Errors that make you cringe

[rafletcher]

I was listening to a short story on Radio 4 Extra at the weekend, written by Roald Dahl, called Someone Like You.

A  brieft synopsis is the protagonist, a Not Very Nice Man, gets slighted by a Lady. To get his revenge he commissions a painting of the Lady by to a Top Painter. The protagonist is Very Rich and, we learn, a Top Picture Restorer.

The picture is duly delivered, depicting the Lady in a full length black dress. As he's a Top Picture Restorer he whips out some cotton wool and turpentine and starts dabbing at the black paint to reveal the Lady's undergarments. He then dabs some more to end up with a picture of the Lady in undergarments and showing her bow legs, which he then springs upon unsuspecting guests at a dinner party.

WTAF?

Now my knowledge of painting is restricted to mostly emulsion and non-drip gloss, but I'm pretty sure paintings don't work like that.

Actually, that is how painting restorers work.

However, it takes a very long time, a small patch is worked on at a time, delicately removing one paint layer, then washing the solvent off before moving on.

But would the painiting of a dress feature underwear and flesh benneath?

Probably not, but it’s not at all unusual for original paintings to be overpainted at a later date.

[MattH]

That featured in on of the "Tales of the Unexpected" episodes, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0717437/ . The premise there was that this painter's unconventional method was to build up from painting a nude, then underclothes, then fully clothed. Something about how this gives a more natural looking painting. It looks like it's available on daily motion or archive.org, (S2E10).

[Tim Hall]

That featured in on of the "Tales of the Unexpected" episodes, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0717437/ . The premise there was that this painter's unconventional method was to build up from painting a nude, then underclothes, then fully clothed. Something about how this gives a more natural looking painting. It looks like it's available on daily motion or archive.org, (S2E10).

Ah. An important plot point that either (a) I missed or (ii) they dropped from the radio version.

[Tim Hall]

That featured in on of the "Tales of the Unexpected" episodes, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0717437/ . The premise there was that this painter's unconventional method was to build up from painting a nude, then underclothes, then fully clothed. Something about how this gives a more natural looking painting. It looks like it's available on daily motion or archive.org, (S2E10).

Ah. An important plot point that either (a) I missed or (ii) they dropped from the radio version.

Bah. Missed that important bit on account of not hearing the whole story. I take it all back.

By the way, the story is "Nunc Dimitis" in the series "Someone Like You".  Four episodes are still available on BBC Sounds, including the brilliant "Lamb to the Slaughter."

[Kim]

I'm willing to bet good money that there are a several of paintings where items of clothing and/or vegetation have been added retrospectively, because Victorians.  Which is more than sufficient inspiration for such a fantasy.

[Tim Hall]

Mind you, in "Lamb to the Slaughter" the lead character has just stuck a frozen leg of lamb straight in the oven to cook. I'd defrost it first.

[MattH]

By the way, the story is "Nunc Dimitis" in the series "Someone Like You".  Four episodes are still available on BBC Sounds, including the brilliant "Lamb to the Slaughter."

Thanks for that - hadn't spotted that series, so it's now in my commuting podcast playlist.

[Pingu]

That's a turdus migratorius 

[TheLurker]

[img width=640 heigThat's a turdus migratorius 

Corr bloimey that's orlright missis. It 'itched a lift on me 'at. When oi came back frum me cousins in the states. Doncherkno?

[vorsprung]

That's a turdus migratorius 

and it's stuffed

We've been doing the family tree and I am not related to Julie Andrews.
Gracie Fields, probably
Mick Jagger, possibly

[liam_whippet]

"I can't get no ..... aspidistra ...."


"It's the biggest Jumpin Jack Flash in the world.."


</ISIHAC>

[Pingu]

[img width=640 heigThat's a turdus migratorius 

Corr bloimey that's orlright missis. It 'itched a lift on me 'at. When oi came back frum me cousins in the states. Doncherkno?

Via Kent to drop off some bluebirds, no doubt.

[Pingu]

"Snow white turtle doves" in a bloody tedious pop song in the seventies.

Could've been leucistic.

[Steph]

That's a turdus migratorius 

Yup. That has always made me cringe.

[sam]

In Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, which I watched specifically in anticipation of recalibrating my Dial of Badness, Fleabag's sidekick Teddy asks if Indy knew the Wright brothers, because it's necessary to hit the audience over the head with how ancient Jones now is. I'm not complaining about the setup though.

Teddy Kumar: Did you know the Wright Brothers?
Indiana Jones: What?
Teddy Kumar: The Wright Brothers. Orville and Wilbur. They invented the airplane, and they lived in Indiana. Wilbur was born in Indiana.
Indiana Jones: I'm not from Indiana, Teddy. And the Wright Brothers were born during the Civil War.
Teddy Kumar: Oh, I thought maybe you went to school with them.
Helena Shaw: Oh, come on, Indy. That was funny.

Wait a minute I thought, then stopped thinking because it was easier to google. And indeed, a middle aged Indy – born in 1899(!) – could easily have met Orville, who died in 1948; a young Indy technically could've bumped into Wilbur before he left this vale of tears in 1912. To make it worse, the Wright brothers were in fact born after the Civil War, though Wilbur, the older brother, only missed it by 2 years. But I can see that Indy informing Teddy the brothers were born during Reconstruction, which would've been more in character for a professor trying to educate a youngster, was never going to fly.

As for my Dial of Badness, I'm not saying the movie was in any way good, but the megahate for Waller-Bridge's character backfired for me. She wasn't so terrible.

Mr Nazi surviving this, while not an error as such, hacked me off more than was reasonable. If I wanted a roadrunner cartoon I'd head over to youtube.

[TheLurker]

...I will also offer the scene at the start of 'Atonement' where the main characters are overflown by a Lancaster bomber.

Yebbut, there aren't that many Hampdens, Wellingtons or even Whitleys in flying condition (don't mention crap CGI, please) and as a piece of scene setting or era evocation for an audience more or less totally uninterested in old aeroplanes it does the job without being stupidly anachronistic.

...gliders that landed at Pegasus Bridge ... were instead launched, presumably by a very large number of elastic bands, from the cruiser HMS Halifax, lying six miles offshore.

There's allowable deviation due to lack of the exact hardware, see above, and there's outright stupid.