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Simoso
Reviews
55 Degrees North (2004)
Standard fayre but enjoyable
Don Gillet has made a decent fist of his first starring role but this drama is no classic. Spender was more groundbreaking 10 years ago and set in the same place. I don't understand the significance of the Uncle/Uncle/Nephew arrangement but I'm sure I will be left wondering.
Andrew Dunn is good as he is in Dinnerladies and the angry chief cliché is about 40 years old now, change the record. Dunn's sidekick, Clarky, is annoying and the lad who plays him was better a Oz's gay son in Aufweidersehn Pet 3. Gillet stands out for me but maybe because he is young and black and all other detective shows have middle aged detectives doing the same thing.
Enjoyable Tuesday night stuff but if I had Spender DVD's I'd probably pop them in instead.
One Summer (1983)
Can't find this anywhere
All my friends are of the same opinion. It affected us all as 14 year olds and at a desperate time in Thatcherite England I think this play gave us all hope and taught us simple but important lessons. I recall John Sim saying something similar in an interview when promoting State od Play. He also said that it made him want to be an actor and David Morrisey (his co-star in SofP) inspired him to go do it. I remember that the clothes were cool for the time and we all wanted Icky's Tacchini tracksuit top.
It is difficult to tell youngsters how bad things were int he early 80's in this country. We all thought we were going to get blown up any minute and nobody had any money.
Murphy's Mob (1982)
Not a team, a supporter's club
It was not set around a football team but a supporter's club. You might be thinking of Jossy's Giants some 10 years later. The chap from Stig of the Dump was pretty old and I seem to recall he was really small. The big nosed kid (Wurzel) was in quite a lot at the time and looked like the kid from the Yellow Pages "French Polishers?" advert.
Interesting fact, Ken Hutchinson who played Murphy has a dark secret. He was one of the rapists in Straw Dogs. I, for one, feel no one with such a history should be in charge of children in any capacity.
The tune was banging if I remember "find another place coz you can't play 'ere, always saying NO it s a tragedy"
They were, as with Grange Hill (ludicrously controversial in the early 80's) the only children who didn't swear.
Leningrad Cowboys Go America (1989)
Quirky fun
This is the story of a terrible band of musicians for Finland called (bizarrely) The Leningrad Cowboys. They want to come to America and make lots of money. Of course it is not as easy as that.
I guarantee you will not have seen anything like this. You need to watch it with a couple of beers in you as it it is very silly indeed. There are some extremely funny episodes in this film such as the band's manager who is in charge of the money gets the shopping in. He buys a six pack of Buds for himself and a bag of onions for the band to eat. He sits in the front seat draining the bees and throwing the cans into the back hitting the guys in the head. Another good bit is where the band has turned on the manager they spend the remaining money on booze and one of them, fur coat and all, falls over whilst dancing drunk into the fire. Any road up, watch it for yourselves and you will enjoy it, I did.