When Pictures First Moved

Watched Paul Merton's rather touching tribute to the cinema pioneers of 1895 onwards on BBC Four this evening; poignant in particular for the likes of Georges Melies and Max Linder - Melies spending his later years running a solitary toy shop in Paris after his style had gone out of fashion, and Max Linder (whom Merton clearly feels a comedic affinity for) had a life that was demoralised tragically by the First World War. These two men were cinematic giants, and still are, for those who keep their reputation alive.

Paul also makes such a simple but devastatingly truthful observation: without these slightly eccentric figures of the late 19th century, we would not have the medium of television, movies and video that we have today. It's so ingrained in our psyche, that we simply cannot imagine life not being re-created magically on a screen - something which the first audiences of 1895 were so startled by.


BBC website link

The land across the Mersey

Just finished a successful run of Willy Russell's play Blood Brothers at Manningtree (left), which was a well acted and poignant story of two twin brothers separated at birth, whose different social upbringing has an unbearable effect on their lives: one rich, the other poor. By a coincidence, the story of the Jamie Bulger killers has once again come to the fore, set in those same Liverpool streets where the boys grew up.

Recently I also received an emotive request to join an on-line petition calling for the end of the anonymity accorded the Bulger killers - especially now that Jon Venables has apparently re-offended as the tabloid media were quick to inform the nation.

Impassioned though many people's feelings are on the subject, I can't see the good that will come of this. The awfulness of the crime will never be forgotten, but at the same time what Jon Venables has recently perpetrated is to be judged as the adult he now is (27), and not the previous, far worse crime that he committed as a child.

Whatever his ills - and clearly they are no better than before - Jon Venables is still a human being, with all the frailties as well as the monstrosities that humans are capable of - like all the other kids of that tough environment.