It's not much of a summer if you like live music, movies, plays, or most other kinds of public entertainment. But here at Tales for Our Time the lights stay on - and, in the absence of alternatives, there's never been a better time to prowl around our back catalogue.
Meantime, welcome to Part Twenty-One of our latest audio entertainment: The Prisoner of Windsor, my contemporary inversion of a certain Ruritanian classic. In tonight's episode Rudy Elphberg beards White Michael in his lair high above Chequers. Rassendyll's brother explains why he was delighted to abandon electoral politics for the joys of globalism:
Best buggering thing that ever happened to me. Politics is just telly now, isn't it? Like a reality show that never gets canceled, for people who can't hack it on 'Big Brother' or 'Celebrity Squat'. And with some stupid new challenge every day: Oooh, the VC holder's dog has been ordered to be put down; how will Rob Rassendyll get out of this thrilling cliff-hanger? Maybe some spad will write a Tweet he can use!
Meanwhile, elsewhere, some of us are building the future...
Members of The Mark Steyn Club can hear Part Twenty-One of our tale simply by clicking here and logging-in. Earlier episodes can be found here.
With reference to Rudy's momentary lapse into drug-induced conventional wisdom, Bart Nielsen, a Steyn Club First Week Founding Member from Wisconsin, writes:
I know this is an inversion of Anthony Hope, but tonight's episode put me very much in mind of the Rocky and Bullwinkle episode, "Goof Gas Attack." As Boris Badenov say,"One proof and you're a goof." So you might call this Anthony Hope meets Bullwinkle.
Well, I haven't seen "Rocky & Bullwinkle" in decades, Bart, so I'll take your word for that. But don't forget that in Hope's original the problems start when something is slipped into the King's last wine of the night. However, when one reflects on the way that so many politicians, once elected, "evolve" in office, it could just as easily be something in the water.
We'll be right back here tomorrow with Part Twenty-Two of The Prisoner of Windsor. If you're minded to join Bart in The Mark Steyn Club, you're more than welcome. You can find more information here. And, if you have a chum you think might enjoy Tales for Our Time (so far, we've covered Conan Doyle, H G Wells, Dickens, Conrad, Kipling, Kafka, Gogol, Baroness Orczy, Victor Hugo, Louisa May Alcott, O Henry, John Buchan, Scott Fitzgerald and more), we have a special Gift Membership.
