Oscar material

If Kate Winslet does have the good fortune to win the Oscar for Best Actress for The Reader, she may do well to acknowledge Ricky Gervais in the acceptance speech. For it was Gervais, in his comedy series Extras, who cast her in a guest appearance (as herself) playing a nun in a World War II film, who is doing the role only for the purpose of winning an award. "Nuns, suffering, Holocaust...definite Oscar", she quips at one point.

And now unnervingly, she is winning awards left right and centre for playing a German Concentration Camp guard - during the Holocaust. The recognition won't be undeserved, as she's always worked jolly hard in her other (perhaps better) films. I particularly enjoyed her performance in the bleak Jude, she was the youthful spirit and joy of Iris, and even the trashy Titanic has its good moments.

So often, relatively inferior films win awards usually because of the subject matter or the fashion.
Uncle Oscar often has a funny way of rewarding his children.

Snowed under....(?!)

The United Kingdom defied the Luftwaffe in 1940, kept Napoleon and many others at bay, and was at the centre of an Empire over which the sun would never set. As an island, she has enjoyed a moderate climate at best, and hardly suffers from extreme weather.

How is it then, in face of so much past triumph in adversity, that the people of this nation in February 2009 stand around like sheep because of a little snowfall.

Most of the snow around the country has already melted, but that hasn't deterred most schools from prematurely cancelling lessons and businesses from ceasing trading, and unforgivably, the London buses (pioneers in transport in their heyday) chose not to run.

In days gone by we just mucked in and carried on, but complacency and too much familiarisation with mild winters has left most people taking the easy way out, and others moaning about the bad weather. I personally love the sight of the snow, and how it is such a great leveller at slowing the pace of life down to a more manageable level. The only drawback is that it leads later on to ice, and the slush - which has already materialized from the minor thaw-out this afternoon.

Oh to be in England, now that winter's here...

Take Hart

There have been a spate of sad deaths lately, from the wonderfully laconic John Mortimer to the brilliant, panther-like villain of many a film (including the Star Trek and Naked Gun

series), Ricardo Montalban. But my heart sank the most when I heard about the death of Tony Hart at the weekend. I think for many young artists of the time, his children's TV programme Take Hart introduced the genius of drawing to a whole younger generation. This, coupled also with excellent use of the medium - such as overhead cameras to capture his work in progress. A spin-off from the children's TV series Vision On, it more than held its own, and the cluster of work that children would send in to "The Gallery" was testament to the programme's popularity. Its success led to other incidentals being thrown in, such as the slightly awkward comedy sidekick Mr. Bennett, and best of all, the animated plasticine character Morf (the creation of one of the Aardman Studio's maestros, Peter Lord), residing in a pencil case on the artist's table, with whom Mr. Hart interacted beautifully, even though it was all put together in the editing room of course. To be honest, I think my first immediate reaction when I heard of his passing was the sadness that there wouldn't be any Morf & Chas anymore. In reality of course, Tony Hart had retired from television presenting some years before - whereas Morf on the other hand has since been very much in the public conscience. Along with Rolf Harris in the 1970's, a pivotal figure in the world of popular television art, done in a fun and brilliantly accessible manner. We shall miss him.

Some Highlights of 2008

Cultural Highlight of the Year: Oh What a Lovely War - Headgate Theatre


Favourite Play of 2008 (as audience): Someone Who'll Watch Over Me

Favourite Films: Lust, Caution and WALL-E

Favourite TV/Radio: all the tribute programmes to Humphrey Lyttelton, both before and after his death in April 2008.

Favourite TV ad: Actimel, starring Bobby Charlton.

Favourite Music of 2008: Mahler's 5th Symphony, at St. Paul's Cathedral (right).

Favourite Books: I don't generally catch up with the latest novels, but I've been continuing my reading of Winston Churchill's History of the Second World War, of which Volumes 3 & 4 covering Dunkirk, The Blitz, the Battle of Britain and Russia, made for compelling reading.

Wittiest Review of the Year: Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian, on The Incredible Hulk.

Worst Cultural Experience of 2008: Probably the furore about Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross (especially the BBC's handling of it).
Having to sit through the overrated Dark Knight for a turgid 2 and a half hours wasn't as bad as Wanted (below).

Great publicity photo, shame about the film.

Drinka Pinter Milka Day

Predictable perhaps, that the late, great Harold Pinter's death announced on Christmas Day this year should have been so milked by sections of the media. I've never been quite so enamoured of him as others have; his scripts (whether original or adapted from other people’s work) come across as rather cold and superficial. I can remember seeing his frankly pretentious short play The Room at a One-Act play festival in Ipswich a few years ago, and wondered what the heck it was all about. His screenplay for The Servant seems rather contrived and unconvincing, where Dirk Bogarde’s working class servant undermines and takes over James Fox’s snooty master, a bit of whimsy on the working class Pinter’s part.

His most famous attribute was his use of language, notably the use of pauses in many of his plays. But this rather stylised approach to theatre, I find, when it works, is mainly down to the strength of the actor, not the writing.

A highly influential writer nonetheless, strongly influenced himself by Samuel Beckett – for whom Pinter (also a reasonable actor and director) performed in many of his plays, including John Gielgud’s last short film, Catastrophe in 2000.

Horsing Around

Well, now I can say I've been to my first horse race meeting - of a kind - and I can also say that I've sat in the hospitality box at a sporting event for the first time. Do everything once in your life, so they say. The specific occasion was the GFM Christmas Dinner & Disco, and having been invited, and out of sheer curiosity, I wanted to go along.

The Great Leighs Racecourse is something of a revelation in the north of Essex (I'd never heard of it until a few days ago), the first new British racecourse in 80 years, and adaptable for races both day and night, as here. The floodlights used for the purpose are very attractively designed in the shape of champagne glasses - which perhaps suggests the sort of clientele they want to attract. Even the main bar for plebians advises "Smart Casual" as the mode of dress.

As far as the racing was concerned I felt a little more at home and in touch with the sport when I occasionally popped into the main bar next door. Back in the corporate hospitality area, the food was very nice, so much so that I didn't really have time to nip outside into the freezing cold to watch the races, for every time a finish came along, so did the next course.

As soon as the last race finished however (for which my horse came in second in the sweepstake on our table), the disco music kicked in almost instantaneously. Mentally I nodded off - and almost literally at some points - the music was too loud for me to fall asleep. At other times I decided to step out into the cold to take a proper look round the racecourse, armed with a glass of red wine to fortify me - the ideal tonic with all the colds going around at the moment.

The GFM coach brought most of us back to Colchester at 12am (with deepest thanks to the member of the Great Leighs staff who found my missing baseball cap.) On the way back I could see most of Essex frosting over that night, yet the racetrack remained unharmed; we had to step over it to access the main enclosure. I never expected to get sand on my shoes tonight instead of frost!

Good Things: 16

"Rover" bus tickets.

As little as £2.20 on any bus anywhere in the local area on Sundays, and £1.60 in the evenings, any day of the week.