This sweet bastard right here. You probably don’t know his name but you do know he’s been making everything he appears in better since forever. pic.twitter.com/5eJQTrko9F
Bruce McGill. Daniel Simpson Day or D-Day from Animal House, the guy with no grade point average at Faber College. Animal House in 1977 was Bruce's second credited film. Since then he's appeared in more than 70 theatrical films, 20 TV films, 4 miniseries, and over one hundred TV episodes.
He was Sheriff Dean Farley in 1992's My Cousin Vinny, Walter Hagen in 2000's The Legend of Bagger Vance, and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton in 2012's Lincoln. And he's still working.
In 1985 he guest starred as retired police officer Hank Weldon in one of Miami Vice's classic episodes, "Out Where The Buses Don't Run". Weldon left the force after having a breakdown when a case he meticulously built against drug lord Tony Arcaro fell apart when Arcaro walked on a technicality. Arcaro is supposedly still around but Crockett and Tubbs have trouble finding him. This is the final scene. As usual Miami Vice has a great soundtrack, this time it's Brothers In Arms from Dire Straits.
I was 5 1/2 when we moved from our apartment in Stamford to a house in Norwalk CT in the fall of 1956. One of the things I remember from my time in that apartment was watching two Westerns on TV (along with the Disney Davy Crockett series); Hopalong Cassidy and The Lone Ranger, the latter with its stirring opening and closing theme from the William Tell Overture. Although I remembered The Lone Ranger, there was only one show I specifically recalled in detail - the origin story of the character. I recently came across that show and it turns out it was the first episode of the first season. I must have seen it as a rerun because the show began in 1949 and ran through 1957.
Watching that first episode for the first time in more than 65 years I realized why it made such a big impression on me. We learn in that first episode that John Reid, about to become The Lone Ranger, vows never shoot to kill, only to wound, believing that justice belongs to the legal system. Yet that first show is very violent though, in keeping with the times, not graphically so.
Reid, along with five other Texas Rangers, including his brother, are in pursuit of a gang of outlaws. They ride into a box canyon and are ambushed. Reid is badly wounded and the other Rangers killed. This is the scene I remembered all these years and I think it was the unusual level of violence that made it stay in my mind. Reid's life is saved when the Indian Tonto rides into the canyon while hunting, finds the wounded Ranger and helps nurse him to recovery. We also find out that years earlier, Reid had saved Tonto after his family was killed by raiders from another tribe. The outlaws believe Reid dead, and Reid decides it is better for them to continue to believe it, and adopts his new identity as The Lone Ranger.
Clayton Moore plays The Lone Ranger and Jay Silverheels is Tonto. Silverheels was a Mohawk and an outstanding athlete before making his film debut in 1938. Silverheels appeared in all 217 episodes of The Lone Ranger, while Moore missed one season because of a contract dispute.
Let Lalo Salamanca give you some tips on making the perfect taco.
Two lines of dialogue from Breaking Bad mention Lalo and Nacho, who are never mentioned again and never appear in the series, but later become major characters in Better Call Saul; the charming and extremely lethal Lalo Salamanca, and soulful and tragic Nacho Varga.
Amazing how only a few seconds of context in Breaking Bad gave us 2 of the best characters in Better Call Saul pic.twitter.com/Gi4aIeGx5i
We were not aware of this series until a couple of days before its premiere. Decided to watch after the first couple of episodes had been broadcast and have now viewed 4 of the six in the series. It's very good - not Breaking Bad/Justified top notch, but very good, even though I had my doubts at the start.
The Maltese Falcon, which introduced Sam Spade to movie audiences, takes place in 1941 and it ends with Spade (Humphrey Bogart) turning the duplicitous and lovely Brigid O'Shaughnessey (Mary Astor) with whom he'd had a dalliance, over to the San Francisco police.
It's now 1955 and we find ourselves in rural France, where Spade has come to deliver O'Shaughnessey's daughter to the family of her father. Flash ahead to 1963, and we find Spade has remained in France and is now caught in a web of death and intrigue stretching back to World War Two and the recently ended Algerian War.
The series is slow-burning with a complex plot. There are several very appealing aspects.
Clive Owen as Sam Spade. He's the right age and physically right for the role, bringing a sense of Bogart's cynicism tinged with flickers of romanticism and a sense of honor. Though he does not sound like Bogart, the cadence of his speech is identical and you can imagine Bogie speaking the dialogue.
The supporting cast is excellent. From Chiara Mastroianni (daugher of Marcelo M and Catherine Deneueve) as Spade's now deceased wife, Cara Bossom as the now 15-year old daughter of O'Shaughnessey who reveals character traits much like her mother, to Denis Menochet as the local police chief.
The setting. Most summaries of the series mention it is set in the South of France, so I assumed it meant the overused Provence. But it is not. The town of Bozouls is in the southern part of the Auvergne, a very rural and isolated (particularly in the time setting of Spade) rural area of small towns and farms in a rugged landscape. Ms THC and I drove very close to Bozouls in 2015 while going from Millau to Dordogne. Lovely country, but definitely nothing like Provence.
The Frenchness. The people are not warm and cuddly. They are very, very French and a very real portrayal of French attitudes and behaviors decades ago. In that regard, Spade's housekeeper, whose name I cannot find, is perfect.
Ran across a discussion of the best phone scenes from movies or TV. This one gets my vote. From the Pine Barrens episode of The Sopranos in 2001, also known as The Russian In The Woods (directed by Steve Buscemi!). Christopher and Paulie have taken a Russian mobster to the Jersey Pine Barrens to dispose of the body, but the Russian turns out to be alive, gets away from them, and they end up stranded. It's the old bad cell phone connection days so Tony has trouble reaching them and when he does a hilarious misinterpreted conversation occurs. Christopher's last line always cracks me up.
Other than Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, the only regular (non-streaming) show Mrs THC and I made it a point to always watch over the past 15 years was Justified, which completed its run in 2015. When I heard they were making a new series, Justified: City Primeval, based on another Elmore Leonard novel and set in Detroit, I was worried it would not live up to its predecessor which took place in Harlan County, Kentucky.
Well, so far, we've watched the first four episodes and it is just fine. Timothy Olyphant, as U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, is as good as before and Aujanue Ellis, is vibrant as a defense attorney, and their interplay is the highlight of the show. A solid supporting cast, though hard to match the sterling supporting cast of Justified, as well as the memorable villains played by Walter Goggins, Margo Martindale, and Neal McDonough and comic relief bad guys Wynn Duffy (Jere Burns) and Dewey Crowe (Damon Herriman).
That Ignacio (Nacho) Varga would not make it to the end of Better Call Saul was clear. But it was very hard to see him go tonight. Unlike most of the characters in the series, as well as in its predecessor Breaking Bad, who devolve morally, Nacho tried to find the better path, though he was repeatedly thwarted. The deal he struck with Gus Fring allowed his father to remain safe but at the cost of Nacho's life, though in a final twist he went out in his own way.
Michael Mando, with his expressive eyes, was simply wonderful in the role of Nacho.
As with most of Better Call Saul, I felt I hardly drew a breath during the episode and it is only going to get more stressful in the last ten episodes of the series, particularly as we await the reemergence of Lalo Salamanca. There will be more wrenching scenes.
It remains the most creatively filmed series on TV, with its unique look and cinematography. The Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul universe is a magnificent achievement. I've sung its praises before (most recently in Never Was There More Woe) and will certainly do so again.
Having seen a few episodes of Jeremy Clarkson's car shows we decided to give Clarkson's Farm a go. It's quite different but very enjoyable. Since 2008, Clarkson has owned a 1,000 acre farm in the Cotswold Hills of central England (a stunningly scenic area I bicycled through in 1978 and have fond memories of). The setup is simple. The farmer who managed the acreage retired in 2019 and Clarkson decided to take on the job himself. The show follows him through one growing season - fall 2019 to the fall of 2020 - in eight episodes. A simple premise but, of course, complications ensue; one of which is that Clarkson knows nothing about farming and its challenging realities, the second is the arrival of Covid midway through the show.
Clarkson has no problem poking fun at himself and looking like an idiot even while giving others grief with his bluntness (a carryover from the car shows) and has assembled a wonderful "real" cast around him. Kaleb, a 19-year old farmer who works closely with him, is not shy about giving Clarkson a piece of his mind, and ends up the star of the series; Gerald, 72 years old, completely unintelligible and hilarious (Mrs THC and I would crack up every time he started talking), Cheerful Charlie, the unflappable agronomist, farm manager, and finance guy, who always arrived with bad news, and Clarkson's girlfriend Lisa.
There is a lot of humor with Clarkson also revealing a bit of his vulnerable side, which we have rarely seen before, but most of all this a love letter to the English farmer which makes us appreciate the difficulty of their life, the unceasing work needed to maintain a farm, and the absolute dependency on the weather which spells the difference each year between success and failure. I think that was Clarkson's real purpose in making the show.
From the second season of Miami Vice, a show I watched very infrequently. Closing scene of the episode Out Where The Buses Don't Run.
The show often featured popular music, but not just short clips which
was the usual TV approach, instead playing long excerpts of mood-making
music with very little dialogue. Here it is one of my all-time
favorites, Brothers In Arms by Dire Straits when Crockett and Tubbs investigate an abandoned warehouse.
Everyone in this scene is a Miami cop. At the beginning is Edward James Olmos, Crockett and Tubbs' supervisor. Next up is Bruce McGill, also known for playing D Day in Animal House and Secretary of War Edward Stanton in Lincoln, and finally David Strathairn, Eddie Cicotte in Eight Men Out, the Jason Bourne movies, Secretary of State William Seward in Lincoln, while appearing in about a million other films.
Miami Vice featured an innovative color and style palette imposed by director Michael Mann, who also employed a lot of shots not seen on TV before that are now standard in movies and cable. See, for instance, the close up of the moving wheel on Crockett's car and the shot where the car accelerates away from the camera.
First appearance by Steven Wright, one of my favorite comedians in the 80s, on the Tonight Show on August 6, 1982. I remember watching this. Johnny Carson provided such a great platform for young comedians and if, after doing your bit, you got invited to actually sit in the chair next to Johnny, as Steven did, it was a really big deal.
In January I praised the new BBC version of All Creatures Great And Small. I was premature. It is good, but not as good as I thought based on the first show in the new series and it does not match the original.
The new series is very well acted but as it progressed it became increasingly soap-opera like and much too didactic.
The other thing that changed my opinion is Mrs THC and I rewatched much of the original series over the past few weeks. Robert Hardy cannot be surpassed as Siegfried Farnon and the story telling is superior in the original series. The original also is much more effective in conveying the hard working life of farmers in the Yorkshire Dales and it explores their stories in more depth than the new series. Part of this may be the times. The original series was filmed in two batches during the early and late 1980s when the Dales still held some resemblance to the days in which the stories were set. That is gone now and the cinematography of the new show makes things look too pretty.
When the second season of the series is broadcast we will watch it but the original is the real deal.
It's not Breaking Bad or Better Call Saul but it'll do.
In the 1970s when James Herriot's books about a vet practice in the Yorkshire Dales were published in the U.S. and became bestsellers I avoided them. It didn't sound like anything I'd be interested in. I was finally persuaded to try one of the books. Within a few pages I was hooked and read them all.
When the BBC series was shown in the States during the 1980s I watched many of the shows. But when I read that Masterpiece Theater would be showing the brand new BBC remake I had my doubts. "Leave well enough alone" was my reaction because it was difficult to see how it could live up to the original.
I was mistaken, a verdict shared by Mrs THC. The new show is wonderful. An oasis of calm and good cheer amid the chaos of today's world. And the casting is at least as good as the original. In particular I couldn't see how anyone could match Robert Hardy's portrayal of Siegfried Farnon but Samuel West manages to accomplish that and Anna Madaley as the housekeeper Mrs Hall is also outstanding.
The only thing that would make it better are subtitles to help with those impenetrable accents.
Over the past year, I've watched perhaps 15 episodes of Gunsmoke, the classic CBS Western series that ran for 635 episodes from 1955 through 1975. Though I certainly knew about Gunsmoke growing up, I didn't remember it clearly unlike a number of other TV Westerns I enjoyed as a kid. Researching the background of the series it looks like the reason I didn't have a lot of memories was that for its first 12 seasons it ran at 10pm on Saturdays, too late for me as a child. By the time it switched to 730 or 800pm on Mondays in 1967, I was older and too cool to watch what I considered an "old folks" western.
Until 1955, TV westerns were geared towards a children's audience with shows like Roy Rogers, The Cisco Kid and, my favorite, Hopalong Cassidy. Then, in two weeks that fall, the first "adult" westerns premiered, The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (which ran for six seasons) and Gunsmoke.
Gunsmoke was immensely popular over the course of its 20 season run. For the 18 years for which ratings are available it finished as the #1 show four times (all from 1957 to 1961) and in the top ten 13 seasons (1956-63, 1967-73). It also had unusual stability in its cast with James Arness (US Marshal Matt Dillon) and Milburn Stone (Galen "Doc" Adams) in all 20 seasons, while Miss Kitty Russell (Amanda Blake) was there for the first 19. Marshall Dillon's deputies, Chester B Goode (Dennis Weaver) and Festus Haggen (Ken Curtis) were there for 9 and 11 seasons respectively.
From 1955 through May 1961, Gunsmoke was a half hour show and after 1966 it was filmed in color. All the shows I've watched are one hour black & white so between 1961 and 1966.
Watching it now, Gunsmoke reveals itself to be a much more complex and subtle show than I would have guessed. Although its opening featured Matt Dillon drawing his gun on a bad guy, there has been relatively little gunplay in the shows I've seen. The scripts are strongly morally focused, but the characters and dialogue are not simple morality plays (watch for instance, two shows from 1964-5, Gilt Guilt and The New Society).
Added: After initially posting this I watched a half-hour episode from the second season (1956-7), "Bloody Hands", which starts with Matt Dillon killing three outlaws, triggering what we would call PTSD today. Unnerved, Matt rages that there will always be someone else he has to kill and decides he can no longer do it, resigning as Marshall and turning the job over to Chester. A few days later Chester comes to find him, telling Matt a gunman has come into town, killed a bar girl, and no one can stand up to him other than Matt. Dillon initially refuses and then comes this dialogue:
Chester: I been thinkin' lately a whole lot about all this and there's just somethin' that you been forgettin'!
Matt Dillon:
That so.
Chester: Yeah, that's so. It's men like Stanger and Brand, 'cause they got to be
stopped! That's all. They gotta be! I'd do it if I could, but I can't. I
just ain't good enough. Most men ain't, but you are. It's kinda too bad
for ya that ya are, but that's the way it is and there ain't a thing in
the world you can do about it.
The episode ends with Dillon putting on his gunbelt and riding back into Dodge.
Many of the "bad" guys have a sympathetic side and some of the stories end in ambiguous ways, leaving the viewer to speculate on what happens next. While it did not feature a recurring cast of characters like Gunsmoke, I found myself thinking of the similarities between Gunsmoke and The Twilight Zone, shot in similar black and white style, in the use of close-ups, and also telling stories with a point. And just like Twilight Zone, there have been some unexpected twists near the end of some of the Gunsmokes.
Gunsmoke is also unsparing in its depiction of the inhabitants of Dodge City and, in particular, of the struggling settlers trying to carve out a living from the prairie, some honestly, some not so much.
The three main characters are strong and honorable, but they are not pushovers and totally unsuited for TV as it exists in the 21st century. Matt Dillon always finds the right path but does not hesitate to use his size and fists to achieve it, even if involves bending, or sometimes ignoring, the law and remains stoic throughout, rarely giving way to sentiment. Doc Adams is a cranky old guy who does not give an inch, while Miss Kitty, with whom Matt has a long-standing and ambiguous relationship, is the proprietor of a saloon and gambling hall with a hint of a shady past. The lessons provided are delivered roughly with no sugar coating. It is striking to compare it to modern TV which seems to know only two modes, providing gentle and trite lessons via one-dimensional characters or cynical, world weary observations. Gunsmoke, by avoiding both, evokes an America that seems ever more distant in the past, but which might be helpful to revive.
Watching Gunsmoke prompted me to research the era of the TV western, an era I remember as a child, as it peaked during the years when I was between 5 and 15 years old (1956-66) and I watched a lot of them. The peak was 1959, with thirty western series on the three networks and 8 of the top ten rated shows being of the genre. Even Hollywood studios couldn't figure out why they were so popular.
Several of the shows provided career starters for actors who went on to become major movie and TV stars; Rawhide with Clint Eastwood practicing his squint, Maverick, with James Garner pioneering his brand of light comedy, and Wanted: Dead or Alive, starring Steve McQueen and his scattergun.
Some of the others shows I watched:
The Lone Ranger, another big favorite, Wagon Train, with Ward Bond who played in so many John Ford and John Wayne films, Bonanza, the first color western, Have Gun - Will Travel, with Richard Boone (my parents considered this so adult I was only allowed to watch it a couple of times); Bronco, Sugarfoot, Cheyenne, with Clint Walker, and The Rifleman, with ex-Brooklyn Dodger Chuck Connors.
And let's not forget, Bat Masterson with Gene Barry, Death Valley Days, an anthology series running 18 years and 452 episodes, hosted by Ronald Reagan just before he became governor of California, Tales of Wells Fargo, Tombstone Territory, Zorro with Guy Williams, Laredo, Laramie, and Branded with Chuck Connors and its memorable theme song, a series portrayed somewhat fancifully in The Big Lebowski.
Along with Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp, many other figures of the Old West were portrayed in series of at least 50 episodes including Wild Bill Hickok, Annie Oakley, Jim Bowie and Kit Carson.
There were also a number of hour-long successful "big" westerns, inspired by the success of Bonanza, which premiered in the fall of 1959 - The Virginian, The High Chapparal, and The Big Valley. I didn't care for any of them, even on rewatching The Virginian and The Big Valley recently, though I've become a big fan of Barbara Stanwyck, who stars in The Big Valley, in her movie roles.
In the prologue Shakespeare ensured we learn that Romeo and Juliet have died. Seeing how they arrive at that fate makes for tragedy. Tonight is episode 3 in Season 5 of Better Call Saul. Having watched Breaking Bad we know the fate that awaits Jimmy McGill (aka Saul Goodman, aka Gene Takavic) and Mike Ehrmantraut but the knowing enhances the sense of tragedy surrounding the series. It's entirely fitting that in a recent articleMichael Brendan Dougherty concludes, "Vince Gilligan's Breaking Bad prequel is the most heartbreaking drama ever to appear on TV."
This is the penultimate season of the show. We've seen Mike (Jonathan Banks), a corrupt Philadelphia cop seek redemption for the death of his son by moving to Albuquerque and supporting his daughter in law and granddaughter but in doing so he's become deeply emeshed in criminal and increasingly violent activities at the direction of fast-food chicken franchise owner and meth kingpin Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito), also a lead character in Breaking Bad.
Meanwhile small-time con man Jimmy has tried going straight, or as straight as he can, as a lawyer though being thwarted at every turn by his own stray instincts and his brother Chuck (brilliantly played by Michael McKean - David St Hubbins in Spinal Tap) a highly respected lawyer in one of the largest local firms.
While we know the fate of Mike and Jimmy, we don't know Jimmy's final fate as know from a series of flash-forward's to Jimmy's post Breaking Bad life as Gene Takavic, assistant manager of a Cinnabon in a Omaha mall, fearing every moment that someone will discover his real identity.
What we don't know are the fates of two new characters that we've grown to care deeply about. Nacho Varga (Michael Mando) involved in the meth trade is an associate of Mike's and Gus Fring. Yet he dislikes the business and is desperately trying to protect his father, who condemns what his son does but has been placed in danger because of it. Nacho has an air of sadness and fatality about him. And he does not appear in Breaking Bad.
Nor does Kim Wexler (the great Rhea Seehorn), Jimmy's fellow lawyer, friend, roommate, and kind of girlfriend. She's the one person whose approval Jimmy values, at least at times. She is also from the same kind of hardscrabble background but is more dedicated to the pursuit of the law and following the rules. Every follower of the series prays nothing bad happens to Kim but we all know something happens to prevent her from appearing in Breaking Bad. Daughtery tells us, "Showrunners report getting agonized letters and messages from fans
pleading with them not to hurt her or bring her to an awful end".
The pace of Better Call Saul is slower and more methodical than Breaking Bad. It takes it's time getting where it is going because the accumulation of detail is so important. It's also because:
Vince Gilligan, the creator of the televisual worlds of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul,
has an unusual talent: he is brilliant at showing us work. What does it
feel like to test fast-food sauce recipes, to push a mail cart around
an office, to make a cement walkway, or to highlight relevant items in a
laborious legal discovery process? What does it look like to cook up
meth? In his hands, the work of men and women becomes weirdly gripping.
The law plays an important role in Better Come Saul. For both Chuck McGill and Kim Wexler it provides structure and rules for lives that might have otherwise become chaotic. In contrast, Jimmy McGill finds himself unable to abide by those constraints. Tragedy lies ahead.
"When someone starts talking in the middle of a song you know it's serious."
From 30 Rock featuring Sheryl Crow, Elvis Costello, Mary J Blige, Norah Jones, Adam Levine, Moby, Michael McDonald, Wyclef Jean, Robert Randolph, Cindy Lauper, and the Beastie Boys.
The latest in Ken Burns' series of PBS documentaries premieres on September 17. The subject is the Vietnam War.
I participated in protests against the war, including the Washington DC event in November 1969, which drew an estimated 500,000 people, and at the University of Wisconsin in May 1970 in the wake of the invasion of Cambodia.
Burns' co-producer Lynn Nozick says of the documentary:
"I think the country is ready to have the conversation we never really had about the war . . . "
I find that a puzzling statement since we had an exhausting, more than decade long conversation about the war. Does it really mean the film makers are dissatisfied with the outcome of that conversation? Which, in turn, raises the question of whether the intent of the documentary is to generate what normal people would consider to be a conversation, or whether it is intended to meet the current progressive definition of a conversation which is "a one-sided dialogue in which you are instructed on what to think and say".
There actually is a rich opportunity to examine and re-examine all facets of the American experience in Vietnam and it can be done in a way that does not lead a viewer to any specific conclusion, whether they were, or are, pro or anti-war. Here are some things to look for in judging whether the documentary intends to generate a real and open conversation:
Compare the documentary's comparative use of adjectives and adverbs regarding Americans, the South Vietnam government and its supporters, the Viet Cong and the North Vietnam government and its supporters.
In describing origins of the war, how are Viet Cong (VC), National Liberation Front (NLF), and the North Vietnam government portrayed? Are they predominantly communist or nationalist? Are the VC and NLF portrayed as independent actors or creatures of the North Vietnam government?
How is the interplay between LBJ's domestic and Vietnam policy in 1964-5 portrayed? (For more on this and the point below see Dereliction of Duty).
Is there a distinction made between issues on which the Johnson administration misled or lied to Congress and the American public in 1964-5 (Gulf of Tonkin, costs of the war, whether Americans were in combat) and those on which it was telling the truth (the extent of North Vietnam communist infiltration into the South and its control of the VC and NLF)?
How are anti-war demonstrators portrayed? Is the ideological component driving many of the leaders adequately explained? My observation is that there were three main groups of protestors. The first, and most numerous, were those who thought it the wrong war for America; the second actually thought the communists were the good guys and wanted them to win (John Kerry was in this group); and the third, and by far smallest, thought the communist revolution needed to be brought back to America (Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn fit in this category).
How is the role of African-Americans in Vietnam portrayed, and what statistics are used?
Regarding the Tet Offensive, how are the military, psychological and media aspects portrayed?
How are temporal aspects of the war portrayed? Are distinctions made between the different strategic situations and options open to decision-makers in the mid-1950s, 1964-65, 1968, 1972 and 1975?
How is the aftermath of the war in Southeast Asia treated; Cambodia Year Zero, the boat people, South Vietnamese reeduction camps?
Who are the main talking heads for the series and what is their background?
Further to my post of a couple of days ago about the passing of British actor Robert Hardy, some more interesting aspects of his life and career:
His tutors at Magdalene College, Oxford were CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien!
Entering the Royal Air Force late in World War II, he was sent to Texas to train as a fighter pilot. The war ended before he was deployed.
He never had any training as an actor.
I ran across this edited clip of Hardy giving some of Churchill's famous speeches in the BBC series, The Wilderness Years, the period from the late 1920s to 1939 when Churchill was an outcast within his own Conservative Party, and mistrusted by the opposition. I'd seen the series when it was broadcast in the U.S. (I think in the early 1980s) but had forgotten just how good Hardy was as Churchill. It's the finest Churchill I've seen on screen. Hardy captures everything about the man - his speech patterns, his gestures, the way he carried himself.
The clip is also interesting as a window onto Churchill. His rhetoric was always formidable, but one of the reasons he ended up in the wilderness is that we could deploy recklessly, in forlorn and unworthy causes. The first speech we see here is his opposition to any attempt by the British government to alter the existing arrangements under which India was part of the Empire. On this issue, Churchill was simply wrong.
It was with the coming to power of Adolph Hitler and the Nazi Party in 1933, that the man and his rhetoric were matched to the perfect issue. Listen to excerpts from speeches in 1933 and 1934. The '34 speech is on Germany's growing strength in the air. Along with his main point, the need for Britain to maintain air superiority, two other aspects struck me. The first was his perceptive point on the use of deterrence; the second his, in retrospect, overestimate on the damage enemy bombers could cause Britain. In this, Churchill represented the conventional wisdom that "the bomber always gets through" and would inflict unthinkable and catastrophic damage in very short time. The reality in the early years of the war was that however horrific the physical destruction and loss of life was during the Battle of Britain, it was only a small fraction of what had been projected, and the effect was not to destroy morale, but rather to strengthen it.
The excerpts close with Churchill's 1936 speech in the wake of German reoccupation of the Rhineland and his magnificent speech after Britain and France sold out Czechoslovakia at the Munich conference in the fall of 1938. If you do nothing else, listen to that speech which starts about 18 minutes in to the video.
Robert Hardy passed away yesterday at the age of 91. He played crusty Yorkshire Downs veterinarian Siegfried Farnon in the BBC series (1978-80, 1988-90) based on the book All Creatures Great and Small. I loved both the book and the TV show. Hardy also frequently portrayed Winston Churchill, most famously in another BBC series, The Wilderness Years, and was also featured in the Harry Potter series.
This clip is from the All Creatures episode set on the day in 1939 Britain enter the Second World War, showing Siegfried with his son Tristan.
Andrew Sachs, the accomplished English actor best known for his role as Manuel on Fawlty Towers, my favorite TV comedy, died recently at the age of 86. Fawlty Towers was the creation of John Cleese (of Monty Python) and his then wife, Connie Booth. Only 12 episodes, aired on the BBC in the mid and late 1970s, were made, but each is perfect. (Manuel, from The Independent)
The incompetent, snobby, socially frustrated, and unhappily married Basil Fawlty (John Cleese) and his bossy, and unsympathetic, but more realistic, wife, Sybil (Prunella Scales), operate a small hotel (Fawlty Towers) in Torquay on the southwest coast of England. Manuel (Andrew Sachs), is a waiter, from Barcelona with a shaky command of English, hired by Basil because he doesn't have to pay him much, while the competent chambermaid, Polly (Connie Booth), frantically, and usually futilely, tries to keep the insanity in check. (Andrew Sachs, from The Daily Mail)
Andrew Sachs was born in Germany in 1930 of a Jewish father and Catholic mother. The family emigrated to England in 1938. Andrew's acting career began in the late 1950s. Although best known for Fawlty Towers he had a very long and successful career, playing multiple roles on Dr Who, as a narrator of BBC TV and radio documentaries, as well as appearing in the popular British soap opera, Coronation Street. He left behind his wife of 54 years.
Our family discovered Fawlty Towers while renting videotapes while vacationing in Maine during the 1980s. All four of us watched the entire series multiple times and the THC Son could do a pretty good imitation of Manuel.
The interplay between Manuel and Basil is one of the keys to each show, as, at some point, Basil, always full of suppressed rage, has his volcanic temper erupt, usually with Manuel as the victim.
That Ignacio (Nacho) Varga would not make it to the end of Better Call Saul was clear. But it was very hard to see him go tonight. Unlike most of the characters in the series, as well as in its predecessor Breaking Bad, who devolve morally, Nacho tried to find the better path, though he was repeatedly thwarted. The deal he struck with Gus Fring allowed his father to remain safe but at the cost of Nacho's life, though in a final twist he went out in his own way.
(Manuel, from 
(Andrew Sachs, from 