Ok I said I was getting a little fed up with the ‘Tony is a murderer’ Coronation Street story line yesterday, but it was a great cliff hanger tonight. Just like Emilia in Othello, Carla is out to expose her husband for the rat he is. We all know what happened in Othello, so a cliff hanger where Carla is put in danger as Tony sends the ‘you lot’ home and locks the factory is one which leaves us wondering and wishing that this was a recording and we could watch the next episode in a few minutes time. Roll on Friday to see what happens.
The Writer's Tale
I have just been reading Russell Davies’ The Writer’s Tale. The book is about the conception and filming of Series 4 of Doctor Who. So a very heavy hardback, with lots of delicious photographs of the programme and behind the scenes stuff, as well as snippets of scripts. Written in an epistolatory style, it uses emails and texts instead of letters and is a correspondence between Russell T Davies and a journalist, Ben Cook. As I read I felt like I was following a private conversation, but I am sure nothing was disclosed that I wasn’t meant to know.
Reading the book, made me realise that the marketing strategy for the programme relied so much on withholding and cliff hangers. This technique isn’t just in the episodes themselves but in narrative constructed around the programme, such as the personal narrative working on the programme. Is David Tennant doing another series or not. I found it enormously enjoyable, both for the writing and the beautiful images. Reading and viewing was strangely and satisfyingly voyeuristic.
It was attracted to the fragmented style of the book. I moved from email to text, looked at images which weren’t directly always related to what was written on the page. It made me think that writing and reading is a changing experience with new technology. I was also thinking, that at home, I hardly use Word anymore, because there are so many other ways to write – this blog for example.
As I write, I’m watching a repeat of episode 1 of series 4 on Sky + and I can now read the programme in different ways because I have read Davies’s book. I know, for example, why the reporter is called Penny and where the title, Partners in Crime’ came from. Sarah Lancashire is great, overacting beautifully as the nanny from outer space and Catherine Tate’s Donna is just spot on, as the Doctor’s companion who isn’t going to fall in love with him in episode 2.
Davies, Russell T. (2008) The Writer’s Tale London: BBC Books
Doctor Who Series 4.1
Tennant is excluded from the Olivier Awards
The Daily Telegraph are now saying that David Tennant was excluded from the Oliver award nominations because he only did a few perfomances in the role.
Is Maria like Hamlet (ITV1, Coronation Street, 2nd February 2009)
The death of a close relative has made her mad. She is desperately trying to find find out if her Brother in Law has killed her husband. Could Maria Connor be the Hamlet of the 2009s? OK it might be pushing the link somewhat but there are connections which can be made. The difference though is that Maria does not stand by mulling all this over. She is really a lady of action running Tony Gordon down in her car, rushing to the Rovers in pink pyjamas and flying into t’factory to try and find out the truth. To make links between this and Shakespeare’s play, makes watching a little more interesting. We all know that the bad one get their come uppence in Coronation Street, just look at the Tracy Barlow story line. It’s how they get caught that we are left wondering about. For me the story seems to be running on and on and I am getting a little bored with it. It was such a good storyline to complete at Chritmas, but we’re now in Feb and I am starting not to care.
I liked the Rosie joke the other day. The l in Elgar standing for “loser”. … only in Corrie.
Olivier Awards- Tennant is not up for an Award
As I am reading through my Reader and Google Alerts, I get information that David Tennant has not been nominated for an Olivier award. I feel a little sense of disappointment. Probably because I have felt that I have been tied up with this production for so long. Probably a little harder for David Tennant than me, though Patrick Stewart and Oliver Ford Davies have been nominated for the supporting actors’ category. So the National Theatre did Ok and Derek Jacobi has been nominated for his part of Malvolio in Twelfth Night. I am now looking forward to going to see this in a week or so’s time. What really struck me was that Tennant still grabbed the headlines even though he hadn’t been nominated. It was more Tennant missed out rather than who had actually been nominated. Michael Billington in his The Guardian blog didn’t focus on Tennant but was disappointed that Kenneth Branagh wasn’t nominated.
Links to Newspaper stories:
between the acts 