Beyond the Roundels

sovay asked me some more film meme questions when I complained about the questions in the other film meme making me talk about my A-Level film watching. I have managed to post my answers to these in less than a month after being asked them, so go me. And thank you sovay! <3

1. A film you watched for a favorite actor (of any gender) which you would not have sought out otherwise?

I wasn't really watching film for a long while, because I couldn't, so only my faves forced me back to it, and made it possible again, so it would be true to say nearly everything I've watched since about 2011. But here is one for each of my faves that have sufficient films in their cv to make it worth nominating one:

a. Dean Spanley (2008), because it's so obscure, and even if I'd stumbled over it in some other context, the very quality of the cast would only have been a warning sign, because it'd have to be terrible to still not ever have pinged my radar, or, afaict, anyone else's that I knew. But the Jeremy Northam tumblrs were enthusiastic, as were the 2-3 others who had actually seen it, so I sought it out, and I'm so glad I was finally able to snag a DVD because they were right - it's an oddity, but it's also a gem.

b. Girl On Approval (1962), which is a lesser New Wave/Kitchen Sink installment that starred Rachel Roberts with my man James Maxwell in the supporting role as her husband. I have a fascination with New Wave, brought on my Media Studies tutor who haunted the other post - we watched Look Back In Anger, Man at the Top & Saturday Night, Sunday Morning (& I also, long before, watched half of A Taste of Honey in my first year at secondary school. Only half was because that was when I first had ME/CFS). This gave me a deep, enduring and entirely grudging fascination with this brand of TV/Film, but also an appreciation of Rachel Roberts, who is amazing.

This is written by a female writer, about two main female characters, and it was the first UK attempt at a realistic film about fostering/social care etc, and I find it fascinating and well done, and worth a look if you have a similar interest in these kinds of films, social history of the era, or Rachel Roberts. (I can also attest it is well worth it for some of the earliest surviving non-fake-hair-assaulted James Maxwell, even if he is not in Rachel Roberts's league.)

c. If I had ever looked at The Lady Vanishes (1938) properly, I would no doubt have always have been taken with the summary, but I'd not got on with old films before then, so it was only watching Margaret Lockwood in 1970s TV, loving her in that and looking her up, that made me actually try it. It was a complete delight, and I've really enjoyed trying lots of 1930s & early 40s films I've watched off the back of that since, whether with or without Margaret Lockwood. I've still got a mixed track record with all-time Hollywood classics, but at least I know there are some things out there I do like!


2. A film you wish had been made with one of your favorites?

I'm not sure whether this is a role swap - this film would have been better with James Maxwell in it! - or a non-existent film they should have made with a favourite actor. I shall answer with something that is simultaneously both, in a way.

BBC Radio's 1991 'Christmas at the Wells' season of Victorian plays was great, but of all radio things I've listened to, the one that most made me pine for a live-action version was their London Assurance with Jeremy Northam as Dazzle. Someone should instantly have grabbed all the cast that could reprise their roles in visual format, or at least Jeremy Northam, and made them do it in a film, or a one-off TV thing. There is no film version of London Assurance, so it'd have been a general service to humanity anyway. I need to relisten to this, because I was new to it, but Dazzle wanders through it, idly bluffing and obliviously causing plot to ensue for everyone else, and I really really wanted to see him. It's set in the 18th C, so there would also have been excellent costumes. I am glad we had the radio, though.

(I loved The Schoolmistress even more but while I would enjoy a live-action version of that, too, it couldn't have Jeremy Northam as he was too old to play a 17 yr old even in 1991, except on radio, lol. Besides, it worked perfectly in that format, so I can just relisten to it anytime I wanted and be quite happy. Although it's such fun, someone should give it a go sometime. The world is always in need of an extra cheerful thing.)


3. A film it surprises people that you love?

See my below answer about me maybe not being the person to judge this - I feel most films I love are obviously films I would love, but then I would. I suppose, to go back to my previous film meme post, people are understandably surprised when I tell them that Schindler's List is probably my favourite film. (I prevaricate unless I feel like explaining my whole totalitarian regimes history story yet again, which I don't always.)

People do get surprised sometimes about that anybody likes the Star Wars Prequel trilogy best, I suppose; and I do! (I'm not alone by any means. ;-p)


4. A film you feel it should be completely obvious that you love?

All my films I love seem pretty obvious choices - to me, at least! But I read the description of The Lady Vanishes (1938) and went "that sounds like almost everything I like in one film" and it really was. The Winslow Boy (1999) was so obviously catered to me that I've been nearly watching it for years and it was first on my list of Jeremy Northam films to get, even if dodgy DVDs delayed it. Gosford Park was super-inevitable in so many ways. Watching The Mummy (1999) in a cinema in Aberystwyth (with wet feet, because I forgot you don't mess with the sea in Aber) was insta-love for multiple reasons, chief of which was A Librarian Heroine. *heart eyes*

idk, all my likes seem painfully obvious to me, but no doubt I'm more inexplicable to other people. Well. Occasionally, perhaps?

Have YOU been shocked by me liking a film??? Do I need to explain myself? I expect I will be very happy to do so.


5. A film you wish had been a television show?

A lot of book adaptations really need a TV serial format to do the book justice. I've been blanking on a particular example for 2-3 weeks now, though. But it'll definitely be some frustratingly over-lite classic lit book adaptation that missed something vital. I think lots of us round here know that feeling!

Another crosspost for my Fave Eps of Old Telly tumblr sets, and one this time that is part of the reason I started making it, because sometimes you get something like this.

Original tumblr post.

---

Favourite Episodes of Old Telly: The Shadow of the Tower Episode 5 “The Serpent and the Comforter” (BBC 1972. Written by Hugh Whitemore; dir. Moira Armstrong.)
( What more unanswerable question is there than death? )

The Serpent and the Comforter (YouTube) | and on Daily Motion

I'm not sure what else to add here, but it does seem to be the one that everybody else who watches it really likes as well, so clearly this is not just about me and my weirdness or my James Maxwell fixation. (This is what gave me my JM fixation.)

I do feel that I haven't really updated properly for ages! I've just really spent all of October recovering from my parents' visit, which was a lot to do with unfortunate timing, and when I've been a little steadier in between, i've just done some family history and completely left the writing alone. I feel a bit stronger again now, although I won't make any rash statements about not getting so low again, because whenever I do, I just get immediately worse!


1. Belatedly, but I think not too late yet, undeadrobins is running a fun ficathon - the second Kissathon!


2. Yuletide assignments went out and mine is a fun one! It was for a fandom I had regretted signing up for, but this was the letter that made me be so unwise & I have an idea and it doesn't seem too unrealistic/ambitious, so I'm cautiously excited. (Actual writing happened yet = 0, though so we shall see!)


3. Talking Pictures did indeed provide me with two not-quite-complete installments of The Hidden Truth on Monday and Thursday (and getting up from my afternoon rest to face the worst bit of the day (when I'm lowest) with the prospect of new-to-me old James Maxwell is a delightful way to fight misery). Monday's had less JM (but had plenty of non-evil Bernard Archard*) but then Thursday's was basically a Richard Harris-penned episode featuring James Maxwell and Zia Mohyeddin doing autopsies and getting annoyed by small-town prejudice and aside from the fact that what was missing from this even-more-almost-complete episode was the actual conclusion to whodunnit, I can't say what I enjoyed more. If I'm allowed to be frivolous, it might even have been the height difference between the two of them and the imaginative framing that the director resorted to was my personal highlight. But idk. I'm very happy to have such a thing brought out of the archives and onto my TV. Thanks Talking Pictures, now repeat the one I missed, pleeeeease!!! XD (Still one more to go, although I haven't checked the cast - might be no JM at all.)


4. I was going to try and do Whumptober but I wrote 1 fic in rough. It is still in rough. I hope to type it up soon, though, now! Ah well.


5. I am doing a trick or treat thing on tumblr where I will make one (singular) gif for everyone who leaves an ask saying "trick or treat!". I have quite a few, but not so many that I can't repeat the offer here. Obv this is better suited to tumblr, but if it would also give anyone pleasure here to have one random (middle-ability) gif, then well done on making it down to this part of a longish post and just say "Trick or treat!" in a comment and I will try to make one I think you will like. ♥


There may well have been other things, but this is a good amount of catching up to be going on with!

* Bernard Archard is not only usually invariably evil, he's frequently also undead.

I'm very tired (again) but I should mention fandomtrees, which went live all of 3 days ago. Under mine, I found:

* 3 Janeway icons from kingstoken

* liadt gave me some actual non-blurry pics of James Maxwell in the burninated Nigel Kneale TV play The Road here and also lovely fanart for the coffee shop bit of the AU Meme for Silver (& Liz Shaw).

* A lovely selection box of Blake's 7 icons from zephron1, so I need to decide which one(s) to use. I think I must find space for the Vila & Servalan one at the very least!

* and last but by no means least, hamsterwoman made me some great B7 quote icons in revenge repayment for me being the cause of them watching it earlier this year.

So, it was good fun. I did not manage to do much, but I did make zephron1 some Gan & Vila icons and recced some happy vids for, er, someone else. (I'm sorry, it was three days ago and I was randomly looking through the recs tag at the last minute for someone I could make a rec list for. I would know the entry again if I saw it!)

This is a bit random, but I made this post in response to a tumblr query and it is so long and I don't want to risk losing it in case it should ever come in handy again. But don't worry, I haven't finally completely lost it and assumed that everyone wants to stalk James Maxwell round strange old telly and film. However, if you do, here is your guide to what's good (for Mr Maxwell anyway) complete with warnings for particularly terrible facial hair. I might come back and edit in YT links later (maybe even gifs), but I'll leave it here as it is for now, just so that tumblr doesn't eat my ridiculous work (because tumblr).

*waves*


***

More of a guide than a recs list, because old tv/film depends so much on availability. It’s also hard as there’s nothing surviving that’s really like SotT for him (his voice is always slightly different, too & rarely the grand one from SotT) - I found it hard to find where to start back in the day, so I hope this makes it easier. However, I have starred my favourites (rated for JM content only).

I’ve divided things into categories and jurijurijurious​ (or anyone) can make up their own mind as to what to go for.

Where to find things: Luckily in the UK, it’s not too bad! Network Distributing are the DVD supplier to keep an eye on (they do great online sales), you can find secondhand things cheap on Amazon Marketplace & eBay, and several Freeview channels show old TV & film, especially Talking Pictures. I’ll note if things are on YT or Daily Motion, but they come and go all the time, so it’s always worth searching.

( Cut for very long post of me rating episodes on a JM scale )

I keep forgetting to get around to reposting my icons from tinypic and photobucket, but kateoftheangels was asking after this Clare one, which reminded me, so this is the first of two old icon reposts, one for Enemy at the Door and a giant one for Public Eye to follow. There are a lot, so forgive me if I don't number them or order them as logically as I would usually try to. Please note: fairly obviously, contains images of WWII German uniforms.

Teaser:


( Why are you so afraid of ideas? )

So, I was feeling really flat and tired again yesterday and today, so yesterday I made a historical gifset with Copper and Silver (which I'd been talking about wanting to do to theseatheseatheopensea) here on tumblr.

( Cut for giffage )

And today I thought I would do another OC Element, and finally found the perfect one for Dennis Alaba Peters (who was in Department S and I've been wanting to use him, partly because he was actually an opera singer and has a splendid voice, which always helps) - here's Carbon, or a potential Carbon anyway:

( Cut for largish elemental graphic )

Anyway, maybe it's a bit too Sir Curtis-like, but imagining him as sort of senior element who wanders in and out vaguely and casually sorts things while being surprised other Elements found it difficult. ("Ah, Steel. Not still having trouble regulating your temperature, are you? I thought you fixed that half a century ago!")

The tumblr post is somewhere in the queue, but it'll turn up here in time.

Life continues to be scary, so I am doing what surely any rational person would do and hiding away here, writing my hurtcomfortex letter (so many freeforms!) and making James Maxwell gifs.

I am trying to improve my gifmaking skills on the website, but all I learn is the website makes its own rules and will do completely different things with each different gif, although I am definitely getting a little bit better at knowing how many pics/what speed to do the ones from screencaps). It is frustrating, though - if I could do it on my editing programme, I could make them so much prettier!

Also you know that Obi-Wan/Padme gif I made from the RotS extras, that wasn't even that good? I posted them on tumblr as well, because I thought I might as well, and now it's at 2000+ notes and hasn't stopped yet. It's very weird. If I had 2000+ repsonses to a Dreamwidth post I'd be collapsed somewhere, but on tumblr, it's all very impersonal and has nothing to do with me whatsoever. It just sort of... goes on regardless, and indeed, would if I wasn't even there any more. (Up till now the best I had was Peter Cushing gifs which picked up c. 200-300 notes.) Anyway, so if you post any old Obidala gif, tumblr likes it. Or possibly just if you get the ones off the extra bit off the DVD.

Oh, and, in cheerful things - I have a space_swap gift already! I feel like I'm slacking now, although mine has progressed to a mental plan and notes and rewatching and I mean to get actual words down tomorrow.


Anyway, have an incomplete gifology of 1960s James Maxwell, plus one Suzanne Neve, because it included Portrait of a Lady and I couldn't not.

( cut for traditionally cheering JM giffage only no barometers sorry )

For snowflake_challenge - Challenge #6: In your own space, make a list — anything between one and ten things is a sweet spot, but don't feel constrained by that! - of things that you wish existed in fandom or elsewhere, or that you'd like someone to make for you.

I mainly want more anything for or anyone into my ridiculous obscure old telly fandoms, especially the ones with James Maxwell in, but that is too unreasonable to ask.

So:

1. I have a Dear Author tag which contains all my previous exchange letters and therefore details of Things I Like, why, and in what ways I would like All the Fic. Especially if it has James Maxwell in, obviously or by stealth. :-D (Other things are good! I want All The Things when I'm not at my most tired.)

2. Comments on my fic. If I have Thoughts on things, that tends to become fic and because I am actually a lot more shy than I may appear while babbling on the internet, I have always used that as my prime way into talking to people and making friends, and given my shaky concentration, I'm bad at doing it from the other way round (although I hope to improve again soon).


But, funnily, I was about to post this, so I shall include it! I was going back through all my editions of the 15 Characters Meme (and the 12 Characters thing) and noting down things that really should exist, whether as a begging list or a reminder to self, I cannot say, but I think, given this topic, it should go right here! So:

3. All these things should totally exist somewhere, right?


a. The Master goes to Granny Weatherwax's used vehicle lot to purchase a vehicle. Long John Silver offers unsolicited advice about it.

b. Ace, Sapphire, and Cally spend the night in a haunted house.

c. Violet Crawley is made supreme ruler of the globe.

d. Rupert Giles & Violet Crawley get thrown back in time to 1066 in a freak accident. The fate of England rests on the shoulders of one or both of them.

e. Zen & Holly are stuck in a museum after closing hours (presumably ancient exhibits in a technology museum, long forgotten...)

f. Harry Pearce, Esme Weatherwax, and Jane Marple are alone in a house/other building of your choice. It is a dark and stormy night. There is a thunderous knock on the door followed by the sound of feet running away. When they open the door, there is a baby in a basket, and voila, one tiny child has three of the best and scariest godparents ever. Do not mess with them.

g. Charley Pollard and Clara Oswald go into business together

h. Ros Myers is catapulted into another dimension where they meet the good/evil mirror version of their friends. (With bonus debate as to whether this would therefore be the mirror dimension where everyone was fluffy and into kittens and then Ros would have to kill them all, or if Ruth would be a megalomaniac she needed to defeat.)

i. A Bill Potts/Kara Danvers College AU where Bill is teaching physics and passing on the wonders of the universe, Sam Vimes is teaching a criminology course that is turning out to be way more hands on and practical than the university was up for, Kara is teaching a journalism course and is really nervous about it and her first few lectures do not go well, since they involve public speaking. She keeps winding up in Bill's study for biscuits and sympathy. Bill is very helpful and is developing a serious crush. (It'd be adorable only with bonus Vimes. What's not to like?)

j. The Sixth Doctor and Zelena Mills have to fake a relationship.

k. Kara Danvers/Obi Wan-Kenobi, and/or this impressively pretty, explosive and effective sedoretu comprised of Dayna Mellanby & Kara Danvers, Kara Danvers/Bill Potts, Kara Danvers/Obi-Wan Kenobi, Dayna Mellanby/Bill Potts and Dayna Mellanby/Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Bill Potts & Obi-Wan Kenobi. It would involve a lot of handwaving, but is that not what fic is for?

l. Kara Danvers and the Sixth Doctor are entered in the Great British Bake-Off. (Optional: Orac is a guest judge and Servalan is trying to sabotage the whole thing.)

m. The Twelfth Doctor and Cora Mills are now buddy cops.

n. Twelve and Henry VII are running a coffee shop that lives off the attraction of Twelve's terrible customer service and Henry's excellent book-keeping. (I don't know what kind of AU it is, but I'd read it.)


(I'd like to point out that I did write the one where Donna Moss got locked in the wine cellar with Eight and One and the one where Henry VII and Ace went on a (kind of date; stuff blew up anyway), and more or less the Jenkins and Twelve find a stray kitten, if you substute 'baby winged horse' for kitten, so I have done my part, or some of it, anyway...)

I have not really been updating properly again. In the meantime, I have been doing too much family history, because I never manage to do it in sensible doses that leave me with any brain for other things.


* So, I have also made 70-80 Dracula gifs (I'm, er, just over a third of the way through). Anyway, as promised and not delivered the other week, Dr Seward gives his housekeeper a poker:

( this is what happens when you let actors rehearse )


* I wrote, or more accurately, got around to posting 3 stories at rainbowfic, so I did the thing. They were all Edward/Julia, so nothing has changed, really.


* I still don't know what crossover to write for the hc_bingo challenge this month, though. Any suggestions? I may need them!

I am being bad at posting and I am actually really enjoying the Stuff I Love meme, both seeing other people's posts and self-indulgently going on about things I love. I am tired, though, so let me be obvious tonight.

Anyone who's been following me for more than about two minutes will have gathered that as well as obscure old telly I love obscure old actors who appear in it. It was an inevitable consequence, really. David Collings, Barbara Murray, Alfred Burke, Suzanne Neve, Gemma Jones and a bunch of others. David Collings is the person whose fault it was, and who dies improbably and entertainingly a lot. But my current favourite is James Maxwell. I would explain myself, and there is a sort of explanation in there somewhere that started with David Collings and BBC period drama but it passed through Sapphire and Steel fancasting and theatrical ghost stories and a nice obit, to "I just like your face, sir" and then what can you do?

Anyway, James Maxwell was a character actor who was one of the founding artistic directors of Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre, which he is now reputed to haunt. He was actually American, but came to the UK to study at the Old Vic Theatre School in 1950 and stayed here till he died in 1995.

Things I like about him:

1. He crossed an ocean because of Dame Edith Evans. (Literally: he went to see her in the theatre and no less than two days later he was on board a ship for the UK, arriving in Southampton with no forwarding address.)

2. The ghost story about him can basically be boiled down to "his colleagues wanted to have him still around." Bonus for the ghost story: he is said to have made an appearance on TV from beyond the grave on Most Haunted. Not something everyone can claim.

( And now I will just illustrate my point with gifs )


I was prompted to post this particular entry today because someone on tumblr had found a new source of theatrical pics for him, which I shall now share, watermarks notwithstanding.

( Ah, yes, the one in the short skirt holding someone's hand... )

I was going to write a sensible post about JM and do him justice (because actually he was a pretty interesting person and it has been fun trying to find out more about him and there is a lot to say) but I am tired. So you got the gifs that survived my tumblr-pocalypse.

But this list could have been a lot longer and had more gifs, so you can't complain too much. ;-p


ETA: oh, also THIS LIST. <3

Belated, but I'm going to try and do this now!



Day 1

In your own space, talk about your Happy Place—the things that give you joy, calms you or keeps you sane. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Fannishly, rather than physically (which I assume is what's wanted?), probably my main 'happy place' out of recent fandoms over the last few years has been Once Upon a Time. It may have many faults, but its ridiculous-awesome meta fairy tale soap opera open crossover nature, has been a go-to for cheering up, at least when it comes to things that aren't beige or black & white and at least 35 years old. Especially Regina and Lana Parrilla and her face.

In old TV, James Maxwell has been an excellent TV boyfriend in so many ways, saving only burninated stuff I can't have (*pines*). He also had an interesting life, despite claiming to be super-ordinary, and is a very satisfactory person to like all round. This year was particularly good because I found an actual interview with him and someone magically sent me his autograph online via tumblr and a dream. Thinking about all of this makes me happy.

Also Adam Adamant Lives! AAL! is like old Brit TV happy-making medicine. I don't know if Sydney Newman put that in his instructions to Verity Lambert back in the day, but probably.


Day 2

Rec at least three fanworks that you didn’t create. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Okay, three of the most recent of my (non-Yuletide) bookmarks:

Kindred by trufflemores (G, 2981 words. Arrowverse, Barry Allen & Kara Danvers)
1.18. Barry and Kara share donuts on a rooftop. Sweet & fun missing scene from Supergirl and the Flash's first encounter.


Decade of Hell by fogshadow (G, 5333 words. Star Trek: Voyager/Sapphire & Steel, Silver.)
When I tell you that Time has moods, a disposition to be intuited, I'm not speaking metaphorically. Anger is one of its moods—anger and the desire for retribution, vengeance. Time itself has tried to punish me for my arrogance. It has kept me from my wife, denied me my future. —Captain Annorax, "Year of Hell: Part 2" Or, Silver gets stuck on one hell of an assignment. Unusual crossover, which is accessible from either end as Silver gives an outsider POV on a particular Voyager incident. Excellent.


Notes from the Past by KittyEden (Teen, 4298 words. Sapphire, Steel, Magnesium)
An empty house, stacks upon stacks of blank paper, and a string of mysterious deaths: Sapphire and Steel- and Magnesium- have been assigned. Great missing assignment with a lovely OC Element. (Archive-locked).