Shades of Grey

When we were at Manchester Science Museum yesterday, we went to the extended Doctor Who exhibition. This was similar to the one we went to at the Cardiff Red Dragon Centre, but a bit more roomy and less crowded.

You know, putting on a show like this has to be a dream when you have a great product that draws the crowds and have the flare for putting on a good show. This is essentially a collection of props, costumes and display boards but it is dramatically lit and the familiarity of what you see carries it off.

This model was on a turntable. here is a video showing all four sides.

In the lobby of the museum are several modern automata with an older style to them. This one explains what little boys are made of. (for 2x 20p coins)

In the hands on gallery, there is this exhibit where the views of the left and right eyes are transposed. You are then supposed to try walking on the footprints, as Karen demonstrates here.

One thing that is missing now is the view out of the window, in the hands on gallery, you used to be able to see onto the outdoor set for Granada Television and get an idea if something big was on the horizon in the next six weeks. (Last time we went, there was a fire at the corner shop, we could see the burnt out windows). Now they have fitted frosted perspex sheeting and coloured stick-on acetate to the panes.

However, here is a slightly misty view out of a pink covered pane at Britain’s second most famous street

In the foreground are the modern houses, beyond the terrace street and behind them Granada House.

It doesn’t look very Christmassy…

I was reviewing an older posting of mine earlier, about my first backstage trip to a super-cinema. (Shades Nostalgia alert!) There are clips online from the 1961 Cliff film The Young ones, much of which was filmed in the long gone Frank Matcham Finsbury Park Empire Theatre. I googled for an image and didn’t find a lot, although this could well be it. (Image via Google from this site, no obvious link).

The best bit in the Young Ones is when they get in to the theatre and perform an inpromptu show. It isn’t on Youtube, but these two snippets are. The second one features the theatre.

Wikipedia says that the plot for this movie was used for the Blues Brothers. In a way, it was…

When looking around for any jokey reference to a sub-region name/number to back up my Morley Christmas lights article, I subsequently stumbled onto the North sea Region Programme Website A huge amount of info is there, but some things resonate.

Look out for muted blues, yellows and pinky reds on their webheaders and in their literature, diffuse colours in a sort of watercolour swirl, accompanied with high sounding bureaucrat-speak which actually comes down to nothing specific, such as “Preparing for Tomorrow Today” and so on.

(Nourishing Obscurity)

Curious that Norway is heavily involved, they are not even in the EU…

In retail, Christmas unofficially starts on November 6th (the night after Guy Fawkes)  but it is a gradual  escalation of stock, music and tinsel so that by December 1st it is in full swing.

The Morley lights switch-on starts officially this coming Thursday, but wandering through town this afternoon, as dusk approached, we were surprised to see the ones on the side of the Town Hall were lit.

We were also slightly surprised to see a couple of well known local characters erecting a banner on the building- for something being held elsewhere in the Town.

The signage that was lit was new, which is just as well as the one from last year was a bit poorly.  The new one is somewhat plainer, with just a couple of bells instead of a fairy. Also, the Morley bit looks detachable. (Maybe it might say North Sea Region Division 43 one day). Unsurprisingly, in this day and age, restitution of the C word (or even the X word) in the wording has been avoided. We wouldn’t want to offend any invisible frienders, would we?