Late Night

Thursday 13th January.1.05 a.m. Here I am at my MacBook, which seems to be working relatively well, allowing me to sit and write this blog post. Another case of not being able to sleep. I have been doing domestic chores, washing up last night's things from making my meal and generally tidying the kitchen. I don't like having piles of dirty plates, pots and pans left in the sink. I think it goes back to being a temp and doing kitchen jobs in various units around Bedford in the 1990s. Kept the bills paid and a rich source of material for my writing. 

There is noise outside. I think it's on or around Oldbrook Green. The sound of what I think is a motorbike or scooter. Revving engines and bursts of engine noise. At this time of night, it shouldn't be allowed. People want to sleep, so why aren't the police intervening and preventing it? It's really not acceptable.

7.15 p.m. I have been to get my hair cut at Central Barbers this morning. I had booked online yesterday, which made it a good deal easier, even paying. I will have to get Alfie booked in at The Groom Room as he is in real need of a haircut himself.

10.25 p.m. Another sleepless night. Does it really matter? Not really. I've been watching an episode of 'My Family', the BBC sitcom with Robert Lindsey and Zoe Wanamaker. All the episodes are on iPlayer and I'm working though all the episodes. It's not exactly the most original of sitcoms, but it's their acting and general involvement which lifts it out of the rut of a lot of what you'd call studio sitcoms into something special. I think it's their chemistry as actors which makes it.  If I have a niggle with it, how come their son, Nick, played by Kris Marshall, who must be in his 20's, is still living at home and doesn't have a proper job? His career has certainly taken off since he was in this show, which finished production in around 2010, plus or minus a year or so, and has since starred in such television shows as 'Death In Paradise'.   There is virtually no sitcom on terrestrial television that comes anywhere near the quality of this show, and certainly no as there used to be once upon a time, or, say, the standard of something like 'Fawlty Towers' or 'The Good Life.' They used to make sitcoms in small batches, of, say, six or seven.  Modern television seems to demand a run of perhaps twenty or more episodes, rather in the fashion of American television. They usually write their shows with a group of writers and not with a single writer or even a couple of writers, which is how 'Steptoe and Son' was written by Galton and Simpson. In fact, generally, television has become really dull and unimaginative, something I've discussed elsewhere on this blog.

Friday. 10.15 a.m. Some dear soul in one of the flats beneath me is coughing. It isn't for a short period, but going on continuously. I have an idea it's because they smoke. So I have to be sympathetic so someone with a cough who smokes? No, definitely not. It's self-inflicted. Why not merely get some cough sweets to suck or some cough mixture of some sort or just drink something to relieve it. It's just becoming annoying and interrupting my writing and general peace and quiet.

I've done my washing for the week. Friday is always washing day. I had the machine on a good deal earlier than normal, around 7.30. I have purchased a garment steamer and I've been trying it out on one of my Marks and Spencer polo shirts. It certainly does it's job and gets rid of any wrinkles in a garment and saves having to get the ironing board out, plug in the iron and the stand and iron. I'm fine doing this job, but it still takes a lot of effort. 

Quite sunny and bright out, but frosty when I took Alfie out. 

Radio Sit-Com

Having discussed sitcom in my last blog post, it's easy to write off one area that sitcoms are really successful. We tend to dismiss radio's contribution to the genre, and think that television is the only place for their production. But if it wasn't for BBC Radio Four (or, up until around 1967, when the stations were re-named) Home Service and Light Programme (which became Radio Two) we would never have had such delights as Hancock's Half-Hour which is considered, by many, to be the grandfather of sitcoms. The early episodes, right through to the much later episodes, are broadcast regularly on the digital station Radio Four Extra (originally called Radio Seven up until a few years ago.) A huge range of shows were, and still are, produced by the BBC. I could name not only 'Hancock's Half Hour' but also, 'The Navy Lark', 'The Men From The Ministry' and those shows which were adaptations of successful television shows such as 'Steptoe and Son' and 'Dad's Army'. Lesser-known, or indeed even remembered, are shows such as 'Marriage Lines' which starred very young actors of the likes of Richard Briars and Prunella Scales. 'Not In Front of The Children' which I seem to recall from the 1960's and which starred Wendy Craig. Some shows work really well on radio, whilst others don't seem to adapt too well. Perhaps if you're familiar with the television version the radio version would work for you. With radio you have to do quite a lot of work yourself as an audience-member. You have to concentrate harder when you have to listen to fairly complicated dialogue and when there's a difficult plot-situation. With radio you do have to LISTEN and CONCENTRATE, with television you don't have to work anywhere near as hard because so much of it is visual. Fairly obvious I suppose, because it has pictures as well as sound. You can have visual gags which, obviously, radio can provide.

It seems odd to think that you'd adapt a successful television sitcom for radio, as with 'Dad's Army' and 'Steptoe and Son.' Particularly 'Dad's Army' which had so much visual comedy in it's television version. 'Hancock's Half-Hour' used the idea of Tony Hancock having a sort of 'stage personality' an 'alternative' persona. The pompous, lazy, 'actor' or 'comedian.' It didn't (one presumes) really reflect his 'real' persona. It wasn't until the writers, Galton and Simpson, were rejected by Hancock as writers when he moved to I.T.V. that the B.B.C. allowed them a free hand with creating several 30-minute comedy plays that the eventual series of 'Steptoe' was developed from one particular episode called 'The Offer.' Putting character actors into the main roles meant that there was room for more character-driven plots and far more believable situations than they could write for Hancock.

As for the 'Navy Lark,' there is a certain amount of what can only be described as 'slapstick' in this very amusing show. I know it sounds crazy to describe it in those terms, but having listened to it recently on BBC Radio 4 Extra, there is nearly always some sort of incident when the ship it's set on H.M.S. Troutbridge, ends up crashing into another ship or a harbour wall or something and there's a great deal of noise and commotion as a result. In fact, that's why so much radio comedy work better in some respects than television, the sound effects that are used. I know 'The Goons' can never be classed as a sitcom, more a string of sketches, but it must have been quite revolutionary in it's use of sound effects. Feet running, explosions, clangs, pianos falling, etc etc which are just completely nuts and very funny.

A favourite radio comedy of mine is 'Clare In The Community.' It's based on the comic strip which appears in the Guardian 'society' section. Clare is a social worker who manages to sort out other people's problems but can't deal with her own, more specifically, her relationships. There's a good mix of characters and it works well on radio. I just don't want it to move to television because it will lose it distinctive flavour. Imagining what the characters look like is one of the best reasons for any form of radio drama or comedy. It's a bit like reading a novel and imagining how the characters sound and look. It can be a real disappointment when there's a film or television adaptation of your favourite novel when you see how a particular character is cast and presented, it can be a real let down.

One of the best things about radio, again particularly with comedy but also with drama in general, is that it can really stretch actor's abilities. Thinking in particular with people like Kenneth Williams, who was one of the supporting actors in 'Hancock's Half-Hour.' He had an incredible voice range and could conjure up an almost endless parade of weird and wonderful characters to support Hancock, whether it be an annoying neighbour, policemen, doctors or whatever a particular story required. It's no wonder that Hancock became obsessed with how he was so 'up-staged' by not just Williams but by Sid James and as a result they didn't move to television with him in the early 1960's. 

Saturday Jaunt to Compton Verney

Another Saturday, with the sun making an appearance. Carol had decided to drive to Compton Verney in Warwickshire today. We seem to be making the most of the summer weather. We set the SatNav to take us there and it's great to know that, with this technology, you don't have to bother with maps and direction-finding. The journey took no more than an hour and a half. A very straightforward journey. I think we must have come fairly close to this house when we were last out the other week when we drove to Seizencote. It's also quite near Stratford-Upon-Avon.

On arrival, we found a place in the car park and then walked to the entrance building and found other people waiting patiently because the place had not yet opened.

Compton Verney, Bridge in Capability Brown landscape

Once the doors opened we queued up and eventually paid for our entrance and then walked the relatively short distance to the house. The house, built in 1714, is a Grade I listed building, set in the quite stunning landscape, designed by Capability Brown and since this is the 300th anniversary of his birth, a very good example of his work. It seems amazing to think that he is likely to have never seen his work completed when you think how long it would take for the trees to mature. All set off by a very large lake. We walked along the path leading to the house and discovered a very strange building with a pointed thatched roof which turned out to the an ice-house. We have seen a few of these structures at other properties we've visited over the years.

Ice House at Compton Verney

After a walk around the grounds, we entered the house. It has been redeveloped as an art gallery. It's very well executed, using modern building techniques, glass, and steel. There is a new block at the rear of the building which houses a shop, restaurant, and café. I was expecting the house to be like all the other houses we visit, with the interiors virtually intact from whatever period they were built, including furniture.

We spent some time browsing the galleries which contain art from across several centuries and then went into the café to have a snack  before we went upstairs to see two more exhibitions, one of photographs from the B.B.C. archives and covering a 60-year period and showing performers of comedy programmes such as 'Hancock's Half-Hour', 'Round The Horne', 'The Navy Lark' and also television classics such as 'Dad's Army', 'Are You Being Served' and 'Steptoe and Son.' A very interesting and revealing exhibition and great to see the performers, such as Kenneth Williams, Ken Dodd, Arthur Lowe and others in relaxed mood as well as in rehearsal and performing. Also on display is another exhibition of designs from the 1950's and in particular, from the Festival of Britain held in 1951. We're not particularly interested in that period, but it was interesting all the same. Then we went further up the house to a permanent display of folk art.  We then went back outside for a further wander around the house, finishing up in a meadow looking at an artwork called 'Drift; by Laura Ellen Bacon and woven out of wood.

'Drift' by Laura Ellen Bacon

We walked back to the car park to reset the SatNav for home. We didn't return exactly the same way because when we got near the motorway we could see traffic on it was queued up and at a complete stand-still, so we decided we ought to avoid it so went home via Lemington Spa and on towards Daventry and the M1.