Ops-Normal.org

Boac wrote: ↑

Tue May 30, 2023 10:59 am

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-c ... type=owned

Boac wrote: ↑

Wed May 31, 2023 4:12 pm

From The Torygraph:

"A German climate activist who was left with a chunk of tarmac stuck to his hand after glueing himself to the street has been jailed for three days.

Raul Semmler gained notoriety last year when he used sand and superglue to bind himself to the street"

Oh yes, yes!


Fxd9P9JXwAM32Hb.jpg

Shame they couldn't use hin to repair a pothole?

Boac wrote: ↑

Tue May 30, 2023 10:59 am

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-c ... type=owned

The First of the Few is a British film produced and directed by Leslie Howard, with Howard taking the starring role of aviation engineer and designer R. J. Mitchell. Leslie Howard bore little resemblance to R. J. Mitchell, however, as Mitchell was a large and athletic man. Howard portrayed Mitchell as upper class and mild-mannered. Mitchell – "the Guv'nor" – was in fact working class and had an explosive temper; apprentices were told to watch the colour of his neck and to run if it turned red. Howard himself was well aware of these deliberate artistic discrepancies, and dealt delicately with the family and Mitchell's colleagues; Mrs. Mitchell and her son Gordon were on the set during much of the production. When told that the "authorities" had come up with the name "Spitfire", Mitchell is reported to have said "Just the sort of bloody silly name they would think of".

The film's score was composed by William Walton, who later incorporated major cues into a concert work known as Spitfire Prelude and Fugue.

Because The First of the Few was made during the Second World War and dealt with subjects related to the conflict, it was, in effect, propaganda. Because of its value as propaganda, the RAF contributed Spitfire fighters for the production. U.S. producer Samuel Goldwyn allowed Niven to appear in exchange for U.S. rights to the film, which was distributed by RKO Pictures. After seeing the prints, Goldwyn was furious that Niven was cast in a secondary role and personally edited out 40 minutes before reissuing the film as Spitfire.

Karearea wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 27, 2023 2:07 am

Friday June 16th The Mille Miglia arrives in Pavia

1000 Miglia 2023 - Settore 13 - Aeroporto San Damiano [15:22]

Stars of the silver screen
More than a decade after their 1955 Mille Miglia win, Stirling Moss and Denis Jenkinson became subjects of a BBC play…

Thank heavens for enthusiasts, especially the ones who have the patience to upload endless information to the internet. Once you’ve learned which sites to trust they can be a valuable source of detail. It was an e-mail from one of these compilers that led me to a lost TV drama starring ‘Moss’ and ‘Jenks’.

Aiming to put it online, reader Ian Fleet has compiled a list of the contents of thousands of hours of racing videos he’s watched, and in it I noticed BBC Theatre 625 – Mille Miglia, featuring Stirling Moss and Denis Jenkinson, shown in 1968. It seemed a bizarre subject for a BBC play – how would they recreate a 1000-mile road race? But the writer was noted playwright Athol Fugard and it starred well-known actor Michael Bryant, so surely it would be worth watching?

I tracked down a copy in the British Film Institute and went to the South Bank to view it. Set almost entirely in their hotel bedroom before the race, the 70-minute studio play centres on the emotional strain for Moss and Jenks as they prepare for the gruelling event, unaware of the historic victory ahead. It’s an atmosphere piece, nerves battling with confidence on both sides, and clunky conversations explaining the intensity of racing to the viewer. Knowing both of them, I found it hard to lose myself in the fictional world: Bryant as Moss conveyed some of Stirling’s restless energy, but Ronald Lacey’s Jenks was too fearful, too poetic, gazing wistfully into space to convey terror of death or, worse, of letting Moss down. His glasses were correct, but the stick-on ginger beard and the fact that he was taller than Moss undermined the effect… He also sat hammering at a typewriter, whereas DSJ famously wrote his epic MM piece longhand. (And no, we don’t know where that historic manuscript went.)

Amazingly, the scene shifts briefly to a workshop where under the eye of a portly ‘Neubauer’ they practise a tyre change on what’s clearly a real 300SLR, and even start it up. The wheel change is rapid, but that’s about the highlight in an overlong production in which Moss fires off the line: “1000 miles to get nowhere! But I want to get there first!”

You can’t make drama without conflict, of course, and in this case it erupts as they sit side by side at a table practising hand signals to use in the deafening Mercedes. It’s a way of taking us into the race as Jenks winds through his famous roller map while Stirling wields an invisible wheel on opposite lock. Then Jenks fluffs a bend. “We’re dead,” shouts Moss. “I’d be faster on my own!”, and Jenks retaliates by accusing Moss of driving hairily to scare him. All entirely made up: Jenks was fearless with a driver he trusted, and he had implicit faith in Moss.

“Not that awful BBC thing?” said Stirling when I rang him. “Ghastly. No understanding, no warmth. In one scene I didn’t stand up when a priest joined us – I’d never have been that rude. Then a good-looking bit of crumpet walks past and I don’t even look! It was nonsense.”

We can’t ask Jenks for his views, but he expressed them firmly to Doug Nye at the time. “He detested it,” says Doug. “But his girlfriend Nan thought his depiction was hilarious.”

It’s unlikely to be repeated, so if you’re keen you’ll have to call the BFI. Or you could accept Jenks’ comment, related by Doug: “Well, what would you expect of… (dismissive pause, then sneering emphasis) television?”. He concluded: “It’s all bollocks. Knew it would be. Waste of time trying to help them.”