I rather enjoyed it. I haven't read the book (no spoilers please), but I'm looking forward to finding out where the story goes.
Sadly not the documentary about the SS Great Britain that I was expecting
Started to watch it, in an effort to do something televisual with Mrs B. Unfortunately I had to give up as i just couldn't hear what half the characters were saying. Shan't bother with it next week.
You are right, Mr Weasel. Superintendents are not that young even if there is a war on. They haven't taken too many liberties with the book (yet) apart from turning Harry into a Scotsman and sending Sylvia some way upmarket. I shall persevere with it.
I just wish Mr Deighton hadn't nuxed any repeat showing or video release of "Game, Set & Match" coz I thought it was rather good.
Watching the TV without subtitles is like riding up a hill without using the gears :)
The worst thing is the incessant mumbling which just seems to be a thing now.
The mumbling complaints appear to count as news: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-39038406
They must have been watching something different to me.
Having followed the link and had a bit of a read now, I do wonder a bit about the quality of the tellys people are watching it on maybe - some modern flat screeners do not do sound well.
I use my stereo for sound but still had problems figuring out what the main character was saying.Having followed the link and had a bit of a read now, I do wonder a bit about the quality of the tellys people are watching it on maybe - some modern flat screeners do not do sound well.
Yes, that point was raised in the radio discussion this morning.
Having followed the link and had a bit of a read now, I do wonder a bit about the quality of the tellys people are watching it on maybe - some modern flat screeners do not do sound well.
Yes, that point was raised in the radio discussion this morning.
I've yet to watch it but am looking forward to doing so.
Someone on the radio pointed out that the UK is one of the few countries in Europe that has not been invaded within living memory. And as such we have not had to face the "what would you do?" question that many Europeans (or their parents/grandparents) have had to deal with. The ambiguity of the protagonist in SS GB supposedly reflects the pull between collaboration and resistance that at least in theory could make a compelling drama.
I blame Scandi Noir and 'The Wire'. Once that style become the norm, everything follows it. I heard someone on the radio saying that the German diction in SS GB is actually very good. A bit like the over-articulated 'English' accents in US shows. Who can forget Daphne Moon and her 'Manchester' accent in Frasier? I'm used to Americans not understanding a word unless I do RP.
I've yet to watch it but am looking forward to doing so.
Someone on the radio pointed out that the UK is one of the few countries in Europe that has not been invaded within living memory.
<coughs>
What about the Channel Islands?
I've yet to watch it but am looking forward to doing so.
Someone on the radio pointed out that the UK is one of the few countries in Europe that has not been invaded within living memory. And as such we have not had to face the "what would you do?" question that many Europeans (or their parents/grandparents) have had to deal with. The ambiguity of the protagonist in SS GB supposedly reflects the pull between collaboration and resistance that at least in theory could make a compelling drama.
<coughs>
What about the Channel Islands?
A visit to Guersney is very illuminating on that front - far more interesting place to visit than I had anticipated because of this, plus all the concrete bunkers and stuff are still intact as noone ever bothered to try and overcome the defences militarily. Very spooky and quite scary seeing Nazi propoganda written in English :-\Seconded.
I just wish Mr Deighton hadn't nuxed any repeat showing or video release of "Game, Set & Match" coz I thought it was rather good.
I did not know that - I'd wondered why I'd been unable to find it; I think one of my copies of the books is a TV tie-in edition.
Mumbling. Currently, there are a few things in TV-land that may be relevant.Yup, some of the cast members are guilty of shite enunciation (in a variety of accents). I suspect this trend has come about not because actors aren't trained properly, but more because the casting agents/producers in modern TV/movie land don't care, so an actor has more to gain from an "interesting" performance than a technically good one.
1. People who don't enunciate adequately (there's a list...). It's perfectly possibly to have a non-rp voice which enunciates correctly. I was trained to project and enunciate, and it happens automatically if I raise my voice, even more than 30 years later. It's a technique thing, so either they don't teach it any more, or people don't bother.
2...
<techy stuff about mixing etc etc ... >
I just wish Mr Deighton hadn't nuxed any repeat showing or video release of "Game, Set & Match" coz I thought it was rather good.
I did not know that - I'd wondered why I'd been unable to find it; I think one of my copies of the books is a TV tie-in edition.
I'll just leave this here - nicked from elsewhere: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmRu2axUu2LEP_4XGpFFuGwxjh3SYu9or
I think the actors mumble deliberately because it is a way of scenestealiing. If done right it attracts disproportionate attention and gives the appearance of authenticity and depth which can be seen as 'great acting'. Like the use of silence in Pinter etc. It is a technique to manipulate the audience, and possibly the other actors.
I quite enjoyed the show though and will watch more.
A visit to Guersney is very illuminating on that front - far more interesting place to visit than I had anticipated because of this, plus all the concrete bunkers and stuff are still intact as noone ever bothered to try and overcome the defences militarily. Very spooky and quite scary seeing Nazi propoganda written in English :-\Seconded.
A visit to Guersney is very illuminating on that front - far more interesting place to visit than I had anticipated because of this, plus all the concrete bunkers and stuff are still intact as noone ever bothered to try and overcome the defences militarily. Very spooky and quite scary seeing Nazi propoganda written in English :-\Seconded.
these are well worth checking out too;http://www.ciosjersey.org.uk/ they don't open that often as they are run by volunteers but much better than the Underground Hospital Ho8 (which has now renamed itself as it was probably never intended to be a hospital)
I used to be in SubBrit and one of their members informed me with some conviction that the various tunnel systems on the islands would have become extermination camps for the islanders themselves had the war turned a different way....
Alderney was home to a lot more barbarism as they moved all the islanders off and just used forced labour mostly Eastern European POWs
Hitler held a victory parade in London, the Soviet Red Fleet was given bases at Rosyth, Scapa Flow and Invergordon, and Hermann Göring and Joseph Goebbels were on board the first non-stop Lufthansa flight from London to New York Cityhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS-GB
Well I've not read the book but Pearl Harbour (I think) won't have happened yet? It doesn't need to have anything to do with that in the plot at all. it's about the UK mostly. Fund to speculate though.
They've started to take a few liberties with the story in episode 4. Not sure I agree with this turn of events.
Slightly OT, but:Helicopters?
Where Eagles Dare was a great movie; but now I've got the extended director's cut I fast-forward through the bits that Eastwood & Burton ruin. Fantastic hour on history of german winter uniforms, and the section on Austrian cable car technology is spell-binding, even on repeat views.
Slightly OT, but:Helicopters?
Where Eagles Dare was a great movie; but now I've got the extended director's cut I fast-forward through the bits that Eastwood & Burton ruin. Fantastic hour on history of german winter uniforms, and the section on Austrian cable car technology is spell-binding, even on repeat views.
I have absolutely no interest in helicopters. You seem like a very boring man.Slightly OT, but:Helicopters?
Where Eagles Dare was a great movie; but now I've got the extended director's cut I fast-forward through the bits that Eastwood & Burton ruin. Fantastic hour on history of german winter uniforms, and the section on Austrian cable car technology is spell-binding, even on repeat views.
The Germans used helicopters in WW2 for transport and artillery spotting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focke-Achgelis_Fa_223
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flettner_Fl_282
Two Fa-223s were assigned to the German Army's Mountain Warfare School at Innsbruck, so helicopters being used in the film wouldn't have been completely anachronistic, but the lack of working German hardware when the classic war movies were being filmed perforce leads to substitutions.
See: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065207/faq?ref_=tt_faq_2#.2.1.2
Note that German WW2 copters tended to be twin or intermeshed rotorcraft - however, the Americans used what we would recognise as the standard helicopter design in the Sikorsky R-4, which saw service in the Pacific, 1944-45:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikorsky_R-4
There was a helichopter* in the book as well.
* Where Eagles Dare, not SS-GB
I have absolutely no interest in helicopters. You seem like a very boring man.;D
It's shit. Just read the book :)
Read, to rhyme with reed, not with red.It's shit. Just read the book :)
Do you mean 'Just read the book*' or 'Just read the book**'?
* as in go away and do it
** as in I have just done it
or vice versa?