Benares restaurant in Berkeley Square this evening, a Father's Day gift from my children. It's an Indian/British fusion restaurant and was very nice but slightly underwhelming for its Michelin star. The gift voucher menu meant that we were restricted in our choices, though. We both had the Momo chicken starter, which was superb, but the main courses were uninspiring. The service - something which is almost as important as the food quality for me - was excellent throughout, though. Good, but not great.
Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse’s The Lovebox in your Living Room, spoof history of the BBC brilliantly done in the style of the Adam Curtis film essay/documentaries - everything spot on, the deadpan voice over, black and white captions, manic editing of old film clips (some genuine, some fake with Harry, Paul and others). Great stuff, some of it quite vicious. BBC 4 seems to be showing back to back episodes of ‘classic’ BBC sitcoms at the moment. Centenary stuff abounds.
One good thing about being sick off work (other than being back on the board), is being able to catch up on all the stuff I’ve had waiting to watch on TV. This morning included the emotional programme ‘Rob Burrow - Living with MND’ A very upsetting, emotional but ultimately heart warming 30 mins that will surely wet most peoples eyes. Well worth watching.
Mate it actually had me in tears….to see someone who 5 years ago was at the peak of his game, to now being a literal shell of a man…but who has the love of his family around him. Makes my problems and issues seem a mere nothing. Really worth watching
And a huge family too. Blood and all of rugby league family too. Has done so much to highlight MND suffering through his own plight.
Just started watching the new 2022 version of “All Quiet on The Western Front” on Netflix. If the first 5 mins are anything to go by this is gonna be an absolute belter
Read the book mate, it’s sheer, brutal, genius. The sequel, The Road Back, which is about soldiers trying to reintegrate into a society which they feel is morally bankrupt after the war, is just as good. Both books banned and burnt by the Nazis. Erich Maria Remarque was conscripted at 18, fought on the Western front and was wounded. I’ll watch the film a bit later. Stanley Kubrick’s Paths of Glory, one of his early films starring Kirk Douglas about a group of French soldiers facing court martial after refusing to continue a suicidal attack is another great WW1 film.
Just on a break after yet another spectacular, horrific and outstanding battle scene that surely must go someway in getting across to people the horror of war and battle. The pure chaos and brutality is stunningly portrayed to people like us, who will never experience that kind of situation. Interesting to think of the conflict from the German point of view and makes me reflect that although we see “the other side” as just “the enemy”…..every single one of them was someone’s father, someone’s son, someone’s husband or someone’s love….and every death was ****ing tragic. I’ve never read the book, although seen the other two versions of this movie, but will put it on my list…..if it makes me feel as “anti war” as this movie has….then it’s well worth a read. (Although I have heard the endings in this film differs from the book. This movie really does deserve an Oscar and if it doesn’t then it’s a travesty. On another note, and I’m assuming you will anyway, watch in the original German….always better in my opinion. Let me know what you think…..back to the movie
SAS Rogue Heroes is a good watch. 6 episodes on BBC iPlayer. ( 8.564321953427/10 from me ) the ending was slightly dodgy but then isn't everything nowadays?
Saw an episode last night, good fun, although all the characters are clearly psychopaths. Don’t really care if it’s true or not, although it is claimed to be.
There's a podcast to go along with the series, and they go into the accuracy of some of the events. Needless to say, there is some poetic licence being used, but quite a lot of it actually is factual - they WERE all nuts
