Crass and Stupid Television

Why is it that Saturday evening television has to be so dire? Around 6 o'clock and the schedulers seem to think we want to sit through ropey game shows with a voice-over who shouts at us. Stupid games,  played by 'celebrities' jumping into water, bouncing on huge inflatable balls, being soaked, covered in mud and generally acting the complete and utter fool. Such is the description of the current show on BBC1 'And their Off For Sport Relief.' So, I hear you say, it's for charity. Well, it might be, but does it have to be so dire? I know they want you to phone or text to donate money, but why come up with this total load of drivel. A couple of months back the BBC gave us something which was hosted by Len Goodman, the former 'Strictly Come Dancing' head judge, called 'Partner In Rhyme.' Truly awful. But it could hardly be any worse than something called 'Don't Scare The Hare,'  which filled the same slot a few years ago. The worst aspect of these shows has to be the awful, loud audience reactions. Do the sound engineers on these shows just turn up the volume on the studio audiences? This was no better than something dreamt up for school kids in the 1970's. I realise they are intended for 'family audiences,' but they could have come up with something a little more intelligent than this. I don't expect 'Mastermind' or 'Only Connect,' but this was far too down-market. Just filler of the worst possible sort.

I had the misfortune to watch ITV's early-morning television effort when we visited the hospital on Friday. There's very little news-worthy material in it, from what I saw. Aimed at an audience who just wants trivia, celebrity gossip, soap-news and not a lot else. The set looked remarkably like a branch of Carphone Warehouse. No wonder the BBC gets higher ratings when this is all ITV can come up with. Just not worth watching. Every five minutes they keep flashing up 'coming up next' along the bottom of the screen. The graphics are far too busy and annoying. I seem to recall, when the government was busily auctioning off the ITV franchises, when was it, in the 1990's, someone saying that ITV wouldn't 'dumb-down.' How wrong could they be? Can't get more dumber than this. Sorry, but when TV-AM had the breakfast contract it was far better than this. How things have moved on, or possibly not. I reckon it's aimed at an audience with the concentration-level of a goldfish.

I have mentioned my dislike of 'Strictly Come Dancing' in an earlier post. It must be extremely popular, which would account for the fact that it's been running every year since 2004. I have no complaint about the actual dancing, it's the hype and ballyhoo that surrounds it that I can't stand. There seems to be an over-abundance of 'talent' shows on both main channels. 'The X Factor' rules on ITV which also has 'Britain's Got Talent,' whilst the BBC had 'The Voice' for several seasons until ITV took it over. Why so many so-called 'talent' shows? Does Britain REALLY have talent? I'm not sure, but endless similar shows is annoying. The BBC sees fit to foist yet another on us, called 'All Together Now.' I have yet to watch it. Do those who win these shows find real or even imagined 'fame and fortune?' Usually they last for a few years and then fade away. Proving that you do need some sort of talent to survive in a get-rich-quick world. Th television companies must make a great deal of money out of the 'phone in' element of these shows. You have to telephone the numbers that flash up on your television screen after each dancer or singer has done their bit so that you vote. A certain percentage of the cost goes to charity (in the case of 'Strictly Come Dancing.' I think it goes to Children in Need.) and the rest no doubt gets taken by the television company.

I know, I know! I hear you saying, 'well, if you don't like it, don't watch it!' which is fine. I shouldn't. But you have to admit that watching something that is awful has a sort of 'car-crash' element to it, to see how bad it it, a sort of 'so bad, it's good', if you get my drift. And with so many other channels on Sky, there is plenty of other stuff to watch. Just thank goodness for Channel 4, BBC Four and the brilliant Sky Arts channel.

I shall end this post here, but I'm sure to find more in the days and months ahead to add to my thoughts on this vast subject.

Problems With Sky

We've been with Sky for a few years now. We originally had Sky when we lived in Crownhill. Then we had to move from that house (full details in an earlier blog post.) to this house. We opted for Freeview. More out of necessity rather than choice, because there was no Sky dish at this address. Neither was there a decent out-door ariel, which you needed if you were to receive a decent signal from Freeview. We had a Freeview set-top box and had an indoor ariel, but the picture quality was very poor. We did an on-line search through a price comparison site in an attempt to find an alternative television provider. We had intended to set up a Virgin media account, but soon discovered that we couldn't have one basically because Virgin, which is a cable company, wasn't available in Milton Keynes, which seemed a bit strange, considering that the place is so modern, you would imagine that it would have been cabled when the place was built. So we didn't have much of a choice but to go with Sky. We also wanted to switch our internet provider as well as having a land-line telephone, so we decided to have all of these services with one provider. Also, with Freeview, even if there was a decent enough signal, their service was (and probably still is) fairly basic, to say the least. You get BBC1, BBC2, ITV and Channel 4 and a handful of what can best be called 'cast-off' channels. All very well if you don't want to pay for a subscription. We wanted to be able to watch a wider range of programmes and Sky was beginning to branch out and make it's own shows. As I'm not very interested in sport,  and neither is Carol, if it comes to that, football in particular, there seemed no point in having any of the sports channels at additional cost. We felt we were missing out as there are exclusive channels they have which Freeview and Virgin don't provide. Such as Sky Arts (at that time they had two Arts channels.) Which is why we set up a Sky account and had a Sky + box as well as internet and landline telephone. It makes it simpler if you have all these services from one provider, meaning only one direct debit payment each month.

We upgraded our Sky service to Sky Q fairly recently. We wanted to have a television in our bedroom, so chose to have a multi-screen service, which means we have the main Sky Q box in the lounge. It is connected via wifi (the router is in the hall near the telephone socket.) We bought an HD television just before we got the new Sky contract sorted out. It was a 39 inch Toshiba. But it didn't last long. It failed to work and it seemed we were going to be without television for a while until we could afford a replacement. I still can't believe that set only lasted four years at most. We now have a 43 inch Hitachi and, quite honestly, it's a better set, which, like the old Toshiba, has a built-in DVD player.

So, why have I waffled on for two paragraphs? Where is all this leading? Well, the other day Carol mentioned that she couldn't get some of the channels to work. You'd get a 'no satellite signal' message come up. BBC1, BBC2, ITV and Channel 4 and 5 appeared fine, which was odd, because if they worked, why not the Sky subscription channels, such as Sky1, Sky Atlantic and the Sky Arts channel? I eventually rang the sky helpline and the on-line man ran me through some self-help instructions, the usual range of options to re-set and re-boot the Sky Q box, but nothing worked. Those channels would not work. We have booked an appointment to have an engineer come and sort the thing out on Saturday afternoon, so, hopefully, it will be back to normal after then.

I'm intrigued by the automated telephone system Sky has when you ring their helpline. It's voice-activated for a lot of the menu when you first call. I think it might put some people off ringing at all, those who don't like using automated systems. But the voice they use is quite realistic, which is probably why it might be off-putting. But I soon got through to a human and there wasn't the usual long wait you often get with call-centres and then listening to awful music for what seems like hours and hours.

Latest Reading

I've been reading some of H.G. Wells's short stories. I had a period when I was a teenager when I read all the classic fantasy and science fiction stories, from 'Dracula', 'Frankenstein' to 'First Men On The Moon' to 'The Invisible Man' as well as H.G.Wells's 'The Time Machine.' I had the complete stories in one volume (since lost.) I have since re-read that particular story (in a volume I bought second-hand through Amazon) and I'm so surprised how modern it is, considering it was first published in 1895. It's amazingly ahead of it's time and must have inspired a whole host of science fiction literature and consequently films, television series ( I can't believe the producers of 'Doctor Who' didn't read it when they were developing the show in it's early days as there are aspects of the story which are similar or at least used in some of the early stories)   Not only is it a great science fiction story, but Wells is able to make political comments which I might never have been aware of  when I originally read it. It has a believability about it which is quite striking.

Sky Arts did a series called 'The Nightmare World of H.G.Wells,' which was a series of adaptations of a few of the short stories. They were 'The Moth,''The Purple Purleus,' 'The Late Mr Elvesham,' and 'The Devotee of Art.' In some ways they have a great deal in common with the stories written by Roald Dahl and used as the basis for the ITV Anglia television series 'Tales of The Unexpected.' All having a creepy and very sinister feel to them, keeping you on the edge of your seat and all having a sting in their tail. I have since read them all and enjoyed them immensely. Another I read recently 'The Strange Orchid' is also exceptionally chilling and I expect it inspired the film 'The Little Shop of Horrors,' both the original black-and-white and musical versions.

Channel Four has recently done a series based on the short stories of Ray Bradbury and called 'Electric Dreams.' I have only seen on episode, 'The Commuter' and starring Timothy Spall. I read some of Brdbury's stories, the 'Martian Chronicles,' when they were adapted for television a couple of decades ago. I'll now have to read the short stories as a result of the latest series.

I have begun writing a 'sort of' science fiction story, very much inspired by the H.G. Wells stories. Actually the opening has been an initial idea for some time, and it's only recently that I've made any sort of effort to commit it to paper. I have been attempting to take it further, a lot of ideas coming since visiting Milton Keynes Hospital lately. It's surprising how ideas are created. Just seems all those corridors and the fact that everything is white and clean. Sort of 'Doctor Who'-type corridors, the idea of being chased along them, or searching for monsters, the 'villain' and so on. Just have to tie the various threads together to create a story line. People in blue or green overalls, with aprons, strange trolleys being pushed about. Makes you wonder, what's going on? Why? What? Lifts to strange places, different time-zones, etc etc.

I have a passion for history and read many books on historic subjects, and I'm currently reading the first of a series of books covering the last 60 years of British history. I read one which I had for Christmas a few years ago called 'Days In The Sun' and written by Dominic Sandbrook. I was unaware at the time that it was the latest instalment of what will probably be a six-part series, and I'm going back to the beginning of the series with the first book which covers the period from The Suez Crisis in 1956 up until the Beatles in 1963 and called 'Never Had It So Good.' A really chunky volume of perhaps 800-1000 pages. The next volume is 'White Heat',  takes in the 1960's; the next is entitled 'State of Emergency,' covers the period 1970-1974, whilst the third volume  'Seasons In The Sun,' takes in the the years 1974-1979. I believe he's been responsible for a television series called 'The Eighties,' so one assumes there will eventually be a book to go with it. It would be great if he can complete the series with 'The Nineties,' and possibly 'The 2000's' and into the current decade. I have the complete collection. The first two were offered as a set  on Amazon and cost less than the full price of just one volume. A real bargain and they are both brand new copies. These books are really well written, the detail is impressive and it must have been a long process to do all the research these volumes, each at least 800 pages.

I read the two-part 'Making of Modern Britain' written by Andrew Marr. The first book begins in 1901 with the death of Queen Victoria and ends in 1945 with the end of World War 2. The second volume takes up in 1945 and continues on into the 2000's. Both are companion books to Marr's BBC1
 television series.

900th Post: Elephants at Whipsnade

We've been waiting for two new exhibits to open at Whipsnade Zoo. They have been building the new Elephant Care building for about a year. Whenever we've visited over that period we've seen the work going on. Also, the brand new African Hunting Dog's enclosure near where the wolves used to be. This section opened on 1st April and then on Tuesday H.M. Queen visited to open the elephant's centre. There was a mention of this on Facebook, via the Z.S.L. website and their Facebook page and on both local television news programmes, Anglia's About Anglia and BBC1's 'Look East' did items, even though not very long. So on Wednesday we decided to visit.

The journey down the A5 was fine until we reached the outskirts of Dunstable. There was quite a queue of traffic and it moved exceptionally slowly until we reached the set of traffic lights and had to make a right turn towards Dunstable Downs. A rather frustrating journey and it wasn't too clear what was causing such long delays.

We arrived at Whipsnade at around 11, having been shopping at Aldi earlier. The weather has been fine and sunny, but it was actually quite cold, so we had to wear jackets. It can be a good deal colder up on the Downs where Whipsnade is situated. It was probably ideal weather for visiting the zoo because a lot of the animals were more active than usual. If it's too hot they tend to hide away in the shade. The place was very busy, with long queues at the entrance. One advantage of Carol being a Fellow of Z.S.L. is that we not only don't have to pay for entrance, but we can drive in (also without paying) which means we can drive around within the park, thereby reducing the amount of walking we would otherwise have to do as the place is quite large and the enclosures which house the animals are a fair distance apart.

We couldn't park the car where we usually park, near the bears. We drove round the zoo until we got to the area near the tigers. A lot of the paths around that area had been closed off with metal fences. I presume they had been left over from the previous day when the Queen had been to open the Elephant Care Centre. Regardless of whether these fences were in place, people were ignoring them and walking around them. We went towards the elephant enclosures and found a great many people milling around. Whipsnade had been used a few months ago for the BBC1 television programme " The Big Painting Challenge" which was shown on Sunday evenings. The contestants had to do paintings of the flamingos as well as the elephants and we knew, from watching the show, whereabout they had set things up. It's strange how so many of the places we've been to over the years get shown on television. Sky did a similar show on their Arts channel and the locations for their landscape shows were done at a lot of National Trust properties we've been to, such as Stowe Landscape Gardens which is a round a 20-minute drive away from Milton Keynes. Well, if nothing else, these programmes have put these places on the map and no doubt have encouraged people to visit them. No doubt the fact that Her Majesty coming to Whipsnade to open the Elephant Care Centre prompted many of today's visitors to visit the zoo. We then walked over towards the new African Hunting Dogs enclosure which was opened at the beginning of April. It looks somewhat sparce and obviously needs more landscaping. I think they introduced the pack of dogs to get them accustomed to their new home before making to many changes. There is a viewing platform which allows you to see the dogs without having too much obstruction by fencing or screening. We learned that the Elephant Centre wasn't open until 1 o'clock which we didn't realise when we came into the zoo.

It always amuses us to see people who insist on taking photographs of themselves rather than the animals. This obsession with taking selfies is crazy. Why do people spend so much time and money visiting these places, and then end up taking photographs of each other and not the place they are visiting? We've seen this so many times at either the zoos or National Trust properties and elsewhere. Just idiotic, to say the least. Just so they can post them on such social media sites as Facebook.

We needed some sort of refreshment so went to the Wild Bite Café. We were more than a little shocked to find it so busy. And noisy, with children screaming and one annoying child creating such a loud noise I felt like leaving immediately. Carol ordered our coffee and sandwiches and I had to find a table to sit at. Not easy. It really seems that they ought to sort this out, build new facilities or at least provide more space for seating. I would imagine the place was busy because of the fact it's the Easter Holidays and people seeing the Queen on television opening the elephant house.

We had a drive around the perimeter of the zoo, visiting the shop at the entrance and having an ice-cream and then left for home. No doubt we'll be returning later in the year.

Even More Viewing

There's been quite a few television programmes about musical theatre over the past few weeks. Sky Arts have a programme called 'Backstage With Disney On Broadway'. It's 20 years since Disney produced 'Beauty and The Beast' as a stage musical. The show tells the background story to not only 'Beauty and The Beast' but the other Disney animated films which have since been bought to the stage, such as 'The Lion King,' 'Aladdin', 'Mary Poppins' and 'The Newsies.' This last show is new to me. I had never heard of it. If you don't manage to catch this show when it's broadcast,  then you might be able to see it because Sky Arts shows a lot of it's programmes in a sort of cycle, which means if you don't see it the first time round, it is very likely to be shown at a later date, and time, or, if you have Sky+ or, as we do, Sky Q, then you should be able to find it on catch-up, so you can download it. With our Sky Q box we can at least record around 300 hours of programmes (not that we're likely to store that many at any one time.) we can at least watch things which have been record, particularly when there's so much on, as there was over Christmas.

Then, over Christmas there was another treat. It was called 'West Side Stories: The Making of A Classic", and tells the story of how the Leonard Bernstein/Stephen Sondheim musical was conceived and bought to the stage in 1957. Loosely based on William Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet,' but given a contemporary (well, 1950's) New York setting, the documentary concentrated more on the dance which was used in the show, which explains why Bruno Tonioli was one of the presenters (he is one of the judges on the popular BBC1 show, 'Strictly Come Dancing.') It has always been one of my favourite shows, basically because it has a very strong score, which has barely dated. I have the movie on DVD, which came out in 1961. As I say, the score hasn't dated, nor has the theme of tolerance and racial division, probably more relevant today than when it was first produced. The film looks as fresh as the first day it was released, although perhaps the costumes might look somewhat dated, but the style of the whole thing, the use of colour, graphics and the fact that it was filmed on the actual streets where it is set, makes it quite remarkable. It went on to win no less than 11 Oscars, including Best Picture, Director and Cinematography. 

Then, last Friday, BBC Four gave us the first of a three-part documentary series called "Sound of Musicals With Neil Brand." The first episode did a short history of the musical, from the early 20th Century. Neil Brand, who is someone I haven't heard of before, gave a very academic reading of some of the most iconic songs from musicals, how they were written as well as how they were constructed as well as the background study on several classic musicals. He touched briefly on 'West Side Story," "Annie Get Your Gun" which was being shown in rehearsal at the Sheffield Crucible Theatre. Another bit of history was the background to "My Fair Lady" and had rare footage of Julie Andrews, who was the original Eliza Doolittle in the Broadway production in 1956 and then came to London for the transfer when it played at the  Theatre Royal Theatre, Drury Lane.  The next two programmes are going to cover the story of more recent musicals and no doubt will cover those shows created and produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber, such as 'Phantom of The Opera."

I have mentioned this in an earlier post, but when I was at Rushmoor School we went to see the original London production of Oliver! It must have been my first experience of a West End musical. I can't think how the teacher, Mr Crutchley, managed to get tickets for such a top-rated show. It can't have been opened very long when we went. We didn't pay for the tickets, so, even to this day, I have no idea who paid for them. I suppose around 25 of us went, on a Saturday. Quite a challenge for one man to take a group like us to London. I think I would have been 10-11, because the show opened in 1960, and, as I say, we can't have gone to see it barely months after it opened. I remember quite vividly the set, designed by Sean Kenny. A year or so later we went to see another musical 'Pickwick' which was on at the Saville Theatre in Shaftsbury Avenue. Since converted into a cinema. The show starred Harry Secombe. 

I think I became interested in not just theatre, but also musicals, because my grandmother was a good pianist (something my elder brother, Robert seems to have inherited.) She had a piano in her sitting room at Mill Farm,  Cardington, where she lived. On the top of the piano were scores for a number of musicals which would have been running at the time (the late 1950's, early 1960's, which included "My Fair Lady" and "Salad Days.") The last I mention was a show which was produced when I was working as a Student A.S.M. at the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham in 1969. It was an exceptionally hot summer that year, and, as part of the season of shows, the programmed show which was scheduled to be staged, "The Country Wife," a Restoration comedy by William Wycherley. Because of falling audiences, due to the heatwave, it was decided that it would be better to abandon the Wycherley play and instead do "Salad Days," which would have been cheaper to stage. The costumes and wigs for a Restoration Comedy would have been too great. It was therefore the first time I'd worked on a musical. It's probably a bit twee and simplistic for modern audiences, about a magical piano which makes people dance. It was originally staged in the early 1950's, and the music is pleasant but I don't think it would go down too well with a modern, early 21st century audience, more used to shows such as 'Les Miswerables' or even 'Wicked.' The Artistic Director of the Everyman Theatre at the time, Michael Ashton, who directed this production of "Salad Days," was responsible for writing a musical himself. It was called "The Young Visiters." It was based on a book written by a young girl called Daisy Ashford. The musical was given a West End run and starred Alfred Marks and an actress who was in the company at the Everyman, Vivienne Ross, was also in this show. She was the female lead in the production of "Salad Days" at Cheltenham. She was in  the ITV soap 'Coronation Street'  as Stella Rigby, a friend of Bet Lynch when she was landlady of the Rover's Return pub, as Stella Rigby, another landlady who ran The White Swan.            
(Incidentally, I have spelt 'Visiters' correctly. It is how Daisy Ashford spelt the word, as a child would, when the book was originally published.)

Further to what I mentioned about Oliver!, in around 1968, at about the time I was leaving school, I was attempting to get into theatre, stage management in particular. I had an interview at R.A.D.A. (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art) with the intention of doing a Stage Management course there. I went with my mother and aunt to London for this interview. I remember we went by train. We went from Sandy railway station, because my aunt lived near Sandy, so I suppose it was the best station to go to London from. When I'd had the interview (I didn't get into R.A.D.A. if you're interested. Read my earlier posts on my stage management experience working in 'rep.') After the interview, my mum and aunt went off somewhere in London on their own. No doubt they went to do some shopping. I want to see the film of 'Oliver!' which had then recently just opened at the Odeon, Leicester Square. It's a good transfer of a stage musical to the big screen, the dances are good and the production design is good, but it does seem a bit tame when you think how they did the movie version of 'Les Miserables.' Far too bright and well lit and clean to be convincing as Victorian London. I have since learnt that the young lad who played Oliver, Mark Lester, had his voice dubbed by a girl, which must have been a bit of an insult.

Visit to Stowe Landscape Gardens

With the sun shining brightly it seemed a real waste to stay in doors so an outing was required. We have been watching the Sky Arts programme ' Sky Landscape Artists of 2016.' Each week they visit a National Trust location and the contestants have to paint a picture in 4 hours. This week they were at Stowe Landscape Gardens near Buckingham. We decided to visit today as the weather is likely to change over the weekend. We couldn't take Poppy, as she is now too old and her eyesight has gone but Alfie was definitely keen to go. However much you attempt to keep our intentions quiet, he soon picks up things and starts howling and barking. Carol got his travelling cage out of the spare bedroom and put it in the back of the car. Fortunately we had done our weekly shop at Aldi's on Friday, as we usually go shopping on a Saturday morning, which meant we were able to go out without having to think about our weekly supermarket visit. The sun might have be out, but it was quite chilly as we drove away from the house.

On arrival at the carpark at Stowe we were surprised to discover that there were quite a few cars already parked and people getting out of their cars dressed in running gear as well as many dogs. It appeared that there was some sort of running event going on, with some of the runners taking their dogs with them. Alfie was quite excited to have the chance to meet other dogs, of various shapes and sizes. He may be small, but he has very little fear when meeting dogs several times his size! We kept him firmly on his lead, though. We walked to the visitor centre, which is a recently-opened building, taking in the restored New Inn which is apparently where visitors stayed around 300 years ago when Stowe was originally opened. A new part of this visitor centre includes a restaurant and a shop as well as toilets and other facilities. We were allowed to enter the gardens early, a good fifteen minutes before it was supposed to open at 10.00 a.m. Before, when you visited, the carpark was the opposite side of the gardens, near the school playing fields, but when they began restoration of Stowe they wanted to make your visit as near to how it would have been in the early days of it being opened and you now have to walk along what is called Bellgate Drive, around a mile's walk to what is Bell Gate, which is the actual entrance to Stowe Landscape Gardens.

View across lake towards the Palladian Bridge at 

Stowe Landscape Gardens

There was music playing as we came out of the visitor's centre. An inflatable construction, like a sort of arch, had been erected, which was presumably where the race began and ended. On our walk towards Bell Gate we came across lots of people either running alone or with dogs. It's not something I've seen before. Alfie so wanted to be allowed to be let off his lead, but dogs are supposed to be kept on their leads at Stowe. I suppose because there are sheep and other livestock in the adjacent fields. When we take him for walks in our local park or along the Redway we allow him his freedom, which he loves, running back and forth, sniffing the trees and cocking his leg against every tree and shrub! But this time we kept him firmly on his lead.

Palladian Bridge at Stowe

I took quite a lot of photographs as we walked around the grounds. We walked towards the Palladian Bridge, which spans one of the lakes. It was around here that the Sky Landscape Artist of The Year show was filmed. They had the view up towards the Gothic temple in the background and the Palladian bridge also. We crossed the bridge, following a Land Rover, no doubt being driven by a member of the National Trust staff who manage the site. I was surprised that the bridge was strong enough to bear the weight of a vehicle such as a Land Rover. We walked on up the hill and it was here we dared to let Alfie off his lead. He was so pleased, barking happily and running ahead of us.
He runs back and forth, never in a straight line, but certainly getting plenty of exercise in the process. Up to the top of the hill and then round to the left where we stopped to sit on a bench near some trees. Great views down towards the lakes and to take some more photographs. We walked on and into the main part of the gardens and then round back towards Bell Gate again and to walk back towards the visitor's centre and back to the carpark and eventually drive home to Milton Keynes.

Corinthian Arch in distance at Stowe

Calke Abbey and Car Break-Down

The sun was shining. Why spend a Saturday indoors when you could be outside, visiting a National Trust property? Visiting Whipsnade or even London Zoo or any of the attractions in and around Milton Keynes and the adjacent counties? We had looked in the National Trust handbook and on-line at their website and decided on Calke Abbey, which we had intended visiting a while ago and had given up on the journey up the M1 as it was in the middle of being widened or some other roadworks on it's length for I don't know how many miles going north from Milton Keynes and junction 14 on. We left home at around 9.30 a.m., having filled up with petrol at our usual Shell station in Grafton Street. We got on the motorway and the journey wasn't too bad but the confounded roadworks we eventually met meant we could only travel at 50 m.p.h. I don't know why they have to have these coned-off sections or why you have to drive so slowly and at one point along what would have been the hard shoulder. It really put a damper on the day's outing. We came off the motorway at junction 23 and headed for Calke Abbey and Ashby de la Zouche. Infact, it turned out to be not far from Twycross Zoo, which we visited a few months ago (see earlier blog post for details.) We arrived at Calke Abbey to discover the carpark overflowing. You drive in through a very attractive avenue of trees and through a park with sheep in it and at one point these sheep were laying down in the shade of the trees and one sheep in particular looked as if it might be dead rather than asleep and almost in the path of our car and others who followed into the carpark. We had to get a timed ticket in order to visit the house (it is to prevent too many people walking around at once.) Our time slot was at 1.45 which gave us time enough to have a drink and a sandwich in the very nice restaurant (there are actually two, as we discovered.) as well as browsing in the shop and then watching a video about Calke Abbey. I think it was actually a video of a television programme from a series that has been shown on the Sky Arts channel on National Trust properties and narrated by Martin Jarvis. I'd know his voice anywhere as he seems to make a living doing voice-overs and narrating books on B.B.C. Radio 4 Extra. We'd seen a couple of these documentaries and saw one on Waddesdon and another on Stourhead, two places we've visited at one time or other over the years. We wandered around the gardens, very beautifully kept, with attractive flower beds and all the rest and then wandered into the house. I'm not sure whether I liked it as much as some places we've visited, perhaps because it has been left in a  somewhat decayed and unkempt manner. Some of the rooms a a little too over furnished and in the Victorian style whereby there are too many ornaments for our taste. Some of the upstairs rooms are in a very poor state, but it's good that they are allowing the public to see how they go about restoring not only the structure of these old properties but also the artefacts within them, such as tapestries and pieces of furniture. A pity that so much of the house has to be left in almost complete darkness. I realise that they want to protect the interiors and furniture and other items from the damage which can be caused by light, but in some cases it's so dark you can barely see what's in some of the rooms.

We finished our tour of the house. We spent more time meandering around the grounds and then had a further rest to have ice-cream and a drink and then left for home. It took some while before we hit the correct road which lead to the M1. We again had to endure the confounded 50 m.p.h. zone through the roadworks. After a fairly short distance Carol, who was driving, said there was a problem with the car. An oil light came on on the dashboard and then a 'stop' sign lit up on the display. We've got used to the alarm which keeps coming on which shows there's a problem with the E.S.P. mechanism (described in greater detail in an earlier post, after we had visited another National Trust property at Ascott a few months ago.) What were we to do? Were we to continue with our journey, or find somewhere to draw into at the side of the motorway and wait for a recovery vehicle to come and rescue us as the signs kept on telling us on the boards all along the section of roadworks on the M1? There seemed no option but to pull over between the cones which sectioned off the lane which would in another situation been the hard shoulder which is intended for breakdowns. This is what we did and fortunately we have our own breakdown cover with Swinton insurance. I used my mobile to call for assistance which took a long time to connect. By the time I'd done this a breakdown truck had arrived and we had to be taken off the motorway at junction 16 and left in a truck-stop lay-by which fortunately had a pub where we could get a drink and a sandwich as well as very convenient toilets. We had to re-arrange the breakdown rescue from Swinton as they had been directed to collect us from the motorway. We we then informed that it would be a good two hours before they could arrive. But by then we were relieved to have been rescued from the motorway roadside as it was somewhat nerve -wracking, to say the least. Not something I would ever want to repeat, even though the traffic was moving at 50 m.p.h. through the roadworks it was still extremely heavy-flowing and dangerous. I have never, in all my driving career of some 45 years or so, broken down on a motorway and had to be rescued. Indeed, I think in all that time I have perhaps had no more than three callouts or had to use my car insurance for some incident. The rescue truck did eventually arrive and the car was lifted up onto the back of the truck and we were taken home. A very upsetting and annoying end to what had started out as such a pleasant day out and, considering what had happened to the car exactly a week ago in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne not something we had anticipated happening again. The driver who took us back to Milton Keynes had a look at the car when it had been delivered safely onto our driveway and said he thought it could be the head gasket that had caused the problem.

Re-visiting Brideshead

I am currently watching the Granada Television series "Brideshead Revisited" which is currently being re-run on Sky Arts. I remember seeing it when it was originally shown in the early 1980's.  Couldn't help then being captivated by it then and the same can be said about it now. It seems to have stood the test of time remarkably well. It's amazing to think that Granada, in those days a single company within a 'federated' ITV would produce something as lavish as this series. It runs to 11 episodes and if I remember rightly the first and last episodes run for 90 minutes. So that's around 12 hours of running time! Seems amazing that you would even think of making a drama series that ran that long in the 1980's, but nothing would be made with such detail and with such a superb cast in the early part of the 21st century. I do have some sort of link to it, having worked as an A.S.M. at Greenwich Theatre in the early 1970's and was involved in a play written by John Mortimer called "A Voyage Round My Father"  (see earlier post where I give much more detail on this.) John Mortimer was credited with writing the screenplay, but, having just looked on I.M.D.B. I discover that his screenplay wasn't used although his name remained on the credits. I wonder why. Anthony Andrews portrayal of Sebastian is quite mesmerising. It's the sort of acting which has you hooked. It would have been easy to have gone 'over the top' and played him as just camp, but he seems to avoid this quite admirably. There's no acting that comes up to this sort of standard on television that I can think of at the moment, intact, there's nothing that equals this series on anywhere on television at the moment. I can't think of anything which keeps you so hooked, where you have to find out 'what happens next' and look forward to the next episode.

I can't say that I'm actually over-enthusiastic about it as a piece of television drama. I know I watched it way back when it was first broadcast in 1981 and I read the book, but I have to say the characters are so arrogant and hateful I can't say they exactly draw you in. They are all self-centred, don't exactly show any redeeming features and are not particularly likeable. The central character, Charles Ryder, the narrator and played by Jeremy Irons, is so totally boring that you can't latch on to him at all. He goes about being to ally miserable all the time. He's supposed to be a painter but he's not very convincing. Who would bother hiring him? Sebastian, the character played by Anthony Andrews, is an interesting character, but he doesn't have to work as he's got money, presumably from being a aristocrat. He drinks himself stupid. Who would employ him anyway? None of the characters have to work, which is one reason I can't possibly engage with any of them. I have to say that the filming, direction and settings are excellent, but I can't imagine this series being produced with such a lavish style in the early part of the 21st century. It has a very downbeat ending to it and not exactly leaving you with a feeling that any of the characters find happiness in any way shape or form.

There is another connection I have, although vaguely with 'Brideshead Revisited.' I mentioned earlier that I had worked on 'A Voyage Round My Father' at Greenwich. During the run of the play, there was much talk of it transferring to the West End. It did eventually make it to the West End, but I don't think it was the same production and if so it had a different cast. I know that Alec Guinness played the central character of the Father, and if memory serves he did come to see the Greenwich production which had Mark Dignam playing the Father. Laurence Olivier came to see it and came back-stage after the performance. He played Lord Marchmaine in 'Brideshead, although he doesn't actually have a major part and is only in two episodes, when Sebastian takes Charles to Venice and in the final episode when Lord Marchmaine returns to England and there he has a somewhat long and drawn-out death. I remember when I first saw the series in the 1980's this episode, which runs for 90 minutes did seem a little over-long. But I can at least say I have been in the same room with Laurence Olivier, although not to speak to! Much later on Thames Television did a new television version of 'A Voyage Round My Father' and Oliver was in that. Another actor from "Voyage" has a small part in "Brideshead Revisited," John Nettleton, who played the commanding officer at the beginning and the end of the series, from the time that Charles Ryder, played by Jeremy Irons, revisits Brideshead Castle when he is an army officer and billeted at the house at the beginning of the Second World War. And I did notice in the closing credits that an actor I worked with at  Ipswich Theatre in the 1970's, Stephen Mallatratt, had a minor role. He went on to adapt the Susan Hill book "The Woman In Black for the stage and which has become a huge hit in the West End and on tour. He wrote scripts for many television series including "Coronation Street."

Compared to current television dramas it's light years ahead of, say Downton Abbey. I have seen one episode and I can't see what all the fuss is about.  Not particularly engaging characters and the story lines don't convince. I think the big problem  Carol and I have is that there are far too many adverts on I.T.V. I think within an hour's running time you get three breaks which is every 20 minutes. It's actually better to record on Sky+ and then when the advertising breaks come up just fast-forward through the commercials. I realise that it's these commercials that pay for programming on I.T.V., but when it's for such things as car insurance and sofas, then it does get incredibly boring. And can someone explain why these sofa companies are always having sales? We watched something else the other evening and there were no less than three adverts all for sofa companies? 

Having been to Castle Howard in Yorkshire, which is used throughout as the location for Brideshead Castle, and thoroughly loving the place, and the fact that it was filmed in various other locations throughout England, together with an exceptional cast, this is one television series well worth seeing again. I  can recommend it highly.

Why is it that so much of television today gives me a headache? I don't mean the subject-matter so much as the fact that directors insist on using some really headache-inducing camera techniques,
 what they call 'whip-pans' and something which makes me feel positively sick, where you have a couple of actors standing still and the camera spins around them? What on earth is that all about? You get things chopped up in the editing suite so you get a lot of very brief 'clips' and it's hard to make out what it is. Another is when they insist on having the actors walking along and the camera follows them, but instead of it being a smooth 'dolly shot' where the camera runs along a specially-constructed track, you get a really horrible wobbly hand-held camera shot which makes you feel queasy. Not nice. Well, none of this seems to be used in the making of 'Brideshead Revisited.' I presume it was made when such techniques weren't used much.  Is it because these unpleasant filming techniques are a way to cut costs? No reason can I give except that it's 'trendy' or 'arty.' Actually means that I'm not going to endure the show and just turn off or find something else to watch.  it seems that producers treat their audience with a great deal of contempt because everything seems to be in short time spans, that is, scenes are short as if the audience can't concentrate on anything for no more than a couple of minutes at a time. This was true of things like 'EastEnders' (which, incidentally, I can't stand as it's full of such hateful characters who are always falling out with each other and always shouting. Not good for one's nerves. Just not enjoyable viewing.) where you have several concurrent story lines and they keep on switching between them and you never know exactly what is going on unless you watch regularly.  Then there's the drama series adapted from a novel or something and instead of adapting it in sufficient episodes to make it worthwhile watching it's done in perhaps two or there when perhaps six or even more episodes would be better. No doubt this is because of budgetary constraints. This was evident a few years ago when they did a series based on 'South Riding' which was done in three episodes and the plot line was telescoped so much into the timeframe it was incomprehensible. None of this occurs with 'Brideshead Revisited.' In some ways it's incredibly slow and there are whole episodes where virtually nothing happens, but at least there is some character development. I know there is a newer, film, adaptation of 'Brideshead' but it makes me wonder how on earth you can telescope so much story into a running time of about 90 minutes without it seeming rushed. Well, with the vast running time of the Granada version of the book there is definitely space for the story to develop along with the characters.