Ellen Roberts - Highgate Cemetery

My Great Great Grandmother Ellen Littlewood was born on 28th (or 29th) August 1834 in Tickhill, Doncaster. The IGI has the former date, as has the 1937 family tree prepared by Charles Augustus Roberts. The IGI has her full name as Ellen Maria Littlewood, However there is no mention of this second Christian name in any other document. In every Census from 1841 to 1911 she is just Ellen Littlewood or Ellen Roberts (after she married John Shearwood Roberts on 20th March 1855 in Sheffield Parish Church). These include the 1861 and 1871 Census where all their children have their second Christian names recorded.

Ellen was the daughter of John William Littlewood, a Doncaster solicitor, and Mary Anne Pearson. It is unlikely that they would not have given her a second Christian name. Perhaps she hated the name? She and John had six children: Marianne Francis Shearwod Roberts, John Shearwood Roberts, Ada Ellen Matilda Roberts, Sidney Morton Pearson Roberts, Vincent Littlewood Roberts (my Great Grandfather) and Charles Augustus Roberts who compiled the 1937 family tree.

We know that Ellen left her husband and took up residence near to her son John Shearwood Roberts in North London. But when? It was after 1871 when at the Census of that year she was still living with her husband and their children where the youngest, Charles Augustus, was 5 years old. But ten years later at the 1881 Census she was a visitor to Ann Fisher and her sister in Hove, Sussex. By the 1991 Census she had her own residence in Clapham, South London and in the 1991 Census at the age of 76, she is living at 44 Roseberry Gardens, Crouch End, Edmonton. At both these addresses she has a servant living with her, obviously courtesy of her husband's fortune made in property.

It was here at 44 Roseberry Gardens that Ellen died on 5th May 1914. The death certificate records that present at her death was her son John Shearwood Roberts of 17 Woodland Rise, Highgate. And it was in Highgate Cemetery that she was buried on 8th May 1914. Her son is also buried in the same grave after he died nearly seven years later at the age of 63.

So on Thursday last week, I had made arrangements with the Friends of Highgate Cemetery to visit their grave.

Fantastic Four, Ricki and The Flash and Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

Much more to my taste than the usual super hero movie, more like a science fiction film only to be undone by the rubbish ultra CGI superhero battle at the end.

I would go to see any movie written by Diablo Cody after her superb and original Juno, Jennifer's Body and Young Adult. Unfortunately this was her weakest so far, primarily let down by a really strange performance by Meryl Streep as Ricki. The first half was your usual dysfunctional family stuff we have seen before. But then director Jonathon Demme seems to get hold of the plot and gives it a good push and it turns into a good film. An amazing soundtrack, long and varied but most of which I missed, concentrating more on the action.

The title nearly put me off, but the reviews and awards persuaded me and it is an original and interesting movie. It is very well written by Jesse Andrews, adapting his own book and sensitively directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon. This is a witty and warm film given the circumstances with good performances including British actress Olivia Cook as the girl. Watch out for Oscar time.

Jordskott, True Detective and Witnesses

I have just come to the end of watching three very different police dramas. The first is Jordskott, a Swedish murder mystery with missing children and an evil that lingers in the forest. For me, the fantasy element didn't work so well and the series was far too long. However the cast were very good, led by Moa Gammel as Inspector Eva Thornblad although not quite in the same bracket as Sarah Lund.

I nearly gave up on the second season of True Detective, but something kept me watching. It had a pretty complicated plot which is not good for last thing at night. It was also quite violent. It seemed the writers had decided that the four main characters must be more flawed than anyone had seen before. I cannot remember them providing a smile the whole series. Vince Vaughn was pretty wooden alongside his long suffering wife played well by Kelly Reilly. Taylor Kitsch's cop could have been played equally well by anyone so thank goodness for Colin Farrell and Rachel McAdams. They are involved in the best scenes. However  the shoot out at the end of Episode 4 was just crazy. That word is probably the best to describe the whole series.

The best of the TV dramas was definitely the French series Witnesses. I gave it a separate review on 10th August. The only disappointment was the hopeless ending to the final episode.

Cuddington Walk

Once a year I try to find a walk that I have never tried before. We have been to Cuddington a few times, for choral society quiz nights etc. and the countryside looked very nice. So this route described in the Sunday Times seemed ideal.

Alison had gone to stay with her sister for a couple of days, primarily to go to see her beloved City play on the Saturday afternoon. So it was a beautiful Friday morning when I drove what was only twenty minutes to Cuddington. I ended up parking very close to Tibbys Lane where the walk started, passing the attractive village church.

I immediately wished I had brought my compass as the first path seemed to be going in the wrong direction (the route description was no help at all). So I doubled back and took what turned out to be a parallel and much more attractive path towards Nether Wichendon. I'm glad I did otherwise I would have missed this lovely village on the way. Just before the first houses is a bridge over the River Thame.

Nether Wichendon is a quite spectacular and secluded  village. Nether Wichendon House looks amazing and apparently is open to the public in May, so a note for a visit next year.

The church in the village has a prominent location.

So a promising start to the walk. Unfortunately that did not last. The next two and a half miles is along the Thame Valley Walk, a very boring flat route along the edge of fields.

There are no nice views and the only thing of interest is the small planted woodland.

Approaching Bridge Lodge, where you leave the Thame Valley Walk to join the North Bucks Way, I encountered a major problem. Somehow the path had not been well marked as I ended up the wrong side of a barbed wire fence. Although I searched, here was no way through. So instead of doubling back (where I had no confidence of finding the right way), I headed uphill along the edge of the field. In the distance I could see what was a decent track and skirted more fields to get there. All this time I was not on public footpaths, but it didn't seem to be a problem. The view back from the top of the incline was as good as I would see.

I ended up on what seemed to be a parkland road. It turned out to be a private road, part of the Eythrope Park Estate, but apart from one tractor, it was deserted. It brought me out on the main road near Waddesdon Hill. I wanted to see the next village, Upper Wichendon, so I walked down the edge of this fairly busy road before turning off to look at the church and views across the hills.

Leaving the village, I was back on the right route and stopped for lunch alongside a small valley.

After that it was another unattractive trek across many fields with no views. After crossing one field full of cows and calves, it would have been nice to have had this sign at the beginning rather than at the end.

Somehow I lost the path again (I was getting fed up with this) and ended up back on the Thame Valley Walk and retracing the same route back. At least I got to see Nether Wichendon again. The weather had been sunny for the first half but clouded over for a while. So probably the most disappointing of  any walk in Bucks. I will stick to walks  in the Chiltern Hills in the future.

Othello Live from the RSC Stratford

To see Othello live from the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, I went to the Aylesbury Waterside Theatre's Second Space. A 200 seat compact but well designed small auditorium, steeply raked seating but limited leg room and not the most comfortable seats for a three hour play.

I had only seen Othello once before and that was the RSC touring production at the Oxford Playhouse in 2009. I preferred this version. The staging was brilliant and the director, Iqbal Khan, did a terrific job. Hugh Quarshie is not a natural Moor, I guess his never ending role in TV's Holby City doesn't help.  But he speaks the verse well and his anger is painfully obvious. But I have severe reservations about Lucian's Msamati's Iago, the subject of much discussion as the first black actor to play this role. I had nothing against this in principle, in fact I thought it a worthwhile experiment. It's just that I missed three quarters of his words. And his natural comic background sometimes is a disadvantage in his expressions. But that is the downside of a close up camera for a theatrical production.

No such problems for the rest of the cast, Joanna Vanderham particularly good as Desdemona. It was also interesting to see many of the cast from last weeks visit to Stratford appearing here. Brian Protheroe was again excellent, this time as Brabantio. The televised production was again very good so what we lose in missing being there, we gain in the close ups and the sound.

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, Mistress America and The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

Another fun outing for the MI guys, although I couldn't help but wonder if Tom wasn't trying to tell us something at the end of yet another stunt. Maybe "I'm getting to old for this"? OK, there were some serious plot holes, a copy of a Bond Opera sequence and an unappealingly grumpy Simon Pegg. But the set pieces and especially the music were top drawer.

Mistress America, despite it's good reviews, was on a seriously limited release. And after half an hour I could understand why as I wished I hadn't bothered. But then the relationship between Greta Gerwig and Lola Kirke starts to make sense and we are in are then in for quite a treat. So I have to give this movie five stars for ambition from the director Noah Boambach and his co writer Gerwig. It's jam packed with smart modern dialogue (although I have never met anyone who speaks like it) even if at the same time a lot sounds modernly dull. The stagy setting for the later main scene is enjoyable with the addition of some funny (peculiar) characters. I might have not understood why a corridor was trashed early on, but I'm glad I didn't when it was revealed why near the end. I had hoped for a typically cool soundtrack but it was disappointing in the end. The 80's feel could have been done better than the likes of Hot Chocolate, OMD, Suicide and Macca.

It was strange to see a British actor playing an American, an American playing a Russian and a Swedish actress playing a Brit. But that was the three leads for The Man From U.N.C.L.E. I must have seen Henry Cavill in previous roles and the same for Armie Hammer but there names rang no bells. Unlike Alicia Vikander who was brilliant in Ex Machina and Testament of Youth. However this time round no acting skills were required. Another fun movie with added wit. Guy Ritchie has done a reasonable job with his other writers, but it's all in the action and magnificent sets, so it's his direction that keeps things moving along. And you cannot go wrong in Rome.

The Merchant of Venice at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford

The last time I went to see The Merchant of Venice was on 28th May 1988 at The Barbican Theatre, that's twenty seven years ago! Shylock was played by Anthony Sher (who I saw recently in Death of a Salesman), Deborah Findlay played Portia and  Phil Daniels must have been a hilarious Launcelot Gobbo. But the most amazing piece of casting then was a certain Gregory Doran (now Artistic Director of the RSC) as Solanio. 

Last night was a very different production. Modern dress, a very modern staging complete with mirrored floor and back wall and modern speaking of the verse. This is not a nice play and I think this way helped the cut down narrative (two hours ten minutes plus an interval obviously meant chunks were omitted).  We still get Portia's suitors trying to pick the right box (a superb piece of staging as they descend from above a few feet away from my seat), a typical neat Shakespearean diversion but which seems to be from another play altogether. At the back we have giant swinging metal ball counting down to what? Pawnbrokers (or moneylenders) had three golden balls as their sign? Counting down to the day when the debt becomes due?

In the acting department, head and shoulders above the rest of the cast (in acting terms if not stature) stands Patsy Ferran as Portia. Only graduating from RADA last summer she has already won high praise for her parts in Blithe Spirit and Treasure Island. I saw her in October at a quarter full Oxford Playhouse in The Angry Brigade. From that seriously sharp performance I could not see her cast as Portia but she is virtually unrecognisable as the same actress. Her voice this time is so soft and highly pitched but with such marvelous projection we catch every word. Her eyes and hands work magic. This is one actress destined for big things.

Makram J. Khoury, the Palestian playing Shylock is another matter completely. He is undoubtedly a very fine actor and he gives a subtle and understated performance. It's just a shame he mumbled most of his words. However Jamie Ballard was outstanding as Antonio and Brian Protheroe gave us a brilliant cameo as Aragon. Polly Findlay is to be congratulated as director of a very enjoyable and memorable production.