The road to Eurovision 2009....

Well, the British people has spoken tonight - and Londoner Jade Ewen has been chosen to sing Andrew Lloyd Webber's Eurovision Song Contest entry for the UK in Moscow.
21-year-old Jade beat the other finalists The Twins and Welshman Mark Evans, to win the BBC talent show "Your Country Needs You" and will sing for the UK in the final on 16 May.
Singer Jade wins Eurovision berth

Sorry Jade, but it doesn't matter how good the song is. We already know how the voting will go - the Scandinavian countries will give each other full marks, the former Russian republics will give each other full marks...and so on, ad nauseum. I wish her the best of British luck, but I don't hold out much hope for our chances.

Besides, the contest won't be the same without Sir Terry Wogan's commentary.....

Well done Serena....again!

Well done to Serena Williams, who claimed her fourth Australian Open singles crown (and 10th grand slam title) by destroying Dinara Safina 6-0 6-3 in Melbourne this morning. This follows on from her doubles victory with sister Venus yesterday.
I have nothing but respect for Serena - the woman is a phenomenal athlete, and surely she must be considered among the best female tennis players of all time.
Serena relief at 10th Grand Slam

Well meaning but...

Children under 15 should never be given alcohol, England's chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson has advised.

Sir Liam Donaldson has also called for parents to supervise any older children given alcohol.

Ministers and doctors in the UK are worried by rising rates of both binge-drinking and alcohol-related liver disease. The British public will be asked for its views on the advice during a consultation period.Some parents, and researchers, have argued that giving children an occasional drink helps demystify it.

But Sir Liam will insist that an "alcohol free" childhood is the healthiest option.
'No alcohol' urged for under-15s

Sorry, Sir Liam. Your advice appears well-meaning, but will be absolutely useless against the problem kids with bad parents, and patronises the responsible parents who do educate their children about alcohol.

Besides I don't recall anyone in New Labour commenting on Tony Blair's parenting skills, after his 16-year-old son, Euan was arrested for being drunk and incapable in London's West End back in the year 2000.

I await the chief medical officer's reaction the next time a "celebrity" appears drunk in our national press and/or on television.....

The return of LDM (continued)...

According to wikipedia, 30 year-old glamour model Linsey Dawn McKenzie will be returning to our TV screens on 7th February 2009, with a brand new series called “I’m Back” (original, or what?)

However before everyone starts checking their Radio Times, LDM's comeback will be exclusive to the adult pay-per-view Red Hot Double D TV channel (Sky channel 922 in the UK).

In my opinion (continued)...

Oh dearie me. 50-year-old Madonna has fallen foul of the age police for posing in so-called "controversial" photos. What is everyones problem? Ol' Madge looks in better shape than most woman half her age!

And as for the claims that Madge should be growing old gracefully - at least she hasn't shaved her head in front of onlookers, taken to smoking crack, or self-harmed herself....like some singers I could mention.

Barack Obama is Prez...

Barack Obama has been sworn in as the 44th President of the United States of America, at a historic ceremony in Washington DC.

"That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our healthcare is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet."
Barack Obama

Now the hard work begins...

Dubya...

At his final press conference, outgoing President George W Bush said that a terrorist attack is still the "most urgent threat" to the US. He also said he believed North Korea may have an enriched uranium programme, while Iran was "still dangerous".
Bush warns Obama of terror threat

So it's goodbye Dubya - according to some estimates, his presidency cost the United States about $11.5 trillion. Over the past eight years, America has suffered the most lethal terrorist attacks ever on U.S. soil, two foreign wars - of which one (the invasion of Iraq) was based on dubious evidence, and more recently, the Wall Street firesale & economic meltdown.

I was going to analyse the rights and wrongs of Dubya's time in office. But I can't be bothered.

I'm just glad he's gone.....
How does the Bush presidency rate?

Movie monsters: Serial Killers

Both "Psycho" and "Hannibal" are now showing on SKY, and the movies provided me with the next set of movie monsters in my horror thread (which I've sadly overlooked since my last post).

By the way, I decided on watching Psycho, which is far superior in my opinion.

To me, boogeymen like Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers aren't really scary at all. Even if you see them swallow a grenade about to explode, you'll know they'll be back from the dead, with more unbelievable means to slice 'n dice their obligatory teen victims (I had hopes for Jeepers Creepers, but that's gone the way of the standard supernatural slasher movie)...

It's the believable loonies that are unsettling, the ones with a chainsaw, or axe, or some other nasty item somewhere deep in the heart of Nowheresville. These types scare the holy bejezus out of me and Wednesday Addams sums up my fears perfectly, when asked about her Halloween costume in the Addams Family film:

"I'm a homicidal maniac, they look just like everyone else."

Anyway on with my movie serial killers top five (SPOILER THREAT)...

Joint Fifth:
Bob Rusk/The Necktie Killer (Barry Foster) - Frenzy (1972): Richard Blaney (Jon Finch), a temperamental former Royal Air Force officer, is wrongfully accused of several sex-murders, including the deaths of his ex-wife and girlfriend. Sent to jail, Blaney seeks to expose the real murderer - his mate, Bob Rusk (Barry Foster).
Apparently Michael Caine turned down the part of Bob Rusk, because he thought the character was disgusting. Caine was right - Rusk is disgusting, more so (in my opinion) than the transvestite serial killer Caine would later play in the 1980 Brian De Palma thriller Dressed t>o Kill. Foster (of Van Der Valk fame) is sinister, almost shark-like as the genial London greengrocer who loves his mother, but has evil intents towards the opposite sex. Frenzy is a disturbing, even nasty movie. Yet it has one standout scene worthy of its director, Alfred Hitchcock. The camera slowly tracks out from Rusk's flat, into the busy Covent Gardan>en street. We have just seen Rusk escort Blaney's girlfriend Barbara "Babs" Milligan into his flat, and as he utters "I don't know if you know it, Babs, but you're my type of woman", we grimly realise Babs is going to be the next victim of the Necktie Killer.

Joint Fifth:
Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) - The Silence of The Lambs (1991) - I always thought Bran Cox as Hannibal Lecktor (Manhunter) was just as good, even though his screen time was limited. In Manhunter, Lecktor came across as a really mundane and detached killer.
But Hopkins was easily at his calculating best in "Silence" - his Lecter is remorseless, intelligent, cold and in control. Even while behind bars, you feel Lecter is one step ahead of the rest. Sadly in the following sequels, Lecter became an "okey dokey" slasher-movie caricature, which diluted Hopkins' original impact in my eyes (otherwise I would have rated Lecter higher).

Fourth:
Henry (Michael Rooker) - Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986) - based on the true life serial killer, Henry Lee Lucas, Henry is your average guy-next-door, who shares a grotty apartment with his ex-con buddy Otis and Otis' sister, Becky. We learn that Henry also murdered his mother, and is a serial killer who will kill total strangers at random.
Michael Rooker is chilling as Henry, but Otis is more repellent in my opinion - he has vile thoughts about his sister, joins Henry on his murderous exploits with gusto and appears thoroughly amoral (compared to Henry, who does has some morals - when he's not killing people).
Another disturbing movie; all-too-realistic, bleak and ultimately dispiriting - "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer" is not wholesome entertainment for the family and leaves me thinking that Wednesday Addams was spot on - homicidal maniacs look just like anyone else....

Third:
John Doe (Kevin Spacey) - Se7en (1995) - a modern celluloid masterpiece, Se7en is about two police detectives - one brand-new to the job and the other on the verge of retirement (Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman respectively), chasing a serial killer who uses the seven deadly sins as his "inspiration" for a series of murders.
Spacey gave a great performance portraying the emotionless John Doe, a self-appointed judge, jury and executioner on our society. In Doe's opinion, our culture is beyond redemption. In his demented eyes, "we see a deadly sin on every street corner, in every home, and we tolerate it. We tolerate it because it's common, it's trivial. We tolerate it morning, noon, and night". Even the relentless rain in the film appears to add to the atmosphere of dread that permeates Se7en, and one feels as trapped by Doe's insanity as Pitt & Freeman, once his master plan is laid bare (I won't be revealing John Doe's master plan here - suffice to say it's a "WTF?" moment).

Second:
Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen) & family- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) - this groundbreaking movie is relentless. Forget the sequels and the remake, the original film is an assault on the senses and Leatherface's mad chainsaw pirouette still chills to the bone.
The plot is standard (the movie was very loosely based on serial killer Ed Gein) - a group of teens stray into the wrong part of Texas, and encounter an insane chainsaw wielding killer (Leatherface) and his equally insane, grave-robbing, cannibalistic family.
But forget the plot - this movie is an uncompromising descent into madness. I remember watching this for the first time as a "video nasty" passed to me from my mates and at the time, I just thought - this is true horror. I still get the creeps watching this low-budget horror flick.

Numero Uno:
Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) - Psycho (1960) - like the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Psycho is also based on real-life serial killer Ed Gein, and is amongst the most scariest of them all as far as I'm concerned. The infamous "Shower Scene" where Janet Leigh's character meets her fate, is now the stuff of celluloid legend, and as for the look on Norman's "mother's" face, as he says:

"They'll see and they'll know, and they'll say, 'Why, she wouldn't even harm a fly...'."

That scene always chills me to the bone.

As with Texas Chainsaw, the less said about the Psycho sequels and the remake, the better. Alfred Hitchcock's original still has the power to instill fear, even though it's almost 50 years old.

Ricardo Montalban RIP

Besides the passing of Patrick McGoohan, it was equally depressing to learn that Actor Ricardo Montalban, who played the lead role in the popular TV show Fantasy Island in the 1970s-80s, had died aged 88.
Montalban had been a film star in Mexico before moving to Hollywood in 1946 and was also well-known for playing the villain Khan Noonien Singh in Star Trek, both in the original television series and in a the 1982 motion picture, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

To me he'll awalys be "KHHHHHAAAANNNNN"......
Fantasy Island's Montalban dies

RIP

Patrick McGoohan RIP

Back again - I've been away for a bit (working non-stop).

Sadly this post is to comment on Emmy-winning actor Patrick McGoohan, best known for creating and starring in cult 1960s drama The Prisoner, who passed away on January 13th, after a short illness. He was 80 years old.

McGoohan also starred in another TV series, Danger Man and won two Emmy awards for his work on TV detective series Columbo. He starred with Mel Gibson in Braveheart and was even considered for the role of James Bond for the movie Dr No (but turned down the part on moral grounds).

But he'll always be remembered as that unique, stylish and quintessential rebel from the sixties. In the relentless march of today's surveillance society, Number 6's defiance still resonates:

"I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own."
Number 6 (The Prisoner)



PS: last year, ITV confirmed that Passion of the Christ star Jim Caviezel would take the role of Number Six in a remake of The Prisoner, which will also star Sir Ian McKellen, appearing as Number Two.
In my opinion: if it ain't broke, don't fix it...
Obituary: Patrick McGoohan

Who's next (continued)...?

TV's most famous time-traveller, Doctor Who began in 1963, and seven actors played the Doctor before the show was dropped by the BBC in 1989.
After a (disappointing) TV movie in 1996 - starring Paul McGann - the TV series returned in 2005 with Christopher Eccleston in the lead role. David Tennant took over the same year, but said last October that he would stand down from the show after filming four special episodes in 2009. The last of these special episodes is expected to run in early 2010.
So began the search for the next Doctor - which ended today with the announcement from the BBC that actor Matt Smith will take over from one of the most popular actors ever to play the role, as the 11th Timelord in the long-running sci-fi series.

Smith was cast over Christmas and will begin filming for the fifth series of Doctor Who in the summer. He will first appear on TV screens as the 11th Doctor in 2010. At 26, Smith is the youngest actor ever to take the role - three years younger than Peter Davison when he signed up to play the fifth Doctor in 1981.
Who on earth is Matt Smith?

Matt Smith????
Never seen him before today, so I haven't got a clue if he will be any good or not. But he has a tough act to follow.

Personally I'd have liked to see someone older to portray the Doctor. Smith's hairstyle makes him look as if he just escaped out of an Alberto VO5 ad, and he does look slightly...goofy, but I suppose that goofiness worked in his favour.
It would be easy to get cynical and accuse the BBC of selecting a younger doctor to make the show more trendy and popular with the 12-21 age group (which would be a big mistake on the Beeb's part, if this selection backfires).

We'll just have to wait until next year to see if he's any good. Who knows? This youngster might just surprise us all...

Previous Timelords:

• William Hartnell (1963-1966)
• Patrick Troughton (1966-1969)
• Jon Pertwee (1970-1974)
• Tom Baker (1974-1981)
• Peter Davison (1982-1984)
• Colin Baker (1984-1986)
• Sylvester McCoy (1987-1996)
• Paul McGann (1996)
• Christopher Eccleston (2005)
• David Tennant (2005-2010)

2009...

Welcome to 2009 folks!!

Only one wish for this year (so far): that America's 44th president Barack Obama lives up to the hopes and dreams of a world looking for a sign that things will finally get better. With a financial system in disarray, an economy in free-fall and turmoil around the world, the stakes could not be any higher.

Watch this space...