On my way to the theatre on Saturday afternoon I tripped and fell forward onto the pavement springing my right wrist and banging by left knee. The wrist is improving although turning the top of a bottle of milk or using the hand to carry weight when rising from a sedentary position is difficult and not helped by the inability to use the left knee to counterbalance and take the weight. It is reminder of the need to take greater care and that I have had another lucky escape.
On Sunday the latest episode of Inspector Montalbano, a new four part series on the sinking of he Titanic and the latest episode of Upstairs and Downstairs together with Newcastle winning away having watched Sunderland’s win against QPR on first choice and Warrington winning just at Widnes on the Friday evening. The second Formula I race was a disaster for Jenson Button.
A blind man appears to have committed suicide but the death troubles Montalbano. The story provides the opportunity for the Inspector to visit one of the islands off the Sicilian coast. This is where the sister of the dead man lives with her husband and children running a small hotel devoid of the tourists which had been hoped for. At the heart of the story is a dog, the dog of the blind man.
The son of the man who formed an organization to help the blind in Sicily uses the association as a means for promoting his illegal activities notably drug distribution and selling. He has used the blind man to bring back drugs from the Island via a fisherman who collected them off shore and then brought a quantity back in a hollowed walking stick each weekend when he visited his sister and her family. Montalbano is suspicious of the fisherman when he visits his home learning that the two men were “friends” and notes communications equipment. He also notes that the fisherman has no fish to sell him claiming not to have been out to sea because of weather conditions. On the ferry the dog recognises a crew man who would provide an on deck seat for the blind man rather than attempt the steps to the passenger area. On a journey back to the mainland soon after arrival with his mistress after taking her to the island allegedly for a holiday, the Inspector learns from the crewman that in one instance the blind man has lost his stick over side and had become agitated until the crewman had fished it out of the water for him. This had led Montalbano to the idea that the stick was used to carry drugs.
He had been invited by the wife of the blind man who was too upset to talk about her brother when attending the funeral. He had no divulged the main purpose of the visit to his mistress when invited her to spend a few days there on holiday. Before returning to the office he persuades his reluctant deputy to go to the island to keep his mistress company. The deputy has become uncertain about his engagement and forthcoming marriage after being attracted by another woman he sees.
There is one red herring trail which the Inspector follows when a message is found in an attractive pottery wine urn with classical proportions purchased at the local market by the desk officer at the station. This contained a hand written note pleading for help to be rescued similar to another which had turned up elsewhere several months before. The investigation takes him to the urn seller who buys them wholesale but as it is the weekend it is not possible for the Inspector to make further enquiries until the firm reopens.
At the home of the seller he finds the man hostile and his wife who invites the Inspector into the house is told to go inside and for Montalbano to leave. Later he receives a message from the wife to visit the home after midnight. She reveals the story which Montalbano has partly discovered in that the man had received a warning for an assault on his wife who had not pressed charges. He had beaten her because of jealousy whenever she was in the presence of another male, in the latter instance because of a salesman who had called. She had placed similar notes in five of the urns a year before.
Since the birth of their son her husband had changed in his approach to her although he discouraged male visitors to the family home and now she was in fear her husband would find out what she had done hence arranging to see the Inspector at her home when her husband was away attending a market elsewhere to plead with him to take no further action.
At the start of the episode we had seen the blind man leave his home and another man enter and appear to tamper with a drinking glass by the bedside. The cause of death appeared to be gas poisoning as a ring on the stove had been left on and the gas cylinder was empty. Montalbano visited the company which supplied the gas and the delivery man explained that the gas was not strong enough to have caused the death and that in event it would have been low as it was within a couple of days of the regular delivery. Checking the house again Montalbano had confirmed that the cylinder in the house was not one provided by the company. What happened is that the man had a heart condition and had been affected by the sedatives placed in the glass beside the bedside while the blind man was out of the house. This enables the murderer to return at night, let the dog out of the house and change the cylinders.
Previously Montalbano had demanded that the property be swept for finger prints with the officer protesting because as the man was blind there would hundreds of prints, Montalbano demands that the any prints on the gas cylinder and light switches be checked. These had in fact not been taken and revealed the identity of someone with convictions for violence. The fisherman on the island is also found dead on ashore with his boat capsized at sea. However he is found not to have drowned.
Montalbano had also followed up the position of another blind man who had also died in circumstances of a suicide and where his bank account showed a small fortune.
And the dog the importance of the Dog? Montalbano takes to the dog that brings to his home pending relocation after the man dies. However he becomes quickly attached to the animal despite being warned that the animal had a nasty streak when another dog came in the vicinity. The owner of the charity requests the dog back so it can be reallocated to someone else. When someone comes for the animal Montalbano runs from his home beach side so it cannot be taken away. He takes it with him on the trip to the Island hence the contact with the crewman and also the fisherman with whom the dog is friendly and with the children of the family. However the dog reacts when approached by the dog of a policeman presumably a drug sniffer dog which is why the creature is regarded as special. The dog disappears from his home one day and Montalbano is distraught.
Bringing the various strands and evidence together Montalbano spooks the Charity owner into revealing the whereabouts of the man responsible for the three deaths who he visits with a pay off. Montalbano then dismisses his colleagues leaving him alone with the murderer who he threatens to kill unless he reveals the location of the dog. The animal had previously been used in dog fighting and the team raid a dog fight where they find the creature together with others which had been used for similar purposes.
The final scene is that of Montalbano playing with the dog on the beach at his home together with his mistress. She has another rival although they had enjoyed a couple of days together on the island when he had returned back from the mainland and agreed they would return.
The Inspector had seen the husband of the sister talking to a shady character on the island and for a time we were led to believe he was connected to the drug operation. What emerged is that coming to the island the new wife had established a restaurant as we knew early on that she had worked at the restaurant which the Inspector uses on a regular basis. They had then acquired the property to been used as a hotel although the tourists had not yet taken to coming to the island. The shady man was in fact a money lender and in financial difficulties it looked as if the venture was destined to fail with the bank threatening repossession. This was the motivation for the brother to commence the drug running but having acquired a sum sufficient to pay off the debts and provide for the refurbishment of the building he had indicated his wish to stop hence the decision to execute him. Interestingly while in the UK the money would have been confiscated Montalbano advises of its availability to the couple, solving their immediate financial problems.
The author of Downton Abbey has created a four part work on the Sinking of the Titanic coinciding with a hundred years since the tragedy and the release of a 3D version of the successful film. The approach of Julian Fellows is to tell the main part of the story up to just before the vessel sinks in the first episode and then retelling the same story from different perspectives of those in different classes of cabins culminating in what happens to them at the end of the fourth programme.
The first episode focuses on an upper class titled couple where the wife is a snob of the worst kind with a daughter who is playing the suffragette and a father who decides to take her on a trip to the USA in order to get away from before he cannot rescue her again from going to prison after she is accused of assaulting a police officer.
On board she meets up with the son of a wealthy American couple and after rejecting his advances finds that he has her measure and they fall in love. She is placed in the lifeboat while the young man remains on board. The wife who has behaved in obnoxious fashion insists on remaining with her husband who pleads with her to leave.
On board he meets with an employee in the second class on way to the USA taking some legal papers and accompanied by his firebrand Irish nationalist wife, Much to the horror of the titled lady she is pressed to accompany her husband at a tea with the couple who he brings up from the second class to the first class area She then raises the issue of Irish independence and later gives the titled lady a mouth bashing just before departing to a lifeboat. There is also the interaction with an actress and also the portrayal of someone akin to Molly Brown.
The relationship between the personal maid and manservant of the titled couple is introduced together with that of a dining steward whose brother is a Stoker in the boiler room and also someone who had been involved in building the ship arranges for his wife and children to emigrate to the USA on the ship and appears to have arranged a special cabin facility for them beyond which is to be revealed. The film is only of interest to compare with the blockbuster film Titanic as all the main features of the actual incident have been covered in countless documentaries, books and articles as well as films. Now that the vessel has been located and its treasures brought to the surface it is suggested that the impact of the story will diminish now that the survivors and the first tier of descendents have also died.
I am tempted to leave the latest two episodes of Upstairs and downstairs for one grand conclusion report but having deleted the recordings I fear I will forget the story lines. The signing of the protection pact with Poland makes the war inevitable and the latest episode ends with the lights being switched off as the blackout begins. I have previously reported on my experience of the day when the lights went on again and everyone went out of their houses for the moment when the street lights were switched on and the curtains left open with the lights shining out.
I begin with the stories of those downstairs. The Butler commences a relationship with a housekeeper who is assisting in the organising of the annual servant’s ball held at the Royal Albert Hall in which it is customary for the above stairs to attend for the first dance and then leave. The relationship between the couple blossoms to the point that the Butler has decided to suggest marriage. However she has found out about his conscientious objection during the First World War and tells him of her disappointment on finding out he is not the man she thought he was. He gets drunk and is found by the Lady of the house on the steps down to the servant’s kitchen and dining area. He is so embarrassed that he leaves the property and appears to be living on the street or in the park where the young lad and former borstal boy is taking him food supplies. The master of the house sits on the same bench one day and brings the Butler back to the house where the normal order is restored of a kind.
The young lad gets his medical papers for the call up and is passed A1 fit. He is seen sitting with the scullery maid. Assistant nurse maid former Dr Barnardo’s girl who agrees to write to him when he is away.
The main focus is on the chauffer and the nursery servant who has also combined duties as personal maid to her Ladyship. They have become, lovers after the chauffer had gone into the ring at the Boxing match attended by the King’s younger brother and other members of the household in which the former borstal boy should have fought but run off when he was the subject of a sexual advance from one of King’s brothers’ companions. The chauffer now wants to emigrate to the USA, applies for a special licence after blackmailing the master for £300 and for a reference to gain admission and for getting work on arrival.
The reason he is able to do this is that the master has commenced a sexual relationship with his wife’s sister. At the same time the relationship between husband and wife deteriorates to break point and separation. The starting point goes back to a mutual attraction with the sister in the first series and then to the behaviour of the sister who kisses him on the visit to Germany when she was till the mistress of the German Nazi Officer.
Then his wife becomes the interest of the American business man including nylon manufacturer who attends the dinner for the American Ambassador and visiting son Jack. She accepts an invitation to visit the factory where a shoot was planned for an advertisement and when the actress does not attend, her Ladyship is persuaded to step in and she is such a success that the campaign is extended with a second shoot on the South East Coast. When fog prevents an immediate return and a stay overnight appears necessary, her sister fails to pass on a message to say she had been delayed and steps in to replace the woman at a dinner being held. When comments are made about photos of his wife on London Billboards he puts his foot down about further contact and two agree not to see each other. The behaviour of the husband leads the wife to take her son to stay with relatives during which time the relationship between sister and husband develops coming to the attention of the household.
As war gets closer the Master is alerted at the Foreign Office that there appears to have been leaks about sensitive information which he works out must have come from within his household added to which the clasp on his briefcase has become faulty. He orders an investigation centring on his sister in law. He is warned against holding the investigation by the king’s younger brother who is now dressed in Naval uniform fitting in with the actual wartime service of the Duke of Kent. This again suggests a sympathy with the enemy alluded to in a previous episode. That he ordered the investigation is timely because separately his sister was being kept under surveillance arising from her contact with known London based Nazi intelligence. He breaks of the relationship with the sister and resigns from the Ministry as well as keeping quiet until she is arrested and imprisoned under the latest emergency powers.
Meanwhile his wife has returned and following comments by her personal maid commences to suspect her husband and her sister which is confirmed when a shirt is returned from the laundry with a message that the lipstick on the collar cannot be removed. She then smells the pillow on her sister’s bed and recognises the cologne used by her husband. When she freezes out the sister who is also ostracised by those below stairs, the sister falls and kills herself injuring the personal maid attempting to stop her.
While the couple continue to live in the same household the relationship remains strained despite the wish of the husband to start over again. Shortly before her discovery of the infidelity the American had visited to take his leave delivering a gross of the nylon stockings for her as a farewell present. The Master is appointed an equerry at the Palace.
The accident to the personal made means that she is not sufficiently well to travel to the USA although the special licence has been granted. The chauffer is therefore unable to avoid attending the medical where he is passed fit for service. He returns the money to the Master. Of less significance than previously with their stories having been covered in previous episodes is the housekeeper, the aunt and the former secretary of the Master’s mother.
On Sunday the latest episode of Inspector Montalbano, a new four part series on the sinking of he Titanic and the latest episode of Upstairs and Downstairs together with Newcastle winning away having watched Sunderland’s win against QPR on first choice and Warrington winning just at Widnes on the Friday evening. The second Formula I race was a disaster for Jenson Button.
A blind man appears to have committed suicide but the death troubles Montalbano. The story provides the opportunity for the Inspector to visit one of the islands off the Sicilian coast. This is where the sister of the dead man lives with her husband and children running a small hotel devoid of the tourists which had been hoped for. At the heart of the story is a dog, the dog of the blind man.
The son of the man who formed an organization to help the blind in Sicily uses the association as a means for promoting his illegal activities notably drug distribution and selling. He has used the blind man to bring back drugs from the Island via a fisherman who collected them off shore and then brought a quantity back in a hollowed walking stick each weekend when he visited his sister and her family. Montalbano is suspicious of the fisherman when he visits his home learning that the two men were “friends” and notes communications equipment. He also notes that the fisherman has no fish to sell him claiming not to have been out to sea because of weather conditions. On the ferry the dog recognises a crew man who would provide an on deck seat for the blind man rather than attempt the steps to the passenger area. On a journey back to the mainland soon after arrival with his mistress after taking her to the island allegedly for a holiday, the Inspector learns from the crewman that in one instance the blind man has lost his stick over side and had become agitated until the crewman had fished it out of the water for him. This had led Montalbano to the idea that the stick was used to carry drugs.
He had been invited by the wife of the blind man who was too upset to talk about her brother when attending the funeral. He had no divulged the main purpose of the visit to his mistress when invited her to spend a few days there on holiday. Before returning to the office he persuades his reluctant deputy to go to the island to keep his mistress company. The deputy has become uncertain about his engagement and forthcoming marriage after being attracted by another woman he sees.
There is one red herring trail which the Inspector follows when a message is found in an attractive pottery wine urn with classical proportions purchased at the local market by the desk officer at the station. This contained a hand written note pleading for help to be rescued similar to another which had turned up elsewhere several months before. The investigation takes him to the urn seller who buys them wholesale but as it is the weekend it is not possible for the Inspector to make further enquiries until the firm reopens.
At the home of the seller he finds the man hostile and his wife who invites the Inspector into the house is told to go inside and for Montalbano to leave. Later he receives a message from the wife to visit the home after midnight. She reveals the story which Montalbano has partly discovered in that the man had received a warning for an assault on his wife who had not pressed charges. He had beaten her because of jealousy whenever she was in the presence of another male, in the latter instance because of a salesman who had called. She had placed similar notes in five of the urns a year before.
Since the birth of their son her husband had changed in his approach to her although he discouraged male visitors to the family home and now she was in fear her husband would find out what she had done hence arranging to see the Inspector at her home when her husband was away attending a market elsewhere to plead with him to take no further action.
At the start of the episode we had seen the blind man leave his home and another man enter and appear to tamper with a drinking glass by the bedside. The cause of death appeared to be gas poisoning as a ring on the stove had been left on and the gas cylinder was empty. Montalbano visited the company which supplied the gas and the delivery man explained that the gas was not strong enough to have caused the death and that in event it would have been low as it was within a couple of days of the regular delivery. Checking the house again Montalbano had confirmed that the cylinder in the house was not one provided by the company. What happened is that the man had a heart condition and had been affected by the sedatives placed in the glass beside the bedside while the blind man was out of the house. This enables the murderer to return at night, let the dog out of the house and change the cylinders.
Previously Montalbano had demanded that the property be swept for finger prints with the officer protesting because as the man was blind there would hundreds of prints, Montalbano demands that the any prints on the gas cylinder and light switches be checked. These had in fact not been taken and revealed the identity of someone with convictions for violence. The fisherman on the island is also found dead on ashore with his boat capsized at sea. However he is found not to have drowned.
Montalbano had also followed up the position of another blind man who had also died in circumstances of a suicide and where his bank account showed a small fortune.
And the dog the importance of the Dog? Montalbano takes to the dog that brings to his home pending relocation after the man dies. However he becomes quickly attached to the animal despite being warned that the animal had a nasty streak when another dog came in the vicinity. The owner of the charity requests the dog back so it can be reallocated to someone else. When someone comes for the animal Montalbano runs from his home beach side so it cannot be taken away. He takes it with him on the trip to the Island hence the contact with the crewman and also the fisherman with whom the dog is friendly and with the children of the family. However the dog reacts when approached by the dog of a policeman presumably a drug sniffer dog which is why the creature is regarded as special. The dog disappears from his home one day and Montalbano is distraught.
Bringing the various strands and evidence together Montalbano spooks the Charity owner into revealing the whereabouts of the man responsible for the three deaths who he visits with a pay off. Montalbano then dismisses his colleagues leaving him alone with the murderer who he threatens to kill unless he reveals the location of the dog. The animal had previously been used in dog fighting and the team raid a dog fight where they find the creature together with others which had been used for similar purposes.
The final scene is that of Montalbano playing with the dog on the beach at his home together with his mistress. She has another rival although they had enjoyed a couple of days together on the island when he had returned back from the mainland and agreed they would return.
The Inspector had seen the husband of the sister talking to a shady character on the island and for a time we were led to believe he was connected to the drug operation. What emerged is that coming to the island the new wife had established a restaurant as we knew early on that she had worked at the restaurant which the Inspector uses on a regular basis. They had then acquired the property to been used as a hotel although the tourists had not yet taken to coming to the island. The shady man was in fact a money lender and in financial difficulties it looked as if the venture was destined to fail with the bank threatening repossession. This was the motivation for the brother to commence the drug running but having acquired a sum sufficient to pay off the debts and provide for the refurbishment of the building he had indicated his wish to stop hence the decision to execute him. Interestingly while in the UK the money would have been confiscated Montalbano advises of its availability to the couple, solving their immediate financial problems.
The author of Downton Abbey has created a four part work on the Sinking of the Titanic coinciding with a hundred years since the tragedy and the release of a 3D version of the successful film. The approach of Julian Fellows is to tell the main part of the story up to just before the vessel sinks in the first episode and then retelling the same story from different perspectives of those in different classes of cabins culminating in what happens to them at the end of the fourth programme.
The first episode focuses on an upper class titled couple where the wife is a snob of the worst kind with a daughter who is playing the suffragette and a father who decides to take her on a trip to the USA in order to get away from before he cannot rescue her again from going to prison after she is accused of assaulting a police officer.
On board she meets up with the son of a wealthy American couple and after rejecting his advances finds that he has her measure and they fall in love. She is placed in the lifeboat while the young man remains on board. The wife who has behaved in obnoxious fashion insists on remaining with her husband who pleads with her to leave.
On board he meets with an employee in the second class on way to the USA taking some legal papers and accompanied by his firebrand Irish nationalist wife, Much to the horror of the titled lady she is pressed to accompany her husband at a tea with the couple who he brings up from the second class to the first class area She then raises the issue of Irish independence and later gives the titled lady a mouth bashing just before departing to a lifeboat. There is also the interaction with an actress and also the portrayal of someone akin to Molly Brown.
The relationship between the personal maid and manservant of the titled couple is introduced together with that of a dining steward whose brother is a Stoker in the boiler room and also someone who had been involved in building the ship arranges for his wife and children to emigrate to the USA on the ship and appears to have arranged a special cabin facility for them beyond which is to be revealed. The film is only of interest to compare with the blockbuster film Titanic as all the main features of the actual incident have been covered in countless documentaries, books and articles as well as films. Now that the vessel has been located and its treasures brought to the surface it is suggested that the impact of the story will diminish now that the survivors and the first tier of descendents have also died.
I am tempted to leave the latest two episodes of Upstairs and downstairs for one grand conclusion report but having deleted the recordings I fear I will forget the story lines. The signing of the protection pact with Poland makes the war inevitable and the latest episode ends with the lights being switched off as the blackout begins. I have previously reported on my experience of the day when the lights went on again and everyone went out of their houses for the moment when the street lights were switched on and the curtains left open with the lights shining out.
I begin with the stories of those downstairs. The Butler commences a relationship with a housekeeper who is assisting in the organising of the annual servant’s ball held at the Royal Albert Hall in which it is customary for the above stairs to attend for the first dance and then leave. The relationship between the couple blossoms to the point that the Butler has decided to suggest marriage. However she has found out about his conscientious objection during the First World War and tells him of her disappointment on finding out he is not the man she thought he was. He gets drunk and is found by the Lady of the house on the steps down to the servant’s kitchen and dining area. He is so embarrassed that he leaves the property and appears to be living on the street or in the park where the young lad and former borstal boy is taking him food supplies. The master of the house sits on the same bench one day and brings the Butler back to the house where the normal order is restored of a kind.
The young lad gets his medical papers for the call up and is passed A1 fit. He is seen sitting with the scullery maid. Assistant nurse maid former Dr Barnardo’s girl who agrees to write to him when he is away.
The main focus is on the chauffer and the nursery servant who has also combined duties as personal maid to her Ladyship. They have become, lovers after the chauffer had gone into the ring at the Boxing match attended by the King’s younger brother and other members of the household in which the former borstal boy should have fought but run off when he was the subject of a sexual advance from one of King’s brothers’ companions. The chauffer now wants to emigrate to the USA, applies for a special licence after blackmailing the master for £300 and for a reference to gain admission and for getting work on arrival.
The reason he is able to do this is that the master has commenced a sexual relationship with his wife’s sister. At the same time the relationship between husband and wife deteriorates to break point and separation. The starting point goes back to a mutual attraction with the sister in the first series and then to the behaviour of the sister who kisses him on the visit to Germany when she was till the mistress of the German Nazi Officer.
Then his wife becomes the interest of the American business man including nylon manufacturer who attends the dinner for the American Ambassador and visiting son Jack. She accepts an invitation to visit the factory where a shoot was planned for an advertisement and when the actress does not attend, her Ladyship is persuaded to step in and she is such a success that the campaign is extended with a second shoot on the South East Coast. When fog prevents an immediate return and a stay overnight appears necessary, her sister fails to pass on a message to say she had been delayed and steps in to replace the woman at a dinner being held. When comments are made about photos of his wife on London Billboards he puts his foot down about further contact and two agree not to see each other. The behaviour of the husband leads the wife to take her son to stay with relatives during which time the relationship between sister and husband develops coming to the attention of the household.
As war gets closer the Master is alerted at the Foreign Office that there appears to have been leaks about sensitive information which he works out must have come from within his household added to which the clasp on his briefcase has become faulty. He orders an investigation centring on his sister in law. He is warned against holding the investigation by the king’s younger brother who is now dressed in Naval uniform fitting in with the actual wartime service of the Duke of Kent. This again suggests a sympathy with the enemy alluded to in a previous episode. That he ordered the investigation is timely because separately his sister was being kept under surveillance arising from her contact with known London based Nazi intelligence. He breaks of the relationship with the sister and resigns from the Ministry as well as keeping quiet until she is arrested and imprisoned under the latest emergency powers.
Meanwhile his wife has returned and following comments by her personal maid commences to suspect her husband and her sister which is confirmed when a shirt is returned from the laundry with a message that the lipstick on the collar cannot be removed. She then smells the pillow on her sister’s bed and recognises the cologne used by her husband. When she freezes out the sister who is also ostracised by those below stairs, the sister falls and kills herself injuring the personal maid attempting to stop her.
While the couple continue to live in the same household the relationship remains strained despite the wish of the husband to start over again. Shortly before her discovery of the infidelity the American had visited to take his leave delivering a gross of the nylon stockings for her as a farewell present. The Master is appointed an equerry at the Palace.
The accident to the personal made means that she is not sufficiently well to travel to the USA although the special licence has been granted. The chauffer is therefore unable to avoid attending the medical where he is passed fit for service. He returns the money to the Master. Of less significance than previously with their stories having been covered in previous episodes is the housekeeper, the aunt and the former secretary of the Master’s mother.
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