WATCH WITH MOTHER : Heartbeat
mark s: heartbeat is just last of the summer wine except not funny – which means (tails off glumly)
mum s: it’s not been any good since nick berry left
*long pause, no canned laughter*
mark s: do you always watch it?
mum s (gleefully): YES!!
*lpncl*
mark s: who ARE all these people? everyone’s left. not just nick berry… oh look, one of those cars with wooden bars, half-timbered cars!
mum s: yes, your godfather always had one of those – shooting brakes
*lpncl*
mark s: oh no it’s midsomer murder is next, are we going going to watch that too?
mum s (gleefully, w.delighted evil look straight at me): YES!!!!!
[the ep ends, rather unexpectedly, with a likeable yet crooked former RAF war-hero killing himself by ditching his spitfire in the briny, to all kinds of noble uplifting music – tho the main plot-point was a hunt for a stolen fuschia]
hmmm didn’t the french literary avant garde in the 50s and 60s – m.duras et al – strive to dispense with narrative as the driving force in fiction?: i think the sunday night Channel Three mid-evening slot has succeeded where they failed, by using stories-as-readymades so feeble and perfunctory that no one sane can be watching to “find out what happens” ===> it is ALL ABOUT THE MISE-EN-SCENE ppl