Dvd/150: ALAN BENNETT AT THE BBC (Stephen Frears/Malcolm Mowbray/Giles Foster/John Schlesinger/Richard Eyre/Stuart Burge/Udayan Prasad/Jonathan Stedall, 1972/1994, tv)

A wonderful collection of Alan Bennett's BBC television work including A DAY OUT, SUNSET ACROSS THE BAY, A VISIT FROM MISS PROTHERO, OUR WINNIE, A WOMAN OF NO IMPORTANCE, AN ENGLISHMAN ABROAD, THE INSURANCE MAN, DINNER AT NOON, 102 BOULEVARD HAUSSMANN, A QUESTION OF ATTRIBUTION and PORTRAIT OR BUST.

A 1911 bicycle club's Sunday jaunt; an old couple finding unhappiness in retirement; a retired office worker visited by a boorish ex-colleague; a retarded woman visiting a cemetery with her mother and aunt; an office busybody chattering to the grave; actress Coral Browne meeting spy Guy Burgess in 1958 Moscow; stories from the lives of Kafka and Proust; Sir Anthony Blunt is revealed as a spy, these stories are accompanied by two documentaries of Bennett reflecting on hotels and art galleries.

Among a wide array of acting excellence Patricia Routledge, Coral Browne, Alan Bates, James Fox and Prunella Scales shine.

Shelf or charity shop? Shelf definitely....

Dvd/150: The GO-BETWEEN (Joseph Losey, 1971)

Joseph Losey and Harold Pinter's elliptical film of LP Hartley's novella is fascinating to watch.

It is redolent of 1970s filmmaking, good and bad.  Michel Legrand's emphatic piano score sounds more suited to a spy thriller and the claustrophobic sound makes you suspect it was all dubbed afterwards.

Nowadays it would be filmed as straight period drama but Losey and Pinter choose a more distancing approach, cross-cutting from 1900 when young Leo is invited for the summer to the Norfolk country estate of a schoolfriend, to the 1950s when Leo returns on a secretive invitation.

Leo is smitten by his friend's sister Marion who befriends him.  Already engaged, she is secretly seeing local farmer Ted Burgess.  They use Leo as a go-between for their notes but when he discovers the secret, his loyalties become confused.

Julie Christie, Alan Bates, Margaret Leighton and Michael Redgrave all give memorable performances.

Shelf or charity shop? Keeping it's secrets on the shelf... *nb* Now in plastic box limbo...