Oh, I’m all for unreality and the surreal. Someone has made the startlingly bonkers One Hundred Years of Solitude, a book of real genius, into a tv series, which is a bit unnecessary, but I’ll give it a look. The problem with the Jackal from my perspective is that it’s poorly written and lacks tension, although the photography is great and the actors do their best with the material.
I have a feeling that this may have been discussed on here when it was first on TV, but I watched Mark Gatiss's adaptation of the M R James ghost story The Mezzotint the other night. Really creepy and genuinely scary. Excellent. A Ghost Story for Christmas - The Mezzotint - BBC iPlayer
I seem to remember it’s very good. Have you read the story? Quite a bit more left to the imagination, with no loss to the scary factor. Gatiss has also made a very gentle documentary about MR James which is worth a watch. Probably repeating myself as well, but my favourite adaption of his stories is Jonathan Miller’s version of Whistle and I’ll Come to You, starring Michael Hordern. Virtually dialogue free and with a very sixties vibe.
I take it all back, The Day of the Jackal is a model of restraint and veracity compared to Black Doves, in which Ben Wishaw and Ikea Knightly slaughter everyone in sight. Constantly. And she’s married to a government minister and is also a spy!
I'll add that to my watchlist then I've just finished watching three-part documentary on Bashar al-Assad on iPlayer - nice bit of light entertainment. Didn't realise he was an eye doctor in West London before he got the call-up to be heir when his older brother died in a car crash. It's a pretty brutal watch in some parts and probably needs another episode adding to bring it up to date (this was from 2018). Whilst we don't yet know how the new government will pan out in Syria, it's hard to believe it'll be any worse than what the Assad family left in their wake. A Dangerous Dynasty: House of Assad, Series 1: Episode 1: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bnfn0d via @bbciplayer
Stourbridge pub crawl part 2. Stourbridge so good we’ve come back. Duke William. Yeah epic. Royal Exchange. Super epic Bathams pub. The Unicorn *New* - another Bathams pub. ****ing brilliant. Has the XXX special brew on, skull crusher, but went well with the cheese, onion and black pudding cob. Started and finished at the Seven Stars, near the station. Superb, another proper locals boozer, great mixed demographic. 7 pints but 4 of them were mild, which when good (ie Bathams) is nectar. Seriously tempted to move to Stourbridge. Lots of ‘decent’ pubs in Stratford, but none anything like as good as these 4.
I started watching Black Doves. I’m not particularly bright or intellectually elitist but nonetheless, I think it was about 40 mins or so of the first episode of that drivel was enough for me. Also, and this may offend some, for which I suppose I’m sorry, but do we really need so much graphic homosexuality on the telly? I think most blokes don’t care to see other blokes rodgering each other, even the Jackal had to go and take one for the team.
Excellent documentary for any fans of Inside no9 on BBC iPlayer at the moment, following the making of the last series, and going over some of their past like League of Gentlemen and Psychoville.
The Godfather. A horrible, horrible film, with no redeeming characters. Pacino brilliant, but Brando ridiculous, and just thoroughly nasty throughout. How did this awful ****e ever win awards .Massively overrated.
Has anyone tried to sit through Megalopolis? Seriously, absolutely nothing comes remotely close to this shockingly turgid crap. It makes The Room look Oscar worthy. It really has to be the worst film ever made.
I read the reviews and noticed that Coppola hasn’t done anything good for about 50 years so found it easy to avoid….thanks for taking one for the team.
