Back to the Box

I’ve been watching a lot of TV this last week. When the news came through about Lynne dying I couldn’t focus on anything so in the end I just sat in front of the telly and worked my way through series 3 of Broadchurch. I don’t think I took in much but sometimes it’s good to watch something mindlessly while the brain figures things out in the background. This theme continued over the weekend, though I did get to Quaker meeting on Sunday where the silence was punctuated by Daniel doing some excellent strimming in the garden. I don’t honestly remember what I watched at the weekend but I know it helped.

Then just as I was feeling better we heard the news about Stuart. This time I was in the middle of Roadkill, a much trailed and slightly disappointing political drama. I’m never quite sure what I think about Hugh Laurie as a serious actor; he’s obviously a comic genius, but that‘s not to say he can’t do serious roles – after all Rowan Atkinson makes a very good fist of Maigret and Lenny Henry has popped up in various places including, incidentally, series 3 of Broadchurch. Roadkill features Laurie as an up-and-coming politician, someone who’s risen from a working-class background to become a government minister. At the start of the series he’s in the Department of Transport and has high hopes of being promoted to Foreign Secretary, but these are dashed when an investigative journalist outs him as a member of a transatlantic organisation dedicated to privatising the NHS. Unwisely, he sues – and wins – but it’s a pyrrhic victory as it just adds fuel to the fire and he’s shunted sideways into the Department of Justice.

There’s a great cast and plenty of sub-plots to enjoy in this. Helen McRory plays a PM closely modelled on Theresa May, Patricia Hodge is head of the Justice Dept and the plot keeps you guessing throughout. But I wish they’d spent less time on smart, one-upmanship dialogues and more on developing character and action. And it’s only four episodes; six would have been better as there are a lot of loose ends not tied up.

I’ve never been quite convinced by Hugh Laurie as a serious actor; everyone raved about House but it didn’t grab me, and in this he seems muted and lacking in passion. Incidentally his wife is played by Saskia Reeves and is more or less indistinguishable from the wife she played in Us. The main character could have been developed so much more if they’d gone for it; as it is he’s merely disappointing. So two cheers for this one.

On Mourning

I’m trying to think of something coherent to say about the death of two friends in the same week. Both were expected; both were a shock. Both will be missed; both leave a hole. It doesn’t matter how much I tell myself that death happens all the time, that some people lose their parents, their children, their entire families; that we are lucky to have lived so long and lost so few – none of that matters. Two people we loved have gone and they’re not coming back. I try to imagine how it would be if OH had died instead of them: I can’t. There’s really nothing coherent I can say. We’re not even among those most affected by their loss – and yet we are affected. We feel it.

I’ve been listening to this beautiful version of Barber’s Adagio this week, and reading this by John Donne, one of my all-time favourites:

As virtuous men pass mildly away

and whisper to their souls to go

while some of their sad friends do say

the breath goes now, and some say no..

Kirk out