The shack (Sam Worthington)

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It’s seventeen years since I read the bestselling Christian novel ‘The Shack’, which caused some controversy in American evangelical circles. I recalled disliking the first section which was cliché-ridden and described a heart-breaking family tragedy. But it got better. The main part was unexpected,  inspiring, and moving in places. 

I wasn’t sure I wanted to see the film that was based on - or, at least, inspired by - the book, which was made in 2017. But my husband acquired the blu-ray, so we decided to watch it last night. 

The opening is quite disturbing; 13-year-old Mack (Carson Reaume) lives with a seriously abusive father who drinks too much and becomes violent. This is hidden behind an overly-religious front, demanding that children obey their parents, and expecting his wife to obey him. When Mack’s mother can’t take it any more, she leaves, and Mack takes matters into his own hands. 

A hard day's night (The Beatles)

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We’ve had the DVD of the classic film ‘A hard day’s night’ on our shelves for years. I have no idea how or when we acquired it. But last night we decided, at last, that we would watch it. We knew nothing about it, other than that it featured The Beatles.

The film was made in 1964, but was in black-and-white. This didn’t worry us, after a moment’s initial surprise. And while there is, of course, quite a bit of Beatles music featured, the film doesn’t feel like a standard musical. Instead, it’s a story - fictional, but based loosely on the kinds of things that might have happened - starring the four Beatles as themselves.

We first see them chased and almost mobbed by screaming young women, but getting onto a train with their manager Norm (Norman Rossington) and his sidekick Shake (John Junkin). They are also accompanied by Paul’s grandfather (Wilfred Bramble). I could not understand the frequent references to Grandfather as ‘a very clean man’, until we watched one of the ‘extras’. Apparently he was better known in a sitcom from the same era, ‘Steptoe and Son’, where he played an elderly man who was known for being very grubby. 

I capture the castle (Romola Garai)

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It’s over twenty years since we watched the DVD of the film ‘I capture the castle’. I remembered that it was based on a book by Dodie Smith, and that it involved a writer who wasn’t writing. I also recalled that he got locked in a room by his children. But that’s all I could remember of it.

I had no idea until we started watching that the father in question is played - brilliantly - by Bill Nighy. He is perfect for the role, with the typical balance of grumpiness and kindness that this actor often displays. However the real star is 17-year-old Cassandra (Romola Garai), one of his daughters, who narrates the story, while writing it in her notebooks. 

We learn from flashbacks that her father published a novel twelve years before the story begins, and it was a major success. But he had a bad temper, and was in prison for a while; we only learn later what happened. Cassandra thinks they were a happy family when she was young, and recalls the day they saw a somewhat tumbledown castle, and decided that they would live there.

The last of the Blonde Bombshells (Judi Dench)

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It’s nearly 11 years since we last watched ‘The last of the blonde bombshells’. We wanted something fairly light and not too long to watch last night, and this seemed to fit the bill. I vaguely recalled that it starred Judi Dench, and that it referenced her character’s past as a showgirl. But that was all I could remember.

I’d quite forgotten that the opening scenes are rather sombre. Elizabeth (Judi Dench) recounts, off screen, that the story begins after the funeral of her husband. We see her dressed in black, and snippets of the service. We also see her daughter Patricia (Felicity Dean) and son Edward (Nicholas Palliser). They’re evidently a bit more conventional than their mother, and try to persuade her to think about her future.

Patricia has a daughter, Joanna (Millie Findlay) whom Elizabeth often looks after. The two are very close. And when Joanna hears her grandmother play the saxophone, she’s very impressed. We were too, although we later discovered that Judi Dench does not play the sax, but learned some scales for this film. She sees a street busker, Paul (Dom Chapman) and starts to play too. Her son and daughter are horrified.

Magic in the moonlight (Colin Firth)

(Amazon UK link)

From time to time, Amazon recommends films to me, based on prior purchases. One of them which looked interesting a year or so back was the 2014 film  ‘Magic in the moonlight’, which stars Colin Firth. I put it on my wishlist, and had forgotten about it when I was given the blu-ray version for my recent birthday.

Colin Firth is best known for his Mr Darcy in the BBC ‘Pride and Prejudice’ film; he also seems to appear fairly often as a somewhat self-deprecating, slightly clumsy Englishman. So it was quite refreshing - and surprising - to see him as Wei Ling Soo, a suave, talented conjurer who stuns an audience in 1928 with his oriental routine. The film opens with him dressed as a tall Chinese magician, and we see, as his audience does, an elephant that disappears, and his finale when he vanishes from a box and reappears on a swivel chair.

He then shows himself as a rather big-headed and very irritable man called Stanley. He begins to remove his costume, criticises his assistants, and refuses to sign autographs or appear in photos with his fans. He knows he’s popular, he knows he’s brilliant, and he doesn’t care who he upsets.

The doctor, the widow and the wardrobe (Matt Smith)

(Amazon UK link)

Most of the Doctor Who series start with a Christmas special. It's usually broadcast as a kind of starter to the series, sometimes a month or more before the rest of the series gets going. In general, they don’t have much to do with the rest of the series; they also tend to be a bit longer (perhaps an hour rather than forty minutes). And usually they’re included in the DVD sets. 

However, series seven does not include the 2011 Christmas special - I don’t know why. When we realised this, the first time we were viewing the ‘new’ Doctor Who DVDs, I ordered it specially. And I am extremely glad that I did. We first watched it in January 2014, and loved it. 

It doesn’t add anything much to the ongoing story arcs, but it’s my absolute favourite Christmas special. We watched it as a standalone with one of our sons in December 2021, but I was eager to see it again after we finished watching series six at the end of March.

Dad's Army series five

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We finished the fourth series of Dad’s Army in February, and were still enjoying it. We had one more DVD series, so decided to embark on series five. This TV sitcom was mainly broadcast in the 1970s and features a mixed group of volunteers in the 'home guard' during World War II. 

The first episode is mostly set in a bunker which has been hit by a bomb in an air raid. Unfortunately, Private Walker (James Beck) and Private Godfrey (Arnold Ridley) have been on duty there, and are trapped in a small room by fallen debris. Godfrey, moreover, is fast asleep and seems to be unwell…

So Captain Mainwaring (Arthur Lowe) and his troops hurry to the rescue, along with ARP Hodges (Bill Pertwee), who insists - at first - that it’s his responsibility, not that of the home guard. When they discover what the problem is, and that it will be quite dangerous to move the rubble, he wants to back out… it’s a potentially stressful situation, made worse by a burst water pipe, but as ever there’s plenty of humour.