1300th Blog Post- More Television Viewing

So, I've reached another landmark in my blogging. This is the 1300th blog post! I admit that not every post is a brilliant literary masterpiece, but at least I've kept it going. So, read on and be  either intrigued or bored silly!

I've signed up to Netflix. After I was lent the first series of 'The Crown' on DVD I couldn't wait to get into season 2, so it was a simple matter of signing up to this streaming service, and there's so much to see on there that it's worth the £7.99 a month. What I like, compared with Sky, is that there's no commercials! Sky and ITV are funded by the sale of advertising, but an hour's drama (or any other type of show, come to that.) has at least 15 minutes of advertising. That's about every 15-20 minutes. It annoys me that you have to endure a bout of yawn-inducing commercials about stair lifts, car insurance advertising and sofa adverts when there is only barely 10 minutes of a show left before it finishes. Not so on Netflix. I've got only two more episodes of season 2 to go and I can't wait to get to the next season. I'm intrigued to see how Olivia Colman portrays H.M. Queen. Clare Foy has been quite brilliant, particularly getting the accent right as well as the tiny expressions, the fold of the arms, those little looks with the eyes. It's not always what a character says that counts, but often the little non-verbal things that make a bit of acting work so well. So it is with her performance. I didn't think I'd enjoy it so much as I have. How on earth did they manage to film so much at Buckingham Palace? The exteriors of course. I don't think for one moment any of it could possibly be filmed inside, but how could you duplicate the iconic front elevation, the gates and the Victoria Monument? I imagine there must be a certain amount of trickery with C.G.I., but then the rest must have been in those famous locations. Alright, I admit that the show is really a glorified soap, but it's soap done with real conviction and truth. I'm wondering what permission they had to have in order to portray not just Her Majesty, but other still-living characters. It's so much better than a lot of what more traditional television has to offer, such as Downton Abbey. Such boring characters, I mean the aristos. Robert, Earl of Grantham, as portrayed by Hugh Bonneville, is such a stuffed shirt that there's nothing to like about him. It's the 'downstairs' staff where all the action is. They're far more interesting and believable. I can see why the Americans love it and it was apparently more popular there an over here in Britain. Perhaps because they seem to enjoy anything that smacks of class divisions, deference and so on.

I love anything to do with history. We're spoilt for choice. at the moment. Lucy Worsley, doing a series on American history, called, 'American History's Biggest Fibs,' and revealing that some incidents aren't all they seem and that history is written by the winning side or for propaganda reasons. I really love her to bits. She makes history fun and not boring, which is what probably put me off when I was at collage in the 1960's and attempting to do A Level History. She really throws herself into everything she does and loves dressing up! Why couldn't I have a teacher of history like Lucy? I've signed up to something called 'History Hit,' which is run by Dan Snow. It's a sort of Netflix of history, streaming documentaries and podcasts with a history connection. I have it for £1 a month for three months and then it's about £5 a month, but well worth it. Nothing on there that talks down to you, treats you as if you've got half a brain, thank goodness. If you go on BBC iPlayer there's lots of archive stuff. A lot of back-catalogue material, not just documentaries, but drama. One such I'm rewatching is the BBC adaptation of 'Bleak House,' which was done more like a soap-opera, in 30-minute episodes and definitely not done in the usual 'classic serial' style. Rapid cutting, no lingering shots, just gets to the guts of the plot and the characters and no hanging around. Adapted by Andrew Davies who seems to have made a career out of adapting costume drama. 

Winter Weather, Viewing and Reading

Sunday started off with quite a shock to the system when I took Alfie our for his early-morning walk around Eaglestone Park this morning, because there was a more than usually very sharp frost. I had to make sure I was layered up, with a T shirt on and then one of my long-sleeved Rugby shirts and then my red Regatta fleece, topped off with my Regatta jacket. Last of all, gloves. It's not a good idea to get too cold when you have had a heart attack. Likewise, if it's too hot, as it was for a long period during the summer. Can infact be quite dangerous. I have already sprayed the car's windows with de-icer, although, by the time I took Alfie out, it was freezing up once more. So, running the engine of the car and having the heated windows on and the interior heater on should do the trick. I don't relish the through of driving with the windows either frozen up or misted over.

As the day wore on, the sun came out, but it was deceptive because it was still fairly chilly.

The BBC1 weather forecast at just before 6 o'clock this evening says that we can expect 'a short frost.' So, it's likely to be extremely cold over-night and even colder when I eventually take Alfie out tomorrow morning. Never mind, I'll just have to wrap up warm.

I'm currently reading a book called 'A Classless Society: Britain in the 1990s,' by Alwyn W.Turner. I think I mentioned in an earlier post that I'm endeavouring to read about this country from around the end of the Second World War right up to the present day (if at all possible.) This latest book covers not just the politics of the era, from the downfall of Margaret Thatcher and her successor, John Major, but the popular culture, such as pop music, television and cinema.

I've also been reading 'Nutshell' by Ian McEwan. It's loosely based on a section of Shakespeare's play 'Hamlet.' It's told through the voice of an unborn child. A very clever concept for a murder. I won't say any more, but it's a well crafted piece of writing which draws you in cleverly. Well worth a read and written by one of our finest novelists.

Television drama. We're really spoilt for choice at the moment. There isn't anything better than getting caught up in a really good drama series. In some ways television has the advantage over cinema, because you've got an almost endless playing length. A film can only be a certain length, say 90 minutes to 2 hours 30 minutes. Television drama is usually served up in one hour segments, which is a far more comfortable length for the average viewer to endure. I've been lent the DVDs of the first season of 'The Crown.' I don't have a Netflix subscription, the company behind this show. I'm really enjoying this series. It has really held my attention.

I'm watching the BBC1 adaptation of 'Les Misérables.' I've seen the musical, the original West End production, which I loved, as well as the movie which came out in 2012. I have also read the novel by Victor Hugo, upon which it is based. A good 1,500 pages. The new Andrew Davies-scripted adaptation opens up the narrative and gives far more context to the story. It's extremely gritty and realistic which makes it far more hard-hitting. It is being adapted in 6 hour-long episodes, which means there is plenty of time to do real justice to the story and the characters.

Plenty of history documentaries to keep me occupied. I've subscribed to a streaming service called 'History Hit,' which I have through my Amazon Fire Stick. Really spoilt for choice. Original documentaries and material first shown on BBC channels. The popular television historian Dan Snow is involved with this project. He fronts several documentaries on the platform, some under the title 'Snow On The Road.'

I was looking forward to Sky's adaptation of Sue Townsend's novel, 'The Queen and I.' I have read the book and enjoyed it, but the actual film adaptation was, for me at least, a real let-down. The acting was generally rather weak, the whole thing more like a weak cartoon caricature that anything else. I gave up watching after about half way. Heavy-handed direction and a somewhat limp script didn't help. The same could be said of 'The Discovery of Witches,' based on the novel by Deborah Harkness. Just not the sum of its parts. The concept of the show had real potential but it didn't warrant the investment in time and effort to watch so I didn't see it through to the end of the series. Just a bit limp and uninspiring, unfortunately.