Ed Adams briefly mentions chickens (Radio Interview)

Yes, a radio interview from Live in Devon. 'Right Here, Right Now'

Quack

 I usually produce pictures of Boris Johnson as cartoon or clown artwork. This time, I think the whole walks like a duck, quacks like a duck...cynical story needs to be presented. 

With suitable acknowledgements to The Mirror, The Observer, ITV News and BBC.

Last Night in Soho

Edgar Wright has previous form with looming zombie apocalypse kind of movies (World's End?) and I was intrigued to see what he would do with 60's London and the headspace of Eloise from Redruth going to that there London to make it in fashion.

The staging and sets of London in the 60s were exquisite, and although I can't particularly remember it in that era, there was enough of it left in the 70s to still look realistic. It is interesting to see how much the cleanup of some -er -colourful areas has progressed. 

And the film opens with Rita Tushingham explaining 'London can be a lot' and features - yes - Terence Stamp and Diana Rigg at various points within. 

Then there were the songs - definitely those old 45s with the big holes in the centre, and played on a Dansette.

There were also recognisable scenes of crowded London flat-living and not so much bedsit-life as lodger-life. Although I found the ease with which she ringed an advert in the Standard and then bagged the flat somewhat astonishing.

But of course, this nostalgia evocation wasn't the main direction of the plot. We get brash neon lights and echoes of other London films: The Pleasure Girls, The Party’s Over, Absolute Beginners - and more. We see the blurring of realities and spend some time in the head of Eloise as she connects with the spirits of the 60s including roughed-over wannabe singer Sandie played by Anya Taylor-Joy. And the rougher-upper is Matt Smith playing a cockney geezer. By the 4th reel, the movie gets very dark and drifts into Suspira territory.

There's plenty of staged references to other movies and scenes whilst Wright sharpens his blades towards the end.

I can still remember seeing Absolute Beginners in the West End and then leaving the cinema and walking right back into what felt like a continuation of the film set. 'It's the same old London underneath,' says a cabbie in this Edgar Wright movie, which is kind of what I was thinking, almost more than the shocks from the movie.

Pantomime neuralysers and dead cats

[No available pictures from any of the the parties]

The chump gets another episode after the party debacle. He throws a dead cat onto the table and we all look at that instead of the latest malfeasance. I think the American phrase for his view of the partying is plausible deniability.  Maybe we should ask the Deputy Director of Communications?

Just because Carrie Johnson and a few of her Departmental friends might be having an alleged party downstairs doesn't mean Mr Johnson has to know about it. And the fear culture must pervade the government, because no-one has broken ranks to admit anything. Maybe they deserve an award or something? The Men in Black must be running around with their neuralyser mind-zappers.

So, like the vaccine, here's we get another example of an alternative item (Plan B) to come along and run interference.  

A reminder of the last few items on the conveyor belt...

• That non-reported donation of £67,801.72 used for his flat redecoration 
• Clowning around at Cop26
• Forgetting his lines
• The Peppa Pig incident
• The alleged multiplicity of parties during lockdown
• Apologising for something that he apparently did not have a hand in.

and the pantomime response of British electorate: 'Yeah, but it's Boris!'

With all this recent attention on the Beatles, I'm reminded of that Lennon song called 'gimme some truth'. He wrote it around September 1971.

I'm sick and tired of hearin' things

From uptight, short-sighted, narrow-minded, hypocritics

All I want is the truthJust gimme some truth

I've had enough of readin' things

By neurotic, psychotic, pig-headed politicians

All I want is the truthJust gimme some truth

I've had enough of watchin' scenes

Of schizophrenic, egocentric, paranoiac prima donnas

All I want is the truth now, now

Just gimme some truth