It’s been a while since I’ve engaged with Westeros. Maybe it was the disappointing ending to Game of Thrones but I’ve skipped the spin off. This series, set a hundred years before the events of Game of Thrones, however is a lot of fun and when the inevitable action happens it is filmed very inventively so it seems different. More than anything it is more relatable than the lives of Kings and Princes and fronted by two likeable characters.
Words: Chris Arnsby
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Those quotation marks, deliberately placed around the title on posters, tell you a lot about the latest big screen version of Emily Bronte’s classic. Their presence is both somewhat pretentious and also a suggestion that aficionados of the story may find this film not quite what they expected. Not so much the Wuthering Heights as a Wuthering Heights. Even those of us who’ve never read the book are familiar with it’s beats and its mix of bleak landscape and unbridled passion that has inspired a number of versions, shameless copycats and even the famous pop song.
In his more recent work as both a writer and
director Mackenzie Crook has drawn vivid portraits set within rural
surroundings. His latest project relocates to the more urban locales of
Manchester with equal success. The story may be surrounded by semi detached
houses, alleyways and large shops but the focus of Crook’s lens and scripts
remains intricate and hopeful. He combines the rich character work and easy
conversation of Detectorists with the whimsical fantasy of Worzel
Gummidge to create something both unique yet strangely familiar.
Words: Chris Arnsby
Bruno
Brookes: “Good evening. Welcome to another fabbo Top of the Pops. The music
brilliant as ever. We’ve got New Kids On The Block a little later, Gloria
Estefan, The Simpsons, just to name a few. First of all we’re gonna start with
a new entry at number twenty one, the song G.L.A.D. and the singer Kim Appleby.
Yo!”
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The thing you can nearly always guarantee about Marvel tv
shows is that each will have its own distinct flavour and style. In many ways
these have been better than some of the films which haven’t always managed to
match the individuality of the small screen series. Based on a comic character
who first appeared in an Avengers story in 1964, Wonder Man is not,
despite the name, simply a copy of Wonder Woman nor does it seem to have
much in common with its protagonist’s print life at least not yet. Its almost a
pre origin story. While in the comics,
he had the superhero costume for this series Simon Wiliams has been reinvented
in a more down to earth scenario. The results though are considerably more
interesting than if he simply was another bright costumed aeronaut.
Words: Chris Arnsby
24/01/1991
Simon Mayo: “Hello. Good evening. Here we go again. Another Top of the Pops. We’ve got a slightly shorter than normal programme tonight so we’ve got some... slightly shorter than normal pop stars. We’ve got Rick Astley, we’ve got The Simpsons on, Queen at the end of the programme, and Robert Palmer as well. We start at number twenty six with Tongue ‘N’ Cheek and Forget Me Nots.”
I’d never seen Amadeus despite its Oscar heavy reputation and wasn’t sure what to expect. It’s definitely not an accurate historical drama as a lot of the story is either heightened, changed or invented yet it is still an intriguing film. Director Milos Forman and scriptwriter Peter Shaffer, adapting his own acclaimed play present Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart not as some stuffy relic but as a pop star of his day complete with bad behaviour, bold dress sense and a refusal to conform. Yet he’s also brilliant, rustling up an opera in a few days and delivering a prodigious amount of music in a short time.
