Let's Do It: The Birth of Pop by Bob Stanley - Chapters 41 to 52

 

41   Revival: Trad Jazz and Folk

In 1950's Britain "British youth experienced it's first bout of pop revivalism". At the same time America "found solace in it's own folk culture". Just how did Leadbelly's Goodnight Irene provide The Weavers (led by Pete Seeger) folk quartet make number one in 1950? The best part of this chapter is about John Lomax touring southern black America recording songs. (A note that he died of a heart attack at his eightieth birthday party). 

It was actually music critic Fred Ramsey who recorded Huddie Leadbetter's classics that included Rock Island Line that was later a big hit for Lonnie Donegan in 1954 that "effectively kick started the modern pop era in Britain". I remember two songs for Burl Ives that were played a lot on the radio here: Bluetail Fly and Big Rock Candy Mountain. 

A nice piece about Woody Guthrie was followed by going back to the roots of UK trad jazz, and George Webb's Dixielanders (never heard of them) in Barnehurst. They were joined by Humphrey Littleton who eventually took over the band from the shy Webb in 1947. We hear about how trad jazz evolved into skiffle with Lonnie Donegan, the banjo player for the Chris Barber Jazz Band. Then a mention for Nancy Whisky's Freight Train and the hit for Monty Sunshine's Petit Fleur. Stanley tells us "Trad was for underdogs and outsiders, students in duffel coats". Where did I fit in?

"At the end of the decade (that is the end of the fifties, when I'm fourteen) the trio of (Chris) Barber, (Kenny) Ball and (Acker) Bilk stamped their names on the hit parade". We hear all about them, but for me it was the early sixties and not the fifties when they were so successful. (See post about Dunmow Jazz Club).

42   In a Restless World: Nat King Cole

I was thinking about skipping this biography, but it starts with an amazing story about his hit Nature Boy written by an oddball called eden ahbez. Recorded by Nat in 1947 and many others since. I also didn't know that Nat started out as a jazz pianist and song writer. But it was as a singer that he excelled. He signed for Capital Records and the story goes that their brand new HQ Capital Tower was funded on the back of Nat's success. 

We hear about the racial problems but more interesting were the number of LP's he made. Although he died early at 47 when ahbez lived until he was 86.

43    Ports of Pleasure: Exotica

It starts out with some awful music, some quite experimental. But then The Harry Lime Theme played on the zither by Anton Karas in 1951. The only other familiar music in this section was The Typewriter, a 1950 composition by Leroy Anderson. Played many times on the BBC radio. See YouTube.

44   Sharks in Jet's Clothing: Rock 'n Roll

We are into the fifties, and instead of what I thought might be the best chapter in the book, turns out to be the worst, just referencing more mainstream artists. But later we do at least hear about the boom in sales of 45's and something about the Everly Brothers. And that was about it. Why long pieces about Tennessee Ernie Ford and Earl Bostic? 

45   The Summit: Frank, Dino and Sammy

Well we know where the author's preferences reside. And it isn't rock n roll. Mostly a rehash of easily available history of these three crooners. (He never mentions the word!!) Best was the part about Dean Martin and his golf. A nice part about him replacing The Beatles at the top of the hit parade in 1964. Apparently Sinatra was not impressed. But this chapter ends with Frank's last recorded album Watertown, "an incredibly bleak but beautiful album". Never heard of it. Sold the fewest copies of any of his albums, but of course the author thinks it's his best!! "The greatest album of his career". 

46   TV is the Thing: The Rise of Television

"Virtually no-one in the UK had a TV set for the Queen's Coronation in 1953". Not true. We had one and we were far from well off. But the screen was tiny. The author mentions "Sunday Night at the London Palladium" from 1953. But not in our house, ITV was banned. We hear about the rise of TV in post war America. That's about it.

47   I could go on singing: The next generation

It starts with what was happening on both sides of the Atlantic at the very end of the fifties and beginnings of the sixties. Here it's Cliff and the film Espresso Bongo (1959) and in America the new singers and their ballads. Easy listening dominating the airwaves. (Where is Elvis?) A big part about Matt Monroe (he prefers his singers to bands) including 1962's Softly as I leave you "one of the greatest songs and productions of the decade". At last I agree. We hear about the Dave Brubeck Quartet playing Unsquare Dance in 1961 and the earlier Take Five (1958). Jazz making the charts, as well as Bosa Nova and Samba.

48   The Strength of Strings: Film Soundtracks

Again there was huge potential in a chapter about soundtracks. But it's all a bit of a mess, veering between film and TV. The author is categoric that The Man with the Golden Arm (1955) "invented both the modern movie theme and it's score". We hear about film composers such as Henry Mancini, Michel Legrand and Bernard Herman who scored North by Northwest (1959) and Psycho (1960).

At last we get a superb piece about John Barry Prendergast who, in late 1959, produced magic for Adam Faith's What Do You Want. Four violins and one microphone produced that string accompaniment. Then all those Bond movies, Born Free and much more. But .... not a mention of the John Barry Seven or Vic Flick and the original James Bond theme. 

49   What kind of fool am I: Lionel Bart and Anthony Newley

Why do we sometimes get such rubbish like the start of this chapter: "England would have been happy if the clock had stopped forever on VE Day: even now it clings to the memory like a comfort blanket". Then "however much we try, we can't escape the fact that we're still essentially damp people in damp houses who like fry ups". I wanted to throw the book out of the window for such crass writing. He must be some sad man if that is what his life was like. 

He tells us Tony Hancock, Lionel Bart and Anthony Newley that "all three were self destructive". ??? It was Bart writing songs with Mike Pratt for Tommy Steele ("Britain's first rock and roll star) that was such a success. He lists all the hits. We hear all about Bart's background working up to 1960's Oliver. But he never matched it's success. 

He repeats that familiar story about Anthony Newley being an actor and cast as a popstar in Idol on Parade (1959) that I saw in the cinema as a teenager. One song (I've waited so long) became a big hit. We hear about Newley's subsequent films and musicals and how he did well in America.  He was lucky he had writers like Lionel Bart and Leslie Bricusse. Winning a Grammy for What kind of fool am I. 

50   Whipped Cream and Other Delights: Adventures in Beatleland

If I thought this was a chapter about The Beatles, think again. There is so much about Julie Andrews and Petula Clark. And Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. Pages and pages of the stuff. Eartha Kitt, Nina Simone and Harry Belafonte. Why? Just rubbish. There is even a long part about one Rod McKuen. Who is he?? Amongst his interminable history we just get the only one divisionary mention of Paul McCartney in the whole book. Says it all.

51 The Last Waltz; Tom Jones and the new Balladeers

So Tom Jones gets his own chapter but not Paul. "The three biggest selling singles in the UK in 1967 (post the Beatles blitz) was by one Gerry Dorsey or as we knew him, Engelbart Humperdinck. Here are parts about Tom jones and even Des O'Connor. McCartney? Eat you heart out. And where are all the other British bands of the time? Just Petula Clark.

52 Some Kind of Rapprochement: The 1970's

What's happened to the sixties? I guess the author just got bored. Into the early seventies and we get Carole King's Tapestry. The rest of this last chapter is all pretty feeble. I had expected a far better ending. Or was that just being optimistic. 

Epilogue

This is just a mess, but what else did I expect. The author seemed to be far more interested in those early decades, because his sections on the fifties, sixties and seventies are just dire.

Have You Seen .... ? by David Thomson: Brief Encounter, Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice and Genevieve

 

I watched Noel Coward's Brief Encounter (to give it it's full title) on a DVD where the black and white restoration was superb. My post of 12th September 2024 refers to Episode 1 of Series 2 of Classic Movies on Sky Arts: The Story of Brief Encounter.  Here  there is much about the background to the film so I will try not to repeat it here. The story is written by Noel Coward and he is also the producer. The director is David Lean and the music is Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No 2 with pianist Eileen Joyce and The National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Muir Mathieson. 

It starts at Carnforth Station and here, at the station cafe, are Celia Johnson as Laura Jesson and Trevor Howard as Alec Harvey in the background having tea. Surprised by a friend of Laura's, there is little time to say goodbye as Alec dashes out for his train. Laura has her own train to catch and we begin to hear her story in flashback. She's at home with her husband and two children, thinking back to when she and Alec first met. At first their meetings are quite innocent but their feelings for each other change and they are torn between their families and each other. Especially Laura and it's her feelings, thoughts and fantasy's that we hear. 

Their relationship becomes more dangerous, especially when Alec borrows the flat of a friend which goes all wrong. They bump into friends and having to tell lies, as always happens. The film is very much of it's time in 1945. There is a side story of two of the station staff played by Stanley Holloway and Joyce Carey. This is typical Noel Coward dialogue, a kind of cautionary tale. And one that has featured in awards and near the top of lists for the best film of all time. I thought it was brilliant.

We were warned at the start: "drug use and highly offensive and discriminatory language".  Let's start with the good things in Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice. A terrific cast: Natalie Wood, Robert Culp, Elliot Gould and Diane Cannon. Music by Quincy Jones. A very theatrical production, I thought this must have been a stage play (which would have suited it far better) but could not find any reference to that. Written by the director Paul Mazursky and Larry Tucker, as a movie it was all just so intense and fairly boring. Maybe of it's time as it won a number of Oscar nominations. But only for Elliott Gould and Diane Cannon when I preferred the other couple. 

In  my post of 16th May 2021, I could not decide what was the first film I went to see at the cinema, as both Genevieve and King of the Kyber Rifles were both released in the same year, 1955. I was able to record the former so it became our Saturday night movie. Not very successful I'm afraid. Despite the wonderful reviews on the internet, it really has shown it's age. The script and the acting is all pretty dire. This is despite the main characters who were played by the top acting talent of the day. Kenneth More in particular was trying to be funny and failed. I don't think John Gregson was right for light comedy. The women were a little better, although they too were acting with a kind of hysterical edge.

I had thought that the rally of vintage cars from London to Brighton was the major part of the movie, but no. The race back is totally against the law and the police officers who turn up incredibly let them off. The one good thing was to see such quiet roads in the nineteen fifties, all the vehicles of that time, and the tram tracks in the city. It was kind of fun, but it did show it's age.

Oh My Goodness! at the Rex Berkhamsted

 

How can a really sweet French comedy drama about cycling nuns be so good. And why can't we make films like these. In an age of blockbuster super hero movies, there must be room for decent dramas. I know it's all pretty absurd as the only five nuns in this convent decide to enter a bike race to fund a trip to Rome when none of them have any idea. The characters are all likeable for their frailty. Then half way through, who should turn up but their far more talented rivals. Yes, more nuns! The mother superior Veronique is played with gusto by Valerie Benneton with help from the sisters and the unruly novice Gwendoline by Louise Malek. Director Lourent Tirade keeps control of the mayhem. Just

The Constant Wife at the RSC Stratford

 

Let's start with the elephant in the room. The star of the play Rose Leslie did not appear. Due to her "indisposition". It seems that this happens whenever there are two performances on the same day and she only appears in one. There is zero publicity that this would happen, and I'm so disappointed that the RSC would lie to make sure we all bought tickets. 

Now the good news. Her stand in Jess Nesling is terrific. Well she would be after all her performances. And having to carry the play in the lead role.

The play was written in 1926 by W. Somerset Maugham and now rarely performed. However, it has been given a "modern remix" by Laura Wade and directed by Tamara Harvey. I thought that it was splendid. "It's a comedy of feminist mischief" as Constance decides how to deal with her husband's infidelity with her best friend. The eight strong cast are all fine. I particularly liked Kate Burton as Mrs Culver, Constance's mother, and Mark Meadows in a small role as Bentley the butler. 

There is much humour in the vast amount of dialogue, Constance refers to taking her daughter to a northern school as "Wuthering Gymslips". The set has a quaint 1920's interior, and a change of scene to how long go back in time is handled with subtle perfection. There is an original score by Jamie Cullum's jazzy original score works really well. Obviously the costumes are lovely as befit this well to do household. There are few classic plays being performed these days and I was lucky to catch one. 

I was thinking on the way home how long ago was it that I first went to see an RSC production in Stratford. I'm pretty sure that it was not long after my mother and father moved to nearby Kenilworth in 1964. So possibly sixty years ago. I cannot remember what was the play and my theatre records only start in 1988. Although the first productions in London I remember are in my post of 16th September 2022. 

Garden in July

 

July has been a disappointment in the garden this year.  The consistently dry weather in May and June has meant some of the plants have struggled to flower. Just look at the Acanthus below compared with last year.

The dahlias in the bedding border have struggled to flower, although there are a couple that have done better than others. Not sure why.

I must have cleared too much of the foliage in the main border so it now looks pretty bare. Especially after a major prune to the Philadelphus Dainty Lady. 

Another major prune, this time to the Jasminum beesanium, the climber on the fence. It has been there many years. All the foliage was at the top so I thought it was time to take it right down to the base. It was then I found how much it had attached itself to the fence so I had made the right decision. I will see if it regrows in the spring. 

This was how the border should look.

Hopefully the shrubs at the back will regrow, and there is now more room for some perennials to fill the gaps. 

At the far end the late flowering shrub that is the hibiscus now has the lovely white flowers.

One plant that has been a major success is the Echinachea below. There is very little soil in the border next to the side patio, but it must like the shelter and warmth. Still more flowers to come.

The hostas that are in pots at the end of the side patio have just come into flower.

The delphinium that flowered in June (see below) was cut back after the flowers faded. 

And here it is, putting on new growth and maybe flowering again.

The agapanthus has flowered again this year. I must find a better place for it in the garden.

I'm not sure how the wild marjoram or oregano ended up in two places in the main border. It is actually a herb, but the butterflies and bees love it, so it might stay.

A couple of the roses are blooming again and others have buds on for a second flowering.

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At the very end of July and the rose blue for you is flowering again. With masses of buds for it's second flowering. 

The two pots at the front have been successful with impatiens from Chiltern View garden centre.

The far round border does have these small sunflowers that I grew from seed. I cut down the dead leaves of the poppies after they flowered (maybe a mistake) and the border is quite bare as a result. Will think again for next year.

And finally below is Weigelia Red Prince, flowering for the second time. Didn't know that can happen.

28 Years Later, The Ballad of Wallis Island and Jurassic World: Rebirth

 

It was not what I expected from a Danny Boyle movie. The first half of Years Later was so boring, I wondered what it was all about. But then half way through something interesting happens and the last forty minutes when young Spike (an excellent Alfie Williams) and his mother are off on a mission. And so begins an exciting adventure, especially when Ralph Fiennes turns up. He's just to good for this film, I would have hoped that there was more from Jodie Comer's character, but no. I did like the shots of Holy Island and the causeway , all very familiar. See posts of 17th July 2013 and 28th September 2017. 

I very nearly missed The Ballad of Wallis Island. I had seen the trailer a couple of times and I just find Tim Key (star and co-writer) so annoying. And yes, he was. But the film is a delight. A low budget movie set on a (Hebridean?) island but actually filmed in Pembrokeshire and Ramsey Island. Arriving to play a gig (for a load of money) is famous folk singer Herb McGwyer played by Tom Basden, the other co-writer. Him and Tim Key are mediocre compared with the arrival of the superb Carey Mulligan. She and Tom have history. Based on a 2007 short film Herb McGwyer plays Wallis Island, we wait in vain for the audience to turn up. See highonfilms.com with some great photos. Dominic Maxwell in the Sunday Times loved it and Francesca Steele in June's Sight and Sound called it "an effecting comedy" and "this is simple but not simplistic film making: an exceedingly British comedy that steers just clear of mawkish".

The first part of Jurassic World: Rebirth is amazing. It's just a preamble about why anyone would want to visit the abandoned theme park that was Jurassic World. Especially as it is inhabited by all the creatures that those experiments of years ago went wrong. So they are all so ugly and not what anyone would like to see, But for us as viewers, they are something else. The set up is unlike anything we have seen before in this never ending series. All down to director Gareth Edwards. My view is that he has never matched his early film Monsters although Godzilla was OK. I can see why Scarlett Johansson was employed as lead actress following some super hero roles, but here she just seems out of her depth. Maybe that's because of the very ordinary script. As usual we then have two alternating stories to keep us interested. And of course, lots of horrible dinosaurs.

Jane Austen Wrecked My Life at the Rex Berkhamsted

 

Written and directed by Laura Piani, this classic love triangle so beloved by Jane Austen is more of a drama than a traditional romcom. And all the better for it. It's all about Agathe (the excellent Camille Rutherford), single (of course) working in a bookshop in Paris (of course) living with her sister and her husband and young son. Her friend Felix has sent the start of a novel Agathe has written to a Jane Austen retreat and she is thereby invited to stay. Reluctantly she goes and is met at Dover by Oliver, a very distant descendent of Jane. 

At first they do not get on at all well. So far so predictable. But gradually their relationship thaws, especially when they share their own heartbreaks. A fabulous few minutes. I liked the story, it was witty and bright, I liked the other people staying at the retreat, a number of interesting characters. But then who should arrive but Felix who has decided Agathe is more than a friend. And so here is the main thread of the story as Agathe is torn between Felix and Oliver. It's only very, very late on that they discover who they are meant to be with. 

The lead actress Camille Rutherford has a French mother and British father, so her English at the retreat is perfect even though they want to speak to her In French. Camille appeared in Anatomy of a Fall and The Three Musketeers, Milady. Charles Anson who plays Oliver appeared in Downton Abbey as Larry Grey. Laura Piani I found had contributed to the story for the six episodes of Philharmonia (See post of 3rd August 2020).

One review says "a little different from from the normal Austen adaptations and spin offs and a little more intriguing". Most of the reviews are quite positive, but not that in Summer 1925's Sight and Sound Magazine. Catherine Wheatley calls it "not altogether successful" and finishes with "the pallor of all that's gone before". I thought it was lovely.

Precipice, Searching for Caleb and Gabriel's Moon

 

At the beginning there is an "Author's Note" about the letters in the text from the Prime Minister H H Asquith are actually authentic. What it didn't say was that they take up so much of this book, and that they were all written to the much, much younger posh Venetia Stanley. Cringe worthy is an understatement. The story is therefore constructed around these letters, how amateurish is that. Further more, many of the details of the lead up to and the early part of World War 1 that involve the Prime Minister are also public record. This seems to me a lazy way to construct a novel.

There is stuff about the conflict in Ireland, and the events in Europe that dragged us into war. I should have read a history book instead. We do, however, come across Detective Sergeant Paul Deemer, pulled in by the head of Special Branch to discover the affair. Did she really keep all of Prime's 560 letters in a hat box? Deemer's investigations are, perhaps, the best part of the book.

I might have enjoyed the book more if it had stuck to the political stuff, especially the conflict between the PM, members of his cabinet and those at the top of the armed forces. Their opposing views on how to run the conflict and the resulting war of attrition that obviously cost lives. The book ends suddenly in 1915 so we only hear about the disaster of the early years. Did the PM and or author run out of letters?

The longer the book goes on the more we hear about how badly the war was going, alongside the deterioration in the central relationship. Why does Venetia just ditch him and put him out of his pathetic misery? She is equally to blame, playing him as a fool. Only Margot, the PM's wife comes out well. As befits such an awful novel, the ending is not. Not an ending! Did Harris just get fed up or just ran out of letters.

The story is all about Justine, one of an extended family of Pecks. Nearly all of whom are living in, you've guessed it, Baltimore. But not Justine. Her childhood is in Philadelphia with just occasional visits to see the family: four imposing mansions sit together with uncles, aunts, cousins and a great grandmother who presides over it all. But when Justine's father Sam Mayhew goes off to the war, Justine and her mother stay in Baltimore.

There is quite a detailed history of the Peck clan. This includes one Caleb, a strange young man, no wife despite all the girls who liked him. "he toured the taverns, or went some place else, no one knew where". We have to guess. Could it be something to do with the sudden departure of Mary Rose (married to Caleb's brother Daniel) never to return. Her six children are forbidden to see her. In 1912, Caleb disappears.

Living in the family home is Duncan, and his relationship with cousin Justine is the main thread of the story. Duncan is the ultimate butterfly. Ditching university he takes himself off. But it's only a year later in 1953 that Duncan and Justine get married, a bombshell for the family. But Duncan can never settle, and he takes Justine (and now baby Meg) around the country on various whims. Always on one project or another. Justine and her grandfather tag along. But it's she who joins the now elderly Grandfather Peck on his search for his brother Caleb. A mission that becomes an obsession over the years.

I have to say, as a great fan of Anne Tyler's books, that this is not her best. One of her early novels from 1975, it would have been much better if at times it had not rambled on and on. I'm sure if she wrote the same story today, it would have been far more interesting. I'm looking forward to reading her latest novel "Three days in June".

Gabriel Dax is in the Congo in 1960, but what is a youngish travel writer doing interviewing the Prime Minister. His recording of The Lumumba Tapes form a backdrop to not only what comes next, but rear their ugly heads towards the end. He meets a woman on the plane home, one Faith Green (if that is her real name) who turns out to be MI6. Somehow Gabriel lets himself be employed to help in a straightforward mission on his travels. All so straightforward until a package he was asked to post in the UK looks suspicious.

He just wants to get on with the new book he is writing, but unbelievably he agrees to another trip to Cadiz, all seemingly straight forward, but is he just infatuated with Faith? His meeting with one Blanco reveals he may be in the middle of a spy thriller. However, his usefulness may be over and just over halfway it seems the story is over. Faith has told him go home and goodbye. But of course it's not all over as one big twist follows another, all very enjoyable. Even if towards the end another mission seems to be far more dangerous.

I liked how the author transforms an innocent young traveler into a person he himself does not recognise. Being a travel writer has it's own particular attractions to the security service. This is William Boyd on top form, the writing is spare but very readable. There are only a couple of his eighteen novels that I haven't read, and he seems to just get better and better. I might have a look at those I have missed.

Inside Cinema Shorts - Episodes 91 to 96

 

Here are the last six of the 96 episodes of Inside Cinema Shorts. Starting with No 91 Marilyn Monroe. Lucy Bolton looks at all the films made by this Hollywood icon. She calls her "a multi talented performer". It's true, you just cannot take your eyes off her. The clips of her films start with the films in black and white: Dangerous Years (1947) and As Young As You Feel (1951). Then in 1952 came Monkey Business, a major role for Marilyn starring alongside Cary Grant. Then Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) where she proved she could sing, and Some Like It Hot (1959). However, this episode just crams so much in it makes you dizzy. Just like Marilyn.

Episode 92 British Baddies is introduced by James King who asks why it is that so often in Hollywood movies the bad guy turns out to be British. Above is a case in point as Alan Rickman stars in Die Hard (1984), Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves (1991) and Severus Snape in the Harry Potter movies. James asks "what makes Brits so brilliantly beastly". Well, it all started in 1931 with Colin Clyde in Frankenstein and then so many Boris Karloff films. This started a trend all the way to Kenneth Branagh in Tenet (2020). We see just how many classy award winning actors were the bad guys including Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs (1991). 

What happens when films turn the camera on film making itself. Jamie Maisner investigates in Episode 93 Making Movies. We see clips from so many of these from Ed Wood (1994) to Sunset Boulevard (1950), Hail, Caesar (2016), Adaptation (2002 and Once upon a Time in Hollywood (2019) and many more.

Episode 94 is called Breaking Up and it's Ann Lee who shows us those big screen break ups from the heartfelt Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) to the angry Blue is the Warmest Colour (2013) and the subtle Brokeback Mountain (2005) and Casablanca (1942). But why do we see so much of the very ordinary Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) and Swingers (1996)? But somehow I did like the very clever (500) Days of Summer (2009) and even Her (2013) and La La Land (2016).

We are nearly at the end with Episode 95 Jewels on Film. Nicole Davis asks "are diamonds truly a girl's best friend"? Maybe Kate Winslet above might not agree. Here she is in Titanic (1997). We start with jewels in black and white movies such as Gilda (1946) and work all the way to Kiera Knightley's Anna Karenina (2012) and, of course The Great Gatsby (2013) where the parties are crammed with women in jewels. Obviously we could not miss out on Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) as we rush through many more. That is until we suddenly alight on Emma Thomson finding that ring in Love Actually (2003).  Wow!

The very last of these shorts  concentrates (obviously) on Famous Last Words that is Episode 96. Michael Leader shows us those final lines from some iconic movies. Starting with "I think this is the beginning of a  beautiful friendship" from Casablanca (1942). My favourites of all those we see are "Roads? Where we're going we don't need roads" and "I've got a great idea". Guess the films.

Elaeagnus ebbingei compacta

 

When the overgrown hawthorn was removed from the corner of the very far end of the garden, this shrub was now unsupported and has partly collapsed. I had no idea what it was, but I found the website Pl@ntnet that identifies any leaf for free. It turns out to be Elaeagnus ebbingei compacta or silverberry. It has now been pruned and hopefully will enjoy it's new freedom.

Classic Movies on Sky Arts - Series 3 Episode 6 - Billy Liar

 

Based on the 1959 novel by Keith Waterhouse, Billy Liar is now a John Schlesinger classic movie from 1963. It is one of the "British New Wave" films of the 1960's, all in black and white. It seems an awfully long time since I saw this film, maybe even when it was first released.

Ian Nathan introduces the programme as usual. But he calls these young people "the disillusioned generation". This is rubbish. That was not me or anyone I knew. And Billy is not disillusioned, just a fantasist. We hear all about Keith Waterhouse, first as a reporter, but first and foremost just wanting to write. All the time he was at the Daily Mirror and the Daily Mail, he was writing in his spare time, short stories, plays, anything. His parents were "impossibly poor", but that would not be how they felt at the time. As maybe our parents came into that category in the 1950's. 

Christina Newland tells us that when the book was first published, the country was still in the age of austerity. Steven Armstrong talked about the beginnings of the consumer society and Neil Norman about the theatre of the 1950's with plays from "angry young men" such as Look Back in Anger by John Osborne. In fact the first adaptation of the Billy Liar book was actually a stage play, first starring Albert Finney and then Tom Courtney when he took over. Christina tells us about the choice of actor for the film, and all the team agree that Tom Courtney was perfect for the role of Billy.

Ian Nathan tells us about the director John Schlesinger. How he used his camera out in the real world. We see Julie Christie out walking with real people watching her.  Ian explains how we enter Billy's dreams of "self delusion". Christina added that these sequences often were cut so abruptly in the editing. Neil Norman liked the double act of Billy and Arthur (an early role for Rodney Bewes before his long time in The Likely Lads. We see a clip of them in the funeral parlour. And then who arrives to tell them off but their boss played by ... Leonard Rossiter!

Ian thought the entire cast were great. These included the one and only Wilfred Pickles. Now I remember his radio show Have a Go that ran from 1946 to 1967, it was always on at home. Christina describes the "generational divide" between the older generation and the new. Whilst on the cast, there is a part about the heavenly Julie Christie. Here she is on one of her walks, going past one of the London bomb sites that were still there in the early sixties. Her next film was Darling. 

I think that it was Steven who told us much of the filming took place in Bradford. Ian goes back to the director and how the film elevated the docudrama. One clip we see is the opening of a huge brand new supermarket with a celebrity, a band and large crowds. I can remember my father around this time being given the task to convert some of his firm's grocery stores to supermarkets. Ian and Christina talk about the fantasy element of the film, and Chekov is mentioned. Neil Norman sums up the movie as a "bittersweet comedy but with underlying tragedy". Although there is a spark of hope for Billy at the Locarno ballroom. A song that he composed with Arthur is played there. Steven's final thoughts were on all those sitcoms that came in the future when Billy Liar had paved the way.

Archive Close, Aston Clinton

 

In my post of the 30th June, I included this note from the latest Sight and Sound magazine.

How to build an archive by Pamela Hutchinson.

A review of the BFI National Film Library now called The National Archive. Starting with it's being established in 1935 (with its first curator Ernest Lingren) up to 1945. The beginnings of how films were collected and the appeal that by 1936 there were seven hundred films including precious Chaplin and Hitchcock titles. In the early part of the second world war, the collection found "a permanent location (just down the road) in Aston Clinton in Buckinghamshire", "to live in a temperature controlled environment".

Despite exhaustive searches on the internet, I have failed to determine the exact address. It's possible that this was Aston Clinton House (now demolished) on the grounds of what is now the Green Park Centre. In the History of the Archive for the BFI, we find "In 1940 the BFI opened it's first state of the art film archive  at Aston Clinton"

I then filled in a contact form for the BFI to see if anyone there knew the answer. I was amazed that two hours later I received this reply:

Dear David Roberts 

 

Thank you for your enquiry.

The National Film Archive was originally situated on Green End Street, roughly equidistant between the Oak & The Partridge Arms pubs in Aston Clinton. The Archive building was knocked down, and a small housing estate was built on the former location, now called Archive Close. There is a plaque commerating the Archive on the street sign which reads: "The National Archive was on this site from 1939 to 1987." 

 We hope this is of assistance. 

Best wishes, 

Archive Access

BFI National Archive

So this morning I took the very short journey to Archive Close, only a hundred meters from the Oak pub where we have had the occasional dinner. And, of course, took the above photo. Now I know.

Tree Maintenance in the Garden

 

The tree surgeons were here last week. I had a long list of what had to be done. First of all, the laurel hedge I planted years ago needed attention. As in the photo above, I could trim the lower half, but that was not the right thing to do. It left the top half that needed to be straight. Some severe pruning has left it in a sorry state as the photo below. Hopefully it will recover in the next couple of years.

Next up the removal of a hawthorn tree at the very far corner of the garden. It had become terribly overgrown over the years with all the foliage over hanging next door's garden. As the photos below, we were just left with two trunk systems which have now been removed.

I would have preferred the removal of the whole of the Elder at the far end but in the end settled for two branches that overhang the laurels.

Despite many failed attempts over the last few years to destroy the stumps of the four old Aylesbury Prune trees that died, I finally gave up and these were ground out.

The viburnum in the wildflower border has been fine for the last few years, but gradually it expectedly got fed up with constantly being trimmed. And is now no more.

The wildflowers appreciate the space.

Finally one large branch of the pyracantha, that was hard against the wall at the front, has been removed. It's amazing how much room it has left at the end of the joint border.