1784 Generations, Wallander, Shadows in the Sun and a Western

After watching an episode of the original Wallander series last night between 9 and 10.30pm I decided to look in on the first of the three programmes about people who were bringing up or had close relationships with their grandchildren. Despite knowing that I could watch the programmes on the i player at a more convenient time I stayed engaged with the programmes until 1.30am. Although clearly staged and strongly edited the three one hour programmes about three different family situations were outstanding.

The focus of the first programme was Ian Batten who took his seven wide age range grandchildren on a day out at the seaside. Ian was presented as a successful clothes designer for men and women in the USA, Italy and Japan as well as the UK who became a parent in the sixties and who admitted as did his children as having a laid back liberal approach to parenthood as he has had to life. Now in his sixties, he lives with a girl a third of his age in a small flat and appears to only see his grandchildren from time to time, bringing them presents from his travels abroad. While aspects of his lifestyle do not fit in with the contemporary attitudes, the programme was noteworthy for the warm good feelings and relaxed approach of the children towards their father, although they admitted they had become stronger disciplinarians, setting clear boundaries for their children, who nevertheless appeared to have become creative individualists.

My reaction to the programme was that no one was harmed by the exposure and everyone came out well although I felt we were getting one slice of the story of Mt Batten. It is interesting that Mr Batten does not yet have a Wikipedia entry. However his children and grand children communicated themselves as intelligent, loving individuals whatever experience they had had to undergo in the past.

There were aspects of second programme which alarmed me considerably in terms of the impact upon the two grandchildren in question although it is to be hoped that the programme enabled the grandparents and grand children to sort out the understandable problems which have arisen from the great tragedy that had beset them. Val and Ron Little were required to take on the care of two of their seven grandchildren, after their mother was killed by their father, a paranoid schizophrenic, who was committed to a psychiatric institution, but is now released and seeking to have contact with his children.

The programme highlighted the strong emotions which the grand parents and grand children have about their predicament. The grand parents had been looking forward to developing their own lives in retirement as well a enjoying relationships with all their children and grand children and there was resentment at having to give this up to concentrate on the two children, especially when the eldest became a Bolshie teenager, particularly towards her grandmother, who was able to give as much as she got. However never far away from the day to day experience was the fact that the girl has lost her mother in such dreadful circumstances and grandmother her daughter. The daughter appeared to accept that her father had been ill and wanted to have a relationship with him while understandably the grandparents remained concerned about the extent of his recovery. I would have been surprised if the girl had not exhibited problems arising from her situation and my concern remains as to how she will view the exposure in later life. I would be surprised if the programme makers had not gone to great lengths to be certain that good and not harm came out for the two generations of participants. It was great TB+V but my reservations about this programme being shown remain.

The star performance of the evening, after that of Wallander and his daughter, was from Avril Pengilly a 78 year old who had given up her home to help look after two grandchildren of the daughter from her second marriage after her husband died several years before. While not hiding the sense of loss after the death of the love of her life and losing the independence of her own home Avril demonstrated the ability to become a valued member of her daughter‘s family and retained a separate life both within house and the local community where she had been a teacher and continued to play an active role. There were several great moments but for me it was that which occurred during the return to Clovelly where she had gone with her three children after her first marriage ended. She nearly fell flat on her face stumbling on the cobbled roadway. She had already fallen in the house and broken her arm. This time she managed to regain her balance. Having fallen over four times during the past two years and had a couple of near misses, I understand only too well that even with taking extra care most of the time it only takes one moment’s lack of attention and a fall can create major problems, especially as in my case, I live on my own. Yet as her daughter stated in the film, it is this refusing to accept that one has become old which prevents one from getting old old, or least that is what I keep telling myself

The Wallander episode was also excellent, in major part because of the development of the relationship between father and daughter after her relationship with a colleague at the station ends. The story involved an American World Food Organisation volunteer who is murdered after coming to the country to visit a photographer with whom she had has had contact Afghanistan or was it Iraq, after she has been expelled for alleging being involved in the disappearance of small national treasures. She is also found to be pregnant and the photographer who has a police record is the obvious suspect. The husband, an academic comes to identify the body and strikes up a relationship with Wallander. As a consequence of good work by his daughter in particular and information from the wrongly accused photographer the mystery is resolved with the husband the culprit having killed his wife when she found out he was behind the theft of the national artefacts.

I also viewed the previous episode shown while I was in London called the Tricksters which was about blackmail (what we do and who we do it with lives with us and for eternity) In this instance the culprit is the husband of one of the blackmail victims. It is during this episode that Wallander has an affair with a Doctor whose husband and adult children are away. He wants the relationship to continue but she sees it more as interlude. In the most recent episode he attempts to progress the relationship but she refuses. He and his daughters settle for each other‘s company one evening

I have also watched a western, the Dragoon Wells Massacre 1957. Dennis O’Keefe is an army captain who survives an Indian attack along with an Indian Trader and who then encounters a Sheriff transporting two gunmen being taken for trial and a stage coach on which his young girl friend has decided to go back East with someone else. They join forces in an attempt to get to a staging post to summon help, without realising that the Indians are friends of the Indian Trader who has 25 of the famous Winchester 45 repeating riffles and ammunition for them, as well as Whisky. While the group discover this treachery, they face increasing dangers as first the trading post has been destroyed and then the nearest fort and where the sole survivor is a child. The core of the film is the relationship which develops between the military officer captain and a worldly saloon entertainer and between his former girl friend and one of the gunmen, played by Barry Sullivan. Because of heroic actions and an understanding of the background and nature of the gunman’s killing the Sheriff lets him go as the end of the film and he rides off into the sunset with the girl. In the final words of the films the girl offers to accompany the gun man, “ for as long as you want me,” which in my book gives the film that touch of reality which made it of interest despite the familiarity of the story line.

A very different film is Shadows of the Sun 2009, not to be confused with another film with the same name set in Tuscany. This film also has some splendid photography and tells of the last days of a grandmother, played by Jean Simmons, with James Wilby, her son and his two children. The plot, in so far as the film needs a plot, because it is a story of old age, and relationships between generations in the mode of Merchant Ivory, is that the son has come to persuade his mother to sell the family home, a home in which his father’s ashes have been buried in the grounds and where his mother hopes that hers will lay alongside. His mother has already sold a collection of first editions in order to keep the property going and the son wants to sell the property so he can be closer to her ans she and he to his children who live separately with their mother..

The sub plot is the relationship between his mother and a young male traveller who earns his keep helping with the local fishing and doing odd jobs around the house. He also establishes a relationship with the son and then seduces the daughter. He saves the life of the son from drowning who has reacted on finding out that the closeness of his relationship with the young man has been overtaken by that with his older sister, During the film the son has encountered a group of Shakespearean actors rehearsing on the beach having taken a nearby property for the summer and they come and perform scenes for the grandmother before her death. The level of writing, characterization and acting is at a fine level and I liked the way the family appreciate what has happened between his daughter and the traveller advising her that she does not need to tell her mother unless she wants to. He respects and understands the importance of the event to his daughter and that she needs to work out her feelings
I am not surprised the film has been shown on TV and to DVD without a cinema release. It would not fit into the taste of the summer holiday thrill seeking young people or the weekend teenagers and dating young men and women. I was unclear if at the end if father remained at the home after the children returned to live with their mother in order to try and save it for the family or for it to be sold.

In the last of the three films about Grandparents what struck me most was the sense of continuity and looking out for each other that exists in the village. While the sad reality is that in all marriage one partner dies before the other, too often the choice is between living in isolation in the family hope and giving up independence and possessions to share a home with children, or to be restricted to the loss of most things and live in residential care among strangers. Growing old can be a sad and challenging experience

1783 World War 1 Survivors, Harry Potter, The Explorers and Cricket

On Sunday evening, 9th August 2009, a week ago, a BBC documentary tribute was paid to five men who were members of British armed forces and had survived the first world war, the war to end all wars and lived for over one hundred years. Shortly before the programme the last man to have seen action in the Western front, Harry Patch, died, July 25th, aged 111. He had become the third oldest man alive, the oldest man living in Europe and one of the oldest 70 oldest men recorded.

The others featured in the programme were Claude Choules who died at the age of 108, a man who served for forty years in the Navy from 1916 and went to Australia after the second World war with his wife of 80 years, the 8th longest marriage recorded. Arthur Halestrap also served in both World Wars, serving in the Special Operations Executive and lived to 106. William, Sandy Young who served in the First World War was captured by the Japanese in Borneo and survived a P.O.W camp and learnt only at thee end of the war that his wife and son had escaped to Australia. He lived for 107 years. Bill Stone was a seaman who served in both wars and lived to 109.

Henry John “Harry” Patch was born on 17th June 1898. Harry was born in Somerset, His father was a stone mason and he left school at in 1913 and started work as an apprentice plumber in Bath. In 1916 he was conscripted as a private in the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry. He fought in the battle of Passendale (third battle of Ypres) and was injured in the groin when a shell exploded above his head killing three of his friends and comrades. The incident occurred on 22nd September 1917 when he was nineteen years. He was recovering on the Isle of Wight when the armistice was declared.

Harry continued as a plumber after the war and eventually ran his own company until his retirement at the age of 65. He married first in 1918 and his wife died in 1976. He married again at the age of 81 but his second wife also died in 184. He established a relationship for the third time at the nursing home where he lived in his later years and she also died in 2007. His two sons by his first a marriage in 1984 and 2002. Harry declared that if any man said they were not afraid to go up and out of a trench to face the enemy they were lying and as with the other veterans they mourned their lost comrades, the honoured the sacrifice of the young lives and they hated war. He has confessed that when confronted by an individual member of the enemy he could not kill him but aimed to bring him down injured which he did. In 2004 aged 106 he met a German survivor of the same battle, then aged 107 and they exchanged gifts commenting that they were both in favour of a united Europe and peace. After writing his story he used the proceeds to fund a new inshore Lifeboat and then in September 2008 he provide funds for a plaque and stone at the point where he and his comrades crossed the river Steinbeck in memory of fallen comrades and also marks his having become the last surviving veteran of the trenches. He died seven days after Henry Allingham.

Although Allingham did not feature in the BBC documentary who died at the age of 113 years and 13 days. For one month he had become the oldest man in the world. He was the oldest ever surviving member of the war and the 14th oldest man of all time. From 2001 he was the worldwide known face of the First World War Veteran’s association. He was born in 1896 at Clapton in London and his father died of TB when he was only 14 months of age and was brought up by his mother and grandmother at Clapham in South London. He commenced work as a surgical instrument maker and then worked for a coach builder of car bodies. He remembers watching W G Grace playing cricket and seeing men returning from fighting in the Boer War. He did not join up until 1915 as his mother had become critically ill. He went onto serve as an air craft mechanic for the Naval Air Service. He served on the Western front as part of a training squadron and was involved in preparing the first aircraft with cameras for recognisance purposes. He became part of the RAF in 1918 and became the oldest surviving member of the service. He was married with two daughters one of whom survived him together with seven grandchildren, 14 great grand children and one great great grandchild. During the second world war he was involved with providing counter measures against German magnetic mines. He attended the cenotaph with three other veterans to mark the 90th anniversary of the start the Great War.

Claude Choules was the last seaman to, He was born in Worcestershire on 3rd March 1901 have served in World War 1 and the last veteran to have served in both World Wars. He is 108 years of ages and lives in Australia. He Joined the Royal Navy in 1916 and while serving on board HMS Revenge he witnessed the surrender of the German Imperial Navy and he also witnessed the scuttling of the German Fleet. In 1926 he travelled to Australia as an Instructor and transferred to the Australian Navy in 1931. He became involved with Acting Torpedo Work and Demolition and was given responsibilities to sabotage Fremantle harbours in the event of a Japanese invasion. Claude was married for a total of eighty years and until the death of his wife in 2006 had the 28th longest recorded marriage. He has three children, 11 grand children and twenty two great grand children. He became blind and death from old age but retained high spirits and a love of life.

Arthur Halstrap was born in Southampton in in 1898 and was first refused enlistment because of his age but in 1916 he became a signal man and sent to France in 1918 He worked for Marconi after the war and during the second was appointed to the Special Operations Executive where he provided radio training for those who went into enemy territory, He continued to serve as a member of the Allied Control Commission in Germany and then as a member of the Diplomatic Wireless service, He was married and lost his only child, a son in World War 2. He died at Kings Sutton in 2004 where he had lived since the 1960’s.

William Alexander Smillie Young, Sandy, was born in 1900 and lived for 107 years. He also emigrated to Australia but after the second world war. He was born in Lanarkshire, Scotland, the eldest of six children. But moved to Hayes in Middlesex when he father became the manager of a Jam making factory. On his eighteen birthday he signed up with the Royal signals and became a wireless operator providing gunners with information for targets. After the War he was one of those who contracted the deadly Spanish Flu Virus which killed over a million people world wide. He recovered was assigned to the army of occupation near Cologne.

After the war he married and worked in the then colonies, sending his family to Australia after the Japanese attacked Pearly Harbour. He was captured and became a Japanese Prisoner of War as a civilian internee. After the war he was reunited with his wife and son returning for a while to Borneo and then emigrating to Australia..

The passing of these men brings to a close the survivors of one of the worst example of the slaughter for young men in the name of a cause which few of them understood or respected.

The First World is still regarded by some as a conflict between good and evil but for those who spent the final part of their young lives in cold, wet and mud of the trenches it was a Gothic horror in which were victims. On the middle day of the my three day visit I went to see the sixth Harry Potter film- Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. A Gothic film if ever there is one.

Without reading the book(or any of the books for the matter), or immediately remembering the great themes of the series and feeling tired from the outset I failed to understand let alone enjoy the film, falling asleep at one point and missing a crucial explanation. I therefore read what is available on return home and was able to put the film is some perspective.

The World of Harry is a world divided into Muggles, that is you and me and Wizards although not having read the books I am not clear if wizards do more than interact with each other. The series of seven books is centred on a Wizard Voldemort who has become the most evil anyone can remember and has killed Harry’s parents who were good wizards. Again I do not know if we have been told why they were killed and why Voldemort disappeared after attempting to kill the baby Harry and this has given Harry a status as the instrument of ending the reign of terror of Voldemort. I have found out that one aspect of the Voldemort reign was the importance he attached to racial purity that is that wizard should be children of Wizard and not of mixed unions or unions of Muggles Wizards can be born to Muggles and this is the position of Hermoine. Emily Watson, the close friend of Harry Potter(Daniel Radcliffe, along with Ron (Rupert Grint)

In the first book Harry aged eleven is in the care of non magical relatives who treat him abominably, favouring their own child and it is only at the age of 11 does he become aware of his powers and that he is to go to national school of Wizards for seven years, called Hogwarts,. The school is residential and the head Professor Dumbledore takes a special interest in Harry who is quickly marked out as the chosen one .

I feature of the series of six films to date is the continuity of characters, except for Professor Albus Dumbledore

Where the role has been taken over by Sir Michael Gabon after the death of Richard Harris. Alan Rickman plays Severus Snape a leading member of the staff who is a dark character, hostile to Harry, but is someone I suspect of having another side and purpose.

The school is divided into houses who compete against each other and from the outset a rival to Harry is Draco Malfroy whose activities are promoted and protected by Severus. Harry finds life at Hogwarts difficult having lived in the Muggle world and is befriended by the game keeper who is also the Teacher about the Care of Magical Creatures played is played by Robbie Coltrane. Dame Maggie Smith is another teacher Minerva McGonagall the teacher of Transfiguration and Julie Walters plays the mother of Ron and treats Harry like a son. Helena Bonham Carter plays one of Lord Voldemort’s principal agents called a Death Eater and she is the sister of Draco’s mother.

Each film has a similar pattern and ingredients. The young people, or at least a majority of them take a train which commences from London, departing became from a platform with a secret entrance (a platform at Kings Cross was used and became very popular when the first book was made into a film). The train and other places are in different dimensions so cannot be seen or experienced by Muggles in normal circumstances.

There is an aerial game or aerial games where Harry first became proficient and a leader, called Quiddich and in the most recent film, it is Ron who is the star although he needs support when his confidence is shaken by a new rival challenger. Most of the action occurs in and around Hogwarts which has the appearance of an old large castle with moving staircase and pictures on the walls which in effect video screens. Originally when the first film came out but now available on every High Street to display favoured photos and short films of families and. friends Every film also has scenes at a Dickensian Street of Wizard stores which appears to be located in London.

Each book and story is self contained within the overall theme of Harry Potter having a destiny which will involve confrontation and final defeat of the killer of his parents or will it?

A major feature of the films which last an average of two and half hours is their strict adherence to the story and events of each book. The author J K Rowling has sold more books than anyone before, in their hundreds of millions and these have been translated into 67 languages and are a world wide phenomenon as are the films. One reason for the success is the attention to creative detail and the development of the relationships between the three friends and over the last three years their romantic interests and the problems associated with first love and becoming adults. The stories also encompass many of the traditional themes of fairy tales and more contemporary adventures with those of Enid Blyton coming to mind with the Five and Sevens, Tom Browns School days, Alice in Wonderland, Somewhere over the Rainbow Jack and the Beanstalk and such like. Because of the development of screen trickery and the precision of the writing, the wizardry is always credible and the films are therefore not suitable for young children. The most recent film is the darkest of the six to date.

In the first book Harry Potter and Philosophers Stone, Harry discovers an attempt to steal the stone by an agent of Lord Voldemort so as to enable his return to power. The villain is thought to be Severus but is in fact another Professor.

In The second book Harry Potter and the Chamber of secrets Lord Voldemort attempts to come back to power through a diary and Harry’s intervention is needed to save Ron’s sister. Whereas the first film is an exposition of the current Wizard world, the second goes into the history and background, .

Lord Voldemort does not feature directly in the third book Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban but the story concerns the threat to Harry as someone who is believed to have assisted in the murder of his parents has escaped from captivity but in Harry’s world nothing is ever as simple or straightforward as it appears to seem.

In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry finds himself forced to take part in a tournament with young wizards from other countries. The book and films opens with Harry invited to join Ron and his family and Hermione at the Quiddich World games, the aerial game played at Hogwarts and the trio are confronted by the Death Eaters, the agents of Voldemort. Harry success in winning the international tournament despite the Voldemort plot for him to fail and the books also marks the entry of the three into adolescence and all that goes with it.

In the fifth volume Harry has to confront the reappearance of Lord Voldemort and to help him Dumbledore, summons the Order of the Phoenix. A major problem arises when the Ministry of Magic refuses to accept that Voldemort has returned and appoints a strict adherent to the rule book to effectively take over the school putting the school and the rest of the world into great peril.

In the sixth story Dumbledore enlists Harry’s help to gain the trust of a retired Professor Horace Slughorn, played by Jim Broadbent, and entice him back to the school to become Professor of Potions (with Severus switching to Magic) as a means of finding out about the early life of Voldemort who Slughorn tutored when he was at Hogwarts. Voldemort is using the Death Eaters in such a way that the Muggles are noticing that strange things are happening. He arranges for Draco to assassinate Dumbledore before the truth of the background can be found out. Severus Snape offers to help Draco but his help is rejected. Meanwhile there are complication as the trio fall in love with people who do not love them and there is much use of love potions which brings me to the Shakespeare influence and A Midsummer’s Nights Dream.

I slept through the vital moment when Slughorn reveals that through him Voldemort was able to divide and hide his soul into seven parts and that if these are destroyed he cannot return. Meanwhile the first two attempts of Draco to kill Dumbledore misfire and in the third Severus takes over and destroys the head of the school having entered into a pact with Draco’s mother. The implication behind the development is that Severus is related to Draco and his mother and to Lord Voldemort. Dumbledore appears to know what is going to happen and advises Harry to lay low as does Severus because his main role is to come. I have read a summary of the seventh and final volume, so all is a lot more clear.

I also watched another film about adventuring children, designed more for a family audience. The 1958 film, the Explorers, is also about three young friends, one of whom designs a small DIY craft capable of flying into space from parts of a washing machine, a television and fairground ride. Their craft is swept into an alien craft where they are examine and find the aliens preoccupied with TV and a perception gained of earth planet from the television. When this space craft is swept up into a much larger vessel the earth trio discovers that their encounter is with alien young people who have gone for a ride in effect one of their father’s cars. The alien children are told off and the earth trio sent home but with a present. The present is in effect a contemporary today state of the art phone which provides the youngsters with information on how to build an even more advance space craft and joined by a would be girl friend, the four contemplate new adventures together. The films starred River Phoenix who died from a drug overdose when 23. Four brothers and sisters are all actors including award winning Joaquin Phoenix. Another of the trio Ethan Hawke developed into a fine film and theatre actor who has also become a film Director. The Explorers attempts to show that although those living on other planets may look different from human beings they probably have more similarities than differences, although I am not sure if this is a good thing!

The Monday evening moral tale this week was The Street where the subject is alcoholism and the inability of the character to break the addiction although he has tried. He is then confronted by his former wife because their unknown to him mentally disabled son wants to meet his father. The programme shows just how difficult to impossible it is to break the addiction despite the incentive of a relationship with a loving affectionate son and the possibility of friendship with his former wife. The film ends on an optimistic note after the character joins Alcoholics Anonymous and is rewarded with further contact after being clear for six months.

This reminds of an episode of series about a five star Hotel Babylon which reveals the interacting lives of owners, managers and staff at the hotel as well as guests who have the money to get what they want. At one point the concierge attempts to help a drug addict determined to kick his habit to have contact with his two children, but then finds the experience too much and persuades the concierge to get a fix from his dealer. When he does this the concierge finds himself the subject of a raid from the drug squad accused of being a dealer, only to find that this is a wind up from his colleagues in other hotels, The drug addict is another colleague who had been an actor. In the same episode a woman played by Michelle Collins formerly of Eastenders, has the role of divorcee conning her way into a lonely hearts club for the wealthy and well connected and in her distress and anger at being found out reveals to the owner of the hotel who is about to get back with his divorced wife that she aborted their child when the relationship broke up. As is usual with this excellent series there are a dozen sub plots continuing with the main one uncovering the writer of erotic novels which the barman, who finds the manuscript, thinks is written by a female staff member with the hots for him. He is shocked when the author is a male colleague with a profitable contract to write the stuff. The theme of the episode is that everyone has secrets, some darker than others and that no one is a saint or without a past they would prefer to remain uncovered.

I watched part of the second half of the International friendly between England and Holland when James Milner made the goal which enabled a 2.2 draw after Holland had delighted their home crowd by taking a 2.O first half lead. I kept in touch with Durham’s game against Lancashire in which Durham twice looked as if they were able to put Lancashire on the rack, with Ian Blackwell destroying the heart of Lancashire batting after Durham had toiled to a score in the 260’s. Lancs recovered to give Durham only five run first innings lead. Durham then batted throughout the third day into the morning of the fourth to set Lancs the challenge of over 300 runs to win. At one point it looked as if Durham would win as Lancs lost their first three wickets when the score was only 4 and a fourth at 56. However Chilton and Du Plessis had a partnership of over 100 before and bad light stopped play. The two teams were awarded 9 points each for the match, four for the draw and five bonus. Lancs needed a win to have a chance of taking the championship title and now have 130 points from 12 matches, one more than the rest of the Division with Somerset 136, and Notts 139 behind Durham’s 167 and which makes Durham two home games against these two sides championship deciders. First they need to beat Warwickshire this week who are fifth with 116 points. Yorkshire had their first home win for two years beating Hampshire and ending their title hopes while Sussex had an expected win against Worcestershire. Kent look likely to get promotion but my hopes of a match at the Oval and Lords are as remote, as they have been for the last couple of years as Surrey

1778 Saturday and Sunday with TV

This morning, Sunday August 9th, I had one of the moments of confusion when I awoke before getting up when dreams and reality become merged and one is not sure what is which or which is what.

Saturday was a good day, relaxed without the pressure which I generate upon myself before a trip.

The highlight of the day was a performance of Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto, perhaps one of the most popular classical pieces in the world for its romanticism and exhibitionistic artistry, played by the National Youth orchestra, whose 160 members aged 14 to 19 have completed a summer school rehearsals for this performance and the rest of the evening programme as Henry Wood Promenade Concert number 31. This was the first concert by the N.Y.O‘s new young Russian conductor Vasily Petrenko aged 33, having been educated at St Petersburg and rose to prominence in 1994 when he became chief conductor for the State Academy and resident conductor for the Petersburg Opera and Ballet Theatre. He came to Britain in 2004 to conduct the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and was one of the directors to sign a manifesto proposing that school children should be given free entry to a classical music concert to encourage their interest and participation in the music. It was therefore not surprising that he became an ideal choice for the National Youth Orchestra. My prediction is that he will become a long term star on the world’s concert platforms long after I am writing!

The soloist was Stephen Hough born at Hoylake in Cheshire bringing back my time in the county and living at Bromborough in the Wirral, just as the Proms also brings back my first year at work at the age of sixteen when I bought a season ticket for the first 20 concerts of the Proms. Aged 48 he is a Professor of Music at the Royal Academy as well as a Composer, Transcriber and Soloist.
The Proms Internet site continues to improve year upon year with the ability to download the full programme for seven days. Although now hearing the concerto again on the i player while writing this afternoon I did not linger to hear again the two other works by Lutostawski and Resphighi, although they did provide opportunity for all 160 members of the orchestra to play at the same time.

I half watched two films. One in the morning with a mixture of disbelief and amazement was called Treasure Island in Space, closely followed the original story with the same names except that it was Long John Silver and the Space Pirates. This was an Italian production with some arty modern music. It was a hoot.

One of my favourite films is The African Queen with Humphrey Bogart as the drunk making a living in Africa and Katherine Hepburn as the sister of a missionary who gets caught up in the first World War and who together successfully blow up a German gun boat which patrols a large lake after a series of great adventures and hardships which brings the unlikely two together.

Thinking that the late night showing on a free film Channel called Shout the Devil meant a Satanic horror I then discovered that it is a pale version of the African Queen with Lee Marvin as the drunk adventurer with a an attractive daughter, Barbara Perkins, who takes a shine for Roger Moore, an English remittance man who jumps ship on his way to sheep farm in Australia and after an elephant shoot, well the film was made in 1976, gets caught up in the German British conflict in Africa as part of the first World War. The film has a serious side as the local German commander kills the baby daughter of Roger and Barbara in an attempt to find the two men and what they are up to. Lee Marvin gives up his life at the end of the film in order to enable Roger to rescue his daughter who has been taken on board the German gunboat which is in hiding being repaired and where Roger has previously boarded in disguise and laid a time bomb at the request of the British government, and which goes off seconds after the couple escape from the ship.. The German local commander also escapes but Roger is able to kill him before he kills them and all ends happy ever afters.

The weekend was full of sport with claps of one minute before every game for the life of Bobby Robson. I cannot help thinking that the Football authorities are using Bobby to cover up the shortcoming of the wages and life style of professional footballers in these times when hundreds of thousands have lost their jobs or been unable to obtain a first job on graduating from first degrees and professional training courses.

The County Cricket championship has reached the crucial part of the season when the outcome can be determined by the next couple of games. Somerset have now played one more game than Durham who still have a lead margin of 22 and have to play them at the Riverside. All the others except Hampshire who Durham play at the Rose bowl in penultimate match have played the same number of games as Durham. Hampshire 66 points behind the leaders so even if they take maximum points from their extra game and win against Durham twice, Durham still have an overall winning margin. Lancashire who Durham play next need to win to keep the possibility open but even if they do Durham will still lead by some 30 points. Notts are also still there with 30 points to make up. Notts visit to Durham in September will settle the outcome between them and Notts will want to avenge their humiliation at Trent Bridge. All in all Durham remain in a strong position

England will want to do more than avenge their innings drubbing at Headingley within there days. The opening and middle order failed for the second time in three days. Nottingham pair Chris Broad and Swann hit a spectacular 120 partnership before lunch to day to give the crowd something to shout about. Ian Botham suggested that for the next match the bowlers should open the innings, given that they have to score a third more runs in this series than the recognised batsmen.

I must admit I went to sleep at the interval of the game between Newcastle and West Bromwich at the Hawthorns. The Hawthorns suggests a rural or countryside atmosphere location but having passed the ground my memory is of a stadium located within a poor area of an economic struggling West Midlands. I cannot remember why I was passing the stadium at the time. Newcastle started well enough and overall and command of much of the play. However they only managed one good shot on goal which is not surprising given that they have sold off their main striking power of Owens, Viduka and Martens and the Spanish young man brought in against Keegan was rightly dropped after poor showing in his first games. This leaves well intention local lad Carroll a good man but at lower level and Ameobi was Ameobi, unpredictable and more likely to squander any chances than take the opportunity. Joey Barton was brought on for Carroll in the last 20 minuets which says everything. At least they did manage to equalise the opening goal by West Brom who always looked dangerous when they countered Newcastle moves which always failed to reach someone in the box or then came quickly to nothing. They are likely to survive but on this showing mid table is the best they can hope for.

I had a peek on Ipswich under Roy Keane playing at Coventry who beat them 2.1 which confirms my suspicion that Roy has a long way to go before he achieves his ambition of being a top flight manager. On Saturday Norwich were smashed 7.1 at home which caused mayhem in the East Anglian community and the former English team captain Spen who has become Director of Football at lowly Notts City saw his team win 5.1 in their first match and where he has told the coach manager and the football world only promotion into division 1 is acceptable. I suspect that the Championship and the lower divisions are going to be more interesting this year than the Premiership which Chelsea and Manchester United look on paper a cut above Arsenal and Liverpool. The interest will be to see if Manchester City who have bought well for £100000 but could not lure John Terry, have bought their way unto the top four. For the rest including Sunderland their is Premiership survival and the cups to play for.

This appeared to be the confirmed position when Chelsea as FA Cup Winners played Manchester United as Premiership winners in the Charity Shield at Wembley. This was a good match with Man U scoring first and then Chelsea equalising and then taking the lead until the dying seconds of extra time when Wayne Rooney got the equaliser. I had switch off by then and only found out when I decided to find out what was on and later and discovered the penalty shoot out had commenced. Chelsea won this and will take heart under their latest new manager, an Italian.

I took the car to buy rolls for the trip and a cake and some fruit. Shirts were ironed and there was much playing of games with the best effort on Spider patience so that 888 games have been won out of 910, some 97% with the latest run 62 and 241 the best. There was also some telephone calls and emails.

1278 The Shaftsbury Family and memories.

Last night I exercised a good choice in deciding to watch a programme on Chanel Four about the life and death of 10th Earl of Shaftesbury which revealed a kind loving gentleman who decided to give himself to hedonistic pleasure just after his sixtieth year squandering the greater part of his fortune and meeting untimely death a long away from his family and those who loved him as long term friends.

One of my heroes was the Seventh Earl of Shaftesbury who biography by Georgina Battiscombe I acquired in 1974. The Earl is said by Georgina to be among the few where it can be said they contributed substantially to the reduction of human misery and added to the sum of human happiness. He experience an unhappy childhood and was prone to melancholy. He was an aristocrat of the highest order with his mother was a daughter of the 4th Duke of Marlborough. One of his interests was the protection of young children and around 1848 he spoke in Parliament about how 10000 Artful dodgers had been taken off the streets and he was responsible for legislation which restricted the hours which a child could work and in stopping the use of children in climbing inside chimneys to clean them a cause taken up by Charles Kingsley in the Water Babies

As he grew into old age he suffered the loss of his wife and then the death of several of his children. Most men would have retreated into self pity and preparation for their own demise but at the age of 76 he took up new causes and filled his day with sufficient work to exhaust younger men. He supported anti vivisection, the suppression of child prostitution, the improvement of the conditions of workers in India and as a consequence he struggled to maintain the family house on its estate in Dorset.

In yesterday's programme which concentrated on the last five years of the life of the 10th Earl a close friend described how he was shown the vault where the long line of Earls are buried and he pointed to the space prepared for himself. The former friend described the space as dark, scary and lonely and it is evident that loneliness, the loss of physical abilities, the entering of the state when you become aware of the reality of death, together with a combination of economic and social changes which had escalated the declined of his position, and I suspect awareness of the legacy of the Seventh Earl and the expectation of a dynasty of public service all contribution to abandoning his former sense of duty and concentrating on hedonism which appears to have always been a part of his life and which also appears to have been inherited from his father. He appears to have moved fulltime to his home in Paris using his wealth to purchase the time and affection of young women, and then in the South of France where is acquired another property, leaving his estate and homes on the South coast and in London.
Anthony Ashley-Cooper was born a year before me and it can be argued that apart from this similarity the differences in our educational and cultural backgrounds could not have been more different. He went to Eton while I went as subsidised pupil to a denominational preparatory school and then to a school with ambitions to become a public school so that we had an Olympic team coach as games master. I did not know who my mother was for several years and grew up without a father, or knowing of him, Anthony's father died in 1948 when he was eight years of age and therefore may not have known much about his father's lifestyle until later or that there had been a social scandal when he married a model of lingerie and Cochran chorus girl, similar to the Ziegfield Follies. She became and actress and went on to have five husbands including Douglas Fairbanks, Clark Gable and the racing driver Prince Dimitri Djordjadze.
I believe he had graduated and left Oxford as I was about to go to Ruskin College, in 1961 the year his grandfather died and he became the 10th Earl at the age of 22. His grandfather had married a daughter of the Grosvenor family and in addition to management of the family estate and properties he was Lord Chamberlain to the Prince fo Wales and subsequently Queen Mary and the Lord Steward 1922-1936 as well as being the Lord Lieutenant of Belfast 1904-1911; Antrim 1910-1916 and Dorset 1916-1952, with the function of accompanying Members of the Royal family and other dignitaries when they visited the counties.

There is no information when the Earl's inclination to waywardness commenced although a BBC profile sates that his interest in exotic women had commenced when he was at Eton and that had written an adverse comment about the pink champagne drinking debutantes. One source suggested the family had been crippled by death duties but another stats that provision had been made to protect the family from the impact of death duties and that the 10th Earl had been a good financial manager h in the lower millions still by 1990. My interest in the part the aristocracy played in creating social reform commenced while first studying social and economic history on the politics and economics diploma and then with an early Criminology tutorial, assignment after switching to the post graduate diploma in Public and Social Administration and asked to read about the impact of the churches and others on penal reform. I had had some marginal contact with members of the House of Lords arising from my campaigning activities, but it was not until over Christmas 1961 that I had my first direct encounter with the self confidence, outlook and influence of those of inherited nobility and when a few days earlier it could all have been very different.

I had published an article in Isis, the student weekly magazine, just before Christmas which contained aspects about prison and a young man of birth and public school education at one of the great colleges who I had never met telephoned me on either Christmas Day or Boxing day for advice about some of the issues I had raised in the article, having obtained my home telephone number from the then editor, who presumably he had also contacted over the holiday. During the conversation he mentioned to having also spoken with the then Home Secretary. It was an important lesson which I learnt that if you are going to do something set no boundaries yourself until others set them for you.

It could have all been very different if a couple of weeks before I was at the point of going back to prison again when I changed my mind. The Committee of 100 of which I had resigned as member, had initiated a number of separately organised marches and demonstrations on the same weekend and one was t taking place in Oxfordshire at the then USA airbase at Brize Norton and I had decided to act as a march steward but had still not made up my mind about participating in the sit down although I had taken the precaution of preparing a detailed statement about what I was doing and why in the event that joined the sit down and was arrested.

The march assembled on the Green at Witney and the police asked for a meeting with stewards although all approval for the march and the details of its stewarding had been agreed beforehand. The police, no doubt guided by government and political interests, then adopted a clever but dubious tactic of unearthing an ancient law which enabled them to arrest all the marshals and require us to agree on a good behaviour undertaking or go to prison over Christmas. The police station and the magistrates court were located at one end of the Green so we just had to walk over. I was arrested by a polite young officer who allowed me to make my long statement which was of a political nature. When it was my turn as we all appeared individually before the bench of magistrates, the clerk asked if I had said anything on being charged, the young man produced his notebook and commenced to read out what I had said word for word. It was a long speech and part way the Chairman of the bench drew attention that it was a political statement but the young constable forcefully pointed out that it was what I had said and therefore was required by law to be reported. He put some enthusiasm into the speech and it was evident he was sympathetic to cause. Having gone this far it seemed inappropriate to do anything other than refuse the recognisance and I was held at the station pending transfer to a prison. However all the horrors of my previous experience flooded back as I waited and the obvious concern that even if the college accepted my return, the County Council funders of the further education grant might take a different view and after that first term I knew that I had made the right decision to take up the place and not become the first paid organiser of the London region Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. I contacted the court to say that I would accept the recognisance and because I had not been involved in illegal activity that was the end of the matter officially and in fact there was such an outcry about the use of this ancient law which undermined the right to participate in protest marches, that it was never used again.

There was a further twist in this experience which had I not accepted the recognisance would have put in question everything else including that phone call over Christmas, in that half a year later I decided that I did not want to study economics but wanted to study criminology and psychology and through the understanding support of the college principal I was given an interview which led to being accepted on the post graduate diploma certificate in public and social administration course at Barnett House and to my return to work for Oxfordshire as a qualified child care officer, Several of us joined the Children's department that autumn for completed training course and I was allocated to a small team which covered Witney and Burford when I was also appointed as the representative of the County at the Juvenile courts, and if required adult court in the area, including the court at Witney, where over the three years I got to know the local area police and magistrates, and where the Marquis of Blanford, a son of the Duke of Marlborough presided over the court at Burford and his wife the Juvenile Court at Witney. I was reminded of the prison governor of Drake Hall in Staffordshire who had put me on an outside working party demolishing a World War II armaments factory complex and that within a couple of years of my appointment I was being escorted to the office of British Commanding officer of the base to interview an officer who had declined the request I had made on behalf of a court in family proceedings.

There were many inside out turnings during the five years studying, working and living in the city and county of Oxford but a great lesson was to look beyond the appearance of people and their education, cultural and denominational backgrounds and recognise what was common, especially that we are all human mixtures, a point which the 10th Earl made himself during the film on camera as others were also to made and that if one is going to be so bold as to make a judgement about the life of another human being, account should be the totality of their being,

Anthony Ashley-Cooper was married three times, in 1976 to a woman ten years his senior of Italian background which lasted for ten years and then to the daughter of a diplomat who bore him two sons. The eldest, the 11th Earl died with a short time of the discovery of his father's body when only in his mid twenties, to be succeeded by his younger brother in 2005. My understanding is that the 10th Earl always led two lives. He continues to this day to have been loved by those who worked or lived as part of the family estate in Dorset with one person saying that whatever he had done and whatever his condition he would have been welcomed back into the community had he chosen to do so. He had been an active conservationist.

The break up of his second marriage where his former wife was given the family seat as part of the divorce settlement may have bee one factor in his decision to abandon his role as an aristocrat although there is some evidence that he also reacted strongly to the Labour Government decision to abolish the right of heredity and other Peers to sit and speak in the House of Lords. This prompted the Earl to make his only speech and which according to the extract in the TV programme was intellectual, whimsical and embarrassing, and with this he departed to Paris where he changed his image and took to wearing black, I like it I like it, and was soon seen escorting one of the most beautiful of photographic models of the day with whom he is said to have developed into a serious relationship becoming engaged and where he subsequently confirmed he spent over £1million in presents and monetary gifts. She was said to be member of an Italian Royal house but their relationship ended in 2002 after it was revealed that she was a French nude model, a Penthouse Pet with silicone enhancements of pneumatic proportions.

He remained desperate for female sexual company and used an established Parisian Madam to provide girls, willing to pay whatever price was asked. He drank heavily and used other recreational substances and then came the under influence of two exotic sisters well known to the rich and famous in Paris and the Rivera and to the disapproval of family and friends married one, a Tunisian divorcee with two children although it appears he saw himself with a hareem. The disturbed brother of the sisters also joined the household but the marriage failed and he was soon frequenting the bars in search of picks ups. He then met a Morrocan hostess and they set up home together wanting to make her his fourth wife but his third wife wanted a divorce settlement beyond his means. According to programme his third wife and her brother was subsequently convicted of planning his murder for which the brother was said to have been given 150000 euros but his sister and they were imprisoned for life. It was six months before his body was found on a rubbish dump, ravaged from wild boar. It is recorded that an ancestor the third Earl gave the following counsel to his wayward son "The extending of a single passion too far, or the continuance of it too long is able to bring irrevocable ruin and misery."

1275 The Road to Guantanamo and Mexican artists Freda and Diego

Tuesday morning February 5th was devoted to writing about the experience of the Atom and about other aspects of the previous day. I very much wanted to begin the research and learning but resisted, so that after a lunch of rolls with lettuce and tomato, I concentrated on writing the seventeen pages of text to accompany the 116 photographs of my mother during her period in residential care. I defiantly left the TV, the radio and Gib radio turned off throughout the day. The work was completed just after six pm and I was ready for an early evening meal although I had made a butterscotch whip which was eaten over period of an hour at tea time, too much and too sweet. The latest DVDs had arrived belatedly but I first checked what was on TV and Bingo and at six thirty there was a Spanish language film about the life and loves of Freda Kathlo and her relationship with Diego Rivera and I switched into another state of WOW, rushing for a glass of red, a full one to finish the decanter as I had messed up and the cork had gone within the bottle, some olives and lots of dry crackers, and which failed to prevent me becoming quite heady on one full glass of wine.

Although I had and read the biography of Kathlo, looked at a books of photos of the pictures, watched the film in theatre and on DVD, and a subsequent documentary, and undertake a mini work project in which I insert my feet and an index finger upon some of her work in a way I believed she would have appreciated, it was only after watching this Spanish language documentary that I felt I had experienced the real person, partly because of contemporary footage and partly because of contributions from family and friends, and with extracts from her diary. The film's was also matter of fact about the politics and sexual interests of couple and the contradictions in which, she had relationships with more men than women with Diego Ok about the women, but not the men, and then she found it difficult to accept when he had a relationship with her sister. All her paintings reflect sadness, which may have just arisen because of the accident and the subsequent pain she experienced through the rest of her comparatively short life or it may have been something deeper in terms of what she felt about her life and the world she experienced. The film also used extracts from her diary which may provide the answers. I wish I was able to read in the Spanish. The film also reminded something I had forgotten is that she died quickly after she attended her first public exhibition of work and the contrast between her size and that of Diego. Putting to one side their politics and involvement with Trotsky the couple remain remarkable Mexicans as well as creative artists of significance and my affinity with her was reinforced. I must begin to work in oils before this months ends.
After an excellent fluffy omelette with prawns I decided to view the first of two DVDs that had arrived in the post. The Road to Guantanamo was not a film about which I had read anything before or viewed when it was shown on TV in a simultaneous release with in theatre and on DVD, I decided to view before doing any internet searching. That it partly shot in Iran underlines the propaganda intentions of the film, at the end of which I had come to two firm conclusions

The first issue is whether the portrayal of the treatment in Afghanistan after the three young men from Birmingham were captured by special forces among armed Taliban and Al-Qaeda forces and then at the initial and subsequent detention centre at Guantanamo in Cuba was an accurate and balanced picture of how they were treated? Everything I know about what happens in such situations from my own experience of prison in the early 1960's when we were unofficially regarded as political prisoners and treated with understandable suspicion and some hostility because it became known that we could leave at any time just by agreeing not to participate in further illegal activity, from what happened in Vietnam, especially to the captured USA service men and what has been revealed about the treatment of prisoners and some non combatants in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars against Terrorism confirms that although the film is biased it is also accurate. I subsequently learnt that the three who young men issued a report about their experience upon which the film is based.

However my reaction to this aspect of the film is very different from what its authors and promoters would like. When I went to prison, I chose to do so and I expected to have a difficult time from some prisoner officers and some prisoners. And I have never complained or made an issue about that. It was prison and the only way to avoid the experience is not to do anything which could result in being in prison. I was and remain concerned about situation where despite a judicial system in a democracy, innocent people of specific crimes, and sometimes of any crimes, are convicted and are sent to prison, and there is evidence that this happens more frequently in the USA than the UK. I was also concerned in the 1960's and chaired a group of ex prisoners who produced 100 suggestions for improvements to the system which some sections of the media were sympathetic, as was the Home Office, who implemented many of the individual recommendations, because our purpose was to make the system more effective. Because of the approach I took as an activist, and how I behaved in and immediately after prison, that the Home assisted me to become a qualified child care officer, and which probably also contributed to the social service Minister approving my appointment as a local authority chief officer. I have never been squeamish about the physical and mental torturing of prisoners, after all war is horrific and bloody and the dropping of a bomb which indiscriminately mutilates, or mutilating someone with a rocket or hand grenade, an explosive bullet or sticking a bayonet into their guts is horrific and bloody and more people die than survive which is not what happened to those taken to Guantanamo. My objection is two fold. Torturing removes any moral superiority and worse still it is not usually effective in terms of gaining reliable information, in achieving a conviction in courts of law, in maintain public support for the war involvement and in persuading the enemy to surrender. As with capital punishment, and conventional imprisonment it will be disastrous if it used on those who are not guilty of what they are being accused of.

The film attempts to show that the four young men went to Pakistan for a wedding of one of them, went into Afghanistan as voluntary helpers, not realising that the war was imminent and then found themselves among armed Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters. Before reading the film reviews and finding out what else was known about the three from the internet who were captured, nothing is known about the fourth after it is alleged the bus left him behind when he went to the toilet at a stop in the journey, I found their explanation preposterous. They claim in the film that they decided to visit Taliban controlled Afghanistan where it was known Al Qaeda and Bin Laden were operating to give help to the people because no one with whom who they had spoken in Pakistan expected the allies to bomb or invade. At least one was petty criminal with a police record and there is no evidence that they had been involved in voluntary work before and the purpose of the their trip was for one to get married. They were at one of end of the country when the bombing started so instead of making their way immediately out they went to the other and their claim that when they accept a lift, it was to get out of the country rather than be taken into the Taliban and Al Qaeda fighting heartland was ludicrous and I am astonished that so many of the USA internet reviewers were taken in. For once I was pleased to see that my suspicions and reactions were subsequently confirmed as one fo the three has admitted, following his release and the making of the film that the information given by the USA government at their release is accurate. He admits that while in Afghanistan he was taken to a terrorist training camp and he learnt how to handle weapons and to use an AK47. What is probably true that in the absence of any admission or supporting evidence the investigating and interrogating authorities attempting to find that evidence the mistake was to accuse them of being in a photograph of young men addressed by Bin laden at a time where there was evidence they were in England. It is also likely that they were previously trained or part of an activist network in the UK and that they got carried away when visiting Pakistan and went off to see what the situation was for themselves without the intention of becoming fighters or terrorists. This is all speculation by the standards which I set before taking firm positions and that the common sense approach should have been for the British subjects whp were captured in Afghanistan to have been handed over to the British forces and held as prisoners of war until their position could be established under British law in wartime conditions, taking account of what happened when we interned in Northern Island. The complicated nature of the situation and that the law of unintended consequences always applies is demonstrated by the fact that one of the three has a common first and second name, the same name as Pakistani international cricketer, It is also the same name held by a USA citizen and business and used to travelling by air within the USA and who then found that he was on the list o named individuals banned from air travel. Time and time again he was not allowed to board his first choice flight and held for questioning until his identity could be confirmed. It could be argued that there ought to have some system to enable him to be immediately checked and cleared, but then when thought is given I cannot work out how this could not be done without time being taken to check out the appearance and particulars of the individual on each occasion.

1273 55 Days in Peking, Cottage to let, Alive Johnny Cash, Paula Abdul and Boy George

Juggling experiences is a confessed weakness in which there is the risk of missing much in the attempt not to miss anything. This afternoon, after watching a good Derby game between Newcastle and Middlesbrough, ending for the fourth time in succession as a draw, and following a disappointing and losing performance by Sunderland at Liverpool yesterday evening, I was not in the mood to also watch the interesting game between Fulham, with a new manager and a number of new signings deep in relegation, against Aston Villa whose renaissance has enabled them to complete for a place in the Champions League. Although I watched what was happening for a minutes or so from time to time, I gave greater attention to three other programmes overlapping. This was a mistake because I missed a splendid end of game fight back by Fulham to win by 2 goals to 1. I have always had soft spot for Fulham from the days Jimmy Hill, to Kevin Keegan and the ongoing commitment of its owner. However I wanted Aston Villa to win and bring another force to the Top Table, having great admiration of Martin O'Neill and concern that the more Fulham progress, the more Sunderland is at risk of relegation with the others. It was also not a mistake because I also enjoyed the other programmes watched and which overlapped each other. Life is often like this, for me.


The first programme was a war time spy adventure which I have seen before and remembered the plot, the chief villain played by John Mills of all people, as if to reinforce the point that in war, the devil wears many guises, a point which can also be made for the peace. The film marked the debut of George Cole as a worldly child just in his teens whose interest and knowledge of the adventures of Sherlock Holmes proves invaluable in this 1940 play made into a film to get over the message that careless talk costs lives. The goodies included Alistair Sim, Michael Wilding and Leslie Banks.

The Title was Cottage to Let, and theoretically located in Scotland. For two hours and thirty minutes plus advertising breaks an alterative viewing was another showing of 55 days in Peking, based on a true event when the foreign powers in the then named capital of China, Peking, held out against an attempt to free China from their involvement for fifty five days until a relief forces of some 20000 arrived in the city, The film stared Charlton Heston as the heroic lead soldier m who misses out on love but has a good heart when he adopts the orphaned Chinese daughter of a comrade at the end of the film after David Niven as the British Ambassador and organising leaders of the foreign delegations and refused to flee the city and defended the compound against the Boxer hoards led by a Prince against the alleged opposition of the military leader, persuading the Dowager Empress of China, played by Flora Robson that fighting and defeat would be better than continuation domination by outsiders. Ava Gardener, a Russian Baroness provides the femme fatal interest who sells her jewels to provide medical supplies for the injured and fresh produce for the children during the 55 days of siege before an allied force reaches the city. The film was shot near Madrid and employed most of the Chinese living in Spain plus others from other parts of Europe.


The Boxers were an anti imperialist and ant foreign peasant based movement in Northern China, who are said to have slaughtered thousands of Chinese who had become Catholics as well as some two hundred missionaries, predominantly Protestant, and another two hundred other non Chinese in the city. The defeat of the rebellion led to the end of Qing dynasty and became the catalyst for events which led to development of Communism. The rebellion was put down by the combined force of eight nations using 51 warships some 55000 troop and marines with Japan supplying 20000, Russia 12000, and Britain 10000, France and the USA just over 3000 each a differential overlooked by this Hollywood production. The toll was considerable on both sides, with Wikipedia giving precise figures of 48 Catholic Missionaries and 18000 Chinese Catholics and 182 Protestant Missionaries and 500 Chinese Protestants. 50000 Chinese citizens were accused of being Boxers and killed by the foreign powers. Over the past century the Boxers have become a mythological force in which whoever is in power in China has ensured that the history books provide one version of the events. The power and role of the internet has provided a challenge as well as the gradual opening of China to capitalist influences. It is reported that in 2006, a supplement to the China Youth Daily ran into problems with the authorities because an article claimed that history textbooks were not giving appropriate attention to the atrocities committed by the Boxers. Of course the slanting of history books, especially those taught in schools, to one perspective, is something that has never happened in Western democracies nor has the burning of books which gave a different perspective, has it? The holding of the Olympic games could prove a catalyst for world capitalism and that would be such a good thing, eliminating poverty and, disease?


If one does not believe any more in fairy tales a film in a survival series, called Alive, appears to have faithfully reported a true event. In December 1992 a young soldier and his teenage wife and baby set off to drive the 800 miles in one day from their home in California to a family funeral in Idaho, despite concern expressed by parents, and warnings of bad weather. Even when the inter state highway was closed they decided to continue their journey using other routes, confident because their vehicle was fitted with snow chains they would be able to cope with the conditions. They did not have a mobile phone and could not find a pay phone to let their relatives know what they were doing and because it appeared that the snow was clearing they took off the chains to make better time. Because of increasing poor visibility and the coming of night they found themselves stuck in a few feet of snow and unable to move the vehicle they decided to spend the night in the vehicle. They attempted to go forward on foot but concerned about the impact on their child they decided to return to the vehicle only 12 miles from a highway. A shelter was found for his wife and child while the father reversed tracks involving 50 mile journey trek. The couple and their child survived although the parents lost their toes from frostbite. In one the programmes about the event viewers were explained how to be better prepared for similar journeys which could have ended in tragedy, or as constantly warned by homeland media, you do not travel out in such condition unless of necessity, however well prepared.


Another reality test comprised this week's episode of Lark Rise to Candleford which could have been sub titled. Leopards cannot change their spots.


But the event of the evening, was the supernatural phantasm first episode of series 4, number 70 overall of Lost which hit the ground running as we learn that there were only some survivors, or do we, and that six make it a..way from the island with golden passes from the airline company, and that these appear to be, Jack and Kate, from the last episodes of series three and Hurley, this time, who readmits himself into the asylum when he sees Charlie who says that he died but has a physical presence but then disappears as quickly as he arrives. In the future an airline representative appears to Hurley, but who is he really, and then Jack appears looking like the airline representative so what is he meaning of this?
Tings are more clear back on the Island, or are they? Locke re-emerges to give the same warning as Charlie that those on the ship have not been sent as rescuers by Penelope in search of Desmond, and Locke then divides the survivors between those who accept his warning that they should hide in a defensive location while the others join Jack who cannot wait to get off the Island. So from being divided into two groups of humans on the island there are now with Hurley, and Sawyer, Clare and child, Danielle Rousseau, her long lost daughter and boy friend joining Locke who also takes responsibility for Ben, Jack's prisoner who pleads to go with Locke while, Kate stays with Jack as does Sayid, Desmond, and Juliet, Unfortunately one has to wait a whole week for the next episode or does one?


So what does one do then after watching Lost and not feeling ready for bed? Well I overdosed on more TV first watching a definitive documentary about the life of Johnny Cash which I enjoyed more that the film of his life in theatre. Among those contributing was Judy Collins seen live at the Sage during 2007. Wikipedia summoned up his music as full of sorrow, moral tribulation and redemption, He sold 90 million albums in his fifty year career. From the film I had learnt of the importance of the Prison concerts and Fulsom recording, but the significance of wearing black had not registered until listening to the full version of the song Man in Black and his capturing of the feelings of those who served in Vietnam. Or the impact he had with native American where he created the song, The Ballard of Ira Hayes who was involved in the raising of the flag on Iwa Jima , or his involvement with Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson as the Highwayman, but the main revelation was his 90's albums for Rick Rubin in which he went back to his roots as a singer, who had struggled to play the guitar, known as the American recordings, especially those after he developed neurodegenerative disease Shy-Drager syndrome. The excepts showed a man who was able to put to music and words the feelings of being an old man facing his physical mortality. I did not gain the impression that Cash was a great advocate of social and political causes, more than he had the gift of communicating what ordinary flawed human beings felt about things and themselves across cultures, ages and interests in a direct, simple and truthful story telling way. At one stage in his life is reported to have felt he needed 100 pills day of this and that to keep going but he survived until age of 71 years.


The programme was immediately followed by a study of the adorable Paula Abdul, who was a highly thought of award winning choreographer, then dancer and singer, before joining the number one American TV Show American Idol. I learnt that she had married one of Martin Sheen's sons for two years although they parted and remains at friends. This reminds that during the past week I also watched Cadence the 1990 film in which Martin played a role in a film which stared his son Charlie, set in a small stockade as the only white prisoner with half a dozen African Americans, including Laurence Fishbourne. Paula is a creative being with projects of different kinds always on the go and now has her own staff who attempt to keep up with her work and consequential needs. She had an eating disorder and spoke movingly of the difficulty she faced when placing herself in a care centre and having to leave when the media found out but also showing her determination and spirit, returning there again when the fuss had died down.


The final programme was on Life of Boy George who I had planed to see when he appeared recently at the Sage and is a much better singer and song writer than the 1980's image portrays, although more recently his reputation has dived and dived when first he nose dived into substance abuse following the break up of his well publicised relationship with the Culture Club drummer, the high profile made to clean New York Street after the musical show was taken off after 100 days and a reported loss of ten million dollars, such is the nature of Broadway. Whereas the career of Cash spread over five decades, worldwide success came to Boy George instantly in his early twenties, with 45 million albums being sold. As the evening progressed into night I thought of Amy Winehouse and decided not to switch into the Superbowl where I managed to catch a winner of American Idol singing the Star Spangled Banner in a very moving way. I slept soundly with only one waking between one am and eight.


I went with my mood of the day rather than staying up for Superbowl. I also thought of Amy Winehouse.

1776 Wallander and who guards the guardians?

On Tuesday evening I discovered that the BBC has been showing the original Wallender series with subtitles which Kenneth Branagh created several important episodes last year and which was to have continues with further series over coming years.

The books upon which the series is faithfully based have a world wide following and people take holidays to visits some of the key places mentioned in or near the Swedish coastal town in which they are set. Branagh won considerable praise for his work in the first series of British recreations shot in Sweden and I did see one of the original programmes at the time.

It is unfortunate that I missed the start of the Channel Four showing because the BBC appears to showing the originals series from the first programme and I was only able to view episodes 4 and 5 on the i player. While the first programme, The African was excellent and made me want to see more, The Overdose was a brilliant, if at times harrowing account that without in depth scrutiny it is often those entrusted by the community with power over young people who are the greatest threat to them.

In the programme Wallander and his team are called in to investigate the disappearance of a father who appears to have left his son alone in a car at a bus stop. The team find out that the mother is in a psychiatric establishment unable to communicate, self destructive and hostile to help following the suicide of her teenage daughter. Wallander’s daughter also had a history of self destructive behaviour and psychiatric/counselling help which was very important to her. She now works with her father as a police detective and by fictional coincidence is giving advice to school teenagers about the risks to them from the use of drug substances. The talks have been arranged by the school counsellor and during a talk a girl collapses from having taken an overdose and it later appears she had been earning significant sums of money for sex organised by a local small time drug pedlar, or so it begins to appear. When she and her father discover that the daughter of the missing father also attended the same school they begin to consider the wider implications. A third girl, new to the school and having problems of relationships becomes the target of what we the viewers come to appreciate as an organised gang who drug, take obscene photos and then blackmail the girl into have sex, providing with drugs to get her through the experience. At first the gang appears to consist of the young man peddling drugs to school children and another man who drives a blue van in which the sex assaults take place at isolated spots and involving a number of older men who use the girl of the moment on a regular basis.

The only questioning of the reality, true to life aspects of this episode occurred when the new girl target accepts a lift home from the ring organiser instead of waiting for her father, a lorry driver to collect her. He has given her a mobile phone for her 14th birthday and it is surprising that on this day of days she accepts the lift, and then agrees to drink a substance, told it is vitamin C, which drugs her enabling her to be photographed. When she recovers she is told she has to go with men or the pictures of her will be circulated on the internet. She grabs the laptop and jumps out of the vehicle to be knocked down by a passing vehicle. Fortunately she survives and the police are already on the trail of the gang which leads to discovery of the remain of missing parent.

Wallander’s daughter already has come to have suspicions about a school master who appears a disciplinarian always finding fault with the girl who has taken the overdose and then the new girl. There is also the link that all three girls, the original suicide, the near suicide and the new girl are under the supervision of the school counsellor. Towards the end of the film, Wallander’s daughter discovers the attempted suicide girl is not in her hospital room and finds that the counsellor had entered the hospital wearing a white coat and has taken the girl onto the roof and is talking her into jumping. Again there is a query about the ability of people to find access to the roofs of buildings with which they were not previously familiar and the amazing coincidental great timing of her arrival to discover that the girl is missing.

Not withstanding these obvious dramatic creations upon real life, the episode has several fundamental truths. The obvious first one is the general vulnerability of school age teenage girls left unsupervised, especially if they have difficult home situations or are having problems with their personal appearance and body, and, or relationships with their peer group.

This was brought home to me in spectacular fashion on my way home from Newcastle yesterday evening. After the struggle with my case travelling across London and then the homeward trek up the hill on return from the capital, I decide to investigate the present cost of cases, especially the those with retractable handles.

While in Newcastle I had taken the Metro to Haymarket station to view the developments above and below ground and certainly it is a vast improvement although I do not understand why it has taken a couple of years and is several months still from completion. I then crossed over the main road to look at the new University of Newcastle Building which looks completed had has taken up the University Car park which was used by those visiting the Playhouse Theatre. The Playhouse building cannot be seen now from the roadway street entrance to the University Union, and this and other university buildings cannot be reached as before because the approach is being remodelled. I assume it is possible to reach the Theatre from a passageway closer to the Haymarket Station. From the traffic lights and pedestrian crossing there is a passage way used by supporters to Newcastle Football club on match days. This was adjacent to University buildings. I cannot remember what was on the roadside from here to buildings before the entrance to the Playhouse Theatre and Union Buildings. This is now partly a new building site as the University brings onto the main road not one but two major buildings developments. It is obviously threatened by the dramatic growth of Northumberland University with its iconic new building and pedestrian bridge built on the former Warner cinema site. The pub next to the university centred bookshop is offering main meals for £3 from lunchtime until eight in the evenings and where I have visited in the past to view live sport

Still this is all a digression from the luggage search and what happened on the return journey. I had taken the trip because I could not find any seller of luggage in South Shields, except Argos. The problem with Argos that you cannot see items beforehand especially their weight and suitability for the required task. My first call was to John Lewis and this was a shock because the cheapest and smallest of the cases cost £80 going upwards to £140 for the larger items. This was twice what I had expected or wanted to pay. Perhaps it was to be Argos after all. Where Argos has been in the shopping centre is part of developments to improve the central shopping facility in Newcastle, given that the largest indoor and out door retail park in Europe is located on the outskirts of Gateshead, a couple of miles up river. I decided to look in at Fenwicks, Newcastle’s premier departmental store where I expected the price range to be same. What a master stroke because Fenwicks was having a luggage sale with prices marked down by 50%. I was able to but the case I had seen at John Lewis for £40. Back home I checked out the Argos catalogue and I could have got a luggage set for the same price, such is life. Later when I visited Asda they also did a three piece luggage set but not of the quality of my purchase/

Now to what happened on the Metro train and the link with the Wallander episode.

he Metro train was crowded out but I was given a seat by the door as the journey commenced and which provide a view down the carriage. At Pelaw, I think, the station between Heworth and Hebburn a crowd of boisterous young people got on the train. There were five boys within the age range fourteen to sixteen, reasonably dressed in casual clothes which did not draw special attention to themselves whereas the four girls were extraordinary, heavily made up and wearing brief hot pants or the shortest of skirts They appeared to be very excited with everyone talking at the same time and possible drunk. They were passing bottles around which had the appearance of soft drinks but the behaviour suggested otherwise.

I do not know what happened but it looked as if a middle age couple spoke to the driver, on leaving the carriage at Hebburn about the behaviour of the young people and one young man, a boy, wearing glasses a looking academic, pounced onto the platform and hurled foul mouth abuse towards the couple who had left the train. It is the worst such outburst I have heard for many a day. My impression is that the driver invited the young people to leave the train or he would arrange for them to be taken off. The train moved on but later another group of young people similarly dressed got on the train and got off at South Shields.

I used to see a large gathering of school age young people attend an early evening disco at a nightclub venue on my way to visiting my mother when she was in residential care. The venue which is outside the area where the establishments are now located has been closed for a couple of years and the building is up or sale.
Apart from the size of the queue the young did not attract attention because of the appearance or behaviour. The event seemed to be a good idea although it was obviously a way of getting the youngsters into wanting to attend the adult evening events in the future. One wondered about the scrutiny to ensure that alcohol and drugs were not brought in.

I take the first compartment of the metro trains because it enables me to get out close to the access past the former railway station which leads to my part of the Law Top and which cuts out the first part of the hill. I come out adjacent to Station Taxis where I noticed a police car and then across the street next to Wetherspoon’s pub there were more of young people in terms of dress who had been encountered on the Metro train. They were making their way to Dusk at night club set back next to Wetherspoon’s and a former Working Men’s club. There was also a mobile police CCTV unit vehicle. The clothing of some of those was fluorescent which seems sensible in a darkened dark club atmosphere. I was also surprise at the number of security men who were outside vetting everyone as they entered. This was Ibiza South Shield’s style and using the language of my youth it was way out man, really way out!

The first Wallander episode viewed is called the African and follows the discovering of a body on a goods train which is sent back from somewhere in Europe when discovered and the investigators are able to determine the time of death as before departure of the train. Wallander is on leave checking out a weekend holiday stay and the owners of the property are found to be an old school friend who has become a leading politician with the prospect of a government position if the his party win the coming General Election. This tale is comparatively simple although the solving of the mystery interesting, The politician used to work in Africa where it emerges he unintentionally kills a black mother with whom he was having a relationship. The son and a friend come to Sweden where they blackmail the politician. However the two black men fall out over the money with both shooting and wounding each other, one fatally. The twist in the tale is that the surviving African man has established a relationship with a wife and mother who harbours him at the family holiday home where she moves to after being ejected from the marital home by her husband. The situation is resolved and the children reunited with their father, but the series always draw attention that there are s victims who pay a high price for the behaviour of others.

As a secondary story is the relationship between Wallander and his boss and their relationships, he with his boss and she with a work colleague. While daughter and work colleague share a home the relationship is more one of close friends than lovers with a future together. There are problems when the male colleague has other relationships however casual. Father is unhappy about their relationship because of the implications for their careers given the prevailing rules about such situations. However he has more to worry about as during his annual health check up following heart attack the possibility of prostate cancer arises with further investigations and a period of waiting for the results of the tests.

Father meets up with his daughter after she has been single handed sailing and she gives him a letter which she has carried around all day, and which unknown to her gives information that the tests have proved negative and he is clear. On reflection I think this story line takes place during the Overdose episode although aspects are included in both stories.

I did try and find out more about Dusk and the school age rave. Dusk is a comparatively new night club in South Shields of which has two floors providing different kinds of scenes and music and appears to be one that is surviving along with the twin clubs of Roxanne and Vogue and the 70’s and 80’s Glitter Ball. The Cayote has closed although appears to function as a bar. The clubs appear to only open at weekends for or two nights a week. There was no web site for Dusk although someone had a Myspace page, someone else photographs and various reviews. The Shields Gazette runs a competition offering a taxi, pre club drinks at a bar and then free entry and sparkling wine on arrival said to be worth £100. Reviews and comments from some young participants match the clothing and languages experience on the Metro train, only less comprehensible. The main complaints are about the music and rivalry between different clubs including the Hanger in Sunderland

This brings me back to the vulnerability of young people especially teenage girls and the main message from The Overdose. The greatest threat to the young women came from the School Councillor and a master because they were paedophiles who not only used the girls but were in a position of authority to identify victims to those who organised the ring. There is always need to ask Who guards the Guardians?