Los abrazos rostos-Broken Embraces. Almodovar's Broken Embraces at the Tyneside Film Theatre.

On Tuesday September 7th 2009, a year and a half late, I finally went to see a film at the revamped Tyneside Film Theatre-the latest Almodovar Los abrazos rostos-Broken Embraces.

The theatre was closed for several years while the work was undertaken and films shown at the former Gateshead Town Hall across where I went a couple of times including to see once to see Le Vie en Rose.

There was a period when I would regularly visit the theatre to see the latest recommended international film reminding of my youth when I would visit the Academy cinema in Oxford Street to see Jules et Jim, Summer with Monika and Last year in Mariandbad. I returned to watching such films in central London during the period 1999 2004 when I visited my birth and care mothers once a month spending a week at a time and for a short time international films were shown at the Cineworld Bolden.

Until the extension and major refurbishment the Tyneside Cinema was an old cinema theatre within the facade of a terraced block of offices and shops in Pilgrim Street Newcastle and an entrance in a side passage High Friars.

There were three film theatres hidden away in the old building The top floor with seats on the same level and a small screen above was also used for other functions. I saw Kundun here which Chris Mullin the Sunderland Member of Parliament introduced having taken a personal interest in the fate of Tibet since it was annexed by China. The main theatre was in effect the circle of the former single theatre while the theatre using the stalls had the distinction of a sound commentary interrupted by the sound of Metro trains as they passed below. To my knowledge there was no lift. There were two places to eat and drink. At ground level with a separate entrance there was a bar serving food which catered for those not attending the cinema. The main lounge and bar where snacks could be purchased, was also used by many people as a social meeting place whether they went to see a film or not. The seats uncomfortable and the screens small with London prices.

I planned the visit to arrive in plenty of time to have an explore of the premises. The Street level bar restaurant now has tables on both sides of High Friar Lane and is rebranded as the Intermezzo Coffee Bar where the entrance is located which is similar as before and indicates little of changes that have been made. There is a life to one side which I did not use. The Tyneside Coffee Rooms are now on the second floor and were full of people at tables although it was just before three when I looked in. The fourth cinema/ event space called the Digital Lounge is here. My destination was the new space built onto the building at the top called the Electra which has one of the most comfortable and stylish blue seats I have experience. The screen is large and higher and the banking steep so I found the higher seating best. There are two stairway to the cinema, I assume for safety reasons. The main stairway or the secondary stylish from The Tyneside Bar which has a cool contemporary atmosphere where music is played at night and is available for private hire. I did not get to see the Roxy Theatre which I assume is the ground floor cinema or the Classic which has bookable premium seats in the circle. Prices range from £5 which I paid as a concession rate before 5 £ 6 for others to £10 Classic circle after 6. These are London Prices. I am tempted to enquire if there are places for the tour of the building this Sunday available as part of the Heritage weekend although I would be surprised if there is space. I explored the Theatre Royal this way three years ago and last year I visited the Jarrow Town Hall.

Now to the Almodovar which is the fourth film with Penelope Cruz. The film is something of a departure for Almodovar because while their are funny lines there are few of the usual swipes at authority or attempts to shock the audience. Someone said this was a film within a film within a film. It is not quite that. It is a film about a creative film maker coming to terms with blindness from an accident in which he lost the love of his life Penelope Cruz, in perhaps her least sympathetic role. He had selected her to star in his latest film, a comedy, and where except suggest it is the story the film Women having a nervous breakdown with Carmen Maura. The film within a film within a film is the husband of Penelope employs his son to film everything his wife does while she is away from their home. And he employs a lip reader to tell him what she and those she talks to says.

The film opens with the Director seducing a young woman who has helped him cross the road and seen him to his apartment. His former lover and lifetime friend, agent and general assistant arrives and has the great line on finding him dressing and someone obviously also present, have you finished or were you planning an encore. He son is also part of his staff personal helper but who also works as a DJ at a club. When he becomes seriously ill having drunk a glass of coke with alcohol by mistake and the Director covers up, he persuades the man to tell him the back story following the announcement of the death of former husband of Penelope, a very wealthy man where Penelope worked as a personal secretary before becoming his mistress.

Almodovar is able to include the odd swipe at aspects of contemporary Spanish society he does like. Penelope’s father is dying of cancer and he has been admitted to hospital and an operation but he is told to leave hospital as the consultant decides to go on holiday for the month. In desperation she contacts her former Madam for work, revealing in a matter of fact way how she earned the money for her independent lifestyle as a high class escort before securing the personal secretary position. After disclosing the cause of her distress, he arranged for the best medical and nursing care and in reward she becomes his mistress and closeting her away in his estate. She dins this claustrophobic, auditions for the film. Gets the part and Almodovar and the Director and her commence a passionate affair. When she is about to leave her husband he throws her down stairs and although she is able to finish the shooting of the film, they then go off abroad to Lanzarote where they hire a bungalow holiday home. While they are there they read in newspapers that the film which had still to be edited is to be released and when it is declared a flop. The Director decides to return to Spain to find out what has been happening and when they Penelope takes him to the airport they stop at a crossing when they are hit by another car. We the audience are lead to believe the accident was deliberate with a heave four wheeled drive vehicle crashing into their smaller car hired car and after they have been followed from leaving the holiday home.

There is a scene where the agent and her young son come to take him back to Spain after he has sufficiently recovered from his injuries. The Director and boy spend a little time together while the agent collects his possessions from the holiday home and settles the account. There she finds the photos taken on the break torn up into little pieces. The beach scene is important because it establishes the relationship between the son of the agent and the Director which has developed in one when the Direct feels able to talk about his relationship with Penelope Cruz, her husband and the accident. He believes the vehicle was a hit rather than an accident as it made off.

That the Director and young man have talked upsets the agent who when celebrating the birthday of the Director at a meal confesses that she and the camera man agreed to provide Penelope husband with the film so he could edit in such a way for it to flop. He had then destroyed all the other takes except for the his version of the film. She then also discloses that when the Director had contacted her about the publicity she had revealed the contact number to the husband and therefore felt responsible for what had happened. She admits to have been jealous because they had had an affair several years before and she discloses to her son that the Director is his father, although she had not told him this was so, saying to both that her son was the result of a brief affair.

I have mentioned that the young son of husband had been ordered to film every moment when Penelope was out of the house at the studios. Earlier in the film the Blind \Director is visited by someone with a story he wants to Director to make into a script for a film. The Director has learnt Braille in the intervening years and has also the latest adds available for those without sight. The Director refuses the cold call visit and asks the young man to contact his agent for an appointment. When this takes place the Director realises that the young man is the husband’s son and at first the Director does not want to have anything to do with him.

After the revelations about what happened to film and the disclosure about giving away the telephone number of their whereabouts on Lanzarote,. The Director visits the son and is told that the son witnessed the accident and that it was nothing to do with his the husband. He also has a film of what happened and this reveals that the car had been stationary at a roundabout when it was hit and that the couple had been kissing. This changes his perspective on what had happened. The final revelation is that although instructed to do so, the original takes, the ones which the Director had selected and recorded to become the final film had not been destroyed but had been kept secure by the agent and former lover. It is therefore possible to create and release the film as it had been intended. The film closes as the Director, the agent his son and the son of the husband are watching the final version of the revised film.

So this is a film as with Volver where there is a positive ending and can be considered t be a film about the dangers of forming judgements because of our feelings about events rather than taking a more rounded perspective before making judgements.

The sun was shining when I left the theatre around 5.15 to f5.30 with people sitting at the pavement cafe in the areas. The Metro train was crowded and a smartly dressed young man offered his seat. Later in the journey the compartment was entertaining by three school attending teenagers one of who looked about fourteen was boasting to the two older ones about drink and being drunk. They then realised they had got on the South Shields train instead oft he one for Sunderland which stopped at a Jarrow estate called Fellgate. The saving feature was that one of the two older lads was planning to join the army because one had £50 in cash during training and then £13000 a year. This appealed to him greatly and I assume that if he was accepted the army would sort out his anti social view of life but I had my doubts that he would he would be found acceptable..

Sodom and Gomorrah and Vanity Fair

I had to drag myself out of bed this morning and this led to thinking back to when I was a child and used to dread going to school on some days and at some times but I cannot remember having to struggle in similar fashion to get myself up. I would, bleary eyed, make my way to the station at Wallington when I started work at the age of sixteen years to catch the seven thirty train which would get me into Victoria around ten past eight and then I would have twenty minutes to catch a bus down the Vauxhall Bridge Road to sign the book around 8.30. A member of the senior staff closed the book at 8,45 by drawing a line, but was flexible if he had heard in advance that someone would be delayed so they could present their arrival as 8.44. I used to speculate what it would be like not to have to get up and stay up late and then get up when one felt ready.

I cannot remember having much difficulty rising between five and six to get to the office to start drafting the majority report on a child care enquiry in the early 1980;s when I was forty. I would work on the report until ten or eleven then switch to my day job unless there was a 10 o’clock meeting when the latest would 9.30 when I would need time to prepare, although even then I would have gone through the papers before going to bed the previous evening. I would then work until I had completed the day job tasks which might mean staying until six or seven. Most of my other colleagues would not be in until 8.30 or nine, go home of they lived in the borough for lunch and then be among the first away late afternoon, but there was always papers to read in the evenings and some also like me found themselves reading and dictating over the week ends. I always like to have correspondence drafted for my secretary first thing in the morning. I used to use a dictating machine and a portable typewriter until the arrival of the word processor.

When I stopped having the work responsibilities for others I still got myself up as early as possible whatever the time of going to bed the night before. The problem now as it has been for over years is having to get up several times during the night to go to the toilet, together with being overweight and old age. It has made going out to events in the evening difficult.

I was in the process of getting up this morning and I listened to a the radio where someone was talking about the world fishing championship where England is in the running again after a not so good day yesterday when the Russians came from no where to take the lead in team and individual events. What struck me as amazing is that some competitors were attracting a large number of spectators. It had never occurred to me that fishing was an spectator sport or ought to be treated as a sporting event. Fishing should only be for food. Having said that I can see the appeal as a challenge man against a small being and winning and enjoying being outdoors. There are anything up to a hundred fisherman most weekends on South shields river pier. Oddly I could find no news report of this event. Interestingly the BBC does not regard Angling as a sport and the EEC is debating whether to insist that recreational anglers to fish at sea should submit returns on their catches which in turn would count against the quotas.

It was a good decision yesterday not to go to the cricket as it was being shown on TV. Durham played well having been sent into bat with Mustard getting 100 having been out three times in the 90’s this season. People were well wrapped in coats even though the sun did come out late afternoon. I stayed to watch the Essex openers take a different approach to getting the required runs, concentrating on a run or two a ball rather than the big hits. Without Harmison, Onions, Davis or Thorp presumably rested for the big match later in the week, we were going to struggle to take wickets, especially with Cook on form. I went out get milk, fruit and salad and to take packaging and a couple of items to the Council waste disposal centre. Young spinner Borthwick was given an opportunity and alas he went for 60 runs off five overs. I returned in time for England’s Friendly at Wembley which they won 2.1 before a crowd of estimated at 50000, as warm up prepared for the World Cup qualifying game on Wednesday. This was followed by the X factor where I failed to recognise an outstanding new act although there were a couple of female singers and 16 year old boy who the judges appreciated. There have been fewer groups highlighted this year so far. I made some work progress but not as much as on Friday.

On Sunday the main event was to have been the second one day international between England and Australia at Lords. Australia were again asked to bat as England hoped the pitch would be lively in he early morning with the game commencing at 10.15 and then calm down when they were into bat and for the first three quarters oft he match this appeared to be the right decision. Australia were held to a total of 240 and this was reached because a couple of high scoring overs otherwise the target should have been in the order of 225 to 230. England then got off to an excellent start with Strauss scoring well and Bopara holding up his end continuing to struggle to find his form. There then was a mini collapse and only Collingwood held on ending with the highest score of 50. Australia now lead the series 2.0 with the seventh at the Riverside. The weather forecast has changed and next week promises to be good although there is heavy and persistent rain also forecast this month following on from Atlantic USA hurricanes.

Because of the inevitable I switched to the two hour 2004 film version of Vanity Fair based on the William Makepeace Thackeray novel and which follows BBC dramatizations in the 1960’s 1980’s and 1990’s with Reese Witherspoon as Beck Sharp (Crawley) Eileen Atkins, Geraldine McEwan, Bob Hoskins and Jim Broadbent. Such a short version was bound to cut corners given that the 1998 version lasted five hours.

The story concerns respective fortunes and misfortunes of the clever, ambitions “orphan” Becky and her Ladies Academy friend Amelia who takes her into the family home where she takes an interest in the Brother who works for the East India company. However he is warned off by the man Amelia has been engaged since her youth Captain George Osborn and he is just as ruthless and deceitful as Becky.

Becky then moves into the household of Sit Pitt Crawley as governess to his daughters and when the man’s wife dies he proposes to her only to find that she ahs secretly married his second son. This causes a right with her employer and his wealthy sister who did favour Becky’s husband until the marriage and switches to the other son.

Amelia’s father meanwhile becomes bankrupt and this prevents the marriage to Captain Osborn but under pressure from his father to marry for money and position and from his friend Dobbin, sounds a faithful friend with that name, who secretly loves Amelia persuade Osborne to marry her although they couple are not suited.

The lives of the two families are set in the time of the Napoleonic wars and men are summoned to Brussels to participate and attend the famous real life ball given by the Duchess of Richmond on the eve of the Battle of Waterloo.

In the film Captain Crawley is portrayed as a man genuinely in love with his wife but penniless and in debt without family support and because of gambling debts, although he is able to give Becky money before the a battle having had a good run at the card tables. She on the other hand takes an interest in Captain Osborn and they unsurprisingly hit it off although Becky is quite willing to switch her interest of Napoleon’s officers should they win the battle. Amelia breaks with Becky and then misfortune strikes as while Captain Crawley survives Captain Osborne does not and Amelia becomes a destitute mother, her husband having also been disinherited by his father. The grandfather then decided to provide for her on the understanding he brings up his grandson and his daughter in law has little to do with the boy. Dobbin also provides support and purchases her piano which is among the items auctioned off when the father becomes bankrupt. She thinks her husband has doe this and this act helped to creates a myth about their relationship which takes over her life following his death.

Whereas Amelia is devastated by the gulf which develops with her son, For Beck, motherhood is an encumbrances and she seizes the opportunity when she is taken up by the worldly and powerful Marques of Steyn. He pays of Crawley’s debts , provides financial support which enables to son to attend a residential public school and introduces Beck to Society and which leads to being presented to the Prince Regent.

The financial support from Steyn is insufficient for Beck and her husband’s lifestyle and she borrows from everyone including their servants whose life savings she misuses. When her husband discovers the extent of financial support from Steyn which has been kept from him and the suspects the nature of the relationship he abandons his wife and is then sent to become Governor if a distant Island, arranged by Steyn and for tells Becky should she leave London and live in Europe.

Dobbyn and his friend, Amelia’s brother who had wanted Becky but been warned off by Osborne return after spending a decade in India. Dobbyn takes up with Amelia but is only allowed to be her friend, but also acts as a guardian towards her son, The son has inherit from his grandfather who also provides for Amelia. Dobbyn accompanies Amelia brother and son on a trip to Europe where they encounter Becky living as con artist around the card tables with the suggestion of having sunk lower. It is at this point that the film diverges in a major way from the book. In the film and the book when Becky and Amelia meet again, Becky reveals the truth nature of Captain Osborne showing Amelia the note he had written to her before the Battle of Waterloo and this results in her reappraising Dobbyn especially when she learns it is he who bought the piano back for her. In the film they marry and the impression given that they live happy ever after whereas in the book Dobbyn realises first love can never be recaptured. Thackeray is reported to have been in love with the wife of his best friend, a love unrequited. In the film Becky also is alleges to have found lasting happiness when she takes up with Amelia’s brother and goes off with him to India. My understanding is that in the book while Becky does accept the interest of the younger Crawley who is shy and fat but made money as a tax collector in India, he dies in suspicious circumstances, suggesting that Becky has got rid of him. However if so this was a big mistake because her husband had died earlier and therefore his brother would have succeeded to the title and estate. Instead although she calls herself Lady Crawley and lives well because her son who has inherited the estate looks after despite her previous indifference towards him.

While Becky has several setbacks Thackeray appears to be favouring the adventurer against the lifestyle of those who lead plain, simple and honest lives.

If so this contrasts significantly with Sodom and Gomorrah, the two and half hour 1960’s epic with Stewart Granger. And Pier Angelli and Stanley Baker. The film was one f several attempt to make entertaining films with a message out of stories from the Old Testament.

The film opens with an end of a an orgy scene in the heavily fortified walled city of Sodom which is a bitter rival of Gomorrah, Sodom’s economy is based on the manufacture of salt using slaves and which it sells at a premium to its rival city. Sodom is run by a firm and bright Queen much to the envy of her brother played by Stanley Baker who converts her position and is plotting gain power with the help of Gomorrah and some of the officers in the army.

He sends the head slave on a mission to meet the people of Gomorrah but she is captured by a look out expedition from Sodom is persuaded not to reveal who is behind her mission and she and her sisters perish to be replaced by someone destined to become Lot’s wife,

Lot is the appointed leader of a branch of the Israelites who are crossing the desert in search of a new life on the banks of the Jordan. His leadership is contested by a man who is also to play a significant role in this piece of fiction. Lot does a deal with the Queen which allows him use of the land on one side of the Jordan in payment for a quantity of wheat for seven years. He is horrified that Sodom keeps slaves and part of the deal is the offer of sanctuary if they manage to escape across the river. He present a horse and she present her chief slave who at first resent the role as housekeeper to lot and which involve wearing the same clothing as other women. The Israelites build a dam and prosper and quietly prepare for the defence of their community as part of the deal with the Queen who is aware of her brother’s treachery so that when the attack comes she ensures that her enemies are sent out to help the Israelites while keeping her trusted troops in the city and her brother at her side.

her brother to her side. The plan for the advancing army t be led along the dried up mouth of the river in to a ravine where the Israelites aware with slings behind rocks as do the archers of Sodom. They then release oil from container either side of the ravine into a narrow pit which is fired thus preventing the attackers from advancing and they are able to assault them from the rocks up with sling shot and arrows. However Lot’s rival has gone over to the other side and he and the one of the plotters cut the oil flow so that the fire dies down and the attackers are able to advance. The solution is to break the dam which effective wipes out the enemy. However meanwhile the village encampment has been destroyed and lots accepts the hospitality of Sodom. Lot has also married the former slave girl leader and one of his daughters is marrying his trusted assistant while the other has taken an interest in the life of those in the city until she is subject of an aggressive assault from Stanley Baker while returning from one of his secret missions.

There is no agreement amongst historians and archaeologist that the two cities existed although there are remains in the area and one theory is that they were destroyed in an earthquake leading to the conviction that this was God’s wrath for the life style. The Bible in is use of knowing to communicate sexual knowledge tells the story of two angels visiting Lot and the local people spotting strangers clamoured to know them and goes on to allege that Lot offered his two daughters for the citizens to do what they willed. The story goes to with famous ending when his wife is turned to a block of salt for looking back when ordered not to do so.

The film got off to great start with the titles in German and of course Stewart Granger was always Stewart Granger in whatever he did.

The City of God, The Wrong Arm of the Law, The Spranos Americal Idol

Friday has been a day of work, broken up with food and a range of television experience and some personal correspondence. It was not the kind of day when something stands out as wow, yet it was not without several engaging and thought proving moments. And then later on I developed a personal problem which brought home again for the second time this year the sense of my growing frailty and vulnerability.

The joy of the day came first from the amazing self described, cheeky young Japanese Jazz pianist Hiromi Uehara who during the extract of her performance at the Brecon Jazz Festival demonstrated something of the energy and dynamics which performers and audience can only experience live. Records provide the music and voice and film can communicate something of the actuality but only being there, in my instance as a member of the audience, or as a performer, do you experience the interactions. This point was made by another up and coming jazz pianist who was also classical trained Zoe Rahman who has been described as one of the finest pianists in Europe. Zoe was born at Chichester, studied music at Oxford and Berklee Boston. The third Pianist featured was of a generation when few females played jazz other than with their voice as singers. As with those of the present generation Jessica was classically trained attending the Peabody Conservatory of Music when she was seven. Regarded as one of the great pianists and composer with 200 tracks and fifty albums to her name she also has an unusual mental feature in that she sees sounds as colours as well as hearing them. In the programme she explained how much her life had changed over the past decade in which she has not touched alcohol or cigarettes.

I then made the mistake of deciding to watch immediately the cut in American Idol to the 12 men and 12 females who will sing live next week and seek the public vote to stay in the competition. I should have watched the hour later programme and enjoyed an hour special on Edith Piaf but I lingered before switching as she sang no regrets.

Over two nights and three hours of broadcasting we have shared part of the experience as the 164 individuals selected from tens of thousands who attended the auditions, competed on the first day for passes to a second performance later in the week. Those who forgot lyrics or messed up or just did not have appeal compared to others were given a second chance but only 30 seconds to make the judges change their minds. As a result of the second stage 50 were selected to face judgement day with just under a 2 to 1 chance to make the first of the public voting performance. The ordeal, the first of the weekly events required the contestants to sit as a group and then return after entering a long room which involved a walk where three judges were sitting at The far end to be told their fate. The process was a good way of demonstrating what they would experience week upon week as the voting of the public was revealed to the performer in a way which was as dramatic and tense as possible to maximise audience's sense of involvement and that their votes mattered. It was evident that parents and partners were also available once an individual had returned to share their sense of triumph or of failure with the other contestants, and no doubt to assist in the contract signing and preparing for the publicity and the possibility of being involved in the final and the live how tour, and for one or two a new way of life. There were too many participants for me to hold everyone in my head and even the judges who had seen them at audition, and two or three times during Hollywood week relied on photographs as memory joggers. There is a lot of great talent this year.

I went to bed after midnight on Thursday watching a late in the series episode of the Sopranos which I cannot remember seeing before. Episode 78, the first in the second half of the last series has three moods. The first was when Tony and Carmela take a weekend away with his sister and her husband at their lakeside retreat which I assume is Lake Placid in the Adirondack Park, to mark Tony's birthday. They sun bathe, they chat, they eat and drink a lot, they play Monopoly and gradually the rivalries and resentments and natural inclinations emerge and after one remark Bobby and Tony fight and Tony losses face. In retribution and in order to increase the profit from a deal Tony requires his brother in law to make his first cold blooded killing. We have experienced several previous situations where if the frustrated little boy inside Tony does not get his way he uses his power to destroy others, but this time he loses face, reminding that his tenure as the crime boss and in life is coming to an end and his jokes about going to hell are becoming vivid realities.

Yet we are encouraged to have sympathy with the brother in law as does what is required of him and knows that his relationships with his child, his wife, the world and his conscience will never be the same again. It is easy for the viewer to be understanding and feel sympathy because we have come to know the character, his wife and their child, and episode also revealed once more that his wife is the same frustrated and hurt child who failed to mature as her bother, Fortunately the child has a kindly servant to help with her care. Yet he has slaughtered someone he does not know and who we also do not know in cold blood, because he is afraid of Tony but also because he has never killed before and wants to know what it is like and to have the respect of the villain community who have already so, sometimes many times.

It is the ability of the programme to enlist the sympathy and interest of the viewer in evil men and their supportive and forgiving wives and which may reflect an important aspect of society and of us, the bystanders which provoked my reservations when I first looked at the show on its first release in the UK after a recommendation from a stranger in the locker room of the hotel leisure club, which I attended several times a week top swim, enjoy a Jacuzzi, sweat a sauna or steam room, and sometimes a workout in the gym. The stranger was bent on telling me and anyone who came close of his excitement and appreciation of this new gangster series arguing it was the greatest series of them all. I watched an like the opening signature and over the years have watch most episodes but on in sequence, switch on when there is nothing else I want to see whereas a repeat of Yes Minister or the West Wing will cause me to abandon whatever else I was thinking of doing. I mention West Wing because in the annual TV awards it was the Sopranos who regularly beat off its competition having won twenty one Emmys and five Golden Gloves in its six season run, the man was right, as critic after critic have said this was the greatest TV series to-date, but I am also right about what the programme says of society and you and me.

The third mood started the programme off as Tony was arrested by local police after an unregistered weapon, used in a crime with special bullets, was identified by its user as having belonged to Tony who he had witnessed getting rid sometime beforehand. Tony, encouraged by his lawyers believes that the case is dropped to enable him to celebrate the birthday on the weekend trip however this is no more than a ploy by FBI who have mounted a five year surveillance campaign to obtain the evidence to bring him and the other murderers, bullies and thieves to some form of justice. The Soprano's follows the hard world of the American Italian, brought to international fame with the film the Godfather and countless others since, including several films by Martin Scorsese. This contrasted with the British approach in the Peter Sellers comedy caper, the wrong arm of the law. In this 1963 Ealing Studios Black and White Film the police are not corrupt but stupid as are most of the criminal members of the gangs and other individuals in membership of the organisation with Peter Sellers as the chairman, Pearly Gates, whose front is a haute couture. A trio of Australians wreck the status quo for police and crooks alike by posing as policemen with their own fake police car, waiting until a crime has been committed and then going off with the spoils. Hence the title the wrong arm of the law, Peter's girl friend played by Nanette Newman uses pillow talk to alert the new gang of forthcoming heists although it is not evident how they also get to know the plans of the main rival gang and of various individuals in membership of the fraternity chaired also by Peter. Lionel Jeffries plays the police inspector Clod and Bernard Cribbins the nervous leader of a competing gang. John Le Mesurier who was to make his name in the TV series Dads Army plays a senior policeman, Dennis Price. a public school con man and Michael Caine, yes the Michael Caine, can be seen but is not credited. The climax of the film after several bungled efforts sees Sellers and Jeffries and girl friend escaping in a plane with half a million in notes planted by the police to catch the Police dressed gang in an arranged truce, and where Inspector Clod goes under cover as part of Peter's mob. The new gang are caught with other members of the criminal fraternity and the police hierarchy rejoice at the departure from these shores of Inspector Clod especially as the bank notes were fakes and the trio are forced to hideaway on a tropical island making designer grass skirts to earn a living.

How things have changed in half a century. In the UK we do now have a problem of children involved in the selling of drugs and some do have guns and where since the attempt to restrict their sale and use to secured gun clubs and secured home licences all that has happened is that the price for the illegal's has gone up. However if we want to understand the shape that things could become take a long look at the Brazilian film City of God and the accompanying hour long documentary and tell me which you think is more the credible. Rather like the Churchill advert, it is a trick question because both are as credible as each other. A pre adolescent child is the brother of a trio of teenage gun carrying hoods in the township quarter for the lower class of Rio de Janeiro called the City of God. They terrorise their estate and no one dares take action against them or report their activities to the authorities. This may have continued for sometime had it not been that they give not given a gun to the psychopathic monster of the child who insist on tagging along and as given the role of look out while they rob the residents of a motel. During the robbery, the warning shooting out of a window signal is given followed by several more shots assume to be from the police. In fact the child has been engaged on his own slaughter and robbery, heralding the start of his rise to power as he grows into teenage terror crime boss.

The film repeatedly makes the point that the police take no action about such crime in the townships, the "flavelas", until it affects other interests in society. The child murderer and his best mate grow up to make the most of the 80's growth in the cocaine trade which they organise together with protection activities in one of the more centrally located slum areas of the city and where some police are well paid of to look the other way.

The community is generally happy with this situation because other forms of crime are eliminated and the gangs provide a kind of community social services, helping out if a family needs money or medication or health care, or to bury their dead. In the film three developments upset the balance. A new generation of pre adolescent children decide to make their claim, stealing from those protected by one of the gangs which retaliates by giving two captured children the choice of being shot in the hand or foot and then requiring their latest recruit to shoot dead one of them which he does, having first shot him in the foot when he puts out his hand. The second development occurs when the best friend and assistant crime boss of the boy murderer decides he wants to leave and settle down with his girl friends and throws a great party which is attended by every group in the community, from church and social to crime and samba. He is executed by mistake by someone ordered by a competing crime boss thinking he getting the rival head. The third incident is when the former child murderer turned adult murderer and thug is rejected by a young woman sitting at a table waiting for her boyfriend to return. The boyfriend is humiliated and the young woman brutally raped. The boyfriend seeks revenge, joins the rival gang and all out war breaks out with the police deciding to let them get on with it.

Watching all this with his camera is at boy turned young man the younger brother of one of the original trio who is gunned down after he tries to escape the City of God with his girlfriend following the raid on he motel. The younger brother has been sent to school as to make a different life for himself, but it is the gift of an expensive camera, and being allowed to take photos of hang life, especially the death of the former child murderer that brings him a newspaper internship and his way out of the ghettos. It is only recently that I saw a similar film, Tsotsi the only difference being life in ghetto township South Africa. Both films serve as a warning to those who believe the creation of political, economic, race, religious or social apartheid will result in a better life for anyone, although if the policy is backed up by terror state in which individuals lower in the hierarchy are fee to do what hey like, the situation can continue for generations. The documentary suggests that having declared war the police have been able to reduce the extent of innocent deaths and where overall the city death rated by gun short was every 90 minutes, 18 a day, 125 a week and 6000 a year. The documentary also suggested there were 100000 engaged in drug trafficking and only a similar number engaged in the public services.
As the film ends a new gang of gun using children is being created and they go off playfully working out a list the older hoods they must kill to gain ascendancy.

During the day as the build up for the crucial next round of local authority elections begins, the Prime Minister launched a new incentive scheme to encourage poor families to move income support and maintenance into the lower paid work opportunities

Few if any are likely to have the opportunity of this evening's star in the Actors Studio, a boyish looking young man who has recently tried to age himself with designer facial hair. I must admit I had no knowledge of the work of Edward Norton who came to prominence for award nominated rolls in Primal Fear, American History X and Fight Club. He comes from an American dream family, his father an environmental lawyer, his mother a teacher and his maternal grandfather was a developer involved with the design of the city of Columbia. Edward Norton went to Yale where he continued acting which had commenced in childhood and was family supported although following graduation in history with a knowledge of Japanese he worked in Osaka for his grandfathers' company for a few months.. He was therefore a young man with all the advantages of education, family support and background but what emerged that he was exceptionally talented in diverse areas. It is evident he worshipped his mother and mourned her premature loss from cancer and it is interesting that although he had had two several year relationships and is presently said to be involved with a third he has never married and likes to be ordinary, with interests in sports, politics and social welfare issues. Becoming a director as well as continuing to work as an actor in film and on stage it was another talent which made me say WOW and changed my perspective of him. He wrote the film script for Frida although he could not be credited because he was not a member of the Writer's Guild.

It should not be assumed that I also did not work hard during the day, producing a score of glitter cards and 100.75 set work creation. I also enjoyed the way Durham's Paul Collingwood hit a fast fifty to paved the way to winning the third one match with New Zealand after two pathetic team performance which would have put home fans back on to the seats, and being reminded of the work and life of the singer and band leader Louis Prima born into a musical family in New Orleans. He moved to New York in the 1930's and one of his compositions was Sing Sing Sing and hearing the Benny Goodman recording at the Carnegie Hall concert create a huge adolescent interest in big band jazz and the clarinet which I then tried to learn to play. He then moved to Los Angeles where he met and married the singer Keely Smith who became his fourth wife and they developed a stage act together for several years. His fifth and final wife was also fan and a singer with the band, performing until shortly before his death in 1978. Over his long career he developed many interests but his musical ability influenced generation after generation including Bill Haley and the Alex Harvey Band and provided the sound track for more recent films from Mickey Blue Eyes to Analyse this. He developed a brain tumour in 1975 and never recovered from an operation, remaining in a coma for three years with his family and friends never knowing if he knew they were with him. The inscription on the crypt door is from one of his lyrics, Just a Gigolo. When the end comes, I know they'll l say just a Gigolo as life goes on without me. Oh no we don't.

It was this picture of experiences which then saw me through what became a very difficult night as a personal problem developed which kept me up until the early hours and then rising again after only couple of hour's sleep, Last year I acquired an expensive Readers Digest book 1001 Home Remedies and the advice it contain on my problem was followed and helped to avoid the panic which was developing as my state of discomfort became worse., Now I feel as if it never happened but it was a great reminder of situations to come and getting into a better state of readiness.

Sense and Sensibility, Atila the Hun, Goal-Living the dream

As anticipated the weather changed although there were some brief moments of sunshine on this designated romantic of days which maketh many oblivious to the climate, I have worked hard remedying the mistake of misnumbering signatures card for developments set from 1984 through to 2008, thus reminding of that situation in the first employment in my youth when I had the boring task of writing out licences for pedestrian controlled vehicles owner by a large provider of milk to domestic households in the former county of Middlesex at a time when I believe there were two categories of pedestrian controlled vehicles and I continued writing the details of one after the category had changed for nearly 100 others without anyone appreciating the error until someone drew attention and they had to be removed from the vehicles and returned. These days such a mistake, mistakes of a nature which I made more time than I should would lead to swift dismissal, but then my immediate employers, appreciating that I was bored with the task and my mind had wondered, had the brainwave of putting me in charge of temporary staff, some four times my then age, recruited to undertake the task and it was through this activity that one the number, who had been the head of the licensing section of the finance department in an authority adjacent to my home arranged for me to move there where my work involved directly dealing with the public and which led to my taking over a cashier's post for half a year when someone became ill, and where amazingly on reflection it was unusual for me not to balance the account at first attempt and where the errors were so few that I was recommended for the position which involved a monetary promotion, having successful passed the appropriate examination, While the post was given to a married man with family who had attained the qualification previously and was waiting for such a position form sometimes, I felt aggrieved and shortly left local government, I thought never to return, and set forth to make my fortune. However my error of over the past week only had the consequence of having to repeat the work and delay bringing myself fully up-to-date by an hour or so.

I have delayed commenting on the attempt to repair the chair hoping that the second effort would last longer than it did, some two days, so I will make do, at least until I have lost sufficient weight not repeat the damage caused by plonking myself down sometimes with force. The cupboard is nearly bare, although in this instance the refrigerator but I delayed going shopping before lunch watching the 1981 TV series production of Sense and Sensibility. An appropriate offering on this day when love's misfortunes work out for the best at time of manners and civility about both the middle and upper classes. I sufficed on a cheese omelette for the second time in the week, made more tasty with a few halved olives.

I am struggling to remember the programmes which distracted my attention last evening. One was the Actors studio interview with Martin Scorsese. I wish I had his enclosed instant recall not just of all the films of the past, but his knowledge of how scenes were shot, the film speeds, the lighting and camera angles etc. He uses story boards for each frame, and helps write the scripts, oversees all the camera work and subsequent editing which is now done on a computer, and likes to rehearse actors and interact with them, thus he works with Robert De Niro over several decades when they have progressed from young to men in their middle to later years. If only my work had the same thoroughness and a little of his astonishing output. There is one aspect of the work of Scorsese which has always caused me concern.

This is nature and extent of the violence in all of his movies which in the interview he said reflects the violence he witnessed in his upbringing environment. It was nothing like the violence which Attila the Hun created when he attempted to force the twin Roman Emperors to pay sufficient gold tribute to stop him sacking their cities. The one hour drama documentary was a tour de force making use of good acting and the latest electronic technology to create vast armies of men in their tens of thousands, fortified towns and contemporary assault weaponry, to convey the extent of his clever ability to lead the disparate tribes through a mixture of ruthlessness to friend and foe and success in wrestling vast quantities of gold to feed the ambitions of his supporters, together with the usual satisfying of blood lust, rape and burning out of the homes of those who dared stand in their way. The Portrayal by Jack Palance in Sign of the Pagan in influencing my impression but I could have just as easily been affected by writers, musicians and other film makers who have made him into a brainless barbarian from Dante and Verdi to Woody Allen, and from Anthony Burgess and Monty Python's Flying Circus. For the record he lived only for 47 years from 406AD, ruling the Hunnic empire for close on twenty years and could have attacked Constantinople and Rome and a Chinese Emperor built the Great Wall to keep out a predecessor. While the BBC film concentrated on his attempts to obtain more and more gold tribute from the Romans his interests extended to the Persian Empire and at one point the came close to reaching the Atlantic passing through Amiens, Paris and Orleans before battling with the Romans and their allies at Chalons. His assault on Italy led to the creation of Venice as people fled to the islands of the Venetian Lagoon. His death has been the subject of continuing debate among scholars. Did he die from natural causes, at the hands of his wife or a clever plot initiated by Rome? What then happened is normal when one man with power and success dies or falls, his heirs then fight among each other to control the spoils, and there has also been academic work to try and work out what happened to his many children and although it is said that there is some evidence for linking with the tsars of Bulgaria, but linking his with Charlemagne has not been confirmed.
It was another coincidence that having viewed and travelled close to the Tynemouth peninsular and having walked the southern pie., it was the opening shot the opening shot, allegedly of Newcastle England in the Second film Goal Living the Dream, which I saw on Thursday. The series, there is to be a third, is a mixture of Boy's own progress from the slums of Mexico, to football stardom at Newcastle and Real Madrid, and the Champions League, with the World Cup left for episode 3, to Footballers wives versus Geordie and Como Aqua Para Chocolate. The story is of Mexican boy, Santiago, abandoned by his mother who cannot cope with her husband and his brother, who is a wizard with a football and is discovered as a young man and brought to Newcastle, enjoys the city life and falls in love with a Geordie nurse of good heart and simple and homely character played by Anna Friel. The films use a new technique of placing the actors in real football match settings live games and crowds) by having some of the world's great footballers do some acting and some actors play some footballer together, coupled with actors and extras being separately filmed to create part of the general crowd scenes.

The second film follows Santiago's sudden move Real Madrid and his rise to international superstardom alongside David Beckham, and stars of Real Madrid including our Woodgate and of Arsenal in a Champions League Final where Santiago scores the goal which ties the game as normal time comes to an end and a Beckham Free kick secures the win. Santiago also discovers that his mother has moved from Mexico to Spain where she and her husband struggle to run a bar and keep their natural son, his half brother from progressing from his youthful delinquency into adult criminality and prison. I thought the scene in which Santiago meets his mother was exceptionally good. The films seemed to me to show what happens when ordinary young men with special skills are thrust into superstardom and what happens if they are already attached to a nice young woman, and which in this instances result sin Santiago sacking his Newcastle based agent and his Geordie girlfriend returning home pregnant to work in a geriatric home or hospital day care, after the hero has been seduced by a media femme fatal. In addition to David Beckham and Jonathan Woodgate other making cameo appearances include Gravesan, Ramos, Raul, Ronaldo, Zidane, Henry, Fabregas, Reyes and Ljungeberg. Steve McManamen also appears and is listed as one of the film's producers. I was at St James Park when for the live game when Santiago gets his first big chance, but I decided against becoming one of the extras as I tend to sit silently and clap when appropriate, although recent disasters did lead to voicing some discontent!

I have mixed views about the development over the past decade of turning spiritual, family and private relationship events into major commercial and media extravaganzas, Christmas, New Year, Valentine's Day, Easter Fathers Day, Mothers Day, and Guy Fawkes and Halloween added to Birthdays, Weddings, Christenings and Funerals and their Anniversaries, These have all become occasions for a massive sales operation with sections of supermarkets converted to mark the occasions. I have mixed views because all the advertising and media hype tends to devalue the real significance particular of Christmas and Easter or occasions when couples, parents families should spend time together over a simple meal or some mutually enjoyed activity rather than compete in demonstrating their feelings by spending more and more money. However it all helps the economy and international trade, especially as many of the goods are now made in China, the great model for Christian and humanitarian values and couples and families do spend time together which they might otherwise not. I also received a couple of electronic valentines which is

The Greatest Raid of them all

Tuesday February 12th was a glorious glorious day from dawn to dusk. My intention on going out was to walk the promenade and in order to take a different route from yesterday I crossed over the grass and down the steps to the coast roadway. In part because of their steepness and number, in addition to a black metal handrails there are barriers at regular intervals as part of the overall structure which includes encase lamp holders, alas with the glass and internal workings smashed by hooligans, The steps themselves are made of selected bricks and he boarder to the steps has been carefully planted with trees and shrubs and is an impressive feature. The barriers are points to rest and enjoy the spectacle of the river mouth with the tow converging piers. The atmosphere was bright with considerable glare from the un. Out to sea it appeared that there was a bank of mist 50 t0 100 feet high about a mile or more offshore, It was at this point that a I exchanged my mind and decided to walk the South Shields pier which I now know take twenty minutes at a brisk pace from end to end.

There as only one other person walking on the outward journey we passed each other at the gated junction which is closed in bad weather. There were only half a dozen anglers whereas at weekends there can be as many as a hundred. I decided to concentrate on reaching the small lighthouse at the end before turning to enjoy the spectacular panorama of the sweeping bay from the rocks off the Whitburn coastal park after the Souter Point light house to past Tynemouth with the ruins of the former priory and the castle at its headland, with some of the properties on the grand parade above the long sands to be seen before Cullercoats and Whitley Bay . The shorter northern pier obscures most of the view and which extends further than the its twice as long southern counterpart.

The tides was low and a ship departed before the turn so that the full depth of the sands were revealed. What attracted me most was a church in the distance in the area of Cullercoats and it was added to the list for further field exploration. The plan is to take the ferry to North Shields and from there taking the Metro to Tynemouth, the Cullercoats and then Whitley Bay as on this side of river the service is circular from and to Newcastle with some twenty five stations. There were more people following in my path as I made a leisurely return with many smiley faces and warn greetings, summoned up by one lady a few years ahead of her husband who said, "it's a grand day to be alive." She had a north of the border accent which reminded that having suggested there ought to be a move to transfer ourselves into Scotland, the people pf Berwick are holding a referendum that they would rather be part of Scotland than become part of a new local authority district in Northumberland with the offices at Morphett some 50 miles away. Ideal the town wishes to remain as they are although it has moved between the two countries 3 times in its history and on the last occasion when the population was consulted he voting was almost 50 : 50. There is the suggestion that the final count will show more than seventy five percent voting in favour of another change. The football team already plays in a Scottish division

I returned home after another outing of between an hour and a quarter and a half in time for lunch and one the best films, along with the Cruel Sea and Morning Departure about the reality of life at sea during World War 2.I was also celebrating the apparent success of the attempt to repair one of the castors on my desk chair, choosing to fit the repaired castor to the upturned chair and leaving for twenty four hours. It also will help if I do not plonk. l myself down with the force of my full weight. I watch the Grammy's for the first time in the entirety of the two hour highlights show, as usually some of the performers are so excruciatingly uncouth, in their own dimension and obnoxious in their self presentation that I switch off. What interested about the show , supplanted from the official website is that there are 31 categories of award covering every aspect of music and voice which is put on record, hence the award of mini gramophone speakers. There were 109 given out on the night and the full list of nominees and awards covers 54 pages. Amy Winehouse received awards for Record of the Year, Song of the year and Female vocal Performance all in relation to Rehab.. She was also best new Artist and had the best vocal Album Back to Back. Another nominee Rihanna has come across as having more talent than her one silly record which dominated the charts Umbrella, and which collected the award for best collaboration. For the first time in over forty of its fifty years a jazz album achieved success, Herbie Hancock for his album celebrating Joni Mitchell, which also won the Contemporary Jazz. including over Amy Winehouse Back to Back and the insufferable self opinionated Kanya West who nevertheless won several awards on his self proclaimed role of being the world's best artist. Justin Timberlake won over Paul McCartney and Michael Buble for best male vocal Performance. He also triumphed over Barbara Streisand, Bette Midler and James Taylor for best Traditional vocal Album. The surprising thrill was for the Boss to be still doing it as Bruce Springsteen received an award for best male Rock Performance and best song Radio Nowhere and for best Rock Instrumental Once upon a time in the west, while the Foo Fighters who I have heard before edged Ozzy Osbourne and won several other awards. Alicia Keys won over American Idol Fantasia in the R and B Vocal Category, Another pleasing award was for Willie Nelson in the country section. An album featuring Eric Clapton Best Contemporary Blues; There were awards for Gospel, Native American, and the World award went to the Soweto Gospel Choir with one of the runner's up an album of music from Iraq. Jim Dale reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows received the award for an Album for children of all ages! A Beatles Album for a best soundtrack compilation and the historical Album to a Woodie Guthrie in Performance 1949, Under Classical an orchestral Album Tower: Made in America received two awards as well Beethoven Sonatas which has an important place in my life
Now to the film which changed my day. The Gift Horse was, seen in theatre in 1952 when first released, about a couple of times since, although in 1958 I acquired the official published account of what is known throughout the naval military world as The Greatest Raid of All by C E Lucas Phillips. The book has a Forward by Earl Mountbatten of Burma who persuaded his colleagues to approve the venture on the grounds that its very impossibility would make it possible. There is a list of the 168 men Navy and Commando men who perished, and a full list of the five Victoria Crosses, two posthumously, 4 Distinguished Services orders, 17 DSO crosses 11 military crosses, 4 Conspicuous Gallantry Medals, 5 Distinguished Conduct Medals, 24 Distinguished service medals and 15 Military Medals, together with over 50 individuals mentioned in dispatches. Some 400 Germans were killed and they suffered 127 reported wounded

The cause of this heroism and sacrifice was the use of the obsolete destroyer HMS Campbetown, in March 1942, accompanied by 18 shallow draft boats to ram the St Nazaire Lock Gates and was then blown up ending the use of the dock. The dock was to become the Atlantic base for the Battleship Tirpitz which then hid in a fiord until destroyed without sinking a fishing boat. The estuary leading to the docks which also housed 14 submarine pens was, long and heavily defended. A land operation was ruled out as an airborne attempt to knock out the docks given that bombs then only had a one in five chance of landing within five miles of their target. In the twelve days before setting off an attempt was made to disguise the vessel as German and everyone on board knew they were sitting on a bomb which when the ship did exploded remains of souvenir hunting Germans were found a quarter of a mile away. A feature of the raid was the use of Commando's who had only been created at the instigation of Churchill and which had met with significant opposition because the best men were being recruited with an emphasis on initiative and creativity without any of the usual discipline and parade ground working.

Most of the commandos travelled in small motor launches and suffered horrific casualties before arriving. However they were successful in destroying several important installations and 120 attempted to fight their way out of the docks and across the city defended by 5000 German troops to make the 350 mile journey to Spain. Five were successful and another 22 of the 250 returned home immediately. The other survivors were taken to various prisons camps for the duration of the war.
The Campbeltown was amazingly lucky when twice shore batteries opened fire but were persuaded to stop because intelligence had provide the signalling codes and the ship successfully convinced they were a damage German craft seeking shelter. However they were given away by allied aircraft who had been instructed not to drop bomb for fear of French civilian casualties in the town if the sky was not clear but to fly around in a circle in case the sky cleared. The extent of the air activity aroused German suspicion so they opened fire on the on coming destroyer and flotilla. The mission was then nearly failure as only at the last moment did the captain realise they were heading for the wrong dock entrance and then after lodging on the gate the explosives failed to detonate on time. The device used was primitive and involved the slow release of acid which corroded a wire which then released the detonation trigger. The reaction of the Germans to the captured navel and military men was complex. On the ground men were congratulated for their daring, and the ship's captain for their stupidity as their vessel could not penetrate the gates and would be removed causing such a loss of life, injuries and being taken prisoner. After the explosion one officer threatened to have all the prisoners killed and Hitler was so angry that he decreed that in any future instance the Commando's would be treated as spies and executed. The gunner on one of the small craft took on a destroyer and kept firing despite being subsequently found to have been shot sixteen times. The commander of the destroyer made a point fo seeking out a captured British officer and telling him of the situation and that he did not know who the man was but he ought to be given the Victoria Cross. He died from his wounds but the account was recorded and the honour given. Usually a British Officer has to independently attest an individual action for any award to be given.

Because it was fifty years since reading the book I had no idea how far the film was fictionalised account of the actual event but it a memorable story because it encompasses much of the reality of being at war. One man returns home to find that his fiancée has run off with someone in the blackmarket. He marries one of her workmates and is about to become a father, so he sends his wife out of London to the west country when she is killed in a blitz attack. The commander of the ship has already lost his wife, two years before the war, and tries hard to persuade his son to continue at school rather than join the navy. Fortunately when his son turns up as a cadet he takes him off for his first drink and they part as proud day and proud son, and then on Christmas Day he receives the telegram saying the son was killed, and he continues in his role wishing the men still on board well and hiding his grief until in private. One happy go lucky officer finally persuades a Wren working in communications to marry him and two months later she becomes aware, as part of her duties of the true nature of the mission and the chances of survival and is unable to share what she knows with her husband or show her horror when she learns that he has been given his own ship but declined to be able to proceed with the task in hand. This latter story may have been untrue but not the point being made.

Last year Jeremy Clarkson presented a programme about the raid which included film of some of those who survived including their return to St Nazaire where they were greeted by the then French Prime Minister, and also their visited to the war graves of their fallen comrades. The programme is now available on You Tube in six parts and provided all the answers to questions about the film and the actual raid and what Jeremy communicates is that the enterprise was that much more spectacular than the film and even more far reaching in its significance and far more moving. There was one letter from a son to his father expressing the hope that he would be remembered and that his death would mean a better world and peace. In the film the captain tells the participants the they can withdraw without affecting their future deployment or explaining the hazardous nature of the enterprise. In reality the men were told this by Lord Mountbatten personally, including the hazardous nature of the venture for which hey had received specific training, No one backed out. They had previously been told not to disclose what they about to do to their loved ones. The man who designed the bomb and its placement in the ship was directly involved in steering the vessel on what proved to be the true course, after two men beforehand had been killed. He had a conversation with his young wife about the mission against orders because she had just given birth to their first child. She said afterwards he seemed to know he would not return, he did not. One survivor was able to recount that he was given two letters by comrades to give to their families. He had reacted, but I am coming with you. They told him you will get back, he did, they did not.

Freedom Radio, Gospa Medjugorge

I am constantly surprised by the unexpected journeys travelled during one day. This Monday morning it was a pleasant walking journey for over an hour first to look the redevelopment of South Marine Park where over a million pounds is being spent before August. The only indication of men working was a group of three or four painstakingly cleaning the narrow railings which surround the four sided park but everywhere there was evidence of the work to come . Fresh earth at a height of six to nine inches had been distributed evenly to form continuous new planting banks close the railings on all sides. The lake had been divided into two areas with one partially drained. At first I believed that this had led to a reduction in the number of swans which had numbered around 70-80 as the majority were congregated around someone feeding them so it was easier than usual to make a count of only fifty but then others were found in unexpected places nearby which suggested the overall number remained the same. The train had been in operation the previous afternoon but the station is one of two buildings possibly undergoing major change, the second is the building providing snacks, drinks and ice creams eaten at a small number of tables in the open air. Several other areas of the of the higher levels were fenced off with a pile of large rocks in one placer and a mound of earth in another. The most intriguing question is what is to happen to the four female statues intended for the front of the Town Hall but placed in the park when they were considered unsuitable. They had disappeared and everywhere there was fencing. .
There is an end of terrace property facing the River entrance which was previously similar in size to my home and which has been gutted retaining only some walls and which now has a new roof and extension and a signboard announcing the provision of three seaward facing flats and two maisonettes, five dwellings in total which I expect will sell for around £1000000 each. Elsewhere on the walk there was a similar extensive renovation underway, and this interested so that as I walked back down into the town centre I looked at the range of properties available noting that for £245000 you can buy an eight bedroom guest house facing the park and with presumably seaside views above the trees.
I then passed first test of the day by deciding not to buy a cut loaf of bread which would be used for cheese on toast snacks or mornings toast. For lunch on return one roll with a salad and in the evening the rest of the chicken from yesterday, some gravy and one portion of mixed vegetables, banana for lunch, grapes in the evening, no alcohol or fizzy drink but and some tea, no coffee, A small helping, porridge for breakfast and some cereal at bedtime.

I achieved the 7000th volume of main work during the day 168000 cards with the aim of reaching 200000 before the end of the year, a journey which is taking longer and longer as the number of diversions increased

The first diversion occurred in the early afternoon, a British wartime morale boosting propaganda film made in 1941 Freedom Radio which used the possibility of an influential doctor of the Third Reich risking and gives his life to make radio broadcasts to his fellow countrymen and women, denouncing the Nazi regime and the involvement of Germany in war, after witnessing the brutal murder of a clergyman for expressing devotion and commitment to his faith and supporting other clergy who had been removed by force from their positions and disappeared. The couple perish but the film ends with a second transmitter promising to continue the broadcasts. All the characters spoke with the BBC English accents of the day which gives the film its surreal quality, and the story was intercut with live footage of rallies which combined reminded that while the majority can quickly be swung behind accepting whatever changes in behaviour and attitude a government chooses, there are those, albeit a minority who are always prepared to challenge, bear witness to the truth and if necessary perish in their protest.

I had no previous knowledge that Gospa was a word for the Madonna, or knowledge of the apparitions believed to have taken place on a daily basis for decades at the town of Medjugorje Bosnia, Herzegovina from 1981 during the Communist regime domination, and during which 601 Catholic priests were murdered and others tortured and imprisoned. It is fact in that year six young people ranging from ten to sixteen claimed that the Madonna had appeared to them and gave them messages of peace, love and prayer. Four of the six have continued to experience visitations, originally on a hill near the town and then within the church. The formal hierarchical structure of the Catholic church has never recognised the authenticity of the original or subsequent events, and my understanding is that priests have been told not to organise or participate in formal pilgrimages though some 20 million individuals are said to have visited, and there are internet references to individuals beings recommended to visit by priests. It is understood that this is because commissions appointed by the church have not been satisfied that a supernatural event has occurred yet the available information suggests that Catholics and those with physical and mental problems have visited in numbers similar to Lourdes in France and Fatima in Portugal. There was a problem at first because the arrival of so many outsiders in an established communist country, restraining, as in Iraq, murderous ethnic divisions, was a problem for the Catholic Church as it was for the Communists. For both authorities to accept defiance on any scale was to risk the breakdown of all authority as we have all now witnessed in Yugoslavia and then in Iraq. The cure appears worse than the disease.

The Catholic Church has faced a problem accepting new miracles in terms of physical manifestations because of new knowledge of the age of the earth, the known extent and age of universe and the capacity of the mind to create physical events of extraordinary complexity and at this moment I can connect to radio and television from around this planet, or to live cameras, or communicate to anyone for less than £1 a day. By any standards this is miraculous and supernatural. It is also miraculous and supernatural that an idea, a belief, can unite people of different languages, races, ages, and lifestyles to the extent it cures and changes individuals for the rest of their self aware physical experience. If this is not a miraculous, if this is not supernatural, then sadly you do not yet understand the nature of human kind. I tread one report where the previous Pope, from Poland, is that said to have given his blessing to the priest who protected the then young people from the communist authorities who wanted him to declare them mentally disturbed so they could be taken into official care and helped. A similar approach was adopted towards a young woman in Freedom Radio who dared to complain about being raped by an officer who had come to arrest her grandmother after she had been reported for listening to music of a foreign radio station by the landlady she had offended by refusing to buy her off with additional rations. This was an all too common occurrence in Fascist, Communist, Africa, Asian and South American Dictatorship where the lower functionaries improve their personal positions and those of their families by becoming exempt from the general law and where their services, and their protection has to be bought. In fact this exists in some form in every society, but the scale varies as do mechanisms to uncover, eliminate and change.

There has also been controversy on the part played by the senior priest of the parish, a Franciscan, Fr Jozo Zovko, who was tortured and brought before a show trial, sentenced to death and then commuted to a year and a half in prison, for refusing to effectively condemn the young people and bring the public and media interest to an end. He became the Guardian of a Franciscan monastery while his defence counsel, the Chief Justice.

I have no idea if Martin Sheen who plays the priest, and Michael York, the defence Counsel, or those making the film had direct contact with Fr Zovko and if he authorised the version of events and the nature of he man revealed in the film. No punches are pulled. In the film the priest is having difficulties with his faith and the ability to attract and maintain parishioners, so he is renewed when his church fills and over flows and hundreds, thousands and tens of thousands make their way to the hill and then to the church to be with the young people as they see and hear messages. When the authorities try to prevent access to the church he and his fellow priests, monks and nuns defy and in the elation of the situation he renders a sermon of defiance against the Communist order. He is not only accused by the Communist authorities but by the Church authorities of being carried away and being more interested in his own position than with the long term welfare of the young people, his parishioners and the role and position of his church. The portrait is of a weak, worldly man, full of self doubts and uncertainties who finds that he the faith and the courage to meet and survive the severest of challenges.

It was of interest to me that I saw both films on the day the Archbishop of Canterbury faced his peers after daring to suggest that the civil law of the nation should take account of the beliefs of all the religions of its people as well as of those with no particular or any religious beliefs. My understanding is that he wanted to communicate that by understand an accommodating our different beliefs and styles we were more likely to achieve integration and harmony and thus prevent one group attempting to dominate all the others, Just a minute was not this the core message of Christ, Moses, Mohamed, and of the Protestants who left Europe to create the USA? Oh what shocking and dangerous thinking. The behaviour of some of his peers underlines that within religions there are fascists of the right and left, bigots and hypocrites as there are in any other collection of human beings. We should pity them.

Film Awards: and A walk through town and a foorball match

“I have gone through my day in this way before coming to the subject which connects with others of the past ten days, the nature of being and the rules with live by or do not. I am in a dilemma over the what was recently said by the Archbishop of Canterbury before an audience of senior lawyers a week before the opening of the General synod or council of the Church of England and Protestant Anglicans around the world. My understanding is that he was suggesting that there ought to be debate about the extent to which the core principles of different faiths should be taken into account when forming the civil law of the country.

The emphasis is on civil law although the rational implication is that it should be taken into account in criminal law and from that it is only a short step to saying account and precedence should be given to these fundamentals in all aspects of political and social life. It is a sound argument to say that if a religion is valid as a system of rules and beliefs to live human life then it should govern every aspect of ones life and that if those of different religions can agree on common matters then these should become the governing basis for the society, especially if it is the majority view expressed through their representative democracy, or hybrid system such as the British which while giving token supremacy to the elected House of Commons continues to give considerable weight to House of unelected and appointed Lords, the advice of the Monarch and her Privy Council in the context of also accepting the supremacy of the rule of law as interpreted by the judiciary.

I have no problem with this and would prefer to live in such an environment as one wholly secular, especially if the alternative is a fascist dictatorship of the right or left, or one driven by secret bodies or uncontrolled capitalism.

My objection is about any ology or religion which seeks to impose one set of beliefs and one way of living on everyone else and where religions have tended to do this if they have the power as much as any right or left dictatorship or simple I am in charge dictatorship obey me or perish along with your family, friends and any supporters.

I am only comfortable if there is recognition of human and natural rights based on knowledge, understanding tolerance and respect for individuality. All life has value and should protected and valued as far as possible. What will appear contradictory to many is that I also accept that governments must govern with the function to collectively further the interests of everyone for whom they have responsibility Given our knowledge of human behaviour we all need to be realistic about the implications of this, as Government will concentrate on international solutions before national and national solutions and then before regional and local and neighbourhood.

However fromt he individual viewpoint ones interest comes first and usually those of aprtenrs, children and parents take precedence over that, then perhaps local community including local chirch and social groups with which one is associated and only the local and national interests and then the international.

The reality is that democratic government has to be representative government as we cannot afford to spend all out time in debate and trying to reach not just a consensus but agreement with everyone else. The majority are often wrong with horrendous consequences but if you set yourself up against the majority you must also accept the consequences. And thus I am on the side of the Archbishop, and the head of Catholic Church who has come out in support and against the ultra conservatives of the kind that wish the world was still flat and the inquisition was still in control.”

I wrote this at the end of my daily remembering but it seemed more important than the rest so I have switched the piece to the beginning.”

Sunday February 10th 2008 did not become the spring day forecast until mid morning but the sun was shinning when I was ready for a walk after lunch, and set off through North Marine Park where the crocuses and daffodils are beginning to peak out through the grass on large bank from the roadway, and where along Ocean Road there are several large beds of planted spring flowers to delight the eye and boost the spirit.

On my way home to call in at Asda I walked along Ocean Road and was struck by the popularity of the award wining fish ansd chip restaurant with prices to match, over £10 for large a cod or place. There was also queue of a dozen at its take away next door and similar queues at two other establishments along the same street although it was approaching 3pm in the afternoon. Most, if not all the other restaurants were not open. My visit to Asda was only for fruit and unlike other visits, usually later in weekday afternoons or early evenings trhere were mini queues at all check outs with everyone having substantial quantities of purchases. There was also a queue of five others at the hand basket till. The hill home proved a challenge and indicating the stone that has been put on since achieving the maximum reduction a year ago, including the half stone since the death of my mother. The problem, apart from the absence of regular walking activity is that with having such long days I have needed to eat more over all, coupled with eating energy yielding food when tired. I must begin to do less work, more exercise which does not become counter productive and of course eat less. I need to achieve the break through step. I have struggled and continue to struggle to do so since before Christmas. Good intention is not sufficient.

On the journey along Ocean Road I was struck by the frequency of changes among the restaurants and places of entertainment which are coming together in one area opposite the two storey Asda complex. At the commencement of the pedestrian area there is one of those bars in a building where all the windows have been sealed in order to dampen the noise and hide the activity within There. There is another proclaiming that it opens on Fridays and Saturday at the corner of the road leading to the John Wright centre and the Jane Fry Centres, to ensure that it distinguished from the closed boarded up establishments in other parts of the town. Next to the one opposite Asda trhere is an older three storey building which appears to have been gutted internally over time and then repaired and where the ground floor at least is being prepared for another entertainment facility called Palma, or something similar indicating a Mediterranean setting matching the recently opened Ocean Bar with the older Glitter Ball night spot of sixties, seventies and eighties music above. A couple of doorways further the restaurant which always seemed popular during the day with tables for smokers on the pavement has closed its doors. On my walk around Sunderland on Saturday, before the match, I also noticed similar changes with the closure of two pubs in the High Street a popular small day time restaurant with a traditional arrangement of tables with four chairs, up for sale although nearby several day time bars and pubs, especially those showing live sports or identified with Sunderland football club with posters, banners and pictures, including the Porterfield and Deano's were packed with people standing in the street outside drinking. I went to what appeared to be a converted bank, or former traditional stone covered office building which has been converted into a large bar and restaurant full of large TVs and projection screens and where half a pint of Fosters cost me only 75p and I would have got an additional concession with a student card. That lunchtime the place was full of Mackems Aston Villa supporters thrilled as the team scored goal after goal against Newcastle the other team I support Newcastle.' This is not a country for those with no or many allegiances. It is a country for old men.

Afterwards I walked back through town across the Wear river bridge to where the majority of spectators were on the concourse drinking and watching the closing minutes of Aston Villa's triumph and the subsequent realisation of Newcastle supporters, as they commented on the game in a regional after match review that the club had now joined the potential relegation clubs and where the recent form suggested they were quickly becoming the more likely candidates for the big fall just as Sunderland the Boro are edging there way into the top half of the relegation group. Everyone sitting around me agreed that Widnes were the superior al-round tea and should have scored at least four to six goals and taken the three points leaving us worried, but hopeful that Deano would recreate the winning streak of last year. Fortunately for us a mixture of poor finishing, a couple of brilliant saves and a lot of luck as balls screeched and whizzed inches away or hit woodwork and came back, enabled Sunderland to take the lead with an unmarked bullet header towards the end of the first half although it was some 34 minutes before anyone in the Sunderland team had a shot at goal. After the interval Widnes came out determined and played us off the park and we just did not believe the number of chances or that it would be our day, until one of the new men, bought from Charlton of the lower division came on as a substitute and made a breathtaking diagonal cross field pass to someone who teed up the ball and hit an unstoppable rocket over twenty yards on the underside of the cross bar and into the back of the net. The fourth home win in succession has provided a fighting chance of another year of the same unless proven premiership and world class players can be attracted to play for the city.

The morning had commenced leisurely and for a moment I thought the mist would clear early to enable a before lunch walk, but it quickly returned so I did some writing, watched political programmes and then decided on lunch and watching the first half of the Manchester derby uniting the city in memory of the event some fifty years ago of the Munich air disaster when the backbone of the Manchester team lost their lives and others were miraculously rescued and survived including the great Bobby Charlton who was in the stands and under much camera surveillance during the game in which Manchester city ended winners 2.1 for the first time in some three decades and of doing the double over their closest rivals. There is a different feel among the crowds of the two Manchester teams with the City being closer to Sunderland and Newcastle becoming closer to Man U, although it is questionable if Manchester United would be able to command the same degree of loyal support with a similar record of failure and poor performances before their home general and hospitality driven supporters.

On Saturday evening I watched the semi final of the tribute artist contest in which my forecast of the better performances was matched by that of the commentators and voting public. It is good to be with the majority and not always finding that one is swimming against the tide. I was delighted that the Frank Sinatra van driver has come of age, improving his performances each week, although I expect the winner to be Dusty Springfield. In the evening it was turn of the ice dancing although I enjoyed some of the 30th anniversary of the Antiques Roadshow where one man revealed his collection of Beatrice Potter original drawings and colourings, some 23, estimated to have a value of a quarter of a million pounds compared to detailed original framed drawings of the walker and writer Wainwright which had been bought for £35 and were said to be were a couple of hundreds or so. There was also a perfect pot with a value of £10000 and a 1960 contemporary art work bought for £3000, originally purchased by a company as a commission for a few hundred and now estimated to have a value of over £40000. The most intriguing lot was a collection of native American Indian memorabilia, one object of priceless historical value and which had been passed to a friend to meet the costs of looking after a horse after the death of its owner. I also enjoyed Lark Rise to Candleford with a moving story of how a major disappointment in a love relationship embittered and changed someone until he found loving care in his hour of need in the most unlikeliest of circumstances.

The decision was then taken to concentrate on the British Film Academy Awards which this year were held at the Royal Opera House boasting the longest red carpet said to exist in Europe and where in addition to extensive coverage of the arriving stars on both the Sky and BBC news channels but also this year by the full works USA entertainment channel, involving Ryan Seacrest of American Idol, two other interviewers and commentators in a long standing relationship, a fashion expert and fourteen cameras with the programme going to some 100 counties and several hundred million viewers. The Baftas bigtime has arrive because of the cancellation of one major award ceremony in the USA and fear that the Screen Writers strike would also result in the abandonment of the Oscars. Certainly there was better turn out of successful nominees than previously. What next well there is the Royal Albert Hall, but the new Wembley will be a bridge too far.

There were two moments of potential disaster when the fashion guru slammed he outfit of Tilda Swinton whose performance in Michael Clayton won her the best supporting female actor award. And who was hen interviewed by the long standing together couple and where previously they had ask everyone who had made their outfit and then said great, how wonderful you look etc. Tilda was given a distinctively oriental look with white powdered face, no doubt in homage to the developing interest in the far East for Hollywood although the costume was more Geisha than Forbidden City.

The whole business of the Red Carpet is an odd event on which fans scream as they catch sight of the celebrities of the moment, and ignore some of the greats of other years from lack of immediate recognition. There are banks of cameras and photojournalists, people with lists of who to look out for and who will be available for interview and the stars some who are genuinely amazed to be considered with the rest of their peers, some gracious and willing to try and give spontaneous and enthusiastic answers to the same question and then there was Kevin Spacey and Jeff Blum) spelling ? With the former barely containing his boredom and he latter his bemusement, as they plugged the coming Old Vic play where Spacey is the Artistic Director and prepared for a joint presentation for the award of Best film which surprising went to Atonement where the Dunkirk scene was filmed on Redcar beach. However the main reason for sticking with the programme was to see if Marion Cotillard( spelling ? a again) the in early twenties pretty actress would win the Best female actor award for her brilliant and truly extraordinary performance of Edith Piaf as she went from 19 to 47 and into physical and emotional declined. Everyone else other than the actress was rooting for her including Ms Knightly also nominated for the same award, and her gesture increased my estimation of her several fold as a consequence and there was the elegant and cultured Daniel Day Lewis playing another black character role and finally a fellowship award to another actor who is capable of transforming their facial and physical appearance, Sir Anthony Hopkins.

In order to watch the Baftas I was willing to sacrifice for one night the second episode of the penultimate series of Lost until discovering that there was a multi play with quarterly hour starts from ( and until11pm. I set the programme for the 11pm start with one minute to spare and then watch the last ten minutes of the Baftas on a separate television. The decision to watch the rest of the episodes was a good one as so much was revealed which tied in and up issues raised in the end of last series episodes and some of what has puzzled before. A part of four individuals arrive by helicopter on the island, three using parachutes, after the call signal had been received on the freighter from the advance drop of the young woman, killed by Locke under the influence of the island force, supported by Ben who argues that the visitors have not come as rescuers and will destroy everyone living on the island. Through the usual process of flashbacks we learn that the identity of the discovered plane at the bottom of the ocean with no survivors is not the same plane in a different dimension but that someone or organisation has gone to the trouble and expense to create a fake including skeletal decaying bodies. The identity of the pilot is challenged by the man who was due to fly it but had to drop out presumably because he was judged incapable because of an alcohol problem ansd we learn that he is pilot of the helicopters. There is a women archaeologist whop with learn has been investigating the discovery of the skeleton of a polar bear in the desert and an emblem of the same organisation who were researching on the island The advance drop was of a girl who appears top have been a proven action woman and appointed leader of the group and her brother who has a machine with appears to be able to communicate with the souls of the dead, especially those who are troubled. And the background of the other individual in the party was not disclosed or I cannot remember but who admits that they have not come as a rescue mission but to find Ben and to disable the transmission device(s).. Locke reveals how Ben's bullet passed through his and where his donated kidney would have been and that his interest in learning the nature of he monster he experience in the first series.