Doctor Who series 8 (Peter Capaldi)

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We finished rewatching Doctor Who series 7 mid-July. It was the last full series with Matt Smith, but he continued to play the title role in the 50th anniversary special, which we watched a week later, and in the Christmas special ‘The time of the doctor’ which we saw towards the end of July.

So August saw us finally starting to rewatch series 8, in which Peter Capaldi is the Doctor. This series was first broadcast in 2014, and we first watched it in 2016. I can remember that we weren’t at all sure about Capaldi as the Doctor at first, but he grew on us, as is usually the case with any new regeneration. Each one portrays the character differently. As with earlier series, we had almost entirely forgotten the storylines. 

The first episode, ‘Deep breath’, has quite a dramatic opening. In the midst of Victorian London there’s a huge dinosaur, who coughs up the tardis. This is investigated by the recurring trio, Madam Vastra, Jenny and Strax, who always manage to add both glamour and humour. The Doctor emerges, still recovering from his regeneration and very confused. Clara (Jenna Coleman) is disturbed about his changed appearance, and it takes most of the episode before she’s reconciled to him. The story starts with some spontaneous combustions, and includes a Cyborg who is harvesting human parts…

Proof (Gwyneth Paltrow)

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It’s over eleven years since we saw the 2005 film ‘Proof’, and we’d entirely forgotten the characters and the storyline. I knew vaguely that it was to do with some mathematical proof… but we’ve watched other films which included brilliant mathematical minds, and nothing seemed to stand out from this one.

We were captivated from the start. Gwyneth Paltrow is wonderful as a young woman in her twenties, Catherine, who is the daughter of Robert, a mathematical genius (Anthony Hopkins). At least, he was once a genius, but in his late twenties his mind started to go. It’s not clear exactly what the problem was - it’s described as ‘crazy’ in the film; the balance of his mind was very disturbed, anyway. 

But it’s quickly clear that Robert has just died, and that Catherine is herself quite disturbed. She is also a brilliant mathematician and is worried that her mind is going to start going, too. She imagines her dead father talking to her; it’s easy to think she might be going a bit crazy too, though she could be hallucinating due to exhaustion and stress.

Yes, minister - series 2 (Paul Eddington)

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Having finished watching the BBC sit-com ‘Yes minister, series 1’ towards the end of August, it was an easy decision to start watching the second series. It was broadcast in 1981, starting around a year after the first series began. I remember enjoying the show when it was on television, and we acquired the full set of DVDs for all the series many years ago.  But it’s been a long time since we watched them.

The first episode of series 2, is ‘The compassionate society’.  Jim Hacker (Paul Eddington), who is still somewhat idealistic, discovers that a new hospital is fully staffed with ancillary workers and administrative staff, but has no medical staff. So there are no patients. He feels that this is a terrible waste of resources and wants to fire the people who are working there until doctors and nurses can be found. Then the unions get involved…

It doesn’t sound like a source of amusing banter, but, as with the first series, it’s very cleverly scripted. Sir Humphrey (Nigel Hawthorne) comes out with some long, convoluted explanations which must have been quite difficult to learn… and his expressions are wonderful. Bernard (Derek Fowlds) tries to balance his loyalties, and Hacker is stuck between what he believes to be right and his image with the public. 

Hotel du lac (Anna Massey)

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It’s over ten years since we watched the film ‘Hotel du lac’, and we had totally forgotten what it was about. So we decided to watch it last night. It’s not a long film - well under 90 minutes - and it was made in 1986, based on a book of the same name (though I have not read it).

Anna Massey stars as the middle-aged writer Edith. She’s been quite successful in writing romantic fiction, though she mostly keeps quiet about it; she writes under a pseudonym. She lives in the UK, but at the start of the film she’s being sent into a kind of exile, to a hotel in Europe, by a lake. 

She’s apparently committed a terrible crime, though this seems at odds with her quiet, unassuming behaviour. But underneath the drab clothes and calm demeanor, there’s a woman of passion - as we discover through flashbacks, where she has an affair with a married man. I wondered if this, perhaps, was the terrible crime. But Edith regularly writes letters to the man she loves, speaking aloud as she writes so we learn what she’s thinking - and many of them lead to scenes from previous years and months.

Shadows in the sun (Joshua Jackson)

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It’s nearly eleven years since we watched the 2005 film ‘Shadows in the sun’. I hadn’t remembered anything about it; we watched it last night and I had no memory of it at all, though my husband recalled one or two brief scenes. 

The story features a thirty-something man called Jeremy (Joshua Jackson) who works for an editing company in London. His boss (John Rhys-Davies) notes that another company has just signed up a writer who had not produced anything for a decade. He asks Jeremy what he thinks of another writer, Weldon Parish. Jeremy mentions that he loved a book Weldon had written when Jeremy was a child. However, he had apparently stopped writing when his wife had died twenty years earlier.

The boss announces that Jeremy is to travel to Tuscany, in Italy, to recruit Weldon to their books. Jeremy doesn’t believe it’s possible, but has no choice. We see him travelling in a smart suit, with his briefcase and his determination to attempt what might be impossible.

The rewrite (Hugh Grant)

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It’s ten years since we watched the 2014 film ‘The rewrite’. We hadn’t remembered anything about it, but saw a trailer for it last week, and thought it looked worth rewatching.

Hugh Grant stars as the screenwriter Keith who had a tremendous success fifteen years before the story begins. He won awards, and people still talk about his film ‘Paradise misplaced’. He did write some other screenplays, but had no more triumphs, and is now somewhat depressed, lacking money and uninspired.

Then he’s offered an unexpected post teaching screenwriting at a small university in New York. He hates the idea - he’s convinced that writing cannot be taught - but eventually agrees. He finds people very friendly - one of his potential students rather too friendly - and full of admiration for his famous film. Then he manages to upset one of his colleagues, first by being rude about Jane Austen, and then about women in films. He’s had a bit too much wine and gets himself into more and more trouble…

Yes, minister series 1 (Paul Eddington)

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It’s a very long time since we watched the series ‘Yes, Minister’. I recall seeing them - or some of them - on TV when they were first broadcast in the early 1980s. And I’m pretty sure we watched the series on DVD about fifteen years ago; but I have no record of it. And only a general recollection of the content.

So we started watching in early August. Each episode is only about half an hour, so we watched two at a time. The first episode shows the results of the general election when Jim Hacker (Paul Eddington) is elected, and a new party takes office. 

We never learn which party they are supposed to represent, and while that bothered me in the past, I think now that this was wise. The point is made, often, that even if political parties have different aims or goals, the way they function (and the role of the civil service) is much the same.