David Graham

Posted on 21 September 2024 by pws

The death was announced yesterday of actor David Graham at the age of 99.

Mr Graham had a long and distinguished career, and you can read about him here.

Graham was a stalwart of the Gerry Anderson series, and did so many voices on Four Feather Falls, Supercar, Fireball XL5, Thunderbirds and Stingray.

His voice was always very recognisable. He did some regular characters (eg Brains) and guest characters and was often found talking to himself.

We have been watching the box sets of ITC shows from the 1960s and 70s. Graham would often pop up on these too.

We loved Four Feather Falls. It looks stupid now, but the introduction is great:

Posted in News, Television, Thunderbirds | 1 Comment

Places

Posted on 19 September 2024 by pws

If you did a website about chocolate recipes and someone criticised you for not including methods for cooking steak, you might be peeved.

During this year, we have tried to provide information for people visiting London. It’s where we are and what we know and maybe it has helped a couple of people.

But we have had a few comments along the lines of “the UK is not just London”. First of all, we have said just that before. This is not a travel guide to the UK. And we have included some places you might want to visit within an easy ride from London. Besides, other people do sites for those far better than we ever could.

But in the next few weeks, here are some more places not too far away you could visit. Many are enough for half a day, so you could try two adjacent places easily.

Posted in Holidays, Travel | Leave a comment

Silence is golden

Posted on 17 September 2024 by pws

It’s that time again here in London, time for the London Film Festival.

There’s always something interesting to investigate, but one thing we really enjoyed over the years was the Thames/Channel 4 silent films.

Films were never silent. There would be music and sound effects.

We saw some great things, including City Lights, The Wind, Broken Blossoms, The General and The Big Parade. All had music from Carl Davis and it was a real event. Some are still available on dvd, but watching with an attentive audience is best.

It still goes on, after a fashion. This year is a set of Sherlock Holmes shorts, again with live music. This year they are at the Alexandra Palace theatre, worth a visit in its own right:

Silent Sherlock: Three Classic Cases
Posted in Culture, Films | Leave a comment