How quickly time passes—I’d just finished the Quarter 1
Review, and now it’s time to give the Quarter 2. As ever, an embarrassment of riches.
001 Historical Drama – New
2016 was the bicentenary of Charlotte Brontë’s birth, and
there were plenty of plays to mark the occasion. The 15
Minute Drama for a week was Charlotte
Brontë in Babylon, based on the short amount of time the novelist spent in
London, as opposed to at her home in gloomy Haworth, Yorkshire. I know more than the average person about the
Brontës, though I can’t claim to be an expert, and much of the information
contained in the drama was new to me. I
liked that it presented a rounded portrait of Charlotte, the most
outward-facing of the sisters, detailing both her virtues and faults. Tonally, this was very bright, belying the eventual
tragedy in a way that was very suitable to the play’s depiction of
Charlotte. At first I was quite annoyed
by the broad Yorkshire accent she had (well, it wasn’t that broad but it wasn’t
subtle either), but eventually I decided it was a stylistic choice, to show
that her personality was connected to her foreign-ness (her northern-ness in
London) and vice versa. Charlotte got
furious when William Thackeray kept calling her Jane Eyre, but despite this,
she showed real pride throughout her London episodes, much like Jane Eyre, and
just wouldn’t let things go, for peace’s sake.
Her young, handsome, rich, and marriageable publisher, Mr Smith, is in a
difficult position dramatically: is he a
fool? Is he pure mercenary? At least as depicted here, he wasn’t
knowingly exploiting Charlotte, but his society expectations of what she
expected in return for “fun” were very far removed from poor Charlotte’s. Not that she ever lets anyone (including her
confidante Ellen) see how much she would have liked to have married him. Mrs Smith is also played sympathetically,
considering the fact she forces her son to squeeze Charlotte out of a marriage
proposal is ultimately what throws Charlotte into the path of Mr Bell Nicholls
who is ultimately the cause of her death!
I can empathize with Charlotte and her reactions to the way her work is
treated. As the story grew darker and
darker, I realized that I had been enjoying it more than I thought.
The rest of this quarter was dominated by Tommies, and strictly speaking the
episodes I heard were from last year.
Nevertheless, I’ve put them in the “New” category as they are closely
related to episodes being broadcast this year.
I kept up very regularly with the first few seasons of Home Front but just ran out of time and
didn’t have time for Tommies,
either. The first episode I heard was
from 2015, by Nick Warburton, and I found it very hard-going at first. I was almost going to give up. Yet, after the first half hour, something
clicked, and ever since, I’ve been following Tommies with great enthusiasm.
I think it’s a great dramatic project and a program of high
quality. Like Home Front, Tommies is
predicated on following events exactly 100 years ago. Tommies
is necessarily based at the actual front and follows interconnected
characters based on meticulous research by series co-producer Jonathan
Ruffell. Indeed, some of the best
episodes are by Ruffell.
The Tommies:
4 November 1915 episode is by Ruffell and was my favorite episode of
Tommies from Quarter 2, partly
because it was extremely well-done, but partly because I knew absolutely
nothing about this theatre of war (Mesopotamia). I have admired what I’ve heard of Tommies so far because it has focused
quite a bit on the Anglo-Indian troops; heretofore, most media on WWI has not
stressed their contribution, and these plays are admirably filling that
gap. Ahmadullah (Danny Rahim) and Zarbab
(Avin Shah) are from the Signals Corps of Lahore, and are stuck out in
Mesopotamia with their English sergeant Sidney (Nicholas Mercie). Overconfidence causes their boat on the
Tigris to break down, and they go on a very dangerous mission into the desert
interior, trying to deliver signal equipment to the British forces who are
being attacked by Arabs. I immediately
understood and sympathized with the various characters, who were both unique
and identifiable. While dangerously
close to death from dehydration, Ahmadullah confronts his mother and father,
and his anguish was palpable. Perhaps it
even kept him alive. 4 November 1915 also
starred Ramak Putani, Suda Butcha, Kolvin Dagir, David Hounslow, and David
Acton. It takes a little while to get
used to Indira Varma as the Commentator, but her neutral and yet accessible voice
binds the whole thing together. It was
directed by David Hunter.
Another
winner from the series co-creator, Tommies: 11 November 1915 plunged me headlong into
the story of the main protagonist of the series, Mickey Bliss (Lee Ross), who
(long before I started listening to the series) rose from humble origins in the
Lahore Division and is now an officer.
He’s already experienced friction among the other officers due to his
different perspective, so he’s very much a 21st century kind of
hero. Furthermore, his involvement with
the Signal Corps relates directly to the development of radio as a mass
communication device, which makes Tommies
quite meta-textual. Despite feeling
like I had missed crucial backstory, I felt like this was a powerful piece and
quite different from your usual Remembrance Day fiction. Mickey here is surprised by the crusty old
officer “Ting-a-ling” Bell who actually helps him get the Signal Corps more
status at the expense of his own career.
At the same time, Céléstine de Tullio (Pippa Nixon)—evidently they have
been on-again, off-again lovers for fifteen years—walks back into his life,
drunk on rum and telling him to “blot his notebook” (whatever that means?!) and
get invalided out so they can become Serbian freedom fighters (or
something). There is some very good
radio kissing between the two (very difficult to do) but they end up
separating, as Céléstine loves the war too much. She tells Mickey she tortured men in
Russia. She seems mentally unstable, but
what a part for an actress to play—the scene between them both was
incandescent. It’s hard to know what the
future holds for them, however. Lee Ross
is a very underappreciated actor, so while it’s been nice to hear him popping
up in radio drama in the last few years, he really deserves a role like Mickey
Bliss and plays it superbly.
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