Let's hope things will be different this time next year for everybody's sake. Then we can have, what people seem to think is the biggest priority this year, a Christmas.
But is it that important? Maybe for people's peace of mind, a link to a kind of normality – or as an American President said, normalcy! But every time you look at TV to see a movie or a play, you can see people in crowds, hugging, kissing and being normal and regular.
I don't think the hug or the hand shake will ever come back. Maybe in family circles but not generally. Maybe the fist or elbow bump? I don't know. The open-handed handshake was to prove you came as a friend and it stuck through the ages and maybe the elbow.
People in the south of England, in the London area mainly, would always greet you with a hug and a kiss. Men to men; women to women. In the midlands and the north, where they are supposed to have a friendly reputation, it doesn't happen so much. When you visit people in London, say meet some friends, the trend and the custom it to kiss your pal's wife. Maybe a kiss on the cheek but in the north, and this has happened to me, they think a kiss means you are flirting or trying to 'get off' with the wife so the next step is everybody throwing their car keys in to something so couples can pair off.
Of course, as I have said many times, I am no expert on anything and these are only my opinions and what I surmise as I lie in bed listening to the Today programmes on BBC Radio 4 every morning.
The Today Programme, by the way, is considered serious news in Britain. It has an obligation to devote a few minutes to tell the public what happened in Parliament the day before. This is supposed to be without political bias or prejudice although some people think it does have a bias but those people maybe don't know what playing devil's advocate is. Extreme left wing people think the BBC is too right wing and extreme right wingers think it's too left wing.
There are people in this world who don't know the difference. They say they are 'right wing' and have left wing views.
I like the BBC, I have always preferred their programmes from any other channel and that includes Netflix which I no longer subscribe to. I had it for years but when it became popular, using and making TV programmes and shows, I missed the movies I used to get from there. I don't know, it might still be the same in America where they sent, by mail (snail mail to use the expression) DVDs. I watched all the French films I missed over the years, all the film noir Hollywood classics, which are my favourites to this day, and now I miss them.
I also liked working for the BBC and they paid more money than ITV to an actor like me. Big stars – Tom Jones etc – would get big money from ITV, even though the quality was on the BBC, but to me not that much. It's hard to show comparison because what seemed like a lot of money in the 1970s sounds a tiny amount now but when you did a drama your fee was, shall we say, £10. That was the fee they worked on for the repeat fees and that would be for the London area only. As the programmes would be networked, shown on all the nation's stations, the actual fee would be £40. The same job on BBC you would get £40. Then when it was repeated or sold abroad the repeat fee was based on the original fee £10 ITV and £40 BBC. That's why when John Hurt won an EMMY for The Naked Civil Servant in America he told the press how much he was paid for the American showing which was only in double figures.
'Oy' an old pal said to me 'I work on the building as a chippie, a carpenter, and I put the doors in the houses.'
'Yes?' I said.
'Why don't they pay me every time somebody uses it?'
'That's a silly question' I said.
Happy Christmas.
No comments:
Post a Comment