A cat picture

Sorry but I just ran out of pictorial inspiration and my cat was under my nose. She wasn't too impressed at being half woken up and emphasised the fact by half heartedly stretching her legs and giving my stuff a shove.

In the early hours of this morning I found an early Dennis Potter play that I hadn't seen for God knows how many years; The Son of Man. Potter being one of the best dramatists of the twentieth century and it being a play I've searched for several times I decided to overcome my weak resolve to get some sleep and spent the next 90 minutes with it. It was the play that first brought Colin Blakely to public attention and also features an impossibly young Brian Blessed, Robert Hardy, Bernard Hepton and Edward Hardwicke. It was also one of the first times Mary Whitehouse went off on one of her outraged tirades against Potter....something of course that would accompany pretty much everything he ever did from then on. On this occasion she (and the dreaded Muggeridge) denounced it for blasphemy, presumably she wanted Potter et al publicly stoned in front of Broadcasting House (after first covering up Eric Gill's naughty statue above the door, of course). It's an interesting piece but difficult to see why it got Whitehouse' knickers in such a twist, it simply depicts Jesus without any of his magic tricks, subject to very human failings, contradictory pronouncements, vanity and uncertainties and tormented by doubt as to whether he actually is the Messiah as he makes his way through a Judea where would be Messiahs are not exactly uncommon. The crucifixion is left ambiguous as to whether it was part of his plan or whether he thought God would finally manifest himself and save him. In other words he leaves it open as to whether or not the man called Jesus is actually just another of the numerous religious maniacs who fail completely at being a Messiah and end up nailed to a cross for his pains but one who happens to have some interesting things to say about the lunacy of war and inequality that are worth thinking about. In other words the Jeffersonian (amongst others) view of him. It stands up well despite the low budget and wobbly 1969 BBC sets. It also provided me with my second favourite line about a crucifix... On encountering the newly vacated crosses on his way to Jerusalem to seek recognition his initial fear and distaste suddenly turns to pleasure as he runs his hands over it appreciatively and remarks with approval "That's a good bit of timber that....". My favourite crucifix line though remains that from Peter Barnes "The Ruling Class"; " It's a Watusi walking stick....big people the Watusi..."