Archive for September, 2021


“We’ve been waiting for you, Mr Bond”

September 26th, 2021 by Roger Darlington

Thanks to the global pandemic, the release of the new (25th) James Bond movie, “No Time To Die”, has been postponed again and again and there have been no less than three trailers. But this week, the film finally has its cinema release. If you’d like to remind yourself what we’ve been missing, you can […]

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A review of the classic 1967 film “The Graduate”

September 25th, 2021 by Roger Darlington

In its day – I was an undergraduate when the film was released and I first viewed it – this was seen as something of a daring work depicting sex in the suburbs between different generations. It is a sharp piece of social commentary – a critical look at the American middle class – disguised […]

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Why is it called the Green Room? Here’s seven possibilities.

September 23rd, 2021 by Roger Darlington

This week, I had dinner with my son in a restaurant called “The Green Room”. I guess that it is called that because it is opposite a theatre. But why do theatres have a location called the green room? I’ve seen many explanations including: 1) It is a room close to the stage (that is, […]

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My latest short story: the Covid-themed “The Great Mall Of China”

September 21st, 2021 by Roger Darlington

A decade or so ago, I decided to try my hand at writing short stories and, over a period of a few years, I completed 31. I recently (self) published these stories in a book titled “The Rooms In My Mind”. As I prepared the stories for publication, I wondered if I could revive my […]

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A review of the documentary “Three Identical Strangers”

September 20th, 2021 by Roger Darlington

We live in a golden age of the documentary when such a work can attract the resources of a small film and be made at the length of a movie and then obtain a cinematic release. This 2018 documentary film, directed by Tim Wardle, tells the incredible story of three Americans, Edward Galland, David Kellman, […]

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A review of the novel “Conversations With Friends” by Sally Rooney

September 17th, 2021 by Roger Darlington

I so admired Rooney’s second novel “Normal People” (and the television adaptation) that I later went on to read her first novel “Conversations With Friends” (which is itself to be adapted for television). This initial work was written while Rooney was still studying for her Masters in Dublin and the point of view is that […]

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What does it take to stop a US President going rogue?

September 16th, 2021 by Roger Darlington

So now we learn that the United States Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff had to reassure the Chinese that America was not about to launch a pre-emptive attack on them. This is an astonishing story to emerge about the last days of the presidency of Donald Trump. It reminds me a a novel […]

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A review of the 2019 Luc Besson movie “Anna”

September 15th, 2021 by Roger Darlington

No film written and directed by the French master Luc Besson is going to be dull – or ordinary. In some senses, this is Besson’s English-language revisiting of his French-language movie “La Femme Nikita” (1990) which gave rise to a Hollywood version “The Assassin” (1993) plus different television series in Canada and the United States. […]

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A review of the new blockbuster movie “Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings”

September 6th, 2021 by Roger Darlington

This is a movie which has to be seen on the big screen and I saw it on the biggest screen in Britain (the BFI IMAX). It is the first work in the now huge Marvel Cinematic Universe with an Asian lead: Chinese-Canadian actor Simu Liu in his first film role. Indeed almost all the […]

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Where did the ciabatta come from?

September 3rd, 2021 by Roger Darlington

I like ciabatta and was surprised to learn recently that it is a relatively recent invention. Ciabatta bread was first produced in 1982 by Arnaldo Cavallari, who called the bread ciabatta polesana after Polesine, the area he lived in. The recipe was subsequently licensed by Cavallari’s company, Molini Adriesi, to bakers in 11 countries by 1999. Cavallari and […]

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