Area 53

I'm not usually on Tumblr, but hello!

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ABBA - Voyage (2021)

An old #ABBA fan weighs in on the new album, #Voyage (2021), but isn't bowled over. #review

Music album review: ABBA – Voyage (Polar Music, 2021) I Still Have Faith in You (5:09) When You Danced with Me (2:50) Little Things (3:08) Don’t Shut Me Down (3:56) Just a Notion (3:31) I Can Be That Woman (4:01) Keep an Eye on Dan (4:05) Bumblebee (3:57) No Doubt About It (2:56) Ode to Freedom (3:32) Forty years after the release of their last studio album, The Visitors, ABBA have returned.…

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Borley Rectory (2017)

Documentary film #review: the deliciously spooky Borley Rectory (2017). Worth a watch even for #BorleyRectory nerds!

Documentary/film review: Borley Rectory (2017), written and directed by Ashley Thorpe ‘Tis the spooky season! Borley Rectory is a place that has captured my imagination since I was a teenager, to the point where I even have some of the books this documentary mentions. Sadly I didn’t hear about this “animated documentary” being crowdfunded on Indiegogo until it was already in post-production,…

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Opera Chats: Norma (Royal Opera House, 2016)

#Opera Chats: #Norma (Royal Opera House, 2016) which has left us unconvinced.

Today’s topic of conversation is the Royal Opera House’s 2016 production of Norma by Vincenzo Bellini, libretto by Felice Romani. The production was directed by Àlex Ollé and conducted by Antonio Pappano. The opera first premiered in Milan in 1831. Norma takes place in Roman occupied Gaul. The Gallic people, led by the Druid Oroveso (Brindley Sherratt) are planning an uprising against their Roman…

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Free Guy (2021)

#FilmReview: Free Guy (2021) is jolly good fun.

Film review: Free Guy (2021), directed by Shawn Levy tl;dr: Highly entertaining film. Guy (Ryan Reynolds) is a bank clerk in Free City. Every day begins, progresses and ends in much the same way. He wakes up, picks up his coffee from the local coffee shop, goes to work, chats with his best friend Buddy (Lil Rel Howery), the bank’s security guard, as they’re doing the customary cowering on the…

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Friday newsreel

Might just make a habit of commenting on the news on Fridays. Kinda fun! … Even though it’s Saturday by the time I write this, as I was catching up on Lost earlier tonight. Speaking of Lost, this season is a bit confusing still but it’s getting there, slowly. First off is the fab Emma Thompson in the Daily Mail, talking about being a mum, having the same driver as Kate Moss – causing the…

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Countdown to Alcatraz

Next week, I’ll be mostly posting about Richard Armitage, but I do have someone else occupying the joint spot as Favourite Actor … and he is starring in a new TV series, which is launching here in the UK on Tuesday, and that needs celebrating just as much! What I’m talking about is Alcatraz, which will be on Watch (Sky 109, Virgin 124), starting Tuesday 13 March 2012 at 21:00 / 9pm. Behind the…

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Richard Armitage - the tallest dwarf in Middle Earth

Richard Armitage – the tallest dwarf in Middle Earth

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” – Thorin Oakenshield What an exciting start to a Friday morning! Reading all these lovely blog posts between trying to make a website layout. I think it’s safe to say we’re all tingly with excitement over the news that Richard Armitage has been cast in Peter Jackson’s forthcoming adaptation of JRR…

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Some great news and a reading update

Some great news and a reading update

First things first: They’re making Good Omens into something for the telly. A miniseries, hopefully, as opposed to a TV movie. It’s due in 2013, according to IMDb. If you don’t know what Good Omens is, you’ve missed a terribly great novel, written by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. It’s about a young Antichrist, an angel and a demon who have decided humanity isn’t all that bad actually, and…

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Charlotte Brontë's Shirley adapted for radio

Charlotte Brontë’s Shirley adapted for radio

If you thought Charlotte Brontë only wrote Jane Eyre, you are mistaken. Her second published book was Shirley, and good ol’ BBC have made an adaptation in six parts of it. For radio, not TV. Oh well, you can’t have everything. If I understand the website correctly, it was first broadcast in September 2007, so it’s not actually new new. Part one was broadcast this morning at 10 am (thanks for the…

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The good news and the bad news

The good news and the bad news

The good news is that Blogger has finally come back. Hooray! On Wednesday, there was supposed to be a one-hour downtime due to some maintenance work, but something went awry and the system was really buggy. I could post things as normal yesterday, and the only thing I struggled with was trying to get the system to save the edits I had made to the New Moon review. And for some reason, it wouldn’t…

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So much news all of a sudden

So much news all of a sudden

Entertainment Weekly have released three pictures from The Hobbit. The one I’m most excited about is this one, because it has dwarves on it: The dark-bearded fellow in the middle of the picture is bound to be Thorin (Richard Armitage). 😀 Also: Dame Edna has been cast in the film. Or, rather, her actor Barry Humphries has. One of the blokes from Jackass has died in a car crash, says BBC News.…

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Jane Eyre 2011 casting

Jane Eyre 2011 casting

Okay, IMDb-ing the upcoming Jane Eyre adaptation, there are some more roles which have been cast: Mrs Fairfax – Dame Judy Dench I would think she has a bit too much of a commanding presence for the mild Mrs. Fairfax, but on the other hand, she’s also a damned fine actress, so she should be able to pull it off. Mrs Reed – Sally Hawkins Anne Elliot of Persuasion ’07. I can see her as similar to…

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Jane Eyre '11 premieres... in SEPTEMBER!?

Jane Eyre ’11 premieres… in SEPTEMBER!?

Came across this, from an article about Sally Hawkins in The Guardian: The actress, who won a Golden Globe for her lead role in Mike Leigh’s 2008 Happy-Go-Lucky, is also to appear in a new version of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre due to premiere at the Venice film festival in September WTH! So it DOES come out a lot earlier than March – if you happen to be in Venice, at the film festival. Bah! And…

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ENOUGH WITH THE RE-MAKES ALREADY!!!

ENOUGH WITH THE RE-MAKES ALREADY!!!

Hollywood, PLEASE will you STOP FIXING WHAT ISN’T BROKEN?! Latest in line with the ever-present threat of being re-made, Entertainment Weekly report that Kenny Ortega has signed on to direct a re-make of Dirty Dancing. In a statement, Ortega – who was the choreographer of the original film – said: The opportunity to direct Dirty Dancing is like returning home for me…. Patrick Swayze set the bar…

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Remembering Royal Ascot - where I almost met the Queen

Remembering Royal Ascot – where I almost met the Queen

All this week, I’ve seen peculiar names trending on Twitter. They’ve all turned out to be names of horses, and that’s how I found out that this week is Royal Ascot week. For those not acquainted with Ascot, it’s a place near Windsor in Berkshire where there’s an old horseracing track. Every year in June, there’s a week of races where the Royal Family show up. I think it’s normally the Tuesday…

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Farewell to The Dubliners' Barney McKenna

Farewell to The Dubliners’ Barney McKenna

Today, I found out that the last of the founding members of The Dubliners, and thereby the one who has been with the group the longest, has passed away. The Dubliners are probably my favourite Irish folk band, and they’re legendary. We had the chance to see them last year when they were in Nottingham. They were back again this year, for the 50th Anniversary Tour in March, and I was really torn,…

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R.I.P. Susannah York - Jane Eyre '70

R.I.P. Susannah York – Jane Eyre ’70

I was writing a review when I came across an article on BBC News, saying actress Susannah York has died at 72, having struggled with cancer for a while. She has been in a number of things over the years, but the thing I knew her from was as the red-haired, too-beautiful Jane in the 1970 adaptation of Jane Eyre, opposite George C Scott. Probably one of the adaptations I enjoyed the least, to be…

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