Radio 4 yesterday subjected us to 7 hours of readings from the King James Bible, sweeping aside several of the usual programmes.
I share the love of the bible as a work of literature & do not object to there being special programmes to mark the 400th anniversary, but this was really too much, with all the readings done by the usual suspects with, for the most part, nice BBC tones. I should have particularly enjoyed hearing at least some read in something like the accents of the time the translation was produced.
More or Less was one of the programmes bounced from the schedule so I missed hearing the calculation of the height of Loxley Hall, as judged by the length of Nigel’s scream as he fell from the icy roof.
This fall was so well telegraphed from the moment Nigel first climbed up to install the banner that I did not even deign to listen to the much hyped 60th anniversary episode. Even the answer to the question Did he survive? – was given away on the Today programme.
I am not happy about this. It seems to have been shoehorned in to match the kind of hysteria being generated by tv soaps. It does not really fit the characters, as for example did Grace Archer’s dash into the burning stable to save her beloved Midnight, neither Nigel nor David were given to such reckless behaviour. With all the advance promises of something which would reverberate in Ambridge for years to come, paraplegia seemed much more likely & plausible.
You need a strong reason to kill off a popular character like Nigel & unleash the spoiled child turned avenging widow in Elizabeth. Perhaps it is the Archer’s belated revenge on Graham Seed for that time he deserted them to go to the Crossroads motel.
