August 2020 - Rector's Ramblings
Typically, the dramas have been enjoyed in hour-long intervals over a week or two. Scarcely binge-watching, but nonetheless more concentrated than Inormally manage. Highlights amongst these have been ‘The Split’ - life in an up-market family law firm, whose clients’ traumas reflect the chaos of the main lawyer protagonists; and recently, ‘The Luminaries’, a really weird spiritual adventure set amongst the New Zealand gold rush, and stunning scenery - which, through the BBC’s recent policy, had us watching our sixth and our final episode the very evening that the fourth episode was showing on terrestrial television; and ‘Liar’, the second series of a thriller concerned with a relationship gone-wrong and an unexplained death. I have also watched a couple of three-part biopics, ‘Quiz’ and ‘The Salisbury Poisonings’. It makes me wonder where I found all that time, and whether it was all well-spent!? I think it is interesting for anyone to reflect on what you have watched, what you have found most enjoyable or compelling, and indeed what you have chosen not to watch, or discarded after an episode or two. Have a think …There have also been films. Among those that have left me feeling enriched, are a delicate, beautifully filmed Spanish life-story (with sub-titles), ‘Julieta’; the fascinating treatment of industrial action by women machinists at the Ford Motor Co. in 1968, ‘Made in Dagenham’; and the latest viewing, the mid- nineteenth century tale of Solomon Northup, ‘Twelve Years a Slave’ - which was awarded the best movie Oscar in 2014. I passionately believe we should all be learning and feeling and thinking, though the media of film, drama and literature; which often - and with such great resources at hand - can lay bare the human soul, and see us grow, if we are willing. Come what may, you will choose your own favourites, and the tremendous resource of play-back allows us to delve deeply and productively into the film archives. I’d like to reflect simply on this latest viewing, ‘Twelve Years a Slave’, which, as I write, has moved me more deeply than any other recent film. The horrors of the global slave trade, and the working of slave labourers in the plantations of the Americas, needs recalling; and digesting; and a As to the time of lockdown: use it thoughtfully. Andrew Doye |
![]() |