Dick Twittington 11: Herding doctors

This week on my Twitter feed I shoot a man in the face. So, a quiet week.

Don't know why everyone's getting so het up about gifs/jifs. They'll only change the name to Cif as soon as you get used to it.
1 RETWEET 1 FAVORITE
9:11 AM - 22 May 13

That duet between FUN. and P!nk is like a punctuation-fixated supergroup.
1 FAVORITE
11:06 AM - 22 May 13

Everything about the X Factor musical sounds bloody awful. But it's written by Harry Hill so I'm actually tempted.
4:48 PM - 22 May 13

Dick Twittington 10: Bjenny and Born

This week on my Twitter feed there was no The Voice, mercifully. But there was Eurovision, so you can't relax completely.

The Play That Goes Wrong at Trafalgar 2 has extended to the 1st of June so you've got no excuse - both @webcowgirl and I recommend it.
1 RETWEET
12:01 PM - 15 May 13

Oh, so the new Arcola 2 IS an adaptable space after all!
7:55 PM - 15 May 13

If I've got over 3 hours of Chekhov tonight, maybe a nap is in order.
12:24 PM - 17 May 13

Spoiler: His real name's Susan

Yes, that's the big shocker with the revelation of the Doctor's true name, Susan: He is his own granddaughter! Wait, what? We didn't find out? Well, I still think that's roughly how much sense the reveal would have made, so maybe it's for the best.

"The Name of the Doctor" by Steven Moffat, directed by Saul Metzstein. Spoilers after the cut.

Dick Twittington 9: The Sloppy Seconds

This week on my Twitter feed, it's my first trips of the year to Shakespeare's Globe and the weather predictably goes bad the moment I set foot in the place, and The Voice is on twice in a weekend, which is cruel and unusual punishment to viewers, frankly.

I'm not blogging #apprentice this year btw. I don't have time and @Chrisrubery & @tellybitching do it better anyway. Also I can't be arsed.
10:02 AM - 8 May 13

Now why did I immediately think of @givesyouHel ? http://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/77557613.html
10:10 AM - 8 May 13

"She can't sing, she can't dance, but who cares, she walks like Rihanna." I mean... maybe she IS Rihanna.
10:42 AM - 8 May 13

There mite be giants

You know what's great about Doctor Who? The word TransMat. Every other piece of sci-fi has followed Star Trek's lead and called it a teleporter but no, a Matter Transporter got christened a TransMat in the Doctor Who universe in the 1960s and that's what it's still called today.

"Nightmare in Silver" by Neil Gaiman, directed by Stephen Woolfenden. Spoilers after the cut.

Book review: Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands

I've been quite fascinated by Mary Seacole since first hearing about her, and her Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands is free on kindle, and is surprisingly readable for a Victorian autobiography. A mixed-race Jamaican, the self-taught nurse or "doctress" as she described herself is remembered for her work in the Crimean War, where she had a better survival rate than Florence Nightingale, who was later to overshadow her completely. Prior to that though we get her earlier life in Jamaica where she learnt her nursing skills, and in various parts of Central America where she learnt how to run "hotels" that were essentially cheap bars and restaurants. That was the model she eventually used in the Crimea with her British Hotel, a cross between a bar and a hospital, set up independently when her services as a nurse were turned down by Nightingale's hospital and the other official channels.

Though apparently prone to exaggeration about some of her achievements in the Crimea, Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands is still a very entertaining read, Seacole comes across as a bit of a shameless self-publicist (the narrative is occasionally interrupted to quote letters of recommendation from former patients and customers) and unapologetic about the fact that the British Hotel was intended to make money (ultimately unsuccessfully - the war ended a bit earlier than she expected, leaving her with a lot of leftover stock and she returned to London destitute.) But she's not entirely Mother Courage, there's also an obvious affection for the men in her care and a genuine wish to do good. She's also a surprisingly funny writer with a witty way with words that goes some way to explaining why she was so much more popular than Nightingale with the soldiers (other than the fact that she sold them booze which Nightingale disapproved of, that is,) she sounds like she'd have been good company who gave as good as she got.

This could also be a good book to have read if you're ever confronted with someone who tells you the world's going to hell in a handbasket and Victorian values were better - Seacole is frequently horrified by the looting and stealing being done by men on all sides, some of the violence and robbing from the dead is still shocking to read today.

Dick Twittington 8: She owes her career to The Fizz

This week on my Twitter feed, Jay Aston from Bucks Fizz auditions for The Voice and Twitter erupts in Rock Profile jokes. As is only correct.

Saying a vaguely sexual word in front of a cute boy isn't that good a flirt when the word's "syphilis." Basically, I'm bad at flirting.
7:02 PM - 1 May 13

Spellcheck want to change "anaemic" to "iceman." I like the X-Men too but that's silly.
1 FAVORITE
10:38 PM - 1 May 13

I really need to unearth my T-shirts from the wardrobe but I'm worried it'll jinx the good weather.
12:15 PM - 2 May 13

Fascinating Ada

I don't know about all this "actually crediting Dame Diana Rigg in the end credits" business. There seems to be an unspoken rule that you don't use actors' titles in credits, theatre programmes, posters etc, like you're not making a fuss - Ian McKellen didn't get credited as Serena last Christmas. I wonder whose idea it was to bung the title in the credits. Maybe someone on the production team wanted to show off about the show securing a Dame. I hope it wasn't Diana Rigg herself, I'd like to continue thinking she's awesome, not the female version of Sirben Kingsley.

"The Crimson Horror" by Mark Gatiss, directed by Saul Metzstein. Spoilers after the cut.

Dick Twittington 7: What's in my bra?

This week on my Twitter feed I finally get some temporary work, and can't go two minutes without spotting someone from off the telly.

First day temping after a v long break will be followed by 3.5 hours of Shakespeare. Let's see how that goes shall we?
12:27 PM - 24 Apr 13

Sleb Spot: Jodie Whitaker on the South Bank. Not crying, but I still recognised her.
6:25 PM - 24 Apr 13

Sleb Spot: Joe Dempsie, also South Bank.
6:36 PM - 24 Apr 13