So, erm … spring. Nature providing a very clear reminder here in the UK this week that progress doesn’t follow a steady trajectory. We’ve taken an about-turn back to winter. Not even blessed with the deep, school-closing snow that blanketed some. Just day after day of minus temperatures, sleet and slip-sliding on canal walks.
On the upside (there is always an upside), the light is now sticking around until after six (and will until October, a glorious thought), and I have new rainbow tulips in a new favourite vase. Even the sleet clouds offered a silver lining, granting a permission slip for my blanket to reappear, accompanied by plenty of tea and cake and watching and reading. Here we go with this week’s highlights.
Watching:
Nolly (ITVX)—What an absolute delight! Written by Russell T Davies, this three-parter tells the story of Crossroads superstar, Noele Gordon (aka Nolly), being sacked from the infamous, wobbly-setted soap. Helena Bonham Carter is fantastic as Nolly, a star turn. The show is witty (I loved all the daft filming of Crossroads scenes), heartwarming and poignant—you become very invested in these flawed, but lovable characters. Fun to see Con O’Neill from Happy Valley pop up in a very different guise.
Ali & Ava (Netflix)—If you’re missing the dark grey stone terraces of Happy Valley’s West Yorkshire, Bradford-set film Ali & Ava is well worth a watch. Starring Adeel Akhtar and Claire Rushbrook (who both starred in last year’s excellent Sherwood), this is a warm, human and moving love story, with a side order of grit. A landlord and a teaching assistant instantly hit it off, but they both carry the baggage of complicated past relationships and have race, religion and class issues to contend with. Music plays a huge and joyful part in this film—Ali is a former DJ and frustrated musician, and he repeatedly (and successfully) uses music to shift moods and diffuse difficult situations. Also worthy of note, the beautiful Bradford Waterstones makes a cameo appearance.
Feminists: What Were They Thinking? (Netflix)—I watched this excellent 2018 documentary to mark International Women’s Day. It revisits the women photographed by Cynthia Macadams for her 1977 book Emergence. The work captured a moment in time when feminism was at a real point of momentum, and the women involved are interviewed about their participation then and their life experiences since. We are left with a disappointing sense that there is still a long way to go. Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin feature, surely that’s all you need to know?
Honourable mention this week for Unforgotten (ITVX). I was over the moon to be able to dive back into this reliably good series. Some excellent twists and turns, but for me this storyline wasn’t up there with the best (Mark Bonnar, Series 2—still haunts me). The show lives on without Nicola Walker, but she’s definitely missed.
Reading:
The Opposite of Loneliness by Marina Keegan is a wonderful collection of fiction and non-fiction from the American writer, who was tragically killed in a car accident at 22. The book was put together, at the request of her parents, by Keegan’s school and college English teachers. The introduction is moving and really helps us understand the young woman and her work. The best pieces are really strong—short stories beautifully told about college, relationships, being on the brink of life—signs of a serious talent that will heartbreakingly never get chance to be fully realised.
I also enjoyed reading Simon Armitage’s The Owl and the Nightingale, a beautifully illustrated translation of a medieval debate poem. He was working on this when he recorded the first season of his podcast (The Poet Laureate Has Gone to His Shed), and it was mentioned regularly. The poem is a lot of fun and incredibly clever— amazing to preserve a work so old, breathe new life into it while retaining rhyme, meaning and meter. I missed the radio play that aired over Christmas with Armitage narrating and Maxine Peake and Rachel Stirling taking the roles of the birds—if anyone sees this is available again at any point, please let me know.
So what this week for you? And go on, tell me how much snow you had.
(Includes affiliate links to Bookshop.org, an excellent bookselling website supporting indie bookshops)
Thanks for these, I'll check out Nolly, it sounds like a lot of fun. Russell T Davies actually lives here in Mumbles and is a regular at Mumbles Coffee, this was hilariously mentioned on Greig James' show recently. Go and check on his Instagram for proof! 😀
Thank you for the reminder of Nolly - this was on my radar but I had forgotten all about it. I shall add it to the long list of things I want to watch but realistically may never get around to!!