Category: Kristine Hughes

Nanny McPhee's Triumphant Return

This past weekend, I went to see Nanny McPhee and I can tell all you NMc fans that her Return was as good as the original. And, this time out, Nanny has even more screen time. The new cast of characters are a hoot, especially Eros Vlahos as cousin Cyril. Vlahos plays him as a sort of miniature, self important prig who delivers sarcastic verbal barbs with Oscar Wilde-like precision.  This kid deserves an Oscar nod.

Of course, Maggie Smith is wonderful as the dotty Mrs. Docherty, and the piglets steal the show.

This time out, Nanny’s got a window putty eating crow, Mr. Edelweiss.

One of the funniest scenes in the first film was when Nanny tells Colin Firth that she’s a “government nanny” who has been sent to his aid. He seems to accept this, then sits down to read his paper and after a few beats looks up and says, “A government nanny?!” This time out, Nanny McPhee passes herself off as an “army nanny.” That’s all I’m going to say, as I don’t want to spoil the film for all of you who will be flocking to see it. Suffice it to say that my husband, who was a decidedly reluctant companion going in to the theater, found himself shedding a tear or two at its conclusion.

“When you need me, but do not want me, I must stay.
When you want me, but no longer need me, I must go.”

I'm a Big, Fat London Pig

My withdrawal from London was quite acute back in late July, when I found myself browsing the internet for flight deals back to the Old Smoke. Bear in mind that this was just a scant month since my whirlwind London/Waterloo tour with Victoria. However, the symptoms were all there – daydreams of walking down Piccadilly, a nostalgic longing for a pint and a proper serving of bangers and mash, the almost constant urge to throw up my arm and hail a black cab. At odd moments I’d hear a voice in my head urging me to “Mind the gap. Please mind the gap.” Aaarrrggghhh!

And then I found it – Continental Airlines, Newark to London Heathrow . . . . . $345. What!? Okay, that was each way, but still, seven hundred round trip was a bargain. It was at that moment that a small, cheeky devil appeared at my left shoulder. This wasn’t your run-of-the-mill devil dressed in a red suit, with a pointed tail and holding a pitch fork. Oh, no. This devil was dressed in Regency garb and holding a snuff box. He looked uncannily like Beau Brummell.
“Press that button, my dear. The one that says “Buy Now.”

“Don’t be silly. I can’t. I just went to London. My planning another trip to England would be nothing short of greed in piggy proportions.”
“I’ve never found anything wrong with greed, myself.”
“Ha! And look where it got you.”
The devil sniffed. “Be that as it may, I still maintain that you should push that button. Go on,” he cajoled, “push it now.”

“Stop it!”
“You know,” he began, his voice a blend of honey and warm oil, “you could take your husband with you this time. After all, you’ve already been to London twice since you’ve known him. Really, is that fair? I believe he deserves to see the City. . . . you’d be doing it for him.”
This was a novel way of looking at the situation. A very Lucy Ricardo way of looking at it, I might add. He had my attention.

“And,” the devil continued, “you could schedule the trip around Christmas. It could be your Yuletide present to him. In fact, your wedding anniversary is in September, is it not? You could make it a joint anniversary and Christmas gift. Only consider how much more thrifty that would make the expenditure.”
Thrifty? Hhmmm. My husband would like thrifty.
“Push the button.”
“Look, pushing that button is a big deal. I’d be committing myself, and my poor unwitting husband, to a trip to London.”

“Oh, poor dear! London. Such a sacrifice.” The imp removed a miniscule amount of snuff from his tiny snuff box and inhaled it. Once he’d stopped sneezing – into my left ear – he continued. “Push the button. Do it for your mother.”
“My mother? What’s she got to do with it?”
“Oh, for pity’s sake, you’re hopeless at greed justification, aren’t you? It’s a good thing for you I deigned to show up and help you with this. Look, if you go to London, you’ll have to fly out of one of the major New York airports. Yes? Or perhaps a nearby major airport. Say . . . Newark?”

“Right,” I allowed.
“And who lives but a scant few miles from Newark airport, hmmmm?”
“My mother.”

“Got it in one! So . . . you back out your departure date and instead fly into Newark a few days before Christmas. You spend the holidays with your mother and daughter, thus making their holidays joyous whilst removing the onus of their having to travel down to you for the festivities, as they usually do. You, my dear, kill three birds with one English stone. You make your mother, daughter and your husband all happy beyond their wildest dreams. In effect, you wouldn’t be going to London for your own greedy delight in the least. Instead, you’d be going in order to make them happy. And, you and your husband would be in London for New Year’s Eve. Whilst still being thrifty, of course.”
My mouth hung open. Why hadn’t I thought of this? It was nothing short of brilliant.

“Do you really think so?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
“I do. Truly. Push the button.”
Reader, I pushed the button. And just like Lucy Ricardo, I couldn’t keep my big mouth shut until my anniversary. I’ve already told my husband who, thank the Lord, is thrilled to bits, which means that the only fireworks we’ll be encountering will be those over the River Thames on New Year’s Eve.
Oink, oink.

Do You Know About Doc Martin – Series Four?

In a prior “Do You Know About? post, we introduced you to a television series called Doc Martin – surly, tactless, self-centered, Doc Martin’s reception room is never-the-less crowded since he’s the only doctor in Portwenn, Cornwall. We wanted to let you know that Series 4 of Doc Martin is now available in a two disk set. Hurray!

The action picks up a few months after the wedding day disaster, when Doc Martin and the pretty school teacher Louisa realized, literally at the last moment, that neither could go through with the ceremony. Dr. Martin Ellingham (Martin Clunes, Men Behaving Badly) is even grumpier and ruder than before. His former fiancée, Louisa (Caroline Catz, Murder in Suburbia), has left the village to avoid embarrassment. The doctor himself plans to return to London as a surgeon – if he can conquer his fear of blood. Even a pin prick’s worth of the red stuff makes him gag.

Matters quickly become complicated when Louisa moves back with startling news.

Meanwhile, Martin’s old flame, Edith Montgomery (Lia Williams), takes a job at the local hospital and sets her sights on the doc. Sparks and rumors fly as patients crowd his office: a shouting oil rigger, the inept local constable, a woman who sees her dead husband’s ghost, and a man who eats his own hair.

Through it all, Doc Martin is gruff, impatient and abrupt. Hard to believe that Doc Martin could be so attractive to two women, no less, as well as to the stray dogs who continually try to get into his surgery.

Actor Martin Clunes had this to say about his return to the set:
“As I drove back to the location there was a sense of anticipation of being back there. We have been able to rent the same house just along the coast from Port Isaac where we have always stayed. The views from the house along the coast are stunning. It took a little while to get back into the character and into the rhythm of single camera acting. Suddenly you realise it is sort of a second skin and it just lovely being back. The doc’s sharp suits and severe haircut help me to get back into character. But it is his trademark curmudgeonly approach to his patients which is the key to playing the role again.”

Stephanie Cole returns as Aunt Joan . . .

Ian McNeice is back as restauranteur Bert Large . . . .

and Katherine Parkinson reprises her role as the often lethargic and slightly looney receptionist, Pauline.

Having just watched this Series, I can tell you that the show is just as funny, the characters just as endearing and the plotlines just as engaging as the first three seasons.

Watch a clip from Espisode 1 of Series 4 here.

Don’t tell anyone, but a 5th Series has been commissioned, but won’t begin filming until 2011.

War Horse

Acquired by Dream Works Pictures, Michael Morpurgo’s novel of the same name takes place during World War I and charts the extraordinary friendship between a boy and a horse who are separated but whose fates continue to intertwine over the course of WWI. The touching novel was made into a play by the same name, which has won the Olivier, Evening Standard and Critics’ Circle awards and has been a huge hit on the London stage over the past three years, and is set to transfer to Broadway next year. Currently playing at the New London Theatre until October 2011, it is notable for its innovative use of giant puppets to depict the horses.

When DreamWorks Pictures first optioned the book, Spielberg immediately came on to produce and eventually decided to direct the picture. The cast will include Oscar-nominated actress Emily Watson, David Thewlis, Benedict Cumberbatch and theatre actor Jeremy Irvine in the lead role. The film will also feature German actor David Kross, who co-starred in The Reader.

Spielberg said he knew from the minute he read the book that he wanted DreamWorks to make the film. “Its heart and its message provide a story that can be felt in every country,” he said. He will direct off a script by  Lee Hall (“Billy Elliot”) and Richard Curtis (“Four Weddings and a Funeral”). DreamWorks will release War Horse to theaters on August 10, 2011.

In addition, Spielberg is producing the Coen brothers’ “True Grit,” also for Paramount, and his own studio’s “Cowboys and Aliens,” which began shooting this summer.