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Another New Year

31/12/2011

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When my son was young I often read excerpts of A Christmas Carol to him in the lead up to the Yuletide celebrations.  The book has always been a great favourite of mine with its story of an embittered soul who is forced through supernatural intervention to look at the error of his miserly ways and find redemption. Dickens is the very best as far as I'm concerned, and to his detractors, I say, "Bah, humbug!"  I read it again this year (to myself this time) and found the story and the writing as ever a great joy.

Why has this ghost story continued to delight the generations that have arisen since its publication almost a hundred and seventy years ago?  Since then it has never been out of print, has undergone various stage/ film adaptations and continues in popularity.  I wonder also what it is about the Christmas period that causes us, almost naturally it seems, to reflect on our lives?  Perhaps it is simply that it comes at the end of another year and those of us over a certain age can't help gazing up at the clock; perhaps with a doleful look back at all those brave plans we held in our youth; or causes us to think of that relationship that soured and friendships that sadly waned through our lack of careful upkeep over the years.  It is the season above all others that seems to highlight the best and worst in all of us.  At its worst Christmas has become a commercialised nightmare of over-consumption, indulgence and excess; yet nobody can deny that there are many acts of kindness too at Christmas; a time when we can't help but focus (if only for a moment) on those less fortunate than ourselves, a time when we are more likely to be reconciled to those we harbour grudges towards, or feel may have hurt us in the past.

I think we need Christmas - it makes us aspirational in a good way - to reach out and try and be better people than we often are.
 
So, as another Christmas season comes to a close and we stand on the threshold of another year, I wish you all a healthy and fulfilling 2012.

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The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

14/12/2011

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PictureYee-ha!
I was delighted to pick up a copy of this movie at our local supermarket on a triple-bill DVD. Although I’d never seen it before, I’d owned an illustrated comic-book version of the story when I was a boy which I can recall reading over and over again. I hunted high and low for it after we’d moved house in the late sixties but I couldn’t find it. The film was made in 1962, directed by John Ford and starred John Wayne, James Stewart, Vera Miles and Lee Marvin. It is an
elegiac tale and questions the relationship between fact and legend in helping to create the myth of nationhood. As in so many great cowboy dramas the fight of the individual against corruption and wrong-doing is paramount. Wayne’s character, Tom Doniphon, sacrifices just about everything he cares about by doing what he knows to be right. He and the lawless old west are anachronisms that must fade to allow the new America, characterised by James Stewart, to thrive and grow.

Yet, when I watched this film, it kept reminding me of something. Exactly what though I just couldn’t grasp for ages.  Why did I keep thinking of the Samurai movies of Akira Kurosawa whenever I thought about this film? Then, eureka! Of course, Kurosawa had loved to watch
the cowboy films of John Ford when he was a lad. They had greatly informed his work. I’m no film buff myself, and I probably know more about Kurosawa’s films than John Ford’s.  But here I was watching a classic western directed by the acknowledged master of the genre that could so easily be transposed into a Japanese samurai tale, in the same way as The Magnificent Seven and A Fistful of Dollars had been adapted into westerns from
Seven Samurai and Yojimbo.

I daresay we all do it, reference stuff that has deeply influenced us in the things we do. It would only be natural for Kurosawa to emulate the shots and shooting style of his great
directing hero.

If you’ve never seen
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance I can highly recommend it.  

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Dr Who, Timelash and the Bandril Ambassador

2/12/2011

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PictureThe Bandril Ambassador Exposed
Back in the world of eighties Dr Who, I played a cowardly traitor called Tyheer, who early on in the episode betrayed the democracy loving rebels of the story. My character thoroughly gets his come-uppance though, and his pleas for mercy are satisfyingly ignored when he is thrown into the aforementioned Timelash (a kind of triangular box draped in what looked like left over Christmas decs) never to be seen nor heard of again! I shone in a kind of over-exposed sort of way for a few seconds before I was gone forever. It certainly worked for my four year old son who had to be reassured by my wife that his dad was only pretending and would be back before his bedtime.

The story was a two-parter and fortunately for me, I actually cropped up again in the next episode (or rather my voice did) as the Bandril Ambassador. I think the director, Pennant Roberts, a kind man thought he’d give a young actor and fellow Welshman a bit of extra work by offering me a voice over as well as an acting part. The Bandril was actually (in real life) a glove puppet.

And no, I most definitely didn’t operate the thing myself!

I did however plan to use my deepest most sonorous tones to portray this alien life-form. In fact, it had always been something of an ambition of mine to play a green warty monster on Dr Who. My RADA voice training came to the fore, this was my big chance to live the dream. Sadly not to be! Pennant Roberts had envisaged the Bandril Ambassador as possessing a high, flutey voice. The whole thing ended up sounding somewhere between Mickey Mouse and Margaret Thatcher. After this the BBC sound workshop turned it into something vaguely ethereal. Believe me, not my finest hour. However, I do recall providing the rest of the cast with much amusement whenever I was called upon to deliver the Bandril’s speeches in rehearsal. Not that laughs were lacking during our rehearsals. We all seemed to laugh a great deal and we had to be told off on more than one occasion for enjoying ourselves a bit too much.

About a month or so back I took part in a stage panel and signing at a Doctor Who Event organised by Fantom Films. I’d been invited several years ago to sign copies for fans when Timelash was first released on DVD at a specialist shop over in Barking but this was the first time I’d ever been to an actual Dr Who event. There can’t be another TV show that has grabbed the attention of so many generations of children. I remember feeling quite unnerved as a child when I watched the rather tetchy, almost sinister, William Hartnell. And I’ll never forget the shiver that ran through me when that rubber plunger first came into shot along with that inhuman, mechanised voice, to exclaim, “Exterminate!” A creature, more machine than living organism that could not be negotiated with and which possessed no higher nature to appeal to. Brilliant stuff! For me the Daleks rank alongside fictional childhood baddies like Auric Goldfinger and the terrifying Rosa Klebb.

Classic Dr Who fans are a polite and extremely friendly bunch of people. I must say, I did hesitate before agreeing to go along, but I’m really glad I did. I had a thoroughly enjoyable Sunday morning.

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