Sunday 19 March 2023

FISHY BUSINESS

Dear Walt Disney Productions,
 
Forgive my asking, but what was so bad about your 1989 animated film, THE LITTLE MERMAID, that you felt compelled to remake it in live-action – seemingly frame-for-frame – with far less appealing characterisations and nothing much extra other than an altogether predicable exercise in inclusivity box-ticking.
 
Yours sincerely,
 
The Ghost of Walt Disney
 
 

Tuesday 14 March 2023

NOBLE ENDEAVOUR

A splendid, superbly-crafted finale to the last-ever series of Endeavour: old puzzles solved; loose ends tied-up; smart call-backs summoned; relationships – past and future – understood; a few red-herrings; a clever twist or two; all blended with sweet recollections, fond farewells and a final, magical, meeting of endings and beginnings... Like its magisterial predecessor-successor, Morse, we are left with a maelstrom of unforgettably vivid moments of drama and characterisation that will live long as glistering ingots of TV gold.