My friend Min sent me an email about this blog saying "it was very you dear! the bird stuff was a complete mystery, all over my head!!"
So I won't go on about birds except to say that I had Lesser Redpoll at Rye Meads today and a lovely little Goldcrest who caught the sun perfectly - delightful little chap.
I'm not a big movie goer or for that matter TV watcher. That said.......
Some authors hold a great fascination for the cinema/tv business. One of those is Agatha Christie. ITV have dramatised the Poirot stories very well so I suppose high standards are to be expected by the latest adaptation of Miss Marple. I hadn't been moved to watch earlier episodes, howevert over Christmas I watched the repeats of the series broadcast by the BBC with Joan Hickson as Jane Marple so as ITV were doing The Moving Finger the other week I set the DVD and watched it the next night.
Oh dear, oh dear. What are they on about? The characters are the same but Miss Marple this isn't, all high camp with comedian guest stars. What a waste. Christie is good solid entertainment when done well. Actually Christie may be the perfect novelist for TV as characterisation is not her thing.
Sherlock Holmes is another favourite. Normally though they make Watson out to be a complete idiot (Nigel Bruce j'accuse!!) but at least the ITV adaptation starring Jeremy Brett had Watson superbly cast as a middle class everyman. A solid sensible and reasonably intelligent chap but no genius. That said I always thought Brett overacted. The BBC adapted all the Holmes canon for the Radio, they are not perfect but are reasonably done.
The Movies I was really keen to see was Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings. My own view was it would be a great disappointment. How would they do it? Well bloody well really. I have major gripes for intansce they cut out to much from the Shire/Bree which showed how the War of the Ring affected normal people and the relationship between Legolas and Gimli is not really developed. Oh and Faramir and Eowyn get dropped rather to quickly (I really will have to get it on extended DVD ). What else? Saruman is much more a servant of Sauron in the film than he is in the book, in which he is after the main chance.
But ok that aside it's really well done. There was a review in Interzone I think (could have been The Third Alternative) where the reviewer said that if you took the view that LoTR is just a novelisation of the events portrayed in a few pages of The Silmarillion then we have 3 versions. Tolkien's, Jackson's and my own favourite the BBC Radio 4 adaptation. The later is really well done but I guess Jackson had to cut and edit more to fit it all in . If Jackson just fails to do his full justice he comes close enough to succeed beyond most Tolkien fans wildest hope.
I rarely regret having Sky but I would like to watch the new version of Battlestar Galactica. The original was tosh if fun. The new one is critically well received and maybe a challenger for Babylon 5's crown for best SF TV series. Star Trek is ok whereas Babylon 5 was engrossing having a real narrative drive.
On a total change of pace I'd also like to watch the new Pride & prejudice, I once described Austen as 19th century Mills & Boon - sorry Min blame being 14 and made to read Emma - but after watching Sense & Sensibility I went to to watch P&P with Jennifer Ehle and some bloke ;) and enjoyed the adaptation of Persuasion so I'm intrigued to see how it compares. Austen is someone I have no real desire to read but works well on the screen.
3 comments:
Have you been watching Battlestar Galactica? I keep forgetting it's on, which is a shame, as it's rather good.
don't have satellite, every says it well done. may buy dvd eventually.
It's on Sky Three, which is a Freeview channel now. That's why I keep forgetting it, as it's tucked away on the 'lesser' pages of the Radio Times. I'll just have to take a deep breath and hope they start again from the beginning, which I missed anyway.
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