Monthly Archives: January 2009

BBC’s ‘Diary of Anne Frank’ ended on the wrong note

Posted by Wendy on January 12, 2009 No comments

Well, I persevered and watch the entire weeks episodes of the recent BBC serialisation of ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’ and just as I had begun to change a few of my opinions of the production things turned sour…

The ending was wrong!

Anne was not writing in her diary nor were the occupants all gathered in one room when the police arrived to arrest them. Artistic license is fine in some respects, and in this case gave a hint of more drama to the final scenes, but as the series on the whole was faithful to the diary entries why stray from fact right at the end?

For many years, until the release of the critical edition in 1995, Anne’s final entry read: “…I still believe, in spite of everything, that people truly are good at heart”. This entry was actually written on Saturday 15th July 1944. Otto Frank had heavily edited the diary many years earlier omitting certain passages for personal reasons and the above passage served for a long time as the closing line in Anne’s ‘final’ diary entry.

It was a good choice for the time and the line packed a huge emotional punch – but the diary does not end there and I was disappointed that the producers chose this edited version to film as the ending. In 1998 the discovery of five previously unknown pages were added to create the definitive edition which was published in 2001. This version is the one to buy if you have not yet read this book – “The Diary of a Young Girl. The Definitive Edition”.

However, I would have liked to have seen the actual ending dramatised. Anne’s final diary entry was made on Tuesday, 1st August 1944 and ends with “…if only there were no other people in the world.” Anne signs off there leaving the reader with the impression of a girl with the insight and wisdom of someone who had matured years beyond her age in a very short space of time. And it breaks your heart because you know what lay in store for Anne after she wrote those words…

When the eight people were arrested Otto Frank was giving Peter an english lesson in his room, the Van Pels were upstairs and Anne and Pfeffer were in their room. The first people to be seen by the police as they entered the annexe were Edith and Margot Frank – the others appeared on hearing the commotion.

The series ending was certainly not too far from the truth, but as this is based on a historical document I feel the ’arrest’ should have been filmed as it really was. Sure enough, the ending to this story is one thing that history can, sadly, never change.

Anne and Margot at the beach.

Copyright © 2007-2012 Cultured Views. All rights reserved.

You’re a Paki, he’s a Brit and I’m an Aussie – so what’s the problem…?

Posted by Wendy on January 11, 2009 No comments

I suppose the UK has been short of a good ‘race row’ for a while so let’s all heap it onto Prince Harry while the mood’s on us eh…?

That’s the nonsence coming out of sections of the British media today and shame on them and shame on anyone who swallows such crap. So the guy called a fellow cadet, a good mate of his, a ‘Paki’ – so flaming what !!!

This happened three years ago during a training stint and it was all in good humour. The other fellow was not offended and why should he be? ‘Paki’ is short for Pakistani just as ‘Brit’ is short for British, Scots for Scottish, Aussie for Australian, Yank for American…I’m not offended to be called an Aussie – for petes sake have some people lost all sense of reason these days?

It seems that people now are so ready and willing to be ‘offended’ that it is rampant in the UK – and now of course the Muslim leaders there are jumping on the ‘I’m offended too’ bandwagon as Harry referred to a ‘make believe’ member of the Taliban as a ‘raghead’.  Personally I can think of far better words for those terrorists; bastards, cold blooded murderers, fanatical lunatics…

Prince Harry was in training when this happened – training that had to be pretty damn harsh given the loony fruitcakes he and his fellow officer cadets would be fighting against in Iraq and Afghanistan. So what is the message – you can shoot at them but you cannot call them names…?

The Army has to produce soldiers able to kill and they are fighting people who have nothing but hatred and contempt for the rest of the world – producing a bunch of politically correct nancy-boys might satisfy the screaming Liberal Elite but what a pathetic state of affairs it has come to now that Harry has had to apologise for something said in passing THREE YEARS AGO.

I wonder how many of ‘the offended’ are willing to take his uniform, step into his shoes and go and do the job that he has done so well since then.

Don’t forget this war is supposed to be about anti-terror and democracy - two things that Great Britain has itself lost it’s grip on in recent years.

Copyright © 2007-2012 Cultured Views. All rights reserved.

Out of one ice age and into another…

Posted by Wendy on January 10, 2009 No comments

Well, five days to go and we are off on the marathon drive back to Belfast – and it cannot come fast enough for me. It’s the weather here you see…I am fed up with it.

Take a look at the pic – that’s our courtyard recently as it started snowing and today it is pretty much the same. The puddles have turned to ice and our pretty little wall fountains (just to the left but not pictured) are full of ice which is really confusing the few frozen little birds that forgot to fly south.

That’s my beloved olive tree in the centre of the pic – five years here and not one sodding olive. I always hoped it would bear some fruit but it was never to be. See that bench chair…? about three weeks ago we had a sudden wind about 5am which was actually a mini tornado – that bench, which weights a ton, was picked up and tossed like a leaf across the courtyard!

I was hoping that the cold in Belfast would not be as extreme as it is currently is here but it looks as though I will be wearing three layers of clothing for some time yet going by the reports of some friends over there.

Copyright © 2007-2012 Cultured Views. All rights reserved.