Janet Gogerty's Blog: Sandscript - Posts Tagged "bbc2"

Sandscript goes Seasonal

It must be that time of year again, there’s a new documentary series on BBC2 about a cathedral, this time it’s Canterbury. Cathedra is just Latin for chair, the throne of a bishop and of course this is the throne of the Archbishop of Canterbury, 1,400 years of Christianity and the mother church of 85 million Anglicans worldwide.
And who can resist watching? If you like history, architecture, love people watching, or are a Christian of any denomination, all life is here. We started with the obligatory scene of sweet little choir boys at their boarding school, getting up very early for breakfast, then singing practice before school lessons. But Canterbury has another unique feature that makes it stand out from the other great cathedrals; here one of the most famous murders in history took place in 1170. Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was slain by four of the knights of King Henry the second.
Cathedrals look as solid as stone, but no documentary is complete without scaffold and stone masons at work. Dramatically, but alas not caught on film, a piece of stone fell out of the great south window in 2009, narrowly missing a member of the public. A major project began, involving removing the stained glass window and rebuilding the whole window.
Back to people; equality was also a theme, women as clergy yes, but not yet allowed to be bishops at the time of filming. Women have always been stalwarts of the church, hard working vicar’s wives, cleaning rosters, feeding up young curates and creating the beautiful embroidery for altars and clergy. Equality is rarely straightforward. The weekly sewing group was mending the regalia ready for Christmas and the ladies twittered round a tall chap as he tried on his splendid robe.
One of the women said tersely ‘It’s not the same now there are women…we had to chop nine inches off the bottom…’
This is all about dressing up and who is more likely to impress processing down the long aisle, the six foot three man or a five foot nothing dumpy middle aged woman?
But there was the birth of the girl choir, equality? You can’t argue with biology; a choir of men and boys ranging from the tiniest boy with the voice of an angel to the finest bass who sends shivers down your spine, means they have never needed women or girls. The new girls are aged 12 to 18 years, a contrast to the boys 8 to 13 years. Nor do they have equal opportunities; they come from local schools and attend a weekly practice, not for them the scholarships and private education of the boys that can set them up in adult life with a musical or other career. But the girls were enjoying the new enterprise and will be a breath of fresh air, imagine the choir master trying to control sixteen giggling teenage girls.
Many of us are hypocrites; we will not go to the local quarter empty church to hear a few elderly ladies warbling. If we get the chance, we want to squeeze into a cathedral, admiring the ancient stone in flickering candlelight, taking in the centuries old scent of timber beams and incense, feeling the magnificent pipe organ reverberating. Or we will put our feet up and enjoy a carol service on television, with close ups of angelic, round mouthed choir boys.

You can see parts 2 and 3 of Canterbury Cathedral at 9pm on BBC2, Monday 15th December and Friday 19th December.

For a different view of cathedrals and pictures, visit my website.

http://www.ccsidewriter.co.uk/chapter...

We have arrived home from our 24 days away to find the house still standing and unburgled. But I could not access my Command Control Centre (computer in the bedroom); due to my insistence on unplugging everything electrical while we were away lest lightning strike the house. Strange white messages appeared on a black screen, pressing F1 was not enough and long suffering Cyberspouse had to reset the computer’s body clock and re-boot it. But I still stand by my sensible precaution as our local area did have a dramatic storm while we were away. We also have the electrician in this week leading to more switching off and rebooting. But at last I am writing.
September brought a very hot late summer especially in Kent and there was only one rainy hotel afternoon when I actually got out my notepad. The rest of the holiday was spent with family or visiting interesting places and spotting fascinating people.
So I have returned with no progress on my novel, but plenty of ideas for short stories.

Dungeness is the only desert in the United Kingdom and one of the largest areas of shingle in the world; it is now a national nature reserve. But it also has a nuclear power station and for 88 years has been the end of the line for the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway, one third size steam trains which travel across the Romney marshes from Hythe.
Not as desolate as when only fishing families lived here this is still a unique and isolated spot, with fascinating shacks and stranded boat wrecks. Sitting in the station café I was just as interested to find the staff having a late lunch break on the tables next to us. It was like being in an episode of ‘Dinner Ladies’, a cosy little world where train drivers sat down with the cooks. I could imagine a jolly sitcom, with a dark edge perhaps. One of the drivers wore a South West Trains jumper, had he been demoted from mainline to miniature railway, his nerves shattered after running over a dog? http://www.rhdr.org.uk/about.html

Completely different was our Sunday out in Canterbury. The cathedral is one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England, forms part of a World Heritage Site and is one of the most visited places in the country. This was obvious by the crowds thronging the city as pilgrims and visitors have since the middle ages. Cyberspouse says they get in the way of his photography, but I love photographing people, they are a part of the city as mush as the many delightful buildings. The Salvation Army band was playing by a café, several guitarists had taken up spots by the shops and on the River Stour you could relax in a punt and be rowed by young men giving floating commentaries on history.
Entry to the cathedral close is through a stone archway and just inside is the Constables’ Lodge with the sign ‘Close Constables’; on duty 24 hours a day they deal with more than lost property and first aid, monitoring CCTV, crime prevention, sorting out problem visitors and even wearing stab proof vests. This is truly a place both ancient and modern and despite the crowds of visitors, still a world of its own. The public can sit on benches in the sunshine or admire interesting old houses; but these homes are exclusive residences for the lucky people who are part of the cathedral community. There have been several absorbing documentary series about cathedrals and last year BBC television screened a year in the life of Canterbury Cathedral, but it would be more fun for a writer to place strange characters in the Cathedral Close and imagine what havoc they might cause.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04vf10f

Visit my Beachwriter's Blog to see our holiday in technicolour.
http://www.ccsidewriter.co.uk/chapter...