I was delighted to see Miranda Hart clean up at the British comedy awards last night and hope that the BBC won't mind my nicking their photo for the blog. David Baddiel wrote eloquently about her comedy in yesterday's Times and mentioned that some consider her very much a female's comic. This is certainly not the case in our household where I am probably a bigger fan than Marion. I've been a fan since I first saw her in her show stealing cameos as Lee Mack's cleaner in "Not Going Out" and, like Baddiel,I feel that her comedy can be appreciated by both genders equally. There is so much more to it than simple slapstick. Long may she reign as Queen of Comedy.
It is interesting to note that the people's choice in these awards tend towards comedians who aren't controversial or edgy. Comics like Miranda, Harry Hill, Ant and Dec and Peter Kay are always going to win ahead of someone like Ricky Gervais who I accused of disguising bullying as comedy in one of this week's blogs. Could Miranda's success mark a watershed in British comedy and encourage the next wave of comics to try and move away from the shock effect and back to mainstream humour. If Miranda can get 4 million viewers on BBC2 there has to be a message to producers and commissioners there somewhere.
I said that it was good to "see" Miranda scoop those awards although I didn't actually watch the awards show. We were otherwise occupied with Sky's first showing of Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland in 3D. It didn't really appeal when it came to the local Vue but with 3D still a novelty in the household we had to give it a try. I have to say that it was a triumph of spectacle over content. Although a visually stunning experience, this could not detract from the paucity of the script and the way that Carroll's story was butchered. The mad hatter was transformed from a character who was comically mad (and a hatter) into some sort of macho hero and Burton's conversion of the word Frabjous from my favourite made up adjective to a noun shows an unforgivable lack of understanding and no appreciation of the wonderful Jabberwocky. I'm surprised that there weren't a couple of mini demons called Callooh and Callay thrown in for good measure to wreck the verse that I always loved to read to the kids. If you've got 3D then by all means watch it for the effects but if you are a fan of Lewis Carroll or you just want to watch an entertaining movie then I'd give it a pretty wide berth. Twas certainly not brillig.
There's nothing nicer than sitting by a roaring fire on a winter afternoon reading a book which is what I plan to do when I finish writing this. After flying through a pile of books over the last few months I have come up against something of a brick wall with my current read - A S Byatt's The Children's Book. I like the book but there are so many diverse characters that I find myself checking back to get my facts right. Over two hundred pages in I think that I know who everyone is now so maybe the final three hundred pages will be an easier read.
The photo above was taken on the Hipstamatic iPhone app. It's a great little free app that allows you to take old fashioned grainy snaps. I downloaded a few new apps yesterday including one, iPhoneTips, that is a must for all users and has told me far more about getting the most from the iPhone and pointed me to features that I didn't know existed. Another that I've found useful is Sky Sports Football Scores and, for entertainment, the infuriatingly simple but fiendishly difficult Bubble Ball.
Back to the book now. I need to relax. There' a late night ahead. My son Paul's beloved New York Jets are in the semi finals for the Super Bowl and I want to watch so that I can talk about it with him. The only problem is that the match won't finish until around 2 am. I enjoyed their excellent performance last week and hope that they win as I know that Paul would be overjoyed if they made it to the Super Bowl.
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