Talk: British Heroes and Villains

I started my Christmas holidays today - and London Social Detours had another talk today, in their British Heroes and Villains series. So I tuned in. She's taking it directly from a book - and the book seems interesting. A selection of famous Brits is presented - for each, a portrait or photo is printed, along with a (frequently hilarious) caricature; accompanying these, for each character, is a short bio, a short essay from someone who thinks they're a "hero", and a short essay from someone who thinks they're a "villain". We covered six. She's doing a whole series of these - this is the third talk - but I haven't been able to get to the previous ones, what with working during the afternoons.

So, the talk was generally enjoyable - the host had prepared slides with either photographs of the caricatures etc. that she'd got online, or photographs she'd taken of the book itself. She read the text, as usual. I kind of tuned out when she was discussing Tracey Emin, due to my utter lack of interest in the kind of art installations for which she's famous. Otherwise, it was good - mind you, I don't know which was funnier: the caricatures, or the host trying to pronounce unfamiliar long words! I groaned so many times, it was a good thing I was on mute. And had video turned off (in case I wanted to nap - in my defence, I was up late last night).

As for the discussion afterwards.. Perhaps it was because there were so many of us, but this reminded me very much of the host's events that I've been to in person: a few people hogging the conversation, others completely silent (well, you always get those). It was unfortunate that we started with Princess Diana, who'd been the first celebrity covered. Someone drew a parallel with the Duchess of Sussex (as a rule breaker).. and that prompted a rather outspoken group member to go on a rant about her.

It was tiresome. On and on she went, spouting half-truths and rumours as if they were indisputable fact, bleating about how she couldn't understand how "everyone was taken in by her". Never mind disagreeing with what she was saying - I just found her insufferable! And could I (or anyone) get a word in edgeways? In fact, for the whole discussion, everything I said was completely ignored. I began to wonder whether I wasn't still on mute. As I say, very like this group's real-life meetings. I wonder whether others didn't feel the same, because the chat was unusually short. And was I ever glad to sign off.

Film again tomorrow, and I think I'll watch Sands Film's weekly offering, a documentary about the late, great Robert Fisk, entitled This Is Not a Movie.

On Sunday afternoon, the great storyteller Nick Hennessy has another livestream! Mustn't miss that.

And on Monday - an old friend has bought me a ticket to watch the livestream of A Christmas Carol from the Old Vic! He and the family will be watching simultaneously. Aww, how thoughtful..