Thursday, 21 February 2019

Albert


This week has seen a new arrival at Medd Towers. He's been dropping by, unannounced, for a couple of weeks now. At first it was nighttime sorties only - waiting till after lights out, entering by stealth thru the cat-flap, then making his way to the kitchen and helping himself to Doris' supper.
But now in true Six Dinner Sid style, he's casually breezing in for a spot of breakfast, a bit of a play, whereupon he'll jump up on the window cill and watch the world go by, before exiting stage left. And come nightfall he's back again. I call him Albert; he looks like an Albert. I think he likes it here.

Whilst on the subject of Albert, I can't not mention the recent passing of Albert Finney. Finney was a great character actor. His portrayal of Arthur Seaton in Saturday Night Sunday Morning was superb. I saw it recently on the big screen for the first time earlier this year and he and Nottingham never looked better.

I also name-checked him in the early days of this blog - in Gumshoe, Finney played dreamer Eddie Ginley - a smalltime bingo caller/private eye who gets caught way out of his depth in a very murky early seventies Liverpool. Such was his performance alongside Billie Whitelaw and Frank Finlay, this classic film noir will always feature in My Top Ten Movies.


And then today I found this in my office. A theatre programme from 1960. When Albert Finney took on the role of Billy Fisher (another dreamer), he brought Keith Waterhouse's novel Billy Liar to life. Interestingly, when it had the movie makeover a couple of years later it would be Finney's mate Tom Courtenay who was cast as our anti-hero.

on

4 comments:

  1. The Swede22 February 2019 at 09:05

    Great as Saturday Night Sunday Morning is (and Gumshoe sounds), it's Finney's 1970 turn as Ebenezer Scrooge that means the most to me on a personal level. Dad & I saw it at the cinema many times, then many more times on TV in later years. We knew the soundtrack by heart.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. John Medd22 February 2019 at 12:47

      Proof, if proof were needed, that he wasn't a one trick pony. Great memories to treasure btw.

      Delete
  2. Alyson23 February 2019 at 00:11

    I do love a kitchen sink drama - will have to rewatch SNSM soon. Never seen Gumshoe though so that might have to be first on the watch list.

    That is quite a theatre programme to still have - Was it acquired or did it come from your family I wonder?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. John Medd23 February 2019 at 08:15

      SNSM is coming back to the Broadway - our local Arts Cinema - for one Sunday afternoon only next month...

      Billy Liar was on our O Level syllabus for Eng Lit and I've loved it ever since. Billy Liar; Billy Liar on the Moon; the 70s TV version; the Michael Crawford West End musical (and the great song 'I Belong to the Stars'). I can't get enough of it!

      I snaffled the programme on Ebay a few years ago, but had forgotten all about it.

      Delete