The Age of Innocence, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry august and Mr Lynch's Holiday

It is probably unfair of me to give this novel only two stars as it just isn't my kind of book. I was at about a third way through when I almost gave up. A romantic drama written in 1921, and set amongst the upper classes of 1870's New York, The Age of Innocence by Edith Waharton was just not very interesting. But there was something that made me wonder what happened next that kept me reading. The answer was not very much. And when the main character Newland Archer finally gets married around halfway, that was enough. I skipped through the remaining pages and it seemed little changes. I did read the ending which had some power the rest of the book lacked. I can't wait to read something more modern.

There might be fifteen lives for Harry August in this intense time travelling thriller, but the author Claire North mixes them up with great skill. When Harry dies he is born again in 1919 to the same mother in the same place, but his new lives are never the same length and never take the same path. Instead of a totally linear story through these lives, we are treated to reflections of earlier lives as we work through those that come later. These are highly satisfying sections of modern prose which gives the book a great literary force. This is certainly one of the best constructed books I have ever read. On page 93, out of the blue, Harry waits for someone in Trafalgar Square in 1940 but we don't know who. Then we remember which life we are in and who he is waiting for. Brilliant. The fantasy element is only a device for intelligent musings on such matters as science, the creation of the universe, family and death. So the author gives us plenty to think about. When the last chapters turn more to their thriller instincts, my inclination to reduce my rating to four stars is muted by a passage where Harry is faced with someone from many lives ago, and the page on his reaction is of the highest quality, ending with "I know now there is something dead inside me though I cannot remember exactly when it died". I actually shed a tear.

Mr Lynch's Holiday by Catherine O'Flynn is a short charming story from the terrific writer of "What Was Lost" and "The News Where You Are", both of which I enjoyed. Sometimes the back story of the two main characters (father and son) is far superior to the present day when retired widower Dermot visits his newly single son Eamonn in a brand new Spanish residential complex gone bust. Here the story is not that interesting, some of the characters there are never flushed out and I had a hard job knowing who was who. Maybe that's just how Dermot felt? However the alternating memories of the two men are wonderfully described, and that's what makes this book such a pleasant read.

A View from the Bridge - NT Live

Another classic play beamed live to cinemas last night. This was a memorable experience. For the first time I wondered if it was actually better to see a theatrical production on the big screen. I admit you lose the "live" element of being in the theatre but this is compensated by the closeness of the actors on a screen. You just don't see the expressions on their faces so clearly half way back in the stalls. These days the use of cameras has taken the cinema experience to a new level. We watched from the back of the stage as well as the front and sides.

I left home twenty minutes before the start time of 7 pm and was home just after 9.15. Car parking outside the cinema for £1 and I booked a superior seat for £15. This had a view and legroom you never get in a theatre. So there are compensations. Maybe this is the end of trips into London to see a play. I will still go locally to the theatre, and to Oxford and Stratford. But the opportunity to see classic plays I have never seen before is wonderful. It was such a shame The Duchess of Malfi from the Globe Theatre was the same night as book club. Next up is Tom Stoppard's new play The Hard Problem in April.

Onto the Young Vic's production of A View from the Bridge. I didn't know the story and was surprised to find it could have been a few episodes of a superior soap opera. But the writing is so good and the acting and direction top drawer, and I do like family dramas. Apparently the Dutch director Ivo Van Hove has reinvented the play, but I have nothing with which to compare. Mark Strong is brilliant in the lead as Eddie and Phoebe Fox superb as his niece. More surprising was how good was Nicola Walker as Eddie's wife, she being famous in our house for playing Ruth Evershed in seven series of Spooks. She must have been good for the series to keep her so long.

Finally the music is from the Kyrie in Faure's Requiem. This brings it a haunting quality to what was a very enjoyable evening.

An Intimate Evening With Russell Watson at Aylesbury Waterside Theatre

It's not often that an amateur choir gets the chance to sing with a world famous tenor, but that's what happened on Tuesday evening. Aylesbury Choral Society were joined on stage by Russell Watson or should that be the other way round? Russell's seventy five night tour arrived at a packed Aylesbury Waterside Theatre and we were treated to a wonderful evening of songs and memories.

He is not only a superb singer of both popular songs and operatic arias, but is also a truly engaging and funny guy. When he recalls his early days in the Northern working men's clubs, we get the jokes that reflect the "up close and personal" element of the programme. But these breaks never outstay their welcome and the first half is packed with wonderful music. The opera pieces are few as we get a couple of Neil Diamond numbers and selections from Les Mis and Phantom. The invitation to the audience to flash their phones during "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" is a neat trick.

Russell is accompanied by a piano, guitar and string quartet, all of whom are great musicians, and then in the second half by fifty members of Aylesbury Choral Society. They join in on favourites such as the Toreador Song from Carmen, Funiculi Funicula, and a storming Nessun Dorma. Also putting in an appearance is the talented soprano Rebecca Newman.

At the end of the evening Russell gives us some songs new to his repertoire, we even hear his version of Bat Out Of Hell complete with rocking electric guitar. With a final rendition of You Raise Me Up with the choir, this was a completely enjoyable evening, Boy, can this man sing.

Would I have gone to see this show if Alison had not been singing with the Choral Society? Probably not, but when Russell sang his second number Love On The Rocks I was swept away. It was worth it just to hear one of my favourite songs sung so well.

Alison's sister Anne also captured the moment when Russell thanked Alison at the end of the concert for her fabulous accompaniment.

Chappie, Still Alice and Suite Francais

I don't know what writer/director Neill Blomkamp was thinking about. He has been on a steady descent after the superb District 9 with a so-so Elysium and now a howler in Chappie. We have seen AI robots before and although this one was kind of cute, the story, was awful. Whatever possessed Blomkamp to pitch Chappie in with a bunch of criminals I have no idea. Originality? It had all the usual high tech stuff we expect from the director, lots of explosions etc. But this time he added frantic editing and sound, coupled with an dreadful script. There is one underlying sensible story about teaching the young, but this is lost amidst a collection of unlikable characters and a cast who only just turned up. Disappointing to say the least.

I was in two minds whether I wanted to see a film like Still Alice where the main character has Alzheimer's Disease. But Julianne Moore's Oscar winning performance encouraged me to go. And I'm so glad I did. What could have been a hard slog turned out to be a tender, well written family drama and yes, that wonderful contribution from Moore. It seemed strange that as well as being sad, it was also quite uplifting in parts. The story was very well constructed, although Alice doesn't get as angry and frustrated as I would have imagined. Kirsten Stewart as her daughter would have also been terrific if it wasn't for some of her garbled delivery. Alec Baldwin is less than convincing as the unsympathetic husband. But the script is really good and although it was a low budget drama, the immersion in a dark cinema and a big screen would have been definitely preferable to watching on TV. That I must remember.

Suite Francais is no classic, but is a reasonably well told adaptation of  Irene Nemirovsky's book about her experiences in a small French town under German occupation in early WW2. The script is fine but we do have all the usual suspects, collaborators and resistance fighters and those just trying to survive. The relationship between lonely wife Michelle Williams and her resident officer Matthias Schoenaerts is never entirely convincing but her ferocious  mother-in-law played by Kristin Scott Thomas is a constant threat. The direction and cinematography are excellent, and the scenery and colours of a French summer make for a visual treat. I enjoyed it.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time at Aylesbury Waterside Theatre

Despite all the positive reviews of the award winning National Theatre production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, I found the whole thing quite underwhelming. The first half I found particularly tiresome. OK, I know the book so well, but I was hoping for a more intimate and character driven adaptation. Instead we have a script that so entirely replicates the book, anyone could have extracted what seemed like the amateurish dialogue.

The human aspects of the story were then so overwhelmed by the set, special effects and cast movement that any kind of emotional impact was totally lost. The actors did their best. But at 27, Joshua Jenkins was never convincing in the lead role as the 15 year old Christopher. Although he played the part very well,

I went to a sell out matinee performance and soon found out that you had to be either under eighteen or over sixty. Lots of older school children enjoying being out of the classroom. They got the best deal.

Searching for Chuck Willis

It was Episode 4 of "Call The Midwife" where I struggled to identify the singer. Thanks to Iain, the music supervisor, I now know it was Chuck Willis. He started making records in 1952 when twelve bar blues were crossing over into rhythm and blues, the very early origins of rock and roll. In 1954 he wrote and sung I Feel So Bad (later to be recorded by Elvis) and bigger hits followed in 1957 with C.C. Rider  and 1958 with What Am I Living For.

Despite my growing interest in American music around this time, I missed out on Chuck. But that was not the case for one of his contemporaries: Fats Domino. Fats was making records before Chuck and his December 1949 recording of The Fat Man is often cited as one of the very first rock and roll records. Check it out on YouTube. Musicologist Ned Domino said that this was rock and roll before anyone had heard those words and says that " Domino crossed a line by playing a stripped-down, more aggressive boogie woogie piano with a series of "piano-triplet-and-snare- backbeat hits".

The common denominator between Chuck and Fats is that both developed the blues into something upbeat that would influence bands to this day. The first album from The Rolling Stones is nearly all rhythm and blues, Little Red Rooster being pure blues.

One of my treasured possessions is a 1978 edition of "The Book of Golden Discs (The Records That Sold a Million)" compiled by Joseph Murrells. On further study as part of this article, it seems to be an important document in the history of the development of rock and roll and all it's derivatives.  The book starts in 1903 with Enrico Caruso but it's not until 1923 that Bessie Smith appears with Downhearted Blues. Country makes an appearance in 1928 with The Carter Family and Jimmie Rogers. Bing Crosby had his first million seller in 1937 and a year later Ella Fitzgerald was joined by the jazz orchestras of Tommy Dorsey, Harry James and Artie Shaw. Big bands and crooners dominated the charts in the 1940's until "bang" - here is Fats Domino in 1948 (a year earlier than listed in Wikipedia) with The Fat Man. Rhythm and Blues had hit the big time.

Onto 1951 and still the domination of singers: Tony Bennett, Doris Day, Perry Como, Nat "King" Cole, Frankie Lane Guy Mitchell, Patti Page, Johnny Ray, Debbie Reynolds and Jo Stafford. Not forgetting from CTM, Rosemary Clooney singing Come-On-A My House, her first million seller. Fats Domino was still prolific, but none sold a million that year. But Hank Williams and Slim Whitman did, so country and western, popular songs, jazz and rhythm and blues were competing for the record buying public.

So it was no surprise when, in 1954, someone combined all these genres and made it rock and roll. Bill Haley and his Comets released Shake, Rattle and Roll and Rock Around The Clock that year. Not sure about jazz? Just listen to the sax solos. I must have been around eleven years old when I used to stay (with my brother) at my maternal grandmother's house in Rotherham most summer holidays years. My uncles who also lived there were younger than my mother, and as well as owning the LP of Rock Around The Clock also had Rock Island Line by Lonnie Donegan, so that was 1955. I always preferred the latter, and his brand of folk still influences my preferences today with bands like First Aid Kit being a modern development of the genre. Lonnie was my favourite artist for a few years with songs like Cumberland Gap in 1957 and Tom Dooley the following year. I lost faith when he went to comedy songs.

Just as an aside, on the same page as Bill Haley is Kitty Kallen with Little Things Mean a Lot, another song featured in "Call The Midwife". Fats Domino is back in 1956, 1957 and 1958 with some big hits. And there in the last of those years is Chuck himself with What Am I Living For. Popular music was now seeing the rise of young stars like Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Ricky Nelson and of course Elvis. By the following year I was listening to Radio Luxembourg where the first British DJ's were bringing American music to the UK for the first time. My mother was obviously quite  unique in letting me listen to this kind of music on that old radio.

Here are some of my favourites from the late 1950's:
Something Else - Eddie Cochran
Wake Up Little Susie - The Everly Brothers
Peggy Sue - Buddy Holly
Diana - Paul Anka (only because of Kensington Gardens - see CTM posting)
Little Darlin - The Diamonds
At The Hop - Danny and The Juniors
It's Only Make Believe - Conway Twitty (my karaoke song in a different life i.e. I could sing)
Rockin Around The Christmas Tree - Brenda Lee (my favourite Christmas song)
Who's Sorry Now - Connie Francis (I have the old LP - how cheesy is that)
Roll Over Beethoven - Chuck Berry
Earth Angel - The Penguins (although the better version is by Marvin Berry and the Starlighters from the film "Back To The Future" where there is the best edit ever in movie history)
Travellin Light - Cliff Richard (only because it was the first record we bought)
Singing The Blues - Tommy Steele
He'll Have To Go - Jim Reeves (only because it was a standard at my 1964 dancing class)

I was so lucky to have been born in 1944 as at the age of  fifteen or sixteen I was writing down the playlists from shows on Radio Luxembourg such as Jack Jackson's Jukebox. These are some I would have listed, all pre-date the coming of  The Beatles:

Dreamin - Johnny Burnett
Rubber Ball - Bobby Vee
Poetry in Motion - Johnny Tillotson
Sea of Heartbreak - Don Gibson
Running Bear - Johnny Preston
Handyman - Jimmy Jones
Cathy's Clown - The Everly Brothers
Runaway - Del Shannon
Breaking Up Is Hard To Do - Neil Sedaka
Hello Mary Lou - Ricky Nelson
Green Onions - Booker T and The MG's
Sheila - Tommy Roe
The Locomotion - Little Eva
Pallisades Park - Freddy Canon
Wonderful Land - The Shadows
Runaround Sue - Dion
Sweet Nothing - Brenda Lee
Goodbye Cruel World - James Darren
The Wanderer - Dion (again)
Only The Lonely - Roy Orbison
Alley Oop - The Hollywood Argyles

Will any of these feature in the next series of "Call The Midwife" We'll have to see. If I had to choose a record, it would have to be by Lonnie.

Songs from "Call the Midwife" - Series 4

Welcome to the latest song listings for the new series of "Call the Midwife". The trailer for the 2015 series features Baby I'm Yours by the Arctic Monkeys and not the 60's hit by Peter and Gordon. We are into 1960 and as a fifteen year old, I was already entranced by the new popular music that was bursting onto the radio. None more so than our first artist.

Episode 1

Now or Never by Elvis Presley. Eight weeks at number one in the charts in 1960.

Diana by Paul Anka. Another number one for this 1957 recording. I can remember vividly walking with my mother into Kensington Gardens and hearing this song coming from a portable record player from someone lazing on the grass. This was unheard of in the late fifties, they must have been American.

Wondrous Place by Billy Fury. A minor hit in 1960. But I guess our illustrious music supervisor could have equally chosen Billy's recording of Colette from the same year in recognition of the name of the mother who gave birth in this episode. But that would probably have been too silly.

Too Young by Dodie Stevens. This one was a real tester to find. It was the B-side to her recording of Yes, I'm Lonesone Tonight, but I guess preferable to the lush strings of the versions by Patty Andrews and Nat King Cole.

Put Your Head On My Shoulder by Paul Anka. Yes, him again, but what a great song.

Episode 2

Only two songs tonight.

With All My Heart by Petula Clark. A song from 1957.

Hello, Young Lovers by Keeley Smith from her 1960 album "Swing". A great version of the Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein II composition for "The King and I".

Episode 3

Just the song over the final credits:

Belonging to Someone by Patti Page. A song from 1958 written by Al Hoffman and Dick Manning. A hit in the USA but I'm not sure if it was ever released in the UK.

Episode 4

I didn't recognise the first song when the girls are talking in their bedroom.  Thanks to Ian, I now know this is You're Still My Baby written and sung in 1953 by Chuck Willis. I have never heard this song before.

Fever by Peggy Lee recorded in 1958. Written by Eddie Cooley and Otis Blackwell and first  recorded by Little Willie John in 1956.

La Bamba by Ritchie Valens. A Mexican folk song later recorded by Los Lobos in 1987 as the title song of the film of the same name. A great soundtrack.

Come On-A My House by Rosemary Clooney recorded in 1951 and written by Ross Bogdasarian and William Saroyan.

True Love Ways by Buddy Holly, written by the singer and Norman Petty and recorded in 1958, four months before Buddy died.

There is a song in the background when Bridget goes into labour. Again only thanks to Ian, I can reveal this is Just One Of Those Things sung by Billie Holiday in 1957. Written by Cole Porter.

Something's Gotta Give sung by Sammy Davis Jr. Recorded in 1955 and written by Johnny Mercer.

Episode 5

Only one song tonight, played over the final credits:

If I Give My Love To You sung by Joan Regan, a hit in 1954 when it reached number three in the charts. Written by Jimmy Brewster, Jimmie Crane and Al Jacobs, I thought at first it was the popular Doris Day recording.

Episode 6

I started off fine with:

Apache by The Shadows written by Jerry Lordan. Recorded in 1960.

Do You Mind sung by Anthony Newley and written by Lionel Bart. Another 1960 release. It reminded me of one of his other big hits I've Waited So Long. It was featured in the film "Idle on Parade" in 1959. One of the first films I went to see as a teenager. I was fourteen.

Shop Around by T he Miracles from 1960. Written by Bill "Smokey" Robinson and the incomparable Berry Gordy.

And that is where I lost it at the square dance. There was only 36 seconds of a song as they entered the hall. Thanks to Iain, the music supervisor (who helped with all the following songs) I can reveal it was:

Any Old Time written and sung by Jimmie Rogers who recorded the song in 1956.

Then clips of songs at the dance:

Sam McGee from Sunny Tennesee and Stefan Grossman.

Almost by George Morgan. From 1952 and written by Jack Toombs and Vic McAlpin.

Down That Road by Jonny McCarthy. I have to say these are all a bit obscure to me, but probably not to fans of the square dance.

The last song also had me foxed. I knew the title but not the artist. It turns out to be:

Love and Devotion by The Vocaleers. Recorded in 1960. Thanks Iain.

Episode 7

Only The Lonely by Roy Orbison. Recorded in 1960 and written by the singer and Joe Melson.

The Teddy Bear's Picnic by Henry Hall and his Orchestra. A 1932 recording. Thanks to Wikipedia, the melody was composed by  John Walter Bratton in 1907 with lyrics added by Irish songwriter Jimmy Kennedy in 1932.

Cheek To Cheek sung by Fred Astair and Ginger Rogers, although we didn't hear the latter last night. Written by Irving Berlin for the 1932 movie "Top Hat".

True Love sung by Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly. Written in 1956 by Cole Porter for the movie High Society. A full clip can be seen on YouTube. I still have the LP of the soundtrack somewhere.

Episode 8

Sweeter Than You sung by Ricky Nelson, written by Baker Night and released in 1959.

Little Thing Mean A Lot sung by Joni James and not as I had originally suspected Kitty Kallen's number one in 1954. Joni's recording was in 1960 which makes more sense being on the jukebox.

Portrait Of My Love by Matt Monroe, reached number three on the UK charts in 1960 and written by Norman Newell. My favourite male singer of all time.

Well that's it for another series. Thanks again to Iain, the music supervisor for "Call The Midwife" for helping me when I got stuck. This week I couldn't make out the first song, though it sounded familiar (and I have an LP by Ricky Nelson) and guessed the wrong singer for the second (Kitty didn't have a choir on her recording).

It Must Be Spring

Two major jobs completed this week in the beautiful Spring weather. First the raking of the moss before the first cut of the grass.

Then cutting  new edges to the borders around the lawn. Job done.

And now the daffodils are coming into flower.

The Judge, It Follows and Focus

There was nothing new or profound about The Judge, a Robert Downey Jr vehicle, but a very reasonable and well filmed melodrama. My guess is that the star was looking for something completely different from his latest blockbuster roles and this is what he came up with. At least this was an original story, not an adaptation of a book. Director David Dobkin and Nick Schenk came up with the plot and the latter with Bill Dubuque wrote the decent screenplay. Robert Downey Jr plays a hot shot city lawyer returning to his roots (yes, we have seen this all before) for his mother's funeral and ends up defending his equally grumpy father, (Robert Duvall on top form) on a murder charge. In fact, all the acting is very good and the cinematography of rural Indiana superb. Fortunately the courtroom scenes are kept to a minimum while the film concentrates on the family drama. So very much my kind of movie, if not to everyone's taste.

 It Follows came with the sort of "unmissable" reviews that made me look forward to seeing something special. So it was a bit of a disappointment that, whilst it was an interesting and intelligent spooky drama, it failed to have me emotionally involved. And I could not see where many of the critics were suffering from nightmares after the showing of this supposedly horror movie. A 15 Certificate said it all. But again, a good original story, decent screenplay and competent direction all by David Robert Mitchell. And fair acting from the young cast. But what is it about deserted swimming pools for the climax to recent horror movies? Is this now a rule? Not only a reference to Let The Right One In ( as one critic mentioned) but far closer to the last act of the superior Jennifer's Body. 

Yet another original script, how good is that? Well not so good this time. Co-directors and writers John Requa and Glen Ficarra have devised a pretty silly comedy con thriller that is neither funny or thrilling. What Focus does have is Will Smith and Margot Robbie. The former is so relaxed he is almost horizontal while Robbie over does it trying to make up. Having said all that, the film looks good and the crazy twists and turns pass the time. If the ending had been better ( anyone could have come up with something not as stupid) it might have been fun, but unfortunately it wasn't.

Tring Book Club - Elizabeth is Missing

The beginning of this book is extraordinary. We are pitched straight into the fragile mind of Maud who is in her eighties and suffering from dementia. Author Emma Healey has the audacity to make Maud our unreliable narrator, so we understand her short term memory loss and the utter frustration to everyone connected with her. However, we are saved from an increasingly difficult read as Maud's condition deteriorates by situations in the present that trigger a memory of her teenage years. Here Maud is at her lucid best as she recalls in great detail what happened when her elder sister disappeared. The contrast to her present state is a very simple but clever device. Here the elderly Maud is obsessed by the disappearance of her friend Elizabeth, but is it all in her mind? I enjoyed the clever construction of the story more than the actual writing. But to be inside the mind of Maud is an unsettling but unforgettable experience.

Arcadia at The Waterside Theatre, Aylesbury

This play has something for everyone. For all you scientists, chaos theory and the second law of thermodynamics are all there. I'm sorry, that part in the first act left me wanting to walk out. But wait. I have to agree with one critic who said the " production is at its best in showing how we misread the past". So as someone whose searches into family history knows, records of the past can easily trip you up. Their interpretation can lead you down the wrong path.

What was brilliant about this play was we know exactly what happened at Sidley Hall in 1809 and 1812. These early scenes seem pretty ordinary and quaint (it is the nineteenth century) but little do we know how important is their relevance to what comes next. When we flash forward to the present day, the scholarly visitors to Sidley are searching the Coverly family archives for their next big revelation about two people. Bernard Nightingale is on the track of Lord Byron who may or may not have been involved in a tragedy, whilst Hannah Jarvis is trying to find the identity of the  hermit whose hermiage was built around that earlier time. Robert Cavanah and Flora Montgomery spar superbly in these roles.

So when we see Nightingale drawing the wrong conclusions, having seen what actually happened, the play just gets better and better. So an uneven first half ( some of the dialogue is so fast, it takes a lot of concentration) is followed by a truly brilliant second.  Even the part about iterated algorithms I could just about handle if not understand. The director, Blanche McIntyre, has taken on an intellectually complex play and made a great stab at making most of it dramatic and funny. Not really an emotional evening, and the maths was beyond me. But the dialogue is very clever, especially the sparkling wit that Tom Stoppard gives all his characters.