This week is the annual River of Light festival with displays dotted around the River Mersey waterfront and here's some pictures and videos from the event...
A blog about new and old culture + photo posts and more. Also visit my alt blog : thiswayupzinealt.blogspot.com / Website: www.johnconnorswriter.com / Instagram: johnconnors100 / X (aka Twitter) @JohnConnors100
31/10/2023
25/10/2023
War and Peace (1972) Parts 8 to 11
Episode Eight- A Beautiful Tale
It is not just battles that this series
stages impeccably. This episode’s centrepiece is a lavish ball which is the
most impressive example of such an event I have seen done in a tv drama series.
Usually with this sort of thing you get a handful of dancers shot close up to
avoid revealing the limited number of extras or space available. It is meant to
give the impression of there being many more participants but often you can
tell there aren’t. Here we have dozens
of dancers gliding about in a vast room and just to ensure we know it, we see
the shot from all angles. Sometimes the camera is ceiling height looking down
on the symmetry of it all, other times we’re deep in the dance following people
round. There’s no stinting on the soundtrack either with a large set of
musicians playing what are presumably authentic period pieces. As a way of
making you feel as if you are there it is superbly constructed. Yet the
finished scenes do not feel over organised or placed; instead there is still
the feel of people enjoying themselves despite the formal nature of the dances
and the bright lights. In fact not even some movies can marshall such an
impressive display.
24/10/2023
Top of the Pops 13 October 1988
Words: Chris
Arnsby.
Bruno Brookes:
“Good evening. Thursday night means Top of the Pops. Europe's number one TV pop
show.”
Gary Davies:
“We've got a knockout show for you. We start off with a great record. It's been
twenty one years since PP Arnold first appeared on Top of the Pops. This week
she's the highest climber together with the Beatmasters. At number sixteen,
this is Burn It Up.”
18/10/2023
War and Peace (1972) Parts 4 to 7
Episode Four- A Letter and Two Proposals
It’s
easy to imagine the narrative of part 4 re-worked for a sitcom as it deals with
two young people whose elders are attempting to push them into marriage which,
in different ways, neither is ready for. Yet in the end the choices they make
are unexpected. The intelligent Pierre is ultimately railroaded into an engagement
proposal he doesn’t even actually make; rather it’s Vasili Kuragin who
congratulates him and his own daughter Helene on it! He is less successful
though with his son Anatole whom he tries to interest Maria Bolkonskya in only
for the marriage to be rejected by her. While the episode starts with alot of material that seems like old fashioned frippery, it’s very cleverly constructed contrasting the two
situations and held together by Basil Henson’s wonderfully arch expressions.
16/10/2023
Top of the Pops 6 October 1988
Words: Chris
Arnsby. Simon Mayo:
“Hello. Welcome to Top of the Pops. Back in our proper time slot on Radio 1FM
and on BBC1. Featuring the return of Radio 1's new night time merchant.”
Richard
Skinner: “Yes indeed Simon. Including in today's programme we have Erasure, we
have Rick Astley [Simon Mayo plays with Richard Skinner's hair]... mmm, lovely
haircut, and this lot, The Pasadenas...”
Simon Mayo:
“Yes.”
Richard
Skinner: “...Riding on a Train.”
13/10/2023
My Latest Book...
Aintnoway.
I’ve somehow managed to write another novel. I know it is of limited interest
to most people who view this blog as its aimed at the so called young adult market
but other people might like it. And if you know any young adults who like to
read. Anyway its taken about a year which considering what sort of a year I’ve
had is really surprising. Then again while writing may tap into your own life
but it can also provide a refuge from the worst parts of it. It’s a book about
grief, loss, loneliness, giant swordfish, the Moon and a three hundred and
twenty year old Cardinal. This is
the cover created from my concept by the talented Glendon Haddix of Streetlight Graphics, an image which I hope the target audience would describe as “fire”.
11/10/2023
War and Peace (1972) Parts 1 to 3
Let's get epic...
Leo Tolstoy’s novel War and Peace has become shorthand for a story that is almost impossible to get through. It is the sort of enormous novel you start reading with intent multiple times but never finish. I’ve never even tried to read War and Peace so I decided to watch an ambitious attempt to bring the epic to life that was shown by the BBC across twenty episodes totalling fifteen hours weekly from late September 1972. It took several months because this is not some eight part Netflix sensation to be binged in one night that’s for sure!
Three
years in production including twelve month's location filming the serial includes battle sequences, a large cast, a zillion extras and a timespan to match the novel. Shot in what
was then Yugoslavia (using members of that country’s territorial army) and the
UK it is nowadays best known as featuring Anthony Hopkins in his breakthrough
role. The adaptation is by Jack Pulman and has a theme tune of the Russian
Imperial anthem yet everyone speaks English of course! The serial was
prestigious enough to even get its own Radio Times Special magazine (a rare
honour) clips of which are scattered amongst these posts.
It’s
a series like no other with a considerably larger budget than other historical dramas of the day- compared to say Elizabeth R’s tight direction which hides a
small number of extras, War and Peace literally has armies at its
disposal. The scope of the outdoor scenes and the battles is immense, as well
mounted as any feature film of the day. If some of the interiors can seem a tad
stagey there is a rich cast to draw on and some sparkling performances to enjoy
For
all its ambition the series wasn't an instant classic receiving a mixed critical reception at the
time. It’s been called too slow or even dull and criticised
for casting some actors who were too old for the characters they were
portraying. Poor Morag Hood came in for particular criticism as the then nearly
thirty year old had to initially appear as a thirteen year old. It is said the
battle sequences plod – though some have pointed out this is a more accurate
representation of the realities of warfare. At a time when a prestigious
production like this might be expected to pull in ten to twelve million viewers it drew
half of that and some episode fell below two million. It probably didn’t help
that the first episode is largely talky and frivolous and it may have been
advantageous for the events of part two to be shown first.
So
how does this epic, now more than fifty years old, pan out? Only one way to
find out..
Scans from the Radio Times Special publication which accompanied the serial.
08/10/2023
Film Review: Living (2022)
Bill
Nighy always gives a good performance and sometimes an exceptional one and this 2022 film directed by Oliver Hermanus is one of those occasions. He plays Mr Williams, a senior official
at the Public Works department at London County Council in 1953. Long widowed
with an adult son, he is deeply embedded in his job yet it is one he undertakes
without passion. Indeed, the entire department seems hidebound by procedure
shown in the example of a group of women trying to get permission and funding
for a children’s playground. In a sequence early on we see their application
being passed from Mr Williams’s department through several others before ending
back on his desk to be “kept here.” In other words, nothing will come of it.
The women are persistent enough to keep returning but is seems to make little
difference. I think we can all empathise with that sort of bureaucracy even
today!
06/10/2023
Top of the Pops 29 September 1988
Words: Chris
Arnsby.
Gary Davies:
“Hello. Good evening. A very good evening to you. Welcome to Top of the Pops.
Not only on BBC1 but also in stereo on Radio 1.”
Mark Goodier:
“And a special hello to you if you're in south Wales, or the south west, because
you've got Top of the Pops in stereo for the first time tonight on 98.7. That's
your frequency. Check it out”
Gary Davies:
“And what a show we've got for you. We start off with a new entry at number
thirty eight. I Don't Belive in Miracles. Here's Sinitta.”
04/10/2023
Film Review: The Creator
Artificial Intelligence is getting a bad rap of late both in fiction and also increasingly
alarmist studies suggesting that the stuff of fantasy movies and books in which
our machines rise up and replace us could become reality. Might that happen? I’ve no idea but it is certainly intriguing enough to make a film like The
Creator feel closer to home. It explores a possible way in which our interaction with something we've created can take unexpected paths yet is more optimistic than you might expect.
03/10/2023
Top of the Pops 15 & 22 September 1988
Double Bill!
words: Chris Arnsby
15/09/1988
Simon Mayo: “Hi
and welcome to Top of the Pops. Live on BBC1 and FM Radio 1 as well. A happy
show because we've got some brilliant bands but a sad one 'cause it's Peter
Powell's last show. Ahh.”
Peter Powell.
“So in that case we've got to make it the best show going! And it's with great
delight that on the Pops tonight, they've flown all the way back from Italy to
be on! Here's Bros!!”
And what of Mr
Powell himself? He's quitting just shy of his 12th anniversary of hosting “the
Pops!” His first show was on 03/11/1977 when Abba was at Number One with Name
of the Game. This is interesting (wait, come back) because his first stint on Radio
1 doesn't seem to have been until three weeks later, on Sunday 20/11/1977;
unless anyone can get more meaningful results from BBC Genome. He's off soon
from Radio 1FM as well, 25/09/1988 will be the date of his last show. To
be replaced by a Sunday breakfast show with Liz Kershaw and Mark Goodier.