Christopher Fowler's Blog, page 385

No TV For Bryant & May

Well, after the excellent Clerkenwell Films worked long and hard to develop Bryant & May as a TV series, creating a script for the pilot and getting the wonderful Derek Jacobi and Michael Gambon to sign to the show, ITV, Sky and the BBC all turned it down, citing the trend against original programming at [...]

No More Gin Cocktails?

I love the internet on winter evenings. There I was, looking up Vintage's Kindle editions of Somerset Maughan stories (be warned, Vintage are packaging them in such a way that you end up buying doubles) and one of the reviews got a bit off-piste on the subject of the SE Asia of 75 years ago. [...]

Re:View – 'The Lady'

Films recounting recent history run the risk of being prosaic, like 'The Iron Lady', which never lives up to its first scene, or manipulative, like the appalling 'Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close', which uses 9/11 as a whimsical healing exercise that's determined to jerk tears with tinkly piano and cute kiddy drawings. Somewhere between these [...]

Celebrating St Martin's

KINGS CROSS SOUNDS from Short Form Film Company on Vimeo.

Since 4,500 art students suddenly appeared in my neighbourhood the area has got a lot perkier. I haven't seen clothes this fun and stupid since I was 21 myself, wandering about in rainbow loons in midwinter, although generally these students seem more intense and conservative than [...]

Everything Really Old Is New Again

In times of austerity people become nostalgic for past comforts – but it seems we're going back more than just a few years this time. David Beckham's to blame for the return of the humble vest – as in 'under-the-shirt' – his new range just went on sale at H&M, although the sudden freezing snap [...]

London's Jazzy Cousin

We love London sites here, like the Londonist and Smoke (home of the feasibly complicated board game 'Soho!'), but checking out the equivalent in our neighbouring city across the Atlantic is a fascinating business. The Gothamist offers a great glimpse into the lives of New Yorkers here, and some of it is pretty scary stuff, [...]

Is The Past Still Present?

There's nothing to beat the musty smell of an old archive filled with dead authors – of course you'll be the only one there these days as the art of investigating the past is dying out – or is it? A site for works in the public domain has been recommended by my friend Michele [...]

Re:View – 'The Ladykillers'

London is currently rediscovering the pleasures of the farce, albeit in a nostalgic fashion. With 'Noises Off' and the even more venerable 'One Man, Two Guv'nors' currently packing 'em in again, 'The Ladykillers' looked like it might be a step too far, even re-written from the 1955 film by Graham 'Father Ted' Lineham. But, seeing [...]

Would You Let Strangers Into Your Home?

London's residents are being bombarded with information about how on earth we'll get about on our already fit-to-burst travel systems during the Olympics. But there's an alternative…

A friend just had two estate agents visit her to see about renting out her penthouse apartment during the Olympics. They estimated that she would earn between three and [...]

Fun Idea Of The Week

There's a petition knocking around to speed up arrival on tube platforms during the Olympics. Given the extreme steepness of tube station escalators (and anyone who has read 'Bryant & May Off The Rails' knows I have a bit of a phobia about them) you can imagine some spectacular accidents at the bottoms of the [...]