Four Candles In The Wind

Poor Dr Porter! They replaced yesterday’s Case Notes show with a tribute to Ronnie Barker. That said, I spent the entire drive home with a big smile on my face. Someone said that the beauty of The Two Ronnies show was the sheer professionalism of the writing and the execution without it seeming to be anything more than a couple of guys in the pub doing a turn. People just cannot do that in shows today. Comedy is either weak and badly made or produced to the utmost level of detail, thereby removing the spirit that comedy needs to stand out. We can all laugh the embarrassed or dirty laughs at some of the more extreme sketch shows but nothing comes close to the spiritual uplift of old-style shows. Monkey Dust is very inventive but sometime you just worry that the writers have run out of society pillars to rage against. The targets now are just those that will bring out the most outrage in the Daily Mail Crowd and the most admiration from the couldn’t-care-less brigade.

Interesting sketch of Ted Hughes by Sylvia Plath on the BBC site. There are some of Plath’s drawings in my hardback edition of The Bell Jar but they are of buildings and markets rather than close-up portraits. This sketch seems to have spirit if not accuracy rather than the architectural verité of the book pictures. Anyway, it is a nice complement to the collage with the Plath drawing on the side of the filing cabinet.

There were thousands of Starlings on the buildings of the new estate behind the office this morning. I saw a fat man with a big cigar walk along the main road.

Don’t worry! You can listen to Case Notes from the website.