104. A Fitting Goodbye

ANTHONY MINGHELLA CBE. (1954 - 2008)

I have little to add to the many news reports covering the memorial service held here on the Isle of Wight last Saturday.
St. Thomas's Church, Newport, was packed and, on a beautiful sunny day, over a hundred stood outside to listen to the relayed service, show their respect for this gentle, talented man and silently express their sympathy with his family.
As may have been expected, some fine actors with whom he had worked and/or become friends - among them Jude Law, Alfred Molina and Alan Rickman - made the journey from the mainland to pay tribute to him.
In all it was a fitting public goodbye to a much admired Islander.

BACK TO THE BOX.

Foyle's War. (ITV1)
When they sound the last All-Clear (went the song) how happy my darling we'll be...
Well, on the 20th April Michael Kitchen took his wonderfully underplayed performance, his scene-stealing DCS Foyle hat and his lonely final departure from Hastings police station.
It was a moving exit in the execution of which he quietly upstaged the off-screen end of war celebrations.
Those of us who have enjoyed Anthony Horowitz's wartime gems are far from happy. We are concerned that there may be no more of them.
But Sherlock Holmes, whose writer did not want to bring him back, survived the Reichenbach falls .
So surely Christopher Foyle, whose writer does want to bring him back, can survive the last All-Clear?
Rumour has it he will.
I do hope rumour is right.

Taggart. (ITV1)
When DCI Matt Burke (Alex Norton) meets up again with old flame Kathy Moffat (Phyllis Logan) and offers to help her, it is obvious that he is heading for trouble. (Ol' Phyllis usually is trouble nowadays.)
It is apparent, too, that his problems will be magnified by the presence of Chief Superintendant Laura Henson (Deidre Davies), a high-flyer intent on reducing costs by purging the force of senior officers she considers to be past their sell-by date. They include him.
Needless to say his team saves his neck, right prevails, the villains (including the pushy high-flyer) fail and he is left remarking ruefully to DS Reid (Blythe Duff): "No fool like an old fool, eh Jackie?"
No team like the Taggart team, either.
Mur-rder-r.

Heroes. (BBC2)
They're back here in a new eleven parter.
It's a delightfully daft concept.
It dodges from scene to scene and character to character like a special for the under fives.
It keeps me in a state of mesmerized bewilderment.
I shall continually ask myself why I am watching it.
And I shall watch it all.

Dr. Who. (BBC1)
The Doctor kicks along at a lively pace.
We have had peacefully inclined aliens, the Ood, who appear to have sneezed spaghetti from their noses.
Now we have warlike aliens, the Sontarans, who my old friend Anonymous John would probably describe as:
"Big-headed little mooshes."
We also have Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman) back and, somewhat to the Doctor's discomfiture, instantly friendly with his new sidekick, Donna.
They'll cause him more trouble than any alien.
Serves him right.
Yep, I shall watch it all.