Christopher Fowler's Blog, page 521

British Character Actors No.10: Raymond Huntley

You know the face, but probably don't know the name. Postwar films seem to be full of bureaucrats, and Huntley played nearly all of them, bumbling, devious, sly, supercilious – it must have been a thankless task, always being typecast as a government representative. Birmingham-born Huntley was born in 1900 and lived to the ripe [...:]

Poison Pens

As Britain vanishes beneath a layer of volcanic ash, the pound drops at the thought of a hung parliament and mediocrity sweeps the land, one bright shining beacon of excellence has guided myself and Maura McHugh – a mad last-minute burst of entries in the Campaign For Real Fear has pushed up the figures and [...:]

Freelance Writers' Tax Form

Speaking of writers' earnings, this, from Ian Alexander Martin, made me laugh – click to enlarge it, and you may have to zoom a little further.

Writing? You're Better Off Being A Window Cleaner

I should never have worked out the figures. It started when I read about the latest row to engulf internet payments, which will come as no surprise to other full-time writers. Far from providing a new way of making a living, Spotify, which will be streaming 36 billion songs by the end of the year, [...:]

Port Out, Starboard Home

'POSH with a capital P…' sang Lionel Jeffries in 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'. The moral of this seems to be, don't tell people what to do in Hackney. In this election, Balloon Man's public school credentials were always going to cause a problem in the inner city boroughs, whose residents don't like fingers being wagged [...:]

British Character Actors No. 9: Wilfred Hyde-White

There was always something very cheering about Wilfred Hyde-White turning up in films. He had two expressions; disapprovingly sour duck-face and stern-but-kindly forgiveness. Everyone's likeable granddad, he appeared with Monroe in 'Let's Make Love' and is hilarious in 'The Story Of Gilbert & Sullivan' questioning Sullivan about whether he can afford to marry his daughter. [...:]

Hidden London: Napoleon's Hooter

Admiralty Arch is an office building incorporating the archway to The Mall. It's attached to the Old Admiralty Building, hence the name. I'd forgotten about the Admiralty Arch's nose. On the inside wall of the most northerly arch there's a human nose sticking out of the concrete.

It's set at a height of about seven [...:]

Bright Lights, No Thought

I was looking at this photo in the Guardian and realised what was wrong with it – every single show being advertised was between a quarter century and 60 years old. The baby on the block is 'Chicago', which opened in 1975 in a far edgier version. An accompanying book extract from David Mamet points [...:]

Illegal Or Unethical?

An interesting question arises in the New York Times. A reader wanted to know if it was right to illegally download a book he'd already bought. He wrote;
'I was eager to begin "Under the Dome," the new Stephen King novel. Unfortunately, the electronic version was not yet available. The publisher apparently withheld it to encourage [...:]

British Character Actors No.8: June Whitfield

The key word here is 'trooper' as Streatham-born June, once described as the English Lucille Ball, has tackled everything from 'South Pacific' to adverts for frozen peas with patience, talent and endless good nature. Always playing someone called Beryl, Mabel or Dolly, she usually turned up in films looking faintly outraged, the prim young lady [...:]