Wideo Wednesday: What I've Been Watching

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rk6FP8S3u28

The Shadow of the Tower, Episode 1: Crown in Jeopardy

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yhs1vGBRLf4&list=PLYStFnmqabhIG0NNsDZzjh5zT6Q5vnmhU

Wodehouse Playhouse: Romance at Droitgate Spa

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rMnsy8fp5I

Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries: The Nine Tailors, Episode 1

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMxB96KoQ2A

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, 1970

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxG9tDK9MAo

Jimmy Akin on The Next Pope

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VGrwETTKOc

Joseph Pearce, The Authority, St. Robert Southwell 

Well, my watching of Elizabeth R. for my Shakesperean jag last week led me to The Shadow of the Tower (1972), a BBC series made after The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1970) and Elizabeth R. (1971) but chronologically taking place before either, as it's about Henry the VII, the much-wived Henry's father. YouTube is missing Episodes 9, 10, and 11, so I imagine if I am ever going to see the whole saga I'll have to buy the collection. The first disc of my Elizabeth R. looks splotchy anyway and wouldn't play even after cleaning. These Seventies BBC offerings have such superior acting and filming you soon ignore the somewhat primitive stage sets. "They built up with their bare hands what we still can't build today."

Someone has also uploaded the whole series of Wodehouse Playhouse, a puckish collection of tales, some of which I caught on its first run here on PBS back in the day. I can finally see them all. "Romance at Droitgate Spa" is the episode (second in series 1) that I remember most fondly, but they're all worth a gander.

I missed most of the Ian Carmichael run of Lord Peter Wimsey (1972 -1975); I remember catching an episode or two over at Nanny's during college, reruns no doubt. Now I'm watching them on my phone while I make supper. "The Nine Tailors" is one of the five Dorothy L. Sayers books adapted during this era.

And my Merlin whirl led me to A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1970). I didn't even remember it until my research reminded me I had memories. It might be what prompted us to get the Classics Illustrated comics magazine of the tale.

Since Pope Francis's passing everything has been in a tizzy about choosing the next Pope. Jimmy Akin gives his thoughts on the process and who might be in the running. Personally I favor Cardinal Robert Sarah, for many reasons. Although he's already 79, he could still have a good decade in him.

And my Shakespearean thoughts also took me to an episode of The Authority, a series by Robert Pearce about authors in what has been called The Great Conversation. St. Robert Southwell was a poet and contemporary of William Shakespeare during the Tudor persecutions. Southwell was martyred and eventually sainted. There's an episode of The Authority about Shakespeare, too.