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Robert Mitchum

Everyone has their favourite actor for whatever reason and mine is Robert Mitchum. Edward G Robinson, Humphrey Bogart, Spencer Tracy might well be considered better film actors so why Mitchum? In brief, his personality. This was revealed in the BBC 2 series Talking Pictures basically archival [...]

December 22, 2020 // 0 Comments

A review of a book that took three years to read

Since the beginning of December – with some unexpected spare time on my hands – I have turned to a pastime that frankly I do far too little of … reading. Quite without justification because, of course, “if you want something done, give it to a busy person” – or, in this context perhaps, [...]

December 19, 2020 // 0 Comments

The End Of The Year Show

Reflecting upon what by any yardstick has been a crowded and extraordinary 2020 – viewed in two tranches from the inside of supposed lockdowns but otherwise generally (as usual) from my habitual sedentary position in front my television and computer screens – I have been struck repeatedly time [...]

December 16, 2020 // 0 Comments

John le Carre

Although espionage is one of my favourite genres, I cannot list John le Carre’s novels amongst my favourites as the smoke and mirrors often left me confused. I preferred the dramatisations and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy remains one of the best productions I have seen on television. I can however [...]

December 15, 2020 // 0 Comments

The Big Fight

“Back in the day …” as we modern Rusters are wont to say – albeit that the period we’re referencing is so long ago now that even through our rose-tinted spectacles we virtually recall it in black and white – there used to be a London-based boxing magazine that ran a series on [...]

December 13, 2020 // 0 Comments

Great Art/Renoir

None of the great artists divide opinion as much as Renoir. On one hand he is lauded as King of the Impressionists, others find him too sentimental, whilst his later works of female nudes have attracted the opprobrium of feminists for being sexual objectification. One who did not find fault was the [...]

December 12, 2020 // 0 Comments

Great Art/ITV

Observant readers might have noticed that Sky Arts is normally my channel of choice for art. However ITV have been running a series every Tuesday night on an artist by reference to an exhibition.  This week the subject was Henri Matisse. Normally with Matisse any review concentrates on his time in [...]

December 10, 2020 // 0 Comments

In the Garden of Beasts/Erik Larson

This is the true story of the American Ambassador to Germany, William Dodd, appointed at the time of Adolf Hitler’s ascendancy to total power in 1933-44. Erik Larson (author) William Dodd was a mild-mannered history professor from Chicago who studied in Leipzig. He described himself as a [...]

December 9, 2020 // 0 Comments

The Dambusters /Channel 5

Last week Dan  Snow presented a three-part series on the World War Two raid on the dams that protected the Ruhr Valley the industrial heartland of Germany. Snow like his father Peter on election night with his swingometer is given to somewhat histrionic hand gestures. He is not a calm presenter [...]

December 5, 2020 // 0 Comments

The Nuremberg Trial

The 75th anniversary of The Nuremberg Trial was celebrated with a three part programme on Channel 5 in the week. It relied more on footage of the trial  than a narrator. Philippe Sands, a human rights barrister who wrote an excellent book on one of the main jurists present Eli Lauterpacht called [...]

December 4, 2020 // 0 Comments

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