Eloise's Thoughts and Fancies

Part of any film or tv show set in the real world is about verisimilitude. If you set the show in London and mention real places, then you need to make sure you connect them sensibly. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves has Robin and co walk from the White Cliffs to Nottingham via Hadrian's Wall in a day. If that doesn’t make you shudder or laugh, try looking up their relative positions on you maps app. You pulls a few of these about London, he walks home from work, it’s about a six hour journey. He stays in a nice flat in S. Kensington that he’s renting. I can’t find anywhere to rent there for less than £12k per month, and he’s meant to be doing that on a lecturer's salary? Really? Likewise, as a visiting lecturer in a British university he’s unlikely to be a professor, our lecturing positions are different, professors are heads of departments and similar. Students mostly call staff by their first name at university level. Hilary was my head of faculty, I know she was professor so...

The middle weekend and chaos on and off the pitch. While it’s not all settled yet, the WRU and the players reached an understanding that averted a strike as late as Wednesday evening, and given Wales were playing England, probably the most eye-catching matchup beforehand, that earned a sigh of relief around the world. On to the matches. Italy v Ireland If you had said before hand that Ireland would be counting themselves as lucky to have won by 14 points, possibly lucky to have won at all, I think everyone would have laughed in your face. But with ten minutes to go, Ireland were seven points up and Italy were pressing the attack. Ultimately it broke down thanks to a tackle making a kick go astray, minutes later Hansen scored an intercept try and Ireland walked away with a flattering 14 point margin of victory. Italy played fluently and excitingly in attack. They opened up the much vaunted Irish attack on numerous occasions and have showed others a weakness in the green defensive sy...

Season two of Slow Horses doesn’t quite maintain the split between the two styles of British spy drama as evenly as season one, it’s heavier into the Slough House side of the balance than the Regent’s Park side. However, just as we had a plausible story of modern Britain in season one, we have a somewhat plausible story here. It’s centred around long-term KGB sleeper agents and we know the KGB did do this sort of thing, I’m not sure enough of them are still fit and active, and ideologically engaged, to do what we’ve got here, but it’s not impossible. That said, most of the people who are doing the heavy lifting, the deeply involved things reveal that they have motives that I felt worked. We’ve got a couple of new cast members (we lost Sid and Struan in season one, so we get replacements) who manage to have plenty to do, and one of whom shows why they were sent to Slough House early on. The other not so much, which raises alarm bells after season one of course. We have, as we had las...

This week started with the big match, but then had two matches with lots of interest for different reasons. Ireland v France For the first time ever, we have world number 1 v 2 in a six nations clash. That’s got a lot to do with how long NZ held the No. 1 position, and recently SA too. This match looked like 1 v 2, it was fast, intense and brutal but pretty clean. France had cleaned up their breakdown and tackle woes, the yellow card for Antonio could easily have been red but, equally, it wasn’t hugely malicious - it was a tackle that hit into the body and whiplashed the head forward into the shoulder rather than an attempt to rip the head off. (If you’re Irish and say it was a shoulder hit with a tucked arm, should have been red, I think you have a case, but I will remind you the ref's decision is final.) All the stars, on both sides, produced their moments of magic. Some of them were flashier than others, the Penaud try, and all the build up to it, but a bit of his magic in de...

There’s lots of fun here, with new coaches for Wales and England, the world one and two (at least at the start of the contest, a shock loss could change that) facing up for a probable Grand Slam decider in Ireland next week after knocking the rust off this week and Italy definitely showing improvements over last year. Can they win one or more games this year? Wales v Ireland This was a classic “game of two halves.” In the first half, Ireland got off to a flier, scoring in the first two minutes, and twice more. Wales gave up nine penalties to two, which made this easier. However, despite being overwhelmed on the scoreboard, it was not totally bleak. Wales created three great scoring opportunities from the attack and one from defensive pressure. Ireland’s scramble defence kept them out but those chances were there. In the second half, there are two major takes that you’ll see. Either Ireland eased off or Wales improved. I’m in the latter camp, although it may be fairer to say to a bi...