During my historical podcast hopings, I came across one that in its Q & A sessions suggested his dream cast for a multi season lengthy HBO style series on the French Revolution: Timothee Chalamet as St Just, a younger Tom Hanks or Bradley Cooper type as Louis XVI ("someone who can be both sympathetic and frustrating at the same time"), Anthony ( Read more... )

Started but won't finish: the latest miniseries take Great Expectations, starring Olivia Colman as Miss Havisham. It's one of those productions which in theory sound good - colourblind cast, scriptwriter coming from successful original show (Steven Knight) - and in practice is just a mess. Also one that's mostly filmed in grey, both the marshes ( Read more... )

Speaking of warnings, where to begin with Blake's 7?

Click to view

Also, the Guardian tells you where to start with Charles Dickens, making a "the fan favourite", "the best one" etc. list. Turns out I have more Stephen King opinions than I have Dickens opinions, but no Hard Times?

Everyone else seems to reply to this question with the Muppets version. Now, I like the Muppets version and admire its cleverness, but my favourite Christmas Carol adaption is actually not any of the film versions, but the audio recording of Patrick Stewart's stage performance. Not, I emphasize, the made for tv 1999 adaption where Stewart plays ( Read more... )

This was the first movie I saw in the cinema since February, and I've been curious about it for a year now. It's, as advertised, a breathless, fast paced, wildly inventive version of David Copperfield, directed by Armado Ianucci, with a great cast multiethnic cast (colourblind in the British stage sense, hence, for example, Nikki Amuka-Bird as Mrs ( Read more... )

In the middle of the few-days-before-Christmas business, I discovered that for the first time in many a year, I will get a Yuletide Treat, and also, I'm pretty sure re: the fandom, so imagine yours truly running around with a wide smile of delight today. I can't wait! (For the official assignment gift as well, of course, but the treat was such an ( Read more... )

The three stories I wrote for this year‘s Yuletide were:

1.) My Assignment:

Icebound (13024 words) by Selena
Chapters: 7/7
Fandom: Order of the Air Series - Melissa Scott & Jo Graham, 20th Century CE RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Mitchell Sorley/Stasi Rostov
Characters: Mitchell Sorley, Stasi ( Read more... )

Trailer spotted: The Man Who Invented Christmas seems to be trying to take the Shakespeare in Love approach to Charles Dickens and A Christmas Carol. The following thoughts occured to me in no particular order ( Read more... )

Which is a not-really-memoir, a collection of autobiographical stories, several of which have been earlier published, here arranged not in linear order but thematically, in a way. Le Carré puts himself in the observer role in most of the stories, which are focused on the various people, famous or not, he encounters. For all that he's a superb ( Read more... )

Some of the loot from my recent London trip:

Effie Gray, which I mostly wanted to watch because Emma Thompson wrote the script. She also plays a supporting role, but given her script for Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility was superb, I was looking forward to this other effort in the writing department. It's a cinematic take on a notoriously bad ( Read more... )