dom joly is unwell

Or at least Dom Joly has lost weight and been bitten a lot by sand flies during his recent travels into 'The Heart of Darkness' (the Panamanian jungles).
He tweets here

And for those of you who may have been to The Coach and Horses, or seen the play / film of it, yes indeed, the heading idea is a play on Jeffrey Bernard is unwell.

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the odd couple (1968) - neil simon

An easy going feelgood comedy from 1968, The Odd Couple was originally a Broadway show, and Frank Sinatra was one of the considerations for the film, but after seeing the movie, you can't imagine anyone else playing the roles that Walter Matthau (as Oscar Madison) and Jack Lemmon (as Felix Ungar) made their own (although Art Carney played Felix on Broadway). I know there was also TV series and a follow up film with Matthau and Lemmon reprising their roles, but for me, this is the definitive article, played superbly by Matthau and Lemmon, and with a great supporting cast (including John Fiedler from '12 Angry Men'), unlike  the follow up, which stinks the place out Surstromming style. 
Not much story to the movie though. Felix doesn't turn up for his regular game of cards with the boys at Oscar's house, and they learn that he may have been trying to kill himself as his marriage has broken up. He ends up staying at Oscar's, they get on each others nerves (mainly due to Felix, with his constant cleaning, cooking and aches and pains), but it all works out in the end.
Another American classic, if, like me, you like old movies.

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recent films seen - date night, the punisher, eric and ernie, and bob monkhouse

The FPO bought this on DVD and l managed to get about half way through it. What a crap film it is. I already liked both of the stars a lot, Tina Fey is great in 30 Rock, and Steve Carell is superb in the American version of The Office, but this was just not funny at all. At least it got our own Date Night out of the way for January (a New Years resolution by the FPO).

Thomas Jane plays the Frank Carson/The Punisher fighting Jigsaw (Dominic West) who have a bit of a grudge against each other (to say the least). Very violent and graphic, pretty fast moving, but also pretty silly in places (after all, it is based on the Marvel comics of the same name). Not bad at all really, l may even get round to watching the first ones.

Eric and Ernie (2011) is by BBC Wales and starred Bryan Dick as Ernie and Daniel Rigby as Eric. It was really good and the portrayal of Eric Morecambe was outstanding, such a difficult thing to pull off, playing Eric and also trying to be as funny. The film concentrated on the early years when they first met up, the (overbearing at times) encouragement of Eric's mother (played by Victoria Wood), the quiet support of Eric's father (Vic Reeves) and them struggling to make a name for themselves. I didn't realise that Ernie was well known before meeting Eric, but Eric was still a hell of a lot funnier.

The secret life of Bob Monkhouse, was a documentary about him, but concentrated on his archived collection of movies, videos, comics and audio recordings. I was drooling with envy looking at his collection, l would loved to have got my dirty little mitts on it. As l said to the FPO, you would never find the time to play them all, but it is good to have them there for when you want to play something specific. I had also forgotten what a great cartoonist he was. Somebody should reprint his old joke books exactly as they were, including all his doodles and drawings in them. They are works of art in their own right. Pity he was such a Thatcher supporting Tory.

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