Brief reaction as I have to get up and cross London to the ExCel tomorrow for the 'Celebration'... but it was corny, with some overdone sentiment and dramatised the mythology and communal memory of Doctor Who as much as it did (very selectively) the facts and personalities - but it was still a tremendous achievement within eighty-five minutes, with ( Read more... )

Comparing The Six Wives of Henry VIII, made in late 1969/early 1970, with the contemporary seventh season of Doctor Who raises questions about value judgements. The Six Wives walked off with BAFTAs, no doubt deservedly so, though I haven't made any evaluation of the competition. The scripts of The Six Wives (on my acquaintance with two) are ( Read more... )

Back at Christmas 1995, I recorded the Channel 4 transmission of England, My England, a drama commemorating the threehundredth anniversary of the death of Henry Purcell. It was promoted as John Osborne's last screenplay, though it was actually uncompleted at his death and finished by Charles Wood, and its commercial release has emphasised the ( Read more... )