I have been to the cinema to see 'Glass Onion', the second Benoit Blanc murder mystery. Whilst I didn't think it was as tightly plotted as 'Knives Out' it was nevertheless highly entertaining, not least for Daniel Craig's accent. It featured a few surprise cameos including Angela Lansbury. Lansbury of course died last month, and had the sort of career that means much information of interest to your bloggist was often left out of her obituaries. It was mentioned in a few places that her grandfather George Lansbury was the leader of the Labour Party in the early 1930s, but I don't recall reading anywhere that Oliver Postgate, the Noggin the Nog and Bagpuss supremo, was her first cousin. The blog pays its respect to them all.
Someone else who recently left us was Wilko Johnson, who I may or may not have seen with the original Dr Feelgood (*).
I went to see Eliza Carthy last week and she dedicated a song to Johnson, explaining that she had played with him and that he and her father, Martin Carthy, had been close. This threw me momentarily because Martin Carthy is, well, old. But then I remembered both that Wilko Johnson himself had also been old, and that indeed so am I. Eliza Carthy and her band, the Restitution, were great. Here's one they did:
* For anyone who followed that link, new information has come to light and it would seem that the gig in question was actually at St George's Hall in Bradford rather than at Huddersfield Poly.
The Lansbury/Noggin connection is fun, or is it just that in the UK all the prominent people are related?
ReplyDeleteVery sad news about Wilko, an all-time hero. I saw him play a few times, and Lee Brilleaux once, but not at the same time. Interesting that he was friends with Martin Carthy - both quite unconventional but oddly compelling guitarists? Sadly Martin's version of 'Roxette' has been lost..
Possibly one of my top trivial facts of all time is that his real name was John Wilkinson - genius.
Further evidence to support your theory of a few families running everything is that one of her slightly more distant cousins became prime minister of Australia.
Delete