The Garden in January

This very mild winter has brought out the daffodils far earlier than I can ever remember. Ours have been out for a couple of weeks but they were flowering on a roundabout in Aylesbury at the end of December!

Snowdrops are also very early.

As are the crocuses and wallflowers.

Also about two months early are the odd leaf on the weigela and they are even sprouting on the hawthorn. Very odd.

The Danish Girl, Joy and Star Wars: The Force Awakens

The poster of The Danish Girl still reminds me of an unnerving simpering performance from Eddie Redmayne. Perhaps he was too feminine for this role. I would have preferred someone more manly trying to come to terms with his gender reality. In the end I found this to be a bleak, disturbing and depressing film set against super high gloss production design, costumes and photography. A little weird that any scene that did not include Lili was quite acceptable. And rising above it all was a fabulous performance from Alicia Vikander as Gerda, unrecognisable from her role in Ex Machina. At least they got this casting right.

Obviously Jennifer Lawrence gained all the rave reviews for her leading role in Joy, but for me she just played Jennifer Lawrence. Her voice has the same recognisable twang in whatever role she plays. However she was perfect playing struggling single mother Joy Mangano. Maybe director David O Russell wanted the first half to be crazily offbeat to set up the brilliant second. Somehow it worked really well. The madness of Joy's awful family (great performances all round) made her triumph with her self wringing mop all the more welcome.

I could have done with missing the latest Star Wars movie. I blame Marie-Claire Chappet for her wonderful double page resumee of the story so far. These movies are no longer what I want to see. I find no emotional attachment whatsoever to any of the characters, except perhaps for dear old BB-8. There are the occasional exciting scenes and although the story is unbelievably flimsy, the dialogue is not all that bad. How John Boyega got a lead role I have no idea, but Daisy Ridley was excellent and is a star in the making. I just wont go to see her in Episode 8.

Songs from "Call the Midwife" Series 5

Another series of "Call the Midwife" and another list of songs from each episode. The trailer for Series 5 was appropriately accompanied by  Bobby Vee's Take Good Care Of My Baby", as this brilliant record was released in 1961, the year in which the new series is set. The song was also used in the trailer for Series 3. 1961 is the year when I was 16 years old and writing down playlists from programmes on Radio Luxembourg so all the songs will resonate for me.

EPISODE 1

Poetry in Motion by Johnny Tillotson. A number one in the UK in January 1961 and written by Paul Kaufman and Mike Anthony.

Girl from Petaluma by Cocktail Shakers.

Gopher Mambo by Yma Sumac. A 1954 recording but great for Trixie's keep fit class.

EPISODE 2

Beyond the Sea by Bobby Darin. A 1946 composition by Jack Lawrence with music from "La Mere" by Charles Trenet. Darin's version reached number 8 in the UK in 1959.

I Fall to Pieces by Patsy Cline with The Jordanaires. There is a wonderful piece on Wikipedia about this 1961 hit.

No Not Much by Pauline Shepherd and the Tony Osborne Orchestra with the Beryl Scott Chorus.

You Belong to Me by Jo Stafford. Originally recorded by Sue Thomson, this cover version from 1952 topped the carts in the USA and UK where it reached No 1 in January 1953.

Quizas, Quizas, Quizas (Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps)  by Nat King Cole. His 1958 cover of the Joe Davis lyrics he wrote in 1948 from the original 1947 Osvaldo Farres composition in Spanish.

Fiesta by Hugh Burns. I have no idea if this is the song when Patsy and Trixie play the record for Phillis. But tunefind.com says it is.

EPISODE 3

Only two songs this week, but what brilliant songs they are:

Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow by The Shirelles. A 1960 release written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King. The latter's 1971 recording was on her Grammy winning Tapestry album. In 1961, The Shirelles topped the charts in the USA and went to number 4 in the UK.

Take Good Care Of My Baby by Bobby Vee. After being used for the trailers for Series 3 and 5, it has it's own spot in Episode 3. Would you believe another Goffin and King composition, Bobby Vee made number 1 in both the USA and UK in 1961.

EPISODE 4

Just one song this week:

You Don't Know by Helen Shapiro. A number 1 for Helen in 1961 written by Schroeder and Mike Hawker. They also composed her first hit "Don't treat me like a child" that made number 3 earlier in 1961 and "Walking Back to Happiness" later that year.

EPISODE 5

Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White by Perez Prado. His instrumental recording of the popular song was with his orchestra featuring trumpeter Billy Regis whose trumpet sound would slide down and up before the melody would resume. Recorded in 1955, it reached number one in the USA.

(Missed by tunefind.com but having received my comment, now on their website).

Chica Chica Boom Chic by Carmen Miranda. Composed by Harry warren and Mack Gordon for the movie "That Night in Rio" from 1941.

Buttons and Bows by Dinah Shore. Written by Jay Livingston and Jay Evans for the 1947 movie "The Paleface" starring Bob Hope and Jane Russell.

Mama by Connie Francis. This was originally an Italian song (Mamma) written in 1940 by Cesare Andrea Bixio with lyrics byBixio Cherubini.  Connie recorded her version in 1959 for an album of Italian songs and released this as a single in 1960 when it reached number 2 in the UK.

My Heart Reminds Me by Kay Star. Also known as "That Reminds Me", the music was based on the Italian instrumental, "Autumn Concerto," by Camillo Bargoni. English lyrics by Al Stillman and Paul Siegel. Kay Star's version was released in 1957.

EPISODE 6

Here Comes Summer (Ha Ha) by Jerry Keller. Written by the singer himself, it reached Number 1 in the UK.

Run Rabbit Run by Pinky and Perky. A strange choice for Juke Box Jury? But then Pinky and Perky appear on this programme on YouTube with Eeny, Meeny, Miney Mo.  Unsurprisingly, I never missed an episode of Juke Box Jury with David Jacobs. It's just a shame we didn't get to hear the theme music "Hit and Miss" by my hero John Barry.

The Eyes of God by Johnny Nash.

EPISODE 7

I Can't Tell a Waltz from a Tango by Alma Cogan. Written by Al Hoffman and Dick Manning and recorded in 1954. The American version was by Patti Page. Alma used to live in Holland Park and my dad often served her in the grocers (John Buckle) he managed on Kensington High Street in the fifties.

Teach me Tiger by April Stevens. What an extremely raunchy song for Barbara and Tom the vicar to dance to! When released in 1959, it was banned on many radio stations. I only knew of April through the single Deep Purple, a duet with her brother Nino Tempo.

By the Light of the Silvery Moon by Doris Day. Written by Gus Edwards and Edward Madden in 1909 and recorded by Doris in 1953.

I Love How You Love Me by The Paris Sisters. Written by Barry Mann and Larry Kolber and recorded in 1961. Although in the UK, it was the Jimmy Crawford recording that reached number 18 in the chart.

EPISODE 8

I'd Never Find Another You by Billy Fury. Written by husband and wife Gerry Goffin and Carole King (famous on Call the Midwife for composing Take Good Care of my Baby) it reached number 5 in the UK charts. One of 24 hits he had in the 1960's but without a number one in the singles or album charts.

Let's Twist Again by Chubby Checker. Composed by Karl Mann and Dave Appell, it reached number 2 in the UK charts.

Till by Shirley Bassey. Music by Charles Danvers with lyrics in English by Carl Sigman. Originally a French song, it has been recorded by many artists. Shirley reached number 14 in the UK in 1961. What a fantastic song to see out the last episode of the series.

Tring Book Club - A Place Called Winter by Patrick Gale

Having enjoyed two previous novels by Patrick Gale ("Notes from an Exhibition" and the marvellous "A Perfectly Good Man", I passed on this his latest book as a story about early settlers in remote areas of Canada was not appealing. However, it became a choice for our book club so I had to read it. And I'm now so glad I did. This is a brilliant piece of fiction based on fact. Harry Cane emigrates to the new world in the dawn of the twentieth Century. The author should know, Harry was his great grandfather who left a comfortable and prosperous life in England under a cloud.

The narrative of his time in England followed by his new life is cleverly broken by brief interludes from the future in a mental hospital. This works incredibly well. We are allowed to make up our minds about Harry from his early life, let me just say he is the most unlikely candidate to make a life in a homestead in such remote territory. There are some wonderful characters on both sides of the Atlantic including one villain who keeps popping up an inopportune times. Although the prose is perhaps a little lacking in modern construction, the descriptions of place and events is absolutely first class.

Richard II - RSC at the Barbican Theatre

It was in 2013 that David Tennant and director Gregory Doran gained huge praise for their staging of Richard II at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and then the transfer to London. So it was a big surprise that there were five more performances this month. So being an Associate Member of the RSC with priority booking, it was too good an opportunity to miss.

The critical acclaim was completely deserved. And although David Tennant was obviously the star and incredibly good, there were other performances that were equally terrific. The play gives two mature actors great roles and Oliver Ford Davies (I remembered his surname) as the Duke of York and Julian Glover as John of Gaunt were excellent. If there was one casting choice that made me wonder, it was that of Jasper Britton as Bolinbroke. He just did not seem to have the gravitas of the future King Henry IV. David Troughton was far better in the 2000 production at The Other Place in Stratford when Samuel West played Richard.

I was reminded that some of the speeches are among the best that Shakespeare ever wrote. These are a few from the mouth of Richard:

Let's talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs;
Make dust our paper and with rainy eyes
Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth,
Let's choose executors and talk of wills:
And yet not so, for what can we bequeath
Save our deposed bodies to the ground?
Our lands, our lives and all are Bolingbroke's,
And nothing can we call our own but death
And that small model of the barren earth
Which serves as paste and cover to our bones.
For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground
And tell sad stories of the death of kings;
How some have been deposed; some slain in war,
Some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed;
Some poison'd by their wives: some sleeping kill'd;
All murder'd: for within the hollow crown
That rounds the mortal temples of a king
Keeps Death his court and there the antic sits,
Scoffing his state and grinning at his pomp,
Allowing him a breath, a little scene,
To monarchize, be fear'd and kill with looks,
Infusing him with self and vain conceit,
As if this flesh which walls about our life,
Were brass impregnable, and humour'd thus
Comes at the last and with a little pin
Bores through his castle wall, and farewell king!
Cover your heads and mock not flesh and blood
With solemn reverence: throw away respect,
Tradition, form and ceremonious duty,
For you have but mistook me all this while:
I live with bread like you, feel want,
Taste grief, need friends: subjected thus,
How can you say to me, I am a king?

What must the king do now? must he submit?
The king shall do it: must he be deposed?
The king shall be contented: must he lose
The name of king? o' God's name, let it go:
I'll give my jewels for a set of beads,
My gorgeous palace for a hermitage,
My gay apparel for an almsman's gown,
My figured goblets for a dish of wood,
My sceptre for a palmer's walking staff,
My subjects for a pair of carved saints
And my large kingdom for a little grave,
A little little grave, an obscure grave;
Or I'll be buried in the king's highway,
Some way of common trade, where subjects' feet
May hourly trample on their sovereign's head;
For on my heart they tread now whilst I live;
And buried once, why not upon my head?
Aumerle, thou weep'st, my tender-hearted cousin!
We'll make foul weather with despised tears;
Our sighs and they shall lodge the summer corn,
And make a dearth in this revolting land.
Or shall we play the wantons with our woes,
And make some pretty match with shedding tears?
As thus, to drop them still upon one place,
Till they have fretted us a pair of graves
Within the earth; and, therein laid,--there lies
Two kinsmen digg'd their graves with weeping eyes.
Would not this ill do well? Well, well, I see
I talk but idly, and you laugh at me.
Most mighty prince, my Lord Northumberland,
What says King Bolingbroke? will his majesty
Give Richard leave to live till Richard die?
You make a leg, and Bolingbroke says ay.


Ay, no; no, ay; for I must nothing be;
Therefore no no, for I resign to thee.
Now mark me, how I will undo myself;
I give this heavy weight from off my head
And this unwieldy sceptre from my hand,
The pride of kingly sway from out my heart;
With mine own tears I wash away my balm,
With mine own hands I give away my crown,
With mine own tongue deny my sacred state,
With mine own breath release all duty's rites:
All pomp and majesty I do forswear;
My manors, rents, revenues I forego;
My acts, decrees, and statutes I deny:
God pardon all oaths that are broke to me!
God keep all vows unbroke that swear to thee!
Make me, that nothing have, with nothing grieved,
And thou with all pleased, that hast all achieved!
Long mayst thou live in Richard's seat to sit,
And soon lie Richard in an earthly pit!
God save King Harry, unking'd Richard says,
And send him many years of sunshine days!
What more remains?

And then from John of Gaunt

This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall,
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,
This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings,
Fear'd by their breed and famous by their birth,
Renowned for their deeds as far from home,
For Christian service and true chivalry,
As is the sepulchre in stubborn Jewry,
Of the world's ransom, blessed Mary's Son,
This land of such dear souls, this dear dear land,
Dear for her reputation through the world,
Is now leased out, I die pronouncing it,
Like to a tenement or pelting farm:
England, bound in with the triumphant sea
Whose rocky shore beats back the envious siege
Of watery Neptune, is now bound in with shame,
With inky blots and rotten parchment bonds:
That England, that was wont to conquer others,
Hath made a shameful conquest of itself.
Ah, would the scandal vanish with my life,
How happy then were my ensuing death!

All you need to know about Star Wars

Before I go to see the new Star Wars film, I shall consult this brilliant resumee of the previous six episodes, courtesy of Marie-Claire Chappet's article in the Sunday Times Style supplement.

I hope I am not breaching copyright by including this here.