The First Lesbian Kiss on British Television
Type the title of this post into Google and you get linked to an episode on Brookside.
But this is wrong!
Last night, David Rose in his presentation showed a clip from the play he produced some years earlier called Girl.
This play doesn’t appear to be mentioned on either Wikipedia or the Internet Movie Database.
So the Internet isn’t always right!
A Presentation By David Rose At The Duke Of Wellington
David Rose is one of the most important people in the history of British television and film drama.
Tonight he gave a fascinating and insightful presentation of his work at the Duke of Wellington in the Balls Pond Road.
I remember him in some ways for the work he did in the 1960s with Z-Cars and Softly-Softly. Did Z-Cars and the music scene in Liverpool in some way influence me to go to University in that city? If it did, David is worth a big thank-you, as I’ve often said that Liverpool made me. I did of course meet C there, although she was fairly local to me in North London.
His later work for the BBC in the 1970s, was not something I remember very much, as it was the time, when we were bringing up the kids and working hard, so we didn’t watch television very much.
If David’s presentation turns up at a venue near you, it is very much worthwhile seeing.
I just wish, I’d seen more of the plays and films he has produced. Sadly, it would appear that copies don’t exist of all of them, due to the BBC’s policy of reusing videotapes.
The Brick Lane Music Hall
The building which used to be St. Mark’s Church, Silvertown, is certainly impressive, but it was designed by the well-known S. S. Teulon
It is certainly better it has a proper use, rather than just being a ruin.
The London Pleasure Gardens
I said I would go and find the tent-like structure, I noticed yesterday on my trip back from Woolwich.
It turns out it’s the London Pleasure Gardens, as described here in Time Out.
As you can see it looks all rather shut up, but then Time Out is now reporting the company has gone into administration.
Everything would appear to have been cancelled. The web site just shows a place page.
Twilight Cleans Up At The Razzies
I like this story from the BBC, abpout how the last Twilight film picked up nine awards at the Razzies. Here’s an extract from the story.
The five Twilight films have made a total of $3bn (£1.9bn) at the box office.
Razzies founder John Wilson said the worst thing about the franchise was that “people take it so seriously”.
“I believe that rather than 40 million girls who bought tickets, it was four million girls who bought 10 tickets each,” he added. “That makes me feel better about the American public.”
Kristen Stewart won the award for worst actress, but didn’t have the guts to attend, unlike Halle Berry and Sandra Bullock.
I’ve never seen any of the films, but I have seen their posters on the side of London buses. Usually, the more posters, the worse the film. Perhaps Skyfall was an exception, as I enjoyed that film.
A Mouse In The Studio
Shelagh Fogarty has just been interrupted on BBC Radio 5 Live, by a mouse running around the studio.
What a bimbo! Judging by her reaction!
It’s what you get when you move the BBC to a rodent-infested part of the North.
Now Blockbuster Bombs
Now Blockbuster seems to have gone bust.
It certainly wasn’t my custom that kept them afloat for so long.
I think, I may have rented a video a couple of times, many years ago, but who does now?
If I want to see a film, I go to the cinema and have a full experience.
How many now to fill a whole in the evening’s viewing turn to the BBC’s iPlayer and the other channels’ equivalents.
I Don’t Watch Long Films
Some of the films released now are overly long. Skyfall at just under two and a half hours was probably my limit.
But Les Miserables is just under three hours, as is The Hobbit and Django Unchained.
I always look at the duration of a film and if it’s too long I don’t go.
Tom Brook is discussing the trend here.
In some ways though, I wonder if long films are also a turn-off for cinemas, as they must restrict the number of shows and therefore the number of paying punters.
A Leather-Clad Contestant On Mastermind
I know it’s Celebrity Mastermind, as opposed to the more normal pleb version, but in all the years I’ve watched the program, I’ve never seen a female contestant in a short leather dress.
Years ago, C and I discussed this, as we saw another set of dowdily dressed women on the program. She always dressed well for Court and very much believed that dressing well always gave her an advantage. Especially with a difficult case. Even if it was just about her self-confidence.
I’ve also heard another legal story, where a commercial solicitor had a very expensive, short suit to give her usually male clients the bad news. The person, who told me this tale, always knew, when this suit was getting an outing, the way her colleague’s case that day was going.
Mastermind too, has had its fair share of male winners doing ordinary jobs, but female winners have usually been academics or those that work with their brains.
I’ve never seen a lady on the program, who was stood out from the crowd, dressed well and gave her profession as shop assistant, receptionist or barmaid.
But Adele Silva played it hard in a dress to match the chair, with heels as high as the dress was short. She did reasonably well, so did her style of dress give her confidence? And did it put off her opponents?
CSI Victorian London
The BBC’s new police drama, Ripper Street, was called this in this review in today’s Daily Telegraph.
I watched it and depending on your view of the typical reader of that newspaper, some of the elderly men, who read the Telegraph, probably liked it too. There was quite a bit of Victorian underwear and unrestrained boobs for a start. I don’t know whether Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells liked it, as he hasn’t put pen to paper yet!
I certainly enjoyed it more than Downton Abbey, which because of my allergy to adverts, I never watch!
The Anonymous Widower 