Talk: British Heroes and Villains

London Social Detours was back today, with another British Heroes and Villains talk. Well, I said I'd risk it - although I reserved the right to sign off again if that angry chipmunk started chirping!

Quite a few attendees - and an interesting talk, focusing on five celebrities, as usual.

• Elizabeth I got a generally positive rating - yes, she was ruthless and ordered several executions, but that was the nature of the times in which she lived, and gee, her father was worse!
• I had never heard of Rosalind Franklin, so this was instructive. Another general consensus, this time that she made an important contribution to scientific research, and the fact that she was hard to get on with was neither here nor there. And maybe they were just hostile to a woman in the field!
• Predictably, Ken Livingstone divided opinion. I wasn't living in the UK during his tenure, so didn't feel entitled to comment - although knowing he was on the opposite side to Thatcher naturally puts him on the side of the angels, in my estimation!
• Again, I'm pro-George Orwell. Sadly, I fell asleep as she started to talk about him - well, the afternoon was darkening, I was tired after another late night, and her voice is so soporific.. and so I completely missed the talk about Prince Charles. Well, I know as much as I need to about them both!

So, I generally agreed with opinions in the chat afterwards. As for the angry chipmunk - we could hardly see her, she had her screen angled to show mostly wall! She didn't contribute anything - when the organiser asked whether she was feeling ok, she confirmed that she'd had a "heavy" night. Well, may she she have many more!

Tomorrow, Up in the Cheap Seats has a couple of events, but I've already seen what they're watching. So, film again, and I still have a backlog of The Unbelievable Truth, Time (both on Amazon Prime), and Zero de Conduite, on the Internet Archive. I've actually started The Unbelievable Truth, there having been little on this afternoon before the talk. So, will hope to get that finished, and start another..