Lord of the Rings BBC adaptation.

There have been a number of Lord of the Rings adaptations over the years, some better than others, and nothing starts a row amongst Tolkien fans faster than saying which adaptation is the best. But here I go with my half-penth, the best adaptation of Lord of the Rings is the 1981 BBC version by Brian Sibley and Michael Bakewell.

Why choose a radio drama from forty years ago as the best adaptation? Well the first advantage of the BBC version is that it is radio meaning that you have to use your imagination for the setting and the characters. Film and television dominate the mind tyrannising us with how things look as opposed to how things might look. My friend Jim also loves this version but I bet a pound to a penny that if you could see what he was imagining when the Nasgul hunts Frodo or the Eagle sings of the victory over Sauron to the city he will be seeing something quite different to me. Radio is the ultimate medium because it engages the imagination.

The BBC version boasts an all star cast of its day some of whom are no longer with us. This gives us a distinct advantage in that we do not see the actor and the character shines through better. John Le Mesurier is better known as Sgt. Wilson from Dads Army but his Bilbo is fantastic. Ian Holm, who played Bilbo in the recent film, plays Frodo and again gives an amazing performance running through a series of emotional highs and lows that brings the trial of the ring into sharp relief.

The musical score is sometimes criticised for being intrusive but I disagree. It is dramatic and powerful music, with a strong nod to Wagner, fitted for an apocalyptic narrative. Different songs are appropriate to different races for example the charge of Rohan at the Field of Pelennor is accompanied by a heroic song that inspires you to just want to jack in your day job, buy a horse and kill orcs for the rest of your life. Absolutely sublime.

One of the great points is that this adaptation is very true to Tolkiens epic but appears to miss out Tom Bombadil and the Barrow Wights. This is a tricky point because to some Tom is a blemish and to others like myself he is a vital part of the story. Whilst it is true that he is excluded from the adaptation it is also true that they did record Old Man Willow, Tom and the Barrow Wights and this can be heard in Brian Sibleys ‘Tales from a Perilous Realm’. The question is does it work? And it absolutely does. My only criticism of the BBC adaptation is that the Tom recording was excluded.

So to conclude it is my assertion that the BBC adaptation is the best and is a version I go back to again and again and again world without end. It is well written fully sensitive to the source material with a strong sense of epic, catastrophe and drama fitting the Downfall of the Lord of the Rings.

CS Lewis and Christmas

CS Lewis had a prime facie complicated approach to Christmas but on analysis it is clear that there are underlying reasons for his complicated response to this jolly season.

In the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe Narnia is in a miserable situation. It is a land which echos the lyrics ‘Who have winter, but no Christmas‘ from the hymn ‘Cradled in a Manger meanly’ by George S. Rowe (1830-1913). It is part of the breaking down of the Witches power that Father Christmas can break into Narnia for the first time in a hundred years and start to distribute gifts and jollification. It is a horrific moment in the book when the Witch discovers a small group of Narnians who are celebrating Christmas. She calls the feasting a wicked waste then turns them to stone. A small evil but one that cements Jadis as one of the villains of children’s literature. Aslan and Father Christmas as on the side of jollification and fun whilst evil is frigid and cruel to baby squirrels. All joking aside this is a theme that is important in Lewis who says that heaven delights in looking down on a family enjoying a meal together and generally argues that fun is a virtue in and of itself. In stark contrast the demon Screwtape asks Wormwood the pointed question of his patient “Why should the creature be happy?”

Christmas in The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe is an essential breaking down of the Witches power but in the real world Lewis was strongly critical of the commercialisation and the onerous duties associated with modern Christmas in England. In ‘Xmas and Christmas A Lost Chapter from Herodotus’ Lewis describes the horror of secular Xmas from buying unnecessary tat as presents to spending too much on food and drink. The horror of thinking that you have bought all the gifts you need and then get a surprise gift that you need to go back out into the over crowded shops so you can reciprocate. His imaginary correspondent observes the ritual of Xmas and asks a priest why Xmas and Christmas have to be at the same time and the priest replies that it is a racket. The theme that xmas is a racket is repeated in ‘What Christmas Means to Me’ with Lewis pointing out that the ritual of gift giving had grown and grown out of recognisable proportions. The Victorians had given modest gifts between lovers, parents to children and cards between acquaintances. Lewis condemns this on a number of grounds with the strongest being that it gives little pleasure. He is told that it is good for the economy, for trade, but bites back that rather than be saddled with junk it might be better to just give money to the shops as a charity. Finally in ‘Delinquents in the Snow’ Lewis is confronted by the delinquents who have been tormenting his household and stealing from his garden murdering carols at his front door for tips. This is a dense essay that is well worth a read where Lewis ranges far and wide over criminal policies and the moral duties of the Christian.

So I wish you all a very jolly Christmas with your families and friends. Please don’t spend too much or struggle with the shops. Happy Christmas one and all.

An Inspector Calls, tensions in the Birling family

The success of An Inspector Calls lies with JB Priestley’s talent with exploiting the underlying tensions within the Birling family. It is from these tensions that the drama – a thing done – flows. The characters act logically within their own moral frameworks and limited perceptions which are exposed by the Inspector who sees not the limited but the expanded impact of the families choices.

Arthur Birling is an up and coming industrialist whose progress has been smooth so far but he fears a scandal. He is not of the same class as Gerald, who treats him as an equal despite being younger, but seems to aspire to this status and have it within his grasp. Seeking to reassure Geralds mother he boast of potentially being honoured which would go somewhere to achieving this.

Clearly the class issue is a source of tension between Geralds parents and the Birlings. They are of old money whilst the Birlings are new money, men whose status relies on their wealth as opposed to some hereditary title. Arthur is well aware of this status imbalance and confides to Gerald that he is aware that Geralds mother thinks he could have done better and even stayed to his own class. The anxiety of not belonging to the hereditary nobility tells in Birlings treatment of his workers. In order to distance himself from his origins, potentially within this class or at least close to it, he treats them with suspicion, harshness and a dismissiveness verging on the contemptible. Certainly to a contemporary audience who had seen the rise of organised Labour and the creation of the Labour Party this aspiration to join the aristocracy would have looked out of step with reality. By the 1940s and 50s these were yesterdays men.

Shiela shows the greatest development throughout the play not least in her change from a self absorbed engagee. In the beginning of the play she could not take her eyes off her engagement ring when her father wanted to address her and her involvement with Eva Smith is associated with her self perception. Shiela has Eva fired from the last steady job that she has because she looks prettier than her and because she thought that Eva was laughing at her. Shielas identity is wrapped up in her feminine identity and her status as an attractive woman. A status that is always under attack by her mother who insists on treating her like a child and maybe even a doll. Her relationship with Gerald is equally complex as she suspects him of having other love interests since he did not come near her one summer. The fault lines around Sheila are significant which may go a long way to explain why she develops the most of all the characters.

When I put away childish things I learnt one of them was the fear of looking childish…

Daily writing prompt
When was the first time you really felt like a grown up (if ever)?
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The title is a butchered CS Lewis quote but I think you get the message. One of the things adolescents fear is looking childish, I think children themselves feel shame if someone accuses them of being acting like a child, despite being a child a quality of being young and something to be enjoyed. Not enjoying childhood is a complete waste and taking childhood from someone early is demonic.

What does it mean to be an adult? There are somethings that an adult can do, they can buy adult things like alcohol or monster drinks at a certain age but it is not the age that is important. Its the quality of their relationship with society. An adult is a person (literally a legal person) who can be trusted with potentially harmful materials, substances, actions and relationships to enjoy them responsibly and in a socially responsible way. The way we judge this is by age. I often wonder if people should take a personality test to be allowed to date, a genetic test to assert if they can handle beer etc etc but then my dystopia alarm goes off. We have to trust people.

I thought I would feel like an adult when I could do adult things without being supervised. I imagined that beer, a girlfriend and a job would make me an adult. I was wrong and these things were shallow opportunities to be an adult though rich and rewarding in themselves. Something was missing. These experiences were symbols or signals of my adult hood and I was wearing them like scout badged sewn onto my jumper. I thought about it long and hard one night in the university bar where I suddenly realised that I did not want another beer. What I actually wanted was a lemonade, a crisp, cold and refreshing glass of lemonade. Part of me recoiled and I imagined people looking escance at the adult man drinking a lemonade but then I thought that it was only pride talking and if I wanted something from my childhood why not get something from my childhood. In that moment a whole new world opened up for me. Now that I was an adult I could enjoy childish things.

Three good causes…

Daily writing prompt
If you had a million dollars to give away, who would you give it to?
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Most of my work is tongue in cheek and flippant. I try to make useful points but I am far too English to be serious. This prompt calls for me to use my imagination and I have done so thinking in terms of my real interests in the world. I have a heart for the vulnerable and the marginalised even if I don’t have the means or the temperament to help them directly. So I have selected three charities that I think are important and would love it if you clicked on the links.

EMBRACE

Embrace is a charity that works with prostitutes in Coventry. I first came across the charity at Hope Church in Hillfields. What struck me was that the charity was not a ‘finger wagging’ exercise but a loving outreach to women and girls who were being exploited in the most horrendous way. One of the things run was a weekly tea party for the ladies which restored to them a sense of dignity and respect. A deeply loving venture that I can not praise enough.

Anti-Slavery International

To think that there are more slaves in the world than have ever been is a horrible thought. I feel it very deeply because one of my relations was Thomas Clarkson a man who drove himself to a nervous breakdown in his efforts alongside Wilberforce and others to abolish the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. To think that in this day the world is more dependant on forced labour, slavery, child labour and low wages is deplorable and this charity works hard to raise awareness of and take action against slavery in the modern world.

Myton Hospices

I care deeply about life and that people should live good lives and have good deaths. Death is the ultimate statistic one in one die. Despite this commonality people find death to be a terrifying experience either for themselves or their loved ones. Myton provides expert care based on years of experience to make this terrible time easier and better.

To conclude if I had a million dollars to give away I would choose these three charities who work so hard at the coal face of human experience.

If you want to do it twice you need a parachute to skydive…

Daily writing prompt
What’s something you would attempt if you were guaranteed not to fail.
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The title to this blog is absolutely true, if you want to do sky diving twice you need a parachute. You can go once and will have the ride of what is left of your life but I could never do that. I would be terrified. In fact I would also be terrified of jumping with a parachute. It is not for me.

It is not the kit that would be the problem I would have complete confidence in the people organising the jump it is my imagination that would bring up horrible images. And that is the cusp of this writing prompt. I think that you can have a ‘belt and braces’ approach to life absolutely safe and secure but your imagination will always produce a fantasy of horror.

Roald Dahl points out in one of his books that the nightmare of rich people is that they wake up in the morning with nothing in the bank. Being rich insulates you from the troubles and tribulations of real life and to go from pampered luxury to real life must be a terrible thing. A horrific example is when the top fell off Charles II cane at his trial and nobody reached down to pick it up. To go from King to normal person must be a test of character.

The danger of this question, this geni bargain, is to remove reality from our lives. In real life success is never assured. We have proverbs about ‘best laid plans’ and ‘slips between cup and lip’ and life is always a gamble however well you stack the cards in your favour. Chance and chaos find a way.

The Titanic Symbol in An Inspector Calls, revisited

In An Inspector Calls Priestley quickly establishes Arthur Birlings character by his setting, in a comfortable middle class house during a dinner party, by what he says and how he says it.

Remember that nothing in a play or in a film happens by accident. Everything on stage or on the screen is designed to be there to achieve a particular purpose.

He starts by calling out Shiela who is admiring her wedding ring, his little (sic) speech comes directly after the formalisation of her engagement and in a way he is trying to get the lime light back onto himself. His words are telling “I don’t often make speeches at you -“

He goes on to make a speech where everything is wrong and the audience would have known it to be very, very wrong. Set before 1912 this speech is a riposte to what Birling sees as pessimistic talk. Talk of labour disputes, war and the Titanic.

As we all know the Titanic is the most famous ocean liner in history, for all the wrong reasons. Birling is interested in the material facts of the Titanic, its size and speed, whereas it has become famous for the tragic loss of life and mythos. This would not be lost on the audience who would be confirmed in their suspicions that despite claiming to be a hard headed man of business who can take a sensible reading of the situation. In fact he is completely wrong and set up in the eye of the audience as a buffoon. A buffoon who by the end of the play knows his family as well as he knows current events.

In the same way as the Titanic the Birling family are big, rich, influential and powerful in their little town but by the end of the play this Titanic hits the iceberg of reality and is itself wrecked.

I’m shy, look at me, LOOK AT ME!

Daily writing prompt
What was the hardest personal goal you’ve set for yourself?
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Long time readers will probably be surprised to learn that I am in fact a very shy man. I work in schools performing in front of sixty to ninety children at a time, I recite poetry to audiences and regularly (whenever I am allowed too) do Pecha Kucha talks but despite my performing personality I am going to pieces inside.

People say to me ‘how do you do it?’ or ‘I couldn’t do what you do’ but neither could I without setting myself the goal everyday of getting up there and just doing it. It is a challenge every day and every time. Yes there are little rituals I do and I metaphorical mask that I wear but the truth of the matter is that if I don’t just do it I never will.

I have always felt crunch moment when either I perform or walk off stage. A moment of expectation of the audience and potential for myself for two options only either to bottle it or do it. The hardest goal that I set myself every day is to stand up and perform. The alternative is too awful to contemplate.

To change is to live in time, to never change risks stagnancy…

Daily writing prompt
What’s a topic or issue about which you’ve changed your mind?
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Human beings live in time and on a planet that changes with the seasons whether we want it to or not. Some seasons are warm, hot or cold and they roll around like clockwork. If we did not change to suit our world then we would dress inappropriately to the weather, eat and drink out of step with conditions and holiday or work at the wrong moments. We would be insane. It is sane to drink hot chocolates on winter nights, wear our shorts in the summer and look for conkers on lovely autumn walks. Change is part of our lives.

To stubbornly hold onto Christmas decorations after the season has past, eat Easter eggs after or before Easter would ruin the observation of those holidays making the things that we do to celebrate them vacant of meaning. Now that we eat Hot Cross buns all year round they are not special to Good Friday and that is the risk we run by not celebrating in the correct season and changing with the seasons.

I like change and think that it gives special meaning to foods and practices that would not be special unless we make them special. Pancakes are just pancakes except on Shrove Tuesday when they become the entire focus of the day. To enjoy Pancake day and not change to Lent robs Pancake day of its special meaning.

The danger is that we do not have to change. We live in a world of environmental controls where our cars, homes and offices are not too hot in the summer and not cold in the winter. We could wear the same clothes all year around and our supermarkets could provide the same food and drink with no alteration. Rather than eat seasonally we could eat blackberries harvested from around the world at anytime we chose. We are a society who eat lamb in winter. I think this is potentially very dangerous and the worst type of danger is the most comfortable. If you don’t need to keep an eye on the weather do you think about your clothes? If you have no sense of seasonable availability do you think about your meals? Are we becoming a society that simply does not have to think and use our God given brains to enjoy the seasons rather than live in a perpetual comfortable seasonless world? Change is part of the human condition and embracing change brings benefits not least that we use our brains and don’t wander mindlessly from experience to experience. One day I decided to change my mind and dress, eat and experience winter and I enjoyed it all the more.