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Post by valdemar on Nov 9, 2017 5:17:50 GMT
An addendum to my last post: I believe the character's name was 'Inspector Dull', as in 'Dull of the Yard'. Funny, but nowhere near as funny as (The late, great) Mel Smith, and Griff Rhys Jones' 'Porno and Bribeasy'.
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Post by valdemar on Nov 9, 2017 4:48:42 GMT
Yes, it's brilliant. I got my copy the day it was published, and had read it cover to cover by that afternoon. I can't argue with his choices - a lot of books mentioned I remember adorning my parents' bookshelves when I was a kid. I had to post on Christopher Fowler's site about one small error, though; in one of his essays, he attributes 'Pinocchio' to Charles Perrault. As Monsieur Perrault died in, I think, 1703, it would have been difficult for him to write the tales of a lying wooden child in the 1880's.Thankfully, Carlo Collodi did it for him. Possibly as a ghost writer. There were several writers whose work I was unfamiliar with, and there were two that I thought might appear, but didn't. John Creasey, whose 'Toff' books my father was fond of reading, and A.J.Cronin, whose work 'The Citadel' was loved by my mother, and I found it simply astonishing, when I read it as a teenager, at a loss for something to read, and thought that the old book would be as dull as ditchwater. Sometimes, it's good to be proved wrong in one's beliefs.
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Post by valdemar on Oct 29, 2017 20:47:22 GMT
It's quite amusing that a lot of the Hammer movies that so disgusted the critics upon release, are now rated '12' or '15'. The only one that I have in my collection that is '18', is the beautiful to look at, but turgid, 'Demons Of The Mind'. It has a couple of nasty deaths, but I can only think that the '18' is for the film's rather 'incesty' plot.
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Post by valdemar on Oct 29, 2017 0:30:34 GMT
One of the most unpleasant 'kills' in an episode of Buffy, was when she garotted a demon with a length of razor-wire. Oh, and when a vengeful and completely out of control Willow (ah, sweet little shy Willow, of the fluffy jumpers and shy nature) catches, and flays a guy called Warren, who killed the love of her life, her girlfriend Tara, and leaves his gently steaming corpse for Buffy to find. Lovely. Admittedly, I did shout 'justified' when she did it, as Warren was very unpleasant, but you suddenly think: 'What just happened there?' Buffy did get darker and nastier in tone as it went on, although, bar a couple of episodes, it was never less than superb. Likewise, Angel, although that started dark... And got progressively darker. The appearance of Spike, in the second or third episode showed just how dark Whedon could push a TV show, starting with Spike's hilarious monologue at the start, and ending with Angel's torture, pinned to a wall with rebars,and having more inserted, agonizingly slowly, until he resembled a pinned butterfly. Unsurprisingly, this wasn't shown on it's normal early evening time slot, but very late one night. Early episodes of Angel featured the half-demon, Doyle, who helped Angel get established in L.A. A phrase Doyle used to refer to Cordelia, was the charming "She's a stiffener.". There was also mention of Angel's friend 'Charlie Tripod', about whom Cordelia asked, and was told that no, he wasn't a photographer, he was just quite large in a certain part of his anatomy. Kid friendly TV, right there.😄
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Post by valdemar on Oct 27, 2017 22:07:12 GMT
Never believe blurb writers. They like using phrases like: "It's like 'The Archers' on acid!". And I'm not underestimating kids. I have, several times, had to explain pop culture references that originated maybe 40 years ago, to younger people at work, my brother, who's only seven years younger than me, and to his 21 year old daughter. In an episode of Buffy, Spike and Faith have sex together. Afterwards, Spike makes a remark about being 'Ridden like a horse'. Go on, explain that to an average 12 year old. Giles and Spike, going out to fight something particularly nasty. Giles says:"We happy few.", to which Spike replies: "We band of buggered." Misquoting the Bard for comic effect.
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Post by valdemar on Oct 27, 2017 2:43:25 GMT
Doctor Strange - Peter Grant in the 'Rivers Of London' books, is nothing like Harry Potter. It is explicitly stated that magic is nothing like 'riding a bike'. In the early books, his enthusiasm causes catastrophic damage. The head collapsing possession of the first book is far nastier and more inventive than anything JKR could come up with. Likewise, having the lost rivers of London appear personified as capricious, sometimes terrifying women, is a masterstroke. The fact that Grant has to keep practising his magic, and it doesn't always do what it should when needed, is a million miles from the 'got it first time, Harry!' scenarios of the Potter world. Peter Grant's world is a gritty, dirty place, where shocking things happen to ordinary people, and there's a mountain of paperwork to do afterwards.
I never considered 'Buffy' to be for kids - the sexual references, sarcasm, and thousands of pop culture references, bolstered by Joss Whedon's Anglophilia probably went right over the heads of any viewer under the age of 18 or so.
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Post by valdemar on Oct 27, 2017 2:21:00 GMT
Andy Decker - the Bryant And May stories do touch on the supernatural, but not to the detriment of the story. Arthur Bryant knows lots of 'fringe' people, who can help when needed. His usual contact is the delightfully eccentric White Witch, Maggie Armitage, who knows people, who know people, if you get my drift. Some of Bryant's occult contacts are 'normal' law-abiding people; others are known to the police. The occult in B&M, is sometimes front and centre, other times, a beautifully constructed 'MacGuffin'. A lot of the time the occult angle is based on well known (and not so well known) London Folklore. You won't find any trite 'boy wizard' bollocks in these books, just extremely satisfying plots, good jokes and pop culture references, and beautifully drawn and realised characters.
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Post by valdemar on Oct 25, 2017 17:35:26 GMT
One more tiny thing: Whenever Arthur Bryant goes to see his good friend (and witch), Maggie Armitage, my mental picture of her is of the brilliant Miriam Margoyles. Isn't that odd?
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Post by valdemar on Oct 25, 2017 17:26:58 GMT
The next book is indeed touted to be set during the cold war period. That's what makes B&M so good - they have been detectives for so long, that there must be a huge selection of weird cases spanning the latter 20th, and early 21st centuries. Another good thing, is that apart from two books, the series can happily be read in any order. As I read them, I was reminded of the singularly odd 1960's ITC show 'Department S', which, if I remember rightly, was a team that solved cases that nobody else would touch with a bargepole.
The other authors I mentioned (Aaronovitch, Cartmel) have been joined here by Paul Cornell. All three have a common root, which is Doctor Who. All have written TV stories, and/or novels in the past. The last thing I saw Paul Cornell's name on was a new iteration of the classic horror comic character Vampirella.
Christopher Fowler's two volumes of memoirs, 'Paperboy' and 'Film Freak' are utterly fascinating, and, as a movie promoter, Fowler came up with one of the greatest teaser tags in movie history: 'In space, no-one can hear you scream.' (Alien, 1979). You've got to love him just for that. Fowler's blog is endlessly fascinating, and I'm slowly chugging through them. The newer entries I often reply to, as he always brings up interesting things, a bit like a dredger carving through a submerged museum. What I'm trying to say is simply, give it a look.
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Post by valdemar on Oct 25, 2017 6:33:01 GMT
Anyone here been reading these? I kept seeing them mentioned in glowing terms, and so I got the short story collection, 'England's Glory', to ease me in to their strange world. It took ten pages to become hooked. Within the month, I had every book in the series, and worked my way through them. A totally enjoyable journey, to be sure. Enjoyable on a similar level to Ben Aaronovitch's deliciously odd 'Rivers Of London' series, and Andrew Cartmel's brilliantly nerdy 'Vinyl Detective' books. Bryant and May's London is the London that fascinates me, where tourist has never trod. Oddly, my impressions of the main characters were that they looked (in my mind's eye) like Arthur Lowe (Bryant), and John Le Mesurier (May). Their first names are Arthur and John, but so are a lot of people. Christopher Fowler said on his website, that they were definitely based on Lowe and Le Mesurier. I only found his website some time after reading the books.Whatever, I do enjoy their often barking plots, and well-drawn characters.
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Post by valdemar on Oct 24, 2017 3:54:53 GMT
I do seem to remember reading some biographies in the Rutland Weekend Television book, one of which was for an actor who played a detective (whose name I can't remember, having lost the book ages ago), who appeared in some shows entitled something like: 'Detective Smith's First Case' 'Detective Smith's Last Case' 'Detective Smith Is Shot Through The Head And Retires For Ever'. Why don't they just do that with Midsomer?
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Post by valdemar on Oct 24, 2017 3:32:50 GMT
Most modern ones are simply bad ideas, executed badly, as the film-makers responsible seem to think 'ShakyCamâ„¢' looks more real. It doesn't. It just looks like you can't afford basics like a tripod, or that you have a camera operator who suffers from the DT's. I could not watch Cloverfield, as the shaky picture actually made me feel physically sick. All of this glut of sub filmschool level pipdribble comes from that unfrightening steaming pile of shit that ends with the shot of some bloke having a piss in a basement, The Blair Witch Project. No, I did not care for it, sir.
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Post by valdemar on Oct 21, 2017 16:41:46 GMT
My local Library had all of these albums at some time or other. The Horror effects ones were borrowed many times by my friends and I. LIBRARIAN: You're not taping these, are you? ME: Of course not.
(We were.)
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Post by valdemar on Oct 15, 2017 7:18:03 GMT
I got mine many years ago as a present. I'm pretty sure they're in the loft somewhere. Thanks for posting the pictures - I'd forgotten how nicely they were illustrated. The 'Lord Dufferin's Ghost' has to be the basis for the 'Room for one more on top' segment of the still creepy as hell Ealing movie 'Dead Of Night' [1945].
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Post by valdemar on Oct 15, 2017 7:05:57 GMT
'The BBC would like to point out that many vegetables were injured in the creation of these albums'
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