MY Cultural Corner

As part of the WTB Podcast I have a weekly cultural corner section. If you’re trying to look for more information on anything I mentioned, here is a good start!

Week 141 -Books set in occupied Europe:Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada: All the Light We Can See by Anthony Doerr, La Silence de la Mer by Jean Bruller, Charlotte Gray by Sebastien Faulkes, Jackdaws by Ken Follett, Avenue of Spies by Alex Kershaw, Phillip Kerr – Bernie Gunther historical thrillers

Week 140 – Films of Fred Zimmermann – The Seventh Cross, High Noon, From Here to Eternity, Oklahoma, The Nun’s Story, A Man For All Seasons, Day of the Jackal, Julia

Week 139 – Next month’s book is Soviet Milk by Nora Ikstena

Week 138 – Aspley House, Duke of Wellington’s London House, Wellington Arch, Wellington Chamber at Windsor Castle, Stratfield Saye, Wellington Monument.

Week 137 – Swiss writers: Friedrich Dürrenmatt – The Visit; The Physicians: Max Frisch – I’m not Stiller; The Fire Raisers: Homo Faber: Herman Hesse – Steppenwolf, Siddhartha, The Glass Bead Game

Week 136 – Weimar – lovely German town full of cultural gems. Definitely worth a visit including Wittumspalais, Das Haus der Republik, Goethe House. Also worth checking out the Weimar Card.

Week 135 – Book Club – Next month’s book is The Fine Art of Invisible Detection by Robert Goddard

Week 134 – Books For Acting & Comedy

Week 133 – Salzkammergut

Week 132 – Free Stately Homes in London

Wallace Collection – a national museum housing masterpieces of painting, sculpture, furniture, arms and armour, and porcelain.

https://www.wallacecollection.org

Entry to the permanent collection is free.

Kenwood House –situated on the edge of Hampstead Heath and surrounded by landscaped gardens. The house features breath-taking interiors and a stunning world-class art collection including works by Vermeer, Rembrandt, Gainsborough, Turner and Constable.

You don’t need to book your ticket in advance and entry is free, but you will get guaranteed entry by booking online ahead of your visit.

https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/kenwood/

Queen’s House – is England’s first classical building, designed by Inigo Jones in the 17th century. An architectural wonder in its own right, it is also home to an internationally renowned art collection.

https://www.rmg.co.uk/queens-house

Also at Greenwich:

Royal Observatory Greenwich.
National Maritime Museum Free.
Cutty Sark….
Old Royal Naval …
The Painted Hall

https://www.rmg.co.uk/queens-house

Week 131 – Films of Peter Weir, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Gallipoli, The Year of Living Dangerously, Witness, Dead Poets Society, Green Card, The Truman Show, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

Week 130 – Next month’s book is Excellent Women by Barbara Pym.

Loz from Oz recommendations: Gould’s Book of Fish- Richard Flanigan, Oscar & Lucinda by Peter Carey

Week 129 – More Australian Films, The Sapphires, The Castle, Walkabout

Week 128 – WTB recommendations, Fisk TV Series, Mr Inbetween TV Series, Boy Swallows Universe TV Series

Week 127 – Australian Novels, Autumn Laing by Alex Miller, The Secret River by Kate Grenville, Jaspar Jones by Craig Silvey, True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey

Week 126 – Films set in Austria, The Sound of Music, The Third Man, Waltzes from Vienna, Letter from An Unknown Woman, Sissi, The Night Porter, Amadeus, The Piano Teacher

Week 125 – Australian Novels, My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin, The Harp in the South by Ruth Park, Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay, Cloudstreet by Tim Winton, Barracuda by Christos Tsiolkas.

Week 124 – Australian TV Shows, Neighbours, Colin from Accounts, No Activity, Glitch, Mystery Road, Mystery Road: Origin, The Newsreader, Secret City, Frayed

Week 123 – Australian Films, Gallipoli (1981), Breaker Morant (1980), Strictly Ballroom (1992), The Dish (2000)

Week 122 – Christmas Choices – A Child’s Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas, A Christmas Carol on BBC Sounds, A Christmas Carol – The Rude Retelling, read by Brian Harvey.

Week 121 – Scottish Writers, John Byrne, Alasdair Gray, Written in Scotland on BBC Sounds

Week 120 – Films by Alan Parker, Bugsy Malone, Fame, Pink Floyd – The Wall, The Commitments, Midnight Express, Mississippi Burning, Angel Heart, Evita

Week 119 – Exhibitions featuring Women – Women in Revolt! at Tate Britain, Rubens & Women at Dulwich Picture Gallery, Diva at the V&A, The Mother & The Weaver at The Foundling Museum

Week 118 – Book Club: The Manningtree Witches. Next month’s book is Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead

Week 117 – Science Fiction Film Favourites – Logan’s Run, The Time Machine (1962), The Land that Time Forgot, The People that Time Forgot

Week 116 – Vienna

Week 115 – War Novels: Regeneration Trilogy – Pat Barker, All Quiet on the Western Front – Erich Maria Remarque, Testament of Youth – Vera Brittain, Slaughterhouse Five – Kurt Vonnegut, War & Peace – Leo Tolstoy

Week 114 – Films Of Michael Caine, Zulu, The Ipcress File, Alfie, The Italian Job, Get Carter, The Man Who Would Be King, A Bridge Too Far, Educating Rita, Hannah and Her Sisters, Cider House Rules, Batman, The Great Escaper, Workshop on TV Acting via YouTube

Week 113 – Book Club: Last Month’s Books. Brighton Rock and The Third Man. Next Month’s Book: The Manningtree Witches by A.K. Blakemore

Week 112 – Four of the Most Successful Irish Dramatists

Oscar Wilde – The Importance of Being Earnest; An Ideal Husband; Lady Windmere’s Husband; A Woman of No Importance; The Picture of Dorian Gray.

George Bernard Shaw – Pygmalion, Mrs Warren’s Profession, St Joan

Samuel Beckett – Waiting for Godot, Endgame, Krapp’s Last Tape, Happy Days

Martin McDonagh – The Beauty Queen of Leenane (1996), The Cripple of Inishmaan (1998), The Lieutenant of Inishmore (2001) In Bruges (2008), Seven Psychopaths (2012), Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017), and The Banshees of Inisherin (2022).

Week 111 – Virtual Tours

Week 110 – Rob Reiner: This is Spinal Tap, The Princess Bride, Stand by Me, Misery, When Harry Met Sally, A Few Good Men, Postcards from the Edge, Wolf of Wolf Street

Week 109 – Greek Theatre: The Oresteia Trilogy consists of three plays: Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, and The Eumenides by Aeschylus. Medea by Euripides, The Assemblywomen by by Aristophanes, Chi-Raq, directed by Spike Lee based on Lysistrata by Aristophanes, Antigone (1961 film), Electra (1962 film), Medea (1969 film)

Week 108- Next month’s book is The Comforters by Muriel Spark

Week 107 – William Shakespeare – The Comedy of Errors, Hamlet (1964 directed by Grigori Kozintsev), Orson Welles Shakespeare Trilogy, Macbeth (1948), The Tragedy of Othello: The Moor of Venice (1951), Chimes at Midnight (1965)

Week 106 – Gustav Klimt & Egon Schiele

Week 105 – The Pre-Raphaelites The Rossettis – Exhibition at Tate Britain, Desperate Romantics (TV series), William Morris Gallery, Effie Gray (Film)

Week 104 – Book Club: This month’s book is Sorrow & Bliss by Meg Mason

Week 103 – Soviet Literature: And Quiet Flows the Don (Тихий Дон) Mikhail Sholokhov. Envy (Зависть) Yury Olesha Doctor Zhivago (Доктор Живаго) Boris Pasternak. We (Мы) Yevgeny Zamyatin, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (Один день Ивана Денисовича) Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Week 102 – Great female singers: Tina Turner, Billie Holliday & Julie London

Week 101 – Music of George & Ira Gershwin – Rhapsody in Blue, An American in Paris, Porgy & Bess, Summertime. Nice Work If You Can Get It, Someone to Watch Over Me, The Man That Got Away, They Can’t Take It Away From Me, Bewitched, Bothered & Bewildered among many others.

Week 100 -Top British Novels

1. Nineteen Eighty-Four (George Orwell, 1949)
  11. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen, 1813)
  10. Vanity Fair (William Makepeace Thackeray, 1848)
  9. Frankenstein (Mary Shelley, 1818)
  8. David Copperfield (Charles Dickens, 1850)
  7. Wuthering Heights (Emily Brontë, 1847)
  6. Bleak House (Charles Dickens, 1853)
  5. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë, 1847)
  4. Great Expectations (Charles Dickens, 1861)
  3. Mrs. Dalloway (Virginia Woolf, 1925)
  2. To the Lighthouse (Virginia Woolf, 1927)
  1. Middlemarch (George Eliot, 1874)

According to: www.bbc.com/culture/article/20151204-the-100-greatest-british-novels

Week 99 – Top British TV of All Time

Fawlty Towers, Cathy Come Home, Dr Who, The Naked Civil Servant, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Blue Peter, Boys from the Black Stuff, Parkinson, Yes, Minister/Yes, Prime Minister, Brideshead Revisited, Abigail’s Party, I Claudius, Dad’s Army

Week 98 – Top 10 British Films

1. The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)

2. Brief Encounter (David Lean, 1945)

3. Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962)

4. The 39 Steps (Alfred Hitchcock, 1935)

5. Great Expectations (David Lean, 1946)

6. Kind Hearts and Coronets (Robert Hamer, 1949)

7. Kes (Ken Loach, 1969)

8. Don’t Look Now (Nic Roeg, 1973)

9. The Red Shoes (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1948)

10. Trainspotting (Danny Boyle, 1996)

Week 97 – Website for inspiring artists & writers – www.domestika.org – A community for creative people

Week 96 – Films from My Youth – White Palace, No Way Out & Someone to Watch Over Me

Week 95 – Book Club: This Month’s Books are Quiet as a Nun by Antonia Fraser & The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

Week 94 – World Theatre Day: Plays I’d recommend: Tales from Hollywood by Christopher Hampton, Danton’s Death by Georg Büchner, Our Country’s Good by Timberlake Wertenbaker, Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare, The Lieutenant of Inishmore by Martin Mcdonagh, Rat in the Skull by Ron Hutchinson

Week 93 -Films featuring Women from History

Mo (2010) – TV Film staring Julie Walters as Mo Mowlam, who as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland was the catalyst behind the Good Friday Agreement. Stream for free on All4 (Channel 4’s streaming service).

Carve Her Name with Pride (1958) – British war drama based on the SOE agent Violette Szabo staring Virginia McKenna and Paul Scofield. Available on Amazon or YouTube.

Odette (1950) – British war drama based on the SOE agent Odette Sansom staring Anna Neagle. Available on Amazon or YouTube.

Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story (2017) Documentary about the actor Hedy Lamarr, once called the most beautiful woman in the world, she went on to invent the technology behind blue tooth and wi-fi.

Hidden Figures (2016) – Story of three female African-American mathematicians who played a pivotal role in the early days of Nasa, featuring Octavia Spencer as Dorothy Vaughn, Janelle Monae as Mary Jackson and Taraji P. Henson as Katherine Goble.

Week 92 – Talking Heads by Alan Bennett

Talking Heads is a series of brilliant monologues written for TV by playwright Alan Bennett and featuring some of the finest actors of the day. First broadcast in 1988, a second series was broadcast in 1998. In 2020, the BBC remade 10 of the existing episodes with two brand new stories and again featuring some of the finest actors of the day.

Week 91 – Walter Presents UK on Channel 4

Hand-picked world TV dramas and books. Full box sets, free in the UK on @All4 and @S4C. Books with @PushkinPress. Buy now from any book seller.

Week 90 – Cheap and Cheerful Things to Do in London

Ceremony of the Keys at the Tower of London

The Sky Garden – London’s Highest Public Garden

The British Library

Week 89 – Things to Watch in 2023: Indiana Jones, Babylon, Happy Valley, Three Pines

Week 88 – ITVX – A Spy Among Friends, Litvinenko, Hammer Horror Movies, The Persuaders, The Protectors, Coronation Street, Crossroads, Thunderbirds, Lost in Austen

Week 87 – Old Vic Portal – The Hub – Free online careers and education platform

Week 86 – Book Club: Fabian, Going to the Dogs by Erich Kästner

Week 85 – The Brontes, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Week 84 – First World War Poets: Rupert Brooke, Rudyard Kipling, John McCrae, Robert Graves, Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen

Week 83 – War Films: Gallipoli, To Be or Not to Be, Paths of Glory, The Guns of Navarone, The Great Escape

Week 82 – Ghost Visits – Ham House, Lyme Park, Newstead Abbey, Croft Castle, Holyrood Palace, Glamis Castle

Week 81 – Book Club: A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian by Marina Lewycka

Week 80 – Glenda Jackson – Women in Love, Elizabeth R, Mary Queen of Scots, Triple Echo, Touch of Class, Elizabeth is Missing

Week 79 – BBC Drama – This Life, Bodies, Last Tango in Halifax, Life on Mars, Spiral

Week 78 – BBC Comedy – Porridge, The Young Ones, Ab Fab, 15 Stories High, Blackadder

Week 77 – Movies/TV Programmes based on Charles Dickens’ Stories – Oliver (1968), Great Expectations (1946), Oliver Twist (1948), Scrooge (1951), Tale of Two Cities (1935 & 1958)

TV Series

Dickensian, Bleak House (2005), Little Dorrit (2008), Filmed version of stage play The Life and Times of Nicholas Nickleby (1982: available on YouTube)

Week 76 – Horror Films – The Wicker Man, Don’t Look Now, An American Werewolf in London, Carry on Screaming

Week 75 – Dorothy Parker – an American poet, writer, critic, and satirist

Week 74 – This month’s book is Honour by Elif Shafak

Week 73 – Billy Wilder – Fabulous director/writer of some of the best films ever made – Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Sunset Boulevard, Double Indemnity to name just four!

Week 72 – Behind the Scenes – La Nuit Américaine (Night for Day) – François Truffaut, Playhouse Creatures – April de Angelis, Noises Off – Michael Frayn

Week 71 – Book Club – Looked at The Reader – Bernhard Schlink & Alone in Berlin – Hans Fallada. This month: The Thursday Murder Club – Richard Osman

Week 70 – Cop Shows – The Wire, Hill Street Blues, Homicide: Life on the Street, NYPD Blues

Week 69 – Great films that never got any nominations – A Bout de Souffle – Jean-Luc Goddard, Bringing up Baby – Howard Hawks, Don’t Look Now – Nicolas Roeg, His Girl Friday – Howard Hawks, The Paths of Glory – Stanley Kubrick, Touch of Evil – Orson Welles

Week 68 – Film: Persepolis

Week 67 – Mikhail Bulgakov – The Master and Margarita, The White Guard

Week 66 – – 80s Groups – ABC, Loose Ends, Soul II Soul, The Blow Monkeys

Week 65 – Book Club – Hitman Anders and the Meaning of it All – Jonas Jonasson

Week 64 – 80s Male Singers – Luther Vandross, Terence Trent D’Arby, George Benson, Keni Burke

Week 63 – 80s Female Singers – Sade, Angela Bofill, Randy Crawford, Brenda Russell

Week 62 – Elizabethan era films/TV series – Mary, Queen of Scots (1971), Elizabeth R (1971), Shakespeare in Love (1998), The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939), The Sea Hawk (1940)

Week 61 – Ealing Comedies – Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), Whisky Galore (1949), Passport to Pimlico (1949)

Week 60 – Christmas Movies: The Great Escape (1963), It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), White Christmas (1954), Scrooged (1988)

Week 59 – The Cheviot, The Stag and The Black Black Oil by John McGrath
Political theatre at its very best and most powerful. The play relates the history of economic change in the Scottish Highlands from the Highland clearances in the 19th century through to the oil boom of the 1970s.

Week 58 Book Club: Back When We Were Grown-ups – Anne Tyler Next Book: We Have Always Lived in the Castle – Shirley Jackson

Week 57 – Dark Travellers: The Rise of Scottish Crime Writing

Week 56 – National Theatre: Life in Stages

Filmed on the empty Lyttelton stage, each episode features a pair of creatives reflecting on their theatre careers, and relating stories behind everything from their earliest theatre memory to their biggest professional highs and lows.

https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/life-in-stages

Week 55 – Classic 80s Thrillers: Jagged Edge, Sea of Love, Someone to Watch Over Me

Week 54 – Blue Eyed Soul: Bobby Caldwell, Michael McDonald, Gino Vannelli, Teena Marie, Simply Red, Paul Young, The Righteous Brothers

Week 53 – Book Club – The Vanished Bride – Bella Ellis. Next month’s book: Back When We Were Grown-ups – Anne Tyler

Week 52 -Sidney Poitier: In the Heat of the Night, To Sir with Love, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?

Week 51 – British Bands: Madness, The Beat, The Specials

Week 50 – Films from the 50s: North by Northwest, High Noon, Some Like It Hot

Week 49 – Book Club – The Midnight Library – Matt Haig. Next month’s book: The Vanished Bride – Bella Ellis

Week 48 – Art of Tamara de Lempicka

Week 47 – Fun Movies: Le Diner des Cons, Little Miss Sunshine & The Station Agent

Week 46 – Favourite childhood movies – The Three Musketeers (1973) & The Four Musketeers (1974)

Week 45 – Book Club: Next month’s book: How to Be A Woman – Caitlin Moran

Week 44 – Great Female Actors – Jean Arthur (Mr Smith Goes to Washington), Carole Lombard (To Be or Not to Be) and Celeste Holm (High Society).

Week 42 – Hollywood Musicals including my all time favourite – On the Town (1949), A Star is Born (1954) featuring Judy Garland & James Mason and High Society (1956) with Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby.

Week 41 – The Good Soldier Schwejk – Jaroslav Hašek

https://www.maureenyounger.com/tag/the-good-soldier-schwejk/

Week 40 – Silent Films

Metropolis – Fritz Lang

Battleship Potemkin – Sergei Eisenstein

Foreign Film Review: Battleship Potemkin

Week 39 – Jacobites in Literature

Highland Adventures – Jacobites in Literature

Week 38 – Innsbruck

MY Travels – Innsbruck – Flashbacks to Dr Who, Superfluous Cardies and the Advantage 0f Not Understanding Celsius

Week 37 – Classic British Movies

The 39 Steps

The Third Man

Brief Encounter

The Wicked Lady

Week 36 – French singer Liane Foly – Rêve Orange Album

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzF3WZXzHFZhZyXfFqMUfRg

Week 35 – WTB Book Club – Regeneration by Pat Barker

To join the book club head to www.facebook.com/groups/331122508080212

For my review of Regeneration, head to www.maureenyounger.com/2021/05/10/regeneration-pat-barker

Week 34 – Music from My Youth

Grover Washington Jnr – Winelight

Bob James – Sign of the Times

David Sanborn/Bob James/Al Jarreau – Since I Fell For You (Double Vision)

Week 33 – 80s Soul

Luther Vandross, Teddy Pendergrass & Bobby Caldwell

Maureen’s Playlist https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1n0YTmeBL2ip9WkBEHUACd?si=9e85720fa0c34bfc

Week 32 – Discovering Film

TV Series on Sky Arts celebrating the films and lives of some of Hollywood’s greatest actors.

Week 31 – Radio Drama

Orson Welles – War of the Worlds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs0K4ApWl4g&t=1545s

Probably the most (in)famous radio drama of all time!

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy – A fabulous comedy science fiction series

A Charles Paris Mystery

Bill Nighy stars as actor-cum-amateur sleuth Charles Paris in the stories by Simon Brett, dramatised by Jeremy Front. Currently playing on Radio 4. Previous series can be bought on CD.

Week 30 – Film Noir

Cynical Hollywood crime movies of the 40s and 50s featuring anti-heroes and femme fatales. Three of the best:

The Big Heat directed by Fritz Lang

The Maltese Falcon directed by John Huston

Double Indemnity directed by Billy Wilder

Week 29 – WTB Book Club

Emilia by Morgan Lloyd Malcolm

Emilia

The Memory of Water – Shelagh Stephenson

The Memory of Water

Week 28 – Classic Actor Workshops – series of 6 workshops originally shown on the BBC including

Michael Caine on film acting – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZPLVDwEr7Y&t=962s

Brian Cox – Tragedy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTZdhe1mAmc

Week 27 – Classic Novels

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Novel Review: Great Expectations

The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Book Review: Frankenstein – Mary Shelley

Week 26 – The Devil’s Crown

Great acting from among others Brian Cox, Jane Lapotaire & John Duttine in a landmark BBC series dissecting the lives of Henry II (Brian Cox) and his family, in particular his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine (Jane Lapotaire) and his sons Richard the Lionheart (Michael Byrne) and King John (John Duttine).

Only available via YouTube www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuf1VnRv5teZF1d835veVPPYKITTuQCmo

Week 25 – March’s Book Club

Emilia The Play by Morgan Lloyd Malcolm

The Memory of Water by Shelagh Stephenson

Week 24 – Leicester Culture Corner

As this week’s episode was part of the Leicester Comedy Festival, I took a look at Leicester’s contribution to the world of culture with its famous scions such as Richard Armitage, Michael Kitchen, Una Stubbs, Parminder Nagra, Sue Townsend, Gok Wan and Joe Orton.

Week 23 – Book Club Catch up

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

Homegoing

My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki

My Year of Meats

Week 22 – Art Chat with Hannah Gadsby

Here are links to some of the artists that were mentioned.

Week 21 – Frank Capra Movies

It Happened One Night – Screwball comedy featuring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert

www.maureenyounger.com/2013/02/24/it-happened-one-night

Mr Smith Goes to Washington

An ordinary Joe stands up against corrupt, powerful forces and overwhelming odds with the help of Saunders (played by the great Jean Arthur) who is not only capable and intelligent, but worldly-wise and far more politically savvy than Stewart’s Jefferson Smith.

www.maureenyounger.com/2013/02/24/mr-smith-goes-to-washington

It’s a Wonderful Life – THE Christmas movie of all time

www.maureenyounger.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Rated-or-Dated_-Its-a-Wonderful-Life-Standard-Issue.pdf

Week 20 – Spanish TV

The Ministry of Time

This is one of the best TV shows I have ever watched. Three agents from different times in history are working for a secret government body who ensure that Spain’s history is not meddled with. This is well-made, well-written, well-acted, intelligent TV that doesn’t take itself too seriously. The leads Julián Martinez (Rodolfo Sancho), Alonso de Entrerríos (Nacho Fresneda), Amelia Folch (Aura Garrido) and Pacino (Hugo Silva) are excellent and the supporting cast is great too – Ministry boss, Salvador Martí (Jaime Blanch) and his sidekicks Irene Larra (Cayetana Guillén Cuervo) and Ernesto Jiménez (Juan Gea).

You can view it for free on the RTVE website. There is also an English translation of the script if needed.

www.rtve.es/alacarta/videos/el-ministerio-del-tiempo/ministerio-del-tiempo

For my review, just click www.maureenyounger.com/2018/04/26/my-new-guilty-tv-pleasure-the-ministry-of-time

Drug Squad: Costa del Sol

Set in 1970s Torremolinos, sit back and enjoy the 70s fashions, 70s cars and 70s police mores when it comes to interviewing suspects (think Jack Regan in The Sweeney). Last but not least, you can enjoy Hugo Silva in action as Bruno López in charge of the eclectic band of brothers that make up the squad. There is rich boy and son of a former general under Franco, Leo Villa (Álvaro Cervantes), Martín Pulido (Miki Esparbé) aka The Hippie and Terrón (Jesus Castro), the good-looking one who has a secret of his own that won’t go down well in 1970s macho Spain.

There’s enough twists in the plot to keep you hooked as well as enjoy the insight into late 1970s Spain.

For my review, just click www.maureenyounger.com/2019/11/20/another-spanish-tv-guilty-pleasure-drug-squad-costa-del-sol

Mar de Plastico

At times Mar de Plástico is silly, unbelievable and melodramatic but it does throw up some interesting issues and the direction and the cinematography are often superb.

Rodolfo Sancho puts his brooding good looks to excellent use as Sergeant Héctor Aguirre who is new in town and about to head up the local police squad, just as the mayor’s daughter is brutally murdered.

As for the storylines, there are some great twists peppered throughout the two series. When the murderer is revealed at the end of Season 1, it really is the person you’d least expect it to be. However, the murderer twist in Season 2 is UNBELIEVABLE.

A big hit in Spain, the producers recorded two different endings for the final ever episode and allowed the viewers to choose which version to end with – either justice or revenge. If Mar de Plástico proves anything, it’s that Sancho has star power and can carry a TV series with aplomb.

To check out my review, just click here www.maureenyounger.com/2018/08/08/another-guilty-pleasure-mar-de-plastico

Week 19 – German Literature

Three great novels that deal with the dying days of the Weimar Republic or life under the Nazis.

Fabian – Erich Kästner

The Seventh Cross – Anna Seghers

Alone in Berlin – Hans Fallada

For a bit more info on these novels, head to www.maureenyounger.com/2020/06/12/something-for-the-weekend-some-german-literature-tips/

Week 18 – Lovers Rock/Emilia the Play

If you fancy listening to some lovers rock, why not check out Carroll Thompson & Janet Kay.

Lovers Rock, a film by Steve McQueen is on this Sunday at 9 pm.

If you missed out on the chance of seeing Emilia The Play, you can now watch it online until 2nd December. I saw it live and it was a fantastic piece of theatre.

Here’s the official blurb.

400 years ago Emilia Bassano wanted her voice to be heard. It wasn’t. Could she have been the “Dark Lady” of Shakespeare’s sonnets? What of her own poems? Why was her story erased from history? Emilia and her sisters reach out to us across the centuries with passion, fury, laughter and song. Listen to them. Let them inspire and unite us. Celebrate women’s voices through the story of this trailblazing, forgotten woman. Stand up and be counted.

Week 17 – Oh You Pretty Thing by VG Lee

We discussed the latest book in our book club and yet again it’s another 5 star review.

For my take on this collection of short stories, head to www.maureenyounger.com/2020/11/13/oh-you-pretty-thing

Week 16 – Three Films with a Bit of an Edge

In the Cut

In the Cut is a psychological thriller, written and directed by Jane Campion and starring Meg Ryan & Mark Ruffalo. Meg Ryan plays a teacher who becomes involved with a detective investigating a series of gruesome murders.

The Mother

Anne Reid plays May, a grandmother who, after the death of her husband, travels down to London to visit her children where she ends up having an affair with her daughter’s lover, played by Daniel Craig. Anne Reid and Daniel Craig are such great actors that the affair comes across as totally believable despite the humongous age gap. The film is also a damning incitement on how we treat our elders.

Ae Fond Kiss

Directed by Ken Loach, Ae Fond Kiss sees Irish catholic teacher, Roisin, played by Eva Birthistle falling in love with Casim, a Muslim, Scottish Pakistani. Funny, romantic and touching, the film gives a fascinating insight into the intricacies of a mixed-race relationship.

Week 15 – British Political Dramas

A Very British Coup

Based on the novel by Chris Mullin, this political thriller stars Ray McAnally as the newly elected left-wing prime minister Harry Perkins, who soon finds himself up to his neck in conspiracy

www.channel4.com/programmes/a-very-british-coup

House of Cards (original UK version)

Ian Richardson excels as Francis Urquhart in Andrew Davies’ adaptation of Michael Dobbs’ novel. It’s a tale of ruthless ambition and corruption as Urquhart removes his political rivals one by one.

Years and Years

Hold on, the future’s coming. In a world of accelerating change, one family draws together and apart on waves of unrest.

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m000539g/years-and-years

A Very English Scandal

It is the late 1960s, homosexuality has only just been decriminalised, and Jeremy Thorpe, the leader of the Liberal party, has a secret he is desperate to hide.

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/p065sk93/a-very-english-scandal

Week 14 – Culloden 1746

A great documentary. If you’re a fan of (Scottish/British) history, Outlander, documentaries or innovative film-making then I recommend checking out this film.