake recipes I have were written by women - Mary Berry, Delia Smith (though tbh she’s not that good at cakes - though I’ll probably be struck down in flames for such heinous blasphemy...), etc.

[ginny]

 Dame Mary now.

I think what I most admire about her is that she apparently (and again I have never tasted anything she cooked  but I do have one of her cook books), can take the simplest of ingredients and turn out something good whereas I can't take any number of any ingredients and turn out anything edible. And I have tried, for well over half a century.  I do think cooking is an art. I say that because I got into jelly, jams, and preserves and won many a blue ribbon at State Fairs. But I attacked that entire process completely  differently than I do  Sunday dinner.  Maybe that's the problem.  I hate to admit it, but I'm tired of cooking, period. When you try earnestly and are not rewarded then even a rat in a test avoids being shocked over and over. Or that's my excuse, anyway. (But think of the poor souls who have had to eat it lo these 53 years). hahahaha


I liked Prue, too, but not as much as Mary. But now that  Prue has been revealed to be such a wonderful person, I look forward to seeing her anew  in the new series,  if it ever comes here.

[BarbStAubrey]

Wow Rosemary barbecue - that is work - mostly pit masters here are guys but there are a few strong women who do it - Our Chris, my son's oldest, enjoys cooking - mostly Cajun foods - he would love to barbecue but he still does not have a backyard that could accommodate a decent size mesquite burning grill - he does have from his mother's side his grandfather's secret barbecue sauce recipe and my son found and is keeping for him a good barrel to make into his grill - now he just needs a backyard

Back before I got into Real Estate when the children were growing up I used to make bread every Thursday - Thursday night supper was thick slices of fresh bread slathered in butter and jam with a baked apple or a saucer of rhubarb-applesauce - Sometimes I would melt cheese, mix in a bit of wine and spread it on the fresh bread - we adults added to the meal a tall glass of beer.

It's been years now since I baked bread - do not think I even have the strength anylonger to kneed the dough - I remember those dough mixers - I wonder if they even make them any longer.

Before Covid so many ate out or picked up prepared dinner on their way home - that is one change with all the restaurants closed, many are cooking again and some for the first time.

My diet has changed considerably - seldom eat cakes or muffins - I do like something sweet after supper but it is usually dried dates and sugared pecans. However, I do like watching the baking show - amazing the look they create with their various sweets. Last show I saw with Mary in it - she had such arthritis in her hands so that all I could do was watch how she managed - liked the show best when she and Paul worked together. 

[Tomereader1]

Sadly, Sean Connery has passed, at age 90.
I fell in love with Sean Connery the moment he came up out of the ocean in that swimsuit, as 007. Never was another James Bond for me. I also loved ALL of his other movies. Anybody that hasn't seen "Finding Forrester" is missing a good one.The one with him as a researcher in the Jungle is also great. That beautiful Scottish burr was music to my ears. RIP Sir Sean.

[Frybabe]

Finding Forrester was another memorable Connery film. I didn't think to mention it in my other post. The earliest movie that I have seen that he acted in was Darby O'Gill and the Little People. That was sooo long ago I can't place him in it. Time to watch it again?

The SciFi channel has a new series coming out in January called Resident Alien. Looks like a case of a shape-shifting alien who gets stranded on Earth. It looks like Showtime is almost ready to release their HALO series next year too. This was an incredibly long time coming.

Various efforts to make a TV series or movie been going on since at least 2003 without much success. There are two movies out with live action, one short one which I only watched maybe twice and Forward Unto Dawn which is a favorite of mine. These two didn't get much of any publicity, and first showed up on YouTube where Forward Unto Dawn was initially released in episodes. It has since been released to DVD. I am something of a HALO fan, not the game, but I've read quite a few of the books.

[ginny]

Loved Sean Connery's outing n the last Indiana Jones he did as the father. Am  immersed in Scots myself at the moment.  Today Michael Portillo's Great British Railway excursions for my required morning's  10 minutes of peace and travel and kindness over breakfast  finds us in  Scotland at Troon  in South Ayrshire. At any rate this part of the journey is almost unintelligible. I am loving everything we're looking at and totally uncomprehending of the accents and what they are saying, so melodious, so different.  Just now we're riding in the engine pulling possibly 2,000 pounds (not sure what the engineer  actually  said), great long coal train, state of the art... I'm going to have to enable the closed captioning...I wonder if IT will know? hahaha  because it's fascinating.

That makes me want to ask Rosemary something.  Way back  there you spoke of a daughter's accent as being...forgive  for not remembering the term--- too posh for the area she was contemplating going into? I notice that Michael Portillo when he speaks says the words stop by stop..in every introduction. The first word stop he pronounces as we do...sort of like STAHHP  ..stop. But the second stop he pronounces as if it were stawp. That deep sort of AW in the middle of it, stawp.  So I am wondering which, of either of those,  sounds more properly posh or does neither? And if neither is the posh way to pronounce it, what would be? I am fascinated by the cacophony of British accents in this program, and am now up to year 2013 in the series.
_______________________________

Talk about accents, for some reason I've been on a Richard Burton kick and boy could he speak Welsh AND German. It's amazing how many languages some people speak fluently. I just watched his  Cavett interview on youtube and the discussion was stunning. I see now why so many people go on and on about Dick Cavett he was astounding in his questions and Burton was equally stunning in his answers. Unfortunately the "documentary"  on Youtube about Burton is quite negative. Lauren Bacall particularly expressed dislike of him.  Most fascinating takeaways: he would have  liked to have  gone into the mines, he was the only son who did not (out of 12 siblings), miners love their jobs,  (which I always thought was not the case)  his admiration for his father, a miner, (though other sources reveal he  apparently he did not attend his funeral)   and what there is about acting that makes one want to act as a profession.  He kept a diary.  Couldn't stand to be touched. The interview was done during his last run of Camelot on the stage which I saw, actually, in Lincoln Center, and despite his health his mind was apparently razor sharp. I have always wondered how on earth they learned all those lines; apparently they are gifted with that kind of memory.

I always thought he was a perfect Antony  in the movie Cleopatra.

[BarbStAubrey]

A Place to Call Home actually ended here on PBS last night - there was the surprise of another season that started end of summer but this time it really ended explaining the series was based on a written memoir and all the characters were real people. They then proceeded to list when the real people died and what they did in their life - such drama over the years, I guess from the book or at least the years they chose to make into the series - I've heard it said that the average person's life is more dramatic than any drams we see in a movie which I guess goes for a TV series.

Yes Ginny, have to agree the Dick Cavett show was well done and he in such a low key way had a way to get a different and intimate perspective on life from his guests. I did not realize he was still broadcasting - not here in my area and so I wonder where - found a photo and frankly i would never have recognized him today as compared to what I remember

[ginny]

  I don't look like I did in the 90's either, or for that matter 10 years ago. I'm kind of shocked to look in the mirror at all. That 's one reason I like Zoom, hahaha,  for some reason it's put some kind of filter on me, how glamorous I look, and how shocked any of them would be to see me in person I am sure. hahahaa

NEWS NEWS NEWS!!!  JOYOUS NEWS! Shakespeare and Hathaway 3 are on Amazon Prime! I can't WAIT. He looks strange but I can't wait anyway. What a fun, literate, clever show that is.  Can't WAIT!

[ginny]

5 more Days to the new The  Crown, which is supposed to be the best yet!! Netflix on November 15!!!!

[rosemarykaye]

Hi Ginny

Yes, I was saying that Anna's received pronunciation would not have stood her in good stead if she had to do teaching practice in a Tyne & Wear school - she was at that time contemplating applying for the postgraduate teacher training course at Durham university. Durham itself is very smart and upper middle class, but it's a tiny city, and the areas all around it are old mining places, with high unemployment and accents you could cut with a knife. Anyway, than goodness she has decided to postpone that idea for another year. She gets all these notions but fails to consider where the money is coming from - at the moment she has a secure job in London, if she left it she would have no income and would also have to pay fees, rent, etc. When I was at university the one year postgrad teacher training course was free, but now that is only the case if you can teach a shortage subject like maths or physics. The chances of any of my children (or I) even being able to teach ourselves those things are way less than nil.

I'm not quite sure how posh people would say STOP. I think it's probably STAWP or STORP. I must watch Portillo again and see how he does say it - he is definitely posh! The really posh lot also say 'ORF' instead of 'off', but I don't think he reaches those giddy heights. My mother-in-law had some very posh leanings. She always said Nigeriahhh and coliflore (cauliflower) and still called tuna tunny fish, which is a term Constance Spry probably used in her famous 1950s cookbook.
If you can find any of Fanny Cradock's old cookery programmes on YouTube, they will show you what a really posh dinosaur sounded like (although she was in fact born in Essex into a middle class family.) They are also very funny (unintentionally) as she was a very strange woman and apparently terrifying to work for - she went through assistants like water. In the earlier ones you can also see her (fourth!) husband Johnnie, whom she worshipped. She got him in to talk about drink (which he clearly over-appreciated...) and also to boss about. He seemed to take it all in good part. There is a TV film about her life Fear of Fanny, which stars, amongst others, Mark Gatiss and Julia Davis. I think it's also on YouTube. She was a sad case really, but in the end she deserved her downfall - she was involved in a cookery competition that a member of the public had won, and this woman was therefore to cook a special meal for various important people, including Edward Heath, the then Prime Minister, and Fanny herself. When Cradock saw the menu she ridiculed the poor woman on air, told her her proposed dishes were terrible, the meal badly planned, etc. The viewers were collectively furious, the BBC received numerous complaints, and Fanny was dropped by them 2 weeks later, never to return.

Barb - that is fascinating information about A Place to Call Home - I had no idea it was based in fact. How many series did it eventually run to?  I don't think we have all of them on catch up, just the early ones.

I am currently trying to catch up with the current Bake Off series - I'm up to week 5 but in real time they are up to 9 I think. I've even got my husband watching it (he has enjoyed the celebrity ones they did earlier this year and last year, especially the Derry Girls one, but until now he hasn't deigned to watch the real thing.)

I've also watched two of the three existing series of (Cormorant) Strike, which I've quite enjoyed. At least if you're watching rather than reading Rowling you don't have to put up with all the endless adverbs. (And yes, I do know I could not possibly write as well as she does, it's just my personal bugbear with all the Potter books...)

I know that everyone is sad that Sean Connery died, and of course it's sad - but he did not have a good record re his attitude to women. Having said earlier in his career that he would hit a woman if necessary, he was asked about that statement again fairly recently. This was his chance to say that his comment had been in the context of the times (not that that for one minute justified it) and that he would not say it now - instead of which he said that he stood by it.

Rosemary

[PatH]

Rosemary, I gave up on trying to figure out posh British pronunciation after reading Nancy Mitford's essay.  At one point she mentions a difference depending on whether you pronounced a certain word to rhyme with "pass" or "gas".  Since to this crude American pass and gas rhyme with each other, I decided I was poorly equipped to deal with these subtleties.

I enjoyed the essay, though.

[BarbStAubrey]

The final scene at the dawn of 1960 is succeeded by a series of shots wrapping up the characters' stories:

    Elizabeth passed in her sleep in 1963. Her chosen epitaph was "Life is a blessing. To die fulfilled an even greater one."
    Roy was invaluable to Ash Park and to the Dawn Briggs Community Clinic, until his death in 1975.
    Lucky yipped his last bark at age 17, head on Roy's lap.
    Emma becomes an obstetrician. "She saved many, as her mother had not been saved."
    Doris marries a new employee of Ash Park. "She had twenty married years, being loved as she deserved."
    Leah marries Larry. Their daughter marries Frank Gibbs' son.
    Jack and Carolyn are shown travelling to Burma. Carolyn later becomes Inverness's first female MP. Jack received an Order of Australia for his services to rural medicine. "They died within days of each other. Their loved indeed lasted forever."
    Anna lived happily, but never remarried. "She had one daughter and many children -- born through her writing."
    James and Olivia stayed close until his death from AIDS in 1986.
    Georgie became a championship surfer, before joining James' business in Europe.
    Andrew proved worthy of Olivia's love and they remain married until his death.
    Henry and Harry remain together and marry each other in January 2018 after Australia legalizes same-sex marriage, both by then in their nineties.
    George passes away at the age of eighty. "His whole life proved that decency is not a weakness." David became master of Ash Park.

The final scene is of Sarah's death at the age of 104, surrounded by David, Olivia, and Leah. On her nightstand is a copy of a book entitled A Place to Call Home, written by a Samantha Swanson, Andrew and Olivia's granddaughter.

Found this on Amazon - A Place to Call Home Hardcover – April 1, 1998 by Deborah Smith (Author)
https://www.amazon.com/Place-Call-Home-Deborah-Smith/dp/1568955480/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

[Tomereader1]

Through Amazon Prime (CBS All Access) I was able to watch "The Queen at 90".
Beautifully done portrait of a beautiful lady. I notice there were two of these documentaries, titled the same, but it looks like they will be a bit different. One is narrated by one of the women who was in Downtown Abbey. The other, kind of not narrated, but with William being interviewed; also Prince Edward and his wife, the Duchess of Sussex. Tons of good footage from when Queen Elizabeth was a young girl, right up through marriage to Phillip, Coronation and dozens of her at various celebrations, and functions. I was enthralled as I always am with programs about the Monarchy. It is a lovely, lovely piece and I do so hope you can get it on whatever networks to which you have access.

[BarbStAubrey]

Tomereader this past summer PBS here had a wonderful series on the Queen - it started before her father was made unexpectedly king and showed her early childhood and the year or so she and her sister stayed at Balmoral for safety till their parent allowed them to return to London when the war first started then all about her volunteer activity through the war, her meeting and marriage to Philip, the birth of their children and playing with them on the yacht, along streams and in fields at Balmoral, then videos of her official meetings, up to and including the death of Diane - I think there was even that famous shot of William and Kate wheeling their second child in a pram down a walk with Prince George holding his father's hand. There was so much that if I remember correctly it was done in two parts. I need to look now and find the documentaries you found on Amazon - just the thing to watch before Christmas takes over everything. I think we are all anxious for the Christmas season this year and I notice ads are already sprinkled all over TV.

[Tomereader1]

Barb, I think several of the clips you mentioned also appeared in this feature.  As I said, there were two in the list of "The Queen at 90", plus some other docus re: queen, royals, etc.  I haven't had the time to watch the 2nd one in the "90" set, or the others, but I'm sure I will at some point, as I love things like this about the Monarchy.

[ginny]

The Queen at 90 is definitely on Amazon Prime, it's very good, isn't it? I saw it when it was on TV here and thought it was wonderful. I still have it on tape.

Two more days to The Crown!! Oh it should be wonderful. Charles Dance as Mountbatten and they say this is one of the best ones ever.  Can't wait!!

I did watch the first Shakespeare and Hathaway 3 last night, not one of their best, but it was free on the BritXox Amazon thing, and I had struggled to watch it on that awful rogue site so this was much better. I know there are super episodes to come as I watched another one of them the same way.  Just pure escapism.

I might watch the entire series over, I love the clever writing. The first episode of Season 3 excepted.

 Rosemary, Portillo has stopped saying stop by stawp! I'm now in the 2013 episodes and he's changed his intro, doggone it,  it was comforting. hahaha

I did watch  Miss Fanny, on youtube, thank you. It was unfortunate as well, so I'm glad you mentioned the other things, cruel mean  things she has done, because she herself on the one I watched was just that: unfortunate.  It was an interview with Morley or More or somebody and she was...uh.... well.. there's no other word: unusual in her behavior.

I could not focus on the accent because of the way she acted, and at one point when surprised I swear she suddenly jolted  forward and  said crikey!  But I could be wrong, there was a lot to try to take in.  She thrashed herself about in her chair uncomfortably as if it were heated to 1000 degrees  looking to the right and left and appealingly  to the audience, was made up like Whatever  Happened to Baby Jane  or whatever that movie was, and in short acted like a parody of a "fishwife."   I know that's harsh, and I am sorry,  but I could not continue to watch her. I was embarrassed for her.

That's not my idea of posh but again, it made me realize that my ideas and reality are apparently not the same.


Thinking of Charles Dance who says his background was definitely cockney, playing Mountbatten so beautifully, it's, if one wanted to get philosophical, interesting, isn't it?   Acting, the ability to be somebody else so well it's hard to tell them apart. Makes you wonder about a lot of things, actually.

 One of the things I like about the Portillo series is here we were today looking art a Steam Ferry in Scotland, which was thought up by a man who worked as a stone mason and then a millwright, and who came up with that brilliant idea...the show, to me, seems to cast  a light on the inventive creative people who were not born to the aristocracy or the posh people,  but  who actually today are possibly more remembered, and who  made a great deal of difference.

[ginny]

Speaking of accents, today we are in Glasgow. Which set of mysteries is it which features a detective scornful of Glasgow. ...is it Agatha Raisin? Hamish MacBeth?   Whoever it is the main character is really set against Glasgow and the Glaswegian accent. Today everybody that Michael Portillo spoke to had not only comprehensible remarks but they had a charming lilt to them as well. Of course Rick Steves had to do a mini film with closed captioning  in his own inimitable style enjoying the fact that they need to be translated at first but then he felt he could understand,  on  the Glaswegian Accent: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VL1_d3Phr4E

 I had to laugh out loud today, all this time one can't help noticing the beautiful  planting in  so many of the train stations we've seen along the way in the series.   Well today there they were, in Scotland,  those perfect ball like geraniums I like so much, in great profusion at the last stop along the way. Bright neon pink and foliage to die for. It must be the climate,  but whatever it iS, it's just  marvelous and definitely not hard to find  there! Felt right  at home.

[ginny]

The 2nd episode of Shakespeare and Hathaway Season 3 was absolutely marvelous, the kind of thing you hope to see but rarely do and a stellar performance by the actor playing a washed up Keith Richards look alike, playing  an  old rocker with a mansion and a desire for a comeback who thinks the Devil has come for his payment. Absolutely up there with the best of them. David Schofield  played the part and deserves an acting award for it. I like the humor in every program, too.

Now we're off in  the 3rd episode...big country house,  and a death at the party...hostess dancing with everybody else while husband  has passed away in his chair.....can't wait to see how this one comes out.

A quick look at Netflix, still showing episode 10 of season 3 of The Crown,  but a notice above it to "Watch Season 4 Now," but it's not working  yet, perhaps tonight? Can't believe Gillian Anderson is playing Margaret Thatcher, I have been a total fan of hers since Bleak House.

[BarbStAubrey]

I look forward each week to what getup Sebastian will use - his charm adds so much to the duo

[ginny]

Yes, it does. Unfortunately series 3 of Shakespeare and Hathaway  is not particularly good so far.  Episodes 4-6 I had to just omit. I think they need the original writers back. Lacking The Crown which said it would air at midnight, I watched Derry Girls and laughed my way to bed. Love that thing.

But The Crown is on today and I look forward tomorrow to some major watching.

It also appears Netflix has the new British Baking Show with Matt Lucas,  it's nice to have a lot of stuff to look forward to!

[rosemarykaye]

I hope you enjoy the new Bake Off Ginny, it is good and I like Matt Lucas - he’s a bit surreal like Noel Fielding, but he’s also very kind.

Barb - I meant to say before, thank you so much for all that information about A Place to Call Home, I found it very interesting.

Pat - I think you were perhaps referring to Nancy Mitford’s famous ‘U and non-U’ essay, in which she wrote about all the things - accents, pronounications, terms people use - that make them ‘one of us’ or ‘not one of us’. For example, posh people like her always say sofa, never couch or settee, they always say lavatory and never toilet, sitting room and not lounge, scullery and not utility room. There is a village called Gullane that the rest of us all pronounce as it looks, but they would call it Gillan - and they would be very proud of themselves for knowing that. It’s all very silly and divisive and yet another aspect of our appalling class system.

Ginny - I have never seen Shakespeare & Hathaway, though it is forever on one of our repeat channels like Drama, along with things like Rosemary and Thyme, Inspector Lynley, Pie in the Sky, Father Brown and so on.  But, as you know, I do love the Derry Girls!

I don’t know which character decries Glasgow, I’ve seen neither Hamish McBeth nor Agatha Raisin. Most people in Edinburgh think Glasgow is beneath them. Edinburgh likes to think of itself as ‘old money’ - refined, posh and never showy. It regards Glasgow as full of new money, bling, big cars, etc. Both characterisations are of course sweeping generalisations - but....

Rosemary