"I plan to live forever. Or die trying."
Jun. 6th, 2026 09:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thisbluespiritBefore I had the cold (which is not entirely over, but is much better now) I had a few things I was going to put into a post. They are now extremely random, mostly belated, and not equal, so apologies for a motley post, but I did want to note:
1.beccadg is having a lot of health issues and has a GoFundMe.
2. I saw two posts about Small Prophets, one talking about the influence of all the stopmotion children's animation in it, and another person saying that whatever you'd call the exact inverse of English folk horror, that's what Mackenzie Crook's work is. All of which smashed together in my head to make me go: OMG, he made Bagpuss for adults! (I mean, it's not, but also it is. And Bagpuss is also some sort of exact inverse of 70s folk horror, too. Artisanal children's TV in terms of being literally crafted by hand and its simple but beautiful storytelling structure.)
3. Before I got too ill to do such radical things as watch TV on my PC again, I managed to actually watch ep1 of Miami Medical (with Jeremy Northam and Lana Parrilla), and discovered that when you watch a full ep instead of just Lana clips, what's up with Jeremy Northam's accent is much clearer, in that it was never meant to be a US accent, just that his character had been working in Maryland for 10 years and the "I'm from Maryland, as you can tell by the accent" was actually ironic. Someone calls him "Mr Tea and Biscuits" in the next scene. (Most of the eps are there. Hopefully I shall be able to watch them sometime and all will become clearer than the random Lana snippets.)
4.sovay pointed me to uploaded episodes of The Expert on YouTube, including 2 from 1971 that I had managed to miss featured... James Maxwell! \o/ I was even too ill to manage watching this on my tablet for ages, too.
In true JM form he was very nervy and awkward and also unfortunately too gentle and unmanly to survive a small push in the 1970s. Alas. He is such a delicate 6"3 baritone flower, lol. He fell over in the beginning of part 2 and next thing I knew they were doing an autopsy on him and now I'm too worried about where this is going to watch the rest (yet). (The channel also seems to have a lot of rare stuff - this is a never released on DVD or repeated item, so they must have a collection of their own, presumably.)
5. Bookending this, Michael Keating, better known to me as Vila from Blake's 7 died when I was too numbed from the cold to really comment on it - and then yesterday, the news broke about Anthony Head, too, and I was very sad to hear both & both by all accounts, lovely people too. Michael had apparently had dementia for some years and after B7 worked mainly in theatre, and also got very into rambling, but he didn't need to do more TV to leave an impact: Vila was iconic, someone he made a very likeable and relatable figure in the midst of all the rebels vs. Federation struggles. I'm watching Sesskasays react to B7 for the first time and, in these early stages, Vila is her favourite. Mine too. I love all the characters, and adored Jacqeline as Servalan, but Vila is my favourite. He's the 'small man' archetype out of a fantasy story, living in a snarky fascist space universe. How could he not be?
I was late to the party with Buffy (although I remember watching the Gold Blend ads as a child!) but as a newbie librarian, I borrowed the VHS tapes from our library, and Giles was of course immediately my favourite, and then Anthony Head was always marvellous in everything. I hadn't dreamed we weren't going to get a few more years yet of unexpected bonus ASH in random TV or radio. He was in DW (audio and visual), Jonathan Creek's pilot, Cabin Pressure, but 3 things other than Giles I'll remember him for, particularly:- his first TV appearance in Enemy at the Door, where he played the Martels' son Clive, trapped on the island after a misguided raid by the British army goes wrong; an outstanding performance in s1 of Spooks, where he played Tom Quinn's mentor, jaded and screwed up, in a tragic crash-and-burn guest turn (N.B. warning for all the things, this is Spooks); and at the other end of the scale, being absolutely marvellous and hilarious every episode of 5 series of Bleak Expectations as the villainous Mr Gently Benevolent, whether exercising his trademark evil laugh, reincarnated as a pigeon, reformed, unreformed, or cheeseboarding Pip (with a break for tea and biscuits). It got me through a rough summer in 2013. Washing up badly is not the same as washing up evilly.
1.
beccadg is having a lot of health issues and has a GoFundMe.2. I saw two posts about Small Prophets, one talking about the influence of all the stopmotion children's animation in it, and another person saying that whatever you'd call the exact inverse of English folk horror, that's what Mackenzie Crook's work is. All of which smashed together in my head to make me go: OMG, he made Bagpuss for adults! (I mean, it's not, but also it is. And Bagpuss is also some sort of exact inverse of 70s folk horror, too. Artisanal children's TV in terms of being literally crafted by hand and its simple but beautiful storytelling structure.)
3. Before I got too ill to do such radical things as watch TV on my PC again, I managed to actually watch ep1 of Miami Medical (with Jeremy Northam and Lana Parrilla), and discovered that when you watch a full ep instead of just Lana clips, what's up with Jeremy Northam's accent is much clearer, in that it was never meant to be a US accent, just that his character had been working in Maryland for 10 years and the "I'm from Maryland, as you can tell by the accent" was actually ironic. Someone calls him "Mr Tea and Biscuits" in the next scene. (Most of the eps are there. Hopefully I shall be able to watch them sometime and all will become clearer than the random Lana snippets.)
4.
sovay pointed me to uploaded episodes of The Expert on YouTube, including 2 from 1971 that I had managed to miss featured... James Maxwell! \o/ I was even too ill to manage watching this on my tablet for ages, too. In true JM form he was very nervy and awkward and also unfortunately too gentle and unmanly to survive a small push in the 1970s. Alas. He is such a delicate 6"3 baritone flower, lol. He fell over in the beginning of part 2 and next thing I knew they were doing an autopsy on him and now I'm too worried about where this is going to watch the rest (yet). (The channel also seems to have a lot of rare stuff - this is a never released on DVD or repeated item, so they must have a collection of their own, presumably.)
5. Bookending this, Michael Keating, better known to me as Vila from Blake's 7 died when I was too numbed from the cold to really comment on it - and then yesterday, the news broke about Anthony Head, too, and I was very sad to hear both & both by all accounts, lovely people too. Michael had apparently had dementia for some years and after B7 worked mainly in theatre, and also got very into rambling, but he didn't need to do more TV to leave an impact: Vila was iconic, someone he made a very likeable and relatable figure in the midst of all the rebels vs. Federation struggles. I'm watching Sesskasays react to B7 for the first time and, in these early stages, Vila is her favourite. Mine too. I love all the characters, and adored Jacqeline as Servalan, but Vila is my favourite. He's the 'small man' archetype out of a fantasy story, living in a snarky fascist space universe. How could he not be?
I was late to the party with Buffy (although I remember watching the Gold Blend ads as a child!) but as a newbie librarian, I borrowed the VHS tapes from our library, and Giles was of course immediately my favourite, and then Anthony Head was always marvellous in everything. I hadn't dreamed we weren't going to get a few more years yet of unexpected bonus ASH in random TV or radio. He was in DW (audio and visual), Jonathan Creek's pilot, Cabin Pressure, but 3 things other than Giles I'll remember him for, particularly:- his first TV appearance in Enemy at the Door, where he played the Martels' son Clive, trapped on the island after a misguided raid by the British army goes wrong; an outstanding performance in s1 of Spooks, where he played Tom Quinn's mentor, jaded and screwed up, in a tragic crash-and-burn guest turn (N.B. warning for all the things, this is Spooks); and at the other end of the scale, being absolutely marvellous and hilarious every episode of 5 series of Bleak Expectations as the villainous Mr Gently Benevolent, whether exercising his trademark evil laugh, reincarnated as a pigeon, reformed, unreformed, or cheeseboarding Pip (with a break for tea and biscuits). It got me through a rough summer in 2013. Washing up badly is not the same as washing up evilly.
no subject
Date: 2026-06-06 09:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-06-06 06:37 pm (UTC)*hugs*
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Date: 2026-06-06 06:44 pm (UTC)*hugs*
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Date: 2026-06-06 12:58 pm (UTC)It's not gone well for JM's character. I'm not surprised you've put the autopsy off O_o
I've got Bagpuss songs in my head now!
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Date: 2026-06-06 06:41 pm (UTC)Oh, unquestionably too soon!
It's not gone well for JM's character. I'm not surprised you've put the autopsy off O_o
The script is by N J Crisp, who is usually good, and good with women-centric stories, but I'm still a bit worried Ann Bell will now be forced back with her rapey husband Anthony Bate now that her unmanly lover just fell over and died for lack of proper 70s testosterone. But I could well be wrong... (The autopsy is over, JM is disposed of.)
I've got Bagpuss songs in my head now!
"We will fix it, we will fix it!"
(I mean, obv, SP isn't really like Bagpuss, but also. It is like Bagpuss. You're mending stuff with love and stop-motion puppets. XD)
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Date: 2026-06-07 02:19 pm (UTC)I need a choccy biscuit now;p
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Date: 2026-06-06 02:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-06-06 06:59 pm (UTC)Yeah, me too. I was never in the fandom for Buffy as such, but I did enjoy it very much back in the day, and Giles was so great. Vila, of course, as you know, I love too, although at least in Michael's case it at least sounds like it was more expected and he was that bit older, of course. Still sad, though! There seem to be so few left of the core B7 cast & crew already. <3
I must say that I do not like this trend of losing people whose work I've loved for decades. And not just because it makes me feel old, but also because, yes, it makes me feel old.
I mean, the 70s if we must, but not the 90s, not yet - that can't be right! It's only yesterday, isn't it?? :-/ I mean, I'm sort of used to this, because I had that long period where I could only watch elderly Brit TV so everybody kept dying as soon as I discovered them and I was permanently being sad over someone who was actually about 90, but I'd been watching them be awesome in the 60s just the day before! Distressing, but an inevitable peril of the pursuit. This, though; yeah, this isn't on at all!
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Date: 2026-06-06 02:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-06-06 06:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-06-06 03:20 pm (UTC)And I remember liking Giles in that episode (though I kind of figured he wasn't totally a librarian ! )
I saw the announcement about Anthony Head thanks to BF. :(
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Date: 2026-06-06 06:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-06-06 04:06 pm (UTC)(Small Prophets and Bagpuss do sound delightful. And James Maxwell is really going through it in The Expert, I see...)
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Date: 2026-06-06 06:48 pm (UTC)Yes, two absolute favourites, and Anthony Head was not all that old for these days, still working and still being amazing whenever he did, and by all accounts a very lovely man. :-( I'm sure you'll run into him sooner or later - he was in so many things!
Small Prophets and Bagpuss do sound delightful.
They're not really alike, heh, but I connected the dots in my head. XD They are both great, though in very different ways - Small Prophets is a v low key magic realism sitcom that came out this year & Bagpuss is a 70s pre-school show that I used to watch when I was v small. (Seeing bits as an adult, though, makes my jaw drop at the sheer amount of handcrafted love that went into that little thing.)
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Date: 2026-06-06 05:26 pm (UTC)VR.5 playlist, if you feel up to a look sometime: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjxyKWyZILpKmDepmrNcDMl8AAIE3stXf
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Date: 2026-06-06 06:52 pm (UTC)and I've much enjoyed the tributes, but oh dear, I will miss him.
Yes, this one was a real shock, and absolutely too soon. I've never seen him give anything less than a top notch performance in anything yet.
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Date: 2026-06-07 01:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-06-07 08:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-06-07 05:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-06-07 08:01 am (UTC)