I had intended only to write two pieces about my visit to London and to Northampton but given the impact of seeing the film Renoir and the nature of the Northampton experience it is best that I begin with the intention of restricting myself first to Renoir and the impact of that experience and to some TV..
I decided to stay in and watch the Third Test from Old Trafford on Sky via my lap top on Sunday morning August 4th 2013 enjoying breakfast of two Danish pastries £1.20 and coffee before deciding how to spend the rest of my free time because Middlesex was in the process of defeating Durham during the third morning of the four day scheduled game at Lords. Had I listened more carefully to what fellow Durham supporters had said the previous day or checked fixtures on my computer I may well have gone to the Oval to watch Surrey play Scotland in the 40 40 over game.
The previous evening after returning from the cricket I watched Wallander in the Pyramid one of the, if not the most important of the dramatizations of the books. As with other Wallander dramatizations this season I may write at length when I have read the book although my determination to do some prolonged serious writing this autumn strengthens. In part this arose out fo the Wallander episode but more so because of film about the last years of the life of Pierre Auguste Renoir,
At one level the Wallander, as with Montalbano is a well written detective story which challenges to work out a solution and entertains through the characters involved. However I am drawn to Wallander and to Montalbano because I see so much of myself in them and their approach to life in general, to work and to relationships.
According to Internet research The Pyramid covers the whole career of Wallander in five short stories so that this dramatization only covers the first and the last. In an incident when as a young policeman he misses the opportunity to fire and stop a killer with the consequence that a young woman he admired is murdered. Although the circumstances were such the incident did not affect his subsequent career, he remained tortured by his failure to act and the loss of life involved.
Although 26 years has passed he is confident he has encountered the same villain when following up on what appears to have become a drug war and to pursue the suspect despite being ordered to concentrate on the local villain and leave the suspect to the separate police force involved. At the end of the episode when he is vindicated he resigns because he knows the investigation had become personal.
He has commenced a relationship with the friend of his God daughter who dies from an overdose, using heroin which has not been reduced to a level which removes the risk. The friend is a former addict who is working for the rehabilitation of others and she has is a degree of reality and directness coupled with passion which meets his every need and where for the first time he wants to enjoy life without always feeling guilty and allowing work to take precedence. I am looking forward to the book. He is able to put the past behind and move forward.
There was more striking chords when on return on Wednesday evening I caught up with the second part of the new series opener of New Tricks which coincidentally is set in Gibraltar just as issues about sovereignty begin to boil over fuelled by the attitude for the present Spanish Government and the Tory party led by Cameron. It was no coincidence, I suspect, just as the recent series TV on presented Gibraltar as a little Britain when the reality is the majority are mostly Spanish and speak the local dialect Spanish. I cannot now remember what aspect of the cold case led them to Gibraltar. The main story appeared to be death for young boy to a man who had been a seaman for many years but now worked on the docks where his daughter had some kind of administrative role. The man and the daughter refused to talk about the case and the local senior police officer assigned to manage the visit of the team also advises against giving this case attention, the only inherited cold case which the police officer had been unable to solve. The case is eventually worked put through drawing the boy made at first appearing to be soldiers temporarily resident returning from the Falklands war. However when it is realised the drawings of other children playing at being soldiers the team finds out that the present head of the continuing British military presence on the Rock was a boy at the time and that his father had returned from service in the Falklands. He had used his father’s weapon souvenir from the war as part of the game and not appreciated that it was loaded killing his friend. When confronted he is seen running through the Botanical gardens and taking the cable car to the top of the rock and then considering taking his life but he surrenders full of guilt and grief.
This is he first of three stories in the double episode about cover up with the second the one which brings the team to Gibraltar. This involves the head of an on line gambling company based in Gibraltar, one of his lieutenants who is killed with the police boasting they have one of the best detection rates in the world and murders are rare. The head of the unit is taken out for a meal on the yacht by the owner of the firm who is shown to have a ruthless side and who committed murder as well as attempting to blackmail the father of dead boy.
I record these two stories although from my perspective they are incidental to the main story of interest which concerns Bryan, former Inspector, played brilliantly by Alum Armstrong as a recovering alcoholic whose wife Ester, also played brilliantly by Susan Jameson, shows great understanding and loving support, especially towards his moods and obsessions. He has great capacity to sift through detail and see patterns and connections which others do not, an ability which has always been an asset to me as well as something fo a curse.
He attends the leaving party of Inspector who two decades before was left in charge of young prisoner( black) who died from lack of medical attention when Alan was responsible for had left because of drinking. He had never recovered from the incident believing there had been negligence and had pursued the officer without success as the man had progressed through to retirement. He strikes the man at he leaving party leading to suspension and a disciplinary haring and consequently is not allowed to participate on the trip to Gibraltar. But he goes to Gib despite the sanctions because he cannot function without the work and this leads to him and Jerry ( Denis Waterman) having an adventure which involves being shut in a container, reminding of Mad Dogs, and arriving at a farm in the middle of nowhere in Spain but also in seeing and overhearing an exchange which leads to solving the main story.
On return Bryan’s disciplinary hearing is stopped by the complainant who withdraws saying he felt sorry for Bryan and this angers Bryan unable to explain the issues involved and leads to a confrontation where the retiring Inspector admits that he regarded the prisoner as he did most those taken into custody with indifference regarding them as scum Bryan secretly records this admission which he gives to the boy’s mother saying sorry. The significant aspect is that eh recognises that the man was and remains worthless and that he is able to move forward. The episode also bring into relief the broken relationship with his own son which is to be the main subject of the next programme. Alun has indicated his attention not to participate in the planned 11th series as has present Team Leader Amanda Redman who is being replaced by Tamzin Outhwaite. The main interest of the double episode has been Bryan coming to terms with his past and being able to move on without the work and reverting back to alcohol.
Before coming to the main experience of my last two days in Croydon the opportunity is taken to mention the excellent third episode of the new series of Who do you think you are? with Minnie Driver, now a 43 year single parent with a four year old boy and living in California. This proved an excellent episode as Minnie discovers about her father and his parents and other family members. She is the product of a relationship between her mother who we meet, a former couture model and designer and Ronnie Driver, born in Swansea but whose family originated from Yorkshire.
She discovers that at he age fo 18 her father participated in the first major bombing raid of World War II in which half the flying crews of 120 men did not return. He received the second Distinguished Flying Cross of the War for first putting out a fire with his gloved hands which could have engulfed the plane and during a time when the gun turret in which he sat had all its perspective destroyed leaving his feet dangling in the open air. His plane had to be ditched into the sea and he had been responsible for getting out the life dingy and getting the surviving wounded crew to safety all but his closest friend who died and was left on the plane. Minnie meets the last survivor of the raid, a ground mechanic and who knew her father.
She did not understand why her father never referred to to the award and in fact is said to have thrown the medal into the Thames because he felt he did not deserve it. With the help of military historians she learns that because the raid was something of a disaster his bravery had been put in the spotlight and was give national as well as local press attention including of him showing his medal to his mother, the first time Minnie had seen a photo of her grandmother She learns that the father had two periods in psychiatric units before returning to the airforce, gaining promotion and marrying the daughter of the then Managing Director(?) of Cable and Wireless. The wedding photo uniform makes no reference to the DFC.
She is also able to learn something of her grandfather and in fact although her father’s parents had married after they both became widowed/widower they were not when he was born. She learns that his father’s job had taken him around the country hence the birth in Wales. She is able to uncover a same generation cousin loving in Stockton or was it Darlington although he is twice her age and from her in addition to gaining a photo of the grandfather she learns that he had a half brother who was a repertory theatre actor who married musical actress and that they had a daughter who also performed on the stage. Respecting the woman’s wish not be filmed there is a telephone conversation although it is evident there was also subsequent direct contact.
Minnie has had a successful film and TV career nominated for an Oscar for her role in Good Will Hunting She is noted for having a high profile relationship with its other star Matt Damon afterwards. She subsequently disclosed that her child’s father is a writer from the TV Show The Riches in which she starred in its 20 episodes with Eddie Issard.
