What has the European Convention on Human Rights ever done for us?
In case there are some people who haven’t seen this yet, here is a short video featuring Sir Patrick Stewart the Guardian made in response to Home Secretary Theresa May’s suggestion that the United Kingdom should leave the European Convention on Human Rights. It owes more than a little to Monty Python’s Life of Brian but is none the worse for that. Make sure you watch right to the end as it exposes the hypocrisy of Home Secretary’s position on this.
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In the Dark 
April 28, 2016 at 10:48 am
To see a much younger Patrick Stewart, see the extract from Hamlet beginning at 43:40 of this episode of Kenneth Clark’s Civilisation:
Stewart plays Horatio and first appears some three minutes later (although Clark’s entire discussion of Shakespeare is worthwhile, and the ruins of Kirby Hall remain deeply atmospheric). As for who plays Hamlet, I couldn’t possibly comment.
April 28, 2016 at 11:20 am
I happened to hear a bit of another version of Hamlet at the weekend,a very old one featuring this man:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0491406/
The late John Laurie is probably best known for playing the gloomy wild-eyed Scot Private Frazer in Dad’s Army (a role that he came out of retirement to do), but as a younger man he was a fine Shakespearean actor widely regarded as the best Hamlet of the 1920s. He also played Blind Pew in the famous 1950 film version of Treasure Island, which made Robert Newton famous.
ps. Patrick Stewart also played Karla in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Smiley’s people. Not a lot of people remember that.
April 28, 2016 at 12:16 pm
Karla actually appeared in Tinker? I didn’t know that. But it meant Stewart and Ian Richardson reunited.
I most recently saw John Laurie in a bit part in my DVD of The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, a most moving and lengthy film about a friendship between a German and a British officer that lasts two world wars. You get to see plenty of wartime London in colour in it too (it was shot in 1943). How I’d have liked to see John Laurie’s MacBeth!
April 28, 2016 at 1:00 pm
Karla appears briefly in Tinker Tailor in a flashback scene set in a Delhi prison. That is when he takes Smiley’s cigarette lighter, a gift from his wife Ann. He doesn’t speak. I don’t think he speaks in Smiley’s People either, come to think of it…
April 28, 2016 at 1:02 pm
Ah, thank you!