Review of 2017

My highlights of 2017 start with running, but only because it coincides with a holiday in Northumberland and a weekend in Portsmouth.

It is now five years since I started running. To be able to run with Alison around a deserted Hulne Park on the outskirts of Alnwick was such a pleasure. Our weekend visit to Portsmouth for The Great South Run was equally enjoyable, despite the stormy weather, so much so that we have already booked for next year. My time for the Milton Keynes Half Marathon in March was not my best, but I was amazed to receive a certificate for first place in my age category. But I did get a PB at the Marlow 5 Mile with a best age grade for any race I have run. I also managed a PB at our regular  Maidenhead 10 Mile on Good Friday.

Our Holiday in the Lake District was memorable for the weather. It was sunny and hot! Sitting outside for breakfast and dinner on the first few days. Holehird Gardens were fabulous on a lovely day. We also enjoyed good weather in Northumberland. Especially on the last day at Druridge Bay parkrun, followed by walking on the huge beach and a visit to Amble with fish and chips at The Old Boathouse. And the day at Dunstanburgh Castle with another beach walk.

I could not miss mentioning Alison volunteering at the World Athletics and World Paras.

I made huge progress on my project to describe the history, landscape and lives of my Ascough ancestors on the border of East Fen in Lincolnshire. My draft in complete with only final editing left to do before publishing it on a website. Gaining permission to include sections from numerous publications became a major task. All this culminated with my visit to Lincolnshire in early September included the two churches of Toynton All Saints and Toynton St Peter, a trip around the back roads of the old East Fen and the drains as they are today and Lincolnshire Archives and Lincolnshire Family History Society's Research Centre.

Theatre was a mixed bag this year. Whilst Coriolanus (now just two Shakespeare plays left to see) at the RSC was an interesting production, People Places and Things was let down by a less that perfect lead actress. Jane Eyre at Aylesbury and Julius Caesar at Stratford were disappointing but Peter Pan at the National was brilliant. It was left for theatrical productions live in cinemas to be the best seen this year, from the outstanding Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead to Hedda Gabler, The Tempest and Follies.

My favourite film of the year came early in January. Manchester by the Sea should have won the Oscar. I also loved Hidden Figures, Elle, Get Out, Blade Runner 2049 and Lady Macbeth. But what surprised me more than anything was the succession of great British movies later on in the year: Goodbye Christopher Robin, Breathe, The Death of Stalin, Murder on the Orient Express, Film Stars Don't Die In Liverpool, Paddington 2 and The Man Who Invented Christmas. I guess they were getting out of the way for the American Oscar contenders due in 2018.

I only went to one concert this year, but Amy Macdonald at The Royal Albert Hall was outstanding. My highlights on TV were the final series of Detectorists and Series 2 of Michael Portillo's Great American Railway Journeys. The books which earned from me five stars this year were Birdcage Walk by Helen Dunmore, This Must Be The Place by Maggie O'Farrell and the script for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard.

The lowlight of the year was Mathew Bourne's production of The Red Shoes at Milton Keynes Theatre. The lack of any mention that there would be recorded sound instead of a live orchestra (as there was in London and Plymouth) was only matched by the disgraceful price of the ticket. £54.90 for second rate dancers compared with £10 less for English National Ballet's superb Nutcracker with Tamara Rojo and the full ENB orchestra in November 2016. Despite a succession of emails exchanged with the producer and theatre, I have not received any satisfactory reply. Only that the latest production from the same team now advertise "Cinderella will be performed in surround sound .... featuring a specially commissioned recording etc ". At least patrons in MK now know what they are getting. A second rate dance show. 

My Shakespeare Plays

My visit to Stratford-Upon-Avon in September to see the RSC production of Coriolanus was the penultimate play to see from Shakespeare's First Folio. There are 36 in all. I actually didn't start keeping the tickets until 1988 and I had seen a few before then. So this is the list so far in chronological order. It does, however, include Pericles and Two Noble Kinsmen that do not appear in the First Folio.

So there is now only one more to see: Henry VIII (listed by the RSC to be performed in due course). Edward III isn't in the First Folio or in my book of Complete Works, nor in my father's The Works of William Shakespeare dated 1930. It is not on the schedule of all the Shakespeare plays that the RSC announced in 2013. It may have been written by someone else entirely and hardly ever performed. The last time was in 2002 at the Gielgud Theatre.

With regard to Henry VIII, the authorship of the play is in some doubt. John Fletcher may have written some lines. But it was included in the first folio of 1623 so is on my list to see.

The Merchant of Venice   28th May 1988        The Barbican Theatre, London
                                            20th August 2015    Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford

Hamlet   22nd October 1988   The Phoenix Theatre, London
                8th March 1993        The Barbican Theatre, London

Twelfth Night    13th April 1991          The Playhouse Theatre, London
                            30th October 2014     Watford Palace Theatre

Richard 11     15th January 2000        Royal Shakespeare Theatre,  Stratford (The Other Place)
                        7th January 2016         The Barbican Theatre, London

Henry IV Part 1     18th July 2000     Royal Shakespeare Theatre,  Stratford 

Henry IV Part 11   9th August 2000   Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford

Henry V          12th September 2000    Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford

Henry VI Part 1     30th December 2000   The Swan Theatre, Stratford

Henry VI Part 11   30th December 2000   The Swan Theatre, Stratford

Henry VI Part 111  30th December 2000   The Swan Theatre, Stratford

Richard 111         24th May 2001   The Young Vic, London

Julius Caesar      5th September 2001      Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford
                             10th August 2017          Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford

The Tempest       28th January 2003       The Old Vic, London
                             5th August 1989          The Barbican Theatre, London

Titus Andronicus      8th October 2003     Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford

Romeo and Juliet      25th May 2004        Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford

Comedy of Errors     4th October 2005    Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford

King Lear           6th December 2007        New London Theatre
                             (Also in 1963 - Aldwych Theatre, London)   

Love's Labour's Lost    13th November 2008    Rose Theatre, Kingston-Upon-Thames

Taming of the Shrew     10th July 2008     Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford   

Othello          26th February 2009     Oxford Playhouse

The Winter's Tale         30th Jun 2009     Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford
                                        2nd March 2017    Oxford Playhouse

Troilus and Cressida     26th August 2009       The Globe Theatre, London

Measure for Measure    8th April 2010     The Almeida, London

Antony and Cleopatra      19th August 2010    Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford

Merry Wives of Windsor    17th November 2010     Milton Keynes Theatre

All's Well That Ends Well    19th July 2011       The Globe Theatre, London

Macbeth         24th August 2011        Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford

Timon of Athens      14th August 2012       The National Theatre, London (Olivier Theatre)

King John       5th September 2012      The Swan Theatre, Stratford

Two Gentlemen of Verona        15th April 2013     Bristol Tobacco Factory

As You Like It     21st August 2013      The Swan Theatre, Stratford

A Midsummer Night's Dream          11th September 2014     Waterside Theatre, Aylesbury

Much Ado About Nothing      20th October 2014      Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford

Pericles             14th April 2016     The Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, London

Cymbeline           27th July 2016     The Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford

Two Noble Kinsmen         21st September 2016   Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford

Coriolanus        28th September 2017     Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford     

Songs from Call the Midwife Christmas Special 2017

Four songs from the Christmas Special:

A Marshmallow World by Bing Crosby. Written in 1949 by Carl Sigman (lyrics) and Peter DeRose (music), it was a hit for Bing at Christmas 1950.

C'est Magnifique by Peggy Lee from her 1960 album Latin ala Lee! Written by Cole Porter for his 1953 musical Can-Can.

Wipeout by The Sarfaris. Written by Bob Berryhill, Pat Connolly, Jim Fuller and Ron Wilson.  A Hit for The Surfaris in January 1962.

Sealed with a Kiss by Brian Hyland. Written by Peter Udell and Gary Geld, it reached no 3 in the UK singles chart in 1962.

The episode is set in the winter of early 1963 when it started to snow just after Christmas 1962. It then froze and the country was in the grip of icy conditions for over two months. One of the coldest winters on record. I had just turned 18 and did a paper round six mornings a week. I never missed a day. Amazing what you could do at that age.

Shuttlecock, Quarantine and Only Human

Shuttlecock is a very clever story that interweaves a family drama with a memoir written by the father of our narrator, Prentis. The father was a spy in WW2 but was captured near the end of the war. But was this all true or not? The author writes about how truth is sometimes elusive, especially when someone has the power to distort it or hide it away. Again, I loved the conversational structure ("The small mammal house at Regent's Park Zoo. I can recommend it") as Prentis tries to make sense of his relationship with his family and the mystery that is his father. 

Sometimes you read a book where the story is great but the writing is ordinary. And sometimes it's the other way round. Quarantine definitely belongs to the latter. The seven characters who meet in the wilderness above Jericho are all superbly described. I particularly liked how Musa, the conman, was so excruciatingly bad. I liked how the story was told alternating between the main protagonists. But the plot itself is pretty boring, there are some interminable sections where a character tells a particularly dull story. "Five go on a Fast" as Enid Blyton would say, and that's it. 

I enjoyed this very readable and well written book. Only Human is not quite up to the five stars I gave to Susie Boyt's The Small Hours but still very good. Marjorie is a sympathetic character, but does not always seem suitable for her role as a marriage counsellor, for reasons that gradually become apparent. We are drawn into her struggles to keep the relationship with her daughter that has been key to her life for many years. A short book in length but one that will resonate for a long time. 

Detectorists - The Final Episode

What will we do now Detectorists has come to an end. The greatest comedy on television for years saved it's best episode for last. Mackenzie Crook has written and directed the three short series of what will become a classic. The bitter sweet humour has an emotional tug very few dramas can match. Mark Braxton in the Radio Times online is also a big fan. Amongst his extolling the virtues of the programme comes:

Modern comedies are often predicated on cruelty: laughs are hard, clanging or sharp as barbed wire. In its quiet, undemonstrative way, Detectorists has ploughed its own furrow. Buried in its field of fun are evergreen truths about life, and the things we don’t say but should. So if kindness and companionship are unfashionable, I know which side of the hedge I’d rather stand.

My favourite of the marvellous tiny clips in the concluding scene is when Lance's girlfriend and Andy's wife  meet in the field and share a glass of wine. I cannot remember seeing them before in the same shot. Brilliant.

The Battle of the Sexes, Wonder and The Man Who Invented Christmas

An uneven movie in my opinion, Battle of the Sexes is entertaining enough but I found the central character, Bobby Riggs, to be pathetic rather than funny. Steve Carell does a decent enough job, probably too decent that we resent Bobby so much. Emma Stone is again OK as a boring Billie Jean King, but for me, the star was Andrea Riseborough's manipulative Marilyn Barnett. She just gets better and better. There was a splendid cameo from Alan Cumming as the designer Teddy Tinling ( I cannot remember anything he has done since Goldeneye). And Sarah Silverman was aslo very good as Gladys Heldman. A good screenplay (as always) from Simon Beaufoy let down by some dull directing by Jonathon Dayton and Valerie Faris.

Wonder is a sensitively made movie that is both interesting and, in it's own way, quite powerful. The cast are all very good. The critics are almost unanimous in calling the story of a boy with facial disfigurement inspiring and heartwarming. And it is. Just a little bit too predictable.

This was the seventh British move in a row that I thought was outstanding. The Man Who Invented Christmas is part drama and part fantasy as Charles Dickens struggles with writer's block. The way the two are superbly merged is all down to the director Bharat Nalluri (I thought his Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day to be equally good) and writers Susan Coyne and Les Standiford who wrote the book. The British cast again rise to the occasion. Dan Stevens and Christopher Plummer revel in their leading roles but some of the minor characters are superb. Morfydd Clark as Mrs Dickens, Donald Sumpter as Jacob Marley and newcomer Anna Murphy are all excellent. A Christmas treat shown early on Silver Screen at £3.45 was a gift.

P.S. On another level, this could be considered as a course in creative writing, as Dickens gains inspiration from events happening around him. Stumbling on a graveyard at night, he meets a grumpy old man burying his business partner.

Tring Book Club - The Pier Falls by Mark Haddon

A collection of pretty dark stories. I can watch a horror movie, but the written word has much more of an effect on my brain. Fortunately, the shattering nature of each piece seems to melt over time, and I was just left with a sense of wonder at their construction. Haddon is such a great writer; has anyone described an appendectomy in such vivid detail? And I loved it when one of the characters in danger recalls his wife's warnings as "my greatest fault was to give insufficient weight to her misgivings". Superb.

This was my choice for book club, and I was a little concerned how the ladies might view such an intense batch of stories. I need not have worried as the majority thought, like me, that they were brilliant.

Another visit to Oxford

Alison's sister and her husband were visiting and wanted to look round Oxford. So I dug up my map (see bottom of the page) from the last time and off we were. We took the park and ride from Thornhill which dropped us off at the High Street. We cut through the covered market (which I had not seen before). Arriving at Cornmarket, we decided to go up The Saxon Tower at the church of St. Michael at the North Gate.

I had been up the Carfax Tower but not this far older and superior structure. The photo at the top is a view over the city. The bells are visible on the way up.

We also liked the mechanism of the old church clock. A small old wooden door that is propped against a wall is that through which passed the Oxford Martyrs, Latimer, Ridley and Cranmer, on their way to the stake on Broadgate. The plaque below describes what happened.

We then followed the route I had previously planned. Broad Street, Sheldonian Theatre, Bodlein Library and Radcliffe Camera before passing under the Bridge of Sighs and making our way past the colleges to High Street and Magdalen College. Then over the road, past the Botanic Gardens and Christ Church, up St Aldates to Pembroke College and Queen Street.

Here we diverted to the new Queensgate shopping centre and a great lunch at Comptoir Libanais, a smart Lebanese restaurant. From there we made our way to the Ashmolean Museum which was our last port of call. A long day, but the weather was dry though cloudy and not too cold.

Touch, Still Here and Birdcage Walk

"Touch " is an ingenious, twisted fantasy that runs out of steam too early. At times, the complications of the plot gets in the way of any literary merit, unlike Claire North's first novel which I enjoyed. The first half is entertaining and fascinating, but the story then becomes too repetitive and I became bored with the one trick pony that is at the heart of the novel. The chapters are short, mostly between two and six pages long. But I needed something deeper to keep me interested. 

Linda Grant is one of favourite authors, so I was catching up on an earlier novel from 2002. "Still Here" was one of her best, tracing the brand new friendship of Alix and Joseph whilst exploring the backstory of their lives and that of their families. But they are both approaching fifty, one single, the other trying to make his marriage work.

Alix is one of the best female characters I have ever read, prickly, fiercely intelligent, outspoken (she calls it mouthy), a product of a Jewish family from Liverpool. You wont understand until you read the book when she says "Be gone with you Issie, a new phantasm will come to me tonight". Joseph is an architect from Chicago building a hotel near the docks. His story alternates with that of Alix.

Grant writes with a sharp point to her pen, describing Alix's grandparents escaping from Dresden and making a new life in Liverpool. As Alix says "I have to admit that my generation, born after the war, has had the easiest ride in the whole of history. ". Haven't we just. 

Another outstanding novel from Helen Dunmore. A great pity that this is her last. Our narrator, Lizzie, is a young woman ahead of her time for 1792. Her older husband is building a fancy terrace on the edge of the Avon Gorge at Clifton. But he is not all he seems. When her mother dies, Lizzie has lost her rock. Full of gorgeous descriptive prose, the relationships between all the main characters are beautifully drawn. I loved it.