Author Archives: markdowe1

Arts, Films

Film Review: Their Finest

REVIEW

Keeping calm and carrying on: Gemma Arterton and Bill Nighy in Their Finest.

Intro: Gemma Arterton leads a cracking cast in this witty, poignant tale of Britain’s finest hour.

Danish director Lone Scherfig has a remarkably keen eye and ear for the intricate details of British class and period.

Her 2009 feature An Education wonderfully evoked suburban London in the Sixties, The Riot Club (2014) went to town on badly-behaved Oxbridge toffs, and now here’s Their Finest, a beguiling romantic not-quite-comedy set in 1940.

Like An Education, which was based on the memoir by journalist Lynn Barber, Their Finest has also sprung from a book, in this case a novel by Lissa Evans about the making of a propaganda film thinly disguised as a drama, at the height of the Blitz.

And like An Education, except more so, the story is, above all, about a particular young woman asserting her place in a world ruled by men. This is the engaging Catrin Cole (charmingly played by Gemma Arterton), not a radiant English rose but a sunny Welsh daffodil, who has arrived in wartime London from Ebbw Vale with struggling artist husband Ellis (Jack Huston).

She is a talented copywriter, who goes for an interview with the Ministry of Information for what she thinks is a secretarial job. In fact, they want her to craft ‘women’s dialogue’ for their propaganda features.

The contemptuous film-industry word for female chatter in such films is ‘slop’, and we are left in no doubt by Gaby Chiappe’s script, which just occasionally errs on the heavy-handed side, that ministry women are third-class citizens.

The one female who has risen in the ranks is a rather butch lesbian (improbably yet nicely played by the decidedly non-butch Rachael Stirling). But Catrin finds herself firmly at the bottom of the heap.

‘Obviously, we can’t pay you as much as the chaps,’ she is told by her pompous new boss, played, or rather over-played, by Richard Grant.

Overall, Chiappe – an experienced TV writer (Lark Rise To Candleford, Shetland, The Level) here making her feature-film debut – does a lovely job of weaving Catrin’s doughty career progress in with her burgeoning feelings for screenwriting colleague Tom Buckley (Sam Claflin).

Conveniently, Ellis turns out to be rather a rotter, whereas Buckley, beneath his sneery, superior air, is a decent sort of cove, with a matinee-idol smile.

 

THEIR project, one designed not only to repair morale left in tatters by the Luftwaffe, but also to persuade the Americans to come to the aid of the plucky Brits, is a film based on a newspaper story about heroic twin sisters from Essex.

Catrin is despatched to Southend to get the sister’s story; how they borrowed their father’s rickety fishing boat and braved the Channel to rescue troops trapped at Dunkirk. Never mind that it isn’t entirely true; facts are pliable in wartime.

Besides, if all that were not rousing enough, one of the Dunkirk survivors brings home a terrier in his kitbag.

‘Authenticity, optimism, and a dog!’ cries the producer, Hungarian émigré Gabriel Baker (Henry Goodman), presumably based on the great filmmaker Emeric Pressburger. He knows just how to appeal to British sensibilities.

Their Finest is a serious tale, however. It is littered with casualties of war and lurches in some unexpected directions with several, tragic twists. Yet it is leavened with plenty of deft comic touches.

Mostly, these are supplied by Bill Nighy, as a vain, mannered old ham of an actor, called Ambrose Hilliard. There’s no point cracking any kind of gag about Nighy being perfectly cast in such a role, since he’s already dropped them all himself in the publicity interviews.

Besides, he really is very funny, at one point investing ‘semolina pudding’ with exactly the same predatory loucheness Leslie Phillips used to get out of ‘Ding Dong!’

Eddie Marsan and Helen McCrory, as Hilliard’s agent and his sister, provide sterling comic support.

And Jeremy Irons pops up, too, enjoying himself hugely in a cameo as a starchy Ministry of War mandarin.

The excellence of the cast is but one of many reasons to see this film.

It’s witty and warm-hearted, and genuinely poignant at times, but, maybe usefully of all, it offers a fresh, enlightening perspective on a period so frequently depicted by the movies that I didn’t think there were any true, or true-ish, stories left to tell.

It turns out that there are.

 

Their Finest (12A)

Verdict: Beguiling wartime drama ★★★★

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Arts, Drama

Whodunnit: The Stolen Statuette

LATERAL THINKING DRAMA & WHODUNNIT

In the case of the Stolen Statuette, Oliver is sure that Bill is responsible for stealing the statuette. But how can he be sure that he knows for certain?

Anthony Long looked decidedly out of sorts. He was unusually pale, with dark smudges under his eyes, and his customary brisk gait had given way to a sullen slouch. Watching him approach, Oliver quickly decided to change plans and suggest a coffee shop, rather than the game he had obtained tickets for.

“You look dreadful,” Oliver said, by way of greeting.

Anthony nodded. “Two hours sleep. Maybe less.”

“Coffee?”

“You’re a life-saver.”

Ten minutes later, the men were seated at a quiet table in the corner of a café. As soon as the waitress was out of earshot, Anthony leaned forward. “I’m in a bit of a bind,” he said, quietly. “I could do with some advice, Olly.”

“You know I’ll give it my best shot.”

“Thanks. I had a break-in at the house yesterday.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Oliver said. “Did they take anything of value?”

Anthony nodded glumly. “Well, yes. The thief broke a window in the dining room and made off with a rather precious gold statuette from the hall. But that’s not the problem. I was attending a meeting in town yesterday. Mrs Chambers, my housekeeper, had the afternoon off. My brother Bill – he’s been staying for a few days – was there, but he says he didn’t hear anything.”

Oliver arched an eyebrow at Anthony’s curious phrasing. “He says?”

“He’s even wilder than ever, Olly. I get the impression that he’s only here because someone is trying to collect on a debt. I don’t see why a thief would know to go straight for the statuette, ignoring some other nice pieces in the dining room. Bill suggested that the gardener’s new lad might have seen something. Maybe he’s right. But I can’t help worrying that he might have taken it himself. If he has, the last thing I want to do is involve the police. Bill’s a damn fool, but he is my brother. If it’s not him, though, I’m risking repeat attacks, and I won’t be able to claim for the loss.”

“I understand completely,” said Oliver, nodding. “Why don’t you show me the scene?”

Unleash your inner sleuth with a series of short case whodunnits. Throughout 2017 and 2018.

A little while later, the men were round the back of the house. The broken window was a gaping mess. The flowerbed beneath showed signs of trampling. Oliver approached it carefully. There were several large footprints dug deep into the ground, with glass and shrubbery crushed into the soil in a pattern of sole that strongly suggested a work-boot of some kind. The prints were not visible on the grass of the lawn.

“Size ten, I’d say,” said Oliver.

Anthony nodded. “Yes. Bill’s a size seven, before you ask.”

“Good, good. How about indoors?”

They went into the house, and Anthony led Oliver to the dining room. “The thief opened the window through the hole, then climbed in,” Anthony said. “I’ve had the room left alone, in case the police need to see it. There’s still a bit of mud on the sill of the broken window.”

Oliver knelt down by the window and ran his hands over the carpet slowly. “There might be a little mud here, too.” He straightened up, and put a sympathetic hand on Anthony’s shoulder. “Let it drop, Tony. I’m afraid it was clearly your brother.”

How does Oliver know?

 

© MD 2017: all rights reservedmd_logo

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Britain, Government, North Korea, Politics, Society

UK hands £4million in foreign aid to North Korea

BRITISH FOREIGN AID

It has emerged that Britain has sent more than £4million in foreign aid to North Korea in the past six years despite the communist regime’s threat to spark nuclear war.

Official figures reveal the UK spent £740,000 of taxpayers’ money on aid projects in the despotic regime in 2015 alone – a 167 per cent increase on the previous year.

The Foreign Office, which is responsible for most of the spending, has said it had no plans to axe the aid programme.

While there is little evidence that aid payments to North Korea have had much impact since the payments to the country began to be increased in 2010, some believe that aid could help improve relations with the pariah state.

The money also counts towards the Government’s controversial target of spending 0.7 per cent of Britain’s income on international development.

It is believed that ministers are now facing fresh calls to end all aid to North Korea in response to the increasingly bellicose threats from dictator Kim Jong-un. A view gaining traction is that it is unacceptable to hand taxpayers’ money to a country bent on attacking the West and its allies.

Sir Gerald Howarth, former Tory defence minister, said: ‘It is completely absurd to be giving aid to North Korea at this time… There are some very poor people there because of the regime’s actions, but the country is a communist basket case.

‘They are trying to build a nuclear missile to hit the United States, they are destabilising the entire region. Why on earth are we giving them aid?’

Sir Gerald said the case highlighted the problems caused by the 0.7 per cent aid target, which was enshrined in law by the Coalition government.

He added: ‘Ridiculous cases like this are just more evidence of the need to re-examine the whole basis of the aid programme. We need to repeal the legislation, slash the aid budget dramatically and spend the money on priorities like defence and social care.’

The prominent UKIP donor Arron Banks described the spending on North Korea as ‘shocking’.

‘In the past, we’ve had issues with the wastefulness of the foreign aid budget, but this is beyond ridiculous,’ he said.

‘While we funnel money into this failing state, they are spending most of their resources developing nuclear weapons designed to wipe us off the map.

‘What’s next? Giving foreign aid to Islamic State?’ The aid programme is also potentially embarrassing for Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson who has warned the despotic regime it ‘must stop these belligerent acts and comply with UN resolutions’ after a failed missile test last weekend.

North Korea has been upping the ante again this week in its stand-off with the West, telling the United Nations that ‘nuclear war may break out at any moment’.

But the Foreign Office insists its aid policy is helping to improve relations with the communist country.

In 2009, British aid to North Korea stood at just £32,000.

But spending was increased rapidly by the Coalition government from 2010 onwards as it pursued the new aid target. In the past six years, more than £4million of taxpayers’ money has been spent on aid projects in the country, with spending peaking at £1.3million in 2013.

Projects include schemes designed to promote Western values – such as English lessons for regime officials and workshops for entrepreneurs.

But money has also been spent on projects to provide equipment and training for physiotherapy units in the country, potentially allowing the regime to free up resources to spend on its murderous military programme.

The Foreign Office has defended the programme, and has stressed that money is spent on individual schemes rather than handed directly to the regime.

A Foreign Office spokesperson said: ‘The projects we carry out in North Korea are part of our policy of critical engagement, and are used to promote British values and demonstrate to the North Korean people that engaging with the UK and the outside world is an opportunity rather than a threat.

‘We conduct a range of small-scale project work, many of which help to improve the lives of the most vulnerable members of society.’

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