Le Carrés Smiley's People TV series part 2

George Smiley travelled incognito to Hamburg under a false passport and Circus money which he had not handed in when he retired and kept at his club. He appears to have told no one of his mission including former colleagues at the Circus. He had learned from Toby Esterhase that the way to make contact with Otto Leipzig in an emergency was through the man’s friend who owned a sex night club in Hamburg. This fitted into the picture he had printed out from the negative which the General had obtained from Villem Craven, the lorry driver and son of his brother comrade in arms who had died heroically in the war.

The photo was of two men, naked closer to old than middle age, on the kind of communal bed at such places as the Hamburg club, with two young women also naked. George who met Otto once recognised him as one of the two men and the reader is left to assume that either he had shown Connie or by some other means he had identified the other man as the Russian hood Kirov who was attached to the Russian Embassy in Paris. Smiley had paid an all year entrance fee of 175 marks at the club and an additional 25 for the first drink. He had seated himself alone at a table and given the waiter a tip so that he was not pestered by any of the naked women waiting for new customers. Other customers according to the novel were enjoying their intimate company while on the stage a couple went through the motions of intercourse. In the TV production there is a sado-masochistic couple stimulating play followed by a lesbian couple as he waited for the owner to arrive at 11 pm because we are advised he had other clubs to visit beforehand.

Smiley is given a meeting and hospitality and carefully communicates what has happened to the client of his enterprise with the photograph which he presumed was taken for the customer from a vantage point on one side of the office. Kretzschmar appears a cultured man of no illusion who emphasises that he operates a good business, selling sex where others sell ties, respecting the confidentiality of his clients except in this one instance because of his affection for the General who trusted in Otto because of his past services. Kretzschmar asks several times if Smiley has anything to give and when Smiley says no he says pity. Smiley is able to get information about the likely whereabouts of Otto who has not been in contact for some two weeks which fits into the period when Villem returned with the negative and the General was assassinated. Smiley says he is anxious to warn Otto who he believes is also in danger, adding that he thought the man would know that but had participated from choice, a point with the club owner concurs. There were issues of honour and principle involved.

We then follow Smiley to the home of Otto which is occupied by a young couple who had been making love and they advise where Otto has a boat at a location among a group of camped travellers on the shoreline. They are unfriendly suspecting him of being police but eventually someone rows him out to the anchored boat. Here he finds Otto (Vladek Sheybal) naked, bound hand and foot, tortured and dead for sometime. Before leaving he notes some yellow chalk mark and a line handing over the side followed by a sports shoe with a small packet sewn into the toe and later finds that the packet contains half a postcard. He manages to escape from the site as a couple of travellers take off the boot lid of the car which they fold and place back within the boot.

He then visits Kretzschmar at his home where he is having a barbecue. He had been given a personal card with the information. He explains what has happened and gives him the half of the card which the night club owner matches and then gives him a copy a video of what happened when after the sting Otto confronted Kirov and blackmailed the hood to reveal what he has been up to. There are also audio tapes of what was said. Kretzschmar is distressed by the news of the death of Otto and offers his resources in support including manpower but Smiley says although appreciative he will manage and will fulfil what the General and Otto had in mind. He does ask for the man to book him a flight to London under the name he has travelled but we see him deposit his fake passport in a bin and then travel to Paris by train using his real name.

In Paris Madam Ostrakova has been under observation and threat and on her way home from the bus is pursued by two men who throw her on to the bonnet of their following car. She survives with only bad bruises after persuading the hospital to keep her in over night. Following this she hides in her flat fearing to go out and without food and without as much sleep as she can, sitting in a chair holding an old hand gun after persuading the concierge and her husband to tell any visitors that she gone away to stay with friends. Eventually she agrees to open the door to the concierge who has Smiley with her, just in time as she is at the point of collapse from lack of food and sleep. Smiley contacts his former work colleague and assistant Peter Guillam who features more in the Honourable Schoolboy that the first of the trilogy who is now married, but not to Molly Meakin and whose wife is expecting a child. He is now attached to the British Embassy in Paris but his work on behalf of the Circus is severely curtailed because of the Government policy.

He does exactly as Smiley asks of him. He leaves the office and from a phone box contacts the Paris emergency services to go to the building and while they are there blocking the movement of the Russian surveillance vehicles they take Olga to Peter’s home to be looked after until he can make arrangements for her to go to the safe house of a couple who had been with the underground resistance during the Second World war. He gives Peter the video and audio tapes for his assistant to go take to London insisting that he ensures the Circus meet him when he arrives at Heathrow airport. He provides a covering note and asks Peter to arrange for a meeting with Sir Saul Enderby and his advisers when he returns to London after first ensuring that Madam Ostrakova is settled in safety.

Peter is none too pleased with Smiley when he discovers that the operation to date has been unauthorised and that his position at the embassy is in doubt especially having called out the emergency services. However once he has brought Smiley back to London he realises that the situation may have been justified when a top level meeting within the Circus is arranged at 8 pm in the evening.

At the meeting is Sir Paul Enderby, the new head of research replacing Connie, one Molly Meakham who refers to the boss as Chief. I thought there was reference in the book to the infamous Sam Collins in attendance, now Director of Operations who plotted behind Smiley’s back with Enderby and Lacon to ensure the product was delivered to the American rather than to the UK interrogation centre; also Lauder Strickland, another yes man to Enderby and Lacon played by Bill Patersen. First they show a couple of frames of the video at the moment when the blackmail is revealed by Otto, They are then provided with a transcript of the audio tapes which runs to over 100 pages and where Enderby reads the salient points, This covers that a member of the Russian embassy team in Switzerland has opened an account into which is paid £10000 a month which is the fee for a young woman with the name of Alexandra Ostrakova at a mental health clinic and where he visits each week and then gives a report working directly to Karla and outside all the usual systems and checks..

There is a discussion as to whether George should be empowered to go to Bern and attempt to turn the contact, Anton Grigoriev, and therefore provide a direct route to attempt to blackmail Karla into voluntarily coming over. Enderby is torn between the implications if the mission fails because he does not dare seek permission from Lacon who will be required to go to the Wise Men committee for approval knowing it is against current policy and would reveal the clandestine activity undertaken todate also without authority, and with the glory which would follow if the mission is successful, especially the kudos with the Americans.

He insists that Peter Guillam accompanies Gorge as his minder and George bring back Toby Esterhase to organise the surveillance team, and with Strickland observing and reporting back directly to Enderby. The team stakes out the clinic where the girl, Karla‘s daughter, is being treated and also the movements of Grigoriev who is hen pecked by his wife and has been informed of his mission in the Swiss capital. As with the operation in the Honourable Schoolboy considerable attention is given to establishing the details of the financial account and Grigoriev’s control and direct involvement as he draws cash to pay the fees of the clinic which is run by an Order of Nuns.

There is a genuine amusing situation developed when Anton is taken by the team on one of the only opportunities each week when he is on his own. He and his family are offered a welcome in the west as an alternative to exposure to the interests in Russia who would take action against him for participating in the unofficial use of funds. He is concerned about the length of time he is away fro m his wife and the grilling he will get from her when he returns so Smiley stiffens his backbone and provides him with the script to explain to his wife why he will be late. The ploy is a great success and the diplomat realises it is something he can use again to gain more freedom from the wife which he finds funny roaring with contagious laughter especially when he says that what has happened is looking more and more a good thing.

Smiley then goes to visit the young woman to have first hand knowledge of her and to also find out the strength of the link with her father. It emerges she is aware of being watched by a man in the distance at various stages during her life but without his ever having direct contact. She believes she is Titiana and the daughter of someone important. She hates where she is and pleads with Smiley to accompany him.

Smiley then writes to Karla offering him asylum with the opportunity to be with his daughter and to provide the treatment available which will be able to cure her condition. Otherwise she will be doomed to state institutions and he will never see or have contact with her again. He will also be exposed for his unauthorised activities

There is the final scene where they wait in Berlin at one of the crossing points for Karla to come. At the key moment he seems to hesitate when on the bridge from the Russian end of the Border crossing looks back and lights a cigarette. There is mounting tension and building of excitement as he continues and George goes out to confront him although the two only exchange looks at this point rather than words. The man drops the lighter given by Anne with an inscription and which Karla took when the two met in India all those years ago. The taking of the lighter has been used against George by people like Enderby and Lacon. Smiley had commented to one such recent jibe that it as a common lighter although they had been made to last. He is not seen to pick up the lighter nor is anyone else. Karla who is played by Patrick Stewart is driven off. Peter Guillam remains alone with Smiley and comments “you won George.” George reflects without emotion, yes I have, or words to similar effect.

But there is sense that this far from a victory more the closing of a long drawn out chapter within his life and that he has now to come to terms with retirement away from the Circus and his life as a Spy and Spy chief. He is to make one more appearance in a Le Carré book when he is asked to lecture at the training school and to reminisce on his experience. He does not become involved in the present.

And what of Olga Ostrakova? When she recovers her strength a little and is able to relax at the safe house George and Peter has arranged for her, there is sufficient time for George to explain to her something of what the Russians were up to though this was before the last phase had commenced so what was said would have been limited and is not shared with the reader. Her main concern is the question: will she ever see or have contact with her daughter again? Gorge helps her to accept that it will never happen and she must find a way of continuing as she had done before. The irony is that this was the right thing to have said when the book was written. It was a decade later that the Berlin wall was breached marking the collapse of the Soviet system. Mother and daughter assuming both remained alive would have been able to meet and if they wished live together.

It was just after the removal of the wall with the reunification of Germany that Smiley was invited to lecture at the training school. He asked not to be invited again. By then he and Ann would have known that whatever had passed between them they needed each other for the present and whatever future was left to them.

Alec Guiness as Smiley's People

After seeing the recent film and read Le Carré’s Tinker Tailor and the Honourable Schoolboy of the Karla Trilogy, I could not resist continuing with Smiley’s People and watching the original TV taped video at the same time. Doing this involved changing video players, cleaning the video heads and readjusting the second video player to the tape. This all took time but was well worth the effort because the TV script brilliantly transfers the book to screen with one if the best assemblies of British acting. describe.

I found the book and the TV production the most dramatic and engaging of the three works and all three can be experienced individually with satisfaction and enjoyment while the three together do form a major work in this genre.

And yet the basic plot with which I was already familiar is a simple one. It is known that the head Russian Spooks, Karla married and had a daughter with mental health problems and when he uses a émigré widow in order to bring her to the West for treatment, George Smiley officially retired for the second time within a few short years is first brought back to clear up a potentially damaging mess that ahs occurred with the death of a former agent, and then alerted to what is happening sets about creating a situation in which Karla is forced to defect if he wishes the young woman to get the treatment she needs.

The difference between Le Carré and so many others working in this genre of writing is the understanding of human behaviour and his ability to draw characters whose outward personalities we can recognise and which in the BBC production the casting was superb. The only difference I can immediately see between the TV production and the book is a slight variation in the sequence of some events to ensure the that TV watcher has a clarity in their understanding for with the book one can stop and reflect or re-read a passage to ensure you have grasped what the author is communicating. As in all three of the Karla novels Le Carré switches from the individuals caught up the main event and the Spooks trying to understand what is happening before they personally act to bring the situation to a satisfactory conclusion.

The work begins with an émigré living in Paris who has reached a level of security although she has five different locks on her flat door. I encountered this fear when as a social worker I needed to visit a family of refugees from one of the post World War uprisings, Poland, Hungry, it does not matter which and had to wait for a similar number of locks and bolts to be opened before gaining entry and was explained that the mother had become and remained a nervous wreck after the experiencing the invasions of Germans and then the Russians. While the fear of the bombs is enough for most of us to deal with, being the subject of not one but two totalitarian and ideological invasions is beyond the comprehension of most of us.

The present level of the personal security of Madame Osktravova, played by Eileen Atkins, is shattered when she is approach by a Russian hood, Oleg Kirov working at the Embassy in Paris who offers the woman the opportunity to see her daughter once more. Her husband a nationalist and a Jew was banished to Siberia from where he escaped to the West and then his wife subsequently against all expectation was given permission to join him during his last moments as he was dying from cancer. The price was to leave her daughter behind who was taken into care and who according to Kirov (Dudley Sutton) had become a criminal by running away from the institution. It had been decided to rid the country of the young woman so all Olga had to do was to fill an application for the daughter to come to her in the West and permission would be granted. But Olga was no push over and in Paris she had been in contact with General Vladimir, (played by Curt Jurgens), the leader of the Estonian émigré’s with his chief Assistant Mikkel (Michael Gough) who also work for the Circus as an agent looked after by Toby Esterhase in terms of day to day contact and by George Smiley as the supervisor “the Vicar“. Because his role had been exposed he had fled to London when he had been effectively pensioned off in the form of a grant to his organisation, after the coup in which Saul Enderby, of the Foreign Office had become the permanent head of the Spooks and gained his knighthood after and despite George’s success in the saga of the Honourable Schoolboy.

In addition there had been a Political change with the policy decision taken to end the clandestine activities of the Circus in general including those of the émigré’s considered out of touch with reality and a nuisance in terms of the official attempts to establish better relations with the Soviet Union and is occupied territories. I remember articles and news programmes which from time to time painted an unsympathetic picture of these aging individuals clinging to past and scheming for something which most commentators considered unrealistic. This of course may have been a double bluff, presenting one government position for International consumption while behind the scenes everything was being done to bring about the collapse which took place against all general expectation.

In this instance Olga writes to General about what had happened and that no daughter had arrived. The General makes contact with an associate in Western Germany Otto Leipzig someone who had worked for Karla directly and had become a double agent, a fantasist at times, a racketeer and a pimp but who had provided valuable information over time about the Russian operations and is a personal friend of the owner of a sex night club in Hamburg.

In the first part of the novel and TV experience all we know is that the General had made contact with a European Lorry driver based in England and accompanies him on a journey to one of the ports bringing with him a bag/basket filled with oranges and that he is to meet someone on a ferry with a copy of the previous day’s paper who will place a folder of film negatives on top of the basket which he must bring back.

Later we learn that the mission had been carried out by Villem the son of a literal brother in arms of the General who had died a hero in the war and brought up by the General who he had come to regard as father rather than an uncle. He had married to Stella, a British woman, played by Maureen Lipman who wanted her husband to have nothing to do with the past, especially now that he got a well paid job and was planning to buy their own home. She had effectively banned all contact with the General so when Smiley arrives as part of his clean up operation and to establish what happened, she first denies her husband is present and then is shocked to learn that the two had contact with the general accompanying him to the coastal port with the basket giving him the instructions and then visiting on his return while his wife was out the house to collect the negatives.

The negatives had been passed to him by Otto who had also been to Paris to warn Olga she had to be careful. The General had replied to her letter sending her the torn half of an unused postcard. The man he would send would slip the other half of the card under her door so she would know it was someone she could trust and who she nicknamed as the magician.

Back in London the General had become very excited on receipt of the negatives. In one of the early parts of the book and TV production he attempts to ring George who he knows as Max at the Circus. But Max is long retired and the young man, Nigel Mostyn (Stephen Riddle) a recent recruit but sufficiently experienced to have heard George speak at the training school, had taken the call on a special phone used exclusively for contact from the émigré’s and other pensioned off agents. Mostyn asks the General to ring back (when his section head gets back from lunch) but the man does not return until later and then goes off for long weekend leaving Mostyn to deal with the situation himself.


Mostyn has checked the simple data record system which informs who the general is and who Max is and although this is not stated in either the book or TV production it can also be assumed he checked who the Sandman was. In addition to be told to deal the situation himself he had been told not to contact Smiley because the superiors knew how Smiley would react and because he was part of the former Order which the new political master had effectively abolished.

The General had insisted on Moscow Rules, the traditional spy craft of leaving nothing to chance. He had arranged a safe house close to Hampstead Heath where he had bread Vodka, black bread, a salami type sausage, gherkins and the proceeded to the heath and a particular hut where he had placed a drawing pin/ The General had paced a chalk mark to say all was well and he would proceed to the safe house while Mostyn had gone to the house to wait for General who had not arrived. His body was later found with his face half blown away.

It was at this point that Sir Saul had contacted Oliver Lacon, the Cabinet Office link, another super casting, with Anthony Bate, and his tendency to talk in platitudes and a lack of insight into people or understanding of the world beyond his limited public school Oxbridge experience. He wants the matter cleared up in such a way that the General never had any connection with the Circus and with no loose ends to be followed. As his “vicar” Lacon also argues that the man’s death could be said to have been Smiley’s responsibility. The Circus had been damaged enough by the recent past and was in the political doghouse so that any new scandal would cause it broken up further or abolished. There was now a committee of wise men who had to approve anything and everything in advance. Lacon as does the equally awful Saul Enderby later played in this instance by Barry Foster also ask Smiley about his wayward but influential wife and well connected wife. Is she well, is she with him or away up to her tricks. Smiley would prefer no reference and when they want to get under his skins they refer to her relationship with the traitor Bill Haydon fearing that if Smiley and confided in his wife and she with Haydon then the info would have gone straight back to Moscow.

Mostyn who appears a good and sensible lad leaves the service because he has lost his first agent. In TV series Enderby says he tried to get Mostyn into the BBC but there was not interested so he had gone into a Monastery. In the book when Mostyn reveal to Smiley the conversation was taped Lacon stamps on the young man saying this is a confidential development and Smiley is no longer part of the time but it is a move to prevent Smiley learning what was said. Smiley gets the information Mostyn privately that the General had said he was able to deliver the Sandman and that he had two proofs. The reason Karla is called the Sandman is because everyone he comes into contact is sent to sleep!

When examining the body and tracing the evidence of the man’s walk along paths through the Heath Smiley notes that he is shot in the face, a Karla trade mark to serve as a warning. He also notes that although it is evident from the foot pattern that the General had hurried when he knew someone was following he had stopped at one point before continuing to where the actual assassin was waiting for him. Smiley is shown the body and the route by Michael Elphick who plays the police Chief Superintendent who has been instructed to cooperate with Smiley who is not there so to speak and has to leave the scene before the press arrive.

The following day he inspects the flat of the General in the hope that there is evidence to help him learn what the émigré leader was working on and he notices a large pack of French cigarettes which we later learn had been bought as a present by Villem. Previously he had inspected the contents of pockets of the General which had been placed in plastic bags. This included a receipt for a taxi which at over £17 indicated a long or length journey and which after bribing the driver revealed that he had taken the General to the home of Villem Craven stopping off to by a toy for his Godson on the way and then waiting an hour to collect him to bring him home. There was no cigarette packet although the General was a chain smoker.

He also returns to the Heath and explores the undergrowth at the point where he stopped when knowing he was being followed and then spots a packet of French cigarettes placed in branch of tree. It is only later that he carefully examines the picture from the negative which he develops at his home. Before this he visits the office of the General to express his condolences to Mikkel and to Mikkel’s wife who works as a secretary clerical officer and who is known to be one of the many women with whom the General had a relationship. He has been told that Mikkel had been trying to get in with Villem following return from his mission and the General’s visit to him about the £50 he had loaned and which Villem said he had returned to the General, Smiley speculates whether Mikkel had spoken to the enemy out of ambition to replace the General and because of the relationship with the man’s wife. Similarly he had questioned Villem and his wife to check that had not betrayed the man.

There was one piece of information learned from the General which had confirmed Smiley’s concern from the outset that the General had asked for him and not his first contact Toby Eaterhase given that he had been such a stickler for standard procedures. He had expressed great disappointment about Toby some two weeks previously.

This Smiley follows up when he visits the dodgy art gallery Toby now runs following his retirement. Toby Eaterhase is a central European who Smiley rescued and recruited when they were both young men and Smiley a fieldman, In Tinker Tailor he had become head of the pavements artists those who conduct human surveillance and a member of the fifth floor confidants of the former chief, of Haydon and the others. He had been leaned on by Smiley to become his man in setting up the unmasking of Haydon and was played in the film by a David Suchet of Poirot fame as a pathetic wimp who runs with the hares and the hounds according to appears to be winning. In the TV productions he is played by Bernard Hepton who went on to play the leading role in a wartime underground series based in Belgium whose name escapes and I am too lazy to check.

His portrayal is of a confident con man selling fakes and besieged by creditors. He admits that the General came to see him with the proposition that he should go over to Hamburg to collect the proofs that Karla had created a legend, a fake history in order to place a spy using the identity of the child of an émigré and that he had arranged for the Russian hood Oleg Kirov to be blackmailed by his friend Otto Leipzig with the help of sex night club owner Claus Kretschmar. Toby had rejected the request because he had no regard for Otto and did not want to get involved again having been pensioned off.
George makes one further visit in which he is officially discouraged from doing. He goes to Oxfordshire to see Connie Sachs) played by Beryl Reid, as he had done in Tinker Tailor then bringing her back to work for him in the Honourable Schoolboy. Now she is disabled running an animal sanctuary with the help of a former female member of the Circus who had a breakdown, Hilary (Norma West), who is alarmed at the visit of Smiley fearing is it going to upset the secure existence she had developed with Connie. He presses Connie and her failing memory who confirms his own understandings that Karla had married but had been responsible for the execution of the woman when she commenced to question the regime. They had a daughter that Karla had raised at arm’s length and who had become psychological disturbed.

I am not sure at what point we get to meet Anne his wife, played by Sian Phillips who also plays the same role in the first book but who is only seen briefly from behind in the film. In the book she rings Smiley seeking his company at but he is unable to invite or go to her, fully engaged and anxious that anyone who may have knowledge of the legend is likely to be eliminated. In this TV adaptation he visits her at her father’s home to explain that he is going away and that she had best remain where she is and that he is arranging for two men to provide security day and night. She asks if he is unable to tell her what is going on because of her affair with Bill Haydon.

Smiley has the technique of never answering anyone’s questions, says goodbye and goes to Hamburg.

The ancestry of Tracey Emin and Leo Goodman

The last two episodes of the 2011 series of Who do you think you are gems. Len Goodman communicates as a kind fatherly chairman of the Come Dancing Panel in which celebrities dance with established champions and teachers from around the world just as they do with Torvil and Dean in Ice dancing series, demonstrating courage and hard work as well as no mean skill in some instances.

Goodman has always come across as an ordinary East London lad made good but in fact he was born in Bromley and now runs his dance school in Depford. When he left school he became an engineering apprentice and only took up dancing after injuring a leg playing football. He became a professional competitive dancer and won the British Championship in his late 20’s and then turned his attention to teaching. He looks older than me but in fact is
five years younger. Perhaps I kid myself

There were two aspects to his story which in fact fitted nicely with the two discoveries of Tracey Emin in the last programme. The first is that he found one relative on his father’s side whose background was in Bethnal Green and whose great great grandfather had 11 children and lived in the most deprived part of the local community. He committed suicide in 1899, a widower, living alone and whose circumstances were such as to lead him to the Workhouse. The fear of the workhouse was intense until well into the twentieth century and in his instance his father in law had died in the workhouse and who had been an established silk weaver, a member of the City Guild and a Freeman who worked in Brick Lane.

His father had also been a weaver and a man of property with two establishments in Bethnal Green. The trade declined and moved from Spitalfields because of range of laws called the Spitalfield’s Acts which governed the industry within a 40 mile radius of London. The industry then moved out and with further competition from Europe he was forced to sell his properties and he became a docker to earn a living. His circumstances deteriorated and he moved into a doss house with ten others and from there into the workhouse where he died.

In contrast the background of his grandmother proved a very different story with the surname of Sosnowski and his quickly discovers that his great great grandfather on his mother’s was one of 212 former solders who became the first Polish migrants to the UK. He was born in southern Poland in 1803, that is the year before the battle of Trafalgar in a country controlled by Russia. He become a member of a crack regiment of horsemen who rebelled seeking a free Poland and during one battle he was given the highest award if bravery. After Russia regained control the army was given sanctuary in Prussia and when an amnesty was declared for those who accepted Russian rule, he was one of a minority who refused. Prussia massacred many who stayed, detained others including the great grandfather who was then expelled and put on a ship to the USA but because of bad weather put into Portsmouth where he settled and married but also continue to press for a free Poland, became a Communist and would have known Karl Marx when he was in London due to his role in the émigré organisation. Len was rightly proud of his ancestors.

My interest in the life of Tracey Emin commenced after viewing two of her creations as part of the Saatchi 101 exhibition in London at the former building of the Greater London County Council in 2003. There was her exhibit The Bed, together with a tapestry creation above which I found very moving and which was part of a number of other revelations that day, going on to the Tate Modern for the time that same afternoon. It was on the return journey home that I worked out what I was going to do and have been doing it since some ten years.

I have a copy of one her notebooks and a commercial video and wish I was able to afford one of her works contenting myself by following her life and progress as one of the small group of creative artists whose work I continue appreciate and who influence what I do.

Tracey like me was born in Croydon although I was about to leave Ruskin Oxford for Manchester prior to going to Birmingham University at the time of her birth with an English and Turkish Cypriot background. Another time I will to review her extraordinary artistic experience which led to becoming one of the few contemporaries to become a Royal Academician.

She and I her knew nothing of the background beyond that of her grandmother and grandfather who was known as a kindly old man. What she found out about him shocked more saddened it is fair to comment. Like Len Goodman the background was in the East End of London when she now has her studio. However she soon found out that as a boy he had been to Reform School for theft for a three year period after an earlier offence which led to a birching. She visited was in effect a farm school saw evidence that during the period his behaviour had not led to entry into the punishment book. Like many of those in Reform Schools at the time upon discharge they were given the opportunity to go to Canada but although this was under consideration the after care reports that he was persuaded to return home by friends and then within a comparatively short while he ended up in prison. The programme provided information on life in the Reform School and in secure prisons at that time. After than he married and worked until retirement without further conflicts with society and the law.

What the programme found out for Tracey are two factors which would have led the authorities today to take a different view of his needs for care rather than punishment when he showed first signs of anti social behaviour. His mother had died from childbirth just beforehand and his father had been to prison. However it what was then found out about the father fitted brilliantly into how Tracey sees herself.

The first clue came when in the prison recorded the place of birth as a village about twenty miles in the countryside from Stratford on Avon. The next step was to learn that his trade had originally been that of a Besom maker, brooms made with a wooden handle and twigs ideal for sweeping leaves from lawns and which I have owned in the past.

In this instance study of church records revealed that he was part of a family of Romany Gypsies whose children were born in different places throughout the area, living in wigwam type tents which would be set up at the roadside outside of communities where they would sell the brooms as their main means of livelihood. The unanswered question was why the man suddenly left his community and moved to London. It was good to see that there are sometimes important loose ends as I found out in my genealogical searchers. However this was set aside in the instance of Tracey Emin by someone who is making a study of British Romany families and was able to provide her with a long scroll beautifully hand written that showed that she was related to three centuries of gypsy families including some of the most well known.

The concept led Tracey to be speechless. She remains wonderfully child like in her appreciation of life with volatile emotionality and the discovery was decidedly WoW. What her more conventional and traditional mother will make of this or her grandmother if she had become aware of the background is another unanswered story. I was tickled pink.

Fish Town

Over the past two weeks I have watched nine of the ten programmes following the lives of those living and working from the Fish Town of Brixham in Devon. This is a wonderful documentary series, brilliantly photographed with a poetic script and where participants come across as hardworking normal individuals who also like to play hard when opportunity arises. My only criticism is that it filmed during spring and summer and to have provided a more balanced view the film should have covered wintry condition if this was part of the first programme which I missed.

I have been to Brixham during stays at a hotel on the cliffs above around the corner and may have first visited on an earlier holiday when staying at a motor lodge a little way inland. Because my visits to the West Country took place in the late sixties and the mid seventies I did not keep the documentation and paper memorabilia in scrapbooks as I have for holidays abroad or visits to Scotland and Wales and where I know their present location I do have some records somewhere yet to be processed so my memories are visual. Interestingly for me it was the early visits to Cornwall, to the small fishing village of Mousehole, to Hayle Towans and St Ives that I remember most.

Brixham is a small community where the overwhelming majority of residents, fewer than 20000, are connected to the fishing industry and the holiday trade, mostly day trippers from the resorts of Torbay of Paignton Sands and the Torquay Riviera. The town is very picturesque with the colourful facades of the housing as they sharply rise on all sides with everything centring on the Fish quay with its £20 million turnover a year which means that an average of over £50000 of fish is traded every day, and along the harbour quayside where it was said from memory that there are eight of the fifteen fish providing restaurants in the town.

At fish quay there are separate markets held over the 24 hour all year round operation covering small quantities caught by inshore fishing, those who work on day boats and those going deeper and away for a week at time? Some of the eighty strong fishing fleet have contracts such as supplying whelks and sprats by the tonnage.

Each episode is divided between the lives of those who work those who under the fishing, do the trading and those who sell fish to eat in restaurants or to take home from he mongers. The series also features life of a 70 year old who runs a pub single handed a little way up the hill and away from the tourist throng and the separate quayside drinking haunts of the Masters and the crews. She serves no food even to the few who stay on a bed and one bathroom basis over night, back by before 12 midnight lock up and no women into the three twin bedded rooms and one single for any jiggy jiggy..

Apart from the first programme which I missed the series opens with one of the deep sea vessels, the Barentzee where its owner and master takes on a 17 year old who has been out of work for a year since early discharge from the Royal Navy after drunken misbehaviour. We follow his trial voyage in which he is quickly sick but survives it out, works hard and becomes a valued working member of the team earning £500 a week. He is in a relationship with a nineteen year who is pregnant by him and rejects advice from the master that the life is such to make ongoing relationships difficult. The master explained that he had three women in his life with his present partner providing the longest relationship. He had missed the greater part of the lives of his two children by his first marriage. He makes the point that one has to weigh up the financial benefits against the loss of family life.

It is easier to an extent for the wives raised in seafaring families to cope with the way of life although the small Philippine group of sailors who had left their homes, in one instance leaving a wife and three children because they could earn sufficient to provide a better life and save for the future, found the separation an ongoing challenge.

It is evident that from the series in general that if sea going is in the blood and many of the owners and crew covered are part of generations of seafarers, the danger, the long hours of hard work, the separations from families is acceptable. The life is hard although some fishing is harder than others. Take for example the whelk pots which are lifted by hand, one every 30 seconds. Similarly the scallop collectors which have quartets of what look like chains over each side lowered to the sea floor and then dredged over the beds, raised by machine and cleared sometimes catch fish which the crew use for their meals.

Each craft tends to specialise with one deep sea fishing, hunting shoals of sprats through the use of sonar catching 14 tons in one netting comprising a large number of separate bulging “pockets” or the one boat struggling to profit from crabs and lobsters. The knowledge of the individual fishing grounds is handed from generation to generation.

Life on board is claustrophobic so building a reliable team who get on with other is a prerequisite for a successful business. Sleeping cabins are small enclosed shelves and the galley small but the men appear to eat well and regularly because of the shift system with in one three man craft, two people on and one getting a two hour sleep between shifts. Understandably the main space is given over to the catch, sometime stored in boxes with ice, sometime such as crabs and lobsters held in tanks. The quantity of bait is also considerable and this is part of the operating costs.

There is an annual cycle of doing things so in August the vessels are laid up for repairs and refits, including repainting with one skipper explaining that with an income of between six and seven thousand a week the two week lay off means a considerable loss in addition to the repair refit costs especially when the continuation of a sea worthiness certificate is in issue. However there is opportunity to spend time with the family and one episodes features a crew get together with their families.

Another opportunity for families and friends to get involved in the trawler race week. A 17 mile circular race around Torbay involving over a third of the fleet. The boats are repainted and decked with bunting and some of the larger craft have over 100 guests on board with makeshift toilet facilities, crates of drink and party food. There is one large Dutch vessel that comes over annually but where the conditions of racing means that there has to be a Brixham skipped for the event in this instance the retired father of another participant.

Another week designed to also attract visitors is the race of heritage sailing ships and we follow the work of one family who acquired a derelict 90 year old craft where they had over years put their profits into a rebuild, hopefully in time for the year’s race. The daughter, whose mother had hated Brixham and the sea, worked in a quayside popular pub used by the crew. She trained as a yachts woman and appeared to spend all her free time working on the boat while father and brother were at sea. Plans went awry when a mast arrived and had to be planed down in order to fit the prepared socket, with viewers then sharing the emotion when this worked and the vessel was launched for its race participation, with the son returning early with the fishing boat to accompany the vessel on its final stages. The plan of the father is to use the sailing ship as a charter business when he retires in partnership with daughter as a family business.

While the impression gained is that the fisher folk are able to maintain a thriving and profitable business, the lives of those who use the fish locally to earn their living appears to becoming increasingly competitive and the series follows the three levels of cooked fish provision. The busiest in the season is a small cabin on the quayside with tables and where at the height of season there is the owner and four others. Working to supply demand. She provides shell fish reporting that she never knows what will sell from cockles, whelks and scallops to prawn cocktails and crab sandwiches. She is part of an extended family one that runs the quayside Inn and another provides sandwiches. At the end of the series one daughter arranges a monster family get together to mark wedding anniversary and which is clearly a moving event to all concerned with daughter explaining that he had a wonderful childhood and family life and this was her way of giving thanks, adding that without a good family life there was nothing.

A different kind but equally close family life is that of the owner of Rio’s fish and chip parlour providing traditional meals with mushy peas, two slices of bread and a pot of tea for prices which struck me as very reasonable, with concessions for parties and the over sixties. Rio was in his late thirties when he met on a blind date and married his wife then in her early twenties and through the series the couple provided a welcome antidote to all the seriousness with their saucy banter about their relationship and lifestyle. It is very much a family affair as in one programme their two primary school age children were officially helping out in the restaurant and earning pocket money while in another the couple get on their three wheel motor bike after putting on their leathers and go to Paignton to give away leaflets advertising their restaurant and a 10% discount rate.

In contrast again is the upmarket restaurant if an Italian fish quay Trader whose wife runs the venture and where on opening it is booked out so he provides a free glass of champagne. He buys nearly five kilos of prepared monkfish for £47 which he then sells as a curry with portions as a £18 a plate special. Prior to this his main business is buy as provider for posh nosh London restaurants and we followed delivery to one of these and the delight of two diners who were sampling their £40 a plate chunk of freshly caught fish.

In another programme we followed the enthusiasm of a chef who had gone the other way having made his money in London had come to Torbay where he is now runs four restaurants including one in Brixham and where on most days he goes to work on his single handed yacht. He has great enthusiasm for the crab and had launched week long festival the food being eaten on community trestle tables Mediterranean party style. These up market providers are being threatened by a London entrepreneur who had managed to gain planning permission of a new out of character two level top of the range bar and eating house from fish with cocktails to a Sushi Bar. Apart from general horror at the look of the premises the locals ridicule the creation of a Sushi bar in Brixton despite that Sushi is another way to eat fish). The owner of the latest up market establishment was not phased saying they would be looking to go there on their night off and one can understand the rationale behind this development of the Town whose fish restaurants had relied on taking as much money as they could during season to enable them to live during the non existent visitor winters. It is then that the wealth citizens of the great neighbourhood might well view a drive for a good meal along the coast in an attractive port devoid of the common herd a worthwhile activity provide for an year round trade.

The problem which the programme posed is what happens to a seaman who cannot continue to go to sea? One man with back and knee problems advised that he would potentially cripple himself if he continued, opened a toyshop but which he had to close and sell off stock with a half price sale with the rest on E Bay rather than go bankrupt and lose his home. The shop was next door to where a former shipmate who had also set up in business as a fishmonger, a much wiser move, especially as he had the banter, flirting with his female customers of all ages and promoting a naked calendar of local fisherman personalities in order to raise the cash for a quayside memorial for all those who had perished at sea from the community in the past.

This brings me back to the 70 year old owner of the hillside Inn originally bought for her son who then went and joined the armed forces. She clearly struggled to make a financial go and when the series ended she had placed the Inn or the market after consulting a local fortune teller. She contributed to memorial by doing a parachute sky dive. There was also the cab driver whose tummy could not take fish in a town with 15 fish restaurants with eight along the quayside. The problem that the town faced is that apart from coming for a fish meal and walking around the short quayside the town was limited in what it offered. The one attraction is a full scale replica of the Golden Hind complete with gift shop which was also put on the market for someone to develop. I think it was the owner who also acted as the the tour guide for evening walks on ghosts around the town complete with a mourning top and tails and his actress part as a mourning and sinister looking widow. His tour ends at the hillside pub as darkness descended. It is from here that the owner has her one packed night of the year when the quaysiders come up to view the fireworks across the harbour.

Not to be forgotten is the harbour master patrol boat in summer politely telling one moored craft they were in the marked lane for water skiing, a couple in a dinghy that they needed to be careful with the wind which could blow them to sea faster that they could paddle back to shore and the party of revellers who had became rowdy and where there was risk of falling overboard. Similarly for the trawler race the health and safety decision by vote is that the competitive throwing of heavy objects between craft although should stop but they could still try water filled balloons even though it was impossible to reach other boats during the race.

But my last memory will of the sun rises and the sunsets and the shots of town leaving and approaching the harbour. I want to return.

Tremé season 2 episodes 4-6

I combined episodes four to six of the second series of Tremé with a quick look reminder of the New Orleans Cat house based film Pretty Baby which happened to be showing during the period of three weeks. Apart from confirming my continuing question of what was Louis Malle up to in what appears to be a celebration of not just the western style whore house but of paedophilia it also reminder of why there are mixed views within the USA about the city and its heritage and therefore the kind of city which should emerge out of the disaster of the cyclone and the collapse of the sea and more general flooding defence system.

In "Santa Claus, Do You Ever Get the Blues Antoine is hired as a music instructor at an elementary school. It should be remembered that he funked his first visit when confronted by a horde of unruly kids leaving school on their way home. With Christmas coming and his common law wife pressing him to produce a regular income he succumbs under protest emphasising to the head of music at school his convictions for misdemeanours and his lack of experience as a teacher. He is confronted with a situation where because of the financial situation the school is without the majority of instruments or uniforms for any kind of band or orchestra including the marching band which is at the heart of New Orleans culture. The situation is so bad that they are only able to teach music theory and hand and body rhythms which understandably the children finding boring. In a scene in the last episode the demolition crew are at a school where they argue the structure and first floor contents, especially the books, could be used again but they are told that the contract specifies total demolition because of first floor water contamination.

The other aspect of Antoine’s involvement is his continuing attempt to form his own band "Antoine Batiste and his Soul Apostles". In the next episode Slip Away he auditions street musician Sonny who is OK but not brilliant and it is touch and go if he will be retained. One problem is that he needs to continue to work the street to live until the band starts performing and earning money and he is late and misses an important rehearsal. There are indications of continuing drug use. He is warned that it would be wise for him to be more diligent because he is not a great musician, something which led his former girl friend Annie to be talent spotted leaving him on the street. He has found himself a new bed partner but there is still the impression that he pines for the relationship with Annie.

The band is joined by an established showman guitarist June Yamagishi when they debut at the bar of his former wife La Donna still recovering from her rape and general assault but because of his other commitments he is unavailable for the their second gig on Christmas Eve where the female singer as a backing group of three lovelies dressed in sexy Santa outfits. Sonny gets his chance to perform for money. It is in the sixth episode Feels like Raid that Sonny is late again and gets fired while at the school Antoine is trying to inspire the children by getting them to listrn to a recording of Louis Armstrong and his hot Five or Seven. I could not work out if it is a member of Antoines band or a fellow musician that is unintentionally shot in a gang or individual criminal incident and this provides an opportunity for most of the cast to participate in a community showing of respect and solidarity at the funeral.

As explained previously funeral services can include a traditional jazz band playing blues and dirges and they stand outside raising the musical instruments or giving a hand salute as the coffin is placed in the hearse on its way to the cemetery/crematoria. It is after the burial/cremation service that the Second Line Unit is formed when everyone joins in the dancing celebrating the past life and renewal of life as a marching Jazz band plays happy jazz and the Second Line official dancers jive about waving parasols and coloured handkerchiefs. Among those participating is David and Annie, as usual, and also Toni with her new chum the senior police Officer Colson who looks out of place and embarrassed. Ahead is Toni’s disturbed and rebellious daughter appearing to be enjoying her self for once.

I also have to make the comment that I do not like the music played by Antoine’s band which appears a hybrid modern, not original or experimental, not bluesy and forties and fifties swing. It is a gripe that I have about several of bands who play in the series. There appears to be a deliberate attempt to try and balance the traditional jazz played by hack musicians for the tourist economy in Bourbon Street with an eclectic mix of all forms of music to perhaps widen the image. This to my mind is a mistake, everyone knows Nashville as the capital of country music with the Grand Ole Opry House and New Orleans is home of Traditional Jazz Music but not Jazz Music in general with Big Band and Modern Jazz created in New York

This bring me nicely to Albert the cultural traditional New Orleans Indian Chief who spends much of his time creating fantastic hand sewn beaded costumes although as he explains to someone wanting to make a TV documentary fellow Indians do good work for the community although it is not clear to me how they make a living unless they are city or state financially sponsored. The connection is his Modern Jazz playing son based now in New York at constant odds with his father who had hoped his son would play Trad Jazz in New Orleans and also take up his role as an Indian. He must be a pretty good Modern Jazz player because he appears to be able to fly back and forth to New Orleans without difficulty. First he flies to New Orleans to spend time with his dad over Christmas and takes him out for some posh nosh where father walks out, in part because of his depressed angry state but because his son does not understand that he wants to have his own home back and things as they were and because his steak is half cooked. The son comes over soon after to apologise and bring the steak with him, they smoke pot and laugh together.

Delmond continues to wrestle between his music and his roots. He sacked his manager because the man was not using the Internet to promote the music and because he was playing to half filled rooms where people were more interested in their food, drink and company than listening. He has since rehired the manager and informs of his plan for a new record, to incorporate the roots of New Orleans jazz into his modern jazz. His home is full of Trad jazz vinyl’s to the annoyance of his partner and in the sixth episode he gets his group to play traditional music with a modern edge although from my viewpoint it is a thin edge at that and more like Humphrey Littleton forty years ago or the Chris Barber sound today than contemporary concert and lounge jazz, so I judged when he introduced his first creation during his current gig at the Internationally famous Blue Note Club in New York and which now has copy cat establishments in several International cities as well as the ongoing recording Label.

At the start of the fourth episode the TV documentary maker wants to watch Albert at work on his suit but he says she has to wait until the suit is finished. This is in part because be has become depressed, although he strongly denies this, at his situation with the lack of progress on getting money to repair his home, explaining that there are 90000 of them in a similar situation where only a handful has been granted awards a year after the disaster.

In the first series he occupied the bar of a friend but had to move out when the man returned to reopen and to use the residential quarters for his own use. Albert commenced by camping out on the site of his ruined home but by the fourth episode he has established running water after paying his dues to the authorities and also a toilet, However a city inspector says he cannot use the facility until it has been signed off by a professional plumber. Too proud to ask his son for the cash he packs in and moves to stay with friends in Houston where his son visits and gives him a ticket to come and stay until returning for Mardi Gras. He takes his father to a New York store which sells nothing but beads although they are out of stock of the particular item he needs to complete the work he is engaged in. He shows his father the work which represents his father, whose mood is to find fault with everything and most of all everything his son does reluctantly admits the young man has done well.

It also happens that Delmond meets up again with Jeanette who has become increasingly dissatisfied with her work for the top notch nosh restaurant and she throws a glass of Sazerac (a New Orleans sprit based Cocktail) over the foody critic who wrote the article rubbishing New Orleans food. She is soon back elsewhere in the city with a French master chef who has a more laid back style and she is able to get time off when she learns that her former Sous chef finds himself in custody because although he is not an illegal immigrant in the strict sense he does not have his papers when his status is challenged. The French master chef declares that while for all other people he would not a grant a concession for ones Sous Chef nothing should be too much trouble. The odd aspect in this situation as that it is best Jeanette ran only a small operation in New Orleans which would not normally need and therefore pay for such an individual, usually required when the establishment is large and their is a full team of individuals specialising in the various components of cooking at the same time.
Back in New York Jeanette had dinner with Delmond after hearing him play at the club and responding to his playing of the new Trad jazz based number with a Second Line dance. The two met originally at the airport and when they meet again he invits her to attend the New Year concert he was playing.

There are no immediate life changing moment for Davis, the young white rebel who continues to be into everything of the black culture. When he attempt to move into rap he is reminded of his natural white background culture and viewpoint. This does not prevent him persuading his elderly and moneyed eccentric aunt to part with $5000 to fund studio time to make a new record with different style including his rapping. His limitations are brought home when he attends the gig of the rapper Lil Calliope and he invites the young man to advise and participate in the record recording.

Annie gets another invite to perform with an established singer and the woman’s record company producer is introduced saying he is on the look out for new talent although Anne does not anticipate hearing further. A bearded old timer advises that she will get no where until she writes her own music and songs which she talks over with Davis and creates something which is already familiar and is discouraged The two continue to appear to have little in common other than sharing a double bed and otherwise lead separate lives although they appear at the funeral and at an anti violence rally.

This brings me to the work of Toni, the problems she has with her daughter and her budding relationship with the district police commander. The daughter continues to be openly defiant blaming her mother for the death of her father, staying out late without giving any indication to her mother where she is and when she will return. When a master at the school, someone with whom she had had little contact also commits suicide Sofia claims to be unaffected by this death although when approached by a teacher and then by a friend this seems to get her to face what happened to her father. On one of her disappearances she takes the ferry from where her father disappeared and the suggestion is that she had not grasped that his death was deliberate and why her mother was so angry with him and did not want to have a Second Line Funeral as he had Willed. She is still resentful and hostile of her mother although this may be as much teenage assertion of growing into adulthood and independence as blaming her mother for her father‘s death. Toni wakes with a dream of her husband having returned having been on holiday and sitting at the table enjoying a meal as if nothing has happened which underlines the sense that he walked from the problems they were all facing.

Toni is still trying to resolve what happened to the young man who had visited and stayed in New Orleans and was found shot dead and which I believe has something to do we the shoot kill reclaim control of the city policy which was enacted although how far this fictional licence is based on fact I am not sure. She continues to receive conflicting information about what happened in relation to looted supermarket and where the body was located and to the existence of reports and scene of crime evidence. Under work pressure she hands the case to a colleague. However later she is advised that two cartridges founds in relation to a different situation suggest the same gun as used in relation to the body found in or outside the supermarket. A police officer she interviews claims that there had been a sniper shooting from a high rise building which had changed the attitude of the police. The suspicion being created is that he was shot by a policeman and then the death was covered up to suggest he was looter rather than someone not involved or just trying to find food to survive.
Her friend the local commander is concerned when he visits the first death on his patch and where the investigating officers believe it was a home killing with the husband pretending that he and his son were also victims but escaped. When the officer discovers there was a break in robbery reported only short while before the death incident near by he is alarmed to find out that that then two incidents were not examined to see if there is a relationship.

La Donna has become a prisoner in her bar after the rape and general assault although plays little role in the running of the establishment. She does not visit her husband and children and it is Antoine who takes over their Christmas presents to where they live with her dentist husband in Baton Rouge. Detectives visit La Donna with photos of men arrested in recent similar case in the area, They showed her several sets of photos and she picks the men who attacked her and these are those now in custody.

I have still to get to grip with the role of Nelson Hidalgo who Wikipedia describes as “a politically connected developer and venture capitalist from Dallas, who becomes involved in the renewal efforts in post-Katrina New Orleans.” This is accurate as far as it goes although there are indications that he is something of a con man. He keeps contact with the leading local financier/politician who counsels Nelson to concentrate on the demolition work and then suggests that he buys up the properties in a presently empty area of the city with the suggestion of inside information that the site has been earmarked for major development. Prior to Christmas he gives a gift of an expensive rosary with a silver or platinum cross which is much appreciated but he explains that while he was brought up a catholic of a several generation catholic family accepting their lives in the same community he is not longer practicing and has other interests planned for the evening. He is persuaded to attend the midnight mass and to afterwards accept the hospitality of the contact. He also appears to be courting the Mayor for planning permission support and as a token of good faith at the suggestion of the Mayor makes a donation of a couple of thousand dollars to ensure there are ongoing Second Line musicians and dancers. He so far represents those who want to move forward and build up from the city’s roots and he continues to engage in the good food and entertainment on offer, including the girls but not so far the drugs.

Merlin 2011 season begins

With the end of season Dr Who the BBC opened the new season of Merlin which has progressed from a tea time teenage adventure into something darker which could disturb younger minds. Before recording my experience of the first two episodes of the new season which covered the same story I reminded myself of the characters and the actors from an excellent Wikipedia note which includes reference to their role in past seasons/

“Colin Morgan portrays Merlin: The series' protagonist is a young and talented magician who attempts to keep his powers secret and will one day become the world's greatest wizard. He is also Arthur's servant, protector, and friend, despite the initial animosity between the two and his annoyance at Arthur's rudeness. He is compassionate and tries to see the good in all people, doing what he feels is just. In season four we see a darker side of the usually optimistic boy wizard.

(My complaint is that the interaction between the two has become over repeated and irritating. Arthur and his father would have been long dead and buried with Merlin’s constant intervention and pretending to play the incompetent fool. I cannot see the situation continuing for another season as it is and is it no time for Merlin to be elevated into the position of a companion and friend and not that of a servant?)

Bradley James portrays Prince Arthur: The extremely headstrong yet brave and good-hearted son of King Uther, and future King of Camelot. He deeply cares about the people of Camelot even more than he does about himself. Though Arthur has been "trained to fight since birth" and is excellent in combat, he is often vulnerable, and Merlin must protect him to fulfil this legend. Arthur befriends Merlin, despite being his master, and feels protective of him, unaware of his power. The pair often save one another's lives. Although Arthur shares his father's prejudice against magic, he is more tolerant and fair-minded than Uther, often advocating second chances and banishment over execution. At the end of series one he develops respect for Guinevere; later, in series 2 and 3, he develops romantic feelings for her. In season 4 he is shown to have been watching over Camelot as his father is a broken man. (However he is also strangely naive about people and at times immature and as yet unfit for leadership. And given the treachery of his father‘s ward his acceptance of the brother of his father into holding power when he is away is irresponsible.)

Angel Coulby portrays Guinevere (Gwen): Morgana's humble maid and former best friend. She has an open, friendly, and forgiving personality. In the beginning it was insinuated that she had a crush on Merlin; later, there was a romance with Lancelot and recently Arthur. Gwen's father, Tom, was the castle blacksmith but was executed by Uther for suspicion of practising magic, despite Morgana pleading his cause. It turned out that Tom had been framed and Gwen was allowed to stay in their house. There are indications that Tom taught Gwen some of his skills. It has recently been revealed that Gwen has an older brother, Elyan, who was estranged. He later became a knight of Camelot. In season 4 it appears she has been caring for Uther whilst he is has. (In my view she is the star of the show demonstrating great loyalty and courage and always being true to herself).

Katie McGrath portrays Morgana: King Uther's ward and his illegitimate daughter (revealed in series 3 to Gaius, and Merlin overhears.) Morgana is best friends with Gwen despite their class differences, as well as good friends with Merlin in series 1 and most of series 2. She is secretly a "seer" - a person with prophetic powers. Although she does not realize it until the beginning of series 2, she—like Merlin—was born with magic (although Merlin is more powerful). While Gaius acts as a mentor to Merlin, he tells Morgana that she lacks any magic power in an attempt to protect her, giving her a sleeping potion to prevent her prophetic dreams. She is constantly lied to and thus feels alienated and confused. She is brave and forthright, caring deeply about others and strongly opposing Uther's persecution of anyone who comes into contact with magic. After realizing that she cannot convince Uther to change, witnessing the persecution of those she cares for, and fearing Uther will discover her powers and kill her, she forms a bond with Morgause, a powerful sorceress with murky intentions, and thus finds herself in opposition not only to Uther but to Merlin as well. It is revealed by Gaius that Morgause and Morgana are actually half-sisters. In series 3, she is the main villain; fully committed to evil, she is now fuelled by a desire for revenge against Uther and Camelot (echoing the original Arthurian legends in which she was morally evil). In season 4 she is shown to have survived the explosion caused by her reckless magic and worst still with the aid of the last mortal act of Morgause unleashing a new horror on the people in support of her ambitions and are now beyond redemption. However I anticipate a twist at some point in what has become predictable.

Anthony Head portrays Uther Pendragon: Arthur's father and current king of Camelot. Uther is often a ruthless and cruel man whom some have called a tyrant, but he does care deeply about Camelot, as well as Arthur and Morgana, despite often being strict toward them. However, he is frequently blinded by his hatred of all forms of magic. Since his wife's death while giving birth to Arthur (which he blamed on the fact that the pregnancy was created through magic), he has waged war against magic-users, going as far as genocide. It has been indicated that he killed children who were born with magic and will execute anyone seen with a magician, thus Merlin and Morgana must be very careful (he is neither aware of their powers, nor that the latter of the two seeks to overthrow and kill him). He reveals to Gaius that Morgana is actually his biological daughter, born out of a short affair with Morgana's mother while her husband was away. His refusal to acknowledge this further turns Morgana against him. Morgana's betrayal leaves him a broken man and still so a year after the end of season 3. (Is there to be also a twist here? Will he recover?)

Richard Wilson portrays Gaius: Camelot's court physician, Merlin's guardian and one of the few who know Merlin's secret. Gaius is a sorcerer himself, but Uther has pardoned him so long as he is reformed; he is also an alchemist and magical scholar. He has a dry sense of humour and sees Merlin as the son he never had. He is a trusted friend of his mother. He is a great source of advice to Merlin and at the start of season 4 recognizes the faceless monsters at once. (He is also the other outstanding cast member, a great humanitarian and the kind of sorcerer that most portrayals of Merlin when a mature man have presented)

John Hurt portrays the voice of The Great Dragon - Kilgharrah. Merlin often visits the dragon when in a predicament, especially since he claims he knows Merlin's destiny. The dragon is also one of the few who know Merlin and Morgana's secret. However, where he encourages Merlin to use magic and protect Arthur, the dragon tells Merlin that Morgana must remain unaware of her powers. The dragon appears omniscient at times, and at the end of series two Merlin is revealed to be Kilgharrah's natural master. In series three, Merlin and Kilgharrah share a close bond of Dragonlord/Dragon and the Dragon comes to Merlin's aid when needed. Due to the Dragonlord bond, he must obey Merlin even when he disagrees with his orders or intentions. In season 4 Merlin loses most of his control over the dragon which will most likely result in great danger.

Morgause was played Emilia Fox recent subject of who do you think you are She is Morgana's half-sister (they share a mother, who owned the magical bracelet given to Morgana by Morgause and who had an affair with Uther during the absence of Gorlois) who was smuggled out of Camelot by Gaius after her birth, as Uther would have had her drowned, to be raised by the priestesses of the Old Religion, learning powerful magic during her time with them. Returning to Camelot many years later, she challenged and defeated Arthur in a duel, but promised to spare his life if he came to meet her later and accept her challenge. Having passed her test – willingly placing his head on a block while Morgause held an axe as though about to behead him – and proven his honour, Morgause summoned an apparition of what appeared to be Arthur's mother, which revealed that Uther had used magic to ensure Arthur's birth. Morgause had apparently hoped that this revelation would drive Arthur to kill Uther– her precise motives for desiring Uther's death are unknown at this time, beyond the obvious detail of Uther's hatred of magic– but Merlin was able to halt their fight by claiming that the apparition was nothing but a deception, despite the fact that Uther's death would have made his own life easier and the lie has only increased Arthur's own hatred of magic. Morgause seems furious that her plan had failed. Morgause, while in Camelot, seemed to immediately recognize Morgana and gave her the bracelet bearing Gorlois' house's crest (which is how Gaius identified her). After learning that Morgana suffered nightmares, Morgause visited her while she slept and cast a spell to help her sleep better, leaving her the bracelet belonging to their mother, which she has enchanted as a sleeping bracelet. It is seen again and mentioned in Goblin's Gold when Morgana approaches Gaius for a sleeping draught as the bracelet has been stolen and she cannot sleep. Morgana is often seen wearing it throughout the third series.

In her second appearance, Morgause intends to revive the deadly Knights of Medhir, and use them in her plans to destroy Uther. This plan includes casting a spell to put the whole of Camelot to sleep, using Morgana as its 'host', but she is forced to abandon this plan when Merlin- based on instructions from the Great Dragon- is forced to poison Morgana in order to break the spell, Merlin providing Morgause with the poison he used on Morgana so that she could be cured in exchange for Morgause abandoning the attack and ending the spell.

Morgause and Morgana returned in the third season, now allied together to destroy Uther. Although Morgana attempted to drive Uther insane with a mandrake spell that caused him to experience visions of those whose deaths he had caused, her treachery was uncovered by Merlin, only for him to be captured and interrogated by Morgause. When Morgause was unable to get any information out of Merlin beyond him informing her of his belief in a just Camelot under Arthur's reign, she bound him in enchanted chains and left him to die, only for Merlin to later escape with the aid of the Great Dragon. During the subsequent siege of Camelot, Morgause expressed confidence in Morgana's ability to wield her magic to raise the dead inside the castle, but was left shaken when the plan failed. However she remained loyal to her sister, and in "The Crystal Cave", she sent a message to Morgana asking her to meet with her. A few days later she came to Camelot to find out why Morgana did not come, and learnt that Uther is Morgana's father. She pleaded that Morgana would not do anything rash, but Morgana ignored her and attempted to kill Uther anyway. Since this discovery, Morgause's attempts at Uther's throne have focused more on eliminating Arthur in order to make Morgana the sole heir, such as revealing Arthur's relationship with Gwen or planting a life-draining bracelet on Arthur when he embarked on a dangerous quest, although she is still unaware of Merlin's role in the quest when he managed to save Arthur's life. Morgause has recently taken hold of Camelot by creating an army of immortal soldiers, dethroning Uther and witnessing Geoffrey being forced to crown Morgana queen. However, this coup is cut short when Arthur leads a small band of loyal knights to retake Camelot, Merlin throwing Morgause into a pillar when she attempts to attack Gaius (after he had stopped her before she could hurt Merlin more). Morgana's reaction to the discovery of her sister's body suggested she may have died, however later discussions between Merlin and Gaius seemed to suggest that she had in fact just been seriously injured, as had Morgana at the end of Series 2.

Santiaga Cabrera plays Sir Lancelot an outsider to the kingdom. When his family is killed by bandits, he vowed to become a skilled swordsman to fight tyranny. His main aim is to become a Knight of Camelot and serve the King. However, because he is not the son of a nobleman, he cannot legally become one. After saving Merlin's life from a Griffin in "Lancelot", Merlin promises to help him achieve his goal. Merlin forges a seal of nobility and introduces Lancelot to Gwen, who helps make him clothes suitable for a son of a Lord, and to Arthur who accepts that he is the son of a nobleman and puts him to the test. He passes and is knighted. King Uther, however, knows his 'father' and uncovers the lie. Lancelot is arrested for using a forged seal of nobility, but later released – Arthur allowing him to depart as he admits that Lancelot fights like a knight despite lacking any of the other necessary 'qualifications'. After he saves Arthur's life, King Uther considers restoring Lancelot's knighthood but Lancelot cannot bring himself to lie any more and leaves Camelot.

A mutual attraction is established between him and Gwen in series 1, but before a relationship blossoms, Lancelot departs Camelot. He returns in series 2 when Gwen is abducted. He seems ashamed of his situation as a swordsman for entertainment and appears to have lost hope that he will achieve anything better in life, but promises to rescue her. He regains some self-worth when Gwen tells him that "he is all that is right with the world" and admits that he thinks of her often. His reappearance causes jealousy in Prince Arthur who, whilst he may not admit it, is falling in love with Gwen.

Lancelot is very observant. In series 1, when he notices Merlin's sudden appearance and then the presence of magic, he puts two and two together, but he promises he will not reveal Merlin's magical abilities. In series 2, when Merlin uses magic he sees that Merlin "is up to his old tricks" and Merlin reminds him that "It's probably best you don't tell anyone about that." He also observes from Arthur's actions that he has feelings for Gwen, even though Merlin refuses to confirm it. Realising this, Lancelot refuses to come between them, saying his feelings do not matter, and leaves while Arthur and Gwen are sleeping.

Lancelot returned to Camelot when Merlin sent a message requesting his aid following Morgana and Morgause's attempted coup of the kingdom with an army of immortal soldiers, accompanied by his friend Percival. Despite the odds against them, Lancelot swore to stand beside Arthur in recognition of the lessons he had taught him about the honour involved in being a knight, informing Arthur that he believed in the world Arthur would create when he became king. Arthur subsequently knighted Lancelot, Percival and his other allies around the Round Table in recognition of their role in Camelot's defence. Lancelot subsequently accompanied Merlin when he went to destroy the Cup of Life and thus defeat the immortal army. Although he was injured by the soldiers in the fight, Lancelot survived the battle, and is later seen with the other Knights of the Round Table, having become a true knight of Camelot.

In addition some established actors have appears in the series including Pauline Collins, Frank Finlay Miriam Margolyes Charles Dance and Tom Ellis

This brings me to the first two part opening t the new series. Morgana is discovered by Knights on their way back to Camelot who uses her powers to stop them from finding out she has a dying Morgause with her. They persuade a ferryman to convert them to an ancient tall and stark castle on a rock on an island which contains the partition between the deadly undead souls and the world, Morgause explains that Morgana must sacrifice her according to a disclosed rite and she will unleash the army of the undead a different version of those used in the previous series who cannot be killed but can fended off momentarily through fire.

Unleashed they devastate a village but a young girl escapes and turns to Camelot for assistance. Arthur Merlin and co go off to find out. Meanwhile other villagers in their 100’s begin to arrive at the city for help although the city is not immune from direct attacks. Gauis works out the nature of the new menace that only confronting it at the source will be by another sacrifice will close the opened partition. Arthur decides this is his role and goes off with Merlin to the revealed location. He leaves the Kingdom in the hands of the Kings brother not knowing that the man has been plotting with Morgana to take over power from the King and his son

Merlin is troubled because he has lost his magical powers but appears to find them again which lads him to tackle the undead spirits on arrival at their source and he appears to have been killed although we remembered that Gaius has mentioned that the only individual able to withstand their evil powers are those with magic. As anticipated the second part begins with Merlin very weak and incapacitated but alive and Arthur insists that he returns to Camelot for help and that Sir Lancelot returns with him which places the knight in a dilemma because he gave his word to Guinevere that he would protect Arthur and bring him back to her. He might not have worried because although they are threatened on the journey Merlin begins to recover along side a lake from which the Lady appears. She commends Lancelot for his bravery which he decries without knowing what she has seen in the immediate future, Merlin has recovered the following morning and insists that they ride to help Arthur. When they are attacked Merlin summons his friend the dragon who is able to destroy the undead with the flames of his nostrils. Sir Lancelot is unfazed by the arrival of the talking dragon who earns Merlin that the rift must be sealed quickly before the undead can do greater damage.

Arthur and the others continue to be pursued particularly when they take a short cut through underground passages rather like what happened in Lord of the Rings. They are delighted when Merlin and Sir Lancelot joins them and Merlin against uses his powers with the dragons to make them fly away.

Back at Camelot the scheming uncle has taken the decision to close the gates to more citizens and had the state Counsel following his lead and ignores the protest of Gaius. It is Guinevere who bravely steps in and suggests that the decision is counter productive because the people they are shutting out are farmers who will have brought their produce and animals with them adding to the supply of food. She asks pointedly if the uncle is assuming that Arthur will fail and her intervention persuades the Counsel to reverse its support and the uncle has no alternative but to open the gates again.

He reports to Morgana who urges that they deal with Guinevere and hatch a plot in which the uncle invites her to see him later when Urther who she cares for during the day rests. She and her guards are attacked and she is wounded but rescued by the suspicious Gaius.

They reach the island when Morgause is sacrifice to open the right and they are confronted by the keeper in the form of an old woman. Merlin uses magic to get Arthur our of her way but the woman says it is not written that Merlin can sacrifice himself at the point and it is Sir Lancelot who gives up his life and the vent is closed.

They return to Camelot with the plan of Morgause thwarted. However either she or the uncle have got hold of he name Emeris, Merlin’s name as a wizard as the cause of the plan going awry and set about trying to unmask the individual. Gaius warns Merlin that he must be extra careful when he is approached by the uncle asking if he has the name mentioned. Gaius assume the information could only have come from Morgana whose personal powers are beginning to increases as in effect she begins to take the place of Morgause and she is aware that her future and her success is tied in with that of Emeris without knowing it is Merlin.

The success of Arthur and Merlin is marred by the death of Sir Lancelot. I thought he had been spirited away and there was no body left suggesting a reappearance later however I am not sure it there was more that his armour on top of the burial pyre. The scene is set for the rest of the series.

Borgia Fiction and some Facts?

It was not until Sunday October 2nd that I recommenced to experience the sumptuous sets, costumes and photography of The Borgias and the last four episodes of the first season.

In this carefully crafted prolonged finale all seems lost for the Rodrigo now Alexander VI, played with a wonderful mixture of ruthless passion and considered guile by Jeremy Irons, because it seems that all his preparations and family sacrifices are come to nothing. It ill be remembered that he had bribed his way into the Papacy and the force the college of Cardinals to accept his will by enlarging their number of ensure he always had a sympathetic majority.

He had then cast out his long standing mistress, former courtesan and mother of this three sons and a daughter for a new consort and as if to emphasis the new order he had not invited his former mistress to her daughter’s wedding, that of the innocent and romantic Lucrezia. The Pope’s recently made Cardinal son Cesare (Francois Arnaud) arranged for his mother to attend the after wedding party. The main purpose of the match was to bring onside the Sforza family in general and the army of her husband whose territory marked a gateway into Rome.

In the first episode of the last part of the first season - The French King the Pope arranges for the marriage of his young son Joffre ( played by Aidan Alexander), still a boy, to marry the illegitimate daughter of the King of Naples an older girl no longer a virgin Sancia (Emmanuelle Chriqui). He arranges for his son Juan who is head of the Papal army to visit the King and his infantile and dangerous son to sort out the betrothal.

The Pope has previously given his blessing to the Spanish King to Conquer middle and central America and struck a deal with Machiavelli and the Medici family not to give free passage to the French if they came their way via Milan en route to Rome en route to claim Naples and Southern Italy with the goading of Colin Feore as Cardinal della Rovere who is devoted to replacing the Pope with a more Christian interested individual such as himself.

However as we saw in the previous episode The Borgias in Love (hmm) their attention is divided. The Pope having sidelined his wife who renewed acquaintance with her legal husband is now living openly with Giulia Farnese (Lotte Verbeck) who appears loving and loyal (the widow the Pope befriended and set up household in sequestered property with a convenient passageway into the Pope’s quarters and vice versa)

Cesare, made Cardinal and the Pope’s reluctant organiser of dark deeds and official business has fallen for the wife of a guest at the wedding of Lucrezia. Sensing she wants to reciprocate her husband calls Cesare out and challenges him to dual which he loses and is killed. His body is dumped in a river. Ursula Bonadeo is played by Ruta Gedmintas and while her husband is missing responds to the advances of the Cardinal and they become lovers. I think it is episodes 6 The French King and 7 Death on a Pale Horse that the husband’s body is found with the stab wounds and his widow challenges the Cardinal to deny he as responsible for the death. Cesare explains that he was set upon and defended himself and because she had held dark thoughts and remains Catholic she cannot cope with the guilt and taker herself to a nunnery, She chooses a convent order where unfortunately Cesare is the main patron and this enable him to have access to her quarters but she resists his advances and he is broken hearted.

The middle son and head of the Papal forces is more interested in womanising and frequenting of brothels than paying attention to his military duties. When he travels to the court at Naples to broker the marriage deal and bring back the bride for the wedding he finds that she is a wanton and they have sex and also when back in Rome. And this brings us to Lucrezia who has fallen in love with her husband’s groom. The plan for him to fall of his horse and be killed only partially works as he is badly injured in the fall and it will take weeks if not months for his legs to heal and regain mobility. Lucrezia tends him dutifully prolonging his incapacity while the love affair with the groom progresses.

Della Rovere goes to visit the French King who is a plain speaking realist and whose army now has giant canons which can punch holes in fortified city walls and which chained together a flight of ten will cut down any advancing army using traditional formations. At first the King is reluctant to become involved but the situation changes with the death of the King of Naples and his son coming to power.

In Death on a Pale horse we learn that the Duke of Milan, the big cheese Sforza has given the French army of 25000 men free passage and approach the city of Lucca close to Florence they ask for terms before opening their gates. The King uses the cannon to smash the walls and the gate and then inside gives permission of the troops to destroy the city and its people taking whatever of value they find. When Della Rovere remonstrates the King explains that he can only pay his forces a limited sum and therefore to maintain their loyalty and commitment he welcomes the opportunity to take cities by force. He also believes it will send the right signal to Florence, Rome and anyone else who could stand in his way. Della Rovere is taken aback but not sufficiently to move from his primary objective of deposing the Borgias and claiming power himself.

In the Art of War the head of the Medici family accepts all the demands of the advancing French:-the freedom to enter the city without opposition and to be paid doubles the cost of the campaign to-date plus a hostage from each of the leading families. The Pope had tried to get the college of Cardinals to back his demand to let it be known that everyone in city would ex communicated if they did not stand up and fight the French. Machiavelli remonstrates with the Medici head that the city is being surrendered and the arrival of the King at the city gates demands that he proves his good faith by pointing backward his lance.

Rome and the Cardinals are now in panic and begin to desert the Pope and his family. Gina Mckee as Caterina Sforza persuades her cousin the husband of Lucrezia and also of Cardinal Sforza who had helped Rodrigo to become Pope not to now intervene, hence breaks the marriage dowry agreement which would place their troops as the disposal of the Pope if required. Meanwhile Lucrezia husband has also regained his strength and says it is time they had a child.

The Pope summons the Spanish Ambassador to request that Spain intervenes or risk losing the authority to colonise and convert the Americas, but without success. In desperation he sends his mistress Giulia to visit Lucrezia and find out their position. Lucrezia has visited Rome for the wedding of her young brother and the Pope and the elder brother are struck by how quickly she had moved into adulthood and to looking after her interests. It is evident the marriage was not successful although at this point the nature of his behaviour and that she is having a satisfying extra marital relationship is not known to them.

Lucrezia discloses to the Pope’s Mistress the extent of her husband’s loathing for the Borgia family and his willing support for the French and the plan of Della Rovere. The two women attempt to flee for Rome but run into the advancing troops of the French and in effect become the King’s House guests. Lucrezia is pregnant not by her husband who put the groom on the rack to establish the truth.

Cesare has failed in his attempt to replace his brother as head of the army who it is evident has no stomach or ability to conduct such a campaign. The young has visited his mother for support only to find his step father present and he turns on him, in part from fear that he is the child of the husband and not the Pope because he feels different from the Pope and his elder brother

Vanozza dei Cattanei the former mistress of the Pope and mother of his four children (played by Joanne Whalley) bans her son from their home when he beats up her legal husband. The Pope is also outraged by his son’s behaviour and demands that he apologizes and begs forgiveness from the couple or he will be stripped of the command he has coveted.

In Nessuno (Nobody) Lucrezia and Guilia play every feminine trick to gain the confidence of the King, being honest about his appearance which he likes but also praising all his other qualities. She also pretends to read the runes in his cup of wine declaring that no one will win the coming battle between his forces and those of the Pope.

On the field of battle the first use of the special Cannons destroy first lives of the Roman forces and Lucrezia cuts a deal with the French King and her brother that he withdraws and they allow the French King and his forces to pass through Rome onto Naples. Without knowing this the Pope has prepared his own strategy. He removes his vestments and takes the apparel of simple man of the cloth. He accepts the arrival of the King of France in Rome and through his new found piety he persuades the King to agree to a new coronation in which he not only reviews his vows as King of France but add the Kingdom of Naples. Thus the Pope outwits the accompanying Cardinal who had hoped to summon the absent College and demand a replacement. However through his action the Pope is able to summon the college himself and seeking their atonement for having abandoned him and the city. Each offers a large portion of their wealth.

The departing French had demand that Cesare accompany them as a hostage, but he escapes and commences the next mission which is to capture the husband of Lucrezia and yo persuade him to admit that the marriage was not consummated which is the only ground under which the marriage can be annulled. Thus Lucretia is free to remain home to have her child. There is a touching final scene in which the child is born aided by her mother, the Pope’s mistress and the former mistress of Cesare, who has become a nun,

The French reach Napes and find the city devastated by the Plague.In contrast to the preceding pontificate.

The official Wikipedia version is that “ Pope Alexander VI adhered initially to strict administration of justice and orderly government. Before long, however, he began endowing his relatives at the church's and his neighbours' expense. Pope Alexander VI had four and possibly five children by his long-time mistress Vannozza dei Cattani, a courtesan from the House of Candia married to Domenico d' Arignano: Giovanni (or Juan), Cesare, Lucrezia, Goffredo (or Gioffre, Jofré in Valentian), and Ottaviano.

Cesare, while a youth of seventeen and a student at Pisa, was made Archbishop of Valencia, and Giovanni Borgia inherited the Spanish Dukedom of Gandia, the Borgias' ancestral home in Spain. For the Duke of Gandia and for Goffredo the Pope proposed to carve fiefs out of the papal states and the Kingdom of Naples. Among the fiefs destined for the duke of Gandia were Cerveteri and Anguillara, lately acquired by Virginio Orsini, head of that powerful house.

This policy brought Ferdinand I, King of Naples, into conflict with Pope Alexander VI, who was also opposed by Cardinal della Rovere, whose candidature for the papacy had been backed by Ferdinand. Della Rovere fortified himself in his bishopric of Ostia at the Tiber's mouth as Pope Alexander VI formed a league against Naples (25 April 1493) and prepared for war.

The Naples King allied himself with Florence, Milan, and Venice. He also appealed to Spain for help; but Spain was eager to be on good terms with the papacy to obtain the title to the recently discovered New World. Pope Alexander VI, in the bull Inter Caetera, 4 May 1493, divided the title between Spain and Portugal along a demarcation line. (This and other related bulls are known collectively as the Bulls of Donation.)

Pope Alexander VI arranged great marriages for his children. At age 10, in 1490, Lucrezia was first betrothed to the Spanish nobleman Don Juan de Centelles, then to another Spaniard, Don Gasparo da Procida, Count of Aversa. However, on her father's elevation to the papacy the second marriage contract was broken; Gasparo was given 3,000 ducats in exchange for his cooperation. Lucrezia was formally betrothed to Giovanni Sforza, Lord of Pesaro and Count of Cotignola, on 12 February 1493; she was married to him on 12 June of the same year. The betrothal and wedding ceremonies took place at the Vatican Palace.

In spite of the splendours of the Pontifical court, the condition of Rome became every day more deplorable. The city swarmed with adventurers, assassins, prostitutes and informers; murder and robbery were committed with impunity, and the Pope himself cast aside all show of decorum; indulging in the chase, and arranging dancing, and stage plays. One of his close companions was Cem, the brother of the Sultan Bayazid II (1481–1512), detained as a hostage. The general outlook in Italy was of the gloomiest and the country was on the eve of foreign invasion.

Pope Alexander VI made many alliances to secure his position. He sought help from Charles VIII of France (1483–1498), who was allied to Ludovico "Il Moro" [The Moor, so called because of his swarthy complexion] Sforza, the de facto Duke of Milan who needed French support to legitimize his rule. As King Ferdinand I of Naples was threatening to come to the aid of the rightful duke Gian Galeazzo—the husband of his granddaughter Isabella—Alexander VI encouraged the French king in his plan for the conquest of Naples.

But Pope Alexander VI, always ready to seize opportunities to aggrandize his family, then adopted a double policy. Through the intervention of the Spanish ambassador he made peace with Naples in July 1493 and cemented the peace by a marriage between his son Gioffre and Doña Sancha, another granddaughter of Ferdinand I.

In order to dominate the Sacred College of Cardinals more completely, Alexander, in a move that created much scandal, created 12 new cardinals. Among the new cardinals was his own son Cesare, then only 18 years old. Alessandro Farnese (later Pope Paul III)—the brother of one of the Pope's mistresses, the beautiful Giulia Farnese—was also among the newly created cardinals.
On 25 January 1494 Ferdinand I died and was succeeded by his son Alfonso II (1494–1495). Charles VIII of France now advanced formal claims on the kingdom of Naples; Pope Alexander VI authorized him to pass through Rome, ostensibly on a crusade against the Turks, without mentioning Naples. But when the French invasion became a reality Pope Alexander VI became alarmed, recognized Alfonso II as king of Naples, and concluded an alliance with him in exchange for various fiefs for his sons (July 1494). A military response to the French threat was set in motion: a Neapolitan army was to advance through the Romagna and attack Milan, while the fleet was to seize Genoa. However, both expeditions were badly conducted and failed, and on 8 September Charles VIII crossed the Alps and joined Lodovico il Moro at Milan. The papal states were in turmoil, and the powerful Colonna faction seized Ostia in the name of France. Charles VIII rapidly advanced southward, and after a short stay in Florence, set out for Rome (November 1494).

Pope Alexander VI appealed to Ascanio Sforza and even to the Turkish Sultan for help. He tried to collect troops and put Rome in a state of defence, but his position was precarious. When the Orsini offered to admit the French to their castles, Alexander had no choice but to come to terms with Charles. On 31 December Charles VIII entered Rome with his troops, the cardinals of the French faction, and Giuliano della Rovere. Pope Alexander VI now feared that Charles might depose him for simony, and that the king would summon a council to nominate a new pope.

However, Pope Alexander VI was able to win over the bishop of Saint-Malo, who had much influence over the king, with a cardinal's hat. Pope Alexander VI agreed to send Cesare as legate to Naples with the French army, to deliver Cem to Charles VIII, and to give Charles Civitavecchia (16 January 1495).

On 28 January Charles VIII departed for Naples with Cem and Cesare, but the latter slipped away to Spoleto. Neapolitan resistance collapsed, and Alfonso II fled and abdicated in favour of his son Ferdinand II. However, Ferdinand was abandoned by all and also had to escape, and the kingdom of Naples was conquered with surprising ease. “