Can they make them like they used to?
Wednesday February 24 2010
ONE AFTERNOON in October 2002, I was wandering the streets of Cardiff with a copy of the Western Mail tucked under my arm.
I had circled a classified ad on one of its pages, where a woman was seeking a new lodger. A man of no fixed abode at that moment in time, I made my way optimistically towards her home in the Canton area of city.
An effervescent lady in her early thirties opened the door and began showing me about the house.
Being the middle of the day, her husband was out working and she introduced me to an older gentleman, who was sitting at the kitchen table.
A man of few words, he muttered a form of greeting, before going upstairs to his room. She explained that he was a writer and usually kept to himself, which I had no problem with. It was only when she showed me to the living room that I started to feel something was out of place. For there stood a doorframe, without any door.
'You're probably wondering where the door is gone,' she said. 'Well we used to have a couple living here who would always go into the sitting room and close the door to have a chat. We didn't like that so my husband got his tools and took down the door, so they couldn't do it again.' I thanked her for her time, went straight up the road to the letting agency and rented a bedsit. For one.
That story returned to my mind the other evening, as we were watching an episode from the Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected box-set, which we had bought online.
One particular tale is based on a landlady who poisons her young male lodgers and then stuffs them, taxidermist-style, ensuring she would always have some company about the house. Dahl's half-hour tales make for intriguing viewing and they took up where Alfred Hitchcock Presents left off in the mid-sixties. Hitchcock is renowned for his ability to grab your attention from the second the cameras roll. He also knew how to maintain it for the duration of any his presentations.
His movies were equally as compelling. Think Psycho, think The Birds, think Vertigo. And you immediately think of a macabre genius. His unique use of narrative left you hanging on every word.
Nowadays it is difficult to watch any programme that will engage the interest for longer than 20 minutes. Apart from documentaries, sports or shows that deal with current affairs.
It's time therefore that a new generation of Irish scriptwriters stepped into the spotlight. For the same pockets that finance our overpaid small screen presenters, to give the background teams a proper chance. And prove that they can still make them like they used to.
ALCOHOL WORSE THAN DRUGS?
A drinking partner was trying to change my mind about head shops recently. Feeling they should be allowed to stay open, he asked me that if alcohol was invented today and tested on a group of 50 subjects, would it then be sold legally? His point being that there are more incidents of anti-social behaviour as a result of alcohol than drugs in Irish society. A debate to be continued.
- SHEA tomkins
