The Oscars

Although The King's Speech triumphed at The Oscars, even Tom Hooper unexpectedly winning best director, it was not my favourite movie of the year. In fact I disagreed with all the following categories. These are my favourites:

Best Film - Inception

Best Director - Christopher Nolan for Inception

Best Actor - James Franco for 127 Hours

Best Actress - Noomi Rapache for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (and the trilogy)

Best Supporting Actor - Geoffrey Rush for The King's Speech

Best Supporting Actress - Helena Bonham Carter for The King's Speech

Having just been to see The Fighter, I nearly changed my mind and joined the Academy's choice of Christian Bale and Melissa Leo for the last two categories. Their performances were just a little over the top to get my vote.

A New Arrival

This is our new cat. We have not quite settled on a name, but Archie is favourite at the moment. He came from a retired couple in the village where he was upset by their new dog. He is a quite nervous at the moment but is settling in really well. Maggie spits at him, but they avoid each other most of the time.

The Cabinet War Rooms and The Churchill Museum

I would not usually venture into London during half term week, but Alison's sister Anne and her daughter Emily were staying with us and wanted to visit the capital for the day. They (and Alison) plumped for St Pauls Cathedral, but as the two of us went there two years ago, I went with them on the train and made a detour to Westminster to visit The Cabinet War Rooms which were on my list of places in London that I wanted to see.

Just down Horse Guards Road, the entrance is tucked away from the street. But once inside, there is lots to see, and down the first corridor is the War Cabinet Room. All the rooms, and there are lots of them, have been restored to exactly how they were during wartime, and mighty impressive they are. From telephone and broadcasting rooms, to private rooms for senior officials and officers, kitchens, conference rooms, Churchill's own bedroom and my particular favourite, the Map Room as the photo below. The audio tour was very good, narrated by Geoffrey Whitehead, instantly recognisable from his playing the father in law to Martin Clunes' Reggie Perrin.

The fairly new Churchill Museum is situated in one huge area half way round. The displays are very modern looking and include exhibits from Winston's childhood up to when he died. His time as Prime Minister during the war is obviously a large part of the museum. I loved the map which showed all his numerous journeys abroad during wartime.

The only disappointment was that the cafe was too small and the queue too long. But as I still has some time before meeting the others, I found a kiosk on my walk around St James' Park (that is over the road from the Cabinet War Rooms) and grabbed a welcome hot chocolate. I avoided anything to eat, as we were all going for afternoon tea, Anne had two for one vouchers.

I met everyone back at St Pauls and we made our way to the Bloomsbury Raddison Hotel just off Tottenham Court Road. We sat in the very nice lounge for sandwiches and cakes, which ended up being quite filling. It was soon time to make our way home and the quick train from Marylebone. The forecast had been for rain, but I was the only one to get wet, and that was from the car park to the station in the morning. A cloudy, chilly day, but a very enjoyable one.

Great British Railway Journeys - The West Highland Line to Mallaig

Michael Portillo's BBC2 series "Great British Railway Journeys" came to an end this week. It was such a nice half hour programme to watch in the early evening before dinner. The latest trip was around the west of Scotland and the last episode of all was from Fort William to the port of Mallaig. This was part of the West Highland Line that was voted the world's greatest rail journey in an independent travel magazine. This final stretch of the line goes over the world's first concrete viaduct at Glenfinnan where Michael is filmed with his head stuck out of the window. It is also notable for the Harry Potter movies where the Hogwarts Express is on it's way north.

But it will be for ever in our memory as we watched it from the road on our way last summer from Fort William to Mallaig where we caught the ferry to The Isle of Skye. Michael Portillo was filmed at the end of the last programme on the same ferry after a short visit to Mallaig itself. We missed the first ferry and therefore had time to wander around the harbour on what was a lovely sunny day. We managed to have a leisurely lunch before a crossing that was so beautiful in the sunshine. We were very lucky.

The Killing

Following the Swedish crime dramas "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" trilogy and the "Wallander" series, comes the Danish 20 part police investigation into one murder called "Forbrydelsen" or "The Killing". It is slow, sombre, bleak, moving, powerful and brilliant. I only caught up with it following a couple of reviews in the press, and have watched the first four episodes on the BBC iPlayer before recording the latest episodes on BBC4.

The story revolves not only around the police investigation, led by the terrific Sofie Grabol as detective Sarah Lund, but also the effects on the dead girl's family and the politicians involved. Each episode covers one of the consecutive days, a bit like "24" but one day instead of one hour. Fortunately two episodes are shown back to back, so we only have to wait ten weeks for the resolution. Currently my favourite TV, having ditched "True Blood", "Boardwalk Empire" (after one episode), "Outcasts" (after twenty minutes), "The Promise" and "Mad Dogs". These are dramas that I watched with anticipation, but ultimately gave up. Thank heavens for "The West Wing".

Morning Glory, Brighton Rock and Black Swan

I just loved "Morning Glory". It was such an entertaining movie. With Harrison Ford being so grumpy you just had to laugh, and he was ably supported by Diane Keaton as his co anchor to be on the morning show "Daybreak", not to be confused with the Adrian Chiles and Christine Bleakly disaster vehicle of the same name. But the star of the film is Rachel McAdams. Her performance reminds me of a couple of hyper females I have known, but she brings such an endearing quality to the role that just bowled me over. Not an Oscar nominated performance, but she would get my vote for the knockout stardust she spreads throughout. Wonderful.

There was much to enjoy in "Brighton Rock". Rowan Joffe has transported the book and original movie from the 1930's to 1964 and this works really well. Although having been at college in Brighton during the same year, I may be biased. It certainly seems brighter and more colourful than I can remember, but this is probably down to the cinematography as the film looks so good on the screen. I have to admit never having read the book by Graham Greene or having watched the 1947 movie. But this meant I was able to see a gripping story unfold. However I was just not convinced by Sam Riley in the lead role as Pinkie. The character had, for me, a menacing reputation that Riley fell far short of delivering. He certainly looked the part, but his monosyllabic voice and one dimensional acting never lifted the movie to the heights I expected. This was a shame as the other actors were superb. Andrea Riseborough was brilliant as Rose, and Helen Mirren, John Hurt and Andy Serkis were terrific. The original movie changed the ending of the book, and the remake kept the same change. Having read about the book's finale, I would have much preferred they had kept to Greene's. Instead what we got was so unreal and contrived, I think it let us down.

I was so looking forward to "Black Swan", a psychodrama with a splash of horror thrown in, and Natalie Portman up for an Oscar. But what a strange movie. For once I had to agree with Danny Leigh (co-presenter of Film 2011). There was just something that did not seem coherent with the script. Claudia Winkleman, the main presenter, said you just have to go with the flow, and to a degree I understood what she meant. I think for me, the hallucinations that Nina experiences when she tries to let the black swan into her fragile state of mind come far too late in the movie. The earlier manifestations to her hands and feet are quite gruesome, but director Darren Aronofsky misses more real horrors of her eating disorders, obsessive training and absence of any real relationships. However Natalie Portman does present an outstanding portrait of a ballerina on the edge. She is hardly ever off camera, but that leaves little room to explore the other characters, who come and go too quickly. That said, the movie is gripping in a manipulative way, and for me, the scenes of actual ballet performance make up for any disappointment with the plot.

The Life of Riley

It was sometime since I had seen an Alan Ayckbourn comedy, so when his latest play "The Life of Riley" came to visit Oxford, I grabbed the opportunity to go with Zoe. And what an enjoyable evening we had. It is about a man called George Riley who finds out he is dying. But the trick is we never see George. His life is dissected by the three couples who perform on stage, typically for Ayckbourne in three gardens and a farmyard.

The actors are the same from the original Scarborough production and good they are too. Led by a very funny Lisa Goddard, they mostly bring a warm and comical edge to their characters. Except for the cool Simeon and Monica, the latter played by Laura Howard who is known forever in our house as the Cully, the daughter of John Nettles in thirteen series of Midsomer Murders. "What are you doing here Cully" as she unexpectedly turns up after a long absence.

There are some dark moments, but these are designed to contrast with the humour that had me chuckling along all through. Vintage Ayckbourn.

Edith Agnes Leather 1901 - 1986

My maternal grandmother, Edith Agnes Leather was born on the 4th August 1901 in Rotherham. Her father was George Robert Leather who had moved to Rotherham from Castle Northwich in Cheshire to play football for Rotherham Town, more of him later. He married Hannah Elizabeth Boler in 1892. They had seven children of whom Edith was the fourth. I can only remember one of Edith's siblings, her younger sister Nellie. When John and I used to stay with Edith (Nanan to us), we would always make a visit to Auntie Nellie (actually our great aunt). She had married a Mr Clifford and we would often see their son Peter from whom I have a note about our mutual footballer ancestor.

Nanan lived in Rotherham all her life. She married Ralph William Askew on the 1st August 1921, and their life together is recorded in my posting about Ralph of 2nd November 2009. He died on 13th April 1945, so I cannot remember him. Just a few years later Edith married again to Harry Frost. He is in the photograph above with Nanan and Mum. He had lost an arm in a mining accident and I remember very well the false limb he would attach when we went out. He had a son Douglas from his first marriage who lived at home, along with Nanan's sons Geoff and Donald when John and I used to stay for a week over the summer holidays. All three sons worked shifts at the Tinsley steel works, so there was a lot of coming and going. I'm not sure now where there was room for all of us. I think John and I used to sleep in Nanan's bed, so where they slept is anyone's guess. I know they had a very loud clock in their bedroom as it stopped me getting off to sleep, but probably only for the first couple of nights.

I have written more about our times there in recollections of my early life. Enough to say here that Nanan was very generous, and patient on those many occasions when John and I would fall out. She was a wonderful cook. We were extremely well fed on our visits. A cooked English breakfast and superb dinners. Her Yorkshire puddings were fantastic. Hard to say if they were better than Mum's, but memorable nonetheless.

Nanan had lived at 58 Wordsworth Drive in Rotherham for as long as I can remember. We continued to make the occasional trip there when we were older, and Nanan sometimes came to visit us in Braintree. By this time all her children had married and so it was just her and Harry until he died sometime in the 1960's. Nanan died on 24th March 1986. She had outlived mum which was always a source of sadness for her. I went with Dad and Margaret to her funeral, but we did not stay afterwards.

131 Songs - Numbers 82, 83 and 84

Number 82 - One Of These Mornings by Moby

Three songs used in TV programmes. The first was featured in one of the best episodes of "Torchwood" called "To The Last Man". See my posting of 18th February 2008.

Number 83 - Shelter From The Storm by Bob Dylan

From the best episode called "Believe" from the series "Flash Forward", this song fitted the scene so well. See my posting of 27th November 2009.

Number 84 - Take The Long Way Home by Supertramp

If I had to take one clip from a TV programme to a desert island, this would be it. The closing sequence of the first series of "Ashes To Ashes". See my posting of 30th March 2008.

Restless, Slam and According to Queeney

After being impressed with William Boyd's "Ordinary Thunderstorms", I thought a spy thriller might be a good read. What I had not expected was a thoughtful story that alternates between 1939 when Eva is recruited into a shadowy propaganda organisation, and her subsequent adventures, and present day of Oxford where her daughter, unaware of her mother's past, is drawn into danger as the past catches up. Well written, carefully plotted with two wonderful main characters, I enjoyed "Restless" immensely. One of those books that you were sorry when it was over.

Nick Hornby has always been one of my favourite authors, so I was surprised that I had missed reviews of his latest novel that was published in 2007. And it was even out of print when I was looking on Amazon. Although fairly lightweight, I thought "Slam" was as brilliant and witty as his previous books. Written in the first person by sixteen year old Sam, Hornby really does get us inside the head of this teenage boy. Only having read the reviews after finishing the story did I then realise it was written primarily for teenagers, mainly as a warning about teenage pregnancy and fatherhood. Glad I had waited, as I might have been put off reading what was a highly enjoyable story.

If there was a book that was the opposite of "Slam", it would be "According to Queeney". It tells of some of the experiences of Samuel Johnson, his "friends" (if you can call them that) and dependents over the last twenty years of his life. It certainly conjures up a picture of Georgian London from 1764 onwards, and occasionally the author finds some interest in the squabbles and gossip between the characters. One of the quotes on the cover suggests that they thought nobody could pull off such an idea but Bainbridge does. I have to disagree.