In our home television is something rarely watched. Not because we have anything against television, it's great, but we rarely find time during the week, and at the weekend we generally catch a film on DVD. My wife Judith and I definitely like reading best of all. However, as I've mentioned a number of times now in these columns, we are very partial to visits to our local cinema when they show plays transmitted/streamed 'Live' from the National Theatre on London's South Bank. The last one we watched was a few weeks back, and a truly exceptional example of ensemble theatre it was too. So much so, that it would seem unjust to mention any individual as outstanding, the entire cast was working very hard indeed and acting their collective socks off!
The play was This House, a brand new comedy by James Graham set in the Houses of Parliament. Believe me, I wouldn't have considered it likely to spend an evening surrounded by uproarious laughter, watching a play about the respective Whips' offices of the Government and its Opposition - but this was how it was! It's set in 1974, a time when a Labour government held on to power with the tiniest of majorities. It was a period of social upheaval, of ferocious rivalry in Parliament yet with little ground ever gained to show for it. Not much could be achieved politically because it was always necessary for the government to strike deals with the minor parties at Westminster - a kind of political doldrums existed! People were rushed in to the house to vote on Bills from their hospital or even 'death' beds. The wealth of North Sea Gas and Oil, that would shore-up and sustain the years of Margaret Thatcher's government, had not yet started flowing into government coffers. It would have been a difficult era to have been in power for a government of any persuasion. However, strangely, as I look back at that decade (I was nineteen in '74) there was a sense of equality and classlessness in British society that I have not recognised there since. I don't recall anyone in those times boasting about which prep school they went to, or even letting on they'd even been to one - cut-glass public school accents were most definitely toned down. The time of 'getting' was about to be born in the Eighties with a zealousness previously unknown in 20th century British life. Politicians are opportunistic by nature - leaf back through the pages of history and it is generally the timing of their ascendancy to power that enables them to acquire their reputed 'greatness', I think.
Unfortunately, the production of This House, after two highly successful runs at the National, has finally come to an end. However, you may be fortunate enough to catch an 'encore showing' at a cinema near you. I believe there are also showings at different and varying times right across the world. I highly recommend this production.
Unfortunately, the production of This House, after two highly successful runs at the National, has finally come to an end. However, you may be fortunate enough to catch an 'encore showing' at a cinema near you. I believe there are also showings at different and varying times right across the world. I highly recommend this production.
So, I hear you thinking, where do Laurel and Hardy come into things? Well, last Saturday we'd had a busy day and decided to sit down and watch a DVD. We chose something that promised to be entertaining and undemanding, but which turned out to be pretty crass and cliched. The apocalyptic ending was, despite an attempt at a bit of positive spin, rather depressing. Judith had made the choice (I'd suggested something tried and tested, 'When Harry met Sally' in fact). She looked at me at the film's end and said dolefully, "Mmm, feel a bit depressed now ... should have listened to you." It was then I remembered my Laurel and Hardy collection - a Christmas gift from a couple of years back. We're gradually working our way through them. The classic L & H short we watched was Laughing Gravy, filmed in 1931. It's not hard to imagine the joy this pair of buffoons brought to people during an era of hardship and global depression. We laugh at their stupidity, yet we love them for their innocence. Nobody but Stan and Ollie could manage to get themselves from a sleeping bedroom to a boarding-house roof and evicted within the lifespan of a short film. We watch with delight as they concoct one of their familiar hair-brained, doomed-to-fail plans, to rescue their little dog, the eponymous 'Laughing Gravy', from being cast out into the snow by a tyrannical landlord!
Neither of us recalled ever watching this one before and we were still chuckling about it at breakfast next morning.
Pure delight! Sheer genius!
Neither of us recalled ever watching this one before and we were still chuckling about it at breakfast next morning.
Pure delight! Sheer genius!
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