‘Keeler, Profumo, Ward and Me’
23 Sunday Feb 2020
Posted in History, Politics, Profumo Affair, Television
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Andrew Lloyd-Webber, BBC, Caroline Kennedy, Christine Keeler, Cliveden, Ernest Marples, Eugene Ivanov, Geoffrey Robertson, George Wigg, Harold Macmillan, John Profumo, Keeler Profumo Ward and Me, Lord Astor, Lord Denning, Lord Hailsham, Mandy Rice-Davies, Natalie Livingstone, Profumo Affair, Stephen Pound, Stephen Ward, Thomas Critchley, Tom Mangold
“The story that defined a decade of great change in Great Britain was my big break in Fleet Street, and I covered and loved every moment of it, from the ridiculous to the tragic …”
Tom Mangold, described in The Times as ‘the doyen of broadcast reporters’, began his career as an investigative journalist on Fleet Street before moving into television as a foreign correspondent, and has since made over 100 documentaries, including many for the BBC’s Panorama. But like many others drawn into the Profumo Affair, Mangold has never quite moved on from the 1963 scandal which still leaves more questions than answers.
Keeler, Profumo, Ward & Me is the third documentary on the subject in which Mangold has played a prominent role within the last decade: BBC Radio Four’s Profumo Confidential, which he presented, and ITV’s Sex, Lies and a Very British Scapegoat both aired in 2013, fifty years after the event. And as BBC1’s six-part drama, The Trial of Christine Keeler, sets the rumour mill in motion again, its final episode was followed immediately by Mangold’s latest account on BBC2. Continue reading
Goodbye (For Now) to ‘Dear Christine’
18 Tuesday Feb 2020
Posted in Art and Photography, Profumo Affair
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Due to unforeseen circumstances, I regret to tell you that ARTHOUSE1 is currently closed and the Dear Christine exhibition – plus a symposium scheduled for this Saturday – has been postponed until further notice. My sincere regards go out to everyone affected, and I hope to write more about this wonderful show in the near future. I currently have several related articles in the pipeline – including a review of the recent BBC documentary about the Profumo Affair, which I hope to post here later this week. (The above photo shows a print from a series by Lewis Morley, 1963, on loan from Camilla Shivarg; commissioned embroidery by Fine Cell Work, ‘Christine in Gold’; and ‘Portrait of a Lady’ by Sarah Shaw. And in the photo below is Fionn Wilson’s ‘Christine Mesmerises’, opposite the iconic Morley print.)
‘Dear Christine’ Symposium in London
11 Tuesday Feb 2020
Posted in Art and Photography, Profumo Affair
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Amanda Coe, Arthouse1, Carol Dyhouse, Caroline Coon, Cathy Lomax, Christine Keeler, Dear Christine, Profumo Affair
Dear Christine: A Tribute to Christine Keeler, on display until February 29 at London’s ARTHOUSE1 (open from 3-7 pm on Thursdays to Sundays) is accompanied by a symposium featuring artists and commentators including historian Carol Dyhouse and Amanda Coe, writer/producer of The Trial of Christine Keeler, on Saturday, February 22. Admission is free but reserved to 40 places so book now via Eventbrite. (The painting shown above is ‘God Save Christine’ by Sal Jones.)
UPDATE: Due to unforeseen circumstances, this event has now been cancelled – more info here.
Reframing the Keeler Affair
09 Sunday Feb 2020
Posted in Art and Photography, Interviews, Profumo Affair
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My interview with Fionn Wilson – artist and curator of Dear Christine: A Tribute to Christine Keeler, an exhibition featuring works by twenty women artists now on display at London’s Arthouse1 until February 29th – is published today on the excellent Culture Matters website. (The painting shown above, by Fionn herself, is Christine and the Poisoned Apple – conjuring both the biblical Eve, and Snow White.)
UPDATE: Due to unforeseen circumstances, this exhibition is postponed until further notice – more info here. (18/02/2020)
‘Dear Christine’ Steps Out in London
03 Monday Feb 2020
Posted in Art and Photography, Magazines, Profumo Affair, Television
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Arthouse1, Bermondsey, Christine Keeler, Dear Christine, Fionn Wilson, Her Edit, Julie Burchill, Keeler Profumo Ward and Me, London, Profumo Affair, Seymour Platt, The Trial Of Christine Keeler
Dear Christine: A Tribute to Christine Keeler has just begun the final leg of its tour at Arthouse1 in Bermondsey, London. The opening night was attended by, among others, Christine’s son Seymour Platt, and her close friend, Desmond Banks; Geoffrey Robertson QC; and the writer Julie Burchill. (You can view Julie and Seymour’s speeches here.)
UPDATE: Due to unforeseen circumstances, this exhibition has been postponed until further notice – more info here. (18/02/2020)
Arthur Miller: The Writer and the Man
14 Tuesday Jan 2020
Posted in Books, Film, Marilyn Monroe, Television, Theatre
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After The Fall, Arthur Miller, Arthur Miller - Writer, Carl Rollyson, Documentaries, Documentary, Elia Kazan, Inge Morath, Marilyn Monroe, Maureen Dowd, Rebecca Miller, The Misfits
Rebecca Miller, daughter of American playwright Arthur Miller and his third wife, Austrian-born photographer Inge Morath, is a novelist and filmmaker whose works include The Ballad of Jack and Rose and The Private Lives of Pippa Lee. She has directed a stage revival of her father’s play, After the Fall, and her handful of acting credits include a minor role in a television adaptation of An American Clock. She also met her future husband, actor Daniel Day-Lewis, on the set of another Miller classic, The Crucible (1996.) Continue reading
My Hopes and Fears for 2020
31 Tuesday Dec 2019
Posted in Books, Film, Lana Del Rey, Music, Poetry, Politics, Television, Updates, Writing
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1st September 1939, A Year in Books, A Year in Films and TV, A Year in Music, Art Decades, David Lynch, Dear Christine, Donna Tartt, ES Updates, Everlasting Star, Fan Phenomena, James Gray, Jeremy Corbyn, Lana Del Rey, Marilyn Monroe, Marion Cotillard, Poetry, Socialism, Soledad, The Goldfinch, The Immigrant, Twin Peaks, Ultraviolence, Video Games, W.H. Auden
As a new decade beckons, I’m deeply worried about the way our world seems to be heading. As W.H. Auden wrote on ‘September 1, 1939‘ (a poem deemed so prescient he tried to bury it …) Continue reading
Merry Christmas To All My Readers
26 Thursday Dec 2019
Posted in Lana Del Rey, Music, Profumo Affair, Television, Updates
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BBC, Christine Keeler, Christmas, Dear Christine, I'll Be Home For Christmas, Kacey Musgraves, Lana Del Rey, Marilyn Monroe, Profumo Affair, Scandal, The Trial Of Christine Keeler
Just a little note from me to wish you all a merry Christmas. If you thought you’d seen off my lists for another year, make room for one more as in a few days, I’ll be looking back at the end of this decade in music, books and film. But first, let’s enjoy this nostalgic carol from Lana Del Rey and friends.
As some of you may know, The Trial of Christine Keeler is coming to BBC1. First announced here, the six-part drama starts at 9 pm this Sunday, December 29th. With the exhibition Dear Christine heading to London in February, and Scandal set for reissue by the BFI, the women of the Profumo Affair may finally get their due in 2020.
Marilyn’s ‘Mirror’ Review Goes to Print
23 Monday Dec 2019
Posted in Books, Film, Magazines, Marilyn Monroe, Non-Fiction, Updates, Writing
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My review of Amanda Konkle’s excellent book, Some Kind of Mirror: Creating Marilyn Monroe, is featured in the latest issue (#38) of UK fanzine Mad About Marilyn, alongside articles about Marilyn’s arduous promotional tour for the final Marx Brothers movie, Love Happy (1949); ‘A New Marilyn Comes Back’, first published by Movie Spotlight in 1956; and a profile of photographer Bruno Bernard, aka ‘Bernard of Hollywood’.
The delightful cover photo was taken at Richard Avedon‘s New York studio in July 1958, shortly before Marilyn flew to Los Angeles to shoot Some Like It Hot. If you’d like to subscribe to Mad About Marilyn, please email Emma: emmadowning@blueyonder.co.uk
2019: A Year in Books
19 Thursday Dec 2019
Posted in Books, Fiction, Film, History, Marilyn Monroe, Non-Fiction, Politics, Profumo Affair
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10 Minutes 38 Seconds In This Strange World, A Suffragette in America, A Year in Books, Alexander Baron, Amanda Konkle, Benjamin Levy, Bette Howland, Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage, Casey Cep, Cash Carraway, Colson Whitehead, Dolores, Edna O'Brien, Elif Shafak, Ernesto Quinonez, Eve Babitz, Furious Hours, Girl, Guzel Yakhina, Hallie Rubenhold, Harper Lee, I Used To Be Charming, Inland, Jack the Ripper, Janine Booth, Kali Fajardo-Anstine, Kamala Markandaya, Kerry Hudson, Latin Writers, Lauren Aimee Curtis, Lowborn, Marilyn Monroe, Minnie Lansbury, Murray's Cabaret Club, Nicole Flattery, Nowhere Man, On Swift Horses, Profumo Affair, Sabrina & Corrina, Selina Todd, Shannon Pufahl, Shelagh Delaney, Short Stories, Show Them a Good Time, So We Live, Some Kind of Mirror: Creating Marilyn Monroe, Sylvia Pankhurst, Taina, Tea Obreht, The Five, The Nickel Boys, Turkey, With Hope Farewell, Zuleikha
First published in 2015 as Zuleikha Opens Her Eyes and now available in English, Zuleikha tells the story of a Tatar woman whose brutish husband and vindictive mother-in-law treat her as a slave. This all changes around 1930 when along with other peasants and Leningrad intellectuals – a motley crew of ‘enemies of the state’ – Zuleikha is transported to a gulag in Siberia. Beside the age-old themes of tyranny and suffering, Zuleikha offers a surprisingly hopeful vision of how ordinary people can keep their wits and capacity for love, even in the direst circumstances. Continue reading
