Favourite Things

Sorry for the delay in posting another entry. The last couple of weeks have been spent preparing for an undergoing the interview process in my continuing search for another job.

At my first interview this week, the topic turned to some of my favourite things and I thought that I would share them with you. Now, this is not going to be an exhaustive list of things but more of an indication.

Favourite Book

This is a relatively easy one to answer. The book in question is The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. I still have on my book shelf the 1979 First Edition that cost me £1.95 at the time that it was published. The book is sadly not in the best condition but this is mainly because it as, over the years, been well read many many times.

Douglas Adam's writing style made it very easy for me, as an eight year old, to read the book. It almost felt like the book was talking to me, a gift that comes from the almost conversational style to his writing.

But this is nothing compared to the humour contained within the book. Sometimes playful, sometimes satirical, sometimes bizarre, and sometimes very cutting indeed. A book that starts off by talking about "an utterly insignificant little blue green planet who ape-descendants are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea" very mush impacted on me, especially since I was wearing the Casio digital watch that I had got as a present and thought was the height of cool.

I can still, to this day, recognise the impact that this piece of fiction had upon my life. It definitely informed by sense of humour, as much as Monty Pythons Flying Circus and The Goons Show did. It also informed the way that I view the world, and the bizarreness of normal everyday things if seen from a different angle.

If you have never picked up the book then I would seriously recommended it. Whilst it is a trilogy in five parts (or even six parts if you include the recent release of Eoin Colfer's And Another Thing which I am in the process of reading at the moment), for me the first part will always remain the best. I doubt that anything will ever trump this book in my eyes, and I very much expect that it will have a special place in my heart until the day I do, or the Earth gets blown up to make way for an intergalactic bypass - whichever comes first.


Favourite Film

Unlike favourite book, this is not as easy since I have a handful of films from different genres which I adore and can watch over and over again. But if I was to pick one film as my favourite of all time it would probably be the 1985 release Clue.

The film is on the face of it just a comedy inspired by the board game Cluedo. It is directed by Jonathan Lynn, who also wrote the script with John Landis, and starring people like Tim Curry, Eileen Brennan, Lesley Ann Warren, Christopher Lloyd, and Madeline Khan.

I think the greatness of this movie comes from the well written script and the performances delivered by all the cast. The comedy itself is a cross between the visual humour of slap stick and a cleaver use of the English Language. Above everything, it is the quick fire banter between the characters that really attracts me to this movie since this is the sort of humour that I like. However, it is more than just quick fire humour, it is also very cleaver humour. An example would be the following exchange, which is also one of my favourites:


Mrs. White: I don't want a scandal, do I? We had had a very humiliating public confrontation. He was deranged. He was a lunatic! He didn't actually seem to like me very much; he had threatened to kill me in public.

Miss Scarlet: Why would he wanna kill you in public?

Wadsworth: I think she meant he threatened, in public, to kill her.


This sort of word play appeals to my sense of humour very much, and when added to the comedic influences mentioned early when I was talking about HHGTTG earlier possibly explains my own sense of humour a lot.

Clue was, by all accounts, not well received when it was released and I personally have to thank a wet Sunday afternoon TV showing for my exposure to the film. Needless to say, the next time it was shown I made sure that there was a videotape in the recorder.

Clue is one of those films that I love to pass on to other people, people who I feel will appreciate the humour. I suppose we all have a similar film in our collection. The film that we want other people to enjoy as much as we do.


Favourite TV Series

To those that know me well this will not come as a surprise. I do like a lot of different types of television programmes, but there is one show that will always be special to me. It is a show that as been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. The show in question is Doctor Who. You may have heard of it. It kind of made a bit of a come back in 2005 to a lot of critical acclaim.

Now, I do not mind the new Who that is released and I will still try and arrange to be in front of a TV for when it airs. However, my true love is the classic series that ran from 1963 until the BBC decided to "rest it" in 1989.

As a child growing up, the appeal that Doctor Who had was that every story was different. The format meant that after four weeks a new story would begin, and this story was usually completely different to the one that came before. You could have a horror story, followed by a murder mystery, followed by a spy adventure. The possibilities were endless.

Then there is the Doctor himself, the hero of our story. For me, Tom Baker will always be my Doctor. He was the one that I grew up with, and would settle down and watch on a Saturday night. I am sure that the children of today will feel towards David Tennant just how I feel towards Tom.

Now, Doctor Who for me was never a social thing. It was just me and the television screen, just me and the Doctor. Even now, I have a slight problem watching the show with other people. It is hard to explain why really. I suppose it is because it was always something that I did alone. Sure, before my first portable television, I watched it with family. But considering that I spent most of the time hiding behind a cushion I would not class it as being a very social experience.

These days I do not watch as much Doctor Who as I should. I go through periods when I will watch a few stories over the space of the week. And then sometimes, I can go months without. However, I always know that it is there if I want to just escape for a couple of hours.