Gareth
@chibiabos83.bsky.social
Charm is the viscous grease with which he oils his flim-flam machine
he/him
he/him
Featuring:
'Splinter Wonderland'
'Stoole Nacht'
'Deck the Chairs'
'Little Wonky'
'Splinter Wonderland'
'Stoole Nacht'
'Deck the Chairs'
'Little Wonky'
November 17, 2025 at 9:43 AM
Featuring:
'Splinter Wonderland'
'Stoole Nacht'
'Deck the Chairs'
'Little Wonky'
'Splinter Wonderland'
'Stoole Nacht'
'Deck the Chairs'
'Little Wonky'
Conscious of not having heard anything of my hero Simon Russell Beale since he pulled out of Titus Andronicus in September, I turned to Google for news of his health. Nothing, but it did suggest another salient and knotty question.
November 12, 2025 at 9:40 AM
Conscious of not having heard anything of my hero Simon Russell Beale since he pulled out of Titus Andronicus in September, I turned to Google for news of his health. Nothing, but it did suggest another salient and knotty question.
All aboard for Passchendaele
November 11, 2025 at 9:28 AM
All aboard for Passchendaele
A movie you've seen more than seven times - with a gif
November 3, 2025 at 11:32 PM
A movie you've seen more than seven times - with a gif
Quote with your favourite film and album from the year you were born
November 2, 2025 at 12:25 PM
Quote with your favourite film and album from the year you were born
In 2008 I received a spam email with the subject line 'Michael Jakson glued up a person a plaster' containing a link to a video purporting to show Bred Pitt's birthday, and 17 years on whenever I have to glue or tape anything I still think 'Michael Jakson glued up a person a plaster'.
October 31, 2025 at 12:25 PM
In 2008 I received a spam email with the subject line 'Michael Jakson glued up a person a plaster' containing a link to a video purporting to show Bred Pitt's birthday, and 17 years on whenever I have to glue or tape anything I still think 'Michael Jakson glued up a person a plaster'.
If you see this, post 4 female characters you love
October 30, 2025 at 2:49 PM
If you see this, post 4 female characters you love
I'd certainly want William Chubb in my cabinet
October 30, 2025 at 12:42 PM
I'd certainly want William Chubb in my cabinet
The iPlayer subtitles aren't flawless. This is meant to be 'bloody children'.
October 28, 2025 at 9:50 PM
The iPlayer subtitles aren't flawless. This is meant to be 'bloody children'.
BBC obit of Prunella Scales really encapsulating the biting wit of Fawlty Towers
October 28, 2025 at 11:40 AM
BBC obit of Prunella Scales really encapsulating the biting wit of Fawlty Towers
Stop scrolling and post two characters who bring you happiness.
October 20, 2025 at 9:15 PM
Stop scrolling and post two characters who bring you happiness.
RIP Patricia Routledge. It's the Alan Bennett stuff and Kitty that meant most to me, but everything she did from films to TV to musicals was (to use a Bennett word) classy. One in a billion people has her gift for comic timing. How lucky that we got to see it all.
October 3, 2025 at 10:31 AM
RIP Patricia Routledge. It's the Alan Bennett stuff and Kitty that meant most to me, but everything she did from films to TV to musicals was (to use a Bennett word) classy. One in a billion people has her gift for comic timing. How lucky that we got to see it all.
I really enjoyed One Battle After Another, but it's not a memorable title for anything, is it, unlike Vineland (say), and the only way I'm able to remember it is to think of Ona Batlle (which I do fairly regularly anyway).
September 29, 2025 at 10:06 PM
I really enjoyed One Battle After Another, but it's not a memorable title for anything, is it, unlike Vineland (say), and the only way I'm able to remember it is to think of Ona Batlle (which I do fairly regularly anyway).
I was scrolling through BBC News and thought I'd clicked on iPlayer by mistake
September 24, 2025 at 8:36 AM
I was scrolling through BBC News and thought I'd clicked on iPlayer by mistake
Everyone's got their pet theory about what triggered GL's descent into madness, but I'm sure OUP putting his photo on the cover of the most famous sex-change novel in history didn't help.
September 9, 2025 at 8:10 AM
Everyone's got their pet theory about what triggered GL's descent into madness, but I'm sure OUP putting his photo on the cover of the most famous sex-change novel in history didn't help.
My favourite Doctor and Companion
August 9, 2025 at 7:42 PM
My favourite Doctor and Companion
More painful is the fact that, like Greenberg, he was starved of serious roles. We can see what a Shylock he'd have been, and it's a crying shame Hollywood didn't notice it in time. But if he didn't often make us cry, he did at least make us laugh. So thanks for the laughs, you beautiful man.
July 25, 2025 at 12:34 PM
More painful is the fact that, like Greenberg, he was starved of serious roles. We can see what a Shylock he'd have been, and it's a crying shame Hollywood didn't notice it in time. But if he didn't often make us cry, he did at least make us laugh. So thanks for the laughs, you beautiful man.
It's a little painful to watch Felix's final appearance in 1949's Take One False Step, emaciated and wearing a baggy-looking suit that might have fitted him a couple of years earlier. By the time the film came out that August he'd been dead five months, from myeloid leukaemia.
July 25, 2025 at 12:34 PM
It's a little painful to watch Felix's final appearance in 1949's Take One False Step, emaciated and wearing a baggy-looking suit that might have fitted him a couple of years earlier. By the time the film came out that August he'd been dead five months, from myeloid leukaemia.
One running gag in To Be or Not to Be is Greenberg's pursuit of the laugh. When in a rehearsal a colleague makes his entry as Hitler with the ad lib 'Heil myself', Greenberg defends him: 'A laugh is nothing to be sneezed at.' It could be Felix's own epitaph.
July 25, 2025 at 12:34 PM
One running gag in To Be or Not to Be is Greenberg's pursuit of the laugh. When in a rehearsal a colleague makes his entry as Hitler with the ad lib 'Heil myself', Greenberg defends him: 'A laugh is nothing to be sneezed at.' It could be Felix's own epitaph.
By and large, though, he's hamstrung by his essential qualities: all that directors generally ask is that he project an air of Mitteleuropean charm and geniality with an occasional side order of scattiness, not to mention that goofy 'hur-hur' laugh, the closest thing he had to a trademark.
July 25, 2025 at 12:34 PM
By and large, though, he's hamstrung by his essential qualities: all that directors generally ask is that he project an air of Mitteleuropean charm and geniality with an occasional side order of scattiness, not to mention that goofy 'hur-hur' laugh, the closest thing he had to a trademark.
Of course there are moments when he transmutes base material to gold. It All Came True (1940) is worth a look for his turn as a washed-up magician upstaged by his dog. In Blonde Fever (1944) the classy presence of Mary Astor makes a difference; their few moments together are precious.
July 25, 2025 at 12:34 PM
Of course there are moments when he transmutes base material to gold. It All Came True (1940) is worth a look for his turn as a washed-up magician upstaged by his dog. In Blonde Fever (1944) the classy presence of Mary Astor makes a difference; their few moments together are precious.
Musicians are a staple, probably because of his cultured look. He can be a singing teacher (Three Smart Girls Grow Up), a violinist (Ziegfeld Girl), a conductor (Three Hearts for Julia), a violin teacher (Dangerous Partners), a pianist (I've Always Loved You), a musicologist (A Song is Born)...
July 25, 2025 at 12:34 PM
Musicians are a staple, probably because of his cultured look. He can be a singing teacher (Three Smart Girls Grow Up), a violinist (Ziegfeld Girl), a conductor (Three Hearts for Julia), a violin teacher (Dangerous Partners), a pianist (I've Always Loved You), a musicologist (A Song is Born)...
I must confess it's been a rather dispiriting project, though. Felix never fails to illuminate the screen, but the material is pretty thin. Like Greenberg in To Be or Not to Be, he's basically at spear-carrier level, playing a variety of bit parts: scientists, doctors, shopkeepers, bartenders.
July 25, 2025 at 12:34 PM
I must confess it's been a rather dispiriting project, though. Felix never fails to illuminate the screen, but the material is pretty thin. Like Greenberg in To Be or Not to Be, he's basically at spear-carrier level, playing a variety of bit parts: scientists, doctors, shopkeepers, bartenders.
Sadly, none of the others is anywhere near Lubitsch standard. The best of a bad lot: Blossoms in the Dust, a melodramatic biopic with Greer Garson as an adoption pioneer; Zinnemann-directed war drama The Seventh Cross; supernatural fantasy romance Portrait of Jennie.
July 25, 2025 at 12:34 PM
Sadly, none of the others is anywhere near Lubitsch standard. The best of a bad lot: Blossoms in the Dust, a melodramatic biopic with Greer Garson as an adoption pioneer; Zinnemann-directed war drama The Seventh Cross; supernatural fantasy romance Portrait of Jennie.