Three Generations of Cutlers

A little more information following my blog of 2nd July about Jacob Roberts baptised 1697. On the database of cutlers at sheffieldrecordsonline, he is noted as an apprentice cutler in 1709. We know it is him as his father is recorded as Samuel Roberts of Stubbin House, of whom he was the ninth child. Incredibly, he is followed there by his son Jacob, born 1726, apprenticed as a cutler in 1740, and then by his son Jacob, born 1764, apprenticed in 1785.

The middle of the three Jacobs is referred to in Edward Law's Sheffield Silversmiths Part 1 : "Jacob and Samuel (his brother) had been in partnership together from 1777 as makers of table knives and forks". He then became a partner in a firm of silversmiths with Samuel, John Eyre and Joseph Beldon who registered a silver mark on 8th January 1781. Unfortunately, Jacob died later that year.

His son continued to work for Roberts, Eyre, Beldon and Co and particularly for Joseph Beldon who was the London partner, by running the business in Sheffield. Jacob married Mary Ann Morton, the daughter of Richard Morton, another silversmith. In 1814 Jacob is noted as the treasurer at the first meeting of the general committee of the Sheffield Mercantile and Manufacturing Union. His son Sidney is also recorded as a silversmith on his death certificate.

The First Draft

The first draft of The Seymours is now complete. I was surprised that it took less than a month and that was not full time. The Times did a feature on scriptwriting and interviewed a number of writers. Lee Hall (Billy Elliot) says a first draft "doesn't take long, about ten days. A screenplay is normally 100 pages". That is a minute a page. Mine happens to be 97 at the moment. He goes on "I never look back while writing the first draft, I get too depressed at the gap between my aspiration and the outcome. It always appears frightfully mundane, unevocative, gauche, unfilmable, unreadable, unwatchable." (I know how he feels). "At the end you go back and go through it and through it again". I suppose I had better get going.

The X Files, The Dark Knight and Made of Honour

I was surprised that they made X Files - I Want to Believe. I always think the next in such a franchise has to top what went before. This fell a long way short. I was waiting for something menacingly alien, but all we had was a run of the mill serial killer yarn. Having said that, it was a passable story enriched by the setting. It was supposed to be wintry Virginia, but was in fact filmed in gorgeously snowy British Columbia. David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson looked as if they were wondering why they were there, and then remebered the money. But Billy Connoly and Amanda Peet were worth watching. No superheros, no CGI, it made a change.

The Dark Knight does have a superhero, but it seemed that Batman's appearances were strictly limited, and this helped with it being a marvelous film. There have been enough reviews about it's reflection on our current anxieties of terrorism, all distilled into one persona. Heath Ledger's wonderfully disturbing Joker dominated the movie, even getting himself arrested to wreak more havoc. All the talk is about a posthumous Oscar for him, but will Christopher Nolan's direction win an award. It deserves to.

The only two reasons I went to see Made of Honour were it was a drama, of which there are so few in the summer, and the other was for the views of New York. The latter was probably the best thing about the film. After the intro from ten years ago, it fast forwards to the present day, and early morning on a street very much like the one where I stayed with Michael. I can remember when the jet lag kicked in, and watching a similar scene to that in the movie. The street cleaning vehicle, the shops opening, delivery trucks, an early jogger. They were all there.
The scenes in Central Park were similarly familiar: Hope Bridge and the Bethesda Fountain were prominent. Unfortunately, when the movie switched to Scotland two thirds through, the whole thing became acutely embarrassing. If you had been Scottish, you would have had to walk out. The whole time, not a drop of rain fell. Impossible. The only redeeming moment was when Oasis sang "Stop crying your heart out". An unknown, but terrific, track to me as it was from their little played fifth album. And a cameo from Hannah Gordon, a famous TV actress who is now sixty seven. The film ends in a church for the wedding. Not one in Scotland, but actually St Mary's in Edlesborough, a church that I have passed many times on my walks. Being near to Chequers, it was frequented by Mrs Thatcher for many years. I even photographed it a couple of years ago.

Bletchley Park

There was something on TV about Bletchley Park that reminded me I should try and visit, especially as it is only 35 minutes away. I looked it up on the internet, and on Wednesday I was off. Not Alison's cup of tea.

It is called the National Codes Centre and is a heritage site and museum. It was the centre of codebreaking in the war, and 8,500 people worked there. The Germans had the Enigma machine (also on display)to send coded messages. In 1939/40 Alan Turing devised the "bombe" (a polish name), to help search for the right settings, and a number were installed which ran day and night. It has taken 13 years to rebuild one of these machines as they were destroyed at the end of the war.

The allies used a five wheel Typex machine to send codes, and this was adapted to the Enigma'a three wheel to type the messages once the settings were found.

The site is quite large. Some of the huts are in need of repair and funds are needed to improve facilities.

The other interesting exhibit, in huts on the edge of the site, is the Colossus rebuild. By 1943, the Germans had a more sophisticated coding machine called Lorenz. Colossus is called "the world's first semi-programmable electronic computer" and was built to read Lorenz messages. Again, Collosus was taken apart after the war and the web site http://www.codesandciphers.org.uk/ explains "the Americans have got away with the myth that the ENIAC was the first large scale digital calculator in the world. It was not, but they got away with it because Colossus was kept secret until the 70's."

Colossus has now ben rebuilt and is working with it's 2,500 valves (mostly obtained free from defunct telephone exchanges) in constant operation. When a Cipher challege was won by a German software engineer who decoded a message in 46 seconds using eight pentium processors and a modern pc, Colossus whirred away for 3hours and 15 minutes to get the same answer. Not bad for a 1944 Mark 2.

Wanted, Mama Mia and WALL.E

When I go to the movies, I prefer a decent thriller or drama. Not a super hero film, a musical or animation. But in the summer, that is all you get. Don't get me wrong. They all have their moments, so I'm glad I saw them all, especially the last.

Another graphic novel turned into a movie, Wanted is a mostly a series of action scenes. The dialogue is very poor, but I guess that is not what the film is about. For me, the best part of the film is an early chase sequence, when James McEvoy runs away from those trying to kill him. So all is fine, until he realises his powers. Then we off into a mish mash of all the shoot em up movies you can think of. With added zest, it just leaves you exhausted at the end.

When I first saw the trailer for Mama Mia, I couldn't wait to see it. I thought the stage show was brilliant. In the end, the film certainly had it's highlights, but was effected by some serious flaws. I have never been to a movie with so many highs and lows. A sentimental blast of Abba coupled with colourful ensemble singing and dancing tugged at the heart, but what followed was normally a big let down. The best people in the stage show for me, were the three men. They sang and fooled around with gusto. In the movie, they are frankly, diabolical. Nearly all their singing has been give to Pierce Brosnan, and his is an embarrassment. All three seem as if they thought it would be a good idea at the time, but wished they weren't there. Very different from the three women. Meryl Streep can sing, and Julie Walters is funny. If only the casting director had got it right, it could have been so much better.

There are very few animated films I like. Wallace and Gromit and that's about it. But the reviews for WALL.E were so good, I had to give it a try. And I'm glad I did. I thought it was a very brave and innovative film, something that all who worked on it were passionate about. And it showed. To have the main character whose only word is Eve-a, is this unprecedented? But the little robot is stuffed with character, whether he was selecting items of rubbish to keep, like the ring box but not the ring, or his excitement on flying through space with the aid of his fire extinguisher, which he even learns to use with delicate effect. I thought the contrast between the dirty, polluted Earth and the pristine space ship was excellent. And there were so many modern references to matters such as waste, obesity and pollution. The music was great. I will always remember Michael Crawford singing "Put on your Sunday Clothes". I will definitely watch next time "Hello Dolly" comes on TV. Brilliant.