Holiday television I

Watching: Robin Hood S02E02
Listening: Santa Baby by Eartha Kitt
Reading: North and South by Elizabeth Gaskill

News of the Day:

• Harold Pinter...dies.
• New Wallace and Gromit!! And it's toasty.
• China's melamined milk trial opens. Let's hope the judges' bubble teas aren't tainted.
• Recycle your mobile, or die.
• Spider ancestors.
• China v Pirates (of the Aaargh, matey variety).
• The Pirates (of the Pittsburgh variety) sign two Indian pitchers after reality show performances. Expect a Bollywood version soon!
• The Times asks: Are de luxe CDs a rip off? Yes.
• Board games and Christmas are as sure as passing Go and collecting $200, or landing in Jail.
• Baby born on floor. Scary.
• Another Rupert Penry-Jones article to celebrate this Sunday's 39 Steps. And pictures, just for good measure. (A 'posh totty' indeed.)
  

Christmas television. We don't have Christmas specials in America because our television seasons are twice as long and usually run through the holidays. Instead, we have A Christmas Story marathons. Well, marathons of all sorts and lots of football. (Hail, Notre Dame!) Anyway, I managed to get bits and bobs of UK Christmas programming. Mark Gatiss's Crooked House freaked me out proper, and I only watched one episode. I caught part deux because my favorite History Boy, Samuel Barnett, did another effeminate turn, this time as Billy, the main guy's good chum. The show comes in three episodes and the spooky stories are linked by a haunted house and the discovery of an old door knocker. I'll spoil the surprise and say a ghostly, or ghastly, bride haunts another bride-to-be. This in and of itself is not too scary - except her eyes are gouged out!! Bridal apparitions freak me out more than clowns (although I'm also watching Ashes to Ashes at the moment).

My second taste of BBC Christmas was Gavin and Stacey. I'll admit this is the first episode I've seen in full. (The one with the History Boys at the bachelor party doesn't count because it's chopped up on Youtube.) The Barry clan head over to the Shipmans' for Christmas, and everyone kind of gets more than they bargained for - except for dear Smithy (James Corden) who finds himself increasingly squeezed out of his son's life by bus driver Dave. Ehhh...it was endearing, the way you're family is endearing after overdosing on Christmas ham, eggnog, green bean casserole, and one too many stories from crazy uncle. Which means I managed an emotional attachment to the characters but none of the cozy, fleecy embrace I was hoping for considering how much people adore this show; there were some smiles but no healthy laughs. I like that the tension between Smithy and Nessa (Ruth Jones) rubs the heart like a Brillo pad at times. Corden and Jones's script is fantastically muted, allowing some real acting for a change. Anyway, it's all a great set up for the third season where we'll see Gavin and Stacey transplanted in Wales for his new assignment and more uncertainty for Smithy, Nessa, Neil, and possibly fiance Dave. Ahh, love, marriage, and that messy bit in between.

My final Christmas treat, and my only present to myself, was the latest Wallace and Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death. Fantastic! I could amuse myself with plasticine animation for hours, days. This short is a simple story of love, murder, bread, and dogs. The two run a bakery with an adorable assembly line (if one can be called such) that pops out golden lumps of bread. But there is a cereal murderer on the loose, and they could be next! Anyone who doesn't warm to this story should be made to eat stale bread and drink from a hose for the whole of 2009.

There is a post script to all of this, one involving pre-war Britain, spies, and Rupert Penry-Jones, always a fine combination. 39 Steps airs this Sunday so my holiday isn't over yet.