Von Ryan's Express, How to lose a guy in ten days ugh and Being There

December 31st was a day of shopping madness in the land of variable pricing but I had been in quite a state since rising at 3am bright as polished tunic button the previous day after a good but short sleep and feeling wide awake, I started to write and continued for several hours deciding that I would try to sleep again with the first hints of dawn. It was approaching 1 pm when I woke after a long vivid dream which I have continued to remember factual aspects as well as its feelings. This is unusual. Moreover the sleep had been uninterrupted. During the remainder of the day I completed sixty artman signature cards and tomorrow, New Years Eve, I will commence the completion of the otherwise finished sets followed by making the photographic record. This will take several days. I watched several films while I worked and remembered one I had not previously mentioned, inconsequential as it was.

This morning after going to bed at 1am I stayed in bed intentionally having read the opening chapters of a Christmas gift novel where the opening was set in the town of Perth which I have visited several times. It was 10.30 before woke again feeling a tiredness and lethargy which lasted until driving myself to get into the car going on a short trip to the new Lidl which had promised coloured A4 size ring binders from 79p the size I wanted would cost 99p. The roads and car parks were full of cars and everybody seemed to be on the move. The new Lidl was disappointing with none of the offers I wanted on display so I had a bright idea. I was convinced that there was another branch on the way to the home where my mother had been resident. I joined the route with a mini market in one of two directions and I opted for the one towards the Home rather than back to my home and bingo I had chosen correctly although I got the entrance to the car park wrong and had to reverse, encountering the continuing build up at one of those traffic lights where the lights alternate between every roadway, a wise municipal decision given the awkwardness of the junction and the amount of traffic at the best of time.

The decision proved a brilliant one as one of the first finds was a mountain of boxes each holding 18 Torta Spanish Almond cake better known as Turron. There was also the supply of ring binders eight of the size I wanted coloured red. There were also simple wood boxes containing 600 grams of smoked salmon for £4.40 alas the best eat date was January3rd and I had already acquired a 200 gram back on Saturday which with the smoked ham would see me well into the New Year. However I also bout a lettuce, some rolls and new high powered bottle opened which I thought was priced £12 but with a device which cut through foil however on the receipt it was under £8. It looks forbidding and it will be tomorrow when will I try it as I am drinking water today. I may also invest in a kit of replacement top for fizz drinks as well as wine as the one I use has served its time.

However the surprise bargain of he day and many others was small tubes of acrylic paint 12 colours and six of each colour 72 tubes for under £8 or 11 pence each.

I had not planned New Year's eve other than to be in and had noted a showing of the Girl with a Pearl earring, but as I have the DVD this ca be viewed on an otherwise blank day. It was not until just after 6.30 that I switched from an uninterrupted all music channel on Sky to the programme options and discovered that there was a showing of the last Tina Turner concert at the old Wembley. It has been my privilege to experience two of her live concerts placing her along with Bruce Springsteen three times, and also only the Live Aid appearance of Queen as the three great on stage exceptional value over 100% give all performers that make you thrilled excited drained and exhausted. The presentational aspect of the Wembley concert remains extraordinary. The Biography channels was trumps tonight because of Tina there was Queen at Budapest and then Live Aid concert remembered.

As planned my work of the day concentrated on adding the dried Artman signature cards to otherwise completed volumes and then photographing twice, each card individually and then as double spreads,. First were 10 sets in five volumes of My Space writings 5493. However it was only when I was adding the photos to the 200000-300000 listings with 262000 entered as this note is completed that I worked out that I had made the registration card 5493 5395 cards 131809 131856 twice and that a new card had to be created, and this was followed somewhat later various diversions by the seven sets about Mabel reaching 100 and her life.
Two days ago I provided another example of this being the land of variable pricing having paid £9 for a Travel Lodge double bedded room with TV and coffee and tea making facilities, with £15 and £19 for room which can be booked for £29, £39 and £49 outside the cities with the highest noted £105 shot notice booking in the centre of London at Covent Garden.

Sunday night I watched a celebration film introduced by Sir Richard Attenborough marking the three years in which Jose Murinho led Chelsea two Championship titles and in 2007 to winning the League Cup at the Millennium stadium Cardiff and the return of the FA Cup final to Wembley. Despite losing key players this achievement was not enough and early on in the present season Murinho parted company to return to his homeland. For the three seasons the majority of Chelsea supporters have lived in dreamland and for the rest of us the concern has been at the ability of one man to buy success through his bottomless cheque book. I have a history with Chelsea Football club in that in 1980's after two visits to the ground I experienced horrifying violence around me. On the first occasion on leaving the ground shortly before the final whistle in a drawn match I encountered about 100 men lounging in a nearby roadway in groups of two and three when suddenly with the noise of away supporters leaving the ground, an umbrella was raised and the men formed into ranks and moved off silently at the double in the direction of the departing away supporters.

A few minutes later there was the sound of police cars and a group of men were running escorted by police on horseback. I kept out of the way in the entrance to a shop until the street quietened. Eventually about an hour after the match ended I found an underground station at which I was later told the London branch of the away supporters club were escorted by police on to the train where they merged with Saturday shoppers and those going into central London for the evening. At two stations before Earls Court the platform was crowded the length of the platform on the lookout for the very young men who boarded the train, and some managed to get on the train and a vicious fight broke out in the next compartment with the attackers armed with knuckle dusters and strong books. They used the leather holding loops to swing into opponents hitting and kicking some senseless. I managed to help some young men escape through the door separating compartments and they left the train at the next station, while others entered the compartment through the platform door to get into the adjacent compartment. I prevented one individual who appeared to me to be no more than a child barely an adolescent from joining the affray and when questioned he said with hate that he had to get at the fellow Londoners who supported a different football team. A couple of years later after a near riot within the ground because the away team I was supporting won the match, I had a similar experience, although in this instance, West Han supporters smashed their way out oft eh train, having been to a match at Wimbledon, in order to get into a fight with Chelsea supporters who were being prevented by the police from entering the station. Thus the police found themselves in the middle of a conflict between two groups of men whishing to try and kill each other. In both instances the trains were so badly damaged that they were taken out of service at Earls Court. My enquiries revealed that this was a regular occurrence within the capital.

These days the football authorities have made strenuous efforts to eliminate such violence within grounds and in the surrounding areas. The warring factions now arrange to do battle at different locations and fights are arranged according to tribal issues, and the territories are no longer a football club, owned by Russians, Americans or other foreigners, and where there players all come from different countries and continents, but an artificial geographical location such as a post code. On previous visits to Chelsea the extent of open recruiting by extreme right wing organisation outside the ground was evident. I once had an interesting correspondence with the then Chairman of Chelsea Football club Ken Bates about the subject and also with Sir Jimmy Hill. My previous experience has nothing to do with the present Chairman and Board, or the players and I have made several visits to the modernised ground without incident. It now costs an astronomical sum to be come a season ticket holders and even greater sums are required for those who have parking spaces and like to dine and wine friends and fly to similar facilities in clubs in other parts of Europe. For some supporting the club has become their way of life, The British game has been weakened by the departure of Mr Murinho and until, this season the Premier League was dominated by four Clubs, Manchester United and Liverpool from the North West and Arsenal and Chelsea in London. 2008 could be the first year in over three decades that I do not have a season ticket.

Travelling by train in the UK also has as great a variable pricing structure varying from £20.40 two singles usually booked two months in advance from Newcastle to London 300 miles to an open second class return of £269 and £379 for first class. Talking of trains!

Some weeks ago I remembered an occasion in Italy when I attended the gala evening of the Sorrento film festival and saw Von Ryan's Express or was it after a deluge at the coastal resort of Rimini after visiting Venice, but wherever ti was the film was in German with Italian sub titles. It was years later that I saw the American and English language version and it was only on Sunday night that I saw the film again and began to remember the story and its ending.

In the last days of Italian involvement in World War Two Frank Sinatra is shot down near a coast in southern Italy is taken prisoner becomes the de factor head of a P.O.W by reason of rank although it is full of a captured British regiment with the remaining senior officer, played by Trevor Howard. Given the stated information that they have bee incarcerated for two years I assume they had been ordered to surrender in North Africa for their aim has been to escape and continuing the fight with every man volunteer career soldiers. Sinatra is a 90 day wonder having been a commercial flyer the rank was gained on completion of training. A clash of attitudes is inevitable and Sinatra's decision to give up the latest tunnel in exchange for decent clothing, red cross parcels, hot water and delousing powder earns him the epithet Von to his surname of Ryan. This is reinforced when the men having left the camp after the Italian surrender are recaptured because of his decision not to execute the camp commander. The prisoner are put in a cattle truck train to Rome and on to Austria. However they manage to capture the train and devise a way to reach Italy. This is an escape adventure film in which many die and both leaders come to respect each other and their different approaches. It is of no consequence except that it was seen in Italy as part of an adventure travelling through Belgium, Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, and France.

On New Years Evening Day I saw the last Peter Sellers film made in 1979 to be released before his death and which led to an Oscar nomination in 1979 and won several awards 1980/1981 in both the Uk and America.

Peter Sellers plays a middle aged man who has spent his adult life tending the garden at the home of a wealthy man without any outside contact except for what he gains from TV watching. When the Old Man dies he is forced to leave the home on a wintry night and while watch TV in a shop window steps back and his leg is injured by the vehicle of another very wealthy and influential man who is dying with a young wife played by Shirley McLaine. Sellers introduces himself as Chance the Gardener which is misunderstood as Chauncey Gardener when invited to recuperate at the home of the couple who are anticipating a visit from the President.

Being slow witted and his experience only that of the garden and what eh has seen on TV Chance talks slowly relating everything in simple fashion to the seasons of growth and decay and this is interpreted by the great and good and the great and not so good as profound especially after the President quotes something said to him on the private visit in major televised speech and over night Chance becomes a political and media sensation turning the fortunes of the President. When his new benefactor dies he is the choice of the board. The reality is recognised by the benefactor's doctor who keeps quiet because of the positive effect Chance has in the last days of his patient.

The charm and significance of the film is the way Chance is critically examined by the great and not so good. The CIA cannot find any record an conclude the cover up of the past could only have been achieved by a former agency, one of them and the FBI come to a similar conclusion but this time it is a former FBI agent. The President goes off Chance when he sees him as a threat, especially when the political elite conclude he would make a better prospect instead of a second term President, because all the opinion poll and media evidence is that the general public regard the man as brilliant. In the final scene Chance is seen as appearing to walk on water. Being There proved to be the oldie of the year

On the same day I saw The Good, the Bad and Ugly again remembering how much I had forgotten. And the Worst film of the year was undoubtedly How to Lose a guy in Ten days, although I enjoyed it. Got no taste, Got no class, Ain't got no.

The Race for Yankee Zepher, The Boyfriend and more

Yesterday the Pakistan Opposition Leader Benazir Bhutto was killed in a gun and suicide attack, as she returned to her country to contest he forthcoming general elections. My day had commenced without attempting to engage in great thoughts other than an awareness that December and the year were drawing to an end, but hopefully not my life, although it continues to ebb away against the tide of my wishes. I felt on top of my work although I am not up to-date because there some 50 or more sets of work requiring Artman cards and then to be photographed recorded. The delay is the need to conserve photo cards until I can track a new inexpensive supply. One local supermarket has indicated there will be a good offer at the end of the second week of January and I will need to check Staples and Neat ideas before then for some additions in the interim so that I can recommence the completion of the second volume of Rivera 2007. I will also look out for white card although I have at lest three months supply as present work levels. Yesterday such was the progress that I completed the first two master volumes of creative work and memorabilia about my mother and almost completed a six or seven set volume about films experienced prior to 2003.

The work was such that that I continued to watch films, trivial frothy films to begin with. In the afternoon trhere was the Race for Yankee Zepher which starred Donald Pleasance is a good role for him as an drunken old codger with a conventional daughter by one of his marriages, whose help he seeks to enable him, and his friend, who runs a dilapidated helicopter, to embark on an expedition in a remote mountainous region of New Zealand to recover the contents of a US plane Yankee Zepher, which the audience is instructed at the commencement of the film contained 50 million dollars in gold 1939-1945 prices ( no inflation adjustment is made), and which disappeared on a pre Christmas flight intended to provide for the American Troops fighting in the Southern hemisphere. Our anti hero discovers the plane having been dropped into a lake by his partner from a rope under the helicopter which for some inexplicable reason has never been discovered until several decades after its disappearance. Would today such a valuable transport be left in the hands of one pilot and one plane, but then the information on 25 million Britain's on computer disks has recently disappeared and cannot be found!

The old codger brings back some pristine medals which he finds in the wreck unaware of what he is leaving behind and more interested in the crates of Christmas Cheer. He sells the medals to a local dealer for 75 dollars apiece to raise cash for booze and gambling at cards having had no difficulty in making the trek home, despite his age and the isolation of the location, although as we subsequently learn the area appears to be inhabited of a race of mountain hard drinking and gambling fearless aging mountain men. The creation of the stake money, sets in train the arrival of Mr Big, the baddie, played in as comic way as he can by George Peppard, who although has no knowledge of the location of the plane comes in a convoy of off the road vehicles, a helicopter and two boats capable of skimming through the only entrance to the lake because of the shallow waters.

It is never clear how the gang learn of the find and are so quickly are to assemble the items necessary for the expedition, including full arsenal of modern weaponry, and arrive in the area without attracting the attention of the authorities. However as this is the Land of the Lord of the Rings one must accept that anything can happen. There then follows a James Bond type adventure in which the two partners and the reluctantly involved daughter, race ahead or behind the baddies to get to the plane to claim the treasure. It lacks the credibility of Bond in the sense that Bond lives in a world of violence, whereas the famous trio are able to participate in the death of their adversaries as if something experienced on a regular basis. Although by the end of the film the treasure has sunk to the bottom of lake along with several baddies, with others disposed of along the way, by luck rather than skill and endeavour a box of gold bars is retained to enable them to live happy ever after, for we are told along with the credits that the old codger is now running a dubious bar in the most unlikeliest of locations, convincing the more gullible of cinema goers that this story is based on fact. The film was directed by David Hemmings.

There was no such pretensions with The Boy Friend which I first say as a show at the Streatham Hill Theatre in the later 1950's taking my mother my aunt and another aunt to see Sandy Wilson's energetic song and dance, having first seen a performance on my own earlier in the week. The musical opened in London in 1953 as a small scale show but quickly transferred to the West End and to Broadway(1974) and ran for five years and over 2000 performances. The musical captured the nostalgia of the British middle classes for the roaring twenties of the Charleston era and who were able to afford their summer on the French Riviera. There are several catchy songs whose words I learnt having purchased the ten inch long play record, and the script is suitable for children and middle aged church going folk such as my aunties. The film was given the Ken Russell Treatment in 1971 with Twiggy in the main female role, supported by Glenda Jackson and Barbara Windsor. The Russell idea was to have a small time seaside theatrical company performs the original show on the night that a big time film producer happens to visit and when the leading lady is injured and understudy Twiggy is give her big moment. The film stage production has props more West End and than end of the pier and is augmented by Busby Berkeley type moments, extending the original song and dance routines into a film lasting 2 hours and 17 minutes. It is very colourful but despite the energy of the dancing routines loses for me the vitality and freshness which the show brought to a still drab post war and ore sixties country, Despite having the early success in the USA in 1954, the film was not a box off office success although there was a Broadway revival in 1970 and a North American Tour in 2005 after Julie Andrews directed a New York production in 2003. There were also smaller scale reproductions in London in 1995, 2006, and 2007, thus confirming my reaction 50 years before that this was harmless frothy entertainment one could take a maiden aunt or two to see, or in my case three.

There was a plethora of films to see again in the evening at 9pm and I opted for The Queen, the film which Dame Judy Dench played her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. As I thought at the time when I saw the film in theatre no one comes out very well except for the Queen, with Tony Blair shown as a twit who reveals himself as a secret monarchist and ties to help her understand and respond to the public reaction. Coming worse off are Mrs Blair and Tony's inner circle who are seen to want to seize the opportunity to push the nation towards a republic, Having watched the wall to wall news coverage including that of the US news channels on Sky and then visited London during the funeral week I also understood the public reaction as did the Prime Minister. The public mourned Diana, not just because she was glamorous trend setter, or her good works, but because she came across as being a flawed human being like the rest of us, willing and able to exploit her talents and position to the maximum of her capabilities, and to be honest about her lifestyle and interests. She captured the mood of changing Britain. The initial failure of the Queen and her Royal advisers was not to realise that the public needed her to do what she subsequently was forced into, according to the film, and join them in public demonstration of mourning while her natural instincts was to express feelings in private and concentrate on the welfare of the grand children. It is understandable that the Queen recognised that Diana had become the catalyst which threatened not just the future of the Monarchy but the future of the old order and a stable quartet of nations at the heart of the Commonwealth

The significance of the Blair Premiership will not be Iraq but that he completed the transformation of the UK initiated by Prime Minister Thatcher into an elitist, competitive, global money making enterprise in which Prince Andrew has become its chief salesperson and Princess Diana its Icon.
As the recent TV series on the Queen at work has demonstrated, the Royal firm led by the Queen has learnt to survive better than before. The ban on Foxhunting has been circumvented and the democratic and essentially republican reform of the Lords put on ice, I suspect on the duration of the lifetime of her Majesty. If the monarchy in the UK is to survive then it will need to jump a generation sorry Prince Charles and Camilla, as what will work, is a good marriage and a next generation Kingship, although the situation could change if the Queen is able, like her mother, to continue for another decade, or two.

At one level the protracted inquest into the circumstances into the death of Diana (and what I expect to be an inconclusive conclusion but rejecting the wilder conspiratorial speculations) will aid this viewpoint that to skip a generation will protect the Monarchy and traditionalist Britain until the Chinese need an Emperor to lead their economic imperialism, as a buffer to the Russians who are moving back towards a contemporary Tsar, while, the Indian Sub continent will move towards an identified aristocracy to counter the need for Pakistan to have a dictator if it is not to quickly become a fundamentalist state with its independent nuclear weaponry which in turn would precipitate the third World War and potential the premature ending of all our self conscious beingness.

OK so this is all wild and fanciful at the end of a workmanlike day full of froth and frills! Or is it. I hate to admit but without knowing anything about the reality of Pakistan, the last thing we and the world in general needed is a genuine free for all democratic elections in which the Muslim fundamentalists could gain legitimate power. The premature death of Benazir Bhutto is a tragic loss for her family and her political party, and it may be for all of us unless a strong single minded anti Muslim fundamentalist government can be established in that country for at least the next decade, while Europe and he USA adjust to the rise of China, the development of Russian and India
Moreover back home the Labour Party is playing the wrong card in accusing the opposition of having no policies and the Liberal Democrats of thinking they need to have different ones from the other two parties. What the British nations need is good mature government and leadership. It does not need lots of new policies, new legislation or new anything. It has enough new to cope with thank you. It wants good government and a government it can trust. Gordon Brown was able to provide this over the first months after Blair and then there was some madness that he had have a General Election and a vision which requires changes in policies and lots of legislation. The Queen is now more popular and secure as a concept that ever before because she had the guts to face the music, as did Queen Victoria when she came out of her long period of mourning for her husband. The only danger I can foresee to her now is that the stronger a symbol of Britishness she becomes, the more she will be a threat to all those who want to see a divided and disillusioned people. This is an era for strong leadership, g

Helen Keller and Nicholas Monserrat's Esther Costello

Tucked away at the end of the free film channel on Sky TV is Simply Movies, a channel which shows quality films produced during my childhood and when a young man. Although I have an increasing number of number of cinema and TV DVD’s waiting to be viewed and which I am look forward with enthusiasm. I delay whenever I come across a gem of a film from a bygone age, especially those with a story which is of concern or priority interest to me.

Such was that of Ester Costello, a film which I have no recollection of seeing before but which combines three issues of profound significance. The film is based on a novel by Nicholas Monserrat, the author of the Cruel Sea.

I was much affected by this World War Two account of a small naval ship whose function it was to try and guard merchant convoys as they crossed the Atlantic and in addition to seeing the film several times over the years I also acquired a copy of the book. I was aware the Nicholas Monserrat had written several books about the war and the navy including Three Corvettes, HMS Marlborough will enter harbour, The Ship that died of shame (also made into a film) and HM Frigate. I knew nothing about the Life of Mr Monserrat 1910 to 1979 or that he had written this important book, albeit a melodrama, The Esther Costello Story..

Monserrat was educated at Winchester College and Trinity College Cambridge which suggests a family upbringing of some wealth and culture. However after deciding not to take up law, his original career intention, he became a freelance writer for newspapers to support himself while completing four novels and a play within five years until the outbreak of the second World War. Nor can I discover information about how be became a pacifist. He has written two autobiographical works which I assume cover his early years and his reasons for rejecting violence. At first he joined the ambulance brigade but then joined the Royal Naval Reserve and then took a commission serving on ships such as the corvettes designed to try and protect the merchant convoys. By the end of the war he had become the Commander of a Frigate. With a love of the sea, from sailing in his youth, he could have continued with a naval career, but in 1946 he resigned his commission and joined the diplomatic service with postings to South Africa and Canada. Then in 1959 after the success of some of his books he became a full time writer living in Guernsey and then the Gozo, Islands of Malta.

I can well understand why his work, the Esther Costello story created such a fuss when it was first released, especially in the USA and that the Helen Keller Foundation attempted to have the book banned and considered suing (according to Wikipedia). This was not surprising given the potential damage the film could have caused, setting back those working for organisations to assist in the care and treatment of the blind, the deaf and deaf blind. I can also understand that the similarity with aspects of the Helen Keller story could have been initially misinterpreted to suggest that author was saying something about the campaigning and fund raising aspects of her subsequent life. Then on considering the film, and the I presume the novel further it would have been appreciated that any similarities were just a commercial coat peg upon which to tell a very different story.

Helen Keller was born in 1880 and was a normal child of a well connected Southern family in the USA whose father had been a Confederate officer and her mother a cousin of Robert E Lee and whose father was a Confederate General. She could have expected a good life from such a background until illness struck her which at the time was not described as meningitis or scarlet fever. She became blind and deaf. She appears to have been about five years of age and would therefore have memory of the visual and sound, a most cruel and traumatic form of disability for both child and for her parents to bear.

I was brought up in a family environment which included an aunt who became deaf, blind, mute and eventually bedridden from meningitis in childhood. And later through my professional and managerial work I had responsibilities and contact with adults who were blind, (visually handicapped and then visual disabilities) terminology which society came to recognise were more acceptable terms, and the deaf, (hearing disabilities) for the same reason and which are also more accurate as it is rare for individuals to live in complete darkness for example. I also grew up knowing that I was different from others, although in my instance the potential disability was nothing like as horrifying, and was became the drive to achieve something with my life more than existing and surviving.

In the true story by good fortune the daughter of the cook, also a child decided that she would learn to communicate with Helen and helped her to learn some sixty signs which enabled her to communicate with the family.

At this point I want to begin the story of the film in which Joan Crawford plays a middle class city based separated married woman with no children who goes on a Family History trip to Ireland and is persuaded by the parish priest to visit the home of Esther Costello who she finds living in poverty with her grandmother after her mother perished in a storm which destroyed part of their home. The priest has worked out that since the break up of her marriage, the character played by Joan is living in a void and searching for something which has brought her to Ireland. He is able to tell her that medical opinion is that the disabilities were caused by the trauma of witnessing the death of her mother and that the experience prevents her from dealing with psychological causes of her condition.

Against her better judgement Joan is persuaded to take responsibility for the girl although at first she sees herself as providing the funds to take the girl to the best doctors and to provide for her upbringing. It is only after Harley Street Doctors confirm the Irish diagnosis that she decided that Esther should attend the best education and training establishment in the USA. It is at this point, given the rest of fictitious story that alarm bells would have sounded by all those concerned with Helen Keller and her story because there is reference to the Helen Keller and what was achieved by one to one teaching In the film this is undertaken by Joan Crawford under professional guidance

In the real life story of Helen Keller, her mother arranged for her daughter accompanied by her father to see the leading specialist and this led to being referred to the same establishment which had been successful with a child which Charles Dickens had written about and which had been read by Helen’s mother. This was the Perkins Institute for the Blind and it was the decision of the school’s Director to ask a former student, visually impaired and only twenty years of age, Anne Sullivan, to provide one to one tuition. Their relationship lasted for 49 years, later as governess and then as companion.

The method used involved touching the lips and throat, and finger spelling on the palm of the hand. It was only later that she learnt to read Braille, not just in English, but also French, German, Latin and Greek. Together the two were at the Perkins Institute for six years and then to New York two attend schools for Deaf, before turning to Massachusetts where Helen attended an establishment for young ladies and then in 1900 Radcliffe College and in 1904, aged 24 years. Helen became the first deaf and blind person to commence work for a Batchelor of Arts degree. This has to be put into the perspective of very few young women receiving higher education at that time, anywhere in the world compared to the number of men. Given the impact Helen had during her life it is fitting that tribute is given to Anne Sullivan who married in 1905 but maintained her companionship with Helen after her health became to deteriorate. In 1914 another young woman was hired to keep house who had not been trained communicate or had experience of working for the visually disabled. However she is said to have settled also became her secretary and remained companion. Anne Sullivan died in 1936 and Helen and Polly Thomson moved to Connecticut where they lived together for over two decades. Polly then had stroke in 1957 and died three years later in 1960. When Polly had a stroke Helen arranged for a nurse Winnie Corbally to care for her and she in turn stayed with Helen until her death in 1968.

In the film of Esther Costello very little is made of training after the opening sequences although she is also shown to have abilities which her disabilities and social position had masked. Very early on because of the interest of a journalist Joan needed little persuasion to use the child to promote interest and attention to the plight of others in a similar situation. From the outset Esther is portrayed as a willing subject who enjoys participating in the fun raising and public education mass presentations which have the appearance of a revivalist service and the herself as a circus novelty and freak. Joan as the substitute mother appears to have never hesitated or debated with the professionals the impact of this upon such a young girl.

This is where the film deviates significantly from the reality of the life Helen Keller which could explain why lawyers decided that legal action would not be successful.

In real life while Helen also campaigned on behalf of those with disabilities, but as an adult and where her main interests were political and social. She became a suffragist, a pacifist, she supported birth control and was fervent socialist being a member of the Socialist Party and supporting its candidate in his campaigns for the American Presidency. She help found the American Civil Liberties Union and founded an international organisation devoted to research in vision, health and nutrition. As a consequence of her work and interests she became an International celebrity, known to USA Presidents and to personalities in a wide range of fields, including Charlie Chaplin, Mark Twain and Alexander Graham Bell. She published twelve books.

I saw the film the Miracle Worker, and other films, including a Disney version either failed to mention or skipped over her commitment to socialism and social idealism, as well as her view of spirituality and religion about which she also wrote at length. Although this clearly was the intention of the book by Nicolas Monserrat Helen would have been very unpopular in the era of Senator McCarthy and anti communism which developed in the USA after the end of World War 2. There would have been many interests, some secretive wishing to discredit, one of the leading spokesperson on behalf of disability in the world.

The Story of Esther Costello is at one level a much more one dimensional feature in order to make a point of the danger that people with severe disabilities can be exploited to their detriment, and that funds raised at spectacular and emotion charged events can be diverted to the interests of others, together with the vulnerability of the disabled to criminal sexual violence as well as sexual exploitation which has been a feature of training establishments, especially those employing the visually disabled. This has been a secretive and dark aspect of specialist establishments in the UK and why I fully supported the approach of integration, not just among all forms of disability, but with the able bodied. I was fortunate to work for a local authority which had one of the best multipurpose centres in the UK, and where I was once the registered publican after a bar was incorporated and which because of suitability of the available space was located next to the chapel and where to the delight of the Bishop of Durham one Sunday morning he enjoyed a pint after taking the service.

Later a magnificent all sing and dancing centre which also provided a range of activities for the elderly was built in another part of the authority and not be outdone a third community helped raise the funds to provide a centre for those with disability to participate in social activities with the able bodied. Given the authority was then one of the smallest in terms of population size in England and Wales the choice and nature of facilities was unique. Nevertheless the local voluntary organisation for the visually disabled resisted involvement in part of the Borough preferring their own facility.

In the film, because of the publicity surrounding the success of Esther being able to communicate, the separated husband reappears and soon takes over responsibility for the exploitation of public interest in Esther and does a deal with someone who acts more as an Impresario than the chief executive of a charitable foundation. The role of the husband is played by the text book Latin Lover Rossano Brazzi. He and his henchman ignore pleas by Joan and Esther that the tours are too much with Rossano exploiting that Joan had remained in love with him despite his departure five years before. When Joan insists that they will give up the circus when the present worldwide tour ends and they return home, so that Esther can go to college, Rossano and his henchman plot to persuade Joan to change her mind. However Rossano has become more interested in the attractive sixteen year old than he has been about the money and lifestyle they are enjoying.

When he learns that his wife is away for the evening and he has the cover of taking a flight to Scotland where the tour ends, he returns to the hotel and rapes the girl before making the journey. When his wife she returns and finds Esther in distress she discovers one of her husband cuff link in the bed she work out what has occurred and takes a hand gun to meet him at the airport the following day. Although not shown it is understood that she kills him and then herself although their deaths are reported as a car accident on their way from the airport.

Early on in the film a young reporter takes an interested and as Esther develops into a young woman he falls in love with her and is hostile when his editor expresses concern at the money being raised and the lack of accountability. The reporter offers to investigate in order to prove his boss wrong and then finds the position is as bad as suggested. The two travel to London to expose the situation as a major event is scheduled to take place the following day. However before setting off to meet her husband at the airport Joan has arranged for the journalist to call at 3pm and we later learn she has also arranged for the Irish priest who introduced her to Esther to either fly over or call as he it had been arranged for him to attend the London event beforehand. The journalist expresses his horror at the way he believes the couple have exploited Esther for their own ends and Joan already intent on what she plans, does not attempt to explain that she has been ignorant of what has happened but fuels his concern by adding that things are far worse than he could have realised.

Given what has happened to her and the news that the woman who rescued her and became a substitute mother has been killed along with her husband, Esther is understandably hesitant about appearing at the show, especially as the shock of the rape has brought back her sight and speech as quickly as it was taken away. The film ends as she make her way towards the auditorium where she is now able to speak.

This 1957 Columbia released film was nominated for a Golden Globe I suspect because of the issues raised and the performance of Joan Crawford. I am not being unfair to Joan in saying as he was never part of the Hollywood glamour set, but she always delivered fine performances and in this film she brilliantly communicates the horror, grief and betrayal at what happens to Esther for the second time of her life and her feelings of guilt at allowing her emotions to have prevented her realising what was going on in terms of the funds raised and her husband’s criminal interest in her ward.

Nicolas Monserrat wrote two books about his life, the first a decade after the writing of Esther and the second a further decade later, so one of these might explain why he choose to switched from writing about the Navy and the sea, or Africa and the then colonies, what seems an unusual story for him and set primarily in the USA, especially as it was sandwiched between his wartime novels with the Cruel Sea earlier and the Ship that Died of Shame seven years after.

I will leave to another occasion further discussion of some of the issues raised in the film, and that a distinction has to be made between those charitable organisations, often religious led where those raising the funds live similar lives to those they are trying to help, from the professional organisations which have the same kind of executive and administrative and professional structure as their public sector colleagues, are remunerated to the same extent but have significantly less accountability.

A very different film on the same channel is If only you could Cook and 1935 piece of whimsy, the USA expression is screwball comedy, featuring Jean Arthur, one of the great actress of the Hollywood Golden era. Jean Arthur was born in 1900 and appeared in over 80 full length films as well as being an outstanding theatre actress. She is known for her appearances in the Mr Smith Goes to Washington and Me Deeds goes to Town as well as The Plainsman, Only Angels have Wings, The Devil and Miss Jones, The Talk of the Town, A Foreign Affair and in 1953, her only film photographed in Colour, Shane. She also appeared in two Dr Fu Manchu tales! In the late 1960’s she taught drama at what became Vassar college where one of her students was Meryl Streep. Her first marriage was annulled after it lasted one day. Later she married a producer which lasted for 17 years. She had no children.

In this silly film she plays an educated young woman searching the newspaper for work at the time of great depression. Herbert Marshall heads a corporation making cars and when his latest designs are rejected by the board as being too adventurous for the times, he walks off in a huff and joins Jean on the Park Bench. Mistaking him for someone also out of work and looking for job they come across a residential position for a cook and a Butler. She can cook and passes a sauce making test at thee interview with flying colours. I mention this because in the only review discovered the opposite is stated that she had to fake the cooking to get the job which suggests the reviewer was paying insufficient attention to the work. The Herbert Marshall character also takes his role as Butler seriously, returning to his home to study the work of his own man servant.
Given this was a Pre Second World War film, when Hollywood tried to pretend that sex even between married couples did not exist so they were frequently filmed in bedroom situations with twin beds how the couple cope with being married for their employers is part of the whimsy which many will find funny, ha ha

The situation quickly becomes farcical when they discover their employer is the head of a criminal gang and one of his henchmen is suspicious of their new Butler and finds out who he is and that he is due to get married, without knowing that this was to have been a marriage of convenience and that he is disenchanted with the idea and the way his life has developed. There are several twists, including the arrest of Jean Arthur and the kidnapping of Herbert Marshall before his wedding can take place. The outcome is a happy ever after relationship between the two.

Fame and Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

Although I did not have an early evening sleep that I can remember and went to bed at a reasonable hour for me I could not sleep because of thinking about outstanding matters particularly the premature and preventable death of my aunt. It is out of my hands but I need to try and work out what my reaction will be to as many of the possible outcomes

I decided I was not going to sleep and got up and played some chess against the computer to take my mind off the subject. Since finding the game and deciding on achieving 101 games I have played about 1000 games but the statistics have not been recorded on screen for two reasons. First I did not commence to record all games until after the first 150 were completed and now in a misguided effort to switch between levels I successful obliterated all the records games of levels one and three but at least I can register now that on level three I played 242 games of which 205 were won,26 were drawn and significantly an atrocious and unacceptable number of 11 loses. At level two I am still showing 519 games played of which 482 were won, 32 drawn and only 5 lost.

I have worked slowly including cleaning the front room and hallway. Food as so far comprised a ham omelette and smoked salmon on toast with lashings of lemon. I have listened to football and the less said and slept and have commenced the sorting out of accumulated work with ten sets registered. I have watched the last part of Firefox with Clint Eastwood yet again and I had a preliminary look at the Radio Times for the next two weeks and the plethora of films and programmes I want to see all at the same time depending on mood and inclination, and will celebrate this Saturday of Christmas with a lager. I was about to have a Pizza or some fish cakes with beans when I remembered the Tex Mex purchased yesterday at Lydl with 24 pieces of garlic mushrooms, spices potato wedges, chicken wings and onion rings and it was best cooked from frozen for under 30mins and was yum yummy yum yum. However coupled with central heating surround warmth and the three tenors original with I have been there Luciano Pavarotti Torna Surriento but hope to go to Grenada Jose Carreras, El Lucevan E Stelle from Tosca Pacido Domingo: such power such beauty, such intensity, such gloriousness. This performance, the first at the tome oft eh World cup in that magical setting in Rome was dedicated to Pavarotti. Carreras is appearing at the Sage in February. It could be my only ever chance to hear a great tenor live. Tomorrow I will decide.

I then watched the film version of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, I have not read the Douglas Adams books. I never tired of re-watching the six half hour episodes TV series for they contain a splendid mixture of absurdity, the kind of wry humour which makes me laugh and a good story. I remember being tired when I watched the film in theatre which explains why I could not remember opening aspects of the film which was slanted towards the American and British audience which is a polite way of saying that the essentially British humour was dumped down. The great theosophical question which is at the root of the book and TV series is the meaning and purpose of life which involves the deep thought computer taking several billion years to consider the answer as 42 and then spend another odd billion years working out what the ultimate question should be and for this the human race is created by mice to live on earth and do the thinking. Unfortunately the Vogons to work for the President of the Universe over look the importance of the earth in this respect and demolish it as part of the creation of a new space superhighway. Although the plans were a available on a nearby planet system had earthlings found out how to space travel earlier, a bit like planning systems for new by-passes in the UK although since the Adams books everyone has become more sophisticated about the process although the planners and those making the applications have also become more clever at achieving their objective

The question I have is whether it was just accidental that the Home Secretary is to put to Parliament that the police should have the power to detain terrorist suspects for 42 days rather an the present 28 or the originally proposed 90 which was so heavily defeated on the last occasion it was put to Parliament. Was this a civil servant or political inspired moment of inspirational madness by someone who did not know the significance of 42? Or is it deliberate? Or a coincidence? The rational pick a different period of days would have been 45, half the original 90 but my money is on a civil servant who whispered at a briefing meeting who go for a 50% increase from four to six weeks and it was only when the politician or civil servant went home and told their teenage children of their bright idea or suggestion which a minister had taken up that they learnt of the Douglas Adams books, TV series and films. The film ends in such a way to have provided a sequel as Arthur Dent decided not to go back to the recreated earth back to its original condition just before the moment of its demolition in a new location, i.e. the one we presently know, thus explaining why many of believe we have experienced the same situation before, we have.

It was also a second, third , fourth , fifth, probably tenth viewing of Fame with Ms Cara who went on to have success with Flashdance. The success of the film is that for once is conveys the reality of a four year course combining performance arts and basic education with something of the reality of what happens afterwards, for every 50000 perhaps 500 making some kind of living with perhaps 50 a good living and 5 international success and wealth. The film also communicates that to be able to give any kind of performance which will be recognised one has to know the self. If you are not prepared to work very hard, to give of yourself without inhibition and to fail, regardless of your talent, then forget it and going into banking and stocks and shares, or learn to sell rice to the Chinese. I am not sure what Ms Cara gas done and for the others who did their post Fame international tour. Where are they know?

I listened to part of a brief Five Live chat about the latest alleged rape at a footballers party, this time the Man U Christmas Party. Opne caller explained that those arranging the party cancassed leading stores for beautiful young girls to willing to go and be photographed at such events which are notorious for getting drunk, perhaps some drugs and some sex. Self confident girls will know how to deal with such situations just as the Debs developed a simple code to pass on such he is a NSIT Not safe in a taxi. Both sides should expect casulties on and off the field of play. The office Christmas Party held on Friday or Monday si another such occasion, At the age of sixteen I was taken to the pub which Nestled into the seven story building which now houses the Ramdom House publishing company and was given several gin and oranges. I the felt distinctly unwell and was put in a darkened room where at one point although in no fit state other than to hope my head would stop spinning I was kissed by a married woman old enough to be my mother. On the way home I was sick in the toilets of a railway station and stayed so long trying to recover that I received a note under the door offering me some fun. It was the only time that I experienced a handover although not the only time that I became sick drunk. When at Ruskin I was invited to a dinner party of a private dining group of post graduate university staff who did not have a college. Each was expected to bring an interesting guts and my memory was of one who played jazz piano and who used ro runa few girls in Soho. I was expected to say what it was like to have gone to prison. It weas a great feat wih different wines after each course and afterwards I watched the others play billiards at the top of Nuffield tower. I was staying in digs arranged by the college with a lady who had been a female scout at Lady Margaret Hall and who knew every inch of her spotless cottage type terrace dwelling. I had once entertained a female friend to tea in my room when she was out, although the young lady called unexpectedly, we were on the same committee trying to persuade the Labour party not to join in the capitalist European community, and afterwards my lady quizzed about having a young lady in my room, not because of the possible immorality but because she had noticed the stiletto heel marks on the lino up to the first floor. I had told her about the dinner party invite and she had agreed not to lock up on ten understanding that I did so. I just about made it to the room before bringing up the excellent meal in the basin unable to reach the toilet in time, then spending time slowly getting rid with water. I got the same kindly disapproving look on both occasion. I can only recall being really drunk as opposed to merry on one subsequently occasion. It is good to sin now and again but only if you are able to write about it and publish.

Raiders of the South Seas, Higher Grond, Magic in the Water, The Undefeated and the Great St Trinian Train Robbery.

I am back to wanting to write about the trivia of my experience before trying to write something of significance for me and could therefore begin this piece different ways. Now for example I should abandon writing anything an go out for a brisk walk in the cold blue sun shinning morning of the day before Christmas eve. I thought I needed to go for a walk to buy some sauce to make a dish for Monday with the half of chicken breast from the roast for today. I then checked and discovered that I had a bottle of a concoction for pasta which will do with some rice if I decide that Christmas Eve should be a practical kind of day the foresight to buy a second bottle of a concoction intended for pasta. I shall stay in and do some work and thinking while watching the Great St Trinian's Train Robbery.

This film is being shown by clever programme planners who know that a new St Trinian's film is being released at the cinema? Who are these films aimed for, especially this latest to contribution to our individual betterment and understanding of the importance of all girl residential schools, their staff and their problems? The first films were vehicles for Margaret Rutherford and Joyce Grenfell about delinquent girls with parents who cannot be bothered to bring up their children or care what they do or who looks after them. An entirely appropriate subject for Christmas consideration in any year. I know I am being a spoil sport.

The opening of the mid 1960's film features a gang of train robbers stashing two and half million under the floor boards of a derelict building and then switches to the Ministry of Education where the civil servants are applauding the arrival a Labour Government because it will mean the abolition of all private schools especially St Trinian's. However they have not bargained for a Minister who has a special relationship with the former head of the school who has turned to a more tradition occupation shall we say. He insists on a giving the school a second chance new labour type of grant for £80000 circ 1966 prices, several millions today. Even in those days there are baby doll bedtime wear and gym slips so one wonders what present cinematic inflation will lead to! Alas I am likely to be departed before the new one will appear on the small screen. Time for lunch with seasonal quality over quantity. Some smoked salmon and Italian ham with some sauce included in the purchased pack.

I did not expect to experience such a good night after sleeping through the Hitchhikers guide and staying up to just before 3am, There was one waking in darkness and then again around 7,30 feeling awake again but I decided a Sunday lie in which worked as it was just before 9 am when I awoke again feeling fresh and ready for work

Ho Ho Ho I decided this was the day to begin to win 101 games of chess against the computer. This is rather like running 100 yards in under 10 seconds or 100 metres in under 9. You did it once, you still know how to run, but you forget the concentrated effort you put it to do it for the first time. I must remember never to use the reset button on the Chess game because it seems to reset every level so that this morning I commenced with a blank series although on the bright side this means no draws and no losses to remind me that once I was good enough to lay and win without losing or drawing games along the way. I like to look back and reflect but I am not sure nostalgia is good for the soul.

Back to St Trinian's after the opening frisson the film became a traditional cops robbers experience plus Trinian's girls involving trains. It also has a 1960's offensive racist moment about having a Pakistan English accent. The girls get the reward money, the baddies get caught and the teachers go back to their former occupations and the government Minister his come uppance. The film features Frankie Howard and a young George Cole long before the Minder Days.

The afternoon fare was a New Zealand wartime boy's adventure film Raiders of the South Seas. The story concerns community attitudes towards an Italian treasure hunter off the coast of New Zealand as World War 2 breaks out. His craft is fitted with an imaginative Captain Nemo type auto pilot which enables him to sail the craft on his own as well as undertake diving operations. The community are supportive towards the Mayor whose son has joined up and fighting in North Africa. However he is the baddie and a ruthless one at that for when the young people become suspicious of his smuggling activities to fuel the black market he is the force behind a witch hunt against the Italian which leads to being prepared to kill the young people when they attempt to thwart his attempt to tranship the merchandise. The outcome is inevitable and includes the essential ingredient of a parent who does not listen and adventuresome young people become the heroes. Oh for Enid Blyton and the famous Five or Biggles. I could switch off the telly and listen to the Leone Lewis LP.]

I then watched the first part of Higher Ground. I liked John Denver's music and he used a greater part of his life to promote environmental issues in the US and abroad. His documentary about Alaska was influential but I am not sure about the 1988 film Higher Ground which was a pilot for a TV series. Although he appeared in several films singing and playing his guitar he was no actor and this a conventional story of someone driven into illegal activity who pays the price leaving a wife and son. John is the man to bring justice and perhaps marital and fatherly solace. However I then remembered that the Newcastle Derby game was on TV but should have stuck with the film although the game reminded of the wise decision not to invest £500 in a season ticket and experience disappointment after disappointment. Even though the Sunderland offering has also been a disappointment I have faith in Roy making it and big Sam not. Boxing Day could be a humiliation though.

This is rapidly become a family film day with Magic in the Water which featured a creature, bit of a whale, bit of a dolphin wit a kind heart, and this time the baddies are dumpers of toxic waste and this time the dad who is a psychiatrist who is trying to write a book on vacation and cannot get passed the full stop after writing the words chapter 1 until he starts to find himself as a child again, gets in touch with his children and with the creature from the deep.

The final film of the day was The Undefeated with the great man himself who they called the Duke, John Wayne as an ex Yankee Colonel turning to wild horse collecting for the army whose agents want only 500 and the 3000 available, offering only two thirds of the market price. He chooses to sell the herd instead to the Mexican President whose army is about to rebel at his dependence on the French. Wayne then encounters a Confederate Colonel played by Rock Hudson with a moustache who for some reason I confuse with Gregory Peck and who is also seeking to do a deal with the Mexican President to allow his men and their families have a new start and guerrilla opportunities against the new United States and men such as John Wayne. There is a young love sub plot (just to rub in how racist were the southerners) involving the daughter of the Dixieland colonel and the adopted Indian son of Wayne the new American, and the two enemies are drawn together a series of developments which sees various battles against renegades and the French. However the Colonels their men and their families are forced to return home empty handed but the richer for the experience to the benefit of their new nation.

There were then several competing interests with top of the list of films Pans Labyrinth and two and half hour version of Vanity Fair. I settled for some work and occasional looking at another of the 30th Anniversary Antique Roadshows and the lasts episode of the Queen at work although the programme concentrated on the Royal Firm with interviews with the three sons and daughter, the children of Prince Charles and Diana, the Duke and other relatives. The programme was very effective in its contention that we get value for money although the aim is for excellence rather than an economy model. I tried to work out the number of combined visits to organisations and plaque openings carried out by the Royal Firm and believe it is of the order of 5 to 7 a day between 1500 and 2000 a year which created a difficulty for the Lord Lieutenant of Yorkshire who admitted to one of the visiting Royals that their sister had come the previous day. Based on the series a good case was made but the gulf between the careful modernization according to changing times and the average yob on the street is wider than ever. Spare a thought this Christmas for the Lord Lieutenants of your nation and all those expensive hats.

No so young Leon the winner of the X factor who we followed through his week after being the victor in what some are claiming to be a fixed vote, I can see if one wanted a winner with a good story and potential rather than a winner who came across as too professional and destined to make it regardless of the competition. Surely they would not dare try it on with the public paying voting system after all the fuss earlier in the year. The same was said about political party donations. That one has gone quiet as well. The instant adoration of young Scottish females for Leon was incredible. And he continues to come across as a decent young guy who will look after his mum and family and not go down the Amy Winehouse route. But then he will sound like Michael Bubble and not Amy Winehouse and there is a difference.

For several years when my enthusiasm for British Football waned I became interested in American Football, their national game along with Baseball and basket ball. I supported two teams such is my way, the San Francisco 49's and the Washington redskins and I have the shirts and made trips to watch pre seasons games at Wembley. Continuing my support through to the attempt to create a British and European league based on out of season and former American game stars. This resulted in a few Brits making it over there, I mention this because I stayed up to watch the Washington game against Minnesota but went to bed before the second quarter ended but with my team was 16.0 up and had a score denied over a coach appeal. Now if in our national game we could lodge appeals against scored goals on the basis of a managers appeal as there is now in cricket, that would be interesting.

This continued to be a good food day and I enjoyed half chicken crown with trimmings and divided the remaining roast spuds between today and Christmas Day It is time to remember a supper of cold meats sent from Gib before midnight mass at which the community turned up in standing room only numbers. I have been trying to avoid writing about Christmas because I will upset others as well as myself if I do.

Y Tu Maria Tambien, Goodbye Paradise and Fredericke Street South Shields

A good title for this piece is fishy tales of Fredricke Street. When I arrived to work in South Shields Fredericke Street was a thriving mixture of local shops, second-hand stores and specialist enterprises. Now half the buildings at the southern end of this long street perhaps with 100 business opportunities have become vacant and the buildings themselves showing every symptom of dereliction. At the northern end there is the post office, some public houses and some take aways to serve a lower income community of rented accommodation inhabited by Muslims who worship at a Mosque where Mohamed Ali had a marriage ceremony with a few days of the visit of Queen Elizabeth to mark her year on the throne. The reason for the decay has been the closure of the Plessey Factory then its reopening by another hi tech firm, then its gradually reduction of staffing through a management out to its present demise, and the rebuilding of part of the area with lower income home ownership with cars to use Asa at Shields or Morrison's at Jarrow.

(I am writing this against a background of Broadway to Bob Fosse musical theatre choreographer who died in 1987 at the comparatively early age of sixty Pyjama Game. Damn Yankees, Big Spender from Sweet Charity and my favourite where I watch the film version once a year Cabaret which he directed but was not involved with the stage production. He was involved with Chicago but had died before the film version. He was also responsible for Kiss me Kate on screen, Lenny and all that Jazz. An early musical involvement was The Bells are ringing (for me and my gal).

At the northern end of Fredericke was the Green Street L shaped area of post war development of look alike shops with flat above and which recently have an a make over and anew lease of life, although the transfusion of a mini supermarket was necessary which involved demolition of one side of Green Street to accommodate the building and car park. The advertising of the Lidl store which opened in mid December has been intensive. Lidl goes in for special offer weeks of everything from kitchen equipment to back to school and office equipment at exceptional discount price. However my interest was not in the special offer low cost staple food fare but their low cost special offer of luxury items especially fish and cured meats.

Tonight I purchased a pack of four Sea Bream for 6.49 and four sea vase at 6.99 with two packs of 200 grams of smoked salmon each 1.69. Tonight I commenced to enjoy the thick cut slices with a twist of lemon on crackers. The Italian ham slices are also excellent value but the great surprise was to find that they had a stock of Spanish Turron at 1.49 where both my British and Spanish suppliers charge around £4 for the same slab. I shall stock up for a year or two. Commencing the first Thursday of January there is to be a sale of office supplies and my eye fixed on photographic paper.

The smoked salmon was delicious in what became a fishy day as with a cup of tea on returning home I had a carton of shell on prawns and then later a defrosted bass which had been the only fish planned for the day. The main purpose of the afternoon shopping was to collect my suit from the dry cleaners after not remembering where I had put the ticket for several hours. I managed a little work but late evening was given over to two films. I have not seen Ray Barrett the Australian actor for at least ten years, the last occasion was an Aussi film which had a wild aspect but more than that I cannot remember. My first cultural encounter with Ray was when he came over the UK but again what for? This evening he was in an Australian Graham Greenish Raymond Chandler offering with a good script in which he provided the thoughtful commentary on the events of an attempted coup for commercial interests.

Then I did some research the first shock is that Ray is now 80 12 years my senior and the film Goodbye Paradise is some 20 years old and the second is that he had a role in Emergency Ward 10 as well appearing in everything that was popular during the late 50's, 60's and early 70's, Dixon of Dock Green, Thunderbirds, Dr Who, Till death do us part, Play of the month and armchair theatre. However I knew most for the over 100 appearances in the series The Troubleshooters 1965-1972 in which appeared with Geoffrey Keen and Brian Latham. And the wild film, well it was for 1976, Don's Party. Despite his age he continues to act, mostly on TV but he has a part in a major film due for release in 2008 Australia which stars Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. Good on you Ray, I mourned the fact that you went home after making your name in the UK.

The second film is a Spanish Mexican rites of passage film featuring the relationship between two young upper class Mexican teens around 17 18 before going to university and their holiday adventure with a newly wed in law whose wedding party they attend along with the President Y Tu Mama Tambien. At one level this is well trodden story as the teenagers vie for the attention and affection of the older girl whose husband has admitted an act of infidelity while away on a conference, as they head for an idyllic beach. What they do not know, nor did the husband when he phoned his admission, is that the young woman has just been told she has an incurable disease. The relationship between the young men changes when she gives herself to one of them but even when she decides to balance up it is too late and the final scene is reminiscent of so many other films, usually about college life, where a group become close but they go their separate ways, never to recapture past moments of collective harmony and shared visions and sometimes shared loves.

There is also a is a reminder that everything has its season and it is wise to accept this is so and not attempt to journey back or stay fixed at any point within one's time span, in Goodbye Paradise as Ray says goodbye to his young companion and settle for being an ex was somebody once.

The Good Girl and some politics

Oh dear me after finding time to write I managed to lose everything before saving and decided not to immediately rewrite in disgust with myself and there is no heart for starting to rewrite as there are more important things to do to think and write about.

One reason is that I have spent so much energy earlier yesterday and to day that I need have a break. I watched a dreadful film which as soon it commenced I realised I had seen on TV. This was Jennifer Anniston as the Good girl. Now here is the plot a boring small town housewife with a husband who is a painter decorator finds it difficulty to get out of work clothes because he spends most of the day stoned on pot with his best mate and then watches awful television programmes on a clapped out TV hopping his life will change dramatically for the better when he proves he is a man by his wife giving birth. His wife works in one of those awful small town supermarkets which should make every educated American cringe and seek social asylum anywhere and she is ripe to be allow herself to be seduced by a pretentious young fantasist whose parents consider him to me an embarrassing disappointment although in fairness the film suggests that he is surprising good in bed which the type rarely are.

The film signposts that the husband is going to be tested as infertile just at the time that wife not only is regularly bonking the younger man who is no good as a supermarket assistant but allows herself to be blackmailed by, guess who, of course the husband best friend because he is only is best friend to cast covetous eyes on the Mrs and finding that she is bonking the young man sees his chance to gain the carnal knowledge and of course she is daft enough to get pregnant and hullo, the husband is not as thick as we have been led to believe and works out that she must have been sleeping with someone else.

None of like to move out of our comfort zone for too long so when she has the opportunity to run off with the young after he robs the supermarket leaving the evidence to identify him she funks her opportunity, turns him in so he gets shot dean American style and she is left to stew in her own soup although every indication her husband will bring up the child as his own and turn him into one of those nice young men whom will do is draft and come home in a body bag without understanding why.

I rarely slam something this way but its greatest crime is to set out to be a serious and intense film about USA small town life

Yesterday was bitterly cold and much time was spent after going quickly to Newcastle trying to ensure that I did not catch a cold. It would have been my fault as I went out unprepared, I also made the mistake of going to a long stay car park when the short stay was not only closer to the station entrance but a little cheaper. I found out that the two bookshops within sight of each other are now owned by the same firm with an identical range of books, This worked in my favour because while the first had almost every map except the one I wanted the second had every map.

Earlier I had paid a visit to the home where my mother had been resident for three years to collect a letter that had been sent to her and which made be explode in amazement. However it will have to be left until after my next mini trip as the main item of activity will take up to the last minute to finish.

Yesterday and today the TV has been political. Yesterday I thought the Prime Minister was nearly back to being his own man at Question time and Cameron was off key although what he seemed to be doing si trying to leave the British Public media with the idea that Brown is a loser who cannot cut the mustard. Vince Cable is showing how wrong his party is because he has the Commons feel and ability, an appears a sound man but considered unacceptable because of his age and the belief the country needs another half baked political leader. Tonight was question time where the government spokesperson was put on the rack over the decision of the PM to attend a two hour session with the chairs of Parliamentary committees before going over to Europe to sign the Europe Treaty and because he then flew home staying away from the evening junket leaving it to my local Member of Parliament who happens to the Foreign Secretary. The last political nightcap of thee year did a scrooge with Christmas past present and the future appearing and had Vince Cable dancing with a Come Dancing star. The decision of the show to include personalities with no political background and nothing to say just to. Well I am not sure what. Because this is a programme for the political chattering classes

I also watched an interesting programme of kidology which made much of the ending of debutants in the late 50's because as Princess Margaret was known to say, any tart could get in whose parents had the brass. The object had been to ensure that those of upper class good breeding intermarried with others of the same social class. The girls who also included those from the colonies went a finishing schools, I once accepted an invitation to a social event as a finishing school under the apprehension that it was a home for elderly people, and then a year full of dances and events such as Ascot, Henley perhaps Wimbledon and Polo at Windsor, some hunting and shooting and were expected to remain virgins in the hope of the iond of marriage which would set themselves up for life and where according the rules once you produced to sons, in case the first did not make it for one reason or the other you were free to do your own thing, discretely. Having explained why the event had become redundant, thrown in that out of the past crop of 1400 1500 one had become a communist writer and journalist and one joined the IRA and went to prison, one of four went to university and another had a significant career, two of the last ladies had tea with four of twos crops…. Shush you did not know they existed well it is presented as a different king of event.. The Royals tend to be foreign and minor, the events are branded as good works for charities and the gals, well they want do good work or make money in the city so the evenings are good networking and of course they all go to college and uni, the right uni of course and the right set, is where you expect to make a match if you don't get already invited to the right parties and other social events. Hullo I thought can you explain to the difference.

And Hullo there was this programme which suggested that all the efforts to end social inequality had failed in that surprise surprise children from poor homes went to poor schools failed to make good progress educationally and ended up in poor jobs, irrespective of their ability while children from homes with money, and books, whose parents talked to them etc got them to good schools where they rapidly overtook the children for poor homes, irrespective of their abilities. An hullo there are some educated people who are shocked to find this is so. Hullo don't you know what made Britain great was its class structure, rituals and traditions which was strong enough to embrace the men of wealth, the women who were good in bed and to looked good on the arm. However access was controlled and restricted. The problem is that it was all the open and every one knew their place and how move up or down according to inclination and with the majority content to stay where they were. When you try and ban anything all that happens is that goes underground, becomes secretive and more clever in disguise.

Bella Mafia, Notes ona Scandal, Mandalay

Yesterday I became angry, more angry with myself for being angry. I will restrain myself from disclosure about the details for now, although it is the kind circular administrative incompetence which makes one weep. It concerns a bank. Banks can lose billions and write of billions in debts. But when it comes to sorting out comparatively small amounts of money, they are full of promises and explanations which turn out to be hollow and in some instances false. Watch this space.

This has been a difficult two days for several reasons and I was managing well by making good progress in my work have completed the first 80 pages of mainly descriptions and colour photographs, mostly four a page, of Rivera 2007, the re-emergence of the riverside of the Tyne and the Wear and of the glories of the open spaces and coast in between. The second part will be completed by Christmas. The work has become an escape from the emotions of other experience.

There is a limit to the amount of time devoted to the work and I need a gap between first writing, correcting and redrafting and final rewrite corrections of words. If I do not do this then mistakes occur which I do not seem because what I see is what is in my head and which not necessarily what appears on paper. I had thought I had completed all the writing but when I transferred from album used when there was to be just one volume to a matching pair I reread and needed further amendment and correction although these were minor and only three or four. I could be more precise as I have the drafts, but there is no inclination to check. I have completed the parks and open spaces, except for the photographs of Roker Park and the rechecking of the description. I will have a mini break now and then complete before Christmas.

In between this work I have been watching films of varying interest, impact and quality.

The most entertaining and least significance was a war film Churchill's something in which a British identical twin replaced his German counterpart in order to be in the position to facilitate a combined operation of partisans and parachuted troops to blow up a dam. He is undone when put the test by a suspicious Gestapo man but the mission is successful with the usual Boys won heroics, self sacrifices and nail biting last second luck.

The second was of little more consequence although it has gone down well with fans who have subscribed to GMovies. It was great and sensitive said one, the best Mafia I have seen. I agreed with the comment that this two two hour mini series was helped by having Vanessa Redgrave and Natassja Kinski their spelling, star. The film has a novel idea of what happens when all the men of a Mafia family are killed by ambitions other heads of families and the widows and one fiancée decide to take revenge electing one of their number to head the family after she kills the person who carried out the murders, but only to find it is the son placed for adoption when she was recovering from a car accident. This type of film creates sympathy for the plight of individual characters but must ensure that there is a heavy condemnatory morality in which crime must not seen to pay when all the evidence is that in relation to the Mafia it has.

In this film the reason for the car accident is that a girl is attempting to see the head of the family because she has been left with the child after his eldest son was killed in a vendetta. She then marries another son with the approval of the family head and is thrilled when she presents a son, of twins. These are also slaughtered with the men folk and her first born having run off from the priests after the adoption failed, is taken up by the another family who have a grievance against his father's family. You get the drift? However I liked the notion of women becoming even more ruthless and effective at running a Mafia family than the men. Why should anyone think this would not so? The title Bella Pasta, sorry I mean Bella Mafia, coming to think of it Bella Pasta is a better idea as I have enjoyed several meals in these eating houses. When I have nothing to do I will watch the whole thing in case I have been unfair. sometime.

The daughter of a crime boss is also the subject of the third film Manderlay which I disliked as much as Dogsville first of the Lars von Trier trilogy USA Land of Opportunities. In both films the director uses a small sound stage with a plain surface, so it is play where acting is used to conveys time and place. In Dogsville it is a cut off community who embraces the daughter of the gangster and then turns on her and in Manderlay it is a southern plantation in which the head blackman has conspired with the lady owner to keep the rules of slavery because both feared change and decided that the black workers and their families would not cope in the outside world or in an unstructured set up. The regime including lashings for misdemeanours. As with Dogsville the writer Director is able to attract major stars, Nicole in the first and Lauren Bacall in the second. In both films there is a large cast.

By coincidence, otherwise there would be no film, the gangsters arrive at Manderlay as someone is to be lashed and the daughter sees this as an opportunity to intervene and she stays with some of the other gangsters who act as enforcers and protectors. The daughter creates a commune in which the rest of the white family work for their keep, including the blacking up of faces which was a nice twist, but because of a dust storm their supplies are damaged and they all forced to eat dirt.. However the rescue some cotton plants which produce a good crop. At this point it appears that the gangsters who have been sent away job well done while the daughter decides to stay, only to believe they have stolen the profits. They have not but tell daddy who sends his daughter an ultimatum to leave or stay.

As with Dogsville she comes to realise that the pathway to hell is good intentions and first she is required by majority vote to execute the eldest former slave who has stolen the precious food provided a sick child who dies. Then she discovers the truth that the former white lay boss and head Blackman had cooked up the ongoing slave charter and then she finds that the Blackman previously saved from flogging and who now gives her a purely physical sorting which most women will regard as rape but which she adores, has stolen the money but which is rescued and returned, so she flogs him near to death. With that she goes off to the rendezvous with her father only to find he has been and gone and leaves a note praising for being a chip off the old block and therefore is has no anxiety at leaving in her in the hell she has created. Americans will understand the significance of all this better than me.

The fourth film was of a very different order and received some forty nominations for awards including Oscars in 2006. Notes on a Scandal has three outstanding performances, Dame Judy Dench as the malign vampirish in terms of consuming the personalities of other very lonely seen it done it school teacher which she is good at, especially controlling children, which is why so many teachers leave the profession soon after qualifying because of the absence of good order and consequent impossibility of teaching anything to anyone. I must do a blog about Dame Judy and her excellent actor Husband Michael Williams who sadly died in 2000. In this film Judy longs for a close relationship but is a relationship in which she is in control and seizes the opportunity fro emotional blackmail when she discovers that the new teacher, Cate Blanchette has been more than indiscrete with a 15 year old pupil and decides to sit on the information on the understanding that the relationship is ended. When she discovers that it has not she arranges for the discovery with the consequence of a police investigation, the break up of the marriage and ultimately ten months in the nick.

The part of the younger teacher is played by Cate Blanchette who also merits attention having made some forty films herself of varying quality by always commands great attention for her ability to communicate emotions and the person inside. She describes her character as someone where there is such a gulf between the person on the inside and outside that she commits hari kari as a means to get her to face her inner self. She also describes the problem of needing the imperative of marriage and motherhood but also needing to find a greater meaning and purpose to her life. She has devoted a decade to her older husband where the fire of the early relationship vanished with the task of bringing up a child with Down's syndrome, and a normal daughter into a rebellious teenager. The husband is played by one of my favourite men, Bill Nighy who supports what is essentially a two woman film but he is an essentially component in what makes the sum significantly greater than its parts or subject.

Spooks reverted back to the standard of the rest of the series and clearly si not coming to an end with the journalist now set on course to join the team but in place of who, not Ros me thinks, possibly Adam who was about to going out with a bang anyway before next week's official episode which is about the explosive type of bang. Having suggested it was not of the calibre of the previous outstanding episode there was some grim truth about this one. The Home Secretary has one of his staff arrange the killing of the whole of the spooks team as the price of peace with Iran and when confronted by the head of spooks the Home Secretary explains his dilemma in such a way that Harry, the had, can only agree, but adds the wearing if you step one inch out of line in relation to us in the future we will do you.

I thought Cameron went off the boil or out of steam today, and the Liberal Democrat Vince Cable appeared to flunk his lines whereas Gordon seemed back to his old self which suggests the counter offensive has commenced and this may include those within his own political party.

John Denver Story the film, Cranford and more

This has been a rambling day. I did not go to bed very late last night but when I awoke after the dawn, I did not feel ready to leave bed after going to the toilet and now only remember a series of getting's up, returning to bed and what seemed a long continuous dream so what when I did finally leave the bed it was 11.30 am and I cannot remember when last this happened as on previous occasions when I have got up during the night to work and retuned to sleep around 5 am was 9 or 10 the latest when I begin the new day. This morning for example it was 9 am after retiring at 2.30 am and I felt immediately ready for work although first the rubbish bin was put out, a cup of tea followed by toast and two games of level three chess, making twelve all have been won. 502 games have been played so far level 2 with 31 drawn and four losses and still the highest winning streak under sixty, but I have coming to know the opening variations so well that I rush and then mess up the end game despite being in strong impossible to lose and should not drawn positions. Given that about 150 other game, not recorded have been completed at this level I decided to postpone continuation for a few days and test out level three where the computer has not learnt by play.

A part reason for staying in bed yesterday morning was recovering from the cold of Saturday afternoon. I was half hearted about going with mind on something else and leaving it late I had not thought about the conditions after clearing up the mess in the patio from planting the spring bulbs on Friday when it had been mild, although freezing on Thursday, such rapid swings in temperature are unusual. I hope I have not left the bulb planting too late to get a early display although one solution would be to invest in a different set of containers one for bulbs and one for flowers. I had delayed because flowering plants bought April May were still in bloom at the end of November and some still are although the foliage withers.

Feeling the cold I had put going out trousers over tracksuit bottoms and worn a warm inner jacket under the outer coat. However the wind had a nasty cutting edge which everyone around me commented on despite being tucked under the roof of the stand. The majority of them had wisely brought hats which I must remember on the next occasion. It felt appropriate to suffer a little given mixed emotions about attending the event, and in general I believe in doing appropriate penance for my accumulated sins. At I was prepared not to enjoy the game, and it was so and I became so cold that I longed for the game to be over.

I had been cheered up by getting an email from U2UK after sending them my notes on encountering their vehicle and going to the gig at the refurbished Customs House and the email asked if the notes could be put on their web site. I had also invested £4.50 in the Eurodraw and both star numbers and come up, 7 and 9 with one other, so the win was £9.50, and then on Saturday night I won £10 which means that for this year I am still losing less than 50% of the money played and twice I hoped, how I hoped this time that the email's "we have some exciting news check you account" meant something better that yet another minor win. In respect of major prize I conclude it is not written, but taking the position of Omar Sharif than Peter O'Toole.

Although Sunderland started brightly you could (me and the rest of the 42000 home crowd) immediately felt the lack of confidence among the players after losing 7.1 with the manager admitting he had not left the house for two days such was the pain he had experienced. Twice before the team had made the Premier League in recent times and twice before they had been relegated in a humiliating way. It was vital for the club and for the town that this did not happen again. Saturday was to be the test day as the visiting team Derby, the Brian Clough brought to international fame is in the same position that Sunderland were in two seasons ago, bottom and with only six points against the leader's thirty six. They came for an honourable draw but when a short hit the post, you saw their confidence soar as ours departed further and the realised the game was for their winning, and in fairness the likely nil nil outcome would have a fair result.

At least the foul mouth racists, there had been at least two sitting in the seats behind at the game with Newcastle, perhaps two or three rows back, were not there and as there were several empty seats despite a good crowd, I hoped theirs was a one off visit in my location. I would not be faced with the dilemma of accepting the situation or initiating action which was my inclination but not my mood.

Both last season and in several matches this, an important goal was scored in final minutes. The stand on this side of the ground has been designed with only one level of exits where most others have two, and which leads to severe congestion at the end when all those at the lover levels take precedence, so I and those behind are usually stuck for five to seven minutes before being able to leave and which in turn means being in slow moving traffic all the way home, again not a problem if the team has played well and won. So having once before left early to visit my mother in hospital and had to watch the goal on the TV replay within the stadium I decided to leave more in hope than expectation that this would do the trick. It did and we scored a winning goal in extra time as I was half way down the stairs.

On the way back I called in at Asda to get a couple more Christmas Poinsettias, the last two they had in store such has been their popularity, so that I five from this season. The two from last year are twice as tall and although the flowers get smaller with each flowering and one has ceased to flower after nurturing for the year The first task on arrival home was to have a double whisky to remove the cold and kill any prospect of a chill. After an evening meal of fish cakes and chips, well at least it was better than the deep fat fried chips from the local take away chippy that I fancied, I settled down to an evening of work checking the writing and transferring the photos from four of the original five Rivera volumes into the what will be the first of a two set edition each of 80 pages, in matching albums bought in Newcastle the previous morning. I am using a monster 100 pocket, 200 sheet volume for the master edition. The work was not completed until this evening because I needed to make a few corrections and a couple of rewrites. I tell a lie as I need to print the last five pages of photograph views of the open spaces, which I have put off until tomorrow as there needs to be a cartridge change as the colouring is not right. I had difficulty in doing this once before the ink out sign comes up, but found the manual which for once contained the information which worked.

So getting up so late today meant no breakfast and time for Sunday Roast, a chicken breast in a tin foil container ready to go in the oven mark 5 for 45-50 mins and with small sausages and balls of stuffing, for £3 part of a 2 for £6 offer. Although the frozen roast potatoes required less time at a high setting, they were just right at the longer lower and it was an enjoyable meal accompanied by half a glass or port without ice and then some green grapes. The half breast, put to one side to cool, was then diced I will get some pasta or sweet and sour sauce tomorrow with boiled rice to make an evening meal. This evening I had two of the cheese baked topped rolls with some lettuce, tomato and slices olives after deciding the tomatoes needed to be eaten before a new bag of red, yellow, orange and green salad peppers. I finished the evening meal with two puff pastry mince pies and custard which was a little too sweet on reflection. Tuesday I will have a prawn omelette, possibly the other way round if the prawns have to be eaten by tomorrow and Wednesday a bass. Tomorrow finish the albums, and then commence Christmas cards and present wrapping, the latter I still have to obtain.

All this is no more than preamble for tonight's TV film experience and viewing, the John Denver story, and which commenced with the Antiques Road show, where I marvel at the treasures handed down within families, although the best treasure of what parents and grand parents can pass down is of themselves, but a few trinkets would have been nice. I was moved when a recent widow brought one of the gifts given by her husband and she was moved when told something of its history and value. She was someone who had known she had been loved. But not perhaps how much in terms of the value of the gift and you could see the wish on her face that she was no longer able to demonstrate her appreciation, a subject which I will return when I talk of the film. I also enjoyed the evident thrill of a military man when he was able to be told about the lady in a portrait, but which also confirmed the portraits were not of family members

Then the first of what proved to be three successive features which resulted in leaving album completion until the morrow. This episode of Cranford superseded the previous two with its three interwoven stories. The first centred on the bereaved Judy Dench whose dominating sister died suddenly last week. It emerged that wealthy farmer (Michael Gabon) had courted her thirty years before but she had been forced to decline his attentions because of parental opposition and family circumstances, including the running off of a younger brother to India from whom they had heard no more since learning that he had settled and was doing well. Last week the daughter of a neighbour had also said no to an army man off to India because of the feeling of duty to care for her father, who then announced he would be away a lot and during this week Judy Dench, the bereaved sister, made a point of letting the father know something of his daughter's situation, and I have a feeling that the two will be connected, the missing brother and the distant suitor. Encountering Judy last week Michael made obvious his continuous interest and she in him despite an absence of thirty years and appropriately chaperoned for the era she accepted an invitation and subsequently he comes calling and indicates the intention to propose after a brief trip to Paris. Alas he takes a chill and pneumonia on his way back and she is left once more with what might have been. Her sister had insisted that their live in help had no "followers" and is rebuked by Judy when she receives a valentine card the sending of which has come into fashion. After the death of Michael, Judy frees the girl to have a caller come once a week if he is approved of, such was the lot of household servants

The second story was more of a social commentary as the squatter, shack living, poacher, father of the boy who has been taken under the wing of the lady of the manor's estate manager is arrested on suspicion of stealing and assault, and faced a trial and banishment for life to labour in the colonies. The son wants his father to reveal that they were both poaching where the offence would be a fine of £5 or three months in jail, but this would also mean a similar sentence for the ten year old boy so father insists his son should remain silent. The son nevertheless reveals the truth to the estate manager who pleads the cause of the family with her ladyship who is persuaded to see the family conditions for herself, and who in turn ion Christmas eve summons the magistrate Member of Parliament, who pays the fine and enables the father to be freed for Christmas Day together with provision of work and no doubt an estate dwelling. A feel good story to balance the sadness of what might have been and the realities of mid Victorian life.

The good new young doctor has set his heart on the eldest daughter of the local Vicar and is persuaded by a visit college friend and fellow doctor to send her snow drops on Valentine's day after which her father suggested he be invited to call. However the visiting friend not only sends Valentines to the younger daughters of vicarage in fun, but to another spinster of the town who assume it is from the local young doctor who she has set her heart on. One feels there will be pain and disaster before some happy ending, if there is to be one. A Dickensian run in to Christmas with a new version of Oliver Twist announced at the time.

The second feature was the final episode of the three part programme on the Premiership of Tony Blair which as with the other was exceptionally honest about several matters, although alas I went to sleep as the after meal siesta arrived late, given the overall late start to the day.

Tony was convincing that he had been spontaneous in the words chosen to mark the death of Princess Diana but noteworthy was the failure to make any reference to the ongoing controversy about her death. He was honest about his dislike of a Cabinet government in which he was expected to listen to the debate of others and reflect heir majority viewpoint. Of course this is a civil servant's dream as it means they can lobby individual Ministers some of whom they will control and then play them off against each other and thus spoke anything too radical or which does not fit in with the consensus mood of the day among their numbers. One can imagine their horror when Tony pointed out he had an elected mandate and they were required to do his bidding and how they hated when he directed them through his inner circle, Tony wants this, or you to do that. Of course the style also affects the Cabinet who have a straight forward choice, accept the approach or be replaced. It also reduces the opportunity of back benchers to join in. Tony was also wise to follow the wisdom of keep your enemies close to you for that way you are more likely to learn of their intentions and machinations.

I increasingly am of the opinion that Gordon's mistake was to try and move from his natural Stalinists approach more Blair than Blair a position stringer with the Chancellor because of his control of all home affairs, hence Blair's concentration on Foreign affairs and Gordon's decision to give the Foreign Affairs job to David Miliband, thus leaving him to continue to control the homeland an area which the opposition was bound to make the strongest attack. I would to know the true story of the present furore over secret cash donations to the party. The opposition leader has clearly learnt from Tony's song book when both in opposition and in their first term they continued to produce catchy policy changes to interest the media over weekends and take attention away from troublesome problems and the opposition, forgetting they were in government and would be judged as the government. The problem was Iraq which quickly unravelled the personal power Blair had with the people, reflecting their mood, and which in turn unravelled his power within the Government and party thus freeing opponents to come out of their respective closets. Unfortunately I missed what he had to say about Iraq but I was awake for the praise from all sides about his handling of the situation in Ireland where friends and foe had warned him that the situation was beyond resolution with both sides hating each other as they had done for decade upon decade. That it took years to implement the Good Friday agreement on weapons abolition and then on power sharing in government takes nothing away from the importance of the achievement which was down to Blair with help from the USA.. Just think what would have happened if the Muslim fundamentalists had been able to fuel the extremists within the IRA and UDF?

It had been a good evening till then and awake once more I was tempted to go to bed or stay and work, but something made me give full attention to the John Denver story which could be said to follow many a traditional storyline for the lives of the famous. John came from a very well off middle class American home with his father being a great pilot and instructor who wanted his son to follow him in some manly occupation while John had the overwhelming created force for song writing and had acquired the ability to play the guitar with a pleasant but not outstanding voice. As with all driven creatives he wanted and could not other and success in terms of public recognition and the wealth which accompanied was secondary, although brought the usual challenges of what you do away from the adoration, the highs of live performance, of trophy seeking females, enough money for toys of any kind. There was also the not uncommon theme of finding someone to love and who loved back when he was poor and struggling and where there was no advance understanding of what they both wanted in later life or how they would each react to fame and success. The girl was and remained beautiful and desirable and wanted a not just a home and babies but a husband who played he normal roles as part of such a family and did as is normal react to the time he was away, the attention of others and time he of himself he gave to his work even when he was at home. She also had given up her own development for him and friction was inevitable when she turned to the study of psychology psychiatry and clinical work becoming a Doctor. Not helped was his lack of fertility although the solution of adoption appears to have helped his wife more than him and he was unable to relate to them any more than his father had to him.

John was four years young me and retained his youthful looks until his death at he age of 54. His zenith was in the 1970's and although he remained a successful recording and touring artist releasing 300 records half of which he composed himself. In the early 1980's his marriage ended and the film suggests that there was a combination of causes, an act of casual infidelity on his part, the never being there, especially when needed, aggravated by becoming involved with a host of political an environmental causes and his wife's decision to continue with what I presume had been her original career intentions as the children matured into adulthood. Then three events appeared to precipitate the break. Just when he commenced to establish the kind of relationship with his father that he had wanted, his father has a heart attack and dies. He is also dropped by his record company and only smaller companies are interested with the changes in pubic interest. Finally in a moment of anger at him she agrees to the cutting down of trees immediately around their home because of some water/drainage problem and John retaliates by taking a chain saw to the marital bed bought without consulting him. This act finishes the marriage although over time they are able to meet through their grown up children. Six years after the divorce John married an Australian actress and singer but this lasted only five years during which time after receiving medical treatment he was able to father a daughter. There was the suggestion of a reconciliation before his death when flying an experimental new plane.

The records. Leaving on a Jet Plane the hit for Peter Paul and Mary, Take me Home Country Roads, Rocky Mountain High, Sunshine on my Shoulders, Like a Sad Song. Baby you look good to me tonight, What's on your mind, and the best known of all Annie's song.