Gill's Place

Four hundred years ago this weekend a man died. Other celebrity deaths were an issue then, too - Cervantes died the same year. But the man who died and whose anniversary we celebrate this weekend gave us something little short of a miracle. He embellished the language, he ennobled the stage, and he gave the world the best plays and poetry ever written. He has been my joy and my obsession for over fifty years. Thank you, Will.

Lots of links, as you might expect this weekend.

Why is he so popular?
His life and legacy. Why celebrate? Google had a doodle.

The Shakespeare Institute organised a school trip - a coach and everything - to Compton Verney, to see their exhibition, Shakespeare in Art. It was a fascinating collection, with a recreation of the first-ever Shakespeare gallery.



You will spot me if you look for the white-haired old bat.

There's this rather cool cartoon too.

I didn't go in to Stratford today, because I would have needed to leave at stupid o'clock to avoid the traffic, but I did watch the BBC Shakespeare Live! this evening, with a cast of thousands of huge, huge names in British theatre. Dame Judi as Titania, Sir Ian as one of nine Hamlets arguing about the stresses in the Big Speech (including the Prince of Wales, who joined in.) Dame Helen, Tony Sher, Rory Kinnear, Davis Tennant, Catherine Tate, Tim Minchin, Simon Russell-Beale, Joe Fiennes, Royal Ballet peeps, the English National Opera - and I know I've left out several important people. It was fun.

The joy and glory of Shakespeare rises above everything else for me. How lucky we are, the human race, to have bred such a genius.

And how lucky we are as British people to have the BBC to show this sort of thing in Saturday prime time.

There's a report in the paper that Jeremy Clarkson has actually learned something from his bruising encounter with the BBC.

He's joining the Guardian.


Following what he described as a “dark night of the soul”, Clarkson said he hoped to “regain the trust of the British public” by dedicating his time and financial resources to sustainable energy, road safety and forging mutual understanding and tolerance between people of different cultures and religions.
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Just check the date carefully.

An article on the BBC website reminded me that at the very start of his career Bob Hoskins starred in a major public campaign to encourage adults with reading problems to seek help. (Because even in what Gove would like us to think of as the halcyon days of '50s education, huge numbers - far more than now - left school functionally illiterate. Who'd have thought it?)

He looks so young and sweet there, nearly forty years ago.



Those were kinder times. These days people would be told it was their fault, and that of their leftie teachers. :-(

David Tennant is the best commentator ever. "Broadcasting is a world lived in real time. And whatever that means, by the end of the day, events have been overtaken by other events."

However, I can't look at Jason Watkins without assuming he is evil. I think this may be correct in this show too.

Hugh Bonneville is thinking Big Thoughts. He is wonderful. He is going to appear on "Women's Hour", so he has to go to Salford.

As Dave said "Entirely loopy and depressingly believable."

Next week there will be Jenni Murray, and a Balding/Vordermann standoff.

Yes, this show ROCKS. If any of the above has meaning for you, then you need to watch this!

Wonderful compilation currently on BBC2, live from the National. Anyone with access to iPlayer should watch it, if only for Judi Dench and Maggie Smith. So much wonderful theatre. Currently Alex Jennings as Henry Higgins.

eta
It's over. And I feel ridiculously proud - that I actually saw so many of the shows there. And that such amazing talent has performed there. And that it's ours.

This guy is just adorable. I've always loved his "Bad Science" columns, but I had no idea he was so, well, sweet!

The BBC news site has a page about what British people are actually like. Some of it is amusing.

But it misses out how much we like to grumble - not just about the weather, or about how much we despise our politicians and press. Or is that just me?

At least the Jubilee seems to have discouraged the St George cross brigade. (ETA:The English flag, much used by football thugs during major tournaments like the Euros.) It's been wet this week. Mostly very wet indeed, as anyone who watched the Thames flotilla will have realised.

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At least the Jubilee seems to have discouraged the St George cross brigade. (ETA:The English flag, much used by football thugs during major tournaments like the Euros.) It's been wet this week. Mostly very wet indeed, as anyone who watched the Thames flotilla will have realised.

( Read more... )

OMG. I have just seen a trailer.

Every time you think her dress sense can't get worse, she astonishes you more.