I've
adored the stage show for years. Listened to all the soundtracks
available and loved the songs so much. You could say that I know the
show about as well as is possible to know a show! So when I learned that there was to be a film version of the musical, I was overjoyed! I finally got to see thefilm the other week and I was blown away. Truly, I thought it was fantastic.
Yes, Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean is the main character and holds the
film together, but I was most impressed with Russell Crowe. I know he's
had his critics about playing Javert but I thought he put in a
magnificent performance. Ok, his singing isn't as good as most of the
others, but he lends a grittiness to his character which suited it well.
And as for Anne Hathaway.....well, if she doesn't win an Oscar for her
portrayal of Fantine, then I'll be very much surprised. Some have said
that she was over-acting, which to a degree I suppose she was. But I
think she was trying to convey how wretched Fantine's lot in life had
become, and as it was all sung live on set, I think that that
wretchedness was wrought out of her and came through markedly when she
sang 'I Dreamed A Dream'. One of the most heart-wrenching performances
of a song I've seen sung on film.
If you like
mysteries, and if, like me, you love reading Sherlock Holmes stuff, then
you can't go far wrong with the series of books written by Laurie R.
King.
Sherlock has retired (or so he says), and the stories are written
through the eyes of Mary, as her memoirs of her adventures and life with
the great consulting detective.
Some people may frown on the relationship that Sherlock has with the
infinitely younger Mary, but she is more than Sherlock's equal in mind
and tenacity. They're a brilliant read, and I thoroughly recommended them.
Frankel has become officially the highest-ever rated racehorse on the Flat after a review of global rankings. The
retired champion, who won all 14 of his races, takes the top spot after
the rating for previous number one Dancing Brave was downgraded. Frankel's
rating is confirmed as 140, but Dancing Brave is now 138 not 141,
following a "historical recalibration" of the rankings, which started in
1977.
Revised rankings for top-rated horses since 1977
140: Frankel (140)
138: Dancing Brave (141)
137 : Peintre Celebre (137)
136: Generous (137) Sea The Stars (136) Shergar (140)
135: Cigar (135) Daylami (135) El Gran Senor (138) Harbinger (135) Montjeu (135) St Jovite (135) Suave Dancer (136)
Shergar and Alleged, who were on 140 with Frankel, are down to 136 and 134. The ratings were revealed as the 2012 World Thoroughbred Rankings were announced on Tuesday. They
followed a review that said handicapping methods - which determine a
horse's ranking - had ''evolved'' over the past 35 years. Officials
have acknowledged that many horses from the 1970s and 1980s have
elevated figures compared with those they would achieve today, leading
to several rankings which have stood for years being revised. Frankel was referred to as "the new benchmark of equine excellence" by the rankings committee. The
colt, trained by Sir Henry Cecil, and owned by Prince Khalid Abdulla,
crowned his unbeaten career with victory in the Champion Stakes at Ascot
in October 2012.
Frankel facts
Trainer: Sir Henry Cecil Jockey: Tom Queally Owner: Prince Khalid Abdulla
Career earnings: £2.99m
Nickname: Usain Colt after comparisons with the Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt
Betting: Odds-on in all races, except his first - £1 on his 14 wins would have made a profit of just £5.96
He
was retired at the age of four for a breeding career, which is due to
start on Valentine's Day, 14 February - and commands a stud fee of
£125,000 a time. Dancing
Brave, also owned by Abdulla and trained by Guy Harwood, won eight of
his 10 races in 1985 and 1986 - including the 2000 Guineas, Eclipse,
King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes and Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, The
ratings are expressed in the equivalent of pounds in weight. So
according to the rankings, Frankel would be 2lb superior to Dancing
Brave. Frankel,
who won the 2000 Guineas but did not run in the Epsom Derby or Arc,
earned his highest rating twice during 2012 - in the Queen Anne Stakes
at Royal Ascot and York's Juddmonte International. He is considered by many to be the best of all time ,
although unlike other top-rated horses such as Dancing Brave, Peintre
Celebre and Sea The Stars, he never ran over a distance further than a
mile and a quarter. Peintre Celebre, who won the 1997 Arc, is now officially the third best since rankings began after his rating was kept at 137. Frankel
- who is the only horse to have topped the world rankings as a two,
three and four-year-old - was rated 9lb ahead of his nearest 2012 rival,
Champion Stakes runner-up Cirrus des Aigles on 131, with unbeaten
Australian sprinter Black Caviar and Excelebration next on 130. The
international rankings, which have only included American horses since
1995, were ratified during a conference of handicappers from around the
world in Hong Kong last month.
I've been a fan
of the master illusionist/mind-reader/magician (call him what you
will), Derren Brown for a few years now. Can't remember the first thing I
ever watched him in but it was probably one of his Trick Of The Mind
shows. Some of the stuff he does is quite frankly, baffling. I sit there
marvelling at what I'm witnessing and wonder at it. His live shows are absolutely brilliant.
I've been lucky enough to see him live on numerous occasions and to
have met the man on a similar amount of times. He's lovely to meet and
is a pleasure to talk to.
Yes, at the
time I knew of the character, the books, the TV series with Jeremy
Brett, heck, even the recent film with Robert Downey Jnr & Jude Law.
But me? Interested in watching Sherlock Holmes? No..... So
when I kept on seeing this advert flashing up on my screen advertising a
new contemporary TV version of the famous detective, I took no notice.
In fact, the advert was on so frequently it was starting to get on my
nerves. So I didn't watch.... But,
being on Twitter that evening (as I am frequently wont to do), I kept
on seeing tweets about it from people who not only enjoyed it but were
singing its praises to the skies. It appeared that it wasn't just good,
it was very good. My curiosity was piqued... So,
the next evening, with not much else on TV to watch, I flicked through
the catch-up channels and found it, 'Sherlock - A Study In Pink' and
settled down to see what all the fuss was about. First
off, I was drawn by the person's name who played Sherlock himself.
Benedict something-or-other....I'm sorry, it didn't ring a bell, I had
no idea who he was, what he'd previously done, or indeed, even if he was
any good. But he had a very interesting face and I found myself liking
him more & more as the episode went on. The other thing was how good
Martin Freeman was. I'd seen him as part of an ensemble piece in Love
Actually, but really, as far as I was concerned, he was 'Tim from The
Office'. And yet, after watching A Study In Pink, he was Dr Watson, and it was a case of, "Tim who?"
As
for the show itself? I loved it. From watching Holmes and Watson's
first meeting and finding myself being drawn into their respective
worlds. To trying to figure out quite what makes Sherlock's mind tick,
only to realise just what an arrogant smart-arse he really is. The
characters and the cast are wonderfully realised and beautifully played.
They each encapsulate every facet from the role and make it their own.
From Rupert Graves as Lestrade, to Una Stubbs as Mrs Hudson. Truly, once
you watch a few episodes of Sherlock, you really can't imagine anyone
else as that particular character. So,
I confess....I soon became 'Sherlocked'. And then, as the series went
on (sadly, not nearly enough of them to satisfy my cravings), I started
to become 'Cumberbatched'. Yes, that person with the
unforgettable name and the interesting face started to become more and
more fascinating to me the more I watched. I discovered that Mr Cumberbatch wasn't just good, he was astonishingly
good. He didn't just make the role as Sherlock Holmes his own, but he
made a nation care over a character who was in turn nasty, smug, selfish
and uncaring, but who could also have a heart of gold as large as the
ego he possessed. And Benedict did that. Yes, the script written by the
likes of such talents as Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat did help, but it
was the person playing the part who portrayed the pain, anger, fear,
wit, intelligence etc etc, to which the viewer got to empathise with. By
the end of the final episode, (or rather, the last episode shown), The
Reichenbach Fall, the show was generating a fandom so huge that they
practically took over social networks afterwards with their tears,
laughter, praise and love. Yes, a lot of them adore Benedict
Cumberbatch, or Martin Freeman, or Andrew Scott (quite superb as
Sherlock's nemesis, Moriarty), but it was the show which did
it. The show which made people start page-upon-page & group-upon-group on Facebook, the show which instilled some quite fantastic works
of art, the show which inspired some wonderful works of fiction, and the
show whose climax to that last episode reduced me to tears. I
know none of the creators of Sherlock will ever read this. But I want
to thank them. Thank them for making such a quite superb piece of
television every time it graces my screen. Thank them for bringing a
huge group of people together from all walks of life into chatting about
how a literary character could become such a big part of their lives.
Thank them for being the talented individuals they all so obviously are.
And thank them for making me notice a certain Mr Benedict Cumberbatch. Thank you.
