This week started with the terrible news that actor, director and all-round good egg Rob Reiner and his wife, the filmmaker, photographer and also all-round good egg Michele Singer Reiner had been found dead in their home in LA. Their son Nick was later charged with their murder. He has struggled with addiction, and there are reports that he’s been diagnosed with schizophrenia.
You might be wondering why the deaths of a couple I’ve never met are the subject of this week’s blog instead of whatever I’ve been up to this week. Well, Reiner – among his many other achievements – was the man who took a chance on William Goldman’s The Princess Bride and in so doing created the greatest film ever made. He was also the man who introduced me to Stephen King with his adaptation of King’s novella The Body, in the form of Stand By Me. He was also responsible for When Harry Met Sally (“I’ll have what she’s having”), This is Spinal Tap (“These go to eleven”) and The Sure Thing (which triggered my long-standing love for John Cusack). He and Michele also ran Castle Rock Entertainment, responsible for more Stephen King adaptations – The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile. Misery was a Reiner film too but despite James Caan and Kathy Bates I can’t love that one. Stephen King will probably be the subject of another blog, another day (but not for many years, please). A Few Good Men is another, but as it’s got the loathsome Cruise in it I can’t watch it.
The Princess Bride will always, always be my favourite. It didn’t do well at the box office but became a cult success, and people who recognise a quote when it’s dropped into conversation are kindred spirits. I remember the first time we watched it – it was Bonfire Night in 1988, and we’d rented the video from Apollo in Monmouth and watched it as a family. We all still have copies of the film on DVD and watch it whenever it’s on TV. Reiner’s films changed the way we talk, inspired endless memes and even a socially-distanced version of the movie in lockdown where Reiner appeared as The Grandson, with his father Carl as The Grandfather. The words may have been written by Goldman, Nora Ephron, Stephen King and others but Reiner brought them to life with love and humour. I have loved listening to his reading of The Princess Bride on Audible this week.
Prince Humperdinck’s To-do listI designed and made this in 2020, inspired by TPB
The Reiners were also activists, campaigning for gay marriage, for tobacco taxes to be used to pay for early childhood causes, for child development, and he was outspoken against Trump whose tasteless, egotistical, offensive response to the news of their deaths may become a nail in his coffin. I can say this as I have no intention of going to the US in the near future. The outpouring of respect and grief across social media and the news, from people who knew them and people who didn’t but whose lives have been touched by their words and actions, has been enormous.
Rest in peace, Rob and Michele Reiner. “Death cannot stop true love. It can only delay it for a while.”
Today I’ll be making stollen, marzipanning the cake and pottering about in my lair. It’s Christmas this week, and we have TT2, her partner and GT2 coming for lunch.
As you wish, faithful readers.
Kirsty x
What I’ve been reading:
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase/Black Hearts in Battersea/Night Birds on Nantucket – Joan Aiken
The Madness of Crowds/A World of Curiosities – Louise Penny
The Princess Bride – William Goldman (Audible, read by Rob Reiner)
The Secrets of Pain/The Magus of Hay – Phil Rickman (Audible)
On Monday I was given charge of the remote controls and decided that it was a good time to watch the Paddington films again: the weather outside was miserable, as Storm Bert and then Storm Conall were making their presences felt with rain, wind and general mankiness, and I was in the mood for something gentle and funny.
At home with the Browns (Paddington, Studio Canal/Sony 2014)
We loved the Paddington films as soon as we saw them – the casts are great, they are funny and heartwarming and Ben Whishaw voices the little lost bear beautifully. Hugh Grant is making a proper career out of being a bit of a villain, too, and camps it up well in the sequel while the role of the explorer’s bitter daughter suits the rather icy Nicole Kidman very well. Julie Walters and Sally Hawkins are always great, of course. Thing 2 and I are plotting a cinema trip to see the third one soon.
In this house we have a list of family films that we love and are happy to watch whenever we find them on the TV. They’re Sunday afternoon films, stuck-in-the-house-and-feeling-poorly films, bad weather films and – as it’s that time of year – I’m going to share some of them with you.
Nanny McPhee/Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang. Excellent use of Emma Thompson, and all the children end up well behaved in the end.
The Railway Children. Ideally the original but the remake is OK too. You cannot go wrong with Bernard Cribbins.
Five Children and It – Suzy Eddie Izzard as the Psammead.
Hugo – early Asa Butterfield and beautifully filmed.
Fantastic Mr Fox – Wes Anderson does family friendly, with a great voice cast.
Slumberland – a more recent entry, magical mayhem with Jason Momoa.
Stardust – I’m still cross with Neil Gaiman but this is a great film, full of magic and ghosts and skypirates and Robert De Niro in a dress.
Batteries Not Included – tiny aliens! Big business getting its comeuppance!
Hook – Robin Williams as an aging Peter and Dustin Hoffman in an excellent wig.
The Spiderwick Chronicles – more magic, and a grumpy house gnome addicted to honey
Bridge to Terabithia – even though I cry every time.
The Princess Bride (duh).
Jessica Tandy in Batteries Not Included (1987, Universal Pictures)
There are of course many more films that I will watch every time they are on, but these are the family favourites that even the grumpy teens will join us on the sofa for. I was excited to discover that the BBC are finally reshowing The Box of Delights, starting next weekend: more E. Nesbit transformed into TV magic. And Christmas film season starts tomorrow!
The weather, especially when it causes traffic chaos like floods and road closures.
Decisions made by the local council which add to the traffic chaos.
People who have no idea where they are going in tube stations and decide that the best place to stop is immediately beyond the ticket gates.
Evri drivers who claim to have delivered the parcel to the delivery address, when in fact they have delivered it to a house in a completely different road. At least they got the number right, which minimised the ‘excuse me, is this your doormat’ conversations.
Today I’m going for my first swim in ages and am expecting it to be cooooooold….
Same time next week, gang!
Kirsty x
What I’ve been reading:
Going Rogue/Dirty Thirty/Now or Never– Janet Evanovich (Audible)
Last Sunday Thing 2 and I took another trip to the cinema, this time to see Beetlejuice Beetlejuice – my choice of film as the original is one of my favourite 80s movies. I was wary of it being a sequel for the sake of it (see the latest and hopefully final instalment of Bill & Ted for an example of this. Actually…don’t see it, it’s bloody awful, take my word for it instead). I’m happy that she wants to spend time with me even though she’s almost 16 (in 16 days, as she has just reminded me), and also we wander over to TT1’s afterwards and see the ever-growing family.
It was great. A cameo from Danny De Vito, reappearances from some familiar characters in bit parts – in bits, in fact – as well as (of course) Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara from the original cast. Jenna Ortega put in a great turn as Lydia Deetz’s daughter who’s taken second place to ghosts her whole life. Justin Theroux as a would-be stepdad was revolting. Michael Keaton, as the bio-exorcist being stalked by his soul-sucking ex, was on top form – but then isn’t he always? No story spoilers, but do go and see it.
I love a good 80s movie, and although some of them are a bit problematic in these enlightened days, I’m still introducing the kids to them when they pop up on the streaming channels. We’re drifting into the 90s a bit now, with Billy Elliot a recent watch, but mostly I’ve been sticking to my own teen favourites. So, in no particular order, here they are…
The Princess Bride. The greatest film ever. No arguments.
Say Anything. Featuring John Cusack as Lloyd Dobler, best known for standing in the rain playing Peter Gabriel’s In Your Eyes at Ione Skye’s window. Stalking by any other name, but I LOVE it.
Pretty in Pink. I still think she should have ended up with Duckie like in the book, and her prom dress was the ugliest dress EVER. But this was peak Andrew McCarthy…
…and so was Weekend at Bernie’s. One of the funniest films ever made. Wildly inappropriate. I still cry with laughter.
Reckless. Oh heavens, Aidan Quinn as a teen rebel. Be still my beating heart.
Ghostbusters. Giant marshmallow man. Sigourney Weaver. Bill Murray and Dan Ackroyd.
The Outsiders. Brat Pack heaven*, based on an amazing book by S.E.Hinton that makes me cry every time. So does the film.
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Matthew Broderick in cheeky mode, Mia Sara in gorgeous mode, and Jennifer Grey in pissed off big sister mode
Dirty Dancing. Nobody puts baby in a corner. Great soundtrack and Jennifer Grey again, and *that* speech in Johnny’s cabin. Swoon.
Labyrinth. David Bowie and Muppet monsters. Win-win.
Batteries Not Included. Community spirit and a really cute baby alien.
Stand By Me. One of the best Stephen King adaptations ever, beautifully done – one of his novellas, starring a very young River Phoenix.
The Blues Brothers. Carrie Fisher’s finest moment. Dan Ackroyd. Aretha. Endlessly quotable lines.
The Lost Boys, Pretty Woman, The Breakfast Club, Time Bandits, Field of Dreams, Heathers., The Goonies, Footloose, Big….so many.
*You may spot that apart from #7 there is no Tom Cruise in this list. I loathe Tom Cruise, even more than I loathe Jim Carrey and Ricky Gervaise. This means that there will be no Top Gun or Legend on this list. Ever. Despite Tim Curry’s appearance in the latter. Tim Curry also gets an honourable mention as The Grand Wizard in The Worst Witch(also starring Diana Rigg as Miss Hardbroom – perfect!).
A sunny walk this morning to the farm and across the hare field – no hares today, but lots of deer and some autumn calves. I did a bit of jogging and a bit of walking, and my knees and achilles seem to have survived which is nice!
On Tuesday I took part in audio description training run by Mind’s Eye – so interesting and useful, and it really made us all think differently.
Taking a break from making tiny Christmas Mice – making crochet gingerbread men and starting a baby blanket too
Series three of Heartstopper – this really keeps the feel of the graphic novels
Tiny pumpkins. I am tempted to paint them.
My beloved made me some excellent display boxes for my Copped Hall Apple Day stall next week, and Thing 2 and I started making props for Christmas displays.
Being given a rheumatology appointment well within the twelve weeks – six weeks since referral, in fact. Less pleasing was the ‘aging’ bit but at least it’s osteo and not rheumatoid. I think.
Regular visitors to my little corner of cyberspace will have spotted that I am a big fan of books and reading in general. I love fantasy, and magic, and supernatural thrillers; different worlds, sideways views of our own world, the idea that there are things we can’t see (and, in the case of Stephen King, that we don’t want to see). I don’t love it when some bright spark decides to take one of these books and turn it into a film or a TV series, unless they are people who can be trusted to do it properly. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, I think, can be trusted with Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London books, but the teams responsible for The Seeker: The Dark is Rising (from the novel by Susan Cooper) and Midwinter of the Spirit (from Phil Rickman’s Merrily Watkins series) should never have been allowed near the productions.
I can almost imagine the conversation in The Seeker‘s production meeting: “Yeah, so we’ve got Eccleston as the bad guy and McShane as the wizard, right, but we gotta make it relevant to American kids, we can’t have another magic English kid, Harry Potter and all that, let’s make the kid and his family American, let’s transplant them to England, fish outta water stuff…”. Just, no. You killed the story. Suffice to say they didn’t get the go-ahead to film the rest of the novels.
Midwinter of the Spirit suffered from some of the same problems: the brilliant Anna Maxwell Martin cast in the main role was a great choice, but they hammered a long novel into a short series in a very heavy-handed way, losing a lot of the suspense and also – by choosing not to start the series with the first novel – a lot of the context. Shame, because these are brilliantly written, unputdownable books.
The one notable exception is William Goldman’s The Princess Bride, possibly because by 1973 when the novel was published he was already an Academy Award-winning screen writer for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (Best Original Screenplay) and he also adapted the novel for the screen. It’s still one of my favourite films and books, and finding another fan almost always means finding a new friend. Not that having the original author on board is always a good thing, of course, because then you run the risk of making, say, eight long films from seven long books (I’m looking at you, J.K.Rowling, you and your ‘direct assistance’ in the screenwriting).
(As an aside, Twilight and The Vampire Diaries were actually better than the books but only because they could not have been worse. So it does work both ways. Sometimes).
It was with some trepidation. therefore, that I headed to BBC iPlayer this week to check out The Watch, ‘inspired by’ characters from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld. BBC2 has the tagline “In a world where crime is legal, a group of chaotic misfit cops rise up to save their city from catastrophe. A punk rock comedy thriller inspired by Terry Pratchett’s Discworld.” The buzz on the Pratchett fan pages has been almost entirely negative. Outrage around the casting has been prominent: a woman as Lord Vetinari (Anna Chancellor)? A short person (Marama Corlett) as Angua? A tall person (Jo Eaton-Kent) as Cheery? A black woman (Lara Rossi) as Sybil Ramkin? Other than Carrot, who remains true to Pratchett’s vision, the casting producer has created a hugely diverse and entertaining ensemble. Richard Dormer, cast as Vimes, is guilty of gurning too much and perhaps too much comedy has been written in for him, but he was a good choice. Matt Berry and Paul Kaye are always good value, too.
Part of the outrage has also come from a fierce loyalty to Terry Pratchett and, latterly, to his daughter Rhianna. She very diplomatically tweeted that “It’s fairly obvious that The Watch shares no DNA with my father’s Watch. This is neither criticism nor support. It is what it is.” Den of Geek has more on the controversy here. Funnily enough, Good Omens wasn’t criticised in the same way, perhaps because Neil Gaiman is Pratchett-adjacent and David Tennant is similarly adored for his time as the Tenth Doctor. The news this week on hearing that a second series of Good Omens in in the works should probably have provoked outrage as there isn’t a book, but once you’re in the Pratchett family, you’re in and you can pretty much do no wrong.
Previous big-budget adaptations of the Discworld novels have tended to be by Sky, who filmed the first two novels as The Colour of Magic, then did Hogfather and Going Postal. These weren’t perfect in terms of casting, either, but also weren’t terribly revolutionary. Charles Dance was perfectly cast as Vetinari, Tim Curry made an excellent wizard. Sean Astin was OK as Twoflower but David Jason was utterly wrong for Rincewind (he did make a great Albert in Hogfather, to give him his dues). The problem with filming such beloved novels is that readers have a very clear vision of who they think would be the best actor for the role, and are vociferous on the subject. The constant ‘casting posts’ on the various fan pages are annoying in the extreme, so one learns the art of scrolling.
Suffice to say that none of the actors in The Watch have featured in any of these posts. Was this possibly a deliberate decision, in the sense of ‘we’ll never get it right, so let’s have some fun’?
So, I went into the series knowing that the production company had played merry hell with the storylines, the characters and the sacred Discworld canon. And, you know what? I really enjoyed it. I left my Discworld expectations back on Roundworld and went along for the ride. The writers have picked bits from any number of the novels, not just the Watch series: Soul Music, Guards Guards, Night Watch, The Light Fantastic, Thud! to name a few, and they really have had fun with them. Many of the puns have been lost, and the addition of a gloriously camp dance routine came a bit out of leftfield, but it’s still thoroughly bonkers, funny and sweet in places. It does look as if most of the filming took place in the Elephant and Castle shopping centre, but you don’t get much more dystopian than that. The soundtrack is great, Cheery is an absolute delight, and the ending leaves it open for more….though as yet series 2 hasn’t been commissioned, sadly.
We’ve also watched Katla this week – gloomy, spooky and Nordic – and a 2018 series called Requiem, chosen because we like most things Joel Fry does.
What is there in this world that makes living worthwhile?
A surprise birthday present arrived this week from my lovely work colleagues, combining Pratchett, cross stitch and cats – three of my favourite things! I love getting handmade gifts and, believe it or not, it’s quite a rarity. I don’t know who made it but I LOVE it.
I also packed off the gift I couldn’t share last week: I could not get it straight in the hoop, so I gave up in the end. The pattern is by Climbing Goat Designs on Etsy.
Happy birthday Helena!
This week I have been working on another gift, and another Totoro baby lovey – this time a commission. My cross stitch is on 18 count fabric and it’s getting to the point where I can’t see the holes in the fabric any more so may need to invest in one of those magnifying lights! Old age is creeping up fast…
This week I am looking forward to doing some delivery in schools, which I have really missed, and hopefully the sun will come out at some point!
See you next week
Kirsty x
What I’ve been reading:
The Museum of Broken Promises – Elizabeth Buchan
The Wisdom of Sally Red Shoes – Ruth Hogan
The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock – Imogen Hermes Gowar
Guards, Guards – Terry Pratchett
Lundy, Rockall, Dogger, Fairisle – Matthew Clayton and Anthony Atkinson
I am not good at Christmas – well, I’m not good at the build up to Christmas. I am tense. I am stressed. The mere sight of a Christmas tree before December 1st turns me into the Grinch. My family – bless them – have been asking me for weeks what the children would like for Christmas. I don’t know. Ask them! Ask their father! He is good at Christmas. He has ordered presents. I have not ordered presents. I have not booked my Christmas delivery slot at Tesco (other supermarkets are available).
I have not done Christmas cards for anyone but family for the last several years – work colleagues in a normal year get a tree decoration, and I donate the cost of cards and postage to charity. This year it will be a food bank charity. Until last Sunday I was in deep denial and we ended up dashing to Tesco to buy advent calendars (which we eventually got in M&S, as everywhere else was sold out)
And don’t even get me started on that bloody elf. He could stay on the shelf for all I care, but Things Two and Three come downstairs and look for the stripy little sod every morning. The first year we had an elf, the kids went into hysterics and I had to promise to send it away. I rehomed it, but that didn’t last and their dad bought a new one in Poundland a couple of years later. I salute my neighbour who has two big elves and three baby elves, which is a whole lot of work. Luckily our elf – dubbed ‘Candycane’ by the children – just does what it says on the tin and sits on various shelves rather than getting up to twee mischief.
I am mellowing slightly, however, and Christmas lights are allowed to be put up this weekend. The tree goes up two weekends before Christmas and I am not budging on that. I have noticed that Thing Two has persuaded her dad to get their ‘bedroom tree’ down already, but I’m ignoring it. Teddy the cat was thrilled to catch his first bird as a result of this, however, and proudly dragged the fake robin downstairs to show us… he was practically strutting for the rest of the evening.
Teddy’s first bird…
This year – of all years – I am enjoying the Christmas lights on the way to school, and one of my neighbours always goes all out to decorate their house.
There is one thing that’s guaranteed to make me feel a bit more Christmassy, luckily, and that’s a Christmas movie (Christmas music, too, but we’ll do that another day). Thing Two refused to allow us to watch any before December 1st, but now it’s open season and I can indulge. So here, in no particular order, are my favourite festive films.
1.The Muppets’ Christmas Carol. Michael Caine in possibly his greatest role ever. Excellent ghosts. Muppets. It truly has everything.
2. Scrooged. You can’t go wrong with Bill Murray in anything, and this also has one of the best Christmas theme songs ever in the shape of Al Green and Annie Lennox’s ‘Put a little love in your heart‘. It’s not Christmas till Carol Kane has thwacked Bill Murray with a toaster, frankly.
Scrooged
3. Miracle on 34th Street – the 1934 version is my favourite, but I am quite fond of the Richard Attenborough one too.
4. Elf – The best way to spread Christmas cheer is to sing out loud for all to hear.
5. It’s a Wonderful Life – my dad’s favourite. James Stewart is wonderful as the frustrated savings and loan owner whose life never goes quite to plan. He’s so human, and if anyone deserves an angel its him.
It’s a Wonderful Life
6. The Christmas Chronicles – a late entry by this Netflix original, with Kurt Russell as a great Santa. Goldie Hawn needs to lay off the Botox though. Plus, a guest appearance by Miami Steve (Steven Van Zandt). The sequel is brought down by the really naff ending.
7. The Hogfather – I reread the book every year, and although this isn’t strictly a film its still part of my Christmas watch list.
HO. HO. HO.
8. Arthur Christmas. Another new one, but a great voice cast.
9. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. If only for the cat.
There are others, of course, but for me its not Christmas until I have watched this lot. (For the record, yes, Die Hard is a Christmas movie.)
I feel more festive already.
Lost: one (crafty) mojo
This week – quite apart from it being December – has been a bit challenging, to say the least. Thing One was already isolating after contact with a Covid case in the last week of November, and then on Monday we received an email telling us that the whole of years seven and ten now had to isolate as the number of cases had risen among both students and staff. Back to the home learning then, and I made the decision to work from home with them. While I could leave Thing One alone for a few hours in between my beloved leaving for work and me coming back, it wasn’t fair to expect her to supervise the (very determined) Thing Two. And yes, mum, I know where she gets it from!
Thing One had a great virtual parent/teacher conference this week which told me what I already knew – my daughter is brilliant – and she has worked really hard this week. One of her English tasks was to write a speech, and she spent far longer on it than the allotted lesson time as she was so passionate about her subject. She was writing about mental health; as someone who has been diagnosed with generalised anxiety, this is really important to her (and to me, as someone who lives with depression) and I am really proud that she is engaging with this in her work.
Thing Two is a different matter. She is still getting used to secondary school after six months at home, and unlike her big sister she is not a self-motivator. My work week has been punctuated by demands for assistance with geography, history, English and science (though she did at least get on with the maths by herself). The only plus was that she did the art homework she’d been resisting while avoiding her geography. I have found meetings having meetings with a bad-tempered little presence in the room quite tricky, especially as she’s a curious little bird and likes to come and see who I am talking to. Really I should invite her to the design meetings as she’s the right age and we could pick her brains!
I am tempted not to send them back for the last few days of term, to be honest: the infection rates are highest in the 11-16 age group, as secondary schools didn’t close during lockdown, and keeping them safe has to be my priority. I don’t want whatever Christmas looks like to be spent watching them for symptoms of the virus – Thing One is already fed up of me pouncing on her and feeling her head for signs of a temperature. Poor Thing Three is having to go to school still, as the girls aren’t showing any symptoms, but I suspect he likes the escape.
Having to wear the mum head and the work head at the same time is tiring, as you need to have separate brain spaces, so by the time we finish for the day and I have fed the horde crafting is the last thing on my mind. Dinner is nominally 6pm, but I am flexible as to time zone: it’s six o’clock somewhere, to paraphrase the song.
The very quick stitch I started last week is mostly a frame and some wording, very little has happened with either blanket and the sock is positively languishing in my work bag.
Sometimes when the crafty mojo vanishes it’s good to pick up something different just to get the hands moving, so I delved into my Ravelry library yesterday evening and whipped up a weeping angel amigurumi which will end up on the tree next weekend. The photos were taken on the kids’ mini tree which is lurking upstairs (yes, the one where Teddy ‘caught’ his robin).
Don’t blink….
I dragged Thing Two out for a muddy walk yesterday, through the woods to the rope swing. We tested out our new wellies, and looked for fungi and mosses. The winter sun was golden and lovely in the trees, and we followed deer tracks through the mud. There has been a lot of rain this week, so it was good to get out into the sunshine.
So that was week 37. Winter has set in with a vengeance, with sub zero temps – the lake was 5 degrees yesterday, so hopefully it won’t be too much colder this morning. We didn’t get to swim last week as the police shut it down as a ‘gathering’ despite the social distancing measures that Redricks had put in place. Is it weird to be looking forward to getting into freezing water?
See you at the end of week 38, when the tree will be up and I’ll be well into my list of festive films. Which ones have I missed out?
Kirsty x
What I’ve been reading:
Crochet Hacking – Emma Friedlander-collins
The Dark Archive (Invisible Library) – Genevieve Cogman
Forged (Alex Verus) – Benedict Jacka
The Third Nero (Flavia Albia) – Lindsey Davis (Audible)
What Kirsty did next 