paranoidstylist.bsky.social
Historian of television, intelligence, conspiracy narratives, John le Carré adaptations. I am not a number, my views are my own!
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...have something to do with his distaste for McCarthyism. Though I don't have a detailed working knowledge of all the books' intricacies, so I may be forgetting things...
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That's interesting, and I don't really recall. My sense is that Fleming's red-baiting is at its strongest in the first two novels, which put a lot of emphasis on communist conspiracies embedded in European and American civic life. From Moonraker onwards I feel it's less pronounced, which might...
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I mean, the original novel version of le Chiffre was involved in the French trade union movement IIRC, so I guess it's getting back to Bond's roots
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Interestingly, there was an attempt to adapt Tinker Tailor at LWT a few years earlier where apparently one of John le Carre's demands was that it didn't look 'cheap' - I've wondered if that was basically a euphemism for videotape/studio, and he was effectively demanding a film production.
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It absolutely could - you can see how it would work just fine in contemporaneous things like The Sandbaggers, or le Carré's own Armchair Theatre play The End of the Line from 1970
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Yes, and the impetus to do Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy all on film a few years later apparently came from a feeling that studio drama was getting too old-fashioned. Which is all the more striking given that it came from the 'classic serial' strand, where you might think people wouldn't be so bothered.
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I had really hoped that the availability of archived livestream theatre productions during lockdown might inspire a new interest in economically-produced multi-camera drama. But it just got siphoned off into its own category.
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Thanks Stephen! Might be time for a rewatch...
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Oh, looking forward to hearing this...
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If it brings back Play for Today, I'm in
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Exactly - if he's anyone he's Guillam, dammit
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And still the only actor to play Smiley who bears any resemblance to how the character is described in the novels is Arthur Lowe (whose 1977 sketch I'm still trying to track down)
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You can also sign a joint letter from two trans rights organizations (TransActual and FGEN) that's going out to select MPs tomorrow.
Act fast, though. Deadline is 7pm.
docs.google.com/document/d/1...
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That's the one. Though I'm still reeling from his apparent ability to swim from Hong Kong to Japan at the start of YOLT.
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I haven't actually revisited The Spy Who Loved Me since moving to Egypt, and I really should. I'm told its sense of geography around the ancient monuments is hilarious if you're actually familiar with where they all are.
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Sounds like you'd meet some interesting characters, if nothing else! Maybe a good reality TV format, if we're democratising this stuff?
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It's Hugo Drax from Moonraker that gets me these days - widely-admired public figure who makes space tech for governments, yet plans to wipe out humanity and replace it with his idea of the perfect people. Found it unexpectedly unnerving last time I watched the film.
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All of us are the casting director now, apparently
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Looks like a nice place
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...Much as they may mock millennials for seeking safe spaces, that is entirely where they operate.”
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Gary Younge nailed this. “We have a commentariat, overwhelmingly from the same social class both as each other and the politicians they cover. Their reference points are limited, their comfort zone is narrow... pressgazette.co.uk/diversity/ga...
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Suspension on some trumped-up charge incoming...
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The whole season is such a wild ride. If you described it to someone in advance of transmission - more humour, more satire, a more proactive Doctor, the return of Holmes, guest writers like Martin - it would sound like a revamp with so much potential. But it's so strange and chaotic in execution.
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I'm glad someone else sees this one isn't entirely without potential - it really seems to be gesturing at something quite interesting for much of Part 1, something very different to anything the Davison era did.
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I guess your harddrives are going in the Museum of Dead Media...
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Blofeld even explains his evil plan whilst decorating a Christmas tree
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Thank you for the comment! Unfortunately, I've only been able to view it through the BFI Research Viewing service. It's a shame, it feels that it should be more widely circulated (and I do wonder if there's some block on its release from le Carré inc.).
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Oh brilliant! I've been hovering around there for the last few days, going to all the Restored Egyptian Classics screenings