vivdunstan

Starting a seasonal rewatch of the 1988 BBC TV version of “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”. We recently bought the digitally remastered Blu-ray BBC Narnia boxset, and plan to watch the 3 TV serials plus the extended new making of documentary feature.

Tonight we started our annual rewatch of the magical 1984 BBC TV version of The Box of Delights. Loaded up the remastered Blu-ray version this year, though Box is still currently (for at least a few weeks more) available to stream on the iPlayer.

Continuing my reread, and onto this story, one of the most memorable ones for me, even if I have a tendency to muddle it up with "The Copper Beeches".

( spoilers )

There’s a digitally remastered version of the BBC Narnia various TV series coming out in November. Complete with new documentary. Instant preorder for me!

Recently I reread "The Musgrave Ritual" story in the Sherlock Holmes canon. I blogged my thoughts then. In a nutshell it's one of my favourite all time Sherlock Holmes stories, revolving around an old riddle and a treasure hunt. I mentioned in that blog that I planned to rewatch the Jeremy Brett version, and newly watch the Basil Rathbone film version. I've done that now, so will jot down some brief thoughts. Note there are some spoilers in here, though light.

Firstly I rewatched the Jeremy Brett TV version from 1986. This takes some liberties with the plot, which in the original story involved a young Holmes on his own in the past, but here was changed to Holmes and Watson going together to a countryside manor for Holmes to recuperate. There are lots of little elements even early on retained and reworked from the original story, such as Holmes having a big box full of old case papers that tantalise Watson. The TV version puts the story of the manor's butler firmly in the forefront, and we see this back story play out early on. James Hazeldine as butler Brunton is extremely effective, and carries his scenes very well. A few small changes are made to the treasure hunt itself, but the story is otherwise largely faithful. And those changes that are made are effective for transferring it to a TV episode. Good stuff.



The Basil Rathbone 1943 movie version is a much looser retelling, but charming in its own way. Here Watson - during WW2 Britain - is working in a Northumberland convalescence home for servicemen suffering from shell shock. And a series of murders lead him to call in Holmes for help. In this version of the story there are three members of the Musgrave family to meet, not one as in the original story, plus a characterful group of wounded servicemen, who are superbly written and acted. The butler Brunton is retained, though here with a wife. And there's another medic, and also the American airman that Sally Musgrave is in love with. The ritual is totally reworked, not really recognisable from Conan Doyle's original. Rather than a hunt around the physical grounds of the manor, this ritual leads to a giant chess game in the house, with the inhabitants playing the chess pieces as Holmes shouts out moves. Ultimately the secret treasure is uncovered and there is a satisfying ending. But it doesn't feel much like the original story. But, as I said, I like it. The direction is dynamic, with sometimes amazing special effects for 1943. The cast of British and American actors generally do a great job, with only a few dodgy accents (London-born Dennis Hoey as Lestrade has a surprisingly poor accent). The film is a little over an hour long, but full of incident and interest, and kept my attention throughout.



So two fun but different retellings of this Arthur Conan Doyle story. My favourite is the Jeremy Brett version, which is more faithful, and also features my all-time favourite Holmes and Watson pairing of actors. But the Basil Rathbone version is a delight in its own way. There's also a 1912 short silent film version of the story, that can be viewed on the story's Wikipedia page.

Prompted by the Broughty Ferry Guide and Advertiser going partially online.

Searching for our unusually named street (which has a couple of spellings, including in the past two sets of differently spelled street signs!) finds lots of references to one set of neighbours especially, including advertisements for beauty classes and hair styling, planning permission for a conservatory, their daughter marrying in 1992 with a huge photo and very lengthy report, and a 1982 impromptu charity fundraising jumble sale held by their kids and others held in their drive and the drive of neighbours over the road from us.

For our other immediate neighbours we find a big wedding photo for their daughter. And for our house find the death notice of the 1986 husband of the couple here. His widow lived here for many years after then before we moved in.

Charmed by the extra insights and glimpses into life in the street before we moved in here 21 years ago. And not just the street, but our very immediate neighbours, the two couples living either side of us, and also the couple directly over the road. Who are all still living here today.

Note some of these reports were found in the newly digitised Broughty Ferry paper, but others were found in a more general search of the British Newspaper Archive e.g. for "15 unusual street name", which turned up more references in other local papers, especially the Dundee Courier.

P.S. Also just found the report of a 1992 wedding + photo of a daughter of the couple immediately over the road (the ones where the 1982 jumble sale was partially held in their drive), and also a 1992 engagement notice for their other daughter.

Finally starting our annual rewatch. The remastered Bluray arrived this afternoon. We’re going to slowly rewatch the six episodes over the coming weeks (we would normally have started 8 days ago) and save the 100+ minute new documentary for just before Christmas. First impressions from the remaster are good. Much is still relatively soft in appearance, but there’s a limit to what they could do with the original filming stock. But many moments now pop out of the screen. Very happy viewers in this house 🙂

Fab article in the Guardian today.

Me just now: “I wonder what my 3rd favourite computing book would be?” I rediscovered my 2nd favourite today, complete with school prize bookplate in there. I had form for spending school prizes on computing books! Even a 5th year French prize on a Pascal programming book 😜 Will ponder. Then probably blog about it. So far we’re talking 1980s though.

Another 3-card past/present/future spread, using the Urban Crow oracle deck. And musings on how these might relate to my current circumstances.

Gifts / Commitment / Play. Generally the guidebook for the cards suggests viewing them non literally, more symbolic/metaphorically. But in this case I'm just going to go for the literal approach.

It's my birthday imminently, and I've already started getting some treats. Today I got an almost birthday present for self, that I would have asked for as a present, but it was selling out so quickly on a limited print run, so I ordered it anyway. It's a book about Commodore 64 SID music composer Rob Hubbard, famed for legendary 1980s British computer music such as "Monty on the Run". There are still some copies left to buy, but it is selling well, and won't be reprinted.

Looking simply at the Commitment card I'm reminded of our upcoming 30th wedding anniversary. I have been extremely lucky with my choice of husband, and despite my ill health it's been a happy 30 years together. It hardly seems any time, certainly not that long! To be fair I still feel 21! But we will be remembering the day 30 years ago in September when we eloped, aged 22 and 23.

And Play, well I need to still make an effort to have fun. I am severely disabled from my progressive neurological disease, and largely bedbound now. Happy working on academic research projects and journal papers. But I need to have fun too. That's important.