In honor of Great English Entertainment

[Beowulf]

Hah...that's an easy one...

"No more than usual dear"

All the best

Dave

Well, I shouldn't put this on this column about English Entertainment, but it is so appropo to that comment, lol. Honesty is not always the best policy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPX2cQP8uoI

Wanted to say I love Tennyson, I have an 1800s book of his poems, he did live during JTR, and I bet somebody is going to say he WAS a suspect

From his lovely poem,The Lady of Shalott:

Willows whiten, aspens quiver,
Little breezes dusk and shiver
Thro' the wave that runs for ever
By the island in the river
Flowing down to Camelot.
Four gray walls, and four gray towers,
Overlook a space of flowers,
And the silent isle imbowers
The Lady of Shalott.

~Tennyson~

and I'm going to couple this comment with John William Waterhouse, one of my favorite painters, who also lived during JTR's time, a Victorian and a great and beautiful painter, and whose paintings illustrated Tennyson's poem, Lady of Shalott.

Not English, but put Lady of Shalott to music beautifully, Lorreena McKennitt's Lady of Shalott:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0rVNQw1DQM

...and evidently there has been a movie made in England of the Lady of Shalott, I read of it on this wonderful little website:

http://bookishkind.blogspot.com/2009...lott-film.html

I would very much like to see it, and will search for it. Incredibly how they made this girl look just like the painting by Waterhouse.

Btw, Waterhouse painted Lady of Shalott in 1888, and so it can be rested as to whether he was Jack the Ripper, as it took a lot of work and time to paint this painting, and so he could not be gamboling about Whitechapel hunting up victims

[Limehouse]

Here are a few of my Tv favourites of recent years:

Shine on Harvey Moon - I loved this in the 70s and 80s. Good, gentle humour and drama

The Darling Buds of May - Always made me feel happy. Again, gentle humour and just the right amount of drama.

Roger, Roger. Absolutely brilliant. Funny, sad and just great.

Jam & Jerusalem - much the same as above really - but a bit more bonkers.

Roger and Val Have Just Got Home - just beautifully done.

[Cogidubnus]

Then of course sometimes the missus will ask "Do you think I am putting on weight?"
Aint it a beggar?

Hah...that's an easy one...

"No more than usual dear"

All the best

Dave

[martin wilson]

Suicidal,I would have thought.
About the only thing I have got going for me is the fact that on principle I don't tell lies,it's a very important issue for me.
Then of course sometimes the missus will ask "Do you think I am putting on weight?"
Aint it a beggar?
All the best.

[Robert]

And best not to say, "You may be 64, but you have the body of a 63-year-old."

[martin wilson]

Probably not a good idea to sing 'When I'm 64' to her, just as a bit of friendly advice.
All the best.

[Cogidubnus]

Python appreciation...sex-based?

You may well be right purely as a general rule (because I can think of one or two exceptions I've encountered)...however, the ladies of my wife's generation are more likely to have been fantasising over James Dean or Marlon Brando...but that may well be because at 58 to my wifes 64 I am but a toyboy!

All the best

Dave

[martin wilson]

Hi Louisa,
You may well be right, I cant remember any women singing the lumberjack song, or quoting from the sketches,perhaps it is a bloke thing.
Women of my generation are more likely to reminisce about Donny Osmond,David Cassidy or the Bay City Rollers, at the time and now completely incomprehensible to me.
All the best.

[louisa]

That's because most women don't 'get' Monty Python. It seems to be a type of humour appreciated mainly by men with a certain type of sense of humour.

I quite like some silly humour but I've never been able to watch any type of Monty Python stuff and neither can any of my female friends.

[martin wilson]

All I will say on Mel Gibson as Hamlet is that he probably took the method acting thing a bit too far.
Tommy Cooper, for me hysterical,pretty much everything he did, and amazing that everything he did was all rehearsed because it looked like a shambles.
Funny,funny man.
I remember watching Monty Python and the Holy Grail in Ireland with my wife,her sister and her mother, they really had not got a clue who they were and I kid you not,about halfway through,the sister turned to me and said
"Martin,are they just messing about?"
What suits some doesnt suit others.
All the best.

[jason_c]

That's from a Tom & Jerry cartoon, where Robin Hood was "riding through the glen".

What was the date of the cartoon?

The line comes from the lyrics of the theme song for the c1956 British TV series. The words are by Carl Sigman:

Robin Hood! Robin Hood! Riding through the glen!
Robin Hood! Robin Hood! With his band of men!
Feared by the bad! Loved by the good!
Robin Hood! Robin Hood! Robin Hood!

He called the greatest archers to a tavern on the green!
They vowed to help the people of the king!
They handled all the trouble on the English country scene!
And still found plenty of time to sing!

[Chorus (1st paragraph) repeat]

Phil H

Well that predates the cartoon which was called Robin Hoodwinked, 1958 according to google.

Link to the cartoon here, about 4.35 in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIDo4Drl2DA

[Phil H]

That's from a Tom & Jerry cartoon, where Robin Hood was "riding through the glen".

What was the date of the cartoon?

The line comes from the lyrics of the theme song for the c1956 British TV series. The words are by Carl Sigman:

Robin Hood! Robin Hood! Riding through the glen!
Robin Hood! Robin Hood! With his band of men!
Feared by the bad! Loved by the good!
Robin Hood! Robin Hood! Robin Hood!

He called the greatest archers to a tavern on the green!
They vowed to help the people of the king!
They handled all the trouble on the English country scene!
And still found plenty of time to sing!

[Chorus (1st paragraph) repeat]

Phil H

[jason_c]

Alcoholic wasn't he Robert Newton? If I remember David Niven correctly.
was he in Oliviers Henry V? I remember him doing something by Shakespeare.
Mind you Errol Flynn liked a drink or two (Niven again) I remember him as Robin Hood, probably horribly outdated to the younger generation but if you watch them it's surprising how they can still hold your interest.
Robin Hood has been remade umpteen times of course,the latest being that Russel Crowe effort.
To which my critical response was 'Oh dear God'
All the best.

I dare not ask your reaction to Mel Gibson as Hamlet.

[jason_c]

And Robin Hood was 'Riding through the glen'
So presumably he was in Scotland,no wonder the Sherrif of Nottingham couldn't catch him!
All the best.

That's from a Tom & Jerry cartoon, where Robin Hood was "riding through the glen".

What's everyone's opinion on Tommy Cooper? Personally I didn't find him that funny. However, too many others have told me how funny he was, so perhaps im missing something.

[Phil H]

Newton was a wonderful actor but an alcoholic.

He played Pistol in Henry V. He was subtle and great - as already noted in this thread - opposite Celia Johnson in "This Happy Breed".

He is a terrifying Bill Sykes in the David Lean version of Oliver Twist with Alec Guiness as Fagin.

In the Disney version of "Treasure Island, Newton was probably the definitive Long John Silver (I also rate highly Charlton Heston's later performance in the role).

He died quite young as a result, I think, of his drinking.

In the early 50s, Newton reprised the part (as just noted) in a series in which somehow Jim Hawkins had become his "ward" and Silver was basically one of the good guys. I have the series on dvd, it is dated but worthwhile. As a boy, I loved it and Robert Newton to bits.

Phil H