It has been a poor night. I cannot say it has been a terrible night in that I was ill, I was not in pain, hungry or in distress, I just did not sleep well going to bed about 1 am rising three if not four times before getting up half asleep before five am and then getting myself awake with a cup of coffee and losing at Hearts and winning a few games of chess. I felt ready to finish my writing of last night, putting off making toast, and to further dissatisfaction, discovered I had wiped out the almost ready writing and saved the last few words without reversing the process to save to the point that I had reached, It had been that kind of day.
Although disappointed with the cricket, I still had hopes of going to Lords in mid August through Yorkshire who were playing in the second semi final at Essex anther team which has done well in the one day game and who Durham beat last year at this same stage. However I had forgotten that it is Essex that has Napier, he who scored 156 in the 20 20 game hitting six sixes. We have Mr Morkel who had performed so badly when it mattered most, but this was not to be the situation yesterday. Essex were clever concentrating on building up a solid total without losing early wickets and then allowing their middle order to achieve a good total, scoring 100 runs in the last ten overs with Mr Napier getting sixty of them. Sky would have liked him to have been put on earlier but wiser heads prevailed at Essex, knowing that Yorkshire's strength this year has been its bowling, but as at the Riverside, the way to approach a good playing surface on a warm and sunny day was to sue spin, good spin, which Durham lacked to control the flow of runs, and frustrate the batsman into making inappropriate and wicket losing strokes.
Although the weather was fine in Essex, at Chelmsford, a ground which I am yet to visit, here it changed and became dramatically, overcast for the morning when up to 2000 young people were descending on the beach for a sandcastle competition followed by a small parade to make the official start of the summer festival. It is not a crowd attracting parade other than Saturday shopper's and the families of the younger participants, which in this instances was just as well because it not only rained, but it was a hard rain. Usually at this time we have prolonged period of one form of weather, rain rain rain, or sun sun and more sun but this mixture makes planning days ahead difficult to impossible. Hopefully the weather would revert to that of Friday for the opening show by Lulu in the park on Sunday afternoon, but it did not feel that this would be so. The day had the feel of the two occasions of longer holidays in Scotland and one in Cornwall when it rained at some point almost every day, during the day time and remained overcast at other times and is why the two week holiday in Spain, Greece, the South of France, and Italy is so popular.
The absence of any incentive to go outside my home meant that I was able to work hard sorting and scanning photographs and should finish phase one of this project in terms of the subject matter later today, although creating DVD's may take a few days more.
There was also the second part of the Dr Who series finale which I hoped would prove as good as the first. I will go as far as saying that it should be regarded as the major TV event of the year and perhaps the best piece of non fiction broadcasting for sometime. I have yet to remember anything better constructed, engaging and satisfying in its conclusion.
Dr Who is a British phenomenon although it does has a good fan base in the USA through the science fiction channel and in Australia and Canada and is being shown in a number of other countries. It commenced in 1963 and ran until 1989 without a break, with audiences for new episodes varying between three and ten million, at times second only to the soaps. It was then briefly resurrected in 1996 and the developed of computerised special effects since the Millennium enabling the present series which commenced in 2005 and produced by BBC Wales to be planned as a more contemporary programme, but still aimed at an early evening family entertainment but after the youngest of children have been put to bed. Altogether there have been 751 episodes from the original low budget black and white, many of whose episodes have been wiped or lost without having been replaced such was the previous disregard for the history of the programme, to the present day cinema theatre quality with imaginative cleverly constructed scripts, great actors and expensive special effects.
However the format has remained the same although for the current runs each of the thirteen episodes is self contained with overall links, usually through the special companion or companions of the Doctor. As With the Doctor who has to change physical form from timer to time, the companions cone and go leaving him an essentially lone traveller, bearing the accumulative pain of all that he sees and feels. This does not mean he does not become very attached to his companions but he always as to do the right thing for them and their families as well as the future of the earth planet for which he has a special affection.
There have been ten Doctor Who's with those who watched every series having their favourites although those whose parents watch the series first with them, usually regarded that Doctor as special. My own are John Pertwee1970-1974 better known for his enactment pf the scarecrow Worzel Gummage and the softer performance of Peter Davidson, 1981-1984 but outshining them all is the present Doctor played by David Tennant who is showing a depth of performance even grater than Christopher Eccleston.
Throughout the forty five years of broadcasting the trade mark has remained Time Travelling with the TARDIS a police box on the outside but cavernous inside rather like my car and the outside appearance of my home. For many of not the majority of present day viewers the police box will be a curious concept whereas in my child hood it was a common feature on many a street corner alone with the AA and RAC boxes as dedicated phone line systems in addition to the red telephone boxes that were common on the streets of towns and where every village had at least one. The idea being that the time travel machine could land on any British Street and not provoke attention. A second consistency as been the major alien baddies, the Cybermen and worst of all the Daleks, preposterous as frightening or threatening creatures but always almost successful in enslaving the world. The third consistency has been the theme music devised Ron Grainer and realised by Delia Derbyshire of the BBC Radiophonic workshop.
Thirty five actors and actresses have played time travelling companions and one of the significant aspects of the 2008 finale is the bringing together of everyone who has been a companion or assistant together and devising a way in which Rose played by Billy Piper could have a one heart and therefore mortal Doctor look alike to live with in her parallel universe. I have previously commented that at first I thought that Catherine Tate was great in the one off 2007 Christmas special but found it difficult to become the girl next door character which has been a feature of the programme and enables audience identification. As this series progressed I thought Catherine Tate stopped being Catherine Tate and became a believable Donna Noble and last night he scriptwriters brought the two together in a performance which should win her awards, revealing her to be an extraordinary actress as well as a brilliant comedienne. So why the rave review and commendations. It was at this point I went to bed last night, from tiredness rather than lack of an answer the posed question. The story, although complex with its constant twist and turns was credible, fast moving and funny. It was also sad and realistic an where the special effects added to the overall effectives but were never the objective and because it tied everyone and everything thing into the last episode in a show of getting together faced with a common enemy which was also a message to the nation at large.
The previous day I had written about the timely showing of Fallout about the knife murder of a black school boy by at black gang member from the same school and neighbourhood. Yesterday the police announced that the government were requiring them to make the war against street crimes of this kind the number one priority.
Although disappointed with the cricket, I still had hopes of going to Lords in mid August through Yorkshire who were playing in the second semi final at Essex anther team which has done well in the one day game and who Durham beat last year at this same stage. However I had forgotten that it is Essex that has Napier, he who scored 156 in the 20 20 game hitting six sixes. We have Mr Morkel who had performed so badly when it mattered most, but this was not to be the situation yesterday. Essex were clever concentrating on building up a solid total without losing early wickets and then allowing their middle order to achieve a good total, scoring 100 runs in the last ten overs with Mr Napier getting sixty of them. Sky would have liked him to have been put on earlier but wiser heads prevailed at Essex, knowing that Yorkshire's strength this year has been its bowling, but as at the Riverside, the way to approach a good playing surface on a warm and sunny day was to sue spin, good spin, which Durham lacked to control the flow of runs, and frustrate the batsman into making inappropriate and wicket losing strokes.
Although the weather was fine in Essex, at Chelmsford, a ground which I am yet to visit, here it changed and became dramatically, overcast for the morning when up to 2000 young people were descending on the beach for a sandcastle competition followed by a small parade to make the official start of the summer festival. It is not a crowd attracting parade other than Saturday shopper's and the families of the younger participants, which in this instances was just as well because it not only rained, but it was a hard rain. Usually at this time we have prolonged period of one form of weather, rain rain rain, or sun sun and more sun but this mixture makes planning days ahead difficult to impossible. Hopefully the weather would revert to that of Friday for the opening show by Lulu in the park on Sunday afternoon, but it did not feel that this would be so. The day had the feel of the two occasions of longer holidays in Scotland and one in Cornwall when it rained at some point almost every day, during the day time and remained overcast at other times and is why the two week holiday in Spain, Greece, the South of France, and Italy is so popular.
The absence of any incentive to go outside my home meant that I was able to work hard sorting and scanning photographs and should finish phase one of this project in terms of the subject matter later today, although creating DVD's may take a few days more.
There was also the second part of the Dr Who series finale which I hoped would prove as good as the first. I will go as far as saying that it should be regarded as the major TV event of the year and perhaps the best piece of non fiction broadcasting for sometime. I have yet to remember anything better constructed, engaging and satisfying in its conclusion.
Dr Who is a British phenomenon although it does has a good fan base in the USA through the science fiction channel and in Australia and Canada and is being shown in a number of other countries. It commenced in 1963 and ran until 1989 without a break, with audiences for new episodes varying between three and ten million, at times second only to the soaps. It was then briefly resurrected in 1996 and the developed of computerised special effects since the Millennium enabling the present series which commenced in 2005 and produced by BBC Wales to be planned as a more contemporary programme, but still aimed at an early evening family entertainment but after the youngest of children have been put to bed. Altogether there have been 751 episodes from the original low budget black and white, many of whose episodes have been wiped or lost without having been replaced such was the previous disregard for the history of the programme, to the present day cinema theatre quality with imaginative cleverly constructed scripts, great actors and expensive special effects.
However the format has remained the same although for the current runs each of the thirteen episodes is self contained with overall links, usually through the special companion or companions of the Doctor. As With the Doctor who has to change physical form from timer to time, the companions cone and go leaving him an essentially lone traveller, bearing the accumulative pain of all that he sees and feels. This does not mean he does not become very attached to his companions but he always as to do the right thing for them and their families as well as the future of the earth planet for which he has a special affection.
There have been ten Doctor Who's with those who watched every series having their favourites although those whose parents watch the series first with them, usually regarded that Doctor as special. My own are John Pertwee1970-1974 better known for his enactment pf the scarecrow Worzel Gummage and the softer performance of Peter Davidson, 1981-1984 but outshining them all is the present Doctor played by David Tennant who is showing a depth of performance even grater than Christopher Eccleston.
Throughout the forty five years of broadcasting the trade mark has remained Time Travelling with the TARDIS a police box on the outside but cavernous inside rather like my car and the outside appearance of my home. For many of not the majority of present day viewers the police box will be a curious concept whereas in my child hood it was a common feature on many a street corner alone with the AA and RAC boxes as dedicated phone line systems in addition to the red telephone boxes that were common on the streets of towns and where every village had at least one. The idea being that the time travel machine could land on any British Street and not provoke attention. A second consistency as been the major alien baddies, the Cybermen and worst of all the Daleks, preposterous as frightening or threatening creatures but always almost successful in enslaving the world. The third consistency has been the theme music devised Ron Grainer and realised by Delia Derbyshire of the BBC Radiophonic workshop.
Thirty five actors and actresses have played time travelling companions and one of the significant aspects of the 2008 finale is the bringing together of everyone who has been a companion or assistant together and devising a way in which Rose played by Billy Piper could have a one heart and therefore mortal Doctor look alike to live with in her parallel universe. I have previously commented that at first I thought that Catherine Tate was great in the one off 2007 Christmas special but found it difficult to become the girl next door character which has been a feature of the programme and enables audience identification. As this series progressed I thought Catherine Tate stopped being Catherine Tate and became a believable Donna Noble and last night he scriptwriters brought the two together in a performance which should win her awards, revealing her to be an extraordinary actress as well as a brilliant comedienne. So why the rave review and commendations. It was at this point I went to bed last night, from tiredness rather than lack of an answer the posed question. The story, although complex with its constant twist and turns was credible, fast moving and funny. It was also sad and realistic an where the special effects added to the overall effectives but were never the objective and because it tied everyone and everything thing into the last episode in a show of getting together faced with a common enemy which was also a message to the nation at large.
The previous day I had written about the timely showing of Fallout about the knife murder of a black school boy by at black gang member from the same school and neighbourhood. Yesterday the police announced that the government were requiring them to make the war against street crimes of this kind the number one priority.
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