--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb <no_reply@...> wrote:
> The same thing -- sadly -- looks like it is going to > happen with "The Bridge." I've heard that there is an > American ripoff series of it in the works, which prob- > ably means that Americans like yourself ( unless you > upgrade to piracy :-) will never get to see Sofia Helin's > work in the original. Agreed - an extraordinary character/performance. I share most of your list (especially Breaking Bad). I hesitate to suggest some of my other favourites as I'm not sure if they're available outside the UK. One program I found fascinating was on "Sky Arts" - actor "Brian Blessed: In Confidence". http://skyarts.sky.com/in-confidence/brian-blessed (As Henry VIII on YouTube: http://youtu.be/zZl3BDtT5cA) I think many folks here on FFL would be very interested in his "spiritual" side. He would spontaneously meditate from an early age. At one point he mentions going to a meditation centre in England run by disciples of the Shankaracharya of Northern India". Who he? ;-) A fine programme about a truly larger- than-life character in every sense of the word. Then there were two programmes which, whilst good in themselves, really came into their own in juxtaposition. The first was Richard E Grant's "Hotel Secrets" in which our hero visits the most expensive and ostentatious accommodation in the world. It's a tough job; someone's got to do it (for us). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUt8WVBbmgw Grant is a great companion on this "journey" (ain't everything a journey nowadays?). But the levels of excess on display are mind-blowing. Just for example - at one point he talks us through what it's like to tuck into a $5,000 hamburger. And so we get an enumeration of the visceral: "Oooh, grrrh, aaah, YES, YES, YES!". But he means it. That's fine, but when it's taken with the next programme, you get the full existential hit. This was the BBC's "Welcome to India": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXdnGXjV-fI Here we saw folks - very cheerful, happy, non screwed-up folks on the whole - living at the exact opposite end of the human material condition. So - much food for thought. Anyhoo, Merry Christmas FFLers everywhere. I expect the missus will now insist on the ritual Christmas Eve viewing of Alastair Sim as Scrooge...
