Scary Little Things

"Do the French celebrate Halloween?" I hear you cry. Well yes they do. American life has infiltrated here as shortly the young children of the village will be making their annual round of trick or treating. Or as they call it in French, Le Trick or Treat. The guardians of the French language are not impressed!

As one would expect of an Englishman living abroad, we do the obvious thing of locking the front door, pulling the curtain across and ignore anyone who knocks. I would be happy to carry on with this tried and tested tradition but we have made the error of inviting friends round. Friends who are happy with kids carrying out their nefarious Halloween activities. We have come to a satisfactory compromise. We will not lock the door and pull the curtain and they will supply the treats. Oh, and if any treats are left over, I am having them!

Those Were The Days.

 Monday evening, as everyone must know, is the BBC's quiz night. I, for one, am more than happy to spend half an hour in the company of Victoria Coren Mitchell trying to work out which hieroglyph to choose to try and get the music question. (My go to hieroglyph is The Horned Viper). 

The quiz either side I can take or leave depending how quizzy I feel, but the real gems of the evening follow on at 9pm over on BBC4. Call My Bluff followed by Face The Music!

These quizzes from 50 years ago are a delight. Call My Bluff, chaired by Robert Robinson, has one team captain, the bow-tied Frank Muir taking on the other team captain, Paddy Campbell, in a word definition game. It is funny and the whole family can play along. One of the interesting things is that Paddy has a speech impediment, a relatively severe stammer. These days he would have to be lauded for his bravery and people championing the cause of having more people on TV with disabilities and impediments. They must have equality. Yet here we were half a century ago, quite happy watching Paddy, perfectly accepting his stammer and just revelling in the word play provided by the two captains and their guests.

Face The Music looks somewhat twee and probably somewhat elitist to many as the whole programme is based on classical music. There'll be no-one commissioning that sort of quiz going forward. Joseph Cooper hosts with Regular panelist Robin Ray and assorted guests, who include the likes of Joyce Grenfell and Joan Bakewell. A round where you have to guess a piece of piano music from the clatter of the keys as no sound is produced may be followed by one piece of music played in the style of a classical composer. Can you recognise both the tune and the composer? Yes they do look a little smug when they get the answers right, but then, when a viewer gets one right there is a frisson of superiority over the general TV viewing audience. Is there a name for that, as there is with Schadenfreude?

For me though there are some major plusses to both programmes. They are gentle, no shouting, no loud music, and they expect that the audience has a reasonable level of intelligence. They are an absolute treat and hopefully we are going to get a long run of them.

It Was 1149 Days Ago Today

Since I last posted. I think that beats my record for being quiet. Many may be disappointed I have re-emerged from my self-imposed exile.

Like young Masher, whom I see has retired having looked back at his posts, I too have hung up my pool managing tools. Well, all but one pool which I have looked after until this year, just so I can say I have worked for 50 years. I may do it again next year just to keep my hand in. I also like the client, although the fact he gave me a dozen bottles of wine a few weeks back may also be influencing my decision.

Life is now full of performing, be it music, (the majority of time), or drama, (the rest of it). Our laptop is giving up the will to live and so I need to set this up on my tablet and I might start posting again.

Still living in France obviously, but spending at least a week a month in St Albans with my Mum who is now 93 and likes the company. 

Everything else will fall into place with upcoming posts, he says optimistically....