Joy to the Web, the Lords Have Come

Posted on by
Reply

To commemorate the fortieth anniversary of the broadcasting of proceedings from the chamber of the House of Lords, that house’s YouTube channel has uploaded a series of lengthy extracts from said first broadcast – Wednesday, 23rd January 1985.

Said day is noteworthy for including the maiden speech of the 1st Earl of Stockton, aged 90.

Truth be told I had seen some of these clips years earlier – including Stockton’s speech – as they were uploaded by the amateur channel Coljax Parliament. I assume these were originally recorded with a home VHS system from the live television broadcast. Still, it is nice to have these on the official channel. I hope that this is not a one-off and that Parliament will take to uploading more of its old archive footage, since ParliamentLive.TV only goes back to 2007 and footage earlier than that is restricted to what can be found on British Pathé or C-SPAN.

As the press release notes, Parliamentary cameras are now remotely operated and, while picture quality isn’t perfect, the colours and lighting tend to be reasonably well balanced. The early footage had the camera operators just behind the bar of the house, operating manually. This makes for better angles and movement (I daresay it looks almost cinematic, rather than like CCTV footage.) but there is an awful lot of Black Crush between peers’ jackets and the background shadows. I had originally thought this to be a result of compression and degradation in Coljax’s tapes, but it now seems it was like that in the master footage too, which is a pity.

Turning Back the Clock

Posted on by
2

Yesterday the Presidency of the United States of America changed hands for the third time in eight years. Certain of the modern innovations, such as the changing of the websites, are now feeling routine. This time, at least, Trump seemed to have a whole new website design ready, in contrast to his first term in which he reused the template from Obama’s for the first year and a half. I note that “trumpwhitehouse” is still used as the name for the archived site (and social media accounts) from his first term. It remains to be seen how the new ones will be archived come 2029.

The 2017 inauguration ceremony played out in essentially the standard format, albeit sullied a little in retrospect by the 45th President’s bizarre assertions about the size of his crowd relative to the 44th’s. It might have been feared that such statistics might become a subject of long-running competition and controversy, but by chance they have been inapplicable to the inaugurations of both 2021 and 2025 for opposite reasons: Biden’s inauguration was still held on the steps of the capitol but had the few attendees spread far apart and no public audience at all due to a combination of hygiene measures for the ongoing pandemic and security restrictions following the recent riots. Trump’s readeption, but contrast, was moved indoors and had hundreds of guests packed like sardines due to the extreme low temperatures.

Another important distinction is that the outgoing leader attended the event and recognised his successor – despite there being no favour to return in that regard.

I was also a little confused by the timing – the transition of power takes effect at noon (translating to 5pm in British time). This is observed to the second in terms of websites, but the ceremony itself pays little heed. I recall that in the inaugurations of 2017 and 2021 the President-elect finished taking the oath and began making speeches from behind the lectern several minutes before his predecessor’s term had actually ended. This time noon struck slightly before the new incumbents took their oaths. It was a little ironic that Vance’s promise referred to “the office on which I am about to enter” even though looking at the clock he had already entered it about forty seconds prior.

The ceremony included a performance of Battle Hymn of the Republic. Some may say that Dixie would be more appropriate given the cultural alignment of so many of Trump’s supporters. I thought that the singing style of this particular arrangement sounded a bit Russian, though it probably wasn’t a deliberate allusion this time.

One of the less overtly-political joys of new presidencies is the redecoration of the oval office, akin to the unveiling of a new Starfleet bridge or TARDIS console room. I know of no phenomenon remotely equivalent in any other country. In this case there was little cause for excitement as the 47th President’s office is back to looking almost exactly as it did for the 45th. It helps, of course, that the 46th didn’t change the drapes or the wallpaper in between. Presidential transitions also seem to be developing tetrennial tradition of moving the bust of Winston Churchill from one part of the White House so that Nicholas Soames can be interviewed about the Special Relationship, thus providing certain newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic with editorial material for the next few days.

Something Forgotten in the State of Denmark

Posted on by
Reply

A stir was caused in the heraldist community a few days ago when it emerged that His Majesty King Frederik X had made some changes to his coat of arms. This actually happened on 20th December but somehow the news did not spread until the new year.

As with the British royal arms, the Danish royal arms are arms of dominion representing both the incumbent monarch in person and the Danish realm as a corporate entity.

The crown, mantling, pavillion, supporters and sundry other elements of the full achievement have remained the same, but there has been a noticeable remarshalling of the escutcheon itself – with the quarterings moved around.

The quarters of the old version were:

  • First and fourth – Or three lions passant in pale Azure crowned and armed Or langued Gules nine hearts Gules – for continental Denmark.
  • Second – Or two lions passant in pale Azure armed Or langued Gules – for the former province of Schleswig.
  • Third – Azure party per fess in base per pale in chief three crowns Or (for the Kalmar Union) in dexter base a ram passant Argent armed and unguled Or (for the Faroe Islands), in sinister base a polar bear rampant Argent (for Greenland).

The shield as a whole is surmounted by a cross Or fimbriated Gules (referencing the Danish flag) on which in turn is placed an inescutcheon Or two bars Gules (for the former Duchy of Oldenburg).

In the new version, the Schleswig arms are moved down from the second quarter to the fourth, with the repetition of continental Denmark being deleted.The Faroe ram is then moved to the second quarter and the Kalmar crowns are deleted as well, leaving the Greenland bear with the third quarter to itself. The cross is also now made pattée, meaning it is flared at the ends.

The new arrangement is considerably simpler on the eye then the old one, with a more equitable distribution of space to each important element. The change is reminiscent of that which happened to Britain’s royal arms in 1801 when, on the coming into force of the unification of the Kingdom of Ireland with the Kingdom of Great Britain, George III’s arms were changed to have England, Scotland and Ireland quartered in the manner which remains to this day while Hanover (not part of the political union) was moved to an inescutcheon and the historic claim to the recently-eliminated French throne was abandoned.

In the Danish case there has been no recent constitutional change to prompt the remarshalling of Greenland, Faroe and the metropole, while the deletion of reference to the Kalmar Union is particularly long-delayed as the union itself ended in 1523. The Oldenburg inescutcheon could have been changed as well since – having inherited the crown through his mother – Frederik is not agnatically a member of that dynasty but rather is of the House of Monpezat. This is represented in the arms of some of the younger sons descended from Margrethe II, but not those directly in line to the throne.

Note on the Decease of Britt Allcroft

Posted on by
Reply

Hilary Mary Allcroft, commonly known as Britt, was the television producer and director responsible for turning The Railway Series into Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends. She was at the helm of the franchise from 1984 to 2003, overseeing its first seven series and the film Thomas & the Magic Railroad. She also created the companion series Shining Time Station for the American market and in early years was part of the production team for Blue Peter.

Directly or indirectly, to this day she remains a commanding influence in the childhoods of many millions in the United Kingdom and around the world. Though no longer in charge of the franchise for more than twenty years she remained a grandee until her death and – however controversial some of her adaptation decisions may have been – her presence was much appreciated by the surrounding community.

Her death occurred on Christmas Day, but was not made public until today. Her family arranged for the first announcement of her demise – preceding any newspapers – to be given by the filmmaker Brannon Carty, in whose documentary An Unlikely Fandom she had recently appeared.

I was not aware of the death of director David Mitton when it happened, nor even born yet when Wilbert Awdry himself passed away. I hope it will be many years before his son Christopher dies.

Farewell Britt, your presents were much appreciated.

UPDATE (4th January)

The aforementioned Brannon Carty has also uploaded his interview with BBC Radio 5.

Checking up on the Blog

Posted on by
1

As this website approaches the tenth anniversary of its launch, I took the opportunity to look over the statistics which WordPress records for me. This site is not run for profit, but it is nice to feel that my publications are appreciated.

The view counts for each calendar year are as follows:

  • 2015 – 0053
  • 2016 – 0415
  • 2017 – 1289
  • 2018 – 0987
  • 2019 – 1469
  • 2020 – 2571
  • 2021 – 2800
  • 2022 – 2882
  • 2023 – 2300
  • 2024 – 4664

The first two entries don’t really count as the site didn’t exist until October and there were no meaningful posts on it until March. The third may be artificially inflated as many of the views will have been me checking posts myself to check that they’d uploaded properly. The readership exhibited steady growth from 2019 onwards, albeit with a bit of a dip (not sure why) in 2023. Last year raised the bar substantially, as the previous record was broken by the end of September.

Regular readers (if there are any) may also notice that some changes have been made to the way the blog is organised: Every now and again I go through my old posts deciding which categories and tags are needed based on regularity of use, abandoning some which are no longer needed. Today I have converted many of the most used tags into categories (with many posts inevitably being in more than one) and collapsed most of the menu options into one. I have also invented a few new tags for recurrent subtopics. I hope it makes more sense this way.

UPDATE (4th January)

Four days into the new year I’ve already reached 61 views, thus exceeding 2015’s record.

UPDATE (29th January)

Four weeks into the year I’m on 416, thus exceeding 2016.

Public Domain Day 2025

Posted on by
Reply

As another December concludes, another batch of books, films, songs and paintings goes out of copyright.

This year’s categories are works in Britain (and countries with similar laws) the last of whose authors died in 1954, and works from the United States which were first published in 1929.

Last year the jewel of the public domain crown was Steamboat Willie, the first film to feature Mickey & Minnie Mouse. This year it is The Karnival Kid, the first film in which the mouse speaks. Also in the 1929 United States category are the first Marx Brothers film The Cocoanauts and the final Buster Keaton film Spite Marriage. Sherlock Holmes and Fu Manchu also make their first appearances in sound films.

Annoyingly there are some noteworthy works from that year originating outside the United States, which are now public domain there but will remain copyrighted in their home countries for some decades, such as Sir Alfred Hitchcock’s Blackmail and Hergé’s early Tintin cartoons. We do, however, get the first cartoons of Popeye the Sailor Man and Tarzan. We also get the surprisingly-old song Singin’ in the Rain.

Relatively few prominent British authors entered the public domain this year, the most recognisable ones being James Hilton and Francis Brett Young. Also dying that year was the computer scientist Alan Turing, whose most famous publication was his namesake mathematical proof. Of course, many of these works will conversely not be public domain in the United States, so their proliferation over the internet will still be limited.

Here We Go Again

Posted on by
Reply

As the minutes tick down until the end of December, I find myself once again resetting and archiving the talk page for my Wikipedia account, which I have already done on ten occasions before.

Some people think of time as a straight line, others as a circle. I have come to compromise by thinking of time as helical. The turn can be conceived of as lasting, hours, days, months, years or even centuries. Sitting at my computer desk now, ready to perform the same routine again, I find that the manoeuvre is ready in my muscle memory. It almost feels as if mere minutes have passed since I did this on 31 December 2023, or 2022, or 2021…

Conversely, events from earlier this year – such as the general election or the D-Day commemorations – feel a lifetime away. Perhaps the cycle of the seasons is to blame; by July it can be easy to forget the feeling of cold and darkness, and by January equally hard to remember the feeling of warmth and sunlight. Habits, timetables, wardrobes all change accordingly so that we almost inhabit two different selves with little knowledge of each other.

Christmas intensifies this effect, given the disappearance and reappearance of the same decorations each year, as well as the propensity of television and radio to endlessly rerun the same seasonal songs and specials. What’s more, Christmas is often a bit between, when work and school temporarily shut down. Once the rush of shopping for Christmas Day itself concludes, we find ourselves in the awkward denouement, the anticlimactic final week of the year when nothing much happens, which gives us time to reflect. It can all be a bit disorienting and existential, really.

What a strange phenomenon it is that memory and perception should vary in this way – over and over there will be weeks, days or even individual hours which feel excruciatingly long, yet somehow the year as a whole can go in no time at all.

The Blackadder Order of Precedence

Posted on by
Reply

The New Year Honours for 2025 have been released, and they include the appointment of former QI host Stephen Fry as a knight bachelor.

I thought fit to compile a tracker for where each major actor in the Blackadder franchise now stands within the British honours system:

Sir Tony Robinson (Baldrick)

Knight Bachelor, 15th June 2013 (Queen’s Birthday), for public and political service.

Sir Stephen Fry (Melchett)

Knight Bachelor, 30th December 2024 (New Year), for services to Mental Health Awareness, the Environment and Charity.

Richard Curtis (Writer)

Commander of the Order of the British Empire, I can’t find the date or cause.

Howard Goodall (Composer)

Commander of the Order of the British Empire, 31st December 2010 (New Year), for services to music education.

Hugh Laurie (George)

Commander of the Order of the British Empire, 30th December 2017 (New Year), for services to drama.

Miriam Margolyes (Maria Escalosa/Whiteadder/Victoria)

Officer of the Order of the British Empire, 31st December 2001 (New Year), for services to drama.

Robbie Coltrane (Johnson)

Officer of the Order of the British Empire, 31st December 2005 (New Year), for services to drama.

Brian Blessed (Richard IV)

Officer of the Order of the British Empire, 10th June 2016 (Queen’s Birthday), for services to the arts and charity.

Ben Elton (Writer)

Member of the Order of Australia, 11th June 2023 (King’s Birthday), for significant service to the entertainment industry as a comedian, actor, writer and director.

Tom Baker (Redbeard)

Member of the Order of the British Empire, 30th December 2024 (New Year), for services to television.

So far Tim McInerny (Percy/Darling) and Miranda Richardson (Queenie/Amy) are still without anything from the fons honorum. Rik Mayall (Flasheart), Patsy Byrne (Nursie) and Peter Cook (Richard III) all went to the grave unadorned.

Second Look at Royal Variety

Posted on by
1

Three weeks after its recording, the Royal Variety Performance for 2024 has been broadcast. I have also found on the charity’s website some publicity stills from the event along with the official brochure.

The brochure contains a great deal of heraldic illustration, much of which is clearly of Sodacan origin. The artistic schizophrenia is evident even from the front cover, which prominently displays a full-colour Sodacan version of the royal arms with the Tudor crown while also having in the header a monochrome outline (similar to that on royal.uk) of the St Edward crown version as part of the Royal Variety Performance logo. Throughout the brochure the latter is included as part of the page header while the former is repeated many times as a main-body illustration. More curious is that in the borders of several pages another obvious Wikimedia graphic is seen – the coat of arms of the Prince of Wales. Quite why that one was used I am not sure, especially as Charles stopped using it upon his accession and it has yet to be conclusively shown that William now does so. The outline version also appears as the background pattern to some of the pages themselves. To make things even more confusion two more expressions of the royal arms appear in the brochure – in the letterhead of a message from Buckingham Palace on page 7 in the royal warrant part of the advertisement for Mikhail Pietranek Interior Furnishing and Design on page 65.

A quick glance at the brochures for past installments of the performance makes clear – even just from the front covers – that this armorial smorgasbord has been in effect for some time.

As far as the performance itself is concerned, I do not intend to write a detailed review. The one part I deem relevant to the ongoing themes of this blog is the section on the Lord Lloyd-Webber’s famous musical drama Starlight Express:

After the play’s own professional actors had done their carefully-choreographed routine, the night’s host Alan Carr came on for a comedy coda of sorts, wearing a much simpler steam engine costume and clearly much less steady on his feet. Lloyd-Webber himself was on stage at this point. Carr’s entrance was accompanied by the original Thomas & Friends theme tune. I found this amusing for two reasons:

  1. That theme debuted when the series began forty years ago, but then was replaced in Hit Entertainment’s retool of the franchise twenty years ago. Even though the theme has been out of use now for as long as it was in, it still achieves far greater cross-generational recognition than do any of its successors.
  2. Britt Allcroft’s 1984 production was not the first attempt at adapting Awdry’s books for television – Lloyd Webber had approached the vicar a whole decade earlier with his own pitch and had produced a pilot episode for Granada by 1976, but the studio declined to put it into production. This disappointment was the reason he made Starlight Express in the first place!

 

An addendum to the Qatari state visit

Video

Reply

A week after the event, the royal YouTube channel has uploaded a seventeen-minute video of the state banquet given at Buckingham Palace. The footage itself is the same as found on commercial news channels, but what catches my attention is the little animation at the end – the title card shows the line drawing of the royal arms that appears on the header of royal.uk, including St Edward’s Crown. I am a little perplexed that this is still being used for these purposes given that a new illustration with the Tudor crown now appears for the channel’s logo. This little animation does not appear at the ends of earlier videos, making it an innovation that only debuted after the artwork itself had already become obsolete.