1.1 I Wasn't Ready

I watched the first 15 minutes separately, because my lunch was cooking, and that bit was upsetting enough by itself. 'They'll call me "sweetie"'. I liked the way the monstrous power of state oppression showed its first claw with the phone bit.

I thought the 'you do not have to have lesbian sex' joke was a bit obvious, but I did enjoy 'You studied for prison?' That was the first bit that made me react with anything other than sadness and fear.

The different levels of flashback were well handled. I particularly liked the way we worked our way back round to the shower breast compliment aftermath point, and then continued with the 'present' timeline.

Some of the jump cuts between past and present were predictable. I saw the initial shower one coming immediately. I didn't expect the cliffhanger though.

As I say, I found this episode really, really upsetting, and I watched all of Game of Thrones without turning a hair. That, of course, is because I don't really expect to be tortured by Ramsay Bolton or dismembered by the army of the dead, but there are lots of ways I could end up in prison, so I can't prevent myself from identifying with Piper.

My friend with the modern telly was quite right though, there are lots of reasons not to like her. I can see why people wouldn't. In some respects she's shallow and foolish, and as they said at the breakfast table, she does think she's fancy. If I wanted to detach myself from the action by refusing to identify with Piper, I'd do it by focusing on those attributes. But there's more to her than that.

I'm doing a watch-through and react to Orange Is The New Black on a forum, and I'm posting my posts here first for copyright and permanence purposes.

To Hancock, With Love

There is a Hancock episode called The Blackboard Jungle (Nov 1955) which is a parody of the film of the same name. Never having seen the film, I assumed that it was in turn an adaptation of the novel To Sir, With Love in which a black teacher wins the respect of London hooligans by making them speak politely to one another.
But I discover that the film can't be an adaptation of the novel. The film is from 1955 and the novel was published in 1959. Additionally, the former has an American setting whereas the latter takes place in London. I was misled by the fact that the Hancock episode is also set in a British school. I didn't allow for the fact that Hancock almost always takes place in Britain.
Yes, I know West has an American accent, but Bill Kerr does the same voice when he's playing a Teddy Boy in the previous extant episode, The Bequest. I assumed that was how British kids talked in 1955 when they wanted to sound cool.

Nineteen Ninety-four

I've been listening to Nineteen Ninety-four, the dystopian Radio 4 comedy from 1985. Pitched somewhere between HHG, Brave New World and The Prisoner.

What stops it being just another laboured string of Week Ending style 'Sellingfield' gags is Robert Lindsay as the everyman hero Edward Wilson. There's a sequel, Nineteen Ninety-eight, which has David Threlfall instead, and it's not nearly as good. Both Edward Wilsons are complicit in their own exploitation but at least RL's version makes a token resistance.

It's interesting how different NNF (broadcast 1985) and NNE (broadcast 1987) are in tone. They make a fine example of the cultural atmosphere in the two halves of the Eighties. Later 80s concerns about US imperialism and early 80s concerns about riots and everything just falling apart.

Btw I do wonder if Lance Parkin was thinking of NNF when he wrote the scenes with Colin Baker and the personal organiser device in Davros.

Nigel Mole

I've found the original 'Nigel Mole' Thirty Minute Theatre from January 1982. I was never sure whether I'd imagined listening to it or not, but there it was - Adrian is called Nigel just as I remembered, and Nigel is called Adrian.

But that's not all - the opening and closing theme, which even short plays had back then, are from a sort of alternate reality, the one where Carry On films were all scripted by Norman Hudis and never discovered innuendo, where the Pert-shaped time tunnel from the season 11 credits was replaced by a Davo-shaped one when the latter finally took over from Pert in 1982, where Don't Look Back In Anger was capturing the zeitgeist after Callaghan's fourth election victory in 1994.

By which I mean to say, they start with a chorister, singing about being Nigel Mole, and fade into a 'sarcastic teacher' voice berating Nigel Mole for scribbling in his diary, constantly - 'Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday...'. Supposedly the reason Nigel and Adrian swapped roles when the book was published was that the publishers got cold feet about possible confusion with Nigel Molesworth, the goriller of 3B, and having heard that theme, I find that a lot more plausible than I ever did before. Curse of neil armstrong's which is the skool I am at.

Limit of navigation

Some things I straightened out by reading the excellent Where Thames Smooth Waters Glide site:

• The usual limit of navigation is at Lechlade. Powered craft usually turn below Lechlade footbridge.
• Beyond the footbridge is Inglesham. 'The first section above Inglesham is wide enough and generally deep enough for small launches'.
• The WTSMG author (in a punt) saw a narrowboat reach Hannington Bridge
• 'If you can pass [Castle Eaton Bridge] you can probably get to Cricklade'. The author has a fierce battle with the current at the bridge.
• Cricklade Town Bridge is 'the limit of navigation as far as I am concerned in a punt. Most canoists would probably agree - though there may be sections above this where a canoe could be used at certain times of the year.'

I've got really interested in this now, so herewith a table of distances of places mentioned from the boundary stone at Teddington Lock:

Place	Miles upstream
Lechlade footbridge	124.75
Hannington Bridge	128.25
Castle Eaton Bridge	130.95
Cricklade Bridge	135.18

Gob all over my carnation

In Radio Active 5.3, 'Out Of Your Depth', one of the jobs Martin Brown attempts to do is that of an actor. Director Ronnie Crump tries to help him rehearse his one line,

Ooh it were terrible, gob all over my carnation

I find that 'Gob all over my carnation' is a line from The Erpingham Camp by Joe Orton. Scene 7 if you're interested.