In Praise Of Modern Family (Again)

We sat down in front of the telly last night to catch up with the stuff we’ve got on the SkyPlus which is almost full of things we’d love to have seen and will probably never get around to. One that most definitely doesn’t fall into that category is Sky1’s Modern Family, which has been amongst our favourites since it launched. We’re now into Series 3. By this time even the greatest sitcoms have usually started to flag; not Modern Family. Episode 10 of the series is the family’s Christmas which is being celebrated a week early due to problems getting everyone together on the big day. From the opening pre credit scene around the swimming pool to the final post credit scene at home, this was perfect television. I can’t reveal the plot for fear of spoiling it for others who have it saved. All I can say is that Christmas came early for us too and I can’t remember watching anything with so many laugh out loud moments; the writers crammed in more in thirty minutes than many Hollywood blockbuster comedies achieve in two hours.

And it’s not even as if the show has one stand out star like Bill Cosby, Bob Newhart or  Will Smith; even the smallest character got at least one big laugh in this episode and the rest got plenty. And it’s also not even as if all the comedy is the same. There are elements of slapstick and farce as well as great lines and brilliantly observed situations. The actors are universally excellent from the patriarch Jay (Ed O’Neill), his glorious Latino wife Gloria (Sofia Vergera), very gay son Michael (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) and his even gayer partner Cam (Eric Stonestreet) but my favourite is the hapless Phil (Ty Burrell) an eternal optimist who always does everything to make things right and inevitably makes everything anything but – a bit like me really. “Down with the kids” Phil’s classic interpretation of WTF (Why The Face) sums him up in a nutshell – wonderful. The kids are all outstanding too. If you haven’t seen Modern Family, treat yourself to a box set for Christmas and lift your family out of the great depression that was 2011.

No Orange Wednesday for us this week; just not enough time week as we’re preparing a tea party for Marion’s mum and we’ve got four old ladies and old man coming round to join us. We’ve just roasted this turkey crown and we’re going to use it to make turkey sandwiches, (which are always the best food bit about Christmas for me). The fridge is absolutely packed so I imagine that our guests will be going home with their usual goody bags that will do them for another couple of meals as they don’t tend to have enormous appetites at 80 plus.

I hope that we will get to the pictures again before Christmas as I quite fancy the new Sherlock Holmes. I loved the last one and the new one has got even better reviews from the critics so I hope that it gets to FACT or Vue next week. We’ve seen so many films this year that it’s hard to say which was my favourite. If pushed I would probably have to go for Submarine – one of the few feel good movies of the year, although A Separation, Of Gods And Men and Cave Of Forgotten Dreams were all memorable.

I’m struggling to read The Slap. I usually fly through novels in a couple of days but this one has really slowed me down. I don’t know if it is all the different characters or the Australian slang that’s making me struggle but I’m persevering as Marion’s got it saved on the SkyPlus and doesn’t want to watch it while I’m still reading the book (Kindle says I’ve got 50% left). Books that were a pleasure to read this year were The White Woman On The Green Bicycle and Florence And Giles both of which I strongly recommend.

Looking Forward to Source Code

It's been a busy week for us on the cinema front with "The Eagle" on Wednesday, "Submarine" on Friday and today we're off to see "Source Code". It's got the highest average score I've seen from the Guardian's summary of the critics for some time so the chances are that it will be entertaining. I thought that "Submarine" was an excellent depiction of first love and teen angst and had a great performance from Yasmin Paige as lovelorn Oliver's pyromaniac girlfriend. It's a very stylistic and cinematic film with plenty of nods toward classics such as "Don't Look Now" and the very gentle and subtle humour reminded me a lot of Bill Forsyth's "Gregory's Girl" and "Local Hero". If I had to sum it up in one word, that word would be "nice". I know that might make film lovers cringe but there's nothing wrong with the occasional nice film once in a while. It's a pity that it didn't get wider release as our screening at FACT on Friday afternoon was quite busy despite having been playing there for well over a week.

Hopefully before we go to the cinema today we will see the end of the saga of the John Lewis bedroom curtains. For those who have not read this blog before, it's a long story but we ordered some curtains in September and after long delays they were finally fitted in late February but the custom made curtain poles were the wrong size and had to be patched up with copper tubes to enable us to use the bedroom. I spared John Lewis' blushes by failing to blog two weeks ago when their excellent fitter Peter returned to finish the job only to sheepishly tell us that the brand new custom made poles were also the wrong size. It's cost John Lewis a fair sum in fitters' time and extremely expensive poles that are no use to anybody but our main complaint was in the poor handling of the initial delays. After the second cock up they have been a little more apologetic but, apart from the fitter who is really nice, the service has not been what you would expect from a company with John Lewis' reputation.

For a break from cinema, tomorrow we are off to see Noel Coward's "Blithe Spirit" at the Apollo in London. Unlike "Source Code"the average score in the Guardian's critics round up for this was very low and the show received pretty dire reviews. This is surprising as, with such a strong cast, we expected it to be a big hit. Well at least we bought the tickets before we saw the criticism and you never know, we may disagree with it, I've spoken to a few people who loved the new "Phantom of the Opera" show that the reviewers hated.

It's time to start thinking about how to vote on the AV referendum. I've tried to get my head around the proposal but I'm worried that it's a charter to encourage mediocrity. Just think if they had used AV in other important events like X Factor we could have seen a situation where Wagner, that old Brazilian bloke with the pony tail, could have won because everyone put him as a second choice and less than 50% voted for Matt. If the plan is to keep single member constituencies then surely the winner has to be the one who polls the most votes within each constituency whether he or she hits 50% or not.

I'm fascinated by all the fuss about Wayne Rooney's four letter outburst at the TV cameras at the weekend. Anybody who watches football on a regular basis will know that foul language is endemic in the sport and if you listen to the crowds' chants while you watch it on screen you will hear far worse than  Wayne's comments every week being shouted at full volume by twenty thousand people. Its one of the reasons that I'm giving up on the game. I'm not a prude but it's really not very pleasant.

Off now as the John Lewis man has arrived. I'll leave you with a new UFO sighting from YouTube.

Boys' Own Stuff

When I was a kid growing up in the sixties "The Eagle" was a boys' own comic so it is quite appropriate that the film of the same name (our Orange Wednesday choice for this week) is very much in the boys' own vein. An old fashioned swashbuckling movie, the story could have been set in the Wild West, Vietnam or the Eastern Front but instead we were whisked back in time to the wild northern frontier of Brittania where Roman commander Marcus Aquila (Channing Tatum) is on the hunt for the golden eagle standard lost by his father twenty years earlier when he ventured north with 5,000 men and none was ever seen again. He is accompanied by a British slave played by Jamie Bell (of Billy Elliot fame).


The film has all the features we knew and loved in the sixties - a big battle scene (without CGI), a heavy emphasis on honour and comradeship, a good chase and absolutely no sex or love interest whatsoever. Filmed on location in Hungary and on the Coigach Peninsula in Scotland (which should expect a big influx of tourists as it looks stunningly beautiful) the film has its critics who claim it is boring but Marion and I liked it very much. Don't expect anything challenging, just sit back and enjoy a good old fashioned yarn.

We hoped that Submarine would come to VUE in Southport but there's still no sign of it so we're going to have to go to Liverpool where it is on until the weekend when I expect it will finish. Fortunately retirement means that it's no big problem so we'll head off to FACT on Friday afternoon and see if it's as good as everyone says it is.

Which means that we're not going to get to Ken Loach's "Route Irish" which has Liverpool comic John Bishop of "A League Of Their Own" fame in a serious role. But good news on that front as it has been simultaneously released on Sky Box Office so we'll probably catch it on Saturday night now that we are Forbrydelsenless.

Marcus Aquila might have found a metal detector useful in his hunt for that gold eagle. I am afraid that my finds on this week's outing with my detector were a long way from Roman gold or the bronze age axe that my brother found recently. I found all the usual bits of lead, a ring pull and a few buttons but nothing historical at all. On the plus side I found over twenty items in a field that I've searched a few times and any one of these signals could have turned up a Roman coin like the one I found in the same field last week. That coin has been recorded and is now on the national finds database. The new detector arrived today. Cant wait to give it a try. It's a big change on my own machine, uses the very latest technology and, being wireless, it's as light as a feather.  Should be able to get out in a couple of weeks.


I'm a mug for anything new on the technology front. I'm going to have a look at those new Nintendo 3D portable games machines soon.