Advent 1

Horse racing may not be, as is sometimes claimed, the only sport where the competitors are followed round by an ambulance, but I think we can agree that it is bloody dangerous. That danger does add a frisson to the spectacle, an uplifting (both literal and metaphorical) alliance of man and beast.

I cannot see that it is really possible to argue against the formidable Sir Tony McCoy as the greatest to have been legged up, but my list is based rather more on the emotional involvement I feel/felt in the endeavours of my subjects. Which brings us to that supreme and courageous stylist, John Francome. He carried his gifts into the realms of television and fiction after retiring from the saddle and I can confirm (don't you just hate name-dropping) that he is as wry and amusing in person as he is on screen. At least he was for the fifteen minutes I spent with him. They say you should never meet your heroes, but in this case they would seem to be wrong.

He rode (at 5/1) the first on-course winner I ever backed and that financial gain - one pound blissfully transformed into six - had me hooked. 

Advent Calendar 2017

Yes it's that time of the year again and I can just tell that you are yearning to know what this year's theme will be. Pregnant pause, drum roll, further pregnant pause.

This year I will give you my twenty-four sporting heroes. No, not the greatest sportsmen (or for that matter women) but those whose stories/efforts/art most captivate my imagination. I will apologise at the outset in the face of my bias. After all it is my bloody list. We will start on Friday with one of the two chosen I have actually had the honour to meet.

I Think I've Just Been Exploited

In fact I know I have. We've just watched Love Actually again. It is clever, knowing and cloying but it is so very well done. in amongst the ensemble cast we have Hugh Grant doing a good Hugh Grant impression (comme toujours) and Emma Thompson doing a masterclass in one particular scene in the power of silent screen acting. If you've seen it you know what I mean and if you haven't then  this enjoyable film is worth it for that scene alone. Makes you feel Christmassy as well. 7/10.

Is There Any Sight Better Than A Whingeing Aussie?

We may as well take comfort while we can, because I'm pretty sure that being an Englishman is going to become uncomfortable once the Ashes cricket starts later this week. In the absence of the fabulous Ben Stokes, England are in for a hiding. I hope I'm wrong because it would be nice to laugh in the face of Australia's gifted gobshite in chief, David Warner.

No matter, for now we have the rugby and a 'lucky' thirty points to six victory at Twickenham yesterday. Here's the news boys - nobody ever lost by that sort of margin entirely because of bad luck. England did get the rub of the green, but good sides do. Whingers in chief were the talented but chippy Hooper and Genia. I think I read somewhere that Hooper became the most frequently yellow-carded player in test history - again, these sorts of stats don't lie.

Elsewhere Scotland got close to a New Zealand side who remain the benchmark in world rugby but have lost that sheen of indomitability. Interesting times in the world's best sport. 

More Films - Great Ones This Time

And I use the term advisedly.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (did you know that the alternative 'dwarves' was Tolkien's invention to give his dwarfs more literary dignity - no, neither did I) changed the face and direction of cinema. It remains an alluring culteral artefact - beautifully drawn, funny and, yes, competently scary. 9.5/10.

Billy Wilder's Ace in the Hole (1951) is quite brilliant. An innocent man (one of only two such in the film) is trapped underground and a vulpine journalist (Kirk Douglas magnificent) connives to keep him there so that he can prolong the story. An early condemnation of the gutter press and the vile public that sustains it. Find it in Sky Cinema. 9/10.

Here's a bit of news - I'm rehearsing for a very minor role in panto at the moment - Snow White as it happens. Now my usual place as the baddy wasn't available, what with the Queen being female and all, so I'm the largely absent King (I blame him for the whole thing - poor parenting etc) who comes on at the end and dispenses good will. And here's  a tip - don't agree to do the props for a panto. It's bloody murder.  

Fiddler On The Roof

Another moderately ancient film that I have managed not to see until one of those late Autumn afternoons when it is cold outside and you fancy hunkering down in front of something undemanding.

I like musicals and this is a good one. The expansion of a stage hit onto the screen can oddly diminish the whole but this seemed to me not to be the case, not that I've ever seen it on stage either.

Good tunes and a none too saccharine treatment of serious issues. A Sunday afternoon well-passed. 7/10.

 

Three Films .. Or 'Movies' If You Must

Nothing of earth-shattering credentials but three films that can handily fill a spare afternoon or evening.

The worst first, though only of the three. Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, has no pretensions that I could detect. It's an action thriller with some quaint personal background thrown in. I've said it before and will doubtless have cause to say it again - Tom Cruise does a brilliant impersonation of Tom Cruise. You can never accuse him of not trying. The whole thing rattles along and every time it might get bogged down in the back-story, another fight breaks out. OG liked it. 6/10.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is the first of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter prequels, set in a deftly realised 1920's New York. Whisper it if you must, but I actually thought this better than the overdone later Potter instalments. Eddie Redmayne stars and I thought his performance on the mildly annoying side of winsome. Better to zero in on his co-star Dan Fogler who delivers a great turn as the bumbling No-maj (which is what American wizards call Muggles - and if you don't know what a Muggle is then this may not be for you). 6.5/10.

The best for last. The new Paddington sequel is just out so it is only fitting that OG has finally caught up with the original. I was mildy trepidatious about this because of fondness both for the books and the old television adaptations, voiced by Michael Hordern. As it turns out, no worries. This is a generous, warm fuzzy-feeling sort of a film. 7/10.