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The first episode of Casanova was every bit as much fun as I'd hoped. Sure, swathes of it were bullsh1t (no, he was not the first punk, and I notice there was no mention of his youthful role as gondolier to gang r@pists), but the framing device exculpates them on that...the David Tennant sequences aren't what happened, they're Peter O'Toole's account of what happened, filtered through the spin as he tells it to the servant, and then through her scepticism. And the Peter O'Toole bits...he is the last days of Casanova.
And was the fake castrato the same girl who played the tree in Doctor Who?
Another heavily fictionalised account of great historical pretenders is ( Finding Neverland )
"British researchers are more confident than ever that there are "Earths" out there waiting to be discovered. The scientists say perhaps a half of all the known planetary systems today could be harbouring habitable worlds."
Sadly, research suggests that the vast majority, though technically habitable, will look something like disused quarries.
Speaking Ill Of The Dead Corner: "When [John Paul II] became Pope, Brazil was in the grips of military dictatorship. Many priests hoped the Pope would lead the push for democracy - much as he did in his native Poland. But instead, he distanced the Church from politics and censured leading exponents of Liberation Theology - a school of thought which argued Catholicism should openly take the side of the poor."
Don't ever let them tell you that he was a friend of freedom. He opposed regimes which were anti-Catholic, and propped up those which were OK with the Church, and sometimes that happened to look like respect for liberty.
And look - Saul Bellow's dead and it barely makes the front page of the BBC site. I was no great fan, but in terms of people who died this week, he deserves far more sorrow than JPII.
A plan to tighten rules on the sale of vitamins and food supplements should be scrapped, a European judge says. He'll probably be overruled in the end, but this is still a blow against some truly idiotic regulations. And in similarly good news, the ID card bill won't get through before Parliament is dissolved, and hopefully whatever we end up with on May 6th, they'll have more sense than to reintroduce it.
And was the fake castrato the same girl who played the tree in Doctor Who?
Another heavily fictionalised account of great historical pretenders is ( Finding Neverland )
"British researchers are more confident than ever that there are "Earths" out there waiting to be discovered. The scientists say perhaps a half of all the known planetary systems today could be harbouring habitable worlds."
Sadly, research suggests that the vast majority, though technically habitable, will look something like disused quarries.
Speaking Ill Of The Dead Corner: "When [John Paul II] became Pope, Brazil was in the grips of military dictatorship. Many priests hoped the Pope would lead the push for democracy - much as he did in his native Poland. But instead, he distanced the Church from politics and censured leading exponents of Liberation Theology - a school of thought which argued Catholicism should openly take the side of the poor."
Don't ever let them tell you that he was a friend of freedom. He opposed regimes which were anti-Catholic, and propped up those which were OK with the Church, and sometimes that happened to look like respect for liberty.
And look - Saul Bellow's dead and it barely makes the front page of the BBC site. I was no great fan, but in terms of people who died this week, he deserves far more sorrow than JPII.
A plan to tighten rules on the sale of vitamins and food supplements should be scrapped, a European judge says. He'll probably be overruled in the end, but this is still a blow against some truly idiotic regulations. And in similarly good news, the ID card bill won't get through before Parliament is dissolved, and hopefully whatever we end up with on May 6th, they'll have more sense than to reintroduce it.
