The 'How' in Two Episodes of Father Brown

I enjoyed the recent series of Father Brown. I did notice something about two of the episodes.

Father Brown, series 4, episode 5, The Daughters of Autolycus.

See the short story The Duchess of Wiltshire’s Diamonds by Guy Boothby in his book A Prince of Swindlers or in The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes edited by Hugh Greene. It was adapted in the television series The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes and sometimes can be found on YouTube.

Father Brown, series 4, episode 6, The Rod of Asclepius.

See the novel Green For Danger (1944) by Christianna Brand and the film adaptation of that novel starring Alistair Sim (1946).

I won't give any further details because that will spoil seeing the episodes and reading the stories mentioned above.

Juliette Binoche: Antigone at the Barbican

No two productions of Sophocles' Antigone are the same - even when the same translation has been used. There is something about the play and the issues it explores that make it a constantly ripe fruit to be repeatedly squeezed of yet another different flavour juice by directors and actors. So much so that George Steiner wrote a book called Antigones which included a critical gaze on the great range of productions and interpretations.

This year, Juliutte Binoche starred as Antigone at the Barbican; the director was Ivo van Hove and the translation was by Anne Carson.  

Newspaper reviews of the production were lukewarm and sometimes passive aggressive towards Binoche in their strangely equivocal praising put downs. Most of these articles suffer a bad case of Cleverdickitus where the journalist must appear more superior than any production that he or she reviews. A more informative review can be found at 

http://britishtheatre.com/review-antigone-barbican-4stars/

The BBC have broadcast the play and for another twenty-five days it can be viewed on BBC iPlayer (UK only) at 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b05sj2j6/juliette-binoche-antigone-at-the-barbican

If you are interested, watch the play and form your own judgement. 

The Magicians on BBC1

Pete Firman recently gave an interview about the BBC series The Magicians. To hear the interview, click the link below. The link opens in a new window.
Radio Teasdale

The Magicians, BBC1, New Series This Week

The second series of The Magicians airs its first episode this Saturday. The format is to be different; each show will be broadcast live. Barry & Stuart are still part of the team; joining them will be Pete Firman and American magician Jason Latimer. You can read about the new series at

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b019fyjl

and if you want to be in the audience during one of the later shows, there is still an opportunity to get free tickets from

http://www.applausestore.com/applausestore-book-show.php?id=195&bid=1
The links will open in a new window.

Derren Brown’s Faith Healers

The recent Derren Brown special on Faith Healers was an interesting dip into the murky world of those who exploit people who have religious faith. Anyone who was interested in the program can follow it up by reading James Randi’s book The Faith Healers, published by Prometheus Books. The book gives a history of the subject and an analytical survey of faith healing in modern America.

Something to watch for in the near future is a Channel 5 program called Impossible hosted by Philip Escoffey. The show will be in a reality TV/game show format apparently. This continues the trend that has been present for some time now. BBC’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, BBC’s The Magicians and ITV’s Penn & Teller: Fool Us have all had a reality TV/rise to the challenge aspect to the them. The Derren Brown special on Faith Healers was just that, pushing Nathan, sometimes unwillingly, through his paces to meet the aim set by Brown. The last Derren Brown series, in which people were trained/mentored to tackle challenges, from escapology to being a quiz whiz, is another example.

I, for one, hope this trend fades. It detracts from the real point of interest which is magic and mentalism. I believe that the choice to do that, unfortunately, lies in the hands of those that hold the purse strings to make any of these programs and not with the performers.

R. Paul Wilson on BBC's The Magicians

Having seen three episodes of The Magicians I've warmed to the show. The second two episodes were much better than the first. I suggested in an earlier blog that making such a series from a magic perspective isn't easy and one of the consultant producers, R. Paul Wilson, recently gave an interview regarding the making of the series and the difficulties involved in making it. He explains why it was a "massive challenge."

Here is the link to the audio interview:

http://www.linkingpage.com/magicnewsfeed/2011/1/18/mnw-202-r-paul-wilson.html

The Magicians Website

The BBC website for the new magic series The Magicians is now live and can be found at http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcone/magicians/

I'm looking forward to seeing this series.

This is, as far as I know, my last blog entry for 2010 so Season's Greetings and Happy Holidays to everyone!

ITV to bring out rival magic show to the BBC's 'The Magicians'

It's only been a short while since the BBC announced they are to make a new magic series The Magicians, in which magicians will compete against each other. Well, ITV1 has announced they are to make a similar series called Penn & Teller: Fool Us. Another coincidental similarity is that both series are being hosted by comedy presenters. Lenny Henry will host The Magicians and Jonathan Ross will host Penn & Teller: Fool Us. Which series will be the better? I hope they're both good. I hope this is the beginning of a comeback for magic on both channels. I can only wait and see.

The Magicians, a new television series

Twitter was a-buzz today with news of the BBC bringing a new magic show to prime time television in the New Year. R. Paul Wilson and Alexis Conran, of The Real Hustle, will be the magical brains behind the program whilst other magicians appear in the program. The program will be called The Magicians; there have been some emails asking if (because of the name) the series connects in any way with my art exhibition Magicians which begins on October 31st of this year – no, there is no connection whatsoever. There will be an aspect of competition in the series. For more details see the BBC press release by clicking on the link below.

The Magicians

Entertainment Defying Acts

This week the BBC broadcast the film Death Defying Acts starring Guy Pearce and Catherine Zeta Jones. The basic gist of the film is that a fake psychic tries to swindle Harry Houdini out of a $10,000 prize for evidence of contacting his late mother. There were two main areas of disappointment regarding this film.

The first was that the writers did not appear to know very much about Houdini. It was almost as if the story was about another magician entirely. As it turns out, the original writers had a story that did not involve Houdini at all but, as usually happens with the many handed interference - sorry, contribution - of a production team, one of the main characters became Houdini. After which there was very little obvious consultation of any authoritative biography, of which there are many. They instead used the popular urban myths about Houdini that have been bandied about since his death.

Would the film have been more palatable if a fictitious magician was used? Not really and that was the second area of disappointment. My wife Jill, who knows nothing about Houdini and therefore could not be put off by any form of representation of him in a film, was quickly made so bored by the film that even the dreaded washing of the dishes had a greater allure for her. Followed by any other activity she could think of to do. The pace and plot did not particularly grip our attention and the actors had little room in either to have the opportunity to make us feel any empathy for the characters they portrayed.

[The above image is copyright by the film-makers]