Wailing And Gnashing Of Teeth

Or should that be weeping and gnashing of teeth? Biblical? Probably - anyway you've got the internet or you wouldn't be reading this.

Besides which, the wailing/weeping etc is that peculiar thing - an introductory aside. Because the wailing would be about Ofsted, and that is a subject about which I am forbidden to gnash teeth. It is a process entirely (well almost) well-intentioned but it is hanging like a sword of Damocles over me in my gubernatorial guise. Bring it on I say and I can carry on with my other jobs and get on with making a great school even better. You've got to aim high.

No, today's real business is to trumpet a candidate for the accolade of greatest British film director. As you will previously have gathered I can't be having Alfred Hitchcock, good though he might be. Lindsay Anderson? Too weird. No, no, no - my suggestion is David Lean. What brought this to mind was watching a beautifully sharp reprint of 1948's Oliver Twist. I might not be alone in preferring to watch adaptations of Dickens rather than have to read him - is that a sin? I have read him but it can be a bit of a trudge. I feel the same about Tolkien - and that's not just because he went to King Edward's School. 

Anyway, the Lean Oliver Twist is terrific - a rambling novel is tamed (I believe Lean co-wrote the script) and you can scan the full library of film noir and you won't find a better casting of shadows - right up there with Touch of Evil, and that is one of the best films ever made. Oliver Twist - 86/100.

Right, back to work. Progress 8 scores anyone?