David Tennant audios: a plethora of Macbeths (but this one's just MacB)!
It's been a while since I've delved into a lesser-known David Tennant project, so let's see if we can't fix that, shall we? And especially since he's currently at the Donmar Warehouse doing Macbeth, I've got just the thing to showcase!
(And no, it isn't his 2005 role as the Porter in Arkangel Shakespeare's audio version of Macbeth, though that IS cool! And it's not the more recent April 2022 version of Macbeth he did for Radio 4 with Daniela Nardini as Lady Macbeth and Stuart McQuarrie as Banquo - two actors he's worked with in the past; Nardini in Antigone for the 7:84 back in early 1993, and McQuarrie in a 1994 production of John Byrne's The Slab Boys Trilogy at the Young Vic in London.)
No, this is yet another Macbeth-adjacent project. It was something David did in September of 2009 for a BBC Radio 7 programme called Big Toe Books. I'll say up front that I wish I knew a LOT more about this project than I do...but I just don't. So I'll tell you what I do know.
But first, a bit of history:
The Big Toe Radio Show - a children's programme aimed at children aged 9 to 11 and which featured games, music, and stories read from well-known books - ran on BBC Radio 7 from 2002 to 2007. When it ended in 2007, the BBC created another show with an adapted format to replace it called Big Toe Books.
Big Toe Books was an hour long show of book readings for older children 8+, which transmitted at 4pm. It featured presenters Kirsten O'Brien (2007-2009) and Chris Pizzey (2010-2011) and lasted until 2011, when it was axed. At the same time, Radio 7 was rebranded as a BBC Radio 4 spin-off station, Radio 4 Extra. At the time, Big Toe Books' listenership was about 136K, but only 21K were children.
Now you're probably wondering how all my ramblings about children's programmes ties in with Macbeth, right? Well as I said previously, David was a guest reader on Big Toe Books, and at 4pm on 14 Sep 2009, he read a book by Neil Arksey called MacB!
And there's the tie-in!
Here are a few blurbs from various newspapers featuring the listing for the show - and oh, incidentally, if you look at the 6pm slot, you'll see a show called Seventh Dimension. That show was a speculative fiction show of various kinds - and in early 2007, it featured a series of original Doctor Who audio dramas starring Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor!
But back to David and MacB.
Now Arksey's book wasn't the Macbeth we're familiar with…not really. Firstly, his book was written for young adults. Secondly, it was based on Macbeth the play, but Arksey set it on the football field rather than the Royal Court. Here's a summary of the plot:
"It tells the tale of two best friends, Banksie and MacB. The two train together at football all summer in the hopes of getting onto the football team. When a fortune Teller tells them both that each would be captain, it seems unlikely, especially as they are up against star striker Duncan King, the most likely man for the job. When Duncan has a terrible accident that means he can't play, Banksie has suspicions about whether it really was an accident after all. Was it fate, or did MacB have a hand in it?"
And that's pretty much all I know about David's stint as a guest reader for BBC Radio 7 programme Big Toe Books, reading Neil Arksey's book MacB (which was originally published by Puffin in 1999). Like I said, I wish I had more information about this audio drama. But this little bit is all I've been able to find.
And oh, if you want to hear it, go here! I won't tell if you won't!
Welcome to Good & Evil: A Study of Heroes & Villains. I’m discussing different forms of heroic and villainous characters, different types of protagonists and antagonists, and providing examples of them each from various sources. Today we’re looking at one of the more intriguing types of protagonists, the Villain Protagonist.
We’ve all heard the phrase “The Villain is the Hero of Their Own Story.” Well, depending on perspective, the Villain Protagonist either exemplifies or spits in the very face of that notion. Villain Protagonists are exactly what they sound like: they are the main character of the story, and they are also the bad guy. They aren’t anti-heroes or anti-villains, either; sometimes they start out that way, as more moral people in some respect…but regardless of where they start, the Villain Protagonist always ends their tale decidedly in the wrong. The idea of the Villain Protagonist may seem revolutionary, but it’s really not: it’s a concept that’s been floating around for centuries. Probably one of the earliest examples is the title character of Euripedes’ play, “Medea”: the story of a scorned wife who murders her own children in revenge against her husband. The 1600s gave us “Paradise Lost,” an epic poem which effectively acted as the origin story of the Devil himself. Animated media is full of more of these than you think: Wile E. Coyote and Dick Dastardly are both comical cartoon baddies, and they are also the primary focal characters in their respective series. The idea of having an evil character as the one the audience follows and relates to most has always been fascinating to writers and audiences alike.
There are, in essence, two types of Villain Protagonists, with perhaps some overlapping elements. First, there are those you might call the “Villain Rising” Protagonists: these are characters who start off the story as relatively decent sorts, but by the end of the story, they’re the bad guy who needs to be defeated. Second, there are those you might call “Villain Fall” Protagonists: in these stories, the character starts off the tale as the villain, without any sugarcoating it whatsoever, and somewhere within the story, they face their karmic punishment. Shakespeare handled both of these ideas in his plays: my two favorite examples are The Scottish Play and Richard III. The former is an example of the “Villain Rising” idea: MacB starts off the story as one of Scotland’s greatest heroes, trusted by the King, and with many friends, and a devoted wife. By the end of the story, his ambitions and paranoid antics have led to him turning against his friends, his former surviving allies becoming his nemeses, his wife committing suicide, and his own descent into presumed madness. Richard III, meanwhile, is the opposite: he starts off the story by flat out saying “I am determined to prove a villain,” and he does not disappoint. Over the course of the show, Richard engages in increasingly despicable and vile acts of depravity, and while he does show some human qualities, nothing can save him from his fitting punishment at the end of the play. In both cases, the title characters are malevolent usurpers, who use dishonest means to gain power and control, and in both cases, their rule only leads to chaos. These stories seem to warn people not to tempt fate, and that honesty is, at times, the best policy, if only for your own sake.
Gangster movies are a common source of this type of character. Two of my favorite examples are in some of the greatest gangster movies ever made, “The Godfather” (and its second part) and “Scarface.” Both, coincidentally, star the same actor: Al Pacino. Michael goes through the full run, starting off as a pretty straightforward Hero, but as the story goes on and he fights harder and harder to try and get what he wants, the evil of the world around him seemingly swallows him up, and he becomes the Villain. Tony Montana of “Scarface,” meanwhile, pretty much starts off the story as a nasty greasebag, without much shame or attempt at self-justification…and, by the end of the story, Tony - just at the moment where he seemingly feels most invincible - is felled by a single shot to the back. Whether it be at the cost of your morality, or at the cost of your own life, both stories show us the consequences of a criminal life.
While all of these examples are fairly straightforward, so far, sometimes the Villain Protagonist’s journey isn’t so cut and dry. Walter White in “Breaking Bad” starts off as an anti-heroic figure. His goals and ideals are actually quite good and noble, as he ultimately just wants to do good by his family and is generally just trying to survive. However, as the series goes on - just like with Michael - the evil of the world he’s immersed himself in swallows him up more and more, and he begins to lose sight of the place where his journey started, causing him to go off the deep end and sink into darker and more despicable acts, making it harder and harder for the audience to sympathize with him and agree with his behavior. In the end, however, Walter does start to realize he’s lost his way, and by the series finale, it’s hard to say if he’s still the villain, or if he’s struggled his way back to a SOMEWHAT brighter space in the universe
If Walter White is a bizarre example of the “Villain Rising” storyline, then Alex DeLarge from “A Clockwork Orange” is an equally bizarre example of the “Villain Fall” storyline. Alex starts off the story as one of the most horrifying human beings anyone could NOT hope to run into. He’s a boy genius who squanders his incredibly gifted mind in favor of brutish violence, engaging in sadistic and intensely vicious acts of criminal mischief just for his own sick pleasure. He’s an appalling ghoul of a creature, one of the scariest human monsters you could (n)ever hope to meet. Thanks to government experimental procedures, however, Alex ends up being stripped of all his criminal desires later in the movie…but once he’s stripped of these dark parts of his spirit, his life doesn’t get better, instead it becomes a nightmare. It’s not till he’s “truly cured” and allowed to be the savage fiend he was at the start that he seems to find some closure and happiness. In this story, the villain’s fall is something we’re supposed to question and ponder, as “A Clockwork Orange” raises interesting and HIGHLY disturbing questions about free will and the psychology of human beings.
One of my favorite Villain Protagonists of All Time is Light Yagami from Death Note, and he weirdly enough has TWO different endings to his story. In both the manga and the anime (disregarding various other versions, such as the better-than-you-think stage musical and the worse-than-even-I-expected Netflix film), Light starts off as an idealistic youth who feels the world needs fixing. He believes the justice system in his country, perhaps even all justice across the globe, is deeply flawed, and wants to make sure that criminals pay for their crimes, while good people are rewarded. When Light comes into contact with a demonic notebook, which allows him to murder anyone whose name he inscribes in its pages, he begins to come unglued, as a mixture of his own ego and the power of the book corrupts him and turns him into a psychopathic, narcissistic serial killer. While in both adaptations Light is ultimately killed in a final brush with the law, the way his death plays out differs greatly: in one, Light suffers in agony and monstrous humiliation, paying the ultimate price for hubris. He dies unloved, alone, and scared. In the anime, Light is allowed to die more peacefully, accepting his own weakness without panic or resistance. Whether he is forgiven or repentant or simply knows it’s time to die is left up to interpretation. In essence, he gets both types of basic endings: the karmic justice in the manga, and the tragic penalty in the anime.
Why do Villain Protagonists fascinate us so much? I would argue it’s for the same basic reason that Villains, in general, interest us, but now with a new twist. Villains fascinate us because they allow us to glimpse into the dark recesses of the human mind: to see the things we would or could be capable of if situations escalated to a point where we abandoned our inhibitions in favor of seeking whatever mattered most to us. Villain Protagonists represent that in a highly poignant way, because they bring us closer to the Heart of Darkness than ever. By making the villain the hero of the story, the questions become even harder and more interesting for us to work out, and challenge our basic allegiances and ideals in a subtle, intriguing way. When the Villain Protagonist reaches the end of their adventure, whether they find a tragic penance or a righteous doom, we remain sorry to see them beaten, because we realize that - no matter how evil they might have been - they are not as different from us as one might at first anticipate.
Look at this image of the Murder Mystery Dinner Party again.
MACB focused on the woman's face next to Adam and...
...became convinced she was Rosie Huntington-Whitely & that meant Jason Statham was also there. Then Rosie showed familiar landscapes from her holidays...
Recently, I asked if anyone had any suggestions for lists they’d like to see me do, either kink-related or non-kink related. I didn’t get too much feedback, but one person who DID give me feedback (not sure who, they were anonymous) and suggested one option could be a list of my favorite Shakespeare plays. I guess that makes sense, since I DO bring up Shakespeare quite a lot on my page. I’m a big fan of Shakespeare, and I’ve actually performed in several Shakespearean plays, so it seems only fair to give a rundown of some of my favorites.
They keyword here is SOME. I decided to go with a Top 6 for this one, for two reasons. First of all, that was the number I did when I talked about my favorite musicals. Second of all, it’s just an easy number to fall on, since starting around number seven my favorites get kerbobbled.They all have their points of interests and odd cons, and some of them I’ve come to like more as time has gone on, while others I like less. My Top 5, however, have remained pretty darn consistent for years.
Before I get into said Top 6, I do want to give a rundown of some of the plays I love that AREN’T featured here. Consider all of these the Honorable Mentions: The Merchant of Venice, Romeo & Juliet, King Lear, Henry IV (Parts 1 & 2), Julius Caesar, Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It, and The Winter’s Tale.
And now, for the Top 6!
6. The Tempest.
The Tempest is a story that starts off in a seemingly obvious place, then takes a turn you don’t expect. The tale begins when a ship carrying a whole family of Italian nobles crashes upon a seemingly deserted island in the midst of a storm. It is revealed that the cause of the storm is the wizard, Prospero: Prospero was betrayed and usurped by his family - the very nobles in question - and at first, it seems like he plans to take revenge on them all with them trapped on the island to which he has retreated in exile. However, as the show goes on, it turns out this isn’t what Prospero has in mind: he starts off the show as a slightly unlikeable character, being very arrogant and dictatorial, but as the play continues, a kinder, gentler side to him comes more and more into the foreground. We eventually realize he’s not out for simple revenge, but rather, he wants to try and set the balance straight, so to speak: throughout the play, characters are rewarded or punished, and Prospero ultimately acts as their judge. The ones who are punished or rewarded are not always the ones we’d expect, at the start, to earn those fates. In a way, this play is sort of an anti-revenge play; Prospero does NOT revenge himself upon his family, and instead puts aside old grudges and reconnects with people. A first time watcher wouldn’t guess this is the direction the play is going, and it’s this unexpected turn in the plot that makes the Tempest so particularly unique.
5. Othello.
“Othello” is a story of caution and temperance. It’s a cautionary tale of what could happen if one puts their trust in the wrong people, or if one acts too rashly without great thought…or both, as they are the chief faults of our titular main character. At the start of the story, Othello is effectively a man who has it all: he’s a respected soldier, has a beautiful wife who loves him, and has many dear friends to count on. This is all despite his background as a Moor, which leads to some discrimination against him; he is, in short, a figure to be greatly admired. Unfortunately, his life begins to fall apart thanks to machinations of our villain, the sinister Iago. Iago is one of Shakespeare’s greatest and most iconic antagonists: a sociopathic manipulator whose reasons for his villainy are as petty as his wickedness is grand. Iago dupes EVERYBODY in this story, and I mean EVERYBODY: he’s one of those people who an put on a front that makes him seem trustworthy and friendly, but underneath it he’s an absolute monster. Iago plays everyone in the play like chess pieces against Othello, just to ruin his life, and in the course of this ruins countless others…and even though Iago is eventually found out, by the time he’s caught, the damage has already been done, and the results are truly tragic. In the words of an unrelated poem: “Unto an evil counselor, close heart and ear and eye.”
4. Richard III.
In some ways, Richard III is actually similar to Othello, but with one key difference: this time, the villain is the main character. The titular figure of Richard - one of England’s more…CONTROVERSIAL rulers, to say the least - is depicted as a villain in a similar vein to Iago. He’s a manipulative creature who plays just about every character in the story, and even the audience, to a degree, as he goes about his wicked ways of working. However, in this case, Richard is not the antagonist, but a classic example of a Villain Protagonist: a case where the bad guy of the story is also the one we follow, and who has the most dynamic arc of any character. At first, Richard seems like a sympathetic scoundrel; yes, he’s evil, but we understand his reasons for what he does and even feel sorry for him. As the story goes on, however, we see more and more just what a monster this wicked king is, and his ultimate undoing is the result of his many sins coming back to bite him. You reap what you sow, as they say. In short, this is a story that brings the audience into the very mind and heart of evil, and that’s a powerful concept, indeed.
3. Hamlet.
Alongside “Romeo & Juliet,” this is arguably Shakespeare’s most famous play, and it’s not an easy one to set in stone as to what it truly is. On the surface, Hamlet is seemingly a fairly straightforward story of revenge, but it’s also a story of madness, mortal philosophy, betrayal, chaos, and more. While ultimately a tragic piece, it has a surprisingly wonderful sense of humor, something I don’t think a lot of people pick up on at first glance. The story focuses on Prince Hamlet, who learns from his father’s ghost that said father was murdered by his uncle, the current king, Claudius. Hamlet thus begins trying to plot a way to kill the King, but various things keep sidetracking his schemes. Throughout the play, characters call Hamlet’s sanity into question; it’s unclear, in the text, if he’s truly insane or just “crazy like a fox.” Many people believe it might be a bit of both: that he might be mad, but he doesn’t KNOW it, and is able to play up his madness to throw people off the scent. Whether he’s mentally deranged or not, he’s certainly an emotional wreck, and it’s hard to blame him given the amount of stress he goes through in this story. Hamlet is a classic, bitter tale with many themes that remains lauded for the best reasons. The only question about its placement here is why it isn’t even higher.
2. A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Another one of Shakespeare’s most fantastical plays, and that’s a big part of why I like it. I just love the fantasy of it…and it’s quite funny, to boot! While Hamlet certainly has a good sense of humor, this is the only proper comedy of my Top 5; the rest are classified as either tragedies or histories. The play is essentially a collection of subplots, all of which collide at different points throughout the piece, and all of which involve love in some way, shape, or form. A duke and duchess have just been married; a love triangle is going on between a bunch of young humans; a team of thespians are preparing to put on a play (itself a self-parody of Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet), and - in the middle of all these human dilemmas - the King and Queen of the Fairies (Oberon and Titania, respectively) are having a sort of lover’s feud. It’s the feuding fairies who cause most of the trouble in the play, mostly courtesy of Oberon’s jester, Puck - one of the greatest tricksters in all of literature. Alongside Puck, probably the most well-known character in the play is Bottom - one of the aforementioned thespians, who is arguably the single most comical character in this overall comedic play (so that’s saying a lot). These two are usually considered the starring roles, so to speak, but really, every part in this play is a lot of fun. Amidst all these darker subjects, some levity in fairyland definitely has its place.
1. The Scottish Play.
Nope. I’m still not saying the title. I’m a little more superstitious nowadays. XD In my opinion, this is the closest Shakespeare ever came to writing a horror story. And much like Richard III, it is a story with a classic Villain Protagonist as our leading role. However, unlike Richard, MacB (no, I’m not calling him or his bride, Lady M, by name, either) is a much a more tragic and sympathetic antagonist. He starts off as a good man, with many noteworthy virtues…but as the story goes on, his paranoia and ambition drive him to more and more cruel acts, and steadily send him spiraling into insanity. Lady M follows a parallel course to her husband; she is ultimately the central antagonist, though it’s hard to call her any more of a villain than her husband…or any less, for that matter. She is the one who eggs MacB on in his endeavors at first, but as the play goes on, the guilt and madness strike her just as badly, if not worse. Throw in witches, ghosts, and a vast number of brutal murders, and you have one of Shakespeare’s single darkest and most harrowing plays. It is a story of fate, above all else, as the ones who try to hasten or defy fate become the bad guys, and the ones who simply go with the flow and work with what they have come out victorious. Its themes, characters, and overall tone make it the perfect Shakespearean story for me: equal parts fantastic and disturbingly realistic, it is, in my opinion, a masterpiece. Without a doubt, My Favorite Shakespeare Play.
MACB is an amazing internet detective. Yesterday, she noticed a comment on Adam’s latest post.
Going to his IG, she found his post celebrating his Airstream purchase dated 6 November then checked his girlfriend’s IG & found a video showing the interior of their “first home” together dated 25 October.
Therefore, she concluded Adam bought his Airstream in LA back in October! And here’s a photo she found of the LA Airstream dealership.
Compare to Adam’s photo. Yep. Same place!
Let’s review the photos he shared yesterday: A selfie on a jet + the day he bought an Airstream + a book about “hearing” plants + 3 photos of a forest w/ light snow (2 w/ Boris). If this were a game of Pictograph, what would these images say?
I dunno.
BUT, I BELIEVE, the snowy forest was from their Knoxville trip BECAUSE the amount of snowfall matches the time they were there + I know the Smokey Mountains extremely well & swear the vegetation matches the locale.
Taking Boris along probably eliminated staying at the fancy Blackberry resorts we sussed out because they don’t allow pets. Ofc, they could have made an exception for a famous guest. BUT, they didn’t use the Airstream during that trip UNLESS, Adam hired someone to drive it across the country so they could use it for a few days!
