Welcome to Part Five of our audio adaptation of what is a favorite book among Steyn readers: Mark Steyn's Passing Parade. After last weekend's musings on General Galtieri's decision to provoke Mrs Thatcher into war, Nicola Timmerman, a Steyn Club member from the francophone quartiers of eastern Ontario, writes:
Glad to see a better account of the after effects of the Falkland War than in the series The Crown. It was portrayed as a ego driven project that devastated people who had lost their jobs during the Thatcher provoked recession (no mention of how bad the economy was before).
Indeed, Nicola. The Crown is like a lot of Brit television - intelligently acted and beautifully photographed even when the script is completely daft. The Queen certainly didn't think "Thatcher's war" was any such thing; her most distant islands are very present and much closer in her mind.
By the way, I'm always amused, when I guest-host for Tucker, at how my producers now see Her Majesty's long reign entirely in telly terms: "The Falklands War? Oh, yeah, that was Season Three..."
In today's episode I look at a man who worked hard for his first success, and, once he'd got it, never let go:
If you remember only one thing about him, make it this: Bob Hope made more people laugh than anyone in history. He's the only comedian to have been, over the years, the Number One star in radio, in film, and then television, at a time when each of those media was at its highpoint. The series of Road pictures with Bing Crosby was the highest-grossing in movie history until James Bond came along; his six decades with NBC hold the record for the longest contract in showbusiness; and his TV specials for the network remain among the most-watched programmes of all time. Plus he logged some ten million miles playing up to 200 live performances a year until he was into his nineties.
Success on that scale breeds a particular kind of contempt...
Members of The Mark Steyn Club can hear Part Five of Mark Steyn's Passing Parade simply by clicking here and logging-in. Earlier episodes can be found here, and our full slate of Tales for Our Time here.
If you'd like to join us in The Mark Steyn Club, we'd love to have you: please see here. And, if you've a chum who enjoys classic fiction, we've introduced a special Steyn Gift Membership: you'll find more details here. Oh, and we also do video poetry.
Please join me back here next weekend for Part Six of Mark Steyn's Passing Parade.
