And the lockdown goes on, although there now seems to be a fair amount of restlessness in the camp after eight weeks. What should the Government do to try and alleviate the situation? Whatever it decides it won’t please everyone, that’s for sure. What we need to bear in mind though is that when you’ve been as close to death as Boris has, his attempts to shield the population from the same fate should be applauded...wait, wait, and wait a bit longer, I’d rather do without things for a while longer than be part of the statistics pushing up the death toll because of national impatience. The virus is real and dangerous...this is no time to be complacent.
We’re constantly racking our brains to try to discover the germ of an idea for our next film script. Reading books can provide one avenue of inspiration. And that tiny germ may well be the start of a winner. Another route is listening to radio programmes. Unfortunately we can’t make a film of the tales we hear - that’s probably already been done, but what you do hear may trigger something at the back of your mind. Which brings us to this Newspage submission from Gordon who says,
“Jill and I are regular listeners to broadcasts on Radio 4. We’ve both recently been enjoying two such programmes that were both several episodes long, having just finished. The first one was aired at 9.45am till 10am, each weekday over a period of two weeks. It was a true story about a man who escaped from East into West Germany - when the Berlin Wall was still in existence...
He then, with the help of some people he met in West Berlin, dug a tunnel under the wall back into East Berlin to help other people escape. After various setbacks, their escape was successful. The number of people who escaped was twenty nine, hence the title of the book that the programme was based on - Tunnel 29’.
The second programme that Jill and I listened to was called 'The Corrupted'. This is a serial that has been running for a few years with several episodes transmitted each year. Each episode ran from 2.15 pm to 3.00 pm. It was set in about the 1980's and tells the story of a man, Joey Olinska and his family living in London. He gradually expanded his original small green grocery business, into a big business empire, by cheating, bribery and other nasty means. He later befriended several British prime ministers, Margaret Thatcher being one of them.
He got someone to set fire to a house, and some people were unintentionally burnt to death. A relation of Joey O. was framed for the arson attack and is a leading character in the story. Most of the characters in the story have been 'corrupted' by sex and money. The story will continue. The character, Joey O., is played by Toby Jones, an actor who is currently appearing in several other productions.
Jill and I are also keen watchers of Coronation Street. Some of the story lines are a bit contrived with some of the characters found to be related to others in the cast by having had 'intimate relationships' with others just on the edge of the character list.
The acting is mostly to a high standard, and several characters have a chance every now and then to show what they are really capable of, with some very convincing performances. One current story line has been developing over several months and has just led up to a dramatic scene. A recently divorced woman, married in haste, a man who over time controlled her actions by means of mental cruelty. At the time of my writing this piece the woman finally 'cracks' when the man verbally and physically abuses her. Getting up from the floor, she hits him over the head with a bottle and then thrusts the broken bottle in to his neck. He falls to the floor. Is he dead, or not? Time will tell. What prompted me to write this piece was to say how good the acting / effect was of the man when he was yelling at the woman. The screen shows us a BIG dramatically-lit close-up of the man’s face, shot from the woman’s point of view. . I urge you to watch this scene, if it's available on Catch up ITV, May the 1st. I think that you'll be impressed.
In case you didn't know, Tunnel 29 won Best Radio Podcast in the British Podcast Awards 2020