Thirteen the abduction and imprisonment of a girl for the purpose of sex

Thirteen. I missed the original BBC showing of the five-episode showing of Thirteen, the fictional account of a young women who at the age of 26 escapes after 13 years of captivity for sex. The episodes are available on the BBC I Player. She is found  by the police and DNA confirms  she is the missing daughter of a couple  who have separated, the husband living with his personal assistant at work and a young daughter who  is about to marry and lives with her fiancé at the family home, Despite warnings that adjustment  back will be difficult daughter and her mother and mother insist on an immediate return  home and mother also insists on the husband moving back into the household in order to re-establish a normality as things were 13 years before. Ivy, the victim, appears as determined as her mother to recreate the situation before the adduction.

The police have questions, not the least to identify and apprehend the perpetrator and are concerned what appears to them to be a reluctance rather than an inability help find the location. When they do they find evidence of inconsistency in the story presented that Ivy was never allowed out of the basement where she was held and which has been cleared along with the rest of house to provide no evidence or clues of what has happened and where the captor could now be. Then the discovery of female clothing in any upstairs bedroom suggests that she was allowed out of the basement and then the discovery of torn passport size photo indicates she was out of the house. Ivy claims that although this happened there was never an opportunity to get help or escape.  CCTV footage from a shopping mall demonstrates this also was not true.

The next development is the identification and location of the captor’s mother to a residential home where it established she died sometime previously but had another son. The finding that there was a younger half-brother adds to concern about the story Ivy has given.  The female police detective has been the most sceptical about the story presented and works out there is more space in the cellar area that what appears and discover a false wall behind which is the skeleton of the half-brother. The evidence of his age confirms that he was present in the property during the time Ivy was captive and it is her DNA on the covering of the remains. She admits she was present when the captor killed his half-brother and is charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Through social media Ivy had contacted a boy with whom she had been close when she disappeared. It is evident she had hoped he had remained faithful in his commitment at the time to her. He hides the fact that he has married and is guilty about establishing a life for himself and where he fails to share his developing contact with his wife and which causes Ivy and his wife to distrust him when the truth emerges. Ivy was on her way to meet up with two school’s friends on the morning she disappeared and one of the friends returns, guilty at the decision not to attend the meeting and at first is forgiven by Ivy because of all the other if only events had not happened that day. What is not forgiven is failing to disclose she had stayed with the former boyfriend and his wife on returning and knew he was married.

It has emerged that the captor had worked at the school but does this fact alone account for the panic by the Headmaster at the news that Ivy has returned and over the series we discover that the cause of his guilt is that on the morning on her disappearance he was having a secret assignation with the girl’s mother.  The younger sister at first convinced the returning young woman was not her sister changes and the two become conspiratorial and this undermines the relationship with the fiancé. The programme highlights the anger victims feel with their families over having found ways to move on.

Concern by police mounts when another young girl is kidnapped and by the same captor and because of having killed his half-brother the welfare of the kidnapped girl becomes urgent and paramount. The captor contacts the police asking for a meeting with Ivy. Everyone is reassured that Ivy will be protected at the meeting in a shopping centre with 50 plain clothes officer monitoring. Despite this the captor has contact undetected and makes his escape with Ivy on the basis the new kidnapped girl is released which she is unharmed and reunited with her parents[CS1] .

Worse is to follow because the captor can escape further to an unknown destination by causing the chasing vehicle with the two detectives to crash, seriously injuring one. We switch to house where Ivy is being half again and we learn that she had been pregnant at one point and the man appears determined to reinstate their previous relationship. She manages to escape from the house which explodes in a burst of flames in a planned suicide attempt by the captor as the police who with the help of the recovered girl have located the property. What is also clear is that the substance of Ivy’s story is proven. The outline of the story fails to convey the insight into the complex impact of being taken, raped and held for years has had on Ivy and need to block out and go back to the girl and situation as before. While there are some credibility issues in the storyline there are several excellent other performances. I am still left with the question Entertainment no so what has been the point?

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Department Q

On returning to my room and a change of clothing and time to view the last part of Strictly Come Dancing with some very good performances with one meriting 39 from 40 points, and the first hour of the X Factor before one off Danish Film Department Q. The Keeper of Lost Causes based on a book and which been followed by two other films although these are not to be shown. Watching the Saturday evening series in a language other than English has become an  important regular event in my life with Inspector Montalbano my favourite because of the intertwining of the love of Mediterranean food with his detective skill and the Young Montalbano series has also  been exceptional, similarly to the recreation of Moorse following the death of leading and irreplaceable action John Thaw, followed by the series from the books of Henning Mankell, the Detective Wallander, where Kenneth Branagh has also made brilliant English versions of the Detective and the Danish political series Borgen on Coalition government which ranks alongside the West Wing for the White House reality and the Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister series here in the UK. Romanzo Criminale and Corleone focussed on the Mafia and separate Roman criminal gangsterism with the Tunnel also being notable and meriting some writing to remind me of their experience

On Saturday evening 15^th October 2016 hoping to be engaged and taking away the disappointment of not being able to go and see a play at the National Theatre where I had bought an expensive ticket and the theatre was unable to give me a credit towards a future production. I watched Department Q in anticipation but conclude that there was something nasty about this work, perhaps because it came too close to the reality of the terror of what being imprisoned is like. Over the past year there has been a series of films about the taking of young women and keeping them for the sexual pleasure of one man with currently on BBC TV Missing and 13.

The one off of three films begins with interest when one of a team of three detectives is murdered, a second finds himself paralysed, the third who was also shot but survives to physically recover is relegated to permanently close the accumulation of cold cases and is appointed an enthusiastically Muslim with a taste for loud contemporary music. The sense of guilt and failure of the one who survives and the despair and frustration of second is immediately real, with the urge to get back to work understandable and the anger and frustration at being given a desk job and having to work with someone new and cannot possibly understand how one is feeling

The assistant selects the first batch of cases with a parade of photographs and which includes one, Carl, the reluctant boss knows something about the case of a young woman politician who is believed to have committed suicide disappearing from a ferry leaving her brother with what first appears to be severe learning difficulties from head injuries in a car accident which killed their parents.

The unravelling of what actually happened is thorough and clever and early on we learn that the young woman was in fact kidnapped and is being kept in a decompression chamber which limits the confined area and also enables the perpetrator to changing levels of physical unpleasantness. There is a credible method for of food and water dealing with sanitation and the provision of food and water but it stretches credulity that the woman is able to survive this limited environment for year upon year. The juxtaposition of being a witness to the horror and the brutality the young women experience and the difficulties the detectives face adds to the tension which the film creates and where it is clear that the motive for the imprisonment is not sexual but with the perpetrator insisting on having voyeuristic pleasures in her increasing discomfort making it plain he is seeking a prolonged painful death as the outcome but not why.

We learn that the perpetrator as boy was in a car travelling in the same direction as his prisoner who exchange looks as one of the cars overtakes the other, and he girl for some reason places her hand of the face of the person in front thus it is suggested causing the accident which kills parents, his sister and leads to physical and emotional condition of the girl’s brother who she now cares for. The boy is placed in a children’s home and portrayed as disruptive and violent, befriending another, who as an adult appears to have been a conference with the girl who has become a politician attends. At least this is the impression first gained as the detectives identify the friend as the likely suspect as he is identified as being on the ferry from which the woman disappeared, believed committed to suicide.

That the detectives commenced to find out what happened by going out of the basement into the field was never intended and opposed, particularly by the detective originally in charge of the investigation into the death. When it is established that the perpetrator has committed suicide over the side of a small boat, a fishing enthusiast, on a lake, the two are ordered to close the case and return to the others which the disobey and are suspended. Fortunately, they quickly discover that the dead man is not the perpetrator. Because they learn that the brother is more traumatised than physically damaged, the assistant who is a practicing Muslim, to provide the obligatory representative diversity now required has the temperament to sit with the young man until he is able to obtain responses to a collection of photographs taken at the political event and which include photos of the perpetrator. The breakthrough occurs when a witness does not identify the perpetrator as the man at the conference which the brother has identified from the photographs taken at the political event. It is at this point we understand that the perpetrator has killed his friend in order to switch identities to get to the conference after seeing a TV report of the girl as a budding politician.

It is at this point we are asked to accept another coincidence which challenges rationality, although nothing like the challenges posed by the film Inferno which I was to see the Sunday lunchtime. The perpetrator now lives in an isolated ramshackle farm assortment of buildings with his disabled mother who survived the crash but was unable to care for him as a child and where his father had work involving diving and a decompression chamber within the home. The detectives arrive do not accept the story that he is away from the mother and leave when Carl realises that the pile of petrol cans means that there is a generator which has been petrol power in order that the increase in energy use cannot be recorded but why would the authorities take an interest anyway for which there could be a number of legitimate reasons.

They return meet up with the perpetrator who at first denies and then puts up a desperate fight to complete the murder of his victim, wounding the assistant with a gunshot and almost killing Carl with a ligature. It is the assistant using extreme violence who stops and kills the assailant.  The woman survives maintained in a pressure container in an attempt to undo the adjustments to her body caused by the years of captivity in which despite the limitations of her confinement she has concentrated on remaining physically fit and sane. The two detectives are rewarded with medals and Carl told he can re-join his former team. He declines wanting to continue Department Q with the assistant and an assistant to administrative and secretarial help and no doubt to provide the female interest. For whatever unknown reason this did not become the ongoing TV series similar to Cold Case here in the UK, but there have been two other ones off films in successive years.  I can only assume this is because of the gratuitous violence used and the protracted voyeuristic scene making it more a film for the cinema than the TV.

Perspectives on Queen Victoria

A number of significant Television series programmes have or are coming to an end over the first part of October 2016 and it is difficult to decide on an order of importance so I will begin with Victoria, an ITV production of eight episodes aimed at the Downton Abbey Sunday night audience over the past eight weeks and where a second series and a Christmas special have been commissioned. The aim of the production was to compete with the BBC’s success of Poldark and its central male character, selecting Jenna Coleman who made her name in over150 episodes of the soap Emmerdale and since 2012 was the companion of Dr Who Matt Smith, with whom she worked previously and where it is said she can talk faster than him.  The series was therefore set up as mass entertainment and not a documentary on our knowledge of the Empress of India, head of the Empire, long reigning, great grandmother with many children, refusing to recognise her public role following the death of her husband and overseeing as head of state the most dramatic and significant period in the economic and social history of Britain.

Because of this I commenced to study social and economic as well as political history during the first year at Ruskin College 19611962 having previously obtained my only Advanced Level General certificate of education in the British Constitution and one of the ordinary level certificates in History and although I changed to public and social administration and child social work I have maintained an interest in the period over subsequent decades building up a mini library of non fiction.

The overview of the period centering on the role of Government are Edward Woodward’s Age of Reform 1815 to 1870 and The Ensor England 1870-1914 in the Oxford History  series, together with  Court’s Economic History, Arthur Bryant’s English Saga, and with a focus on Queen Victoria, Kings and Queens England edited by Antonia Fraser together with her editing of the  Dorothy Marshalls Victoria which includes contemporary visual records and the authoritative biography by Elizabeth Longford who was gained access to the Royal records and a wide range of other documentation including the diaries. The relationship between Queen Victoria and Lord Melbourne, a period in which she was referred to as Mrs Melbourne because of the amount of time spent with him, is covered in David Cecil’s biography called Melbourne. G.M Young’s Portrait of an Age together with the Victoria Age 1815-1914 by R J Evans provides also broad sweeps of the period. Cole and Postgate’s, The Common People and Cole’s History of the British working class movement cover the traumatic transition from an agricultural to industrial economy. Social concerns are covered in the biography of Shaftesbury by Georgina Battiscombe with the underclass covered in Peter Quennell’s London Underworld and Kellow Chesney’s The Victorian Underworld, together with Dickens of London by Wolf Mankowitz and contrasting with Young’s Victorian Essays and Lytton Strachey’s Eminent Victorians. The last word on the era of the British Empire is covered by Colin Cross in The Fall of the British Empire.

With this knowledge immediate available together with films and TV series about the era going back over several decades I commenced to view the new television series with some apprehension asking the question how will it measure up as dramatic and information entertainment as well as historical accuracy? The most recent films have been Emily Blunt’s Young Victoria and Judy Dench as the widow Queen, provocatively titled, Mrs Brown but I can go back to the Anna Neagle films made in 1937 and 1938 Victoria the Great and Sixty Glorious Years, the BBC TV series Happy and Glorious 1952, the 1964 Granada TV series Victoria Regina and their I997 series Victoria and Albert. Give my recent writing on the Kinks they created a song in 1969 called Victoria.

The mistake I believe ITV has made is to attempt a ratings and attention competition with the BBC over Poldark and the need to attract the Down Abbey and Upstairs and Downstairs audience and the younger generation to stay watching after the X Factor by some spicing up and creating events about without there is no historical basis or twisting past events to meet fashionable contemporary attitudes. The audience has fallen from eight and a half to just under seven and a half million before the last series one episode this past Sunday 9^th October 2016. The choice of the former Dr Who assistant as the Queen and the approach of the production led to a massive outburst of spleen in the Spectator by James Delingpole who called the work silly, facile and irresponsible and went on as a sub head to say “I blame the feminisation of culture.” His outburst provoked a massive response of outrage. The Guardian was more appreciative but also opened by suggesting that ITV “didn’t need to embellish” the life of the Queen, claiming it was wild enough already. Matthew Dennison went onto suggest that its silliness was due to exaggeration that grossly distorting of facts arguing that a good fist was made of the relationship between the young Queen and Lord Melbourne. She did loathe her mother’s “adviser” and thought her mother weak and over protective. She resisted the attempts at forced marriage and came to adore him. There was open hostility to Albert because he was German and resistance to his being given a formal role and by Victoria to his participation in helping out in her official role. She was the subject of what appeared at the time to be an assassination attempt but the idea that Albert took an immediate interest in the plight of the working classes or the Queen expressed views in support of the Chartist movement appear to have no foundation. It would be surprising if any young mother did not have great fears about her first child birth and the loss of some children was commonplace as well as breeding many children in part to compensate for their loss, but mainly because begetting children was regarded as a male right and confirmation of his masculinity and respective roles of men and women in their place. In this respect the notion of any woman, including a reigning head of state having opinions or taking decisions unguided by men was unthinkable. I also suspect that there is no evidence for the stories concerning the Royal Household.

My response after watching the first episode live has been to record and watch when I can later sometimes fast forwarding sequences lacking any interest. I have never watched Poldark. I looked forward to watching Downton Abbey which had characters of substance which I was able to believe in and where a commitment to portraying the period was scrupulously researched and implemented throughout. I came to care about most of the characters but this was lacking throughout the first series of Victoria. It will be interesting to see the width of the time period and the  international and nation event upon which the second series is to be based.                                                            

Sam Baily v Susan Boyle

In the evening I did watch part of the results show for Strictly and then skipped through most of the second X factor final show except for the two performances of Sam and the other contestant where the gulf between them widened especially with the respective renditions of the chosen first single released and home for Christmas number one. The performance of the other contestant was passable while that of Sam was extraordinary with a depth of emotion and vocal of outstanding world wide ability. I am surprised that she gained more than a million votes of support and had the two female panel members in tears with Sharon Osborn speechless with emotion and Gary and Louis in awe and unqualified admiration., Later she had been the audience choice in eight of the ten weeks of live performances and with Luke, who only came third topping twice.

In the past couple of weeks I have seen two documentaries about the Britain’s got Talent older success story Susan Boyle with the second programme on ITV the more interesting. Over a year ago he decided she as ready to go on tour although her manager remainder apprehensive given her high anxiety level. The big change occurred because she had received a psychological and psychiatric(?) assessment which discovered that she had nor been brain damaged at birth as she had been led to believe but had an autistic range and this had led to a reappraisal of performance preparation, relaxation and other actions to combat panic attacks and excessive nervousness and fear of failure as well as disappointing those who had come to see her. In this she was aided by the artistic/performance coach supporter director for want of a better description, a comparatively young man who appeared to fully understand Susan.

She commenced with a performance run through before a small invited audience, before undertaken several shows in Scotland where the home audience was expected to give her unconditional support should problems arise. In the event the mini tour was a great success in two ways. She sang the score and more of numbers in 90 to 100 mins show with interval but she anyway had the audience sympathetic empathetic and willing her to succeed. There was then a big leap to test her ability to performance to an even larger audience flying to the USA and Texas in a 17000 plus sweater stadium. She had arrived and a comprehensive UK tour was then planned followed by an International one. It is one of the amazing entertainment stories of my time.

Borgen series three episodes 7 to 10,

It is Saturday 14^th December 2013 and the last day of the series Borgen, I am going at lunch time to Newcastle to purchase winkles for tea and then Newcastle play Southampton from the expensive vantage point of a Platinum Club, returning for Strictly Come Dancing semi final and the X Factor final weekend, Now England are struggling to survive changed conditions in Australia who managed 380 odd runs first innings and England in reply 118 for 2 after Carberry played on and Root’s dismissal was confirmed by the third umpire where clearly the electronic evidence would not have given him out although the decision had to stand as the on field umpire had given the player out after an after thought reaction

I missed the last episode of Borgen because I had not noticed that the recording had failed and left it too late to rerecord. I was able to establish that the former Prime Minister Birgitte Nyborg had been diagnosed with pre cancerous condition and required radio therapy.

The 7^th episode of the third series starts with the consultant pressing Birgitte to tell her family what is happening, but she insists that she must continue alone and goes from the hospital direct home where her son has delayed going school because of a cycle puncture and her daughter has a late start on Mondays. Birgitte then goes to the office where staff are concerned at the way she appears to be neglecting her duties during the crucial stage when the new party is attempting to establish itself as a political force and in the public mind at a time of crisis because of the International economic crisis,

The governing party is attempting to establish in effect a government of national unity but on their terms and when Birgitte responds to an invitation to meet she is told terms which include abandoning all environmental measures for three quarters of the next decade. She leaves immediately and is seen approaching the notorious leader of the Freedom Party who dismisses her approach reminding that while she had only three seats he now has 45. Birgitte still hiding her condition from her family and political colleagues making excuses and the consultant continues to press her to involve others as she admits she is not sleeping much at night perhaps four or five hours and then feeling tired during the day. She says she needs medication to keep her going for 15 to 16 hours a day after she is caught asleep by her daughter on the very day that the government announces he has called a general election, something which the politicians and TV 1 news station realise he has been planning for months. Birgitte has slept through almost a day of messaging after saying she would be late in because of a dental appointment,

The public broadcasting station TV 1 is also caught out by the General Election announcement where the situation between News head Torben and news editor Pia is tense as she seeks clarification of the nature of their relationship. She has been in love with him for sometime and he responded sexually without thinking of the implications in terms of either her or his wife and family. He has demonstrated a cautious sitting on the fence streak, some would say a cowardly one, in the past, or the Quaker approach of wear thou sword until thou cans’t.

Torben’s immediate boss wants them to win the election in terms of the competition from TV2 but they get off to a bad start as the governing party had immediately arranged for a head to head with the main opposition party the Labour Party trying to turn the General Election into a presidential one sidelining the other parties although Kruse and the New Democrats have done a pre election deal with the governing party which Bent argues will harm them in election.

The consequence is instead of having their previously all party leader debate on the first evening they have to settle for one with the deputies and the main leaders debate the following evening.

We learn that relations between Birgitte’s press director Katrine and Kasper have improved with sharing their child’s care and Katrine almost insists that he has the care for the fist 24 hours after the election announcement and on the evening show it looks as if Torben has a new partner than Kasper. His hair is growing back from the time where he had to shave his head after their son had taken scissors to it when he felt asleep when playing with him. The TV1 team has the brain wave of using GPS to follow what the party leaders are doing 24 hours a day and contact Katrine before dawn to seek her cooperation which will obviously have implications for Birgitte.

The election will be about the economy and the best way to respond to the crisis so Birgitte suggests they turn for help to man they had to abandon because of his previous community party background and Russian links. He has a research programme under way but offers a couple of hours before the evening’s debate. Birgitte recognises they are under funded with less than 1 million Kr in the kitty and will need at least another million which is still insignificant given that the government part is said to have around 45 million and has already booked space in the main news papers. They only have 15 new candidates approved and need at least fifteen to twenty more in order to become a political force and hopefully become part of a governing coalition again.

Because she is tired Birgitte does not prepare as well as she should for the TV debate and this shows in performance when the opposition parties agree she should take the lead on economic questions and emphasise the need to keep the environmental “green” approach. Katrine is fed up because of the refusal to participate on the in the 24 hour coverage with a journalist always on hand 9 in order to protect her position, but after the TV debate fiasco Birgitte realises she has to change her approach, especially after her daughter complains that she had become distant again. The following morning Birgitte makes breakfast and sits the two down and explains she has not been going to gym but for radiation therapy emphasising that the position is pre cancerous but they are on top of the situation but she is feeling very tired. The episode ends as she takes the children with her for the next hospital session.

The eighth episode could have been the last given the momentous events that take place in the course of the hour, or at least the last episode of a season. Birgitte decides that in addition to telling her children she must also advise the party leadership and Katrine arranged for a lead reporter from TV 2 network to interview Birgitte in the office, explain what has happened but that she does no wish to make her illness the issue. There is a great response with lots of flowers at her home including from her ex husband but she says she wants to keep Jeremy at a distance not being able to cope with what is likely to be his reactions. However she finds him at her home one evening saying he is in love with her and has arranged to be there during the days ahead to help.

Despite knowing the predicament she has been in The Moderate party, her old party led by Kruse has been doing a deal with the Labour Party and the Greens, of a new Opposition Manifesto Our Demark which does not mention them because they have not signed up and which does not include issue with which the New Democrats have a different viewpoint with the Moderates. However Birgitte decides that they have to go along with the situation or face becoming spent force before the election takes place and thy concentrate on defining policies which separate them. However during a debate between Birgitte and Kruse about the differences between the two parties Kruse appears to have prior knowledge of the decision to promote wind farms something he has always voted against but now says his party supports their expansion. This indicates that one of three people, ruling out Katrine and Bent have done a deal with Kruse in return for providing information on all their meetings, their tactics and policy programme developments. The approach is to provide of three possible traitors with a false addition and the policy selected by Kruse will reveal the traitor and to everyone’s surprise and disappointment in turns out to be Nete who had regard Birgitte as her heroine and hd been shock by the failure in the fist leaders debate when Birgitte gets the figures hopeless wrong unsure if the police figures are in millions or billions. She has returned to the Moderates from which she originally defected. With Birgitte positive abut her physical health, with the public aware as well as her family and party about why she had been underperforming the position was a positive one.

The last two programmes last night living up to my anticipation and contained some good twists.

At a personal level Torben‘s wife, works out he has been involved with more than a one night stand which he tries to pretend happened when he arrives home in the very early hours and she reveals that when he had been away on a training/conference she had tries o contact him and the office knew nothing of such an event. He is forced to admit that he has had an affairs and that it was with Pia his news editor. That it is with someone with someone with he is working all and every day makes the situation even more unbearable and she insists he must sack the woman or not return home.

He tells Pia he is moving her to documentaries because they are in need of someone with her experience. However with the team horrified this is happening just before the election he realises this is unfair and changes his mind. When his wife finds out she insists he hands over the keys and sleeps at the office. There is a sense later when his wife bring the bys who are missing him of a couple of hours and they go for a walk along the river bank for a meal the boys want a meal comment about the river bus on which has never been and which runs past his office. Hanne comforts Pia about the relationship when she confesses the extent of her affection.

However Torben has what in some respects is a greater challenge to deal with as the creative management boss has decided that they must compete with TV2 in turning the election coverage into a game show dividing the parties into blue and red,, left and right changing the way the debates are presented and planning an outrageous series of changes for the General Election day results programme. Torben rebels before the final debate and is summarily dismissed and leaves the building, goes n the ferry and then arranges to meet his wife for a meal and begs he to take him back and for to return home with her.

In the meantime Pia and his number to have rebelled that the non journalist boss is going to have a hand in the election night coverage and is calling the shots about the way the programme is going to be conducted. Torben is reinstated at leads for Election night and although he insists on going home with his wife she agrees that he should do the programme first. She is their to greet him with the programme ends and Pia is seen being led away by Hanne one of casualties of the series with Torben admitting he had been wrong to respond. The boss tell Torben it was great fun as he departs the building and Torben’s riposte is to suggest that the time he wants fun he should go the to the funfare.

The economist former candidate who is brought back to assist Birgitte by Latrine commences an affair which they both enjoy as Kasper continues to play his part in caring from their son and Katrine also attempts to come to terms with the fact that her new lover is not only twenty years her senior but a late teens son and daughter. They appear cool about their father’s relationship although curious. Katrine finds this situation uncomfortable and at one point make her escape which the father is cooking her breakfast prior to meeting with the rest of the family. At the end of the programme Katrine changes her mind and calls at the man’s home and later is seen enjoying breakfast with the family.

Birgitte’s occasional lover Jeremy also learns of her illness via the media lath given that does not speak Danish is interesting. I also earn that he was never a CEO but an International architect who designed the building in Asia where the international company where she was a board member had built. which their relationship feel even more contrived and designed to bring in even more English speak audience. Her has very little to do in the third season but appear normal, grown up and coping with her mother’s lifestyle remarkably well. Son Magnus get a better part as he becomes anxious about the health of his mother fearing the worst even though she assures she had been given all clear and will go back to see the doc in nine months time. Then when she feels a new lump understandable panic especially as there is delay before she can see the consultant who explains it not more the acculturation of fluid relate to her treatment an which he releases with a syringe and whalah everything is hunky dory again. And hat of the future of her Jeremy who declares his love and has rearranged his globe trotting schedule to be with her. He remains unconvincing throughout.

The main political issue in the ninth episode of the town is how to differentiate themselves from the Moderate party especially after the damage cause by the Nete betrayal which enabled Kruse to switch policies to attack his political craft always just ahead to take their wind.

Birgitte decided to adopt a high risk strategy according to Bent and some of her closest colleagues when choosing to break from the centre left coalition against the ruling party and to attack Kruse know his ability to lose his tamper which he holds together in their first confrontation as she tears up the manifesto.

Being Kruse he launches an aggressive smear campaign using every previous allegation against her. It is Kasper, where I am not clear how is now earning a living missing that 6^th episode, who offers to provide he ammunition discovering that he has covered up a drink driving incident in which he lied ( sounds familiar!) but Birgitte refuses to sink to his level and wants to concentrate on policy differences. However she changes her mind after a journalist door stops her daughter who is understandably upset and she gives the green light Katrine. However at the last moment Katrine also has an attack of conscience after Bent and also the Economics Guru raise their eyebrows. Birgitte is grateful for the second thoughts.

Meanwhile the guru has been using his best students to go through economic programme of tax cuts and expenditure propose by the Moderates under Kruse to find the evidence and does so in time for the last leaders debate and where to avoid what happens before he takes Birgitte through the figures.

The outcome is that the party gains 13 seats in the middle to become key player in the attempts to gain the kind of stable coalition required to see the country through the economic crisis. This is crammed into the first 24 hours although is usually the case negotiates can sometimes continue for weeks until the a last agreement can be established, In this instance the variation are difficult to follow with at one point the left prepared to do a deal with the extreme right The freedom party where the deputy, the woman who seduced number two to Torben to so he will nit be hard on her when they interview has toppled their leader who was against participation in government. He wanted heir party to give expression to view of the common man, the educated, those alienated by the multilateral changes to Danish Society brought about by the widened EEC. An outrageous character their remained something likeable about him despite his outrageous explosions of views and he is seen leaving the parliament building toppled. The deal offered to Birgitte for the leader of the Moderates who is also under fire from his number two and the news later to the right is that Birgitte should become the prime Minister again.

It is something she seriously considers but the final twist she offers the premiership to the existing man on condition he agrees to various concession and her taking the post of Foreign Secretary thus avoiding the inevitable conflict domestic policy. Whether this is a positive or negative development in relation to her lover travelling lover must remain speculation as wall as the impact on children.

Borgen season three episodes 3-6

I am going to try and be ruthless with myself and have drawn up a plan for my time between now and end of the first week in January given that I shall be away for twelve days over Christmas and New Year in two trips one involving the car and the other the train. In addition I have also two outings to football, one possibly two to the cinema could be three if I also go to see Falstaff from the Met and one day in search of a suit although I might wait until the sales.

I will finish writing about Borgen and Montalbano in depth and make a brief lists of those matters I would have written about and may still do later if I am not required to become in matters from by former life. Of the remaining days before Christmas there are Christmas cards and letters and preparations for travel. Not time to consult the Don’t panic manual again, but today I have not played a computer game. I went off and had a very good exercise session for 45 mins achieving higher ratings as a professional tennis player beating a team rated higher, improving the bowling and golf and wining by 12.6 in two rounds of baseball before the mercy rule was applied and then having an excellent power bowling session scoring 512 and gaining a silver medal. However I got my age sports age only down to 36.

Programmes which I appreciated recently include one on Doris Lessing and adult content of music tapes, two programmes on the life and work of Susan Boyle. The series the Tunnel which comes an end next week, the latest episodes of Boardwalk Empire and Master of Sex, also Blue Bloods with the Blacklist concluded for its first season. I watched part of the Royal command performance skipping some acts. These to be added to the relays and other films outstanding, some from a year ago and as are some TV series.

First four more episodes of Borgen in which I understand are its final season and which lived up to my expectation as the new political Party in Denmark experiences all the problems of an instant mass movement created from all those who feel outside the existing political party framework wanting to join in. The guardian TV critic regards it as a flaw that former Prime Minister Bergitte Nyborg embarks on the enterprise in such an amateurish way forgetting that although Party leaders she was comparatively inexperienced to take on the role in the first instance and was unable to keep her marriage going and to avoid major problems with her children, especially the daughter. In part as with marriage and parenting there is no tried and tested formula about creating a new political party. I do however agree that given the importance of the bacon and pork industry to Demark it was surprising that the former Prime Minister had to educated about the reality of what went on. The third series has in fact become a vehicle to discuss topics of controversy and importance to Danish society and here in the UK we need to view the programme from the Danish perspective although the inclusion of an English speaking, Scottish lover could be viewed as attempting to respond to the great reception the programme has received in the UK and other English speaking countries.

In the third episode of the new season 13000 people have rushed to support the new party and dozens crowd into the office wanting to make a contribution and this is regarded great to its leader, the former prime Minister Birgitte Nyborg her media adviser, the former public broadcasting TV 1 station news front woman and journalist Katrine and her three Members in Parliament two from her former party The Moderates Jon and Nete together with one from the New Right whose name I have not remembered.

The situation reminded of the first Committee 100 meeting I attended with Michael Randle previously of the Direct Action Committee in the chair, Ralph Scheonman who was Bertrand Russell’s. Commissar and a mixture of anarchists, communists, labourites and liberals, traditional pacifists, new age practitioners of Satyagrapha(non violent resistance) and where I was one, libertarians and collectivists with the attraction of commune just coming back in fashion, Catholics and Anglo Catholics, Jews and the C of E, Non conformists and atheists,, heterosexuals, lesbians, homosexuals and bisexuals, as well as I assumed those reporting to the security services if not members of the security forces, in London the USA and Moscow. The idea that we would reach agreement on anything was ludicrous but that we eventually did in terms of the form of demonstration was remarkable, although even we slimmed down the planning group to around 30 we were bitterly divided between those who wanted revolution or saw the activities of committee as potentially leading to revolution

(I must get Wikipedia to include my name and adjust their article on the Committee 100 which has several inaccuracies as well as write up more about the reality of my experience of the Direct Action Committee.)

In the instance of Borgen there is a Christian who wants the new Party to support limitations on abolition with Birgitte having to say that her party would never adopt a position where a woman did not have control of her body in this respect and where another new activist wanted her to read a 450 page theoretical economic work which when she got down to it had state control nationalization of almost everything as its conclusion.

Jon a sitting member in the parliament was concerned about the lack of finances and arranged for her meet a Banker who wanted to give one million Krone and after an alcoholic lunch where he has chosen the menu he increases the donation to 1.5 million claiming that he is supporting and does not want anything. Birgitte accepts starts to spend on their HQ and offers free coffee to the activists. Jon then arrange for her to meet some with agricultural interests but at this point she realises there is no such thing as a free lunch after finding that the view of the banker are being incorporated into aspects of the draft financial policy statement.

Birgitte blows the whistle on her self and after getting a 100000 Kr loan from her husband and using her own resources she pays back the quarter of million already spent and concentrates on setting membership rate of 300 Kr some say too much others too little so she settled as this sounds the best compromises and then invites everyone to leave except the founder members declaring that one they have agreed their platform on the various issues then it is for the supporters to decide if it is a party for them to join or not. The issue of what they stand for and political expediency to get stabilised and recognised is the subject of the next two programmes and I going to jump form the fourth to fifth programme for this purposes.

The leader of one of the opposition parties approaches her to support a proposed new piece of legislation which will make all forms of prostitution illegal in Denmark after the plight of slave trafficked women comes to national media attention. If she agrees the combined vote with force the Act on the Government who are opposed to blanket change in a situation where it is not a crime to sell sex and those in brothels who pay taxes are in a grey area with their receptionists and accountants can be liable to prosecution unless they can show an income separate from the sex trade

At first Birgitte is enthusiastic in signing as way of gaining public and political acceptance but the new right former member wants her to be cautious and establish the facts, and then Katrine who is favour of the order gradually come round after meeting a sex worker union leader representing a couple of thousand out of the thousands estimated to be involved in the sex trade. Birgitte refusal to sign the draft legislation is criticised by the other Parties involved and her nemesis’s the former Labour Party leader through his newspaper and other media interests and they begin to lose members. The Sex Worker leader agrees to attend a public hearing where is the lone voice explaining that there are those who enjoy the work, are not forced into it through poverty, partner pressure etc and feels humiliated and raped by the viscous and cruel assertions made against her and use of false statistical information.

Birgitte with Katrine help is able to provide that one of the charity help agencies has grossly exaggerated figures in order to gain a 40% increase in government financial aid and slowly the position changes and the Government agrees to introduced legislation which will improve the present situation without introducing a blanket ban.

There is a meeting between the new line up of parties where the ruling party is represented by the Minister of Justice, Birgitte makes attempts to negotiate conditions for supporting the government approach which includes a special anti trafficking task force to deal with the issue which has attracted media attention and public support, but after presenting an excellent case for legalising brothels of brothels with sex worker represented listened to towards the end of meeting the meeting the government decides that the change would be politically acceptable but some progress had been made

In the fourth episode Jeremy, the English speaking CEO at the International company where Birgitte was on the Board. is poisoned when eating pork at a fashionable restaurant with him throwing up over Birgitte going viral on You Tube and leading to yet another vitriolic attack from the former Labour leader. He is in fact allergic to the antibiotics given to the pig which has clearly been slaughtered and used without sufficient time for the medication to have cleared the system. With the help of the brother of Katrine who pig farms Birgitte learns the nature of the industry in Demark when the quantity of Danish bacon produced has become more important than quality with the commercial animals factory farmed and hundreds of thousands of piglets slaughtered because they do not measure up to commercial requirements. (I have eaten suckling pig twice during a visit to the capital of Majorca.)

The brother does not eat this produce himself because of concerns and instead uses animals which he rears in the open at the back. Katrine promises not to reveal the source of the info being used but he becomes understandable and angry when Birgitte mentions his involvement in a TV interview albeit in way which does not directly identify except to his neighbouring pig farmers and where he says he does not want to speak to his sister again. Because the leader of the extreme party, the Freedom party also pig farms and is incensed by the sentimentality that he shows how they clip the tail of the little piglets soon after birth which causes uproar and eventually they are able to use his emotional intervention when they learn that he has been warned about his methods. The intervention in this issues gets them recognised as a new party,

I failed to record the sixth programme which centres on a new recruit as prospective member who a communist and had visits to the Russian embassy where 80% used to be KGB. The other part of the story concerns the visit Birgitte makes to the hospital are having problems one hand and Jeremy noticing that she has not been eating and as been losing weight. In the previous episode he finally gets to meet her children in the process of making them a bread and butter pudding B BTOH TAKE TO HIM ALTHOUGH SON Magnus had previously expressed anxiety given his close relationship with his father, Philip former husband has help out by taking the children when he arrives for a short stay between visits on his continuous world wide taking position. Interesting when asked he admits to paying for sex on a couple of occasions on his travels which shocks Birgitte when first revealed. However she reveals to Katrine that one female European Minister confided she rented young men on her travels as she had no time for an ongoing relationship. Philip on the other hand says he has never done. This seems to influence Birgitte towards him.

Although Katrine no longer works for the TV station the father of her child, Kasper does although his role at the station is lifted the ongoing issue is the role of the news station head Torben who has to contend with a new boss representing the interest of the Board, a young man with contemporary about management and creativity. He uses a room with odd shaped chairs and chalk boards and encourages Torben to think outside the box. He makes demands and threatens and at first Torben gives in. He fires an economist because her realistic message does not fit in the positive message which the managers wants to carte. He describes the woman as a Pakistani prophet of doom. He is told he must present the sacking to the team has his idea and he repeats the description to the horror of the team. He then has to face a complaint from staff about his language which only add to the criticism of his boss.

Later he stands his ground in front of his colleagues earning their respect but getting in effect a final warning and later still the manager appears to climb down over a belief that the midday news should be cut. He had already agreed that the evening news should have content aims just at women and the later news at men. There had been indications that the news Editor Pia was attracted to him and his stand had changed attraction into reveal her interest which at fist he considers and then holds back, married with family. Later he responds and haring a noise they assume it was a cleaner but his manager reveals that he has been a witnessed and begins to use to this get his way. Torben‘s wife has visited the station to express concern that he has been spending so much time at the station he has been missing out the attending the school activities of his children

The main emotional story of these episodes concerns Katrine who finds her feelings for Kasper have grown stronger when she sees him asleep with their child, However when visiting his flat to bring medication she had previously forgotten she finds a bra by the bed and realising that Kasper has a girl friend although later he admits he has been seeing a number of women. She reacts by reducing the agreed contact he has with his son. He threatens to go back to court.

Katrine presses for an explanation about why walked out on their living together and he explains that he could not cope wither her role as a mother and as wife. He adds however that their son is the most important thing in his life and he could not think of anyone else he would have wanted to be the boy’s mother which makes her feel good about herself once again.

The episode on prostitution and the talk with sex worker leader has helped her to work through her own feeling about love and sex and she invites in from the station Torben’s boss who had refused on their date. He has called round with the lame excuse of being in the area. The scene closes when it is evident they are gang to have sex. The new balance in her life leads to reconciliation with her mother who reveals to eh daughter something she has never talk anyone before, that when her first born son with under a year of age she had an affair with a neighbour, something she had not told her husband and reveals this because she understands some of the issues which mothers can experience when they begin to cope with the realities the different roles they are expected to maintain.

There is one area where I did find myself sharing some of the criticism the Guardian TV journalist and this is the relationship with Jeremy although in instance it was the fact that Birgitte had accept the roles on major companies. I would have expected her to have been offered and taken a different kind of role, especially after her success as the negotiator of peace between the two sides in the African state. A role within Europe , or the United Nations, some aid organisation would have also seemed more likely for the character that had developed, or the extent to which she appeared to have walked away from political matters and her previous own political/ having said this one feature of smaller parties is the tendency for them to split as one personality with their visions finds difficult to be subordinate with another of a different vision although the public the difference may not appear significant. Such difference exist within parties where factions an division can be just as strong but can usually be contained, although doing so in the contemporary world of 24 hours TV is even more difficult than previously.

I have been able find out that the main story of the episode which did not record and I failed to realise this when I could have recorded again. It is evident that Birgitte did visit her CP and this led to hospital and the diagnosis. She has not disclosed to her ex husband or children and was viewed isolated and alone in hospital learning to face the news.

Hebburn the sit com and All Aboard East Coast Trains

On Metro stations and platforms Hebburn is described a as place on earth and not to do with heaven I have very mixed feelings about this series now its second season and featuring the community in South Tyneside closest to Gateshead. The main industries of shipbuilding and Switch get manufacturer Reyrolle have gone with the largely Irish and Catholic origin a strong and dominating one with the equally strongly Labour party dominating with its posh club compared to the seedy Unionist club long the main room. The town largely made up of uniform council housing with gardens replacing the former terrace back to back streets, While the town had a modern civic centre which includes a modern swimming pool with facilities for all the family there was a lack of shopping facilities with families wanting to make major purchases of furniture, clothing and other goods having to go to Newcastle or South Shields within the centre of neighbouring Jarrow there was significant better. It only over the past two decades that there has been the growth of Supermarkets with three major and several smaller units in South Shields, one major an substantial in Jarrow, a huge superstore in Bolden but none until last few years in Hebburn where life revolved the working man’s club and entertainment pub.

Despite the involvement of the local established and highly regarded actress Gina Mckee I did not know what to make of he series or how townsfolk would react to the portrayal of its people especially its lasses as moron and sex crazed where social activities comprised shopping when the cash was available for cloths and make up and hairdressing into Newcastle for a club and otherwise the local social club pub. Having exploited the East End of London, Liverpool, Yorkshire and more recently Glasgow for situational comedies about the working, or non working underclass, it was probably to bring out all the clichés and stereotypes about somewhere in the North East It would be OK if it as funny especially as there was no audience with many scenes shot to show the ton as it is. It was amusing because of my knowledge often area and essential viewing because of this but in terms previous series in the same vein I was disappointed, disappointed that is until the second series which became funnier in kind way and culminating in a moving an authentic episode this week which I believe has talent the series onto a different level.

Gina Mckee plays the proud mum who wont let anyone use her best room unless the occasion demands who this season has tried her hand at selling housing although the establishment colleagues ensure that had was allocated only the worst properties to get rid off,, and where she has now branched out in making cup cakes He typical North husband with an enthusiasms for football, beer , fish and chips and pies has had a stroke and is in rebellion at the added control with his wife and mother now have over him. There at home daughter tried hard to ape Geordie Shore and the Essex girls with her friend who is significantly more of a slapper and her club singer whose school son by a previous relationship has become a skilled thief. The mother in law has organised her fellow residents of a home for the elderly but has returned home complete with stair lift after being left a house which she sold for coppers to the son and daughter in law to ensure she continues to get her full wacky of the social, especially as the main bread winner is now on the permanent disabled sick.

The series has revolved around the arrival back home of h on ho unknown to his family has married a girl from lower middle class home in a drunken moment in Las Vegas. who mother has pretensions and a retiring hen pecked husband. The young man has been working as a journalist, giving up his job to become a writer only for this to fall through. His wife had been a bright student and finds her temporary stay become permanent as her husband takes a low paid post as editor of the local free newspaper. Their predicament in a wafer thin wall bedroom, when his wife is the butt for his sister and her best mate who the son once dated becomes even greater when she becomes pregnant as does the girl friend of the club singer, but her relationship becomes challenged with the arrival of a former male friend while the sister takes a course at the former Hebburn Tec.

The day to day week by week storylines came to a head last night when the daughter in law gives birth several weeks prematurely coinciding with the publication in the magazine of a national newspaper of the diary her husband has kept and which the paper has edited out all the complimentary leading the picture a high emotional and unliveable wife in pregnancy. There are two episodes to go as the residents of six flats at renovated Westmorland Court were evacuated following a fire at one, the second incident at the Court within three months according to the local authority area Newspaper the Shields Gazette.

As I passed Newcastle Station yesterday on my way home I wondered on the progressed made to the outside and what I assume is to be the new ticket office and customer service centre, something was not mentioned to date in the excellent Sky Channel One series All Aboard East Coast Train and which later in the day featured Derby Day between Newcastle and visitors Sunderland and where the home side lost 3.0 always an event likely to cause trouble. Had the side lost then supporters would have been inclined to leave early and get away as quickly as possible while the Newcastle crowd remained in the ground celebrating to into town to do likewise. However with a lost there was an element, some of who would not have been in ground but in surrounding pubs and bars showing the game or would have waited for the news just to take the opportunity to have a punch up with the visiting supporters. Several staff cars were badly damaged as the scum attempted to get to the visiting supports by using the cars to get onto a roof giving access to thee station. The visiting fans were penned in a narrow yard ending the arrival of three special trains travelling from Sunderland to the station. Others would have come on the Metro route travelling incognito among the home supporters, by bus and by car.

The edition feature the female station manager and the organisation of the departure of several thousands students from Durham University as they made their way home with trains at half hourly intervals. Extra staff were n hand to put luggage at speed in the special luggage van so as to avoid the train being leaving the station in over the 90 second turn around time, after which the East Coast Train paid a penalty to rail track.

Previous editions have featured the team in the restaurant car travelling early and providing breakfasts especially to he first class passengers who now have a meal at their table provided as part of their ticket. Another episode feature the work of Trolley ladies and counter which has a target of making a certain amount each journey to balance the books. Newcastle has been a regular featured station which included those who see the trains depart and the weekend stag and her do’s both arriving in Newcastle or visiting the cities. Football was also the subject of trains arriving and departing from Kings Cross one Saturday and the insistence of no alcohol trains which result in any alcohol being confiscated and those who attempt to smuggle and drink when onboard at risk of prosecution. This applies to anyone travelling although alcohol packed away in luggage is not checked.

The training is centred at York where the HQ for the line with its 19 stations and 155 trains a day is located and a driver and the supervision as well as the retirement of someone leaving after a lifetime of service at York. The series mirrors a similar one covering the West Coast line from Euston to Liverpool and Glasgow on a different channel.

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