Friday 13 May 2016

Florence Foster Jenkins and the importance of being crap

Many years ago when I was younger and fitter (best beloved) I did a fair bit of rock-climbing with ropes at a club in Birmingham that had lots of artificial cliffs and people who could dangle over the side of a sheer drop by one fingernail. After one session, I could hardly lift the tab on my Coke can or turn the key to start my car. But in the canteen, I came across a climbing magazine sporting the wonderful title 'The Importance of Being Crap' which extolled the virtues of Not Being Quite Good at Something. Because Being Crap gave you something to aim for, something to admire about people who Definitely Weren't Crap, and it kept you healthily humble.

'Florence Foster Jenkins' is the title of a wonderful new film about the celebrated eccentric (as in 'I am an individual, You are eccentric, She is Barking Mad') lady whose fortune enabled her to sponsor all sorts of musical events across New York City in the early 1940s.

Monday 2 May 2016

ITV’s 'The Secret': The Trouble with Masks


ITV’s latest crime drama The Secret is a riveting study of manipulation by a sexual predator, who just happens to be a youth leader and worship leader in a Baptist Church. That’s the central premise of a drama based on a real-life murder case in Northern Ireland.