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.

New BBC1 Sunday Evening Sitcom

We've been watching the new BBC1 sitcom, 'Hold The Sunset.' It fills the slot vacated by 'Still Open All Hours.' It stars John Cleese and Alison Steadman. They play a couple who are 'just good friends' and he's keen to marry her so they can sell up and move abroad to the sun. But just when she decides to take him up on his offer and they crack open the champaign, there is a knock at the door and her 50-year-old son arrives, having left his wife. This character is played by Jason Watkins, and once he appears he more or less steals the show. He's regressed to his childhood and has a temper tantrum when he learns that his mother gave away his precious collection of comics to a charity shop. Compared to the recently ended 'Still Open All Hours,' it's far more subtle and doesn't rely on a studio audience to point up the comedy. It isn't 'laugh out loud' funny and the characterisation is very detailed, not relying on stereotype which the David Jason vehicle relies heavily on. It's more than 40 years since Cleese wrote and performed in 'Fawlty Towers,' so it something of a surprise to find that this new comedy is totally different in style to that famous series. We will have to wait and see how the rest of the series develops and how it does as regards ratings, but all the signs are that it's good real potential and will be worth sticking with over the next couple of Sunday evenings. At least the BBC is trying hard to come up with new sitcoms. This has been the slot, over the years, which has been taken up by a succession of sitcoms, from 'Bread' to 'Keeping Up Appearances' so we will wait and see how it fares.

Current Television Comedy

What, in the way of television comedy, do the networks have to offer us at the moment? BBC1 can give you a rehash of the classic 1970's show 'Porridge.' It was revived as part of the BBC's 'Sitcom' season, something to do with it being 60 years since the first 'Hancock' television series. They gave us  rehashes of 'Are You Being Served?' (really awful. The original was never brilliant, a lot of cliches and rather annoying catch-phrases, Mr Humphry's limp wrist and Mrs Slocombe's cat and her over-the top hairstyles, but definitely stuck in a 1970's end-of-the-pier type comedy limbo.) Also, a prequel to 'Keeping Up Appearances' (I never saw it). The one-off episode of 'Porridge' was alright, up to a point, but it wasn't exactly what you'd call 'comedy gold.' It's the one episode which has been developed as a full series of six episodes. But let's be honest, 'Porridge,' in it's original incarnation, was brilliant for being great basically because it was a well-written and acted gem because of it's leading actor, Ronnie Barker. How on earth can an actor emulate his timing, his skill as a comic actor and general all-round likability? The BBC had revived another of his comic hits, 'Open All Hours,' and given David Jason's character, the downtrodden nephew, Granville, the central role. From being the put-upon delivery-boy to becoming the owner of the corner shop, might sound a good idea, basically because Jason is such a popular actor, and they know, with him in it, audiences will watch regardless. It's just that there remake, which is called, unimaginatively, 'Still Open All Hours' is just a clone of the original and is stuck determinedly in the mid 1970's. By now real corner shops have moved on, to being Tesco Extras and Little Waitroses. I think Arkwright's shop would have been taken over by Tesco's by now. It's just a rather creaky excuse for some corny jokes.

Let's leave off about the reboots. Please, BBC, don't do any more. Just because they get large ratings doesn't mean it's a good idea to do more. ITV revived 'Birds of A Feather' which was originally made for the BBC, and gets good ratings, but why do they have to keep on copying what the other channel does?

To original sitcoms. There's 'W1A', which isn't what I'd call a traditional sitcom in the sense that a sitcom is made in a television studio, with around 3 electronic camera, and is performed and recorded before a live audience. 'W1A' isn't made in that format. It doesn't have a live audience, to begin with, is shot (presumably) using a single camera, on location, in the style of a 'mockumentary.' It was a 'sort of' spin-off from the earlier series '2012' (to tie in with the London Olympics.) It has many of the same actors from that, Hugh Bonneville being one of those actors. There is a commentary, delivered by David Tennant (which is something traditional sitcom never has.) It is something of a one-joke comedy.

I've just discovered something on Gold, one of the UKTV digital channels. It's called 'The Rebel' and stars Simon Callow who plays Henry Palmer, a pensioner who absolutely detests the way old people are treated in society. It's based on a comic strip in 'The Oldie' magazine. In this way it is similar to a Radio Four sitcom called 'Clare In The Community' which is based on Harry Venning's 'Guardian' cartoon strip of the same name. 'The Rebel' is currently in it's second series, but, as I've only just discovered it, I've started watching it from the beginning of the first series which is available on catch-up. One of the advantages of having this technology is that you can watch series which you might not have otherwise managed to see. I know you can do this if you have DVDs of series, but in some way catch-up is better because you don't have to have piles of DVDs you watch once and probably never watch again. Anyway, I don't think Simon Callow has ever done sitcom before. He's generally known for fairly light comedy, or at least learning towards that sort of area, but I've never seen him in this sort of vehicle before. It's great to see actors in something that is slightly different from their usual roles. I can't see this being shown on the main channels, BBC1 or BBC2, although it might be shown after the watershed, because the language and some of the subject matter is quite, what I'd call contentious. By the way, don't confuse 'The Rebel' with the Tony Hancock film of he same name. There is no connection in any way with that film. Just a note.

Another more recent sitcom, although not in the stereotypical mould is 'Boomers'which is about three couples who are in the category of being retired. They live in 'Norfolk's only west facing resort, Thurnmouth. It ran for two series as well as a couple of Christmas specials on BBC1 and was written by Richard Pinto. It starred Philip Jackson, Alison Steadman, Russ Abbott, June Whitfield, Stephanie Beacham and Paula Wilcox. It was written by Richard Pinto. It's shot on film and has a similar feel to a much earlier series which also starred Russ Abbott with the sorely missed actor, Michael Williams, married to the fantastic Judi Dench and called 'September Song.' I think you would describe it as being 'bitter/sweet' as it could be extremely funny one minute and the next quite sad and extremely poignant. I think the best comedy should be able to shift between sad and the next be amusing. In a sense Anton Chekov's plays have a similar feeling to them, not entirely achingly funny, but having a depth to them beyond being merely amusing. It could definitely leaving you with a lump in your throat and give you pause for thought. Not a lot of modern comedy can do that. It moves from being funny one minute and the with a shift of emphasis be quite profound.

Grumpy Kleeneze Man

I had to write this on a post. I decided on Monday morning to have a bath. As one does. The house is empty. It's quiet. Nice to have a nice hot bath. We got some nice bath foam in Sainsbury's the other day. It take quite a while for the bath to fill up as the gas boiler only runs when you turn the hot tap on. A relatively ancient system. You have to run the hot tap for a minute or two before it runs hot and then hot enough for a relatively warm bath and some time before the water-level is high enough before I actually get in. 

A couple of days ago we had the latest Kleeneze catalogue shoved through the door. I didn't bother to look at it, because, to be honest, I can't see the point of ordering anything as most of what they sell you can buy elsewhere, such as Asda, Sainsbury or Tesco (or any number of similar outlets.) and they also have a website so if I was desperate for a gadget to catch spiders in, or a thing for de-fluffing the stair carpet or getting the dust out from behind  a radiator with a special brush, I might be inclined to by it on-line or go to a shop to buy such an item. Not that over-awed by their stuff at the best of times so why bother. I know if you get these confounded catalogues you have no choice but to put them outside where the agent can retrieve them when they call back. Not as if the things are actually wanted. Just another load of stuff that gets shoved through the letter box along with leaflets for pizza deliveries, estate agencies telling you they can sell your house or double-glazing companies. So, I had it ready where I could find it for when the agent came back and was likely to knock on the door and demand the thing, so it's a good idea to have it where you can find it and not be looking around to retrieve the confounded thing. 

Well, to get to the point of the story and the connection with my bath . . .  . cut to the chase and so on . . . I was waiting incidentally for a parcel to arrive from Amazon. Carol had ordered a book on teaching psychology or something and so it was actually quite an important parcel so I was keeping one ear open, as they say, for the merry knock on the door by an employee of Royal Mail. So, as I settled down to have a rather pleasant soak in the bath, there was a somewhat angry-sounding knock on the door. At first I just ignored it, but when it was heard again I had no option but to respond. It would mean getting out of the bath and drying myself and then finding my clothes and then going downstairs to answer the door. So, instead, I made the decision to get out of the bath and open the window and calling down to the, as yet, unseen person at the door.  Well, I had no clothes on (!) but my modesty was well hidden as I lent out of the open window. As I peered out I couldn't see directly below the window as there is a porch which has a roof which hid the person below. I shouted down, believing the person pounding on the door to be a postman, as I expected the Amazon parcel to be in the process of being delivered and that the postman wanted to hand it over as it was unlikely to fit through the letter-box. So I said 'can you put it in the bin-cupboard?' which is immediately next to the front door and the usual place for items which won't fit through the letter-box if we are out when they arrive. But it wasn't the postman. Instead, a face turned up to me, of a somewhat grumpy gentleman who was obviously a Kleeneze agent. He shouted 'leave the catalogue out for me by Thursday!' and walked off in something of a huff. Not exactly the sort of customer-service I would expect from someone I was likely to buy something off. More likely put me off and not bother. So I completed my bath, the still and peace of the morning somewhat ruined by a grumpy old git.

This whole episode puts me in mind of the B.B.C. Television sitcom "One Foot In The Grave" as the grumpy old Kleeneze man makes me think of the character in it played by Richard Wilson, Victor Meldew, who was just as grumpy and bad-tempered as the man I had the misfortune to come into contact on the occasion of that morning a few days ago.

I have now put the wretched Kleeneze catalogue out on the doorstep. It is in a plastic bag which is supposed to keep it dry if left out in the rain. It is there for grumpy old man to collect when he returns on Thursday. Sorry to say, if he treats all his customers in the same way as me he won't get many sales. Actually, next time one of their catalogues is thrust through the letter box I think I'm more inclined to throw it out with the recycling as it has put me off Kleeneze altogether. I shall now make a point of NOT buying anything from the aforementioned Kleeneze catalogue if and indeed, when, it is shoved through our letterbox. The stuff inside it is generally not up to much anyway, and certainly if he man who runs the thing in this area is so rude and bloody-minded he can keep his rubbishy catalogue and all it contains if all he's going to be is miserable and grumpy.

Fine And Sunny

Well, wouldn't you believe it? Well, perhaps you would, there again, perhaps you wouldn't. After yesterday's washed-out Bank Holiday Monday, today is fine and sunny! It had to rain, as it was a Bank Holiday. The classic sort of day, stuck in a traffic jam somewhere, miles from anywhere, over-priced food, sandwiches, petrol prices increasing JUST as the holiday approaches, nowhere to park, and when you get there, nowhere to get a decent cup of tea, everywhere runs out of icecream, screaming kids, miserable weather, queues a mile long to get into tourist attractions, for example Alton Towers, Warwick Castle, Keswick, Southwold, or any other seaside resort. Think of the classic episode of 'One Foot In The Grave' with Victor Meldrew and his wife Elizabeth and their friend Mrs Warboys, stuck in a traffic jam and Victor moaning on, going nowhere, stuck in the car, on a Bank Holiday. One of the best episodes of the sitcom.

Anyway, as I was saying, it has to be sunny on the day AFTER  a Bank Holiday, and particularly one where it's been so wet and miserable. And, please, can someone explain why the banks should deserve a holiday, after the total mess they've caused the country with the so-called 'Credit Crunch.' Would it be better if they had a couple of days extra work where they put back some of the money they've taken off the innocent tax-payer since we've given them the money in the first place?