Look - you're busy, I'm busy. No really I am - work, family, eating digestives, lying down with a flannel on my head - you know how it is. So I thought I would just do some mini-reviews of stuff. Melvyn Bragg isn't going to feel threatened but he doesn't have to deal with a Jack Russell with anxiety issues.
Usual disclaimer - this is just my opinion and it may well be wrong - badly wrong.
Deep Breath...
Telly
Granchester (Episode 1)
Too much snogging - not enough killing. Well by that I mean that the mystery (flippin pathetic mystery in the first week) was a very poor second to vicars and policemen pressing women up against doors. In my day ALL vicars thought Rock and Roll was of the Devil. That boy with the cheekbones needs to get on with his work.
Car Share
Haven't seen last episode - was at a new small group (I left the house in the evening people!) but there was an episode in this series with a monkey that was very funny. Peter Kay has tapped into something - normal life, things we all recognise. He is a comic genius. He is just funny - that is all.
Our Friend Victoria
A Victoria Wood retrospective - by her friends. Hilarious and heartbreaking. She was only 62. Her words have been the backing to much of my adult life. As a family we quote her endlessly without even thinking about it. For example, we never go to Manchester anymore - we only go to Manchesterford. And the phrase "Tony Blair!" (Dinnerladies) has become the go to phrase for the exasperated here.
The Durrells
Absolute poppycock. Absolutely love it.
Books
Marjory Allingham - Police at the Funeral
She may be my new obsession. Golden Age crime drama. An interesting hero in Campion and really readable unlike...
Death at the President's Lodgings - Michael Innes
This must just be me. I was so bored. I think he is too intelligent for me. Sometimes I had no idea what he was talking about. There was one sequence where we get an interminable description of the layout of the university rooms. It's obviously a vital plot point but I completely lost track - there's a wall here, a shrub there, you have to climb over this to get to that. Take a tip from the Famous Five. Enid Blyton does a very good "How to get to the secret cave".
A Drink of Deadly Wine - Kate Charles
More C of E Vicars who need to pay more attention to their work rather than snogging each other. Sorry, tried hard. A bit florid for me. Didn't finish.
Chasing Slow - Erin Loechner
Beautiful looking book. Blogger's search for meaning - as usual meaning giving up work. A bit er..slow?
With you on Victoria..what a clever woman she was, and of course the delicious Durrells. As you say, mad as hatters, but totally watchable. Such clever casting.
ReplyDeleteI read Margery Allingham many years ago (as a gel, you know) and thought her books were so readable. That was before I fell in love with Peter Wimsey. Of course.
What is it about Peter Wimsey? We are all a bit in love with him
DeleteOh yes, give me an Oxford man who can piffle wittily rather than a vascillating Cambridge Parson anyday![actually I already have such a man...] oh Victoria,how we miss you - and your dear friend Kimberley, who looked good in a cubicle, and the ballad of Barry and Freda...The Durrells - poppycock, as you say, but delicious viewing. I have never watched Car Share [sorry] so cannot comment. I am a Southerner. But daughter#2 lives in Manchester now - does that get me any Brownie points? Campion not quite in the Wimsey Class, but pretty good nonetheless, you have to respect a guy who employs a factotum called Magersfontein Lugg. Where do you stand on Inspector Alleyn, Brer Fox and Agatha Troy? [can we trust an author whose first name is Ngaio ?]
DeleteOooh. Have never read Inspector Alleyn. Am looking up. Your daughter lives in one of the great cities in the world - no really. SO much there!
DeleteYes and yes to your opinion of Granchester and Police at the Funeral. Love Campion asuch as Peter Wimsey. And also Deadly Wine. Have I been missing something with Car Share?
ReplyDeleteI think Peter Kay's biggest fans are always going to be Northerners. He can be a bit Marmite
Delete