breaking a bit of radio silence.

[burntcopper]

Have admittedly tried to be as lazy as possible in the last few days.

Tonight, 1st preview of Wolfboy at Trafalgar Studios with Daniel Boys. Me and etmuse will be there to heckle.

Thursday, off to terrorise Falmouth with Meg and Jen. Where we're almost certainly going to overeat something chronic and menace a few National Trust properties. It happens, okay?

Jogging on saturday afforded a rather interesting sight. See, the owner of the field across from the lock's been renting it out recently - we've had dog trials and craft fairs and a few other things in the past few weeks. This time, went towards Pangbourne, saw a bunch of tents. Which is better than the caravan park that was the dog trials. On the way back, I had to stop to blink a lot. Bunch of red-coated britches-clad men in big floppy hats doing musket drill. With a bunch of non-red coated men lurking at the back of the field under a tree in the shade Further surveying of the tents revealed others clad similarly or in full skirted dresses over shirts if female. So, guessing Civil War re-enactors. Or something similar, but the britches and floppy hats and dress style look about right. not sure about the red coats, though. Asking the lock keeper and lads that work the cafe/do the gardening revealed 'Don't ask me, they never tell us, all I know is that there was a bunch of drumming earlier.'

However, going back to have another look (you can't see the field directly from the lock, you've got to go into the first field) revealed was possibly the most awww-inducing thing I've seen in ages. One of the men was walking along, no shirt but in his britches. Couldn't see if he was wearing hose and shoes due to the reeds and bushes along the edge of the river, so from a distance it looked like he was just wearing board shorts. However, trailing along behind him like a bunch of ducklings were 3 little girls who didn't even come up to his waist, scurrying to catch up, all in full-skirted dresses and shirts. So. Cute.

Anyone else watching Rev? Tom Hollander as an Anglican vicar who's been brought from country parish to a near-empty inner city cash-stricken London church (somewhere near Fulham from what I can tell). One where they researched and shadowed something chronic to get it right. Nothing like Vicar of Dibley, it's gently funny and sarcastic, little bit heart-wrenching in places. Everyone's been written as very rounded characters, no lazy stereotypes. Absolutely loving the Archdeacon, btw. First ep they had a bunch of parents suddenly turning up to get into the attached church school due to recent Ofsted reports, this one the clash between the evangelical church and his lot when the evangelicals move in on a trial basis whilst theirs is getting repaired.

hmm. Torchwood 4 is going to start shooting in January in the US. Keeping a beady and sceptical eye on it since Russell T Davies is apparently in charge still. Everyone in the media seems to forget that he didn't completely originate it, and has only been writer and showrunner since Children of Earth, where he proved conclusively that he didn't get the setup, tone or give two shits about the characters. Chris Chibnall was the showrunner of Torchwood in S1 and 2, not Russell. Classic rant from Jen was that 'Imagine what Tosh and Owen's deaths would've been like under Russell, since he's proven time and again that he likes to kill characters for dramatic effect, not whether it makes any sense within the storyline or not. Joss Whedon handles death better than Russell. To Russell, drama means angst and he always runs out of puff before finishing a story.'.

Comments

[birdsflying]

British military used to wear red so could have re-enactors from around Boer war era (Boer name for British soldiers: rooinek or red-neck, due to both colour of jacket and the sunburn they got on the back of their necks.)

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

considering there wasn't really a uniform during civil war, I do find it amusing that they're wearing red coats. On t'other hand, I don't think I've ever heard of Boer War re-enactors in the UK - it's nearly always battles that took place in the UK or European. The ones I saw definitely weren't Wellington/Regency era, and I'm pretty sure they weren't Jacobite, so guessing Civil War at this rate.

[gmh.livejournal.com]

Army use of red does date from the Civil War; one of the innovations introduced by the formation of the New Model Army in February 1645 was a standard uniform including a red coat - the colour of the facings varied according to regiment and troop.

(IIRC, they usually wore a buff jerkin over the coat.)

Of course, the person to ask on this is probably mingmerciless...

[birdsflying]

Wikipedia has decent array of possible redcoated British uniforms.

[silly-swordsman.livejournal.com]

Civil war groups tends to be purple, blue or grey, IIRC.

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

any idea what it could've been then? It looked like it was definitely pre-Regency/Napoleonic, given the floppy hats and knee britches and what the women were wearing...

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

on checking a bunch of images, definitely english civil war.

[silly-swordsman.livejournal.com]

Just had a look at wikipedia now, and it seems the New Model Army were redcoats. Fancy that.

[gmh.livejournal.com]

The original Redcoats at that, and the first standardised national battledress in the world, as far as I'm aware.

[silly-swordsman.livejournal.com]

Roman legions?

[gmh.livejournal.com]

Duh, of course.

Don't mind me, I'm in the dense corner eating my words.

[morbid-sparks.livejournal.com]

*mutters about Russel*

*mutters about not making it tonight*