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Post by crowblack on Dec 16, 2019 19:45:23 GMT
The X Men film Logan is on again tonight on Freeview Ch4 7 - Dafne Keen's debut, I think.
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Post by crowblack on Dec 16, 2019 12:10:42 GMT
Has anyone seen the viewing figures? Did they already film the next season? Filming is already underway for the next series, I think - with child actors growing I suppose they can't hang around - and mid-series UK ratings seem to have settled between 6 and 7 million including catch-up. In the USA it began with 700,000 viewers, according to Deadline, which is considered good for the HBO Monday slot, though Wikipedia gives it less.
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Post by crowblack on Dec 16, 2019 10:50:25 GMT
What do people think of this so far? I have to say it's not really working for me. I wasn't that keen on the books, other than the first, and by switching to and from from books 1 and 2 it has lost what I liked about Northern Lights. The unfairly criticised film managed to retain the first book's dynamism which has been lost here. I wonder what the demographics of the viewers are - can it hang on to those who don't already know and like the books?
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Post by crowblack on Dec 15, 2019 9:42:24 GMT
Our Friend in the North was phenomenal And Daniel Craig's breakthrough role - you'd think they'd repeat it on that score alone.
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Post by crowblack on Dec 14, 2019 19:26:21 GMT
The Deal about the relationship between Blair and Brown And a BBC drama The Project about early New Labour - it's so long since I've seen it I can't remember whether it was any good though.
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Post by crowblack on Dec 14, 2019 19:20:50 GMT
And Alan Bleasdale's GBH for this side of the Pennines, with its Derek Hatton character.
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Post by crowblack on Dec 14, 2019 16:01:56 GMT
Did anyone catch last week's 1960s Uncle Silas adaptation in the 'Mystery and Imagination' slot (9pm Sundays)? It was great fun, played sort-of-straight but with full-on Victorian melodrama scenery-chewing gusto. This week it's Ian Holm as Frankenstein and the creature.
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Post by crowblack on Dec 13, 2019 11:32:16 GMT
It’s an interesting thought, and on the flip side, I wonder what the impact on free movement had on west end sales? It’s no secret the west end relies on tourism. I don’t think people will stop visiting the UK, but I’d expect some form of impact. Very little, I think. The Middle classes moved around easily before we joined the EEC and will presumably continue to do so, and the UK will be a cheap destination. Many central London tourists are from beyond the EU anyway: a friend in Cornwall says Chinese tourism for the Poldark locations is massive (!) boosted by the exchange rate. As for theatremakers, though, that might be a different story. Might it affect the theatre landscape in other ways? Co-operating with the Evening Standard awards, when that paper has been so vocally Tory, or the feeling that, in focusing on American plays, or reworking 19thc Scandi dramas about the internal troubles of the upper middle classes, it has really taken its eye off the ball socially? As someone who travels to London from the North, London theatre does make me think, always, of Forster's phrase about golden islands.
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Post by crowblack on Dec 13, 2019 9:32:53 GMT
The Labour party will remain unelectable unless it moves back to the right. I disagree - the problem was in part the calibre of the leadership. To many voters I've spoken to up here they come across as perpetual Rik in the Young Ones, Student Grant in Viz characters, playing a theoretical, studenty form of politics rather than coming from an actual dirt under the fingernails background. They don't have the gravitas to make people believe they could steer Britain through the complex process of Nationalisation, for example, even though it's something many support. The anti-semitism row was a reminder of Corbyn's affiliations - Hamas, the IRA - which many (including myself) regard with horror, while Dawn Butler's tweets appearing to steamroller the manifsto's commitment to maintaining women's safe spaces meant many women felt electorally homeless. I know someone who was a student London Labour activist and huge Corbyn fan - appeared on platfoms with him - but when they expressed concern about the leadership's stance on the EU they found their Momentum 'friends' turned on them viciously. Early in the evening I heard a commentator say with incredulity that he'd heard Northern voters calling Corbyn a 'champagne socialist' but I know what they mean.
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Post by crowblack on Dec 12, 2019 17:32:19 GMT
Liverpool turn out also up We really, really hate Boris Johnson up here, after the comments he made about us when the hostage Ken Bigley was murdered.
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Post by crowblack on Dec 12, 2019 13:13:45 GMT
Hackney is a very safe labour seat and is full remainers, huge queue out the door of the polling station this morning, bigger than the EU referendum vote. Busy here where I live too, despite the weather (roads flooding already). Not sure how to read that though - it's a safe Labour seat, though at the council elections an Independent did well on local issues, and Brexit-wise it doesn't fit media stereotypes.
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Post by crowblack on Dec 11, 2019 20:07:35 GMT
I thought Adam Driver was superb (isn't he always?), but I guess I just don't have the "romcom" gene, and absolutely hated the film itself.
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Post by crowblack on Dec 10, 2019 17:59:58 GMT
I also find it interesting although it didn't amount to much by the end of it. I thought some parts were very clever but rather pointless. Half way through I started to loose interest as the whole thing seemed to be running out of steam and wasn't going anywhere really. The acting was excellent though. I've just felt the same watching her brother-in-law's 'Marriage Story' on Netflix!
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Post by crowblack on Dec 9, 2019 16:27:59 GMT
I've just returned a balcony ticket for press night if anyone's interested - I can't make it to London this week.
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Post by crowblack on Dec 8, 2019 10:52:25 GMT
as they should all be speaking French! But what would be the appropriate accent? Early 19thc French was probably very different to modern and with wide variations of accent and dialect within that (most of the characters, including the middle class students, are not from Paris). Reading biographies of 1790s French revolutionaries there are often comments by observers about their regional accents and I imagine a 'geographically authentic' English language version of 1830s Paris with many working class characters would have to use similarly strong British regional accents.
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Post by crowblack on Dec 5, 2019 18:35:17 GMT
I think another reason for the larger gap is to allow them to get under it to open the door / drag a body out if someone is trapped. I think partly for air circulation and mops and to check no-one's dead (our local supermarket has blue light to make it harder to shoot up in them), but possibly also to check people weren't up to stuff in the prosecution-for-cottaging era.
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Post by crowblack on Dec 4, 2019 13:02:28 GMT
First time at the Young Vic in a while, and in the upstairs 'cubicles only' toilet at a fairly quiet time (half an hour before the show, not the interval rush) there were two men (straight-looking) in there but no women, and they haven't made any structural alterations to the cubicles - they still have gaps above and below on the doors AND the sides between cubicles. A friend said "are we going to have to start going in in pairs?"
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Post by crowblack on Dec 3, 2019 16:17:24 GMT
In chronological order - The Producers at RX Manchester Sweat When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other Wolfie Shook
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Post by crowblack on Nov 28, 2019 10:23:54 GMT
On FILM you can’t! On the silver screen everything becomes more real and that’s why everyone is freaked out about the number of nipples, noses, fur coats on fur, ratio and so on. Well, I grew up watching singing bears and snakes in the Jungle Book and loads of people cite the fox in Robin Hood as an early crush so I really don't see this as a problem. Btw, I do think it's a shame they didn't go for the classic, Jungle Book/101 Dalmatians-era Disney animated approach but everything is CGI now and celebrity faces sell a film.
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Post by crowblack on Nov 25, 2019 18:00:41 GMT
Absolutely agree with viserys, Charles Dance was born to play older Philip! Mountbatten's probably the meatier role though. Btw, this is the first time I've watched The Crown and I don't think I've ever seen a show where the main characters spend so much time sitting down (it really did remind me of a really posh nursing home!).
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Post by crowblack on Nov 24, 2019 13:26:53 GMT
Here goes... I'm not really a fan of musical theatre, and as an outsider I don't really see what the problem is. Cats, the musical, is a peculiar, kitsch, 'Furry' sort of thing, and so is this. What exactly were people expecting?
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Post by crowblack on Nov 23, 2019 22:19:18 GMT
Re. the above comment ,the introductory film said ,in Thatcher's 1988 cabinet, something like 21 of 28 were public school educated - ok not all Old Etonians but enough to make the point. I'd imagine if they asked the same of theatremakers, on and off stage, in the present day the statistic would be similar, with private or those posh-postcode state schools like Holland Park.
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Post by crowblack on Nov 22, 2019 23:04:09 GMT
Also no Princess Anne kidnap? I bet they're kicking themselves now, given the media and social media reaction to Erin Doherty's performance.
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Post by crowblack on Nov 21, 2019 16:50:42 GMT
Labour manifesto promising to uphold women's sex-based rights, which is rather vague but being interpreted online as including the provision of safe spaces like single sex toilets, changing rooms and hospital wards.
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Post by crowblack on Nov 20, 2019 17:27:57 GMT
I can’t see why it wouldn’t be done on NT Live. It is likely to sell out, and on for a very short period of time. There are likely to be lots of people wanting to see this which would make an NT Live worthwhile. Yes, unless it's something that might get a US transfer which could muddy the waters.
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Post by crowblack on Nov 20, 2019 14:52:39 GMT
Interesting that it's announced now - I've just heard a piece on the radio about people increasingly going in for live 'experiences' (gigs, festivals, theatre) rather than spending money on material stuff, and they had someone on saying their kids had asked for gig tickets for concerts next year rather than physical gifts for Christmas. The Old Vic is kind of like a stadium gig, so maybe this will be the theatre equivalent of trying to get a Teletubby doll/Buzz Lightyear for your teenager at Xmas?
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Post by crowblack on Nov 17, 2019 18:30:50 GMT
^How's Josh O'Connor as Charles? He's very good, though I hope the role doesn't haunt him later in his career! I fast forwarded through to get to the Aberfan and Erin Doherty/Josh O'Connor episodes - of the ones I've seen, the James Graham-scripted episode 6 is the best so far, like a little play in itself.
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Post by crowblack on Nov 17, 2019 9:57:21 GMT
Conleth Hill in particular Invisible from where I was sitting! Really p-d off by that.
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Post by crowblack on Nov 16, 2019 22:18:14 GMT
I've just dug out my DVDs of the BBC/Andrew Davies Bleak House because it's that time of year, but noticed they're also on iPlayer for the next 24 days if anyone's interested.
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Post by crowblack on Nov 16, 2019 14:25:59 GMT
You are assuming a very narrow presentation of the character. Other than a few lines, there is scarcely any reference to the nature of any physical disability with the Richard in the text (and those that are are very clearly Tudor propaganda) - yes, the opening speech mentions being deformed but not the nature of it. You can play the character without any visually obvious 'deformities' at all and the play still works. The real 'deformity' in the character is how his brain is programmed. It is wrong to assume that you have to adopt a massive hump and a prosthetic nose or scamper around on crutches to be Richard III. The role isn't a "disabled" role - it is a great character role with charm, wit, intelligence and a very warped world view. As long as the actor can convey all of that, it matters not whether they have a disability or not. And, of course, not all disabilities are visible. His opening speech is very explicit about his visible disability, as are other characters throughout - elvish-mark'd abortive rooting hog etc.. Not all disabilities are visible - mine isn't - but his famously shows in his shadow and he is visibly different enough from others to make dogs bark etc... . In the 'prequel' Henry VI he's even more explicit, describing his arms, legs and back. We're talking about a play written in an era that still had Fisher King notions about the monarch's body, and in many cultures disability is still viewed with superstition (I remember a horrible experience with a visibly disabled friend and a London mini cab driver). He attributes his personality to the way society treats him and marginalises him.
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