WHEN I SHOULD BE ALERT.
THE GOVERNMENT'S PANDEMIC PROPAGANDA becomes ever more puerile and prone to pall. The latest voices to wheedle us on air are those of a proclaimed bus driver (maybe an actor) and a proclaimed care home worker (maybe an actress) who implore us not to ignore the wearing of face masks, or social distancing, or some other such act of mutual concern and decency. It makes sense, but don't ask me to explain precisely what it is all about. Like most pandemic propaganda it is voiced in pre-school language and we didn't have pre-school in 1934.
What we did have from 1939 to 1945 and beyond was the ability to laugh at propaganda, the acceptance that we would be unable to go on holiday, and the realization that we could not go sunning ourselves at the seaside. Seafronts at that time were lined with barbed wire and beaches were festooned with mines. Only Bomb Disposal men trod the shoreline. We also learned that selfish people existed in plentiful numbers, that they lived in cloud-cuckoo-land, and that all the appeals in the world would not change their self-serving NIMBY minds about anything they would rather not acknowledge. Common sense was lost on them. They were the sort who would throw a bucket of water over a flaming incendiary bomb. (Look it up.)
Trouble is: they still exist.
Now they are ambling in and out of each other's houses, ignoring social distancing, crowding parks and beaches the moment the sun shines, and declaring with utter conviction: “ It's all over! It's perfectly safe! Why are you still worried?”There is no point in saying to them : “Look at Leicester. Look at Oldham. Look at Barnsley. Look at Manchester.” Common sense? Huh!
Drop the juvenile propaganda. We don't need it and they don't hear it.
THE HOME CINEMA FLOURISHES.
WE HAVE JUST SEEN The Highwaymen. (Netflix) Originally mooted by Universal as a project for Paul Newman and Robert Redford, the rights were bought by Netflix in 2018. The story was set in the nineteen thirties era of notorious Bonnie and Clyde.
Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were at their lethal peak and had to be brought down. For two years they had impudently outwitted the law. Now they had two reputable names from the disbanded Texas Rangers (played by Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson, both of whom were excellent) on their trail. It ended (just as history tells) with the wipeout to end all wipeouts of that murderous, but uniquely popular, young couple.
Not usually my cup of tea: but I enjoyed every well-acted moment of it.
FINALLY OUR GARDEN WHICH WAS
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