1950s
Call the Midwife: 2014 Christmas Special, BBC OneThursday, 25 December 2014
The Christmas scoop was the first appearance of the authorial voice, Vanessa Redgrave, playing Jennifer Worth, writing Christmas cards, looking at the photographs of herself with her two midwife friends and plunging us into memory from 2005 to 1959... Read more... |
Guys and DollsWednesday, 17 December 2014
This newly-restored version of one of MGM's most hallowed musicals is making the seasonal rounds with a run at the BFI and selected cinemas around the country. Directed by Joseph L Mankiewicz in 1955, the piece drips with period charm, while its... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: 2014 RevisitedSunday, 07 December 2014
With just over two weeks to Christmas, thoughts might be turning to which of the deluge of 2014’s reissues might be suitable as a gift, worth putting on your own wish-list for Santa or even merit buying for yourself. So if help is needed,... Read more... |
The GrandmasterFriday, 05 December 2014
Hong Kong master Wong Kar Wai has ventured into new territory with The Grandmaster. Many years in the making, his new film is a remarkable portrayal of martial-arts traditions, specifically the story of kung fu master Ip Man from his early life in... Read more... |
Accolade, St James TheatreTuesday, 18 November 2014
Reclaiming lost plays can be unnecessary indulgence, but Blanche McIntyre’s note-perfect production of Emlyn Williams’ 64-year-old work ushers in the renaissance of a thoroughly modern masterpiece. This progressive examination of ethical relativism... Read more... |
Invasion of the Body SnatchersTuesday, 28 October 2014
The key lines are “you’re reborn into an untroubled world” – a world “where everyone’s the same.” The 1956 Don Siegel science fiction film Invasion of the Body Snatchers is often taken as a response to America’s fear of Communism and the associated... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Calypso CrazeSunday, 07 September 2014
Various Artists: Calypso CrazeIn 1956, calypso battled it out with rock ’n’ roll to become America’s hottest musical craze. As the year ended, newspaper reports quoted pundits predicting it would wipe Elvis and his like out. One such was Reverend... Read more... |
Sgt. Bilko - The Phil Silvers Show: The Complete CollectionFriday, 05 September 2014
Bilko doesn’t date. The 143 episodes here are as deathless as Fawlty Towers’ 12, but occupy a very different place at the sitcom’s peak. When writer-producer Nat Hiken put Phil Silvers’ inveterate gambler and conman in charge of a motley platoon in... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Popcorn GirlsSunday, 24 August 2014
Various Artists: Popcorn GirlsAlthough the sole single by troubled American televison and film star Tuesday Weld seems an unlikely dance floor filler, 1962’s cute and gently shuffling “Are You the Boy” became a staple with one of continental... Read more... |
Quirke, BBC OneSunday, 25 May 2014
They’re calling it Dublin noir and, on first showing, there’s something very stylish about the BBC’s new three-part drama starring Gabriel Byrne. Pubs and cigarette smoke and long, smouldering looks help the cause. There’s plenty of rain too, and a... Read more... |
DVD: Miracle in SohoSunday, 18 May 2014
The literal miracle in this earthily comic 1956 romance happens at the end. The deeper magic for producer-screenwriter Emeric Pressburger was the “small daily miracles” he found in its “extraordinary” Soho setting. He wrote the script in 1934, at... Read more... |
Relative Values, Harold Pinter TheatreFriday, 18 April 2014
Plotted on the Nunn Curve of Fatal Attraction to Flare Path, Sir Trevor’s latest West End outing – Noël Coward’s post-war comedy Relative Values – lands solidly in the upper-middle reaches. Why not the unqualified upper? The stock answer here would... Read more... |
