Sunday, April 13, 2008

Escapius Podulus

I'm pleased to say the M-Class Parental Unit is back for the present, although she's got to be driven over to Plymouth for an operation on Wednesday. Fingers crossed that might be it all over and done with then.

Cor, James Moran's 'Fires of Pompei' episode was a cracker - lots of lovely little jokes, and some good emotional stuff. La Tate hasn't been entirely annoying either, although she does seem to need a firm directorial hand on the tiller. I have to admit, I found the 'gurning through the glass panel' bit in the series opener last week to be really rather endearing as well.

Two solid episodes of Who straight away then. Normally I'm happy to have had three in a whole series, and we haven't had Moffat's yet, so it's looking good thus far.

Random Quote Of The Week:

PATROCLUS: How come whenever I read James Moran's blog, he's always insanely busy, then I look over at you, and you're playing Bioshock?

ME: Because Other James isn't doing it right.

(and then I scuttled off to write two television series outlines and a sample scene for my Regency Action Movie, so clearly Other James is acting as an inspiration for us all)

I'm away for a few days from tomorrow, and probably sans broadband (Slough) so if anyone needs to get hold of me, the mobile will have to do.

18 comments:

patroclus said...

Caecilius in horto non erat, ho ho ho.

I'm wondering if other James had to settle for the Cambridge Latin Course because Josh Schwartz already had the rights to Ecce Romani for The O.C.

Jayne said...

I thought Peter Capaldi was great ("look you" heh) and the Spartacus bit made me giggle quite a lot.

Did they film on the set of Rome? I kept expecting James Purefoy to pop up!

Tim F said...

Yes, Small Boo spotted the Cambridge Latin Course thing. Passed me by entirely.

I liked the Welsh jokes. Easily pleased.

Anonymous said...

I wanted them to go into the kitchens to see if the cook was Grumio...Cambridge Latin Course rules!

Matt said...

All that cambridge latin stuff completely passed me by, having never learnt it, but I did appreciate the reference back to the first Doctor serial The Romans.

And good use of his pockets as well. :P

Boz said...

My mother was on the phone to deconstruct the latin references before the end credits had rolled.

Some of us went to normal schools and can barely scrape by in French.

Damn good fun though. At this time I can either confirm or deny the possibility of welling-up slightly at the end.

Mangonel said...

'Barcelona' had me snorting extremely unattractively!

Anonymous said...

I'm celebrating the fact that for the first time in my life my compulsory Latin came in handy! My school wasn't private, but it was a grammar, so I guess not so normal...

patroclus said...

I'm happy to report that I first started learning Latin at my local comprehensive in the north of Scotland in the early 80s.

It was Ecce Romani, though, not Caecilius et al.

Anonymous said...

I did like the watergun.

Unknown said...

I haven't seen this episode yet but Ecce Romani! What memories!
I particularly remember finding the fact that Sextus was a "puer superbus" hilariously funny.

llewtrah said...

We had some old, old, old Latin textbook (1960s at the latest!) but I managed to get the in-jokes that weren't specific to the textbooks. Petrus dextrus indeed. Loved the Celtic/"there's lovely" jokes whenever they spoke Latin (or rather spoke church Latin)

cello said...

Where was Frankie Howerd though?

James Henry said...

Lurking.

patroclus said...

He was on his way to the Forum.

Boz said...

What, the Outpost Gallifrey online chat rooms?

(boom boom)

James Moran said...

Thanks, OtherJames, and your lovely Irish ladyfriend Patr O'Clus, and everyone else.

As for Frankie Howerd, there were about 5 Up Pompeii gags in most of the early drafts, but I was having far too much silly fun with them, so I took them all out. Was desperate to have someone say "titter ye not", but couldn't justify it to myself...

James Henry said...

Get some Kenneth Williams references in a Dalek episode, Moran, THEN I'll be impressed.