Splinters

First, I watched the DVD of Lord of the Rings: the Fellowship of the Ring. Disc one. I fell asleep towards the end and couldn't face disc two. This film makes The Phantom Menace seem like a thrill-a-minute, well-paced, pared-down necessity.

Then, still in need of something to help me avoid The Premiership, I watched the movie American History X. Once the curb scene had happened (don't ask), my teeth hurt so much that I had to stop. It was over-wrought stuff anyway.

Finally - and it had to be finally - I watched, as if for the first time, Jeremy Irons in the film version of Ohio Impromptu, Samuel Beckett's play first performed in 1981. A revelation. It is only nine minutes long. Then I watched it again. And again. Seriously, I would rather watch this twenty times over than watch the other two again just the once.

Apparently, Channel 4 has shown some of the other plays in the Beckett on Film series, yet buried them in a broadcast for schools on a weekday morning. Krapp's Last Tape was postponed, you might remember, because the Queen Mother died on the same day. Enough to make one want a republic if one didn't already. Endgame, directed by Atom Egoyan, has yet to be scheduled even! Tonight, Channel 4 is pursuing its original ethos with such intellectual delights as: The 100 Greatest Scary Moments and yet another showing of I Know What You Did Last Summer. The current season of horror related shows should include a history of the channel. The words 'out' and 'sell' come to mind, but not in that order.