Me and the Box
Jan. 21st, 2007 09:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustFor two nights running, I have watched television: this is well above my average. Both were programmes that we had recorded earlier in the week.
On Friday we watched Folk Hibernia on BBC4, clearly kin to the Folk Britannia series we had already seen, and which irritated me so much that I don't think I managed to post about it. This was more tolerable, if only because I knew less about the subject. Folk Britannia had a thesis, and was inclined to bend and simplify its material to fit it (thesis: folk music used to be dull and political, but now we have new young roots music, which is good). Folk Hibernia also had a thesis, but it was at least a thesis which enjoyed the music it was showing: de Valera fostered traditional music as part of his vision of an Irish nation, this has produced and continues to produce some wonderful music, but has also been used by the tourism industry to generate a vision of an Irish nation not all that far from de Valera's.
Like Folk Britannia, the programme drew extensively on archive footage; unlike Folk Britannia, there is no sign of a separate programme showing that footage uncut. Which is frustrating: they gave us Brendan Behan singing the first two lines of The Old Triangle, Patrick Kavanagh singing about as much of Raglan Road, a fragment of The Parting Glass sung by - who? - probably Liam Clancy, before it morphed into Bob Dylan's Restless Farewell. I'd have liked more music and less commentary.
Also, would you think it was possible to spend an hour on the history of Irish folk music without mentioning O'Carolan? Apparently it is.
The Trial of Tony Blair came very highly recommended, though not by the Guardian's reviewer. I found it an entertaining enough way to spend Saturday evening after a bottle of the Wine Society's Exhibition Chilean chardonnay (now, that I do recommend!), with a terrific performance from Robert Lindsay within the confines of a script that couldn't quite decide whether this was Macbeth or Spitting Image.
So there are some quite sharp jabs at Blair being forced to confront the results of his policies (giving DNA samples to the police, stuck in casualty for four hours contemplating the stains on the wall); but the idea that he might actually be tried for war crimes - well, actually, I don't believe that, but it wasn't made more believable by showing him isolated and adrift. If Tony Blair were to be hauled in front of a tribunal, he would still have the most expensive lawyers, first-class travel and lucrative book and lecture contracts. I can't imagine a publisher cancelling the publication of his memoirs on the basis that they were badly written and revealed his insanity - on the contrary, this might well sell better than a slick and unrevealing volume.
At the same time as this satirical portrait of a man who is blind to what he has done, and to the fact that his allies have abandoned him, we are shown a man literally haunted by the victims of his war, dreaming of ruined streets and the faces of children. This isn't funny at all, and it isn't meant to be. It is a view of what Blair has done which is endorsed in the play not only by anti-war protester Brian Haw (shown as transferring his protest to the Blairs' private residence) but also by the police officer on the desk at Blair's arrest: in other words, the play assumes that to be against the war is natural and universal (though it envisages an escalation of the war between now and 2010, the date of the action).
Interesting, making a political point which you don't often see on prime time television, even wrapped up as satire, one or two good jokes: but the real surprise is how well Cherie comes out of it.
And now we're off to the pictures...
On Friday we watched Folk Hibernia on BBC4, clearly kin to the Folk Britannia series we had already seen, and which irritated me so much that I don't think I managed to post about it. This was more tolerable, if only because I knew less about the subject. Folk Britannia had a thesis, and was inclined to bend and simplify its material to fit it (thesis: folk music used to be dull and political, but now we have new young roots music, which is good). Folk Hibernia also had a thesis, but it was at least a thesis which enjoyed the music it was showing: de Valera fostered traditional music as part of his vision of an Irish nation, this has produced and continues to produce some wonderful music, but has also been used by the tourism industry to generate a vision of an Irish nation not all that far from de Valera's.
Like Folk Britannia, the programme drew extensively on archive footage; unlike Folk Britannia, there is no sign of a separate programme showing that footage uncut. Which is frustrating: they gave us Brendan Behan singing the first two lines of The Old Triangle, Patrick Kavanagh singing about as much of Raglan Road, a fragment of The Parting Glass sung by - who? - probably Liam Clancy, before it morphed into Bob Dylan's Restless Farewell. I'd have liked more music and less commentary.
Also, would you think it was possible to spend an hour on the history of Irish folk music without mentioning O'Carolan? Apparently it is.
The Trial of Tony Blair came very highly recommended, though not by the Guardian's reviewer. I found it an entertaining enough way to spend Saturday evening after a bottle of the Wine Society's Exhibition Chilean chardonnay (now, that I do recommend!), with a terrific performance from Robert Lindsay within the confines of a script that couldn't quite decide whether this was Macbeth or Spitting Image.
So there are some quite sharp jabs at Blair being forced to confront the results of his policies (giving DNA samples to the police, stuck in casualty for four hours contemplating the stains on the wall); but the idea that he might actually be tried for war crimes - well, actually, I don't believe that, but it wasn't made more believable by showing him isolated and adrift. If Tony Blair were to be hauled in front of a tribunal, he would still have the most expensive lawyers, first-class travel and lucrative book and lecture contracts. I can't imagine a publisher cancelling the publication of his memoirs on the basis that they were badly written and revealed his insanity - on the contrary, this might well sell better than a slick and unrevealing volume.
At the same time as this satirical portrait of a man who is blind to what he has done, and to the fact that his allies have abandoned him, we are shown a man literally haunted by the victims of his war, dreaming of ruined streets and the faces of children. This isn't funny at all, and it isn't meant to be. It is a view of what Blair has done which is endorsed in the play not only by anti-war protester Brian Haw (shown as transferring his protest to the Blairs' private residence) but also by the police officer on the desk at Blair's arrest: in other words, the play assumes that to be against the war is natural and universal (though it envisages an escalation of the war between now and 2010, the date of the action).
Interesting, making a political point which you don't often see on prime time television, even wrapped up as satire, one or two good jokes: but the real surprise is how well Cherie comes out of it.
And now we're off to the pictures...
