The Bletchley Circle

Next week's Radio Times has an article by E. Jane Dickson previewing a new ITV drama, The Bletchley Circle (Thursday 9 pm), celebrating the work of Britain's wartime code-breakers. The article interviews four former Bletchley girls — Mavis Batey, Jean Valentine, Beryl Middleton and Nina Horwood, current ages spanning 87 to 91.

Apparently the drama is not about their work at Bletchley Park, but a fictional crime story set after the war.

http://youtu.be/rhLb1-00ihI


The real Bletchley Park story is fascinating, with much cultural, historical and technological significance, but I can't help feeling that this series is simply an attempt to capitalise on topical interest (we've just had the Alan Turing centenary, for example).

The drama is written by Guy Burt, about whom I know little (typically the ITV press release makes much of the actors, the producer, the director and the commissioning team, but makes no mention of the writer). I might watch the first episode, but if the writer had been Anthony Horowitz I'd commit to the whole thing.

The Virgin Daughters (Channel 4 TV)

Last Thursday, at exactly the same time that Five was broadcasting The Million Dollar Mind Reader, Channel 4 showed the latest in the Cutting Edge documentary series: The Virgin Daughters. To quote from the Channel 4 website:

This week Cutting Edge explores the controversial purity movement currently sweeping across the United States. One-in-six American girls now pledges to remain a virgin - and some even to save their first kiss - until their wedding day. But is this their decision, or their fathers'?

Providing a fascinating insight into America's heartland, award-winning documentary maker Jane Treays follows a group of fathers and daughters as they prepare to attend a Purity Ball in Colorado Springs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvALXGl9zYA (1/5)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ws4AeWlq54A (2/5)



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98ttHqot7Do (3/5)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0pK7Qq8oMo (4/5)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4lQpMHeEcI (5/5)

(Thanks again to threespeed79 for uploading the YouTube video clips. BitTorrent enabled viewers go here.)

It was fascinating to watch, not just for the fairly neutral stance that the documentary makers took with the commentary, but also for the way the film accentuated the superficial wholesomeness of the community. The fathers were upstanding, quietly reverent and sincere. The daughters were beautiful, well-spoken and articulate. The religious aspect was evident but not stressed. The whole production spoke of quality, and indeed purity. Even the background music promoted an air of idyllic magnificence.

But despite the portrayal of genuine concern for the future of young lives needing to be cherished, the many scenes with the fathers and daughters together was undeniably and disturbingly creepy. So much utter perfection on display could only, I felt (entirely without evidence), hide something horrendously putrid at its core. Maybe I'm conditioned by so many sad news reports of in-family abuse, but this impression was, for me, unavoidable.

Randy Wilson, a father, is the minister at New Life Church, Colorado Springs* (where the infamous Ted Haggard was minister until his spectacular fall from grace), and he runs the Purity Ball. His wife Lisa was asked about her reasons for promoting purity. Surprisingly she did not quote biblical texts to support her view. Rather, she pointed out the risks of sex before marriage: unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. This is ironic, given that these people clearly support 'abstinence only' sex education (which means, in effect, no sex education at all).

It was telling, also, that the one son interviewed on the programme was shown wearing a tee-shirt emblazoned "Patrick Henry College", a university that was the subject of another Channel 4 documentary, God's Next Army.

(*If Randy Wilson is the minister of New Life Church, Colorado Springs, why can't I find his name listed anywhere on the church's website?)

The Million Dollar Mind Reader

On the UK's Channel Five TV last Thursday night we were treated to an hour-long documentary in the Extraordinary People strand - the Million Dollar Mind Reader, about Derek Ogilvie, who had a series in 2006 on the same channel called The Baby Mind Reader.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=sExz7BntLn8 (1/5)



http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=XhhcweRKkfo (2/5)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=gjZwxO4YnE0 (3/5)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=BuiBnMHqdV0 (4/5)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=6wgxqiOD3hQ (5/5)

(Thanks to threespeed79 for posting the YouTube videos.*)

Credit must go to Derek Ogilvie for stepping up to the challenge. That he did so reinforces the impression given in the documentary that he genuinely believes he has psychic powers. A charlatan would know that he or she stood very little chance of coming through a proper scientific test. How many other high-profile 'psychics' have accepted James Randi's Million Dollar Challenge? Maybe some are in the process, but, so far, no others have been tested.

After his miserable performances at, firstly, Goldsmiths College, University of London (under the supervision of Professor Chris French), and secondly at the University of Miami, Florida, where he was tested by Randi, Ogilvie willingly submitted to some EEG tests that apparently showed something unusual going on in his brain, but the scientist concerned too readily linked this to some kind of 'ability'. So what if Ogilvie is able to go into a kind of semi-trance when he does his readings - that doesn't mean he's psychic. Googling the the scientist himself doesn't inspire confidence in his scientific rigour, bringing up this website (amongst others) for Dr. Gerald Gluck, PhD.

Derek Ogilvie: genuine person? Possibly. Genuine psychic? No.

(*Also available via BitTorrent, here.)

Saturday evenings are still fun (repost from other blog)

Doctor Who has finished on BBC 1 for the time being (until the Christmas Special with Kylie Minogue), so Saturday evenings are now focussed on James Nesbitt's bravura performance in Jekyll. This series, now up to episode 4, has edged further from the surreal melodramatics of the opening episodes into out-and-out science fiction. And pretty good sci fi it's turning out to be, if you don't mind your suspension of disbelief being stretched spider-web thin.

Nesbitt, Gina Bellman and Denis Lawson are a joy to watch, as if they're fully aware this isn't meant to be classical drama and have decided to run with its absurdities for all they're worth. Some great lines too: "You have my husband in a box!" Stating the obvious, but said out loud it does emphasise the craziness of the whole premise.

This week we were treated to some sizeable chunks of flashback, when we saw how Dr Jackman first became aware of his peculiar disorder, at about the same time he first met his wife-to-be. It's greatly to writer Steven Moffat's credit that these scenes were convincing and sympathetic, despite being in a different style from the rest of the production so far.

Jekyll is huge fun, and not to be missed.

Only two episodes in and we're already way over the top (repost from other blog)

James Nesbitt is having great fun on BBC 1 at 9 pm Saturdays, in a completely over-the-top performance as Dr. Jackman -- a modern day Dr. Jekyll. It's a case of split personality, with extra features. For instance, when the good doctor changes into Mr. Hyde (yes, the villain chooses that name) he has enormous, not to say superhuman strength and incredible agility. And being set in modern times, the story incorporates a good deal of modern technology. But just when you think something is about to be explained, something else occurs to let you know that nothing is even remotely simple. Secrets abound, concerning almost every character in the story, so you really don't know where you are.

This series has the advantage of being written by Steven Moffat, who wrote the recent, very spooky Doctor Who episode Blink, as well as previous Who episodes, notably last year's wonderful The Girl in the Fireplace.

We've seen two episodes of Jekyll out of six, and so far it's been a roller-coaster of manic, gory fun. I hope it doesn't just fizzle out.

(As a companion piece to Jekyll, BBC Four has shown a one-off documentary, Ian Rankin Investigates: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, which relates how Robert Louis Stevenson came to write the original.)