Are we the only ones to see and enjoy the ultra miserable 'The Village' on BBC 1?
I think it's a total gem, avoiding all the normal TV cliches, and "telling it like it was", except a bit more drab and gloomy. It tells the story of a Derbyshire village through the 20th century, and the first series has focused on the period during the first world war. Boy oh boy was life hard then. I'm really looking forward to the second series which will be set in the twenties. I doubt (and hope) it will be much cheerier, as they were pretty bleak days too. The Village was something that the BBC does best when it tries. Remarkable screenplay that actually made you pay attention, think and use your imagination.
Sorry about the ad at the beginning
Many have compared it to Heimat, the German programme that followed a family through the challenges of the twentieth century. Equally brilliant, less gloomy, and just as fascinating....but you need many, many hours to watch the trilogy from beginning to end
We had an interesting bank holiday - I mentioned our trip down to Brighton, but we returned to host The Boy's 18th birthday bbq with all his friends. It was an afternoon thing to avoid the drunkeness that often clouds these things...how foolish of us. Sobriety was generally maintained during the daylight hours, but as the sun set, the teens headed off to the pub. The Boy was summoned back some time later. He arrived in a bit of a state, and worse still had lost the Ray Bans his girlfriend had bought him as a present. He was distraught. She's still not talking to him. And me? I was furious, but equally distraught because I could feel his wretchedness at having got himself into a pickle. At the moment he got home I could still see the little baby of eighteen years ago...helpless and confused. Painful, really painful.
And there was I stupidly thinking that once they hit 18, you could retire from real parenting duties.