Tuesday 3 November 2009

WOTSONTELLY. INTO THE STORM. BBC2


I expect, said Churchill to a disfigured VC fighter pilot, that you are nervous, humbled and in awe in my presence?

Yes, sir.

But not as much as I am, in yours.

Who can imagine the stuttering, cowardly poltroon, Brown, having such insight, such grace?


11 comments:

richard said...

Brown didn't exactly sound Churchillian when asked by a soldier about the reason for being taxed whilst on active service.
"The Prime Minister, and former Chancellor, replied that because the soldier was a British employee, his income was taxed back home while he was stationed overseas."

The fat bastard. taxing the people who risk their lives. The utter and complete bastard.

call me ishmael said...

But not the Russian gangsters or Mr Murdoch, of course.

Anyone not Churchilled-out will enjoy Into The Storm; by normal standards a complete arsewipe of a human being, father, husband; emotionally a babyman, overbearing, conceited, a bully, a political charlatan and a right-wing git but his monomania, his obstinacy and his oratory ensured our survival,until, reminded by the Nasty Nip, Fat Uncle Sam remembered his Special Relationship with us.

Anyone blogging today or dissenting via other media owes this peculiar old man a word or two, at least, of respect and gratitude; that his slippers are now filled by the likes of the deluded, neo-Nazi, Brown, is one of the regrettable consequences of the '45 election; the wind-
bagging career socialist as obnoxious as the robber baron, the rotten boroughs.

I don't know how the actors do, it's probably impossible to do this sort of thing badly and everyone seems to shine, Janet McTeer, especially, as Clementine Churchill.

Brown and Co have paraphrased one of Churchill's supplicant maxims - Give us the job and we'll break the tools.

richard said...

Churchill had his faults. however, having read "the Island race" and "history of WW2" i cannot fault his intellect, powers of descriptive writing, his personal courage or his love for his fellow Brits.
our present prime minister, in contrast, is a walking fault, a living exhibition of Wrong. his one redeeming quality is the likelihood that he will eventually die.
Churchill inspired the populace to fight and resist a tyrannical regime. Brown has inspired the populace to give up, to disregard themselves as human beings, to produce a generation incapable of conceptual thought, to shrug when being robbed and bullied. he and the nightmarish Tony have paved the way for the conquest which is all but complete.
welcome to the Fourth Reich.

call me ishmael said...

Yes, that was implied, mr richard, Churchill's character defects don't matter, Brown's do.

brown shirty said...

16:27

Churchill inspired the populace to fight and resist a tyrannical regime

but not the homegrown one constructed by his own class, the dirty hypocritical racist.

Dick the Prick said...

Not wanting to accidently stray on topic but Brendan Gleeson was good, certainly captured the voice but I couldn't get Albert Finney out of my head from 'the gathering storm'. I feel I perhaps should declare an interest in that 'Miller's Crossing' is one of my fave films but Finney captured the absolute twattishness of the man aswell as his vulnerability, defiance, vanity (delusional - he was a short step from certifiable) and sheer brilliance. But yeah, the VC bit was cool.

call me ishmael said...

Yes, I agree with every word of that, mr DTP. You should be our tv correspondent.

mongoose said...

Winnie was bonkers. Distant father, unfaithful mother, Harrow, the lash... Jeez, you could write a textbook on this one poor blighter alone. And a terrible piss-cat. If I drank champagne all morning, I think that I'd need a kip in the afternoon too.

I am surprised that Finney did not do the second film. (Is he dead, perhaps?) It was cleverly structured with all the themes coming to win/lose/draw conclusions at the end - war, election, wife, empire, influence. In many ways, it is a shame that he got back in again the next time. Good for nowt but the war was Winston but thank God for the right man at the right time.

richard said...

"....but not the homegrown one constructed by his own class, the dirty hypocritical racist."

it would be nice to see another man in the same league, if not "class" but they're thin on the ground. which is why we're in the balls-taxed-off and dictated-to mess we're in. that and our individual apathy.
Churchill's speeches still stir the soul. why do you think Englishness, and nationalistic feelings throughout Europe, (no crucifixes to be dispalyed in Italy because of ONE complaint!) are under constant attack? no sense of community or national identity removes a focus or rallying-pont for dissent, that's why.

call me ishmael said...

If only it was all just about speeches although, even in that fevered and bombastic arena things have grown meagre, warmed=up. So-called political commentators hail Blair's lying, hammy performance on Iraq as The Greatest Blah Blah Blah when, in fact, even setting aside its mendacity, it was piss poor speechifying, never mind not in Churchill's league, not in schoolboy debating society league - tell me one phrase which anyone remembers from that spech. Why - as with Gerry & Cilla McCann - does anyone listen to this shit, give it the benefit of the doubt, even for a couple of seconds; have we developed some destructive, masochistic, national soap opera wish to be lied to by not very pretty people ? Is this what Cameron is playing to?

richard said...

not many Sus scrofa these days, no, mostly a population of Pinkies and Perkies. hence the politicos can do what they like. we might grunt if not squeal, but receive enough slops to stop us biting.
as for the Mccann case, let's apply Occam's Razor. we get the simplest and therefore most likely scenario, that the parents found the girl dead in some way that made them look irresponsible if not criminally negligent, and they disposed of the body. that's what we run with unless evidence emerges to the contrary. so far, it hasn't.