Spent the evening yesterday watching “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” primarily as the Other Viewer and mine’s tribute to the recently deceased Paul Newman but partly because we just needed a movie to which we could curl up, drink a few beers and unwind after a busy week. The gentler pace of those of old movies never fails to impress me…. Butch and Sundance riding over the plains in a sweeping shot that lasts 20 or 30 seconds; Paul Newman messing about on his bicycle to the tune of Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head seems to just go on for far longer than is necessary but that somehow seems to add to the film rather than to detract; and the fact that the guys who are tracking the protagonists through the wilderness are never introduced but instead just seen in the distance.  It really is quite clever and rewarding.  A fine film.

The rest of the evening was spent watching a re-run of the second series of Gavin and Stacey on BBC HD. I was only going to watch one episode but managed all seven in the end… it was brilliant throughout.  News that the cast are about to (or just have) started filming for the Christmas special is to be celebrated although not as much as if news of a third series were to be announced.  I have spoken before about the joys of “binge viewing” and I heartily recommend it.  The next programme I may subject to this televisual overload could be Doctor Who’s Trial of a Time Lord that is being released as a DVD boxset tomorrow.  However, while Gavin and Stacey may be cult viewing of the highest callibre, my recollections of TOATL are of a jumbled mess from which prolonged viewing may cause the eyes (or in the case of Pip and Jane Baker’s script, the ears) to bleed.  I may just head to the extras features.

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Tags: bbc hd, Butch Cassidy, Doctor Who, Gavin-and-Stacey, Paul Newman, Sundance Kid, Trial of a Time Lord