Three more things

[thisbluespirit]

1. sovay wrote a beautiful review of The Greatest Show in the Galaxy!


2. yuletide sign-ups are open! (I have my requests ready, I think (ha), but offers - I want to make sure I am ok to write whatever I offer, because I'm so bad at managing fic lately.)


3. I have finished Vivat Rex! I honestly didn't know what other things I listened to once I realised I was finally at the end - I've been going through it since June.

Anyway, I got to the last episode, and being halfway through Henry VIII with Robert Lang, Sian Phillips, Diana Rigg, Jack May and Stephen Murray, I did not expect any new cast members. VR, of course, immediately wheeled out John Gielgud.


(The answer to what I listened to next was obv: I went back to my Martin Jarvis Saturday Night Theatre collection instead, but anyway, wow, that was a ride. I think LotR is still my favourite radio, but VR was truly amazing and I enjoyed it so much.)

Comments

[persiflage_1]

I must listen to some more Rex Vivat - I got distracted by my decision to rewatch Capaldi's episodes from the beginning - and, of course, Big Finish keep delivering new audios I've pre-ordered! Plus the new series of The Lovecraft Investigations from Julian Simpson drops on Monday. Yeah, definitely distracted from RV.

I'm glad that you enjoyed it, though! Have fun with MJ's Saturday Night Theatre.

[thisbluespirit]

It is something you have to be in the mood for! Shiny distractions sound very shiny. XD (Btw, it's Vivat Rex.)

[persiflage_1]

So it is - silly me!

Shiny distractions are *very* shiny indeed!

[thisbluespirit]

♥

[romanajo123]

Ooh 👌 Will check out that review later. I need to watch that one again, so many good stories during that era!!

I looked up that title- “ long live the king?” 😉 When I went through a Shakespeare phase (around 13 or 14) I don’t remember being into the history stuff. AMND was my favorite

[thisbluespirit]

AMND? Yes, the title means "long live the King" and it's a radio adaptation of a lot of Elizabeth and Jacobean history plays, including the whole of Shakespeare's History cycle.

Ooh 👌 Will check out that review later.

sovay always writes beautiful and very insightful reviews of things.

[romanajo123]

a midsummer nights dream ☺️

[scifirenegade]

Oh Yuletide! Checked the nominated tags, some interesting things there.

And oooh I do need to read that review. Always nice seeing people giving some attention to the seventh Doctor.

[thisbluespirit]

Yes, and sovay writes such lovely pieces on TV and film. :-)

Yuletide always has some amazing things turning up!

[scifirenegade]

Will have to check their other pieces then :D

[executrix]

Gielgud: running the Gaunt-let?

[thisbluespirit]

Ha, no, we had Michael Redgrave as John of Gaunt! Gielgud turned up to deliver the final speech as Cranmer.

[executrix]

Cranmer, eh? I always thought that Hilary Mantel's Bring up the Bodies should be called Bringing Up Bodies and feature wacky hijinks with Thomas Cromwell's pet leopard, but I just read the third book of the trilogy and goddamn if Cromwell doesn't have a pet leopard. No wacky hijinks, though. I just started watching the TV version of Wolf Hall, so at the beginning of the show, lots of people are alive who...are not going to make it to the end of the trilogy.

[thisbluespirit]

No, not realy wacky hijinks! I liked the TV version, too. And that kind of is the perils of Tudor reading and watching.

[executrix]

Go up against the king, you best not lose.

[hyarrowen]

Vivat Rex sounds like my exact cup of tea! Whether I have the concentration to stay awake through it is another matter... However, I managed to do so throughout the Michael Bogdanov "The Wars of the Roses", so there is hope, I guess? Especially with a cast like that, good grief.

[thisbluespirit]

I didn't know if I would manage it, but BBC Radio are very good at adaptations, so I had to try. I can't listen to very much audio at a time, though - I usually listen to it to calm me down before resting or if I wake up stressed mainly, so it's taken me about 5-4 months to listen to all 26 episodes, but a lot of them absolutely flew by and I really loved it, especially everytime they did the cast list and I was, wait, WHO DID YOU SAY. OMG. lol

It has an audiobook release, so if you do any regular audio things like audible, it should be on there, and of course, you can get downloads/cds. (The best price I found was at Hive.) But I also put it up myself - I'll take it down soon - along with the accompanying little making of snippets (some of the bts stuff was just delightful. I love the combination of how unexpectedly real some of it was vs a lot of cabbages and cutlery also being used) - here if you want to give it a try: https://thisbluespirit.dreamwidth.org/1098371.html

It started with Edward II and goes right through to Henry VIII, but there are more details in the posts linked to in that post. <3

[hyarrowen]

Hmm.. a friend may have sent tme the CDs a long time ago. I'll have to check when I get back to the other side of the world. It's the long timescale of the plays that made me twig that; I'll go diving among my CDs when I get home again! Would be nice to have something worth listening to when I recover from the jet-lag!

[thisbluespirit]

Good luck! XD

[sovay]

1. sovay wrote a beautiful review of The Greatest Show in the Galaxy!

Thank you! I hadn't even planned to write about it, but it had too much to think about in it not to.

Anyway, I got to the last episode, and being halfway through Henry VIII with Robert Lang, Sian Phillips, Diana Rigg, Jack May and Stephen Murray, I did not expect any new cast members. VR, of course, immediately wheeled out John Gielgud.

That's delightful.

So what have you been getting out of Martin Jarvis and Saturday nights?

[thisbluespirit]

♥

I did not expect any new cast members. VR, of course, immediately wheeled out John Gielgud.

That's delightful.

I haven't actually seen him in all that much and, of course, never in an audio-only thing, and it really did underline what an absolutely marvellous voice he had.

So what have you been getting out of Martin Jarvis and Saturday nights?

Not much, given my usual slow audio progress, but the one I had on my mp3 player ready is a late 1960s one called Father and Son about Johan Strauss the elder and younger, and he is playing the younger. It has only just reached a place where the YOunger was old enough to switch to actually being Martin Jarvis. There's a lot of music. :-)

[liadt]

\o/

I being a naughty person, jumped ahead with 'Vivat Rex' to just before the 'Henry VI' plays. I also watched 'Tower of London' (1939), Hollywood's take on the Wars of the Roses, so I've been doing extra mediaeval bad behaviour.

'Vivat Rex' does HVI's greatest hits, well done beeb:) From Brum Rep we have Bernard Hepton (and, yes, he does speak better than everyone else) & from 1960s RSC Peggy Ashcroft. I'd forgotten about her playing Margaret until I heard her lisping delivery and it woke up a brain cell and from 'Age of Kings' Julian Glover doing a job swap. Sadly, we also get Christopher Whelan's incidental music which my ears also had to put up with for 'AoK'. I've got the Simpcox comedy hour(!) up next. HVI Part II is good, innit?;p I think they've structured it well for people who aren't familiar with the plays to understand it. I wouldn't if I didn't already know it, but I am poor at audio.

'Vivat Rex' has evilest Winchester, lol.

I hope Jack May wasn't as shouty as he was in TV 'Henry VIII'! And yay for Robert Lang!

All the best with mulling over Yuletide decisions.

[thisbluespirit]

What a rebel! XD I'm glad you're enjoying it! I think CW's music works for it, but I also ff-ed the theme each time because it was definitely a bit much in bulk!

'Vivat Rex' has evilest Winchester, lol.

XD saruman!!! What are you doing in the 15th C? Peter Howell turned back up in HVIII again, but he was doing a different voice so he wasn't quite as immediately recognisable, but he's still quite distinctive. (Saruman in disguise! Also I'm pretty sure he was another Bishop of Winchester, so he's consistent, you can give him that.)

I didn't remember Jack May being in the TV HVIII, but then all I recall of that is that they did it on location in freezing weather and I got very worried for Julian Glover reciting Shakespeare while he literally turned blue on camera.

[liadt]

What a rebel! I am! Over-mighty nobles made me rock'n'roll. Hurrah for the gift of scheming:D

Howell must do all the Winchesters!

Not being in 'HVIII' for long must have saved Julian Glover(!).

[thisbluespirit]

Howell must do all the Winchesters!

Has anyone checked to see if he's sneaked into Supernatural?

Over-mighty nobles made me rock'n'roll. Hurrah for the gift of scheming:D

Down with all over-mighty nobles!! *\o/*

[liadt]

Lol, he's the Winchester brother they never talk about;p

Down with all over-mighty nobles!! But only after a few plays when we want to go home...