Shakespeare Meme - Day #24: An actor or actress you would love to see in a particular role

The obvious one would be Matt Smith as Hamlet, because he's one of the few actors I can think of that is young enough to be Hamlet, and good enough to portray him. That being said, if he doesn't want to, I'd love to see him as Andrew Augecheek as well.

If Kenneth Branagh (Sir Kenneth Branagh!!! So very happy) ever decides to do The Tempest I and my mother, god willing, will be there in a flash, hang the cost.

Polly Walker as Cleopatra is also on this list.

( Other Days )

Meme related - re: the AU meme (http://redfiona99.livejournal.com/778797.html) I'm trying to come up with a female version of 'hasn't got the cojones'. I've toyed with the obvious 'hasn't got the ovaries', but I'm not sure it works. I know "hasn't got the balls" comes from the habit of various cultures (I know the Roman definitely) for men to hold their genitals when swearing oaths etc, and I'm not sure there is a direct equivalent for easy grabbing, unless we're going for ODB style 'bam'-ing.

Just wondering whether nitrous oxide (or whichever NO-variant it is) has suddenly become a party drug in the US, because after many years of hearing it's name in the past tense for that usage, suddenly three krimis in a row have had it as the drug of occasion (Miami, SVU and then New York).

NCIS is back in my good books because the wildly right wing military krimi is the one that pointed out how wrong it is was that it's so much easier to get a warrant to raid a mosque than it is for any other religious building.

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The uptick in US drama has had a good effect on UK drama, and even better, they've realised that British TV doesn't have the money to outslick US TV so they're going back to the kitchen sink. Score one for realistic drama. It's even more fun when it's the fantasy dramas that are doing kitchen sink (a la 'The Fades').

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I know it doesn't need saying, but Danny Houston (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0404111/) can act. Just seen 'The Proposition' (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0421238/) and yes, well, it plays exactly how you'd imagine an Aussie based Western written by Nick Cave would run.

Enjoyed is the wrong word, but it's good.

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Adverts:

The adverts have been doing some fun things again.

I particularly like the new Guardian one, even if I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be getting from it.



One of the Aldi ones is class too - http://aldi.co.uk/uk/html/service/23225.htm although they're all quite fun (http://aldi.co.uk/uk/html/service/7232.htm), I particularly recommend the tea one.

A temporary break in me talking about the skating.

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Can I have a 'meh' option? I mean, I don't mind Valentine's Day, mostly because I enjoy watching my friends desperately try to think of something to do for their signif. others. I never said I was nice.

I don't really understand people who are bothered by it, but then again, I am solitary by nature, so I may well be missing something important on the ability to understand front.

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On to RL - while, as far as I know, none of you are in the Yukon, if you are and happen to see a slightly dazed looking chap with a West Country accent and his equally lovely wife, please look after them. Long story short, a friend of mine has just got an archaeology/historical buildings job in the Yukon. I'm v. happy for him, if a little worried that he'll get frostbite.

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Sad to hear of David Kelly's death - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17020494

First of all ( Poirot:Hallow'een Party (spoilers inside) )

Good job on all fronts.

Thorne:Sleepyhead was less well done. I managed to catch the end through use of the V+ box.

Part of the problem is that they totally got Thorne wrong. Not totally wrong, but the feel of him was off. In the books he's well aware he's mildly ridculous, and several other characters point that out to him too. ( (Spoiler) they also changed )

They kept Alison, who is the most wonderful character in the book, and the one I was most scared of them changing, but they turn the interesting, spikey, short-cropped grey-haired Anne Coburn into someone far more traditionally comforting (and cast long, blonde-haired Natascha McElhone). None of that should be taken as a diss on the actress, who played the now somewhat under-written part as well as it could be.

They also changed the plot. Now I grant the book's plot made sense only in the book but it made sense, and was part of the whole thing that our lead character and his hunches are not always right and the great male hero complex is not a good thing, and the tv show lost all that.

However, I shall be the first to admit that I was watching this for Aiden Gillen. I was intrigued when he was cast, especially since the Radio Times made such a thing of him being in it so I watched the first episode and all he got to do was be background pathologist guy/best friend/mildly suspicious.

I did wonder why he'd taken the part, and then I remembered that this is a man who was in a WWE film, he has no sense or shame.

( Then I saw the 3rd part (mostly squeaking about Aiden Gillen below) )

So yes, I'll be watching more of it, but still for the wrong reasons.

Having seen how long this entry has gotten, meme later.

Channel 5 are having a Statham Sunday :)

Leicester is awesome.

Today is carnival day in Leicester, because, as well as having the biggest Divali celebration in the country, we have the second biggest Caribbean carnival in the country, after the Notting Hill one. Much fun was had by all, people were laughing, dancing, and it was totally inclusive, Chinese grannies dancing next to 5 year old boys, and girls of every size and shape jigging like crazy.

Loved up-edness may also be due having a massage, I feel like liquid gold.

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I have found out why I recognised Alice Carter from Children of Earth, she was in a Wycliffe. This is why we should support dramas rather than reality tv shows. It means young actors get exposure.

So Robin Hood. I watched 3 more episodes, Saturday just gone, and I do believe it's getting worse.

The first one was "Let the Games Begin", which featured the return of Guy of Guisburne. I have to assume that Richard Armitage has given up all hope of escape, given the ludicrous levels of evil leering he did in it. But having Guy about the place tends to spice things up. There was also stuff for Little John to do (which is good) as him, we like. Oh, yeah, if the fabulous Stu reads this, I recognised Bertha from Queer as Folk.

Of course, this was only setting up for the introduction of the big bad in "Do You Love Me", Prince John has arrived, and he's played by Toby Stephens -

Yeah. I'll get round to hating him once my body has finished being in a full-body toe curl. I have no explanation for it but Toby Stephens has, for as long as I can remember, induced a state of deep seated umf (to steal Wyndi's phrase).

So yeah, you get Guy (who looks like this ) [Further photos behind ( this cut )

on his knees in front of Prince John, who is demanding to be told that Guy loves him.

Despite the fanservice (and really, Guy is the go-to guy for fanservice in this show) it still terrible. Although, the number of women who have suddenly revealed a thing for leather when it's on Guy borders on the disturbing.

So yes this continues ( on to the actual plot of both 'Do You Love Me' and the episode that follows it 'Too Hot to Handle' )

Now my complaints (anachronisms caught = 3, 1) Kate is carrying a katana or something of a similar design, 2) Tuck's blow dart and 3) Alan joking about 'a slice and ice'.) will centre on the writing, and it's complete lack of cohesion.

Now, I'm used to them ignoring what has gone before, but normally they keep the characters the same, and by the end of the last series, they'd at least achieved a cohesive tone.

So far this season, they've straightened out Much so he isn't continually fussing over Robin, which is really odd, and they seem to have totally forgotten Marian. Not that she existed, but how she made Guy and Robin. I mean, at the end of the last series, it's was an even money bet as to whether Guy was going to show his true 'evil' colours, or whether he was going to go off the deep end. Neither happened. Robin hasn't gone on the epic revenge that he promised either, and about the only thing that Marian is used for is as something they can insult each other with. There's very little organic growth to the random call backs to Marian either, especially in comparison to the times when they have shown it (i.e. Little John at the end of last season, he'd not mentioned his family, but when he did speak of them it was entirely fitting, and he got a couple of scenes like that this year too.)

It's really strange, and I don't know how much of this is to do with them killing Marian off at the end of the last series, it seems to have unbalanced everything. Especially the female characters, I mean, Marian and Djaq at least had their own characters, and while Isabella does, Kate really doesn't (mooning around over Robin and being the 'girl power' girl don't count as character). I do wonder how much notice Lucy Griffiths gave of her intention to leave, because large chunks of Kate's character could have been written with her in mind and the whole thing smacks of hasty re-write, especially as it's not like they've got new writers (I looked it up), and I refuse to believe they lost what little talent they had overnight.

And because of having three new characters to write in, the old regulars have had very little to do. I mean, Tuck has Djaq's misc. alchemy/medical/general chem knowledge, and Kate has taken up Marian's 'girl in peril' position. (There's been no one to replace Will, but they've upgraded Much and Allan's fighting abilities instead). Tuck's been getting a lot of Little John's 'this is a bad idea' lines, and I'm not sure Allan has had anything to do except mock Much.

Isabella seems to be very much a dark! Marian, whose forced/arranged marriage actually took place, and she has character, mostly an inverse of her brother's but ... well, with this, I'll take what I can get, and if Marian had stayed, I think her character would still have worked.

It'll be interesting to see how it develops.

( Things I Liked )

( Things I didn't like that I'm sure can be entirely blamed on the director )

( Things I didn't like that I'm not sure can be entirely blamed on the director (it's normally him in combo with the writers or the actors), or society )

( Things I think might be Alan Moore's fault )
Despite how that sounds I did like it, it just suffered from a pretty severe case of could do better.

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I figured out what it was that was bothering me. Only, I need to know is whether the scene where Adrian Veidt is talking to the other energy company leaders is word for word from the comic or if it's been interfered with/invented by Zack Synder. ( For the following reason )

Sad to hear about his death, because I enjoyed a lot of his work and he features, if somewhat indirectly, in a family legend.

I like the Prisoner and my Uncle claims it as part of our fellowship, because he loves it too. He didn't get to see it on it's first run, but it was being re-shown when he was working in the same factory as my Nan. The final episode gets moved for football. It gets moved on to a day that he's supposed to be working nights (it's on at some dead of night time slot), so he pulls a sickie so he can be at home to watch it. To this day, my Nan still thinks it was a deeply silly thing to do, and my Uncle still hasn't the foggiest what the last episode was about.

Through routes that history has forgotten, but I think it was a giveaway prize, I had a book about the making of the Damian Lewis version of 'The Forsythe Sage'. Therefore, I bring to you pictures of him from it. Please forgive the terrible quality of the scanning. ( Click on the photo to see the rest, link to photobucket )