Buckling That Swash

At the National Film Theatre yesterday evening for a screening of an episode of Adam Adamant Lives! from 1966, courtesy of the very fine Mr Dick Fiddy.

Normally I don’t rewatch old television shows. The rule usually applies to series from my childhood because they’re obviously not as satisfying now. What did it for me as a kid simply doesn’t float my boat now.

I can’t understand how people in their thirties and forties can still sit down to the likes of Thunderbirds and the original run of Doctor Who, or the stable of old ITC adventure series, while ignoring contemporary adult dramas. Talk about arrested development!

These folk obviously didn’t get enough tit-time when they were kiddies. It would be like deciding to go back and read the old Janet & John books or the Ladybird series handed out at primary school.

In this instance, I was too young to have seen Adam Adamant Lives! the first time around, so what the heck! Stars Gerald Harper and Juliet Harmer were there to talk about the show. Shame the interviewer spluttered and shook with talking-infront-of-an-audience nerves. It might have been an idea to send Juliet a copy of the DVDs beforehand to help jog her memory.

Some of the questions asked were strange bordering on outright creepy. Avid TV fans are a special breed. Although there was an episode of A for Andromeda afterwards but everyone decided they prefered A for Alcohol, so we decamped to the pub.

Since I had to be in town, I snuck out early to catch an afternoon performance of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest beforehand. Any film that has the line “Undead monkey! Beat that!” has my vote. Damn, an opening weekend just shy of $136 million in the US.

On Saturday the BBC News website had already reported that the sequel had taken £2.3 million at the UK box office. Various facts and figures followed before they rounded the piece off with:

A third movie is in the pipeline, starring rocker Keith Richards in a cameo role as the father of Captain Jack Sparrow, played by Johnny Depp.

Some observers have drawn comparisons between Depp's performance as the pirate and the 62-year-old Rolling Stones guitarist.

No shit Sherlock! Stop the presses on this one!

Obviously everyone wants the BBC to be busy hoofing Blair and his cronies right in the works for their despicable behaviour. For shallow entertainment news, head over to ITV. But if the BBC are going to report on the media they should either keep up a bit and not leave it to the work-placement spaz.