Citizen Kane's Thatcher and Gertie Ford . . .

Well I didn't say anything about Margaret Thatcher did I? And why would I when the name Thatcher was on the TV wall to wall 24 hours a day. I don't think even Winston Churchill was mentioned that much when he died but there again they didn't have cable and 24 hour news channels in those days.

What I thought was a bit below the belt was the fact that politicians 'cashed in' on her death and the funeral to make political points: we're all Thatcherites now!! I don't think so. Before the Conservatives had anything to do with the railways you could buy a ticket and jump on a train. Not now – now you have to pay a lot of money for a relatively short journey unless you book well in advance.

But it's all gone into history and it's time to move on.

I remember the name Thatcher as being one of the characters in Citizen Kane – I can't remember what he was but I remember what the fella looked like who played him.

A strange film, I have always thought; dark and mysterious and then when I grew up I found people saying it was their favourite film and then finding out that they hadn't even seen it.

I appreciate some things about the film; the fact that it was shot in long focus and that there were ceilings in the shots. Doesn't mean a thing these days does it as a lot of films and TV shows have ceilings in and because of television there has to be 'close ups' in movies or the TV companies wouldn't show them – so much for 'long focus.'

Some of the old films are a bit frustrating to watch when there are no close ups; it's because we're used to them these days and you can't see the facial expressions and images a couple of inches high from your sofa.

Another film everybody goes on about is Battleship Potemkin; great editing on the Odessa Steps sequence but I remember at a lecture the lecturer pointing out that soldiers were walking down the steps but up the screen they seemed to be walking up hill from the bottom to the top; how clever, I thought!!

That was when I did a film studies O/A level Course and I have to say it was harder than other subjects; maybe because they were my own opinions and not necessarily those of the teaching staff.

So off I go to Los Angeles for ten days and I'll write some news here when I get back – I might even write from over there but I'm going to be busy so maybe it'll be in May before I write.

In the meantime look me up on Amazon and buy my novel – Who Was Gertie Ford?

Red Dawn.

It's a funny old world isn't it? Art copies life and life copies art.

A few years ago I did some work in the movie remake of Red Dawn; in the original movie the Russians invade a small town in the USA and some school kids get together, get some weapons and fight them off saving the town and the good old USA from the evil Ruskies. It was a piece of jingoism and, even though it was made by a talented writer/director it was a load of rubbish.

In the new version they changed the nationality of the enemy to the Chinese and at the start of the film, around the time of the titles, there is a film montage with footage of world leaders, including Barack Obama, getting on and off aeroplanes, giving press conferences and the like, and the section has the quality of a newsreel. I was the voice of a British reporter and there were other voices from various countries too.

I often wondered what had happened to the film and if it would ever get a release then some time ago the producers decided they didn't want to offend the Chinese, as they were doing deals with them, so they changed the enemy to North Korea.

It opened in the USA last year and last month it opened in Britain. What's that? You missed it? Oh dear! 

All the dialogue that mentioned the Chinese was taken out and the words Korea or Pyongyang replaced China and Beijing. 

Now I had to look up Pyongyang as I presume you might have had to do, if only for the spelling, but it seems strange to me that a country we know so little about is threatening to blow America out of the water for no good reason.

There is a mad man in charge of the place called (and here I go again looking it up) KIM Jong Um; he is the chief of state. There are other people in charge too for example CHOE Yong Rim who is the head of government and then there are vice premiers.

Who these people are and what they do is beyond me and why the first name that is written down is in block capitals and what you would call them if you met them in a bar is beyond me and also beyond me is why they want to blow up the world!

KIM Jong Um is the son of KIM Jong-il who was also mad at the world.

Recently the famous basketball player Dennis Rodman was seen with Kim Jong Um at some kind of sporting fixture.

Dennis Rodman, as you can see above, is a very sensible fella much the same as David Beckham who is a good role model for the kids of today but what he was doing with such a monster is also beyond me.

But what can we do in this kind of situation apart from moan?

They have weapons and soldiers, tanks and fighter planes – even nuclear weapons (WMD? - that's where they were) ready to destroy everything we know and what can we do?

Already Dave the Rave is on his way to Scotland to check that Trident is still there and he will be wondering what to do with it if Scotland ever leave the union with the rest of Britain. What will it be called then? The Ununited Kingdom? Nearly Greater Britain?

 Trident.

Britain's deterrent WMD.