Ben McIntyre is a Bond/Fleming expert and his documentary on Operation Mincemeat was shown on BBC4 last night. It is terrific stuff and done like a thriller.
It's the story of how the Allies - Brits really - carried out misdirection tactics against the enemy prior to their invasion of Cyprus, by having a body float by with plans for the invasion of Greece instead.
It was filmed as The Man Who Never Was I think but this documentary must be better, not least because of all the new info that has materialised over the decades.
It will be on iPlayer most likely, but the pace of it reminded me of the Bond doc Everything or Nothing, and of course the whole 'fake somebody's death' thing anticipates YOLT - albeit the film, in which Fleming - being dead himself by then - had no part.
I saw that that was on again last night and you are right - it’s a terrific documentary. It’s taken from his book of the same name. A couple of nights previous was his other documentary (again taken from his book of the same name) on Agent Zigzag - and THAT is an incredible story
That documentary has been on youtube for some time. In fact it's been linked to in the "True stories from the world of espionage" thread since October 2018. I reccomend that thread if you like espionage history.
The "Don't mention the war" episode of Fawlty Towers has been removed from the BBC-owned UKTV streaming service. We don't know why or if a man with green trainers was somehow involved in the decision.
The "Don't mention the war" episode of Fawlty Towers has been removed from the BBC-owned UKTV streaming service. We don't know why or if a man with green trainers was somehow involved in the decision.
Of all the novels predicting the future, 1984 is the most accurate of all.
Censorship is dangerous and everyone’s future is at stake where it is allowed to prosper.
Voltaire: I disapprove of what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.
Voltaire: Common sense is not so common.
Voltaire: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
One has to wonder if any of Fleming's Bond books will meet a simular fate some day. It's impoortant to discuss and question art that is of its time and expresses different values than most have today, but we should be careful about removing them.
A young woman discovers she has the ability to hear the innermost thoughts of people around her as songs and musical numbers. (IMDB)
Jane Levy is very charming in the lead role and songs and dance is used very well to convey feelings and thoughts. This series is fun, charming and sometimes moving.
Tonight there's a big interview special with four British acting Dames on TV (don't know the English title yet), including Judi Densh. I'm looking forwward to it :007)
It was "Nothing like a Dame" with Judy Dench, Maggie Smith, Eileen Atkins and Joan Plowright. I've never known anything about Dame Judy's acting career before, so that was nice. It was also interesting when she was speaking about the Bond films and she mentioned the press conference Kim Philby called when he was suspected of being one of the Camebridege Five. "Any actor should watch it". Judy Dench thought that was great acting by Philby.
I have been watching loads of old series that passed me by when they were first screened - onto Season 11 of Midsomer Murders (John Nettles is brilliant as Barnaby), Happy Valley was good and we have just finished the first season of Mr Selfridge.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
I enjoyed watching Mr. Selfridge. I've just finished the second series of My Brilliant Friend, an Italian show about two friends growing up in a poor area of Naples in the 1950s. It took a while to watch each episode because it's in Italian with sub titles so I'd often have to pause it or rewind so I could keep up.
"My brilliant friend" is a quality series. It's nice that you're wathing subtitled content because it opens up for a lot of brilliant TV and movies you'd otherwise miss.
That's so true. I quite enjoy hearing different languages. I watched a Dutch series a while ago, I thought that was a beautiful language.
My son used to live in the Middle East and I've watched a few films in Arabic. I haven't seen anything in Norwegian or heard the language. Are there any films or series you could recommend?
"My brilliant friend" is a quality series. It's nice that you're wathing subtitled content because it opens up for a lot of brilliant TV and movies you'd otherwise miss.
What i dislike are programmes that have been dubbed. I find it very distracting. I would much rather watch with subtitles.There are a few programmes on Netflix recently that I started to watch that were dubbed but gave up on. Don't take away the authenticity of a programme !!
"My brilliant friend" is a quality series. It's nice that you're wathing subtitled content because it opens up for a lot of brilliant TV and movies you'd otherwise miss.
What i dislike are programmes that have been dubbed. I find it very distracting. I would much rather watch with subtitles.There are a few programmes on Netflix recently that I started to watch that were dubbed but gave up on. Don't take away the authenticity of a programme !!
I absolutely agree. Here the view is that if the audience can read well enough to follow subtitles it won't get dubbed. Only children's movies get dubbed. Hearing the voices annd acting of the actors is important.
I absolutely agree. Here the view is that if the audience can read well enough to follow subtitles it won't get dubbed. Only children's movies get dubbed. Hearing the voices and acting of the actors is important.
I've always thought that dubbing over the original voice must change what the original actors intended. You are listening to the actors who did the dubbing's interpretation.
I started watching 'Medici' on Netflix. It was ok. Richard Madden was his usual robotic self and Brian Cox was very understated. The biggest issue I had with it was Dustin Hoffman. What a terrible bit of casting. He didn't suit it at all. Dustin is not suitable to be wandering around medieval Florence.
I think in Poland they have what they call "Lektor". It's a male voice dubbing all the parts in a completely flat and emotionless way. At least normal dubbing has actors speaking the lines, doing their best to conway the emotions.
He married me didn't he? (the old ones are the best)
Straight in there with the infamous 'We're the Sweeney, son, and we haven't had any dinner - you've kept us waiting. So unless you want a kicking, you tell us where those photographs are.'
We've seen them all a hundred times (and The Professionals). Hubby has loved both since he was a kid.You can literally show him a scene and he'll tell you what episode it's from. Misspent youth obviously.
The copies of the Professionals on Amazon look amazingly good -{ don't know
if it's just my TV up scaling them or if they've been remastered or just cleaned
up. Funny to see in the first episode a very, very Young Phil Davis as a Teen
taking a nurse hostage.
"I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
Set in Vienna in 1886 it's a young Sigmund Freud solving some strange goings on.
I am enjoying it but I can only assume they used Freud's name to attract viewers. They could have used a fictional character and it wouldn't have made a difference. It is also a blatant rip off of Penny Dreadful so much so that the main female lead is doing a marvelous impression of Eva Green.
Finally, the dubbing. Despite all my moaning in previous posts, it's not bad at all. However, my biggest gripe is why would you give late 19th century Austrian policemen cockney accents? I do find it quite silly. Why can't they use German actors who speak English to do the dubbing? It would make it more authentic at least.
Comments
I saw that that was on again last night and you are right - it’s a terrific documentary. It’s taken from his book of the same name. A couple of nights previous was his other documentary (again taken from his book of the same name) on Agent Zigzag - and THAT is an incredible story
Documantary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=8&v=hBk3sSUB5X4&feature=emb_logo
Of all the novels predicting the future, 1984 is the most accurate of all.
Censorship is dangerous and everyone’s future is at stake where it is allowed to prosper.
Voltaire: I disapprove of what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.
Voltaire: Common sense is not so common.
Voltaire: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.
A young woman discovers she has the ability to hear the innermost thoughts of people around her as songs and musical numbers. (IMDB)
Jane Levy is very charming in the lead role and songs and dance is used very well to convey feelings and thoughts. This series is fun, charming and sometimes moving.
Netflix
Roger was just perfect to play Simon Templar
Smooth as silk is our Rog -{
My son used to live in the Middle East and I've watched a few films in Arabic. I haven't seen anything in Norwegian or heard the language. Are there any films or series you could recommend?
What i dislike are programmes that have been dubbed. I find it very distracting. I would much rather watch with subtitles.There are a few programmes on Netflix recently that I started to watch that were dubbed but gave up on. Don't take away the authenticity of a programme !!
I absolutely agree. Here the view is that if the audience can read well enough to follow subtitles it won't get dubbed. Only children's movies get dubbed. Hearing the voices annd acting of the actors is important.
I've always thought that dubbing over the original voice must change what the original actors intended. You are listening to the actors who did the dubbing's interpretation.
I started watching 'Medici' on Netflix. It was ok. Richard Madden was his usual robotic self and Brian Cox was very understated. The biggest issue I had with it was Dustin Hoffman. What a terrible bit of casting. He didn't suit it at all. Dustin is not suitable to be wandering around medieval Florence.
“Shut it you slag!”
(And The Professionals)
I've just told my hubby and he's gone straight to them. Season one, episode 1 ... That's my evening taken care of )
Your husband has impeccable tastes, Lady Rose -{
He married me didn't he? (the old ones are the best)
Straight in there with the infamous 'We're the Sweeney, son, and we haven't had any dinner - you've kept us waiting. So unless you want a kicking, you tell us where those photographs are.'
We've seen them all a hundred times (and The Professionals). Hubby has loved both since he was a kid.You can literally show him a scene and he'll tell you what episode it's from. Misspent youth obviously.
if it's just my TV up scaling them or if they've been remastered or just cleaned
up. Funny to see in the first episode a very, very Young Phil Davis as a Teen
taking a nurse hostage.
Set in Vienna in 1886 it's a young Sigmund Freud solving some strange goings on.
I am enjoying it but I can only assume they used Freud's name to attract viewers. They could have used a fictional character and it wouldn't have made a difference. It is also a blatant rip off of Penny Dreadful so much so that the main female lead is doing a marvelous impression of Eva Green.
Finally, the dubbing. Despite all my moaning in previous posts, it's not bad at all. However, my biggest gripe is why would you give late 19th century Austrian policemen cockney accents? I do find it quite silly. Why can't they use German actors who speak English to do the dubbing? It would make it more authentic at least.
It's Friday night and the best program on is "Great Canal Journies"