London historical dramas - Prof Kucich and Dr Holt

Question of the week: “The awards heaped on The King's Speech this weekend makes me wonder, could you suggest a favourite London-ish historical drama?”

"I would enthusiastically nominate The Madness of King George."- Prof Kucich

"If they're not too cheesy to include...
Shakespeare in Love
Perfect Strangers
and Sliding Doors." - Dr Holt

* Photo by Ed.Ward, used under Creative Commons, with thanks.

London historical drama - Ric

Question of the week: The awards heaped on The King's Speech this weekend makes me wonder, could you suggest a favourite London-ish historical drama?”

"Can it be historical comedy?

If so, let's cross reference London with the holdings of Blackadder DVDs in the library!

Whilst it is does not reference many specific London sights in its four season passage through more than five centuries of English and Scottish History, the historical comedy Blackadder is based in and around London for much of its setting. It is well-written, educated wit that will also 'contextualise' the rise to prominence of a man you now know as one Gregory House of Princeton, New Jersey...

The series is available from the library, with DVD players obtainable from the Rectors."- Ric

* Photo by wootang01, used under Creative Commons, with thanks. (The picture shows Samuel Johnson, author of the 'Dictionary of the English Language', in honour of an episode from series III)

London historical drama - Kris

Question of the week: “The awards heaped on The King's Speech this weekend makes me wonder, could you suggest a favourite London-ish historical drama?”

"Watching the old Sherlock Holmes series on PBS was, I think, one of my introductions to Britain and Britishness. What this says about me, I don't know, but my love of the Baker Street detective has stuck with me ever since.

The series I saw was produced in Britain, for ITV and starred Jeremy Brett as Holmes. It used lots of London locations for filming, and when I watch it in re-run, I play 'where are they?', and sometimes I can figure it out. But while this series is a good adaptation of the stories, it certainly isn't the first, last, or (possibly) the best.

Holmes has been taken out of his own period to fight the Nazis - many of the Basil Rathbone films have this as a plot point. But in 1942 it was topical and patriotic. Guy Ritchie's recent film takes another view of Holmes, and while leaving him in his time period makes his London out of pixels. My favourite reworking, though, has to be the new BBC series Sherlock which brings Holmes and Watson into the present day. (Not on topic for this week's theme, but do check it out.)

So, if you're interested in London on screen, try some variety of Sherlock Holmes. Even if you don't play 'spot the London location', the stories are usually good enough to keep you interested until the last clue is revealed."- Kris

(The LUP Library has dvds of the Jeremy Brett adaptations, versions of Hound of the Baskervilles from 1959, the 1980's and from 2002, plus the BBC's Sherlock. A replacement copy of the missing Guy Ritchie film, and also one of Rathbone's second world war adventures, are on order.)

* Photo by markhillary, used under Creative Commons, with thanks.

London historical drama - Hal

Question of the week: “The awards heaped on The King's Speech this weekend makes me wonder, could you suggest a favourite London-ish historical drama?”

"Providing perhaps the more extreme alternative to what’s on offer with ‘The King’s Speech’, I’d nominate Mike Leigh’s seminal film ‘Naked’. It’s an extremely bleak yet darkly comic view of London in the early nineties from a visiting misfit’s eyes and is an absolute tour-de-force from lead actor David Thewlis.

I should warn; it doesn’t make for easy viewing but if you can stomach seeing some of the darker undercurrents of London’s night-life then you’ll be treated one of the best screenplays that era had to offer – the acerbic, protractedly intellectual & cunningly brutal wordsmithery is really second to none.

Time Out has just rated it as #11 in their list of all time best London films"- Hal

* Photo by artant, used under Creative Commons, with thanks.

London historical dramas - Miss Alice

Question of the week: the awards heaped on The King's Speech this weekend makes me wonder, could you suggest a favourite London-ish historical drama?

"It is pure drama, and should absolutely not be taken as a serious history of the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood, but Desperate Romantics comes immediately to mind.

This 2009 BBC mini-series turned everything up to the max, as the personal and professional lives of the four members of the brotherhood spin increasingly out of control. The casting's fantastic, too - Aidan Turner as Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and Tom Hollander as John Ruskin particularly. From a London perspective, there's some lovely location work, and this is really an intrinsicly London story - the energy and opportunities and hardships of the Victorian metropolis are part of the warp and weft, and the creative relationships it made possible are its driving force. The dvd is in the LUP Library."- Miss Alice

* Photo by Jim Linwood, used under Creative Commons, with thanks, showing Dante Gabriel Rossetti's La Castagnetta, now in the Guildhall Art Museum .

London on screen, part II - Kris

Question of the week: We've asked this before, but it's worth asking again - do you have a favourite London film or tv show?

"An Ideal Husband: If you like witty banter and superb sets and costumes, you'll love the 1999 film adaptation of Oscar Wilde's 'An Ideal Husband'. The plot is a bit complex, so watch carefully, but even if you get lost, the performances are great, and it is full of famous Wildian one-liners 'Fashion is what one wears oneself. What is unfashionable is what other people wear.' And London, London society and London landmarks are the backdrop for the entire spectacle. It is lots of fun, and a good introduction to Wilde (if you need one!)."- Kris

(Bonus points if you recognise the sculpture illustrating this post - it's near the London Centre)

* Photo by Steve W, used under Creative Commons, with thanks.

London on screen, part II - Miss Alice

Question of the week: We've asked this before, but it's worth asking again - do you have a favourite London film or tv show?

"Children of Men - even though it moves out of London for a good part of the story, the future-London where the film starts is so perfectly done. It's a dystopia, but one imagined and shot with love and respect and concern for this London, and for Britain. It's quite scarily believable."- Miss Alice

* Photo by Incessant Flux, used under Creative Commons, with thanks.

London on screen, part II - Dr Holt

Question of the week: We've asked this before, but it's worth asking again - do you have a favourite London film or tv show?

"London architecture the defines both interior and exterior space as the bright, interested young hero (Matthew Macfayden) in Stephan Poliakoff's 'Perfect Strangers' takes a road trip with his parents (Michael Gambon and Jill Baker) from a rather ordinary London suburb to a family reunion at a posh maze of a London hotel. Perhaps a hundred or so cousins have gathered, although only the clusters of immediate families know each other. One cousin (Anton Lesser) is a self-appointed family archivist who has identified their wider connections to one another. He narrates mesmerizing photo-biographies that resolve quite marvelous mysteries. Locations include terrace houses during the Blitz; the Whitehall offices of one mysterious and glamourous cousin (Toby Stevens), and the starkly costly rented flat of another (Claire Skinner); and both a vacant house filled with things left behind and a vacant warehouse emptily potential.

Other London films I can watch again and again include 'Sliding Doors' and 'Truly, Madly, Deeply', and all of these are in the LUP Library"- Dr Holt

* Photo by StefZ, used under Creative Commons, with thanks.

London on screen, part II - Kris

Question of the week: We've asked this before, but it's worth asking again - do you have a favourite London film or tv show?

"I think that Bend it Like Beckham is a great London film, even though it has no shots of famous landmarks, no car chases through the crowded city streets, and really stays within a sleepy suburb for most of the duration of the film. But it does highlight how people really live in London, the diversity of even a commuter area, and how people mix and form friendships in the most normal and extraordinary ways.

If you haven't seen the film, it stars Parminder Nagra and Kiera Knightly as two young women who meet playing for the local women's football team. Both of them have rebelled against their families to do so, Jess (Nagra) against what her traditional Sikh family believes women should do, and Jules (Knightly) against her mother's idea of what is feminine. The team goes to Germany to play in the league cup final, both Jess and Jules fall for the same guy, and they are both offered the fairy-tale ending of playing college soccer in the US. But the best part of the film is the relationship between Jess and Jules, between the women and their respective families/cultures, and how they each reconcile what they want with what is expected of them.

It's great, it's a lot of fun, and it's in the library!"- Kris

* Photo by surreykraut, used under Creative Commons, with thanks.

London on screen part II - Catherine

Question of the week: We've asked this before, but it's worth asking again - do you have a favourite London film or tv show?

"Love Actually! I need a diagram to keep all the separate stories straight, but it's not Christmas until I've watched this movie. It is not only a who's-who of British actors, but of London landmarks as well - all lit up for the holidays." - Catherine

* Photo by MoleMaster, used under Creative Commons, with thanks.

London on screen - Miss Alice

Question of the week: Do you have a favourite London-oriented film or tv show?

"Something London oriented without zombies? So not 28 Days Later, then. How about My Beautiful Laundrette, which is a beautifully shot, beautifully written, beautifully acted film that I think is equally powerful now, as a historical film, as it was in the 1980s - we may no longer have Maggie Thatcher pushing 'greed is good' economics, but racism, homophobia, and the mixed strands of race, ideology, economic power and identity played out on London's streets aren't issues that have evaporated in the past 25 years. It is political, it does deal in 'big issues', but it's also a fantastic story, with a strong cast of engaging characters."
- Miss Alice

(If you're looking for more suggestions of London films, try Londonist's London Film Club and Co-starring London posts)

* Photo by latekommer, used under Creative Commons, with thanks.

London on Screen - Miss Alice

Question of the week: Do you have a favourite London-oriented film or tv show?

"I'd have to go for Shaun of the Dead - I'm not a big fan of RomCom as a genre, but apparently all it needed was the addition of zombies, and the comedy team from Spaced. The London in Shaun isn't the tourist city or the corridors of power, it's the zone-three urban-suburban streets of London - they mash together places in South and North London - and the big-city necessity of house-sharing into your 20s and 30s because the price of housing is insane. It's eerily realistic, for a film about zombies, and just to add to the verity of the depiction for me, some of the zombies are people I know! (The film was shot on a shoestring budget, so many of the zombie hordes and their victims are members of Spaced forums, rather than professional extras.)

If you enjoyed Shaun of the Dead, do also take a look at Spaced, the sitcom that brought the team together, which is equally London-ish.
- Miss Alice

* Photo by RevJim5000, used under Creative Commons, with thanks.

London on screen - Ric

Question of the week: Do you have a favourite London-oriented film or tv show?

"I'll go for Passport to Pimlico

In this classic 'Ealing Comedy', an ancient document reveals that London's Pimlico district really belongs to France. And the Pimlico community, eager to abandon post-War constraints, quickly establish their independence as a ration-free state, with hilarious results.

For anyone for with an interest in wartime and post-wartime British attitudes this is a must!"
- Ric

NB to our students - yes, also available from the LUP Library.

* Photo by Leo Reynolds, used under Creative Commons, with thanks.

London on screen - Dr Holt

Question of the week: Do you have a favourite London-oriented film or tv show?

"My top London movies include London as a recognizable albeit bespoke character, and because I adore London, I will endure even a somewhat cheesey film if the London-character is well-played.

Two of my favourites depict a London "then"-- Shakespeare in Love and the Madness of King George. These others depict a London "now"-ish (often with the accent on the "-ish") -- Truly, Madly, Deeply; Sliding Doors; Four Weddings and a Funeral; and Notting Hill."
- Dr Holt

NB, to our students - all of these are available to borrow from the LUP Library, free of charge, (except Truly Madly Deeply, I'm afraid, which is bizarrely expensive) - Miss Alice

* Photo by Alex Brown, used under Creative Commons, with thanks.

London on screen - Kris

Question of the week: Do you have a favourite London-oriented film or tv show?

"Dr. Who

For those of you who have never heard of the British television institution that is Dr. Who, let me give you a brief introduction. In a nutshell, the basic premise is that the Doctor travels through space and time in his vehicle, the TARDIS, having adventures. But it has become much, much more than that simple sentence. Since the first episode aired in 1963, when the Doctor appeared as an elderly man with a teen-aged granddaughter, there have been ten actors who have played the Doctor (due to his ability to regenerate when injured, or when the actor wants to do something else), and he has taken many people along on his travels. It has slowly been revealed that the Doctor is an alien (a Time Lord to be specific) and part of his mission is to fight against other alien groups (the Daleks and the Cybermen are the most famous) and rogue Time Lords to protect the universe in general, and Earth in particular.

While some of the adventures take place in space, many of them happen on Earth (generally in Britain), and a fair number are set in London. While most of the filming for the newest incarnation of Dr. Who isn't actually done in London (filming is cheaper in Cardiff...), lots of landmarks crop up, and London is referenced often. In one episode an alien spaceship crashes into Big Ben, and in another the Doctor saves London by destroying an alien that has set up house in the Thames Barrier.

If you enjoy science fiction at all, I heartily encourage you to look into Dr. Who. The best place to start is the official website, run by the BBC."
- Kris

NB to our students - the first series of 'New' Dr Who - featuring quite a lot of London - is available to borrow from the LUP Library. - Miss Alice

* Photo by Plastic_Bat, used under Creative Commons, with thanks.