KasTaway

[Neil Calton <nbc@vd.rl.ac.uk>]

>From: jsd%UMASS.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU (Jonathan S. Drukman)
>Has anyone seen "Castaway"?
Yes.

>Is it any good?
You mean you missed by mini-review back in March? Well, it's not
great but is o.k. to while away a couple of hours on a rainy day.
As has been said before, Kate sings over the opening credits and
the title refers to the last words Gerald Kingsland says to Lucy Irvine
in the film. The film is probably the least interesting of Roeg's work.
It is always good to look at since both the island and Ms Donahoe are
extremely photogenic. However, the film lacks the sense of mystery  that
is often present in Roeg's films: perhaps inevitable given the source
material for the movie. There are a few typical Roeg pieces of mise-en-scene
particularly in the underwater sequences but the psychological drama never
develops enough to make you actually care much about the principal
characters. I never became bored but the film rarely rose above a
slightly superior drama/ documentary. 

>From: jsd%UMASS.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU (Jonathan S. Drukman)
>For all you LHs who have heard the somewhat amusing "Do Bears..."
>track from UK Comic Relief, you may remember that it was a duet with
>Rowan Atkinson.  If you are interested in finding out more about Mr.
>Atkinson, watch a show called "The Black Adder" on Arts & Entertainment

If this is the first Black Adder series then its certainly quite good and 
even excellent in parts. If it is the second series (called Black Adder II
in GB) then it is excellent all the way through. The BBC have just finished
a repeat of BA II and it was just as good second time through. I would
rate BA II up there with Faulty Towers as amongst the best British comedy
shows of recent years. BA I is a good but still a bit frayed around the
edges - it's more frenetic than the second series and sometimes a bit over
the top. Written by Atkinson and Ben Elton (alternative stand-up comedian
now getting a lot of exposure in GB ).

>Apparently, "The Black Adder" is a sort of monty-pythonish spoof of
>the 15th century (or so says the P.R.).  I have heard that it's quite

Not as surreal as the Python Stuff - more like 15th Century situation comedy.

>Kate is still God.  Just thought I'd let you know.

As if we would ever forget!

Finally got round to watching the tapes of the BBC's 6.5 hour survey
of pop videos (Video Jukebox). In this marathon they omitted to show any
of Kate's work or even mention her name. However, they did show a bit of
the Pamela Stephenson take-off which I was enquiring about recently - 
(thanks |>oug for suppling me with the lyrics and the title - Oh England
My Leotard). I will never understand how the BBC make some of their decisions.
I mean they devoted about 15 minutes to Toni Basil!


About the Kate stories - it seemed to me that she had perhaps been watching
too many episodes of the Twilight Zone.