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TV & Radio Reminders

I thought James departed from form somewhat when they wrote 50 Shades of Grey.
 
Spookdaddy said:
Funnily enough, I was literally just thinking about this. No doubt the filmmakers will - yet again - make those gentlemen far more snooty and harrumphing than James ever did in the first instance. I mean, they are clearly of a certain social background, but generally far more even handed and affable than later adaptations allow. (Worth pointing out that, in the original, The Mezzotint's protagonist asks for the opinion of a college servant upon the matter of the picture in question - an action which later adaptations render unlikely, given their tendency to add exclusivity and aloofness to the main characters; I also seem to recall that the protagonist in the not so long ago adaptation of Number 13 was a stuffy and rude arse with little resemblance to the rather garrulous original.)

And if it's any consolation, when they are in fact present, James' women - whether servants or served - are almost always right, and more than capable of holding their own in the face of contradiction. As also, in fact, are virtually all his working class characters of either sex.

I've been listening to an awful lot of classic ghost stories recently - having discovered the excellent Bitesized Audio Classics on YouTube. Great fun - but one of the things I've learned from the experience is how good James really was compared to so many other genre writers of the late Victorian and Edwardian era, and also - surprising given much of the criticism levelled at him - how even handed, in comparison, he is as an author towards the less advantaged. And that includes female authors of (roughly) the period.

With the proviso that he needs to be seen within the context of era and genre, I think James is much more balanced in his approach to women than he is given credit for, even compared some well-known female writers of the genre, who could be much more snooty and condescending to members of their own sex than James ever was, and some of whom tended to lapse into the same clichés as their male counterparts: women being either gobby slatterns who were no better than they should be, or radiant innocents who would likely die of the bloody flux should they inadvertently glimpse their own private parts.

Unless they are clearly a bad lot – as in Karswell’s household - servants are never insulted, belittled, or mistrusted (or, in the latter case, when they are, the mistrust is shown to be misplaced, and acknowledged as such by the protagonist – it always ends up being about their fallibility, not anyone else's).

There are definitely some broad strokes used, and some comic value squeezed out of these characters (usually based around language and the use thereof) – but never, it seems to me, at the cost of anyone’s dignity. And although not drawn in any depth – these are short stories after all – there is often enough to suggest that the individuals involved have as much of an inner life as the dusty academics they cross paths with. They might be clichés – to a certain extent all the characters are – but none of them seem to me to be of the worst or laziest types. To my mind James had a Dickensian sympathy with them – he didn’t put them on a pedestal, but they definitely get a better billing than, for instance, Conan Doyle who – if he was anything like his main characters – was a crashing snob when it came to anyone below a certain social standing. And Lovecraft – my God, a man who clearly and utterly despised the tired the poor and the huddled masses. And, while we’re at it, compare James’ protagonists to the arrogant know-all Carnacki (and, to a certain extent, Blackwood’s John Silence); the former are much more fallible and human - and indeed humane - their author, I firmly believe, much more self aware.
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I like the respected voice artist Peter Yearsley's readings of readings of James' stories. He does all the voices beautifully, including women and servants/yokels/tram staff and so on, and his normal voice and accent are used for the narration.

Posh people get boring on TV. The demons and ghouls can have them. :chuckle:
 
escargot said:
I like the respected voice artist Peter Yearsley's readings of readings of James' stories. He does all the voices beautifully, including women and servants/yokels/tram staff and so on, and his normal voice and accent are used for the narration.

Posh people get boring on TV. The demons and ghouls can have them. :chuckle:
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Nothing better than seeing some pompous academic coming out of their ivory tower and then getting the crap scared out of them :evillaugh:
 
I’ve just seen a potted review and the Netflix trailer for Aranyak, an lndian murder mystery with supernatural overtones: An unlikely partnership of two mismatched police officers, investigating a murder which might have been committed by a wereleopard…


maximus otter
 
If you have a 'Ustreme' membership you can watch a 'Jethro' special from tomorrow (Christmas Day) which is a compilation of all the various bits of work Jethro did with/for Jim Davidson and others.
 
maximus otter said:
I’ve just seen a potted review and the Netflix trailer for Aranyak, an lndian murder mystery with supernatural overtones: An unlikely partnership of two mismatched police officers, investigating a murder which might have been committed by a wereleopard…
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Should anyone think these are not a (supposed) thing - and that the wereleopard in this series represents some sort of Indianised werewolf - I would thoroughly recommend the absolutely fascinating, Tracking the Weretiger - Supernatural Man-Eaters of India, China and Southeast Asia, by Patrick Newman. (Although the title references tigers, leopards are also covered; in fact, in some cases, it might be inferred that leopards instil even more fear than the former - a feature also suggested in some of Jim Corbett's writing).
 
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On 'Talking Pictures' channel at 1915 GMT today (boxing day) they have "Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150 A.D." from 1966.
Particularly memorable for me in that it has the line "We've got to get to Watford!" which I'm sure nobody said, ever.
Considering it's 2150 A.D., the cars from 1960's England seemed to have lasted remarkably well.
A pretty good film with some fine acting though.
Bonus shonky SFX and wobbly spacecraft flying.
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Not Fortean, but may be of interest to any Vonnegut fans. I suspect there may be some here.

This was broadcast as last of a three-part series 'The Exploding Library' "A trio of comedians explode and unravel their most cherished cult books, paying homage to the tone and style of the original text, but blurring the lines between fact and fiction."

Daliso Chaponda explores Mother Night. As you can imagine gets quite self-referential and 'meta'. About two-thirds in he explains - to Kilgore Trout, of course - "I'm doing a show about Mother Night. You'll love it, it's really pretentious it's for BBC Radio 4". I think I agree with that.

It was broadcast a couple of weeks ago but I only gave it a listen this morning. On iplayer for (only) another two weeks:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001282m

oxo
 
GNC said:
I was tempted to give them a read because I've heard so much about them down the years, they are compelling, but my goodness I was glad to finish them. A lot of his nastiness can be put down to the physical pain he was in throughout his life, but it doesn't excuse it all. The last few years are a countdown to his inevitable suicide, it's that cheery. He was a talented man, but the book reminds you talent doesn't make you a nice guy. Although sometimes the entries are perfectly pleasant and generous. I suppose they call that mercurial.

There was a documentary about him on Channel 5 a couple of weeks ago, to keep it on topic.
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I find much to grin about in his pithy bitchiness.

Today in 1981.

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MorningAngel said:
If people have access to Sky Max The Amazing Mr Blunden is very good. Just up my street, a big old house and time travel now that is Christmas.

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This (the original version_ has long been my go-to 'Most Christmassiest Film Ever', but it's rarely shown nowadays. Glad to see it's been remade, although, not having Sky, the remake may well remain a mystery to me.
 
GNC said:
I was tempted to give them a read because I've heard so much about them down the years, they are compelling, but my goodness I was glad to finish them. A lot of his nastiness can be put down to the physical pain he was in throughout his life, but it doesn't excuse it all. The last few years are a countdown to his inevitable suicide, it's that cheery. He was a talented man, but the book reminds you talent doesn't make you a nice guy. Although sometimes the entries are perfectly pleasant and generous. I suppose they call that mercurial.

There was a documentary about him on Channel 5 a couple of weeks ago, to keep it on topic.
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Anyone's meticulously-kept and soul-baringly honest diaries would be a miserable read though. Especially if their sexuality was illegal and they also had a chronic painful medical condition that made expressing it even more difficult.

I felt grudgingly sorry for Williams, a satisfactorily complicated response. :cool:
 
escargot said:
Anyone's meticulously-kept and soul-baringly honest diaries would be a miserable read though. Especially if their sexuality was illegal and they also had a chronic painful medical condition that made expressing it even more difficult.

I felt grudgingly sorry for Williams, a satisfactorily complicated response. :cool:
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Yeah, it obviously wasn't much fun being him. I suppose he loved his mum (but not his dad).
 
Starting at 8pm (GMT) tonight on Talking Pictures TV, the original series of 'The Outer Limits' from S1E1.
First broadcast in 1963, episode 1 is "The Galaxy Being" about a TV engineer who inadvertently contacts aliens while experimenting on a 3D television.
 
Trevp666 said:
Starting at 8pm (GMT) tonight on Talking Pictures TV, the original series of 'The Outer Limits' from S1E1.
First broadcast in 1963, episode 1 is "The Galaxy Being" about a TV engineer who inadvertently contacts aliens while experimenting on a 3D television.
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Thanks for the heads-up! Series set to record! :bthumbup:
 
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Well I don't recall ever seeing that episode before and it didn't disappoint!
I was actually really rather surprised at the high production values. It was quite obviously filmed with high quality equipment as the pictures were 'pin sharp' (now, this was broadcast in 1963 remember), and the SFX were carried out with some care and expertise.
No shonky, wobbly, cardboard sets, or hastily glued together models hanging on visible wires with flames coming out of them which were clearly at the wrong scale (cough, cough, "Daleks – Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D" filmed 3 years later)
 
Trevp666 said:
Well I don't recall ever seeing that episode before and it didn't disappoint!
I was actually really rather surprised at the high production values. It was quite obviously filmed with high quality equipment as the pictures were 'pin sharp' (now, this was broadcast in 1963 remember), and the SFX were carried out with some care and expertise.
No shonky, wobbly, cardboard sets, or hastily glued together models hanging on visible wires with flames coming out of them which were clearly at the wrong scale (cough, cough, "Daleks – Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D" filmed 3 years later)
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I liked the effect they used with the alien - it was actually a bloke in a rubber suit but then they got a little creative and coated it in glycerine, then created a negative of the image and superimposed it onto the film.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0667834/trivia/?ref_=tt_trv_trv
 
If anyone UK based had Discovery + there is a series called 'Signs of a Psychopath.'

There are 3 series and I started watching it today. Each episode is about 25 minutes long.

It consists of the police interviews with the psychopath killers interspersed with observations from psychologists about their behaviour.

I personally am finding it quite compulsive viewing.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13530014/
 
Trevp666 said:
Starting at 8pm (GMT) tonight on Talking Pictures TV, the original series of 'The Outer Limits' from S1E1.
First broadcast in 1963, episode 1 is "The Galaxy Being" about a TV engineer who inadvertently contacts aliens while experimenting on a 3D television.
Click to expand...
S1E2 was on last night.
Another good story about an Oriental plot to takeover the US by replacing the President and other key figures with imposters that have been altered to look identical using a special serum that allows human flesh to moulded into a new shape.
"The Hundred Days of the Dragon"
I can recommend that you set a 'series link' if you haven't already.
And don't worry about it being old and in black and white - you soon forget that.
 
Trevp666 said:
S1E2 was on last night.
Another good story about an Oriental plot to takeover the US by replacing the President and other key figures with imposters that have been altered to look identical using a special serum that allows human flesh to moulded into a new shape.

And don't worry about it being old and in black and white - you soon forget that.
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The scene were the guy gets his putty face messed around with was seriously creepy.
It's the black and white photography that makes it for me, very atmospheric. Some of the episodes were photographed by Conrad Hall who went on to work on such movies as Cool Hand Luke, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Marathon Man and The Road to Perdition.
 
MorningAngel said:
If people have access to Sky Max The Amazing Mr Blunden is very good. Just up my street, a big old house and time travel now that is Christmas.

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Just got round to watching it yesterday evening. l don’t recall the older. Lionel Jeffries, version, but this one was entertaining despite the usual modern tics.

A high point for me was a cameo by a teenage heartthrob of mine: Madeline Smith as Geraldine:

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Today, aged 72

As l remember her fondly in the early Seventies:

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A Bond Girl and Hammer Horror stalwart, it’s great that she’s still working.

maximus otter
 
Apparently Madeline Smith has a podcast where she tells all sorts of revealing stories about her career. I haven't investigated it yet, but it's supposed to be... bracing.
 
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