A good radio programme, and other entertainments

Michael Frayn's Matchbox theatre  LISTEN NOW!!

Very funny - and beautiful - dialogue between Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam. Also enjoyed David Attenborough as himself.

The Lady in the Van

Miss Shepherd was very unreasonable.

Maggie Smith is actually still very soignee

Alan Bennett makes London look like a village.

Took my mother to see this yesterday - she is a long-time admirer of Alan Bennett. She really likes his Northern accent, his modest demeanour, his down-homeliness. Maggie Smith was amazingly good. She is an old lady playing an old lady - but there is a lot of physicality involved - and a lot of mixed and confused emotion for her to convey - and she is brilliant. I like the post-modern Alan Bennetts talking to each other, and the street of arty people (including the afore-mentioned Roger Allam. I'm afraid I thought it went on too long.

Spectre

this is an excellent Bond with all the usual elements: a car chase, a shoot out, a fist fight, a torture scene, a woman (who is far too young for him; Daniel Craig seems to be embarrassed by his own un-avuncular intentions), an aerial chase, a race against the clock, a life-saving gadget, some humour and a tense visit to the secret headquarters of an evil empire. It takes place in some wonderful locations and, of course, London. It has one unusual element: that is:  Q, M, another scrabble letter and Miss Moneypenny all come out and help Bond when the chips are down. There is something a bit political about it but it is quite subtle: something about not trusting the new just because it's new. A new technology may look slick but have a sly purpose we do not want - very post Edward Snowden.

Suffragettes

This was another script by the amazing Abi Morgan. It showed that women were powerless when they fought for the vote. They had no rights over their own children, they were subject to abuse and couldn't fight back. The vote didn't do everything for them but it gave them a start in winning equal rights. And hoorah for Meryl Streep who came on and showed what a bit of (actually a lot of) charisma can do for a cause.

HBC doesn't often play intelligent and earnest - it suits her.

There are too many people without hats in this film. At this time, everyone wore a hat.

Edward Snowden's actions

have had some effect.

First of all, his account of government snooping has changed the climate of public opinion and aroused more sympathy for Bradley Manning, whose sentence was (perhaps as a result) not as harsh as originally suggested. But 35 years, according to his lawyer, is longer than child molesters and murderers get. I hope by the time his case comes up for parole the fury has died down.

Secondly, President Obama has said that he will review the huge trawl for information that the NSA is performing at present .Read report here. (The more I read about President Obama the more it seems to me that he is confusing legitimate opposition with security threat. Someone who criticized him on Twitter had a visit from the security services. This is all very McCarthy. There is a libertarian tradition in the US but Obama views it as an enemy.)

Thirdly, the British government has made itself look a bit silly by sending the secret service to the Guardian offices to smash up a couple of computers. http://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/aug/20/guardian-editor-alan-rusbridger-nsa

The British government has made a huge mistake by detaining David Miranda - a journalist not a terrorist, indirectly connected to the Snowden information, and now there is a real row about what the terrorist act is for. All this is shining a light on the darkest, most shameful and most bullying tactics of the government, and I hope it leads to some constraints on their agents' activities. If Nick Clegg condones it his party should sack him. It's against everything liberals stand for.