thisbluespirit: (b7 - deva)
thisbluespirit ([personal profile] thisbluespirit) wrote2017-02-15 08:49 pm

Things

1. I had an idea for my Doctor Who Minor Characters Ficathon fic! (I was hoping a prompt would give me inspiration, but there have been less, and then I had inspiration of my own. I am now, some hours later, thinking it maybe wasn't a good idea, but I seem to be committed.) I do also need to edit and beta my [community profile] hetswap fic. I keep telling myself it is all done, which is not actually true.


2. I get so used to all the people in old things I watch being dead (or immediately dropping dead on the spot) that sometimes I forget to look them up, assuming that they are dead, and then they surprise me by dying anyway because apparently they were in fact still alive (until they weren't).

Which is to say that the very excellent Alec McCowen died a week or so ago.



He was a brilliant and famous enough actor that I don't imagine I need to tell many of you who he was, but I've also liked him since way before my recent old TV watchings - when I did A-Level English Lit, our teacher chose to do Twelfth Night and Henry V as our Shakespeare plays, and then forced us to watch the BBC Shakespeare versions, which means that Alec McCowen is my default (slightly scary) Chorus and Malvolio, and has been for a very long time - and I've revisited them both recently, particularly Twelfth Night for Yuletide last year.

And then in my old telly voyages, I picked up Mr Palfrey of Westminster, which starred Alec McCowen as a quiet and compassionate civil servant who's actually a brilliant and ruthless spycatcher. It was an odd little show that took a while to get started and didn't last very long, but when it was good, it was very good and so was Alec McCowen (and the awesome and happily still alive at least at the last Google, Caroline Blakiston, as his boss). You could do worse than watch A Present From Leipzig or Return to Sender, or Music of a Dead Prophet in passing salute.


3. There should probably be a third thing, but there isn't. This post was mainly 2.

[identity profile] hyarrowen.livejournal.com 2017-02-15 10:25 pm (UTC)(link)
O, I'm sad to hear about Alex McCowen! Face-blindness ensures that I really only know him from Henry V, both the BBC and the Branagh versions, but he was excellent in both.

[identity profile] ragnarok-08.livejournal.com 2017-02-16 05:58 am (UTC)(link)
Oh that's so sad about Alex McCowen :(

[identity profile] sallymn.livejournal.com 2017-02-16 07:59 am (UTC)(link)
So glad you have an idea for your story!

Sad about Alec McGowan... it seems that these days there's a lot of either "They were too young to die!" and "oh they've been around so long I thought they were gone..." I try to also keep remembering that at the same time, someone is being born that we will love and admire and enjoy one day... we just don't know it yet.

[identity profile] acciochocolate.livejournal.com 2017-02-16 11:07 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, sad news. :(

[identity profile] acciochocolate.livejournal.com 2017-02-16 11:27 am (UTC)(link)
In reading the wiki article on McCowen, I note w/ interest that he was the partner of Geoffrey Burridge , who was so deliciously wicked in B7's "Rescue", the very 2nd B7 eppie I ever saw. The 1st was "Terminal", btw. I had high hopes for Dorian. ;)

[identity profile] acciochocolate.livejournal.com 2017-02-19 12:49 pm (UTC)(link)
Very sad. :(
liadt: Close up of Oichi drawing her sword close to her face with a sword blade meeting hers (Default)

[personal profile] liadt 2017-02-16 03:25 pm (UTC)(link)
Sorry to hear Alec McCowen has died. It's odd when an actor who you were sure were dead has their death announced and, yes, a scary Chorus!