TV Books and films of the week

I haven't updated this article for a couple of weeks. Since I last wrote to of my favourite programmes have returned to the screen. Both feature intelligent, good looking women with attitude. The first is Only Connect. The program is an intellectual quiz and shows on BBC Four. This channel is worth the licence fee alone. It is presented by the delightful Victoria Coren. The format is fairly simple. There are four rounds:- The connections round, what is the last in the sequence, the wall and the missing vowels round. This is no average quiz. The winners are usually capable of beating mastermind champions, University Challenge winning teams. It requires the ability to think laterally and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Those who know me will be able to tell you that in relation to the kitchen I do have other gods before me. I enjoy cooking when I am in the mood and tend towards using the force. I don't measure stuff. I was taught this by my parents who were taught it by their parents.  I am definitely a cook not a chef. Whilst I enjoy Masterchef I think it is all a bit poncy. I like to have a plate of food and to be full after eating. I do not like plate decoration. My other gods or in fact goddesses are called Delia and Nigella. However, my allegiance is to Nigella. A friend once described her programs as 'food porn' and she has even been impersonated along those lines by a number of heretic comedians. What is it I like about Nigella? She is intelligent. She is gorgeous, curvy and the way she licks her lips or licks her fingers after eating is frankly indecent. The bottom line though is the food and it is gorgeous. I have all her books and they are well thumbed tomes. I am looking forward to when I get my hands on her...new book.

In terms of books I am in the middle of reading Bernard Cornwell's Alfred series following the exploits of Uhtred of Bebbanburg. Cornwell is easy to read. I don't like having to work to get my pleasure when reading and I think literary fiction to be as bad as the Turner Prize. I have never read one of these sort of books and been satisfied. I am currently in book three, The Lords of the North. In and amongst finishing The Last Kingdom and The Pale Horseman I also read the novel on which the film Let The Right One In was based. The cover proclaimed that the novel was worthy of Stephen King. Maybe during the phase when he wrote The Tommyknockers. Whilst I was initially interested in the story I found myself gradually being left with a sense of disappointment. I no longer cared about who lived or died. I was also unsure of who all the characters were. It was all a bit unsatisfactory.

In terms of films I have been watching some have been good, some have been interesting and some have been so bad they were good. Last weekend I watched The Fifth Element and Serenity. I also watched Fantastic Four Rise of the Silver Surfer. The Fantastic Four Rise was an improvement on the original FF film. Well that is not a particularly hard task. It is a diverting film but no more than that. Chris Evans, who plays the Human Torch, has since gone on to play Captain America. The Fifth Element is Luc Besson's Sci Fi film. Besson seems to be a bit like the late Stanley Kubrick. Kubrick made genre films such as The Shining and 2001. Once he had ticked off a genre he went onto something new. Besson is similar. He made Leon which was a work of brilliance. The Fifth Element is his sci-fi film. It features Mila Jovovich, Bruce Willis and Gary Oldman. The plot is a little weird but show me a sci fi film where it isn't. Oldman gives an incredible performance as the slightly deranged arms dealing servant of the dark powers. The supporting cast is brilliant apart from Chris Rock who is even more irritating than normal.  The other film was Serenity. A western in space. This film is an underrated masterpiece. Joss Whedon did a reverse Buffy with this one. When he made the film Buffy the Vampire Slayer it bombed so he made a series. The series went on too long in my opinion. the last series of Buffy featured Nathan Fillion. Whedon cast him in his new series Firefly which was cancelled by the network so Whedon made Serenity. The film has good and evil but they are blurred. The action sequences are stunning and Chiwetel Ejiofor as a government assassin is brilliant. The ideas in the film are intriguing and interesting and this film along with The Fifth Element comes with a high recommendation.

In the last couple of days I have started something of a Clint Eastwood fest. It started with Firefox. Not one of his greatest performances and not a particularly good film. Lots of British actors doing fairly ropey Russian accents. The special effects which in the 1980s were quite good do not stand up well against today's effects. The book on which it is based is by Craig Thomas and is well worth a read.  I have just started into the Dollar Western Trilogy - A Fistful of Dollars, For A Few Dollars More and The Good The Bad and The Ugly. All are worth watching but the best by some distance is The Good The Bad and The Ugly.

Eastwood is at his best in these films and laid the groundwork for his later masterpieces The Outlaw Josey Wales and Unforgiven. The score is memorable and with able support from Lee Van Cleef, Gian Maria Volonte and Eli Wallach these are amongst the best westerns ever made.

Happy media watching I feel some cheesecake coming on.