Film and Music

Listened to an interesting debate on Radio Two today following comments by Prime Minister David Cameron along the lines that the primary objective of British films should be as money earners rather than artistic losses.

This is an interesting debate as film director Ken Loach pointed out. When a film is released how can you judge how popular it's going to be with the public and how do you decide whether a film has more artistic merit than money earning power?

As Jeremy Vine pointed out it was pretty obvious that The King's Speech would be a box office draw as it had many of the elements of successful cinema - a good story, the Royal Family, top actors etc. The same can be said for the Iron Lady which covers an interesting era in British politics and also stars Hollywood great Meryl Streep. But as Loach pointed out who will be the judge of the money-making potential of a film. His own film Kes was seen to be a likely loss maker but did "quite nicely" and what about Slumdog Millionaire and "The Full Monty" both relatively low budget films whose success far outweighed their potential as earners.

To me one of the problems in our country at present is a stifling of initiative and art and this will be one of the great failings if British films only gain funding according to some committee or individuals whim or view. It was interesting to hear a second director whose name escapes me as I was driving at the time who said that he had deliberately been involved in producing a film that was set up to achieve funding. I can't remember the title but I do remember it being about Asian Lesbians cooking curry. The producer said the plot ticked so many boxes that money was thrown at it. It's almost certain, however, that it was a box office flop.

It seems at times that all we are concerned with in this country is box ticking and meeting minority quotas. I can see so many worthwhile films never seeing the light of day in the future that we could be left with a kind of X-factor of the film world where only the most benal films with little or no artistic merit see the light of day. I worry that standards will drop and we will lose the ability to surprise and amaze.

Lots of people have been having fun on Facebook recently by using a little gizmo that tells everyone what the number one record was on the day they were born. The British charts as such didn't begin until the 25th of October 1952 so I have always stated that the number one on my date of birth - 9th October, 1952 - was Here in My Heart by Al Martino. Now I find an excellent series of CDs has been released taking the charts back to more than 13 years previous. Apparently the first music chart show appeared on Radio Luxembourg around 1939 with the charts based on the sale of sheet music. So technically the first number one on the day of my birth was The Homing Waltz by Vera Lynn and Alma Cogan.

Today saw me keep up my New Year's resolution to cut my weight and improve my fitness by regular exercise. That means either the gym or a lengthy walk each day. Today I played golf. I always get more exercise on the golf course than my opponents simply because I hook and slice the ball more than them, which usually takes me on a rather circuitous route around the course.