I begin with a film which I presume was made for Television called Saigon: Year of the Cat starring Judy Dench as a senior official in a bank in the capital who appears to have been there for years if not a decade or more and establishes a relationship with a USA embassy official over the last year before the abandonment of the capital to the north led communists. To date I can find no reference to the film on the Internet despite being written by David Hare and with Dame Dench. I am not surprised because it is an odd film, British colonial in style, perhaps intentional, in which the principle characters live in their own world, playing bridge at the club, insulated against the reality of the war and the life of the majority of the people. You feel that the character portrayed has been living a better life than she would have experienced at home and that she is experienced in serious physical relationships with men.
Her lover in this instance prepares a report on the situation in the south which indicates that the war is effectively lost and that every effort should be made to o take to safety all those who have assisted the USA. The Ambassador sits on the analysis because defeat and withdrawal is not an option and he believes that the provision of more funds will turn the tide and secure the south.
There is an excellent account of those last few days and hours as panic spread in the city. There is a shot of records of contacts being left in the embassy as the staff rush to exit taking basic personal possession with them. There is also a shot of someone who was promised to be picked up, still waiting but getting no answer.
The scene however was brilliantly exploited theatrically in the stage musical Miss Saigon which I saw in London three or even four times. I must check sometime. At one level Dame Judy does not appear have the figure and personality of someone to have passionate all absorbing sexual based affairs with men, married or single but I return to my experience where as a young social worker I was asked to deal with the children left behind with a severely disabled mother after the husband had run off with the wife in another family. The running away couple were a most unlikely pair in terms of their physical appearance and lifestyle. In terms of my own experience when I was a young man in work at sixteen there was a secretarial office worker ten to fifteen years older than myself who was known to be having a relationship with a much younger man working in the same office. Nine years later when I went into the staff restaurant at an East Anglian local authority where I was commencing a summer practical work placement of three months, I met the same individual who in today’s jargon, hit on me offering the use of her car on hearing that I was getting about the large county using public transport. I did not take up the offer, although with hindsight this was more because I did not fancy the woman rather than any morality question.
I was more engaged by the second episode of Mad Dogs, a Sky new drama contribution set in the extractive Spanish Island of Majorca which I have visited once and had a memorable time.
Four middle aged friends, two declared married with children, one a corporate lawyer and another a financial adviser, a third a lecturer in psychology, the fourth unemployed, accept the invitation for a short holiday with a fifth who has an isolated villa with grounds and swimming pool. Interestingly they accept the invitation without their partners or families. The five go off into the city centre for a night out clubbing during which one of the four, married, with children brings back and spends the night with a holiday maker. His behaviour angers one of the four our of proportion to the behaviour suggesting the man has significant problems in his own life. In fact all four emerge as having problems in their lives in the UK and being unsettled which goes some way to explaining their willingness to participate in such a gathering. The reason for the holiday is that the fifth (Ben Chapman) is giving up his Spanish Mainland property development business to live a life of pleasure on the Island. There is no reason given why he is on his own.
They go off on a fishing diving trip on a yacht which only after departing does it emerge has been borrowed, The Yacht is left in as isolated cove under the cliff and they use a dingy to go ashore and then hike back over the hills to the villa. They realise their host is up to something and using them and they demand explanation after the evening meal
A height challenged man enters wearing a large face head mask of a grinning Tony Blair and shoots Ben in the head splattering blood over those closest and all over the table when the man falls across.
The killer, who is wearing white gloves then uses the weapon to establish one of the four as the killer with his DNA and goes off in a siren sounding police vehicle. The four react to the situation in accord with the personalities revealed so far revealed, some saying they must go to the police after contacting the British embassy, some pointing out they will be implicated in the killing and the stealing of boat. They decide to bury the body in the grounds and remove all traces of the killing in time for the arrival of the cleaner housekeeper who they say is not needed for the day. Another police car arrives this time with a young attractive police woman seeking the whereabouts of the villa owner. They say he was suddenly called to the mainland. She is evidently suspicious but departs.
They then decide to remove traces of their presence from the yacht but while there another group arrive with £3 million Euros in exchange for the on board heroin. They are rebuked for no being at the agreed rendezvous and told to do better on the next run. Back at the villa a local dog disturbs the surface of the shallow grave so they decide to take the body to the Yacht. In the midst of this the police arrive again seeking to interview the four because of the owner of Yacht has been murdered.
The four men are interviewed separately providing inconsistent answers about their knowledge of the villa owner. One admits he had met with the owner when he visited the UK the previous month, a fact not revealed to the other three. Another, the financial adviser says he wants a lawyer present when asked if he has ever given financial advice to the Villa owner.
Earlier they had agreed a plan to hide the moeny in a hire car left at the airport. The female detective, or is she, spots the keys of car and asks where it is, it is said to have been left in town on the night out before the alleged party at the villa.
Although they deny knowledge of the boat the police detective returns for her glasses, and they allow her to enter a room unaccompanied and she has time to look at he video camera to see them joking about going out for the day on the boat trip.
As she arrives they pretend they cannot find the keys to open the gates during which time they try to hide the body in the freezer, finding they need to cut off the feet or the head to do so. A task for the next episode.
I kept an eye on Question time where there was brief reference to the developments in the Middle East in terms of the need to the UK to continue to sign up to Human rights and the European Court which was set up to act as beacon for those primarily in countries overtaken by Communist dictatorships at the end of the Second world war. The reason was the he decision that those added to the Sex Offenders Register in the UK should have the right to appeal against continuation on the register after completion of judicial punishments if they can show that they have changed their lives. The decision is the right to appeal not to be automatically removed from the register. As with some other serial crimes whose nastiness is such that the possibility of reform appears remote, I share the anxiety of many, I suspect with the majority that any reduction of monitoring and surveillance carries with it great risk. no principle can ever be absolute in the sense that some exceptions can never be justified. However in the balance between removing all risk and giving up basic freedoms I veer on the side of taking risks. I feel this about the threat of international and national terrorism. It was in my view an odd choice of first subject.
There has been a lot happening this week politically. The most significant decision was that the House of Lords pulled back from the brink to agreed to let the Alternative Vote Referendum be held on May 5th. While the Labour Party is split and the Conservatives overwhelmingly against, the championing by Nick Clegg means that the no vote is likely to predominate without the inclusion of a minimum 40% of the electorate voting. I was delighted that the 40% required was dropped because all that would been required is for the no votes to abstain to win as even with a 75% turn out in a general election government have not achieved 40% of eligible electorate in recent years. Given Labour’s success together with the extreme right wing in turning Nick Clegg into to the chief villain, his championing of the cause could be counterproductive. Much as also been made of the decision to drop the proposal to sell off some government controlled forests, notably the Forestry Commission held Kielder here in he North East as a means of raising money and reducing public management costs, Labour had done so quietly over the past decade without ensuring protection of public use and rights of way. Michael Heseltine made the good point that if a government never changes its mind under pressure it is attacked for being too tough and if it does respond to pressure it is then attacked for being too weak. The programme also confirmed by prejudices against Yvette Cooper who appears never to give an inch to the Government on any issue, finding fault in everything it does. There was praise in unusual quarters, Nigel Farage for one for Ian Duncan Smith’s plan to scrap the thirty benefits which cover the unemployed with a single assessment and payment system will ensure that it always pays to work if available than live on benefits. His measures will take two Parliaments to fully implement but it is to be hoped his will be one proposed change that worked. I cannot remember if it was during Question time or this week that the point was well made that only about one in five major change reorganisations work out well as intended.
Now for something very different. I have been fast forwarding through American Idol the present series without Simon Cowell after nine years in preparation for his new series based on the British successor. Randy Newman is still there with two new faces, Jennifer Lopez and the less well known Stephen Tyler, rocker looking led singer, song writer and instrumentalist of Aerosmith. No more the delicious Paula Abdul. I fast forward the auditions just to listen to those who can sing and from whom there is the possibility of finding the three or four who will eventually complete for the title. I take similar action with the Hollywood round now underway, avoiding the group singing stage because it tends to show the worst side of people and while it can eliminate some of those whose basic anti social traits were kept hidden, the consequence can be on others who will need protection for their talents to flourish. I guess this segment is showing that you have to possess considerable commercial potential to cope with the demands required by the corporation machine industry that developed. Over 300 went to Hollywood where the week’s events conclude on British TV tonight with 60. These sixty were then taken to a single destination Las Vegas to sing Beatles song to be reduced to forty. The judges then reduced this number between themselves to 20 which this year is going become a sudden death audience selection for the final teen, the five most successful male and females. It will be interesting to see if any of the excellent 15 year olds are successful.
Her lover in this instance prepares a report on the situation in the south which indicates that the war is effectively lost and that every effort should be made to o take to safety all those who have assisted the USA. The Ambassador sits on the analysis because defeat and withdrawal is not an option and he believes that the provision of more funds will turn the tide and secure the south.
There is an excellent account of those last few days and hours as panic spread in the city. There is a shot of records of contacts being left in the embassy as the staff rush to exit taking basic personal possession with them. There is also a shot of someone who was promised to be picked up, still waiting but getting no answer.
The scene however was brilliantly exploited theatrically in the stage musical Miss Saigon which I saw in London three or even four times. I must check sometime. At one level Dame Judy does not appear have the figure and personality of someone to have passionate all absorbing sexual based affairs with men, married or single but I return to my experience where as a young social worker I was asked to deal with the children left behind with a severely disabled mother after the husband had run off with the wife in another family. The running away couple were a most unlikely pair in terms of their physical appearance and lifestyle. In terms of my own experience when I was a young man in work at sixteen there was a secretarial office worker ten to fifteen years older than myself who was known to be having a relationship with a much younger man working in the same office. Nine years later when I went into the staff restaurant at an East Anglian local authority where I was commencing a summer practical work placement of three months, I met the same individual who in today’s jargon, hit on me offering the use of her car on hearing that I was getting about the large county using public transport. I did not take up the offer, although with hindsight this was more because I did not fancy the woman rather than any morality question.
I was more engaged by the second episode of Mad Dogs, a Sky new drama contribution set in the extractive Spanish Island of Majorca which I have visited once and had a memorable time.
Four middle aged friends, two declared married with children, one a corporate lawyer and another a financial adviser, a third a lecturer in psychology, the fourth unemployed, accept the invitation for a short holiday with a fifth who has an isolated villa with grounds and swimming pool. Interestingly they accept the invitation without their partners or families. The five go off into the city centre for a night out clubbing during which one of the four, married, with children brings back and spends the night with a holiday maker. His behaviour angers one of the four our of proportion to the behaviour suggesting the man has significant problems in his own life. In fact all four emerge as having problems in their lives in the UK and being unsettled which goes some way to explaining their willingness to participate in such a gathering. The reason for the holiday is that the fifth (Ben Chapman) is giving up his Spanish Mainland property development business to live a life of pleasure on the Island. There is no reason given why he is on his own.
They go off on a fishing diving trip on a yacht which only after departing does it emerge has been borrowed, The Yacht is left in as isolated cove under the cliff and they use a dingy to go ashore and then hike back over the hills to the villa. They realise their host is up to something and using them and they demand explanation after the evening meal
A height challenged man enters wearing a large face head mask of a grinning Tony Blair and shoots Ben in the head splattering blood over those closest and all over the table when the man falls across.
The killer, who is wearing white gloves then uses the weapon to establish one of the four as the killer with his DNA and goes off in a siren sounding police vehicle. The four react to the situation in accord with the personalities revealed so far revealed, some saying they must go to the police after contacting the British embassy, some pointing out they will be implicated in the killing and the stealing of boat. They decide to bury the body in the grounds and remove all traces of the killing in time for the arrival of the cleaner housekeeper who they say is not needed for the day. Another police car arrives this time with a young attractive police woman seeking the whereabouts of the villa owner. They say he was suddenly called to the mainland. She is evidently suspicious but departs.
They then decide to remove traces of their presence from the yacht but while there another group arrive with £3 million Euros in exchange for the on board heroin. They are rebuked for no being at the agreed rendezvous and told to do better on the next run. Back at the villa a local dog disturbs the surface of the shallow grave so they decide to take the body to the Yacht. In the midst of this the police arrive again seeking to interview the four because of the owner of Yacht has been murdered.
The four men are interviewed separately providing inconsistent answers about their knowledge of the villa owner. One admits he had met with the owner when he visited the UK the previous month, a fact not revealed to the other three. Another, the financial adviser says he wants a lawyer present when asked if he has ever given financial advice to the Villa owner.
Earlier they had agreed a plan to hide the moeny in a hire car left at the airport. The female detective, or is she, spots the keys of car and asks where it is, it is said to have been left in town on the night out before the alleged party at the villa.
Although they deny knowledge of the boat the police detective returns for her glasses, and they allow her to enter a room unaccompanied and she has time to look at he video camera to see them joking about going out for the day on the boat trip.
As she arrives they pretend they cannot find the keys to open the gates during which time they try to hide the body in the freezer, finding they need to cut off the feet or the head to do so. A task for the next episode.
I kept an eye on Question time where there was brief reference to the developments in the Middle East in terms of the need to the UK to continue to sign up to Human rights and the European Court which was set up to act as beacon for those primarily in countries overtaken by Communist dictatorships at the end of the Second world war. The reason was the he decision that those added to the Sex Offenders Register in the UK should have the right to appeal against continuation on the register after completion of judicial punishments if they can show that they have changed their lives. The decision is the right to appeal not to be automatically removed from the register. As with some other serial crimes whose nastiness is such that the possibility of reform appears remote, I share the anxiety of many, I suspect with the majority that any reduction of monitoring and surveillance carries with it great risk. no principle can ever be absolute in the sense that some exceptions can never be justified. However in the balance between removing all risk and giving up basic freedoms I veer on the side of taking risks. I feel this about the threat of international and national terrorism. It was in my view an odd choice of first subject.
There has been a lot happening this week politically. The most significant decision was that the House of Lords pulled back from the brink to agreed to let the Alternative Vote Referendum be held on May 5th. While the Labour Party is split and the Conservatives overwhelmingly against, the championing by Nick Clegg means that the no vote is likely to predominate without the inclusion of a minimum 40% of the electorate voting. I was delighted that the 40% required was dropped because all that would been required is for the no votes to abstain to win as even with a 75% turn out in a general election government have not achieved 40% of eligible electorate in recent years. Given Labour’s success together with the extreme right wing in turning Nick Clegg into to the chief villain, his championing of the cause could be counterproductive. Much as also been made of the decision to drop the proposal to sell off some government controlled forests, notably the Forestry Commission held Kielder here in he North East as a means of raising money and reducing public management costs, Labour had done so quietly over the past decade without ensuring protection of public use and rights of way. Michael Heseltine made the good point that if a government never changes its mind under pressure it is attacked for being too tough and if it does respond to pressure it is then attacked for being too weak. The programme also confirmed by prejudices against Yvette Cooper who appears never to give an inch to the Government on any issue, finding fault in everything it does. There was praise in unusual quarters, Nigel Farage for one for Ian Duncan Smith’s plan to scrap the thirty benefits which cover the unemployed with a single assessment and payment system will ensure that it always pays to work if available than live on benefits. His measures will take two Parliaments to fully implement but it is to be hoped his will be one proposed change that worked. I cannot remember if it was during Question time or this week that the point was well made that only about one in five major change reorganisations work out well as intended.
Now for something very different. I have been fast forwarding through American Idol the present series without Simon Cowell after nine years in preparation for his new series based on the British successor. Randy Newman is still there with two new faces, Jennifer Lopez and the less well known Stephen Tyler, rocker looking led singer, song writer and instrumentalist of Aerosmith. No more the delicious Paula Abdul. I fast forward the auditions just to listen to those who can sing and from whom there is the possibility of finding the three or four who will eventually complete for the title. I take similar action with the Hollywood round now underway, avoiding the group singing stage because it tends to show the worst side of people and while it can eliminate some of those whose basic anti social traits were kept hidden, the consequence can be on others who will need protection for their talents to flourish. I guess this segment is showing that you have to possess considerable commercial potential to cope with the demands required by the corporation machine industry that developed. Over 300 went to Hollywood where the week’s events conclude on British TV tonight with 60. These sixty were then taken to a single destination Las Vegas to sing Beatles song to be reduced to forty. The judges then reduced this number between themselves to 20 which this year is going become a sudden death audience selection for the final teen, the five most successful male and females. It will be interesting to see if any of the excellent 15 year olds are successful.
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