Lunedi Lunacy

Back when I was a mere stripling, as it where, there was nothing quite as funny as the old Carry On movies. Sid James, Hattie Jacuqes, Barbie Windsor (pre-East Enders), Charles Hawtrey but especially Kenneth Williams. He was pencil thin, beautifully groomed and spoke in that nasal posh accent that made the double-entendre sound more double and even more entendre! Those roles in these wonderfully silly movies and his camp Sandy and Julian sketches on Round the Horne often obscured the real talent that was Williams.

Right down to the crooning vibrato of the diseur - that Brelish-Aznavourish Gaelic nasality - he captures the essence of every popular French singer of the period.  And the lyrics - well I'm dedicating them to my darling Lara - she can use them on French Friday and impress the hell out of Monique, Benoit, Jean-Louis and the gang!

Maggie Smith once admitted that Ken Williams was the greatest influences in her life as a comic actress; from him she learned the technique that has kept her in the forefront of performers to this day - as witness her brilliant performances in Downton Abbey and recently in the The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.  They had a special relationship and it showed not only on stage but when they appeared on shows like Parkinson - trading banter, barbs and sometimes arguing like an old married couple.  One night they got into a spate about politics but minutes later were reading an early poem by Sir John Betjeman, then Poet Laureate and another of Parky's guests that night.  Sir John is obviously moved by the simple, sincere reading they give of Death in Leamington.

Williams was never really a happy man - for all his wit, talent and intelligence he could never reconcile himself to being gay.  Given the characters he was famous for playing it was a sad irony. In a particularly revealing entry in his diary he wrote, "All problems have to be solved eventually by ONESELF, and that's where all your lovely John Donne stuff turns out to be a load of crap because, in the last analysis, A MAN IS AN ISLAND."  On April 15, 1988 Williams was found dead, apparently from a lethal drug overdose.  No suicide note was found but it is now widely believed that he had decided to solve his problem himself.

29 October - 1889: Stanley Park dedicated in Vancouver, BC

Lunedi Lunacy

Catherine Tate's Laureen always gives me a chuckle and no more so than when she's caught being less than cool:

August 20 - 1882: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture debuts in Moscow.

For Whom the Belles Toll

As the year drew to a close another great talent of the late 20th century was lost - cartoonist and illustrator Ronald Searle died on December 30 at his home in France.  He first created his infamous Belles of St Trinian's while a prisoner of war working on the Burma Railway in Changi. 

In an interview with the Guardian's Steve Bell he described his time there:

"I desperately wanted to put down what was happening, because I thought if by any chance there was a record, even if I died, someone might find it and know what went on.  At times I was so ill that I couldn't draw at all. You're doing 16 hours a day rock breaking and you're exhausted. You come back and have a bowl of rice. You have no light, but you have fire, a big fire keeping the mountain lions away, and snakes perhaps, and by the light of the fire, I made the drawings. I didn't have a watch or anything, so you just lie down in the tent until you were dragged out the next morning to go back to the rock breaking. And so all these drawings, some of them very bad, were all I could do in a state of exhaustion."

Ronald Searle: A Life in Pictures

Steve Bell

The Guardian March 9, 2010

After is return from the war his anarchical gang of schoolgirls brought him recognition and success including, in 1954,  the first - and best - of a series of films based on their riotous behavior.  Featuring the magnificent Alistair Sim as the addled head-mistress Miss Fritton and her gangster twin brother Clarence it also starred Joyce Grenfell, George Cole, Hermione Baddeley, Sid James and in her first film Barbara Windsor.  It was followed by four other movies though none ever quite lived up to the fun and frolic of the first.

In these two clips we see the staff and young "ladies" of St. T's at their finest, or at least as good as they will ever get:

But Searle's fame wasn't to rest of his naughty schoolgirls - he output was to include cartoons, travel books, the adventures of Molesworth, his particular take on his beloved cats, advertisements and commemorative medals were all to bear the distinctive spiky style of Searle's pen.  I was particularly miffed when I discovered that somehow in all the moves I've lost - sold? given away? - a hysterical look at the history of The Hudson's Bay Company  that he and Kildare Dobbs created to celebrate the 300 anniversary of that august institution.  Amongst the illustrations was a less than happy Queen Victoria, in her lap a pile of beaver pelts and on her face a look of regal distaste - all captured with a few strokes from the pen of a master.

Victoria and Albert show an atypical ebullience in "Always With It" a cartoon Searle did in 2007 to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of London's V and A. 

Today's Guardian has a slideshow highlighting some of Ronald Searle's work and his life here.

03 January - 1987 - Aretha Franklin is the first women inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Lunedi Lunacy

Anyone who has lived in Italy can tell you that learning the body language is half the battle! It is one of the wonderful silly things about a country that it is easy to criticize but easier to love.

For my darling Walter, Robert, Dario, Larry, Vincenzo, Simonetta, Linda, Nazareno, Gail, Jolka, Micki, Marco, Diana and Cindi - I give thanks that I had four wonderful years with you and miss you with all my heart.

As Walter reminded me in an e-mail yesterday - Roma is Amor spelled backwards.

10 ottobre/October - San Daniele Comboni

Now Is the End

According to the calculations of an American Tele-evangelist the world is going to end later today. Apparently, like New Year's Eve celebrations, its going to happen time zone by time zone at 6 PM local time starting somewhere between Pago Pago, American Samoa, and Nuku'alofa, Tonga. To celebrate (if that's the word I'm looking for?) I thought I'd post this little gem from Beyond the Fringe.



Considering they did this back in 1962 its taken a bit of time for them to hit a winner!

21 maggio - San Cristóbal Magallanes Jara

Okay I've Heard the Term "Branding" But ....

... and believe me this has nothing to do with me being a monarchist (a lukewarm one but a monarchist none the less) but this may be taking it a bit too far.

Crown Jewels Condoms of Distinction is producing special celebration packs that bear the slogan: "Like a royal wedding, intercourse with a loved one is an unforgettable occasion".

A more complete report can be found here. Yes I know its The Vancouver Sun but they got the story from Agence France-Presse and we know the French would never lie about things concerning the British monarchy.

Thanks to my friend Candy for sending me this.

05 fabbraio - Sant'Agata

Lunedi Lunacy Ma Martedi

The British cabaret trio Fascinating Aida has been entertaining audience around the world - sadly never in Canada????? - since 1983 when the group was founded by Dillie Keane. Though personal has changed over the years and the group has gone into retirement several times they've once again appeared on the cabaret scene to take on the world and its vicissitudes.

Anyone who surfs the Net knows the (short-lived) joy of discovery when that really cheap flight shows up to our chosen holiday destination.



They got that one down pat!

Many thanks to my friend Maureen for this one.


12 ottobre - Nostra Signora del Pilar

Lunedi Lunacy

While cataloging a few photos from our London trip earlier in the year I came across this little gem posted in Westminster. The Borough not the Abbey!


And if I don't have a cellphone?????

02 agosto - Sant'Eusebio di Vercelli

Lunedi Lunacy

Well I'm happy to say that the waiters in Italy are not so arrogant and rude - they are charming and rude!



01 febbraio - Santa Verdiana

Lunedi Lunacy

The story behind this sketch is almost as funny as the sketch itself. Apparently it is a cult favorite in German and Scandinavia. I only recall reading about it being performed by Hermoine Gingold and Billy DeWolfe in a Broadway show back in the 1950s.



Though they had respectable careers neither Freddie Frinton nor May Warden were well know in Britain but they are cult figures in Northern Europe. It's odd that something so quintessentially English should cut through the boundaries and hit those Nordic funny bones!

Many thanks to my friend Yannis for rebringing this to my attention.

18 gennaio - Santa Margherita d'Ungheria

Lunedi Lunacy

Apparently this has been around on YouTube for a while.


As my friend Candy, who sent it to me said: Only the British could get away with advertising like that.

05 ottobre - Santa Faustina Kowalska

Lunedi Lunacy

Okay we know it was done with some sort of imaging programme but its still funny.



Thanks to my old colleague Marc for this one.

21 settembre - San Matteo aspostolo ed evangelista

Lunedi Lunacy

I was talking with my friend John in Ottawa on Saturday and it looks like if it doesn't stop raining they may just consider a sacrifice - provided a virgin of either sex can be found.



13 luglio - Sant'Enrico II del Sacro Roman Impero

Lunedy Lunacy

Lauren Cooper is never, ever bovvered!



I've been told that Catherine Tate's Lauren character is frighteningly close to the mark.

18 maggio - San Leonardo Murialdo

Lunedi Lunacy

Give me that old time religion!



11 maggio - San Giobbe

"Quote ... Unquote"

While in Windsor last week my friend Peg and I stopped by at Waterstone's on the High Street. Most of the stores were having sales and they were not exception: a fine selection of books: "3 for 2 - Offer applies to stickered items only." Peg was able to find two books of a series she had been reading that were unavailable in Canada and generously offered me the third. I wandered through the stacks and finally settled on a slim 120 page novella by Alan Bennett.

I've adored Bennett since I first saw him in Beyond the Fringe as the "My Brother Esau is an hairy man" vicar. And as a playwright and author he is - IMHO - one of the living greats. His Talking Heads series of monologues, The Madness of George III*, History Boys, 40 Years On et al have delighted with a wry sense of humour, the pure joy of language and the penetrating insight of a society gloriously (and often ingloriously) in decline.

"The Uncommon Reader" tells the apocryphal tale of Her Majesty's sudden passion for reading; a passion that turns both her world and the world around her upside down. As much as it is a wonderfully entertaining comic read, it is also Bennett's manifesto on the power of reading to change lives.

The appeal of reading, she thought, lay in its indifference: there was something lofty about literature. Books did not care who was reading them or whether one read them or not. All readers were equal, herself included. Literature, she thought, is a commonwealth; letters a republic. Actually,she had heard this phrase, the republic of letters, used before, at graduation ceremonies, honorary degrees and the like, though without knowing quite what it meant. At that time talk of a republic of any sort she had thought mildly insulting and in her actual presence tactless to say the least. It was only now she understood what it meant. Books did not defer. All readers were equal, and this took her back to the beginning of her life. As a girl, one of her greatest thrills had been on VE night, when she and her sister had slipped out of the gates and mingled unrecognized with the crowds. There was something of that, she felt, to reading. It was anonymous; it was shared; it was common. And she, who had led a life apart, now found that she craved it. Here in these pages and between these covers she could go unrecognized.

The Uncommon Reader - Alan Bennett
Profile Books - Faber and Faber

Its Bennett at his finest - funny and wise - and being Bennett the very last sentence is a glorious punch line.

*I am reminded that a Hollywood bigwig insisted that the title of the movie version remove the "III" as he felt people might not come to see it if they hadn't seen George I or George II.

14 aprile - Santa Liduina

Lunedi Lunacy

Though I don't get all the jokes - at times its even too British for me - but I love Victoria Wood and Julie Walters.



Some of this sounds familiar - except the tart, of course.



They have my vote!

12 gennaio - San Bernardo da Corleone

Lunedi Lunacy

I was telling my friend Ron about the gaggle of school kids at the Aquarium in Genova and he reminded me of an old Joyce Grenfell monologue. Grenfell was a brilliant monologist - one of those talented people - Ruth Draper, Bob Newhart, George Carlin - who created a world of characters and situations as they stood alone centre-stage. Sadly it appears to be a type of entertainer that has gone much the way of the dodo, perhaps because it calls too much on the imagination at at time when imagination is only a word in TV commercials.



Any suggestions as to what George was doing?

03 novembre - San Martino de Porres

Lunedi Lunacy

It appears there may be a bit of a Shakespeare theme this week; so without much ado about nothing:



And I've had a crush on - oh what the hell a case of the hots for Hugh Laurie since Black Adder - is it just me or is he getting hotter with age?

18 agosto - Sant'Elena Imperatrice

"Quote... Unquote"

I'm currently reading the 4th in Alexander McCall Smith's 44 Scotland Street series: The World According to Bertie. And I broke up when I read this passage:

'This story concerns Charmian Mao,' said Humphrey. 'He was said to have a very good sense of humour. He was asked once what he thought would have happened had it been Nikita Khrushchev rather than President Kennedy who had been assassinated. He thought about it for a moment and then said: " Well, one thing is certain: Aristotle Onassis would never have married Mrs. Khrushchev!" '

McCall Smith is the creator of the wonderful Precious Ramotswe, a woman of "traditional build," traditional values, owner of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency and Botswana's only Lady Detective. I have yet to see the BBC screen adaptation of the first novel (it was director Anthony Minghella's last project) which was aired on Easter Sunday in the U.K. The reviews were mixed with most critics finding that the sweet, gentle nature of the books just didn't make it to the screen. I'm hoping BBC World will get around to showing it - maybe instead of the 200th rerun of Good Neighbours - so I can see for myself.

14 giugno - San Eliseo