celticman's blog

Circling a Fox, BBC Scotland, BBC iPlayer, Writer and Presenter Matthew Zajac, Director Brian Ross.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000s083/circling-a-fox Matthew Zajac is an actor. Acting is a precarious profession. The same old faces crop up with regularity. Trying to make a living from acting is akin to trying to make a living from writing. I’ve did a few shifts as an extra. I’ve no interest in being the next what-ever-you-call him/her. Writing, well, that’s a different story. Writing is my game. I don’t expect to make a living from...

All the President’s Men, BBC 4, BBC iPlayer, writer William Goldman and director Alan J. Paluka.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000rgnx/all-the-presidents-men This is an old film, with impossibly young actors. But the same old story of corruption and cover-up, we’re more familiar with now. The 45 th Un-United States President could say with some justification that he could ‘stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot someone and not lose any votes’. He was partly right, and always wrong. Let’s leave the twice impeached President...

Craig Robertson (2018) The Photographer.

Craig Robertson publishes a novel every year, and the setting is Glasgow. Full of places I know and people that speak and think like me, it’s therefore much easier for me to like his work. Random , his debut novel, established him as a writer worth following. This is the second of his novels I’ve read and, like its predecessor, it’s a page turner. The setup is simple. There’s a bad guy out there. The Glasgow equivalent of John Worboys, the ‘...

How the world laughed when the moron’s morons’ foot-soldiers stormed the Congress buildings.

Captain America. 'But the price of freedom is high, it always has been. And it’s one I’m willing to pay. And if I’m the only one, so be it. But I’m willing to bet I’m not.' I was scared the moron’s moron would, inadvertently, take us into the Third World War (delayed). I’ve got a roof over my head, enough to eat, and quite like being alive. As Malcolm X said before he was murdered ‘the chickens have come home to roost’. The 45 th American...

A Teacher, BBC 2, BBC iPlayer, written by Hannah Fidell and based on her novel.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p08xc504/a-teacher-series-1-episode-1 https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p08xc59p/a-teacher-series-1-episode-2 We all know about the meet-cute, when the main characters collide, and we know they’ll later have a romance. In Norah Ephron’s When Harry Met Sally , for example, Sally Albright (Meg Ryan’s character) is sitting waiting in a beaten-up Beatle car filled with junk to give a lift to Harry Burns (...

Traces, BBC 1 Scotland, BBC iPlayer, based on an idea by Val McDermid, written by Amelia Bullmore, director Rebecca Gatward.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p08zhgmb/traces-series-1-episode-1 https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p08zhgs6/traces-series-1-episode-2 ‘You’re unbelievably beautiful, you are.’ Daniel (Martin Compston) tells Emma Hedges (Molly Windsor). It must be dispiriting for a young actor thinking if any series is set in Scotland, I must have a chance, but only if Martin Compston is busy and doesn’t want the part. She’s got baggage. He’s got...

but, yes to writing 2021

Don’t wait for God to put his hand on your shoulder—unless you’re the Virgin Mary—that’s not going to happen any time soon. Start writing now. All you need is you. Yes, I procrastinate, which sounds like masturbate, or maybe only to my sick mind. Do something you enjoy with yourself without the need for paper hankies. Having a sick mind is an advantage, because you’re going to have to tell lots of lies. That’s what fiction is, without having to...

The Ibrox Disaster, BBC 1 Scotland, produced and directed by Craig Williams

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000qvk5/disclosure-series-3-stair... https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00cxfvh Sixty-six Rangers’ fans died and another 145 injured in the Ibrox Disaster after the New Year’s Day Old Firm game ended in a 1-1 draw. Rangers’ equaliser came at the end of a game watched by 80 000 supporters. Fans on the way out of the ground on Stairway 13 heard the crowd roaring and turned back to be met by a surge of jubilant...

Black Narcissus, BBC 1, BBC iPlayer, Writer Amanda Coe based on a novel by Rumer Godden (1939), Director Charlotte Bruus Christensen.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p08x8kml/black-narcissus-series-1-episode-1 Gemma Arterton plays the lead role of Sister Clodagh, famously taken by Deborah Kerr (from Helensburgh). Diana Rigg, who died this year, plays a cameo of Mother Dorothea. From the safety of Darjeeling she gets to task of warning Sister Clodagh that it won’t all be peaches and cream at Mopu in the Himalayas when the snow sets in. A missionary group of brothers have...

Documentary of 2020: Once Upon a Time in Iraq, BBC 2, BBC iPlayer, Narrator Andy Serkis and Director James Bluemel

Once Upon a Time in Iraq, BBC 2, BBC iPlayer, Narrator Andy Serkis and Director James Bluemel. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000kxwq/once-upon-a-time-in-iraq-series-1-1-war https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000l43w/once-upon-a-time-in-iraq-series-1-2-insurgency https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p08kr4ws/once-upon-a-time-in-iraq-series-1-3-fallujah https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p08kr52c/once-upon-a-time-in-iraq-series-1-...

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