Drama? It’s all right, Jack!
CONGRATULATIONS to the BBC on its new Sunday-night historical drama Gentleman Jack. Just look at what it can produce with a good story and a great cast — and not one swear word to be heard.
Well done, Suranne Jones, for a performance that is worth the cost of a TV licence.
RONALD BALL, Farnborough, Hants. WHy was it deemed necessary to employ a female ‘intimacy’ expert for Gentleman Jack? And a straight woman to boot!
Previous TV dramas about lesbian relationships, Tipping The Velvet and Fingersmith, based on Sarah Waters’s novels,
Baby bias
WHAT planet is Dustin Lance Black on?
The husband of diver Tom Daley complained after he was not allowed to bring their baby’s buggy poolside during the World Diving Series in London (Mail).
Clearly this was a health and safety issue.
This incident highlights that too many parents expect everything in this country to be geared up for their families.
There are screaming babies in every pub, restaurant, supermarket and shopping mall where the little darlings are allowed to run riot unchallenged. Miss DEBRA DORRER,
Sevenoaks, Kent.
All style, no substance
THE RHS has slowly eroded the concept of the stylish garden until we have arrived at a winning Chelsea Flower Show entry reduced to charred wood, masonry and hype. The same few lacklustre were mostly produced by men. Tipping The Velvet was scripted by Andrew Davies, of Pride And Prejudice fame, and directed by Geoffrey Sax.
Fingersmith was adapted for TV by Peter Ransley, but directed by a woman, Aisling Walsh. Considering the delicate approach to sensuality in these dramas, any of these experts in TV drama might have advised on Gentleman Jack.
I am a lesbian and not at all prudish, but even I am not sure if I like such a programme being shown on Sunday night TV.
But that may be down to my repressive religious upbringing.
Name and address supplied. entrants take turns to win accolades: Chris Beardshaw with dizzying concrete edifices, while Andy Sturgeon has been awarded a total of eight gold medals.
Not to decry the value of a minimal palette or range of planting, modern prize-winning gardens are the equivalent to smoke, mirrors and minimal substance.
Visually much more interesting, the Chilean garden provided the same green vista as Sturgeon’s highly praised woodland without many flowers, but was not awarded a gold medal.
BOB CORNISH, Devon. HOW wonderful! If I don’t touch my normally carefully tended plot for two years, I will have the equivalent of the best garden at Chelsea Flower Show. SANDRA PARSONS,
Keston, Kent.