Back In The Swing

[frenchpony]

Some people like to ease back into life after the holidays. Me, I just cannonball right in. Fieldwork, parties, book revisions . . . life certainly isn't boring at the moment

Comments

[perelleth]

Sounds like you're having a great time, and not too cold, or windy or rainy.

I haven't yet got to see The Theory of Everything, but it sure must be funny to be walking around the same places... it's always a boost to recognize familiar places in movies.

[frenchpony]

Well, there has been rain. This is England, after all, and England will do what England is famous for doing. The difference is that my English colleagues see rain in January and go "bloody hell, rain!" I see it and go "hey, it's not snowing!"

[dawtheminstrel]

That sounds like so much fun! I hadn't heard about the college refusing the movie maker's request to film. That's so English. American universities would be falling over themselves to appear in a movie. Free publicity.

[frenchpony]

I hadn't heard about Caius refusing filming permission until the master's wife told me. She had no idea why they refused. I think that, if the issue had been brought to the master, he would have been in favor of having them film there. I can only guess that whoever the Caius decision-makers were, they thought that it would be too disruptive to the students to have a film crew clomping around in one of the central colleges.

Which, I observe, didn't deter Johns in the slightest, so there you go.

[elliska]

So jealous! Sounds like you are having fun! Good for you!

[frenchpony]

I am having fun! I also see that a dusting of snow is expected on Sunday, and I have to admit, I'm interested to see what Cambridge might look like with snow. The latest Sidney Chambers mystery described Cambridge all covered in snow, but I don't think we're going to get that much, if any.

[fafojoy]

That is so exciting, being able to see the actual places. I felt that way in Israel, not only from the Bible, but from series of books set during WWII, the British Mandate and the war of Independence.

I saw that Masterpiece is doing a series on Grantchester. I didn't know what it was about, so thank you for the overview.

[frenchpony]

When Little Sister Pony and I were in Jerusalem, many of our conversations went along the "is that really the [famous site]?" "Yes. Yes, it is." route. It's pretty damn cool to be in places that have seen so much!

If the Grantchester that Masterpiece is showing is this one, then, yes, it's based on just that series of books. And they did even film some of it in Cambridge! There's clear shots of Trumpington Street and Kings College that were shot on location. The little snippet that starts at about 1:40 of this video takes place right inside Kings, on a path that I sometimes use to avoid the weekend tourist crowd (because I can use my University ID card to get into any of the colleges for free, even when they're charging money to tourists. If downtown Cambridge is too packed and you want to get over the Cam and out to the West Side without shoving people off the Silver Street Bridge, going through Kings is a neat little shortcut to Queens Road.)

[dot_o_choillmor]

Are the books good? I watched a bit of the series but didn't see much of it. I love detective programmes but it must have clashed with something else.

[frenchpony]

I've been enjoying the books. They're not so much mystery novels as collections of shortish stories -- each "chapter" is its own self-contained story, so it's really easy to see how a TV adaptation was tempting. I like that the main character is an actual person with a history, life, and conflicts of his own, and that the stories are as much about him struggling with the ideals of being a vicar as they are about solving the case of the moment.

And the fact that they're set right where I live. That's always a plus.