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ORIGINAL: warspite1

BBC4 is showing a 3-part series, Charles I - Downfall of a King. I've watched the first episode and I have to say its pretty well done and worth a watch based on this first episode.

Spoiler alert: Someone loses their head, and it's not Sean Bean.

Continuing with season 3 of The Handmaid's Tale. I am still enjoying it but it is perhaps a little slow. I feel it needs a bit of action to get some momentum back into it.

The fifth and final series of Poldark started on Sunday. The last series was excellent culminating in the death of one of the main characters. This first episode was a little disappointing - very twee - but hopefully will build into a dramatic ending as the series progresses. How will it all end between Ross and the evil George?

Lloyd, or Lindybeige, talking for over one hour about the assistance UK received during the Falkland Crisis. And he makes it interesting. Even the sponsor part. [:D] [&o] And the time flies past, and when it ended it felt like it couldn't possibly been an hour.

And I can't help but wondering if listening to Warspite1 talking about WWII ships would be a similar experience. [:D]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DVy3D2eglE

Finally got round to seeing Wreck-it Ralph 2. I thought it was okay and had a few laugh out loud moments, but there were insufficient gags and was not as sweet as the original to make up for it.

The best bit of the film (and the biggest laugh out loud moment) lasts about 3 seconds. There is a scene where the Disney Princesses change from their usual attire into casual wear - and to effect this there is a 1960s Batman-style transition with the Disney castle in place of the Batman insignia (and features the original music). Bizarre, totally out of place and totally hilarious. I had to re-wind that a few times.

Chernobyl. IMHO it deserves all the praise that it is getting. Everything is top-notch: writing, acting, historical reconstruction, pacing.

I read some review, and I noticed how no one (AFAIK) praised the unsung heroes of this production: the make up team. The sights of people basically decomposing in an hospital bed while being fully awake are horrifying. It is possible that the producers hired some specialists in make up for horror movies - because part of the show is just that: an horror movie which happened for real. And it is chilling to see how near the incident could have been much, MUCH, worse: if not for the courage of a bunch of people, the other three reactors could have blown up too. Just think about this for a second.

10/10

Saw Blade Runner 2049 last week on Netflix. I think they did a great job on the sequel, really enjoyed everything about it. A must-watch for every Sci-Fi fan.

ORIGINAL: RFalvo69

Chernobyl. IMHO it deserves all the praise that it is getting. Everything is top-notch: writing, acting, historical reconstruction, pacing.

I read some review, and I noticed how no one (AFAIK) praised the unsung heroes of this production: the make up team. The sights of people basically decomposing in an hospital bed while being fully awake are horrifying. It is possible that the producers hired some specialists in make up for horror movies - because part of the show is just that: an horror movie which happened for real. And it is chilling to see how near the incident could have been much, MUCH, worse: if not for the courage of a bunch of people, the other three reactors could have blown up too. Just think about this for a second.

10/10

warspite1

Yep 10/10 just doesn't seem quite enough for this unbelievably brilliant piece of drama [&o]

ORIGINAL: Red2112

Saw Blade Runner 2049 last week on Netflix. I think they did a great job on the sequel, really enjoyed everything about it. A must-watch for every Sci-Fi fan.

+1 The director resisted the temptation to overdo the explosions and special effects.

Watched The Exception. Never even heard of it and just came across it by accident.

Set in 1940, it stars Lily James and Christopher Plummer (they are both getting a lot of acting roles recently). The former is a British spy tasked with getting Kaiser Wilhelm (Plummer) out of the Netherlands and into exile in the UK.

Perfectly watchable film without being anything special. Ms James can certainly act, and gives a passable Dutch accent, and looks good sans vetements too.....

ORIGINAL: warspite1

Watched The Exception. Never even heard of it and just came across it by accident.

Set in 1940, it stars Lily James and Christopher Plummer (they are both getting a lot of acting roles recently). The former is a British spy tasked with getting Kaiser Wilhelm (Plummer) out of the Netherlands and into exile in the UK.

Perfectly watchable film without being anything special. Ms James can certainly act, and gives a passable Dutch accent, and looks good sans vetements too.....

A rather implausible plot, if you ask me. I did like seeing Ms James out of her corset.

ORIGINAL: Zorch

ORIGINAL: warspite1

Watched The Exception. Never even heard of it and just came across it by accident.

Set in 1940, it stars Lily James and Christopher Plummer (they are both getting a lot of acting roles recently). The former is a British spy tasked with getting Kaiser Wilhelm (Plummer) out of the Netherlands and into exile in the UK.

Perfectly watchable film without being anything special. Ms James can certainly act, and gives a passable Dutch accent, and looks good sans vetements too.....

A rather implausible plot, if you ask me. I did like seeing Ms James out of her corset.

warspite1

...although apparently Churchill did offer the Kaiser refuge in the UK.

Finally got around to watching BBC4's Inside Chernobyl's Mega Tomb. An excellent documentary and thoroughly recommended - especially to those that watched the HBO series Chernobyl recently.

The documentary, narrated by Helen Baxendale (nice voice), tells the story of the international project to build a huge structure to fit over the existing sarcophagus that was designed to last 30 years and is crumbling away.

Because of the radiation this huge structure had to be built 300 metres away from the reactor - in two halves and then joined together before being wheeled into position - the largest moving structure on land ever.

There was a real danger the sarcophagus roof could collapse at anytime so this was a real race against time. The structure is designed to last 100 years and, now in place, the plan is to remove the old structure and the remains of the reactor and everything else within. This will be done by robots.

Amazing stuff.

. . . although apparently Churchill did offer the Kaiser refuge in the UK.

He was a relative of the Royal family. Hitler never visited him.

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

. . . although apparently Churchill did offer the Kaiser refuge in the UK.

He was a relative of the Royal family. Hitler never visited him.

warspite1

Well I don't know the story but I'd be surprised if being a relative had anything to do with it - after all Nicholas II was related to George V but that didn't get him refuge. I suspect Winston thought there would still be some in Germany that would rally to the Hohenzollern cause.......even if it achieved nothing it was a freebie. But the Kaiser apparently thought he was going to get his throne back anyway.... if that is true then it says all we need to know about this peculiar individual.....

Just completed the first season of the French-Belgian television thriller Black Spot, and will continue with season two at once.

I like the setting, and atmosphere, of the show. The show centres around the understaffed police in a small city that has an unusually high rate of murders. The city is close to the mountains and further isolated by a huge, dark, forest where there are no cellular phone connection. And mysterious things seems to happen in the forest. Each episode handles one separate murder, and the season handles the disappearance of a teenage girl.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Spot_(TV_series)

Nicholas II and his family never made it out of Russia so there was no offer. Other relatives did make it out, I think that some were in France and some may have been in Germany.

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

Nicholas II and his family never made it out of Russia so there was no offer. Other relatives did make it out, I think that some were in France and some may have been in Germany.

warspite1

King George V refused to allow asylum on advice from the Government. There was a fear of revolution plus the Russian Tsar ruled as an absolute monarch - not something that was a plus either for the Romanov's on-going health either......

If I remember correctly, he did attempt to liberalize things but some people wanted to take it too far, too fast.

But these attempts were too little too late and certainly not enough to save the Czar and Czarina from their tragic fate.

I'm not sure why you state there was no offer. The offer of asylum was made - and was withdrawn. It is perhaps ironic that Nicholas II was more liberal than his predecessors and sought reform, but this is relative. At the end of the day he was an absolute monarch that ruled over a largely poor, uneducated, backward country where the peasants had risen up in revolution. Rightly or wrongly, his presence in the UK was not seen as being helpful, particularly at a critical time in the war with no end in site, and the death toll mounting.

I think that the problem with reforms in Russia back then was that some people wanted to go too fast, and too far for the times. A go slow approach I think would have been better. After all, how long did it take England after the Magna Carta to get to a Parliament where the lower House of Commons was in control?