six degrees of A&E
Over the last several nights B and I watched Longitude, the A&E Television movie based on Dava Sobel's book about the 18th c. carpenter John Harrison, who essentially invented the marine chronometer in his pursuit of the prize for finding a method of determining longitude at sea. It's quite an enjoyable movie, although the format of jumping back and forth between Harrison's story and the story of Rupert Gould, a retired WWI naval officer, whose obsession is restoring Harrison's early timepieces, was a little hard to get used to.
And it's got a lot of star power - and a whole lot of familiar faces. In "Six degrees of Canada" fandom (C6D) we like to joke that "there are only twelve actors in Canada" - well, watching Longitude I felt kind of like I did when I saw Suspicious River and all the creepy guys were Stargate actors. Except in this case, 1) nobody's creepy (well, hardly anybody), and 2) all the guys are A&E Age of Sail miniseries actors.
Sir Henry Simmerson and Sergeant Harper from Sharpe are in it. So is Major Edrington from Hornblower. (And, although not A&E or AoS, Quirrel's in it and his father is Dumbledore, although not the same Dumbledore as his Dumbledore. Hee!)
I remember thinking this while watching a whole series of A&E stuff in a boxed set we'd borrowed from friends. Hornblower, Pride and Prejudice, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Lorna Doone, Jane Eyre, and probably a couple of others. Horatio's landlady's daughter Maria was also the youngest of the Bennet sisters. Lt. Kennedy showed up at a party in The Scarlet Pimpernel. And so on.
I guess AoS = A&E6D! Because apparently there are only twelve actors who do period drama miniseries on television.
And it's got a lot of star power - and a whole lot of familiar faces. In "Six degrees of Canada" fandom (C6D) we like to joke that "there are only twelve actors in Canada" - well, watching Longitude I felt kind of like I did when I saw Suspicious River and all the creepy guys were Stargate actors. Except in this case, 1) nobody's creepy (well, hardly anybody), and 2) all the guys are A&E Age of Sail miniseries actors.
Sir Henry Simmerson and Sergeant Harper from Sharpe are in it. So is Major Edrington from Hornblower. (And, although not A&E or AoS, Quirrel's in it and his father is Dumbledore, although not the same Dumbledore as his Dumbledore. Hee!)
I remember thinking this while watching a whole series of A&E stuff in a boxed set we'd borrowed from friends. Hornblower, Pride and Prejudice, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Lorna Doone, Jane Eyre, and probably a couple of others. Horatio's landlady's daughter Maria was also the youngest of the Bennet sisters. Lt. Kennedy showed up at a party in The Scarlet Pimpernel. And so on.
I guess AoS = A&E6D! Because apparently there are only twelve actors who do period drama miniseries on television.