midbrowcontrarian

I found this documentary on Royalty TV, a channel dedicated to the Royal family. It reflects the modern view of royalty as soap opera, with celebrity, glamour, and romance to the fore. Lots about the younger royals and spouses, some of whom (no names no pack drill) have delighted us long enough. Nothing about Edward VII or George V, being figures of substance rather than shallow celebrity.

Anyway, to get to the point. As this involved politics I rightly assumed it must be interesting. Coverage of the late Queens' relationships from Churchill to Brown is informative and more or less fair. Thereafter there was a subtle but definite anti Brexit bias.

We are told the Leave campaign was "strong, and on occasion misleading". What about the then Chancellor George Osborne trying to frighten us by claiming a leave vote would cause "an immediate and profound economic shock"? Why mention the "mere 4% difference" between the Leave and Remain vote? The Leave win was narrow but it was very broad. One could drive a car through Leave Parliamentary constituencies from Lands End to the Scottish border mostly without coming within twenty miles of a Remain seat. The same exercise in Remain seats confines you to a narrow corridor from Brighton to London and across through Oxford towards Bristol.

The commentator accuses Boris Johnson of a betrayal of the Queen over 'partygate'. I'm not an unqualified admirer of Johnson: he's always been slapdash, and in office was henpecked by his animal rights activist wife Carrie. Of course the party shouldn't have taken place. But to claim he betrayed the Queen is way over the top.

Described by IMDb as "The story of people living in the countryside of the UK after World War I". What struck me was that many had a similar theme of men of varying degrees of eligibility having to choose between two or even three women. Which seems a nice problem to have. After WWI there was a surfeit of women of 1.7 million, some 10%. I'll confine my comments to these, happily three of the five are my favourites.

CRAVEN ARMS. Art teacher David (Ian McKellen) finds his classes popular with young women, three of whom he romances. All are good looking, but I didn't feel there was much character development, also it was too talky, so only rate it 6.

THE HIGGLER. Ex soldier Harvey (Keith Drinkel), fallen on hard times, is courting a local girl, then meets someone else with better financial prospects. As is usually the case with these stories, it doesn't end well. Rating 7.

CRIPPLED BLOOM. Dodgy, promiscuous bookmaker Potter (Joss Ackland) is walking out with pretty but lame Ruby (Pauline Collins). He soon transfers his affections to her more hard nosed and practical sister Nan (Anne Cropper). Rating 8.

THE FOUR BEAUTIES. Three sisters take a shine to young journalist Henry (Michael Kitchen). The older Christie is flirty and flighty, the middle one Sophie is rather devious, the youngest Tina adores him but is only fourteen. The fourth beauty is the mother. Rating 8.

THE SULLENS SISTERS. Young Tommy (Peter Firth) is in love with Rachel (Penelope Wilton) but she's seven years older and has a boyfriend. He comes to realise her younger sister Lindy (Clare Sutcliffe) is probably a better prospect. As I liked this one the most I've also done an episode review. Rating 9.

Tommy (Peter Firth) is involved with two sisters, Rachel (Penelope Wilton) and Lindy (Clare Sutcliffe). To some extent I must demur from the interpretation in a whole series comment that Tommy "falls in love with one sister but when he cannot marry her marries the other instead". His first love Rachel is 26 while he is only 19, and she becomes pregnant by her faux sophisticated boyfriend who promptly does a moonlight flit. Not a great marriage prospect.

He initially ignores Lindy who is his age but wears shapeless smocks, and has untidy loose hair. However, halfway through Tommy has a eureka moment and realises he's been chasing the wrong sister. While trying to comfort a grumpy Rachel, Lindy bursts in, wearing a tight fitting dress, hair nicely bobbed, and asks "how do I look?". The word 'phwoar' probably hadn't been coined back then but that's what he's thinking. I've always adored Clare Sutcliffe, and for this reason it's my favourite episode.