BBC's "The Nativity" Reviewed

Well, I've now watched the last of the four episodes of the BBC/CBC production of "The Nativity".

I thought it was a splendid, straightforward telling of one of the best known stories in human history. It didn't try to be clever, it didn't try to rationalise and significantly it didn't try to preach. It simply - yet with breathtakingly vivid "colour" - told the story pretty much as we've all seen it in a thousand school nativity plays. Great television great storytelling.

Not that the Daily Express seems to think so. They have somehow convinced themselves that it's insulting to Christians, which rather suggests that they've either watched a different production to the one I've seen or else they're being sensationalist for the sake of it. I couldn't possibly comment on which of these possibilities is the more likely.

Although I don't often talk about God, I am indeed a Christian and - despite a few, very few, differences with the Gospels in the narrative here - I wasn't even remotely offended. Indeed, I was distinctly moved by it (not to mention entertained) and pleased to see it go out as part of the Christmastime schedule.

If you wonder what it's all about and you're in the UK it's on the iPlayer. If you're in Canada, it's on CBC Television as a single two hour film tonight at 8.00pm.

What Has Sky Ever Done For Us?

Apparently, in an interview with Broadcast Magazine, Jeremy Hunt, the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport, described himself as a "cheerleader" for Rupert Murdoch and said that "he has probably done more to create variety and choice in British TV than any other single person".

Now is this an incorrect attribution (BBC, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12059950 ) for the record)? Or is Jeremy Hunt occupying some parallel universe where the BBC, Lew Grade and Jeremy Isaacs never existed? Or is he just stark staring bonkers?

Answers on a postcard, please.......

What Has Sky Ever Done For Us?

Apparently, in an interview with Broadcast Magazine, Jeremy Hunt, the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport, described himself as a "cheerleader" for Rupert Murdoch and said that "he has probably done more to create variety and choice in British TV than any other single person".

Now is this an incorrect attribution (BBC, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12059950 ) for the record)? Or is Jeremy Hunt occupying some parallel universe where the BBC, Lew Grade and Jeremy Irons never existed? Or is he just stark staring bonkers?

Answers on a postcard, please.......

The Hound of the Baskervilles

I very much enjoy the Sherlock Holmes stories and at the risk of being populist and predictable(moi?!) my favourite remains The Hound of the Baskervilles.

I’ve just watched the 2002 BBC production which – while being very good in many ways and more-than-usually scary – seemed to have a spectacularly topsy-turvy bit of casting. However did they cast Richard E Grant in the role of Stapleton when he’s the most glaringly-obvious Sherlock Holmes since Jeremy Brett?

Nice to see some splendid Isle of Man scenery doubling for Dartmoor, though!

BBC: The Nativity

I've just watched the first episode of the BBC/CBC co production The Nativity.

What a splendid bit of telly. Whatever your views or beliefs, catch it on iPlayer or whatever if you can (and there are three more episodes this week).

It was visually very pleasing (it looked like I was watching a moving version of a Pre-Raphaelite painting) and it dealt with religiously-rooted events in a very stylish and measured way.

Finally, it did what all good books, films or television should do: it moved me. The Annunciation has the hairs standing up on the back of my neck.

Looking forward to the rest now.......

Fact Emulating Fiction

Last night we watched the hugely enjoyable film "Love Actually".

Today, I went to get some Christmas presents and emerged heavily laden from the shops to find people carrying Christmas trees and snow coming down in rather large flakes.

For a moment, I thought I was back in the film!

Amassed Junk

I've been clearing stuff in preparation for Christmas. Amazing the stuff you find "filed away" in the letter rack and a box here and there. This has so far included:

• A plastic disposable camera neither of us recognises
• A bus map for the Wirral
• A 35mm film canister (goodness knows)
• A Bristol Zoological Gardens key ring
• A (blank) postcard from Paphos
• A 1977 guide to Stonehenge
• An "Oxfordshire Ancestors" CD-ROM
• A packet of 40 anti-static computer wipes
• A copy of "Latin Can Be Fun"

We live in a very strange house. And I wouldn't have it any other way!

Literary Interlude

Things have suddenly become very busy. Not just the preparations for Christmas (don't remind me!) but a flurry of bookings for 2011. I think offices across Western Europe are full of people desperately trying to clear their desks before the Christmas break. Still, it's all welcome.

Anyway, in an attempt to relax (something I'm always being told to do) I've decided to force myself to read a classic novel, so I'm tackling Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca.

It's a bit heavy going.......but I'll keep you posted!

Circular Thoughts on Radio

As I've said here before, I'm sometimes accused of being a Radio 4 Bore, one of those people who endlessly goes on about what a varied, stimulating thing the BBC's national speech network is. I'm not a "bore" at all. I'm just discerning.

In contrast, I'm not much of a telly person these day (not like in The Golden Age of Television When I Was Young [TM], oh, no.......) but we sat through tonight's Ian Hislop's Age of the Do Gooders on BBC 2. Now at he risk of being simplistic, ithis was BBC Televisoin managing to be BBC Radio 4 with pictures.......

The Age of the Do Gooders reminded at how off the wall telly can be when it's done with a bit of thought and intelligence. (Mind you, having sat through The Apprentice the other evening because it covered tourism, anything else would have seemed stimulating!)

I was interested to see him cover the Victorian illustrator George Cruikshank, whose house I include when I do tours in Camden. It lies at the end of Mornington Crescent, a Tube Station which has its own special place in Radio 4 lore.

And with that circular bit of thinking, I'll take my leave of you again!

Working From Home

I'm working from home today. And I when I say that, I really do mean work from home; I've a great pile of preparation to do.

It seems that in this age of electronic communications, for some jobs at least, this is now much easier. There's been a lot of coverage in the last year or so of what the media seem to call "shedworking", ie building an office in a shed at the bottom of the garden and working from there.

Well, we haven't run to that. We've acquired a summer house this year but it's emphatically not connected to anything. It's a refuge from all that.

No, for me working from home means a spare bedroom converted into an office. And that leads me to the subject of this Blog post:

In this weather, having an office just at the bottom of the garden is great in that you don't have to worry about roads, public transport, etc., in this sort of weather.

However, unless these "sheds" are extremely well insulated (!) I think I prefer my former-spare-bedroom-turned-office with a radiator on one wall, thank you very much!