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. 

More Reading and Watching

I have finally finished the set of history books taking British history from 1956, with the Suez Crisis and through the following decades right up to the 1990's, through the Premierships of Anthony Eden, Harold Macmillan, Harold Wilson, Edward Heath, Margaret Thatcher, John Major and Tony Blair.  I have now given history reading a rest and I've read 'Skellig' by David Almond, which I have read before, but enjoyed enormously. Initially intended as a children's book, but equally enjoyed by adults. Subtle and clever, definitely worth a read. It's not a long novel, which probably is in its favour. 

I'm currently doing an on-line course from something called Futurelearn. I've done several of these courses, a couple on William Shakespeare, another about Hadrian's Wall and this one is about The Tudors. As a result I'm reading Hilary Mantel's Booker-Prize winning novel 'Wolf Hall.' I had never imagined I'd enjoy a historical novel, but this is excellent and I'm surprised how much I am enjoying it. I watched the first episode of the BBC television adaptation, but I just couldn't get into it and didn't watch any more episodes, but the book is really good. Some books don't adapt well to television, and it seems to me that's the case with this particular book.

Martin Clunes has a new sitcom on BBC1 on Fridays, not that the day it's broadcast makes a lot of difference these days,because you can watch most television programmes either recorded on your Sky Q box (other personal recording set-top boxes are available, incidentally) or trough iPlayer. I'm not sure whether I like this new show, called 'Warren.' He's a driving instructor with a bad temper. He doesn't get on with his customers. He definitely has an attitude problem, Martin Clunes other leading character, in 'Doc Martin,' might also have an attitude problem, but at least you have sympathy for the character. The comedy springs from the fact that he's a doctor who should show some sort of empathy for his patients. On the other hand, Warren is just plain annoying. You really have no sympathy for him and it's no wonder his driving school business fails so miserably. Miserable git comedy is funny with the right character and the right script, but this just fails completely. Victor Meldrew, admirably played by Richard Wilson in 'One Foot In The Grave' does at least get your sympathy, and it has got a decent, well-written script. 'Warren' misfires on so many levels. Going back further in television comedy history, I could mention Tony Hancock, a character who was pompous as well as miserable. You could have sympathy for him and the scripts written by the legendary writing pair of Galton and Simpson almost single handedly changed the history of sitcom development and writing.

Comedy of failure is a style of comedy which can be described of many modern sitcoms. 'Fawlty Towers' isn't exactly the most successful of hotels, run by Basil Fawlty, who seems to fail and every turn. Rigsby in 'Rising Damp' is a similar sort of character. His home, which he shares with several lodgers, isn't exactly perfect. Rigsby is a failure in the sense that the can't cope with the views of his lodgers and is a somewhat disreputable character. Compare these sitcoms with 'Warren' and you see that it doesn't stand a hope of being a successful show for BBC1. I think it would have shed audience figures  over the next couple of episodesbecause of the fact it is so awful. The BBC is probably expecting the fact that it has Martin Clunes as the central character which will draw an audience. Some hope! He has done better work, particularly with 'Doc Martin.'

The BBC has done rather well with early-afternoon drama. The 2.15 slot has seen such drama series as 'The Indian Doctor,' 'Moving On,' 'Father Brown,' and now 'Shakespeare and Hathaway.' This latest is set in Stratford-On-Avon and the action revolves round two investigators, with the rather predictable names which are reminiscent of William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway, two former inhabitants of that town. There is a certain quirkiness in the plots and there are sly references to the plays of William Shakespeare. It is similar in style to 'Father Brown,' which period had been shifted from the 1920s-1930s setting of the original G.K.Chesterton short stories to the early 1950s and set in a fictional Cotswold village. Again, quirky and with a comic edge and with a strong cast lead by Mark Williams as the eponymous Catholic priest come crime investigator.

Returning to the theme of comedy about failure, the BBC has bought back Alan Partridge, who must surely be the best example of such a type of comedy. The new show, called 'This Time.' It's a sort of spoof version of the BBC1 early evening chat show, 'The One Show.' Partridge, played by Steve Coogan, is a character you either love or hate. He has been a presenter on a range of radio and television shows over the years, mainly on lesser-known stations, particularly the fictional North Norfolk Digital. He's a bit like Hancock, he imagines he's a success, but he's a total failure. He has grand illusions of presenting all manner of shows, but just can't hack it. The new show began shakily, but as we're currently on episode 3 it seems to have found its feet. It is really about the allusion of show business, television in particular. You see behind the scenes, cutting from Partridge and his co-host sitting on the sofa smiling inanely, to what happens when they're 'off-air.' The smiles vanish and we see beyond the surface. We see the cameras and other technical equipment, the make-up ladies who swoop on the presenters to apply powder and other make-up to their faces and tidy their hair before the cameras roll once more. This is more like satire than straightforward comedy. There is a good deal more to it than just being plain 'comedy.'

I have been watching further episodes of 'Warren,' the new sitcom which stars Martin Clunes, and which runs before the Alan Partridge spoof chat-show 'This Time' on BBC1. I will give this comedy the benefit of the doubt and probably go back on what I have said earlier on this blog post. It has needed three episodes to find its feet. By this episode it has settled down somewhat. That's doesn't mean I don't dislike the central character of Warren, but there is more plot and sub-plot and this episode does at least have some decent one-liners. It has a better story arc than the first two and does at least tie up at the end. Not brilliant, but like a lot of sitcom, it takes several episodes for the writers and actors to settle down, let the characters breathe and develop naturally. You can't always get the full set-up or what the characters are like in only one episode, so I will continue to watch and see how things develop. I can't imagine an actor of Martin Clunes accepting a poor quality script, and bearing in mind that this show is made by Hat Trick productions, known for it's success with comedy over the years, it's bound to improve and I'm sure it will and the BBC will be rewarded with audience figures to go with this.