The English Civil War (the 17th century one) has never done particularly well as entertainment. The Anarchy, well, you've got Brother Cadfael. King John and the barons - bah, that barely qualifies, let's look at Robin Hood instead. The Wars of the Roses - there's Shakespeare and, um, The Tudors. What do we have for the English Civil War? By The Sword Divided (1983-85), which no one seems to remember very much.


Post-crash, my aunt and I were talking about historical dramas we'd like to see on TV and I said a good Civil War one would be just the ticket. Lo and behold, Channel 4 unveiled their Civil War 'epic' (their word) The Devil's Whore last night.


I admit I watched it mainly for John Sim (Cal in State of Play). There was a cute guy who got shot for cowardice, though his character was inconsistent and whiney so despite the cuteness I'm glad he was killed off. Oliver Cromwell looked like Oliver Cromwell. King Charles I looked like Jeremy Irons pretending to be King Charles I. There was another Parliamentarian who also looked like Jeremy Irons but with reddish hair. John Sim was scruffy and occasionally rabid. The plot looked like someone had taken a cannon to it.


The Civil War was so extraordinarily well documented it almost scripts itself. It was also incredibly complicated. However, that's no excuse for producing a rather turgid piece of drama with an unappealing heroine and as much clarity as a pool of mud. And too much sex. Yes, it's Channel 4 so it has a moral obligation to broadcast at least 10 minutes of shagging per drama, and I wouldn't mind if it actually showed us something about the characters, but one scene was utterly pointless. Better to have spent those three minutes trying to advance the plot.


By 10pm I was hoping for the end. The trailer for next week's episode seems to suggest that the 75-minute first episode was a mere prologue to the good stuff. In any case, I don't think I'll bother with the rest of it.


Best line:
Bloke asked by Parliamentarians to surrender: "We don't want any of you Levellers here!"
Me: We don't like your music!


It was funny at the time.

So thanks to Anna, who has given me a handy guide to working this thing, now I have no real excuse for not updating more than once every 6 months. Although I was doing with with it until they changed the buttons on the control panel and confused me. I get confused when they move things around in supermarkets, too. It's easy to confuse me!

Anyway, here I am and.... I have a lot of posts to make as I've been saving them up. Let's see if I can make a start on them now ^^

Now I'm back home I've decided to record our jaunts to ancient, old and/or ruinous places. Most of these will be religious buildings destroyed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

So a few days after arriving back in England, in the rain, we visited Croxden Abbey in Staffordshire. For some reason, over the last few months I've really yearned to go back there. Not sure why, as it's not the most glamorous of the ruined abbeys, but it has a quiet charm.

Rather large pics beneath the cut! (if the direct linking of pics works...)

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A few days after going to Croxden, we went into Shropshire. First stop was Haughmond Abbey, one of my favourite places. It was closed. Thence to Shrewsbury, home of the Brother Cadfael novels. The abbey church was full of schoolchildren doing monastic workshops (making stained glass, brass rubbings, etc). As we walked back up the hill to St Mary's church, I said "I bet that's closed, too." Outside the church was a sign: Closed due to BBC filming. Oh well. So we ended up in Much Wenlock, and the priory was open. Result!

Pics below the cut.

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So here we are in Howden, in our TARDIS-like house that was built in 1812 and has huge, echoing rooms. It’s also next to a pub with a stupid name, which will shortly change to a tapas bar with a less stupid name.

Sharing the house are two hamsters. The Syrian, Shirley, is very curious and clever. Tui, the odd little Russian Dwarf, is black with a white bib and like her namesake is very noisy. We nearly bought two cute little boy hamsters on Sunday but decided to wait until our furniture arrives before getting any other monsters. I miss Chester stupidly, so may be tempted towards another guinea pig, although they’re sold in pairs here and they’re not a practical pet to leave when going on holiday.

Pics and more waffle under the cut...

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This turned up on the regional BBC site:

Girls Aloud 'porn' blog trial set

'A civil servant from South Tyneside has appeared in court over a blog which detailed the kidnap, torture and murder of the pop group Girls Aloud.

Darryn Walker, 35, of Mowbray Road, South Shields, is accused of writing and posting the "Girls (Scream) Aloud" story on a fantasy pornography site.

He is charged under the Obscene Publications Act.

No pleas were entered at the hearing at Newcastle Crown Court on Wednesday. A trial was set for 16 March.

Walker was granted unconditional bail until the trial.'

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The new owner of the bar next door came round to introduce herself. "I'm not being snobby," she said, "but I want to turn it around. It's got such a bad reputation as the drugs place and I don't want that."

She seems very determined and likeable. They're having a kitchen put in and it'll be a tapas bar. The village does need more eateries so I really hope it succeeds. Plus we like tapas. It can only be a good thing.

Talking of food, I tried a low-fat recipe for chicken korma last night. Usually I follow Nigella's full fat, full cream extravaganza and it's fabulous. The low fat version was really good - though I deviated and added a can of coconut milk and 100g of ground almonds, so I'm not sure how 'low fat' it ended up. But it tasted good and different, enough that I'll make it again. Had a Tesco naan bread with it, which was lovely at the time but overnight it kicked off the wheat allergy with a vengeance. So now I haz pain. Ouch.

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