I have spent the last week feeling pretty dire and unable to move with the ache in my back. This always happens when I spend time with the family as I have bungalow legs and they live in a three storey house with a loft extension and the loft extension is where I sleep. Also we are always busy and we went into town and then out in the evening. So I have spent most of the last seven days propped up in my armchair with my feet up and a hot water bottle on my back. I tried to do my physio exercises but they were impossible so I just told myself to do nada.
So a lot of TV and, apart from University Challenge and Strictly, I find I hardly watch BBC at all. Most of my viewing is on other channels or Amazon Prime, which has tennis on this week, Sky which has had cricket, or Netflix. All of this I pay to watch and am happy to do so. I do not expect free programming and when Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells complains that he or she cannot watch the Test Matches because they have to pay, I think well why not? I do not have the sports package any more as all the tennis is now on Prime and all I watch is cricket. So I have a rolling monthly payment for cricket only as I have no desire to pay for motor racing, football etc.
Over on Channel 5 there is a new series of the PD James detective, Dalgliesh. As you well know by now, I am a huge admirer of this author's writing, her plotting, narrative the lot. The books have depth and character and though sometimes I feel like yelling at Adam oh do stop internalising and angsting (sorry if that is not a word) and Get on With it, he is one of my favourite detectives. I remember an acient series back in the seventies which was good and about ten years ago we had Martin Shaw, an actor of very limited ability in my humble, who spent most of the series wandering around with a furrowed brow and a pained expression.
So we have the latest and what do we have? Well, Bertie Carvel, who I do not know as an actor at all, looks the part and is very charismatic and charming. BUT and here we go again, he spends most of each episode wandering around with his hands in his pockets looking at things, furrowing his brow and gazing at the sky. I think we are meant to think he is Thinking Deep Thoughts and Pondering when in fact he just looks constipated. It is all rather tedious as the producers obviously want us to show he is an intellectual and has hidden depths but surely there must be a different way of getting this across? I would think his script for each episode must cover not more than a couple of pages as he spends most of his time Looking.
And natch the stories have been tweaked and, once again, all a bit tedious. Kate Miskin, his sargeant is a a well rounded character in the books, a mature woman who has worked hard to overcome her disadvantaged poor council house estate upbringing. In this series she is played by a mixedd race actress, very competently, but I feel is miscast. By making her mixed race this means that she can come up against a male DS who is an unreconstructed Male Chauvinist Pig who subjects her to a lot of racial offensive remarks. He is painted in such broad strokes they must have had to use a wasllpaper paste brush. Subtle he is not. Totally unneccessary but this then gives the producers a chance to virtue signal big time by having Dalgliesh tell this bloke that he will Not Tolerate Prejudice of any kind and do I make myself clear?
I know all my readers well so I am sure you will not misunderstand all of the above but it does get rather irritating after a while. If any of this added to the dramatisations then well and good but it does rather feel as if it has been shoehorned in. I think this is Dalgliesh Lite as the depth and compelling characterisation of her books has been mainly ignored and it is all surface. I am watching because it passes an hour or two but on the whole it is disappointing. However, on checking the reviews it seems I am in the minority...
OK well I am rambling as per. Also watching Shetland which IS the BBC and I love this series and throughly enjoying this, mainly because of Doug Henshall who I think is gawjust, not sure why but I also adore his accent. And the scenery makes me want to visit the Shetland Isles so much.
If you want mindless tosh may I recommend a film on Netflix, Red Notice, starting Ryan Reynolds and The Rock. A totally silly caper movie with loads of derring do and though there are fight scenes aplenty, they are done with humour and style and are totally unscary. One scene when our two heroes find themselves in the middle of a bullring (don't ask) with a bull about to charge
Hero 1 Stand still, don't move bulls have bad eyesight and cannot see us if we stay still
Hero 2 Are you sure about that?
Hweo1 Yes I saw a documentary by David Attenborough about it
Hero 2 I think you saw Richard Attenborough and that was Jurassic park
Hero 2 Yes that's right. Jeff Goldblum was there. RUN!!!!
Incredibly silly but huge fun.
And that has been my week. My back now feels much better but you know what? The ache and lousy week was worth it for the weekend with my family. I went to a service in the Chapel at St Johns where their simply superb choir sang the Faure Requiem. I freely admit that when they started singing, my throat closed up, my eyes pricked and tears fell. I spent most of the service just overcome with it all and by the time we reached In Paradisium and those soaring voices lifted up I had a hard job not to really howl into my hanky. And then afterwards walking through the colleges. Glorious.
Driving home the M11 was closed and I was sent off on a mad detour so my journey was twice as long as it would normally have been, but I was in such an uplifted state I did not really mind. So though I paid for it and have been popping painkillers all week that memory has kept me going.
Au Reservoir
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