Media

The latest Harry Potter film's run is drawing to a close. As with all the films, there is a re-arranging of the furniture of teachers (much so in the case of the new addition Prof Slughorn) and, as a result of the ending, there will be more of the same in the seventh movie too. Overall, it has smart gags and engaging characterisation - it didn't feel like 2 and a half hours, unlike some of the predecessors. Hogwarts - the only secondary co-ed in the country that doesn't suffer from teenage pregnancies - looked as gorgeous as ever. Curiously for a film about magical spells and potions, at the very end, we see quite visibly a crucifix on top of one of the towers. I'm not disapproving of such motifs, but is it a sop to the American market? With Dumbledore's last living appearance, we have a bit of a blooper. At the beginning we have his left hand burned, but later on it is his right hand. Maybe he was just resting his left hand as he destroyed bad objects. I was a little disappointed by the end. In The Empire Strikes Back, the rebels have endured a serious setback, but there is determined optimism. Here, in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the tone is muted as if reverential for Dumbledore's death, but comes across as 'meh'. But it is a good viewing, well worth a second sight.
On other media, Strictly Come Dancing is welcomed back and it has less strictly dancing than before. Why make amatuers learn two dances from the outset instead of at the "quarter-final" (which isn't) stage, other than to watch some horror shows of footwork. Rav Wilding thought the game was up after the dance-off, even when we got one vote from Bruno, the expression on his face was 'it's a consolation, but it's no consolation'. But it was a shock, than Len, with the casting vote agreed with Bruno. Bye-bye Martina Hingis. But then she shoudln't have been in the dance-off in the first place. If one was being charitable, it could be said that she has no natural constituency; further, those who know her from her abilities with a racket are alsow awareb of her petulance, while the well-publicised reports of her cocaine taking - that has led to a ban from tennis tournaments - has destroyed any girl-next-door allure that she had. But sometimes your first reaction is the correct one and both Altaa and I both thought she finished bottom of the popular vote (since she was in the middle of the judges' leaderboard) becaise she was foreign and that people ignored her as a consequence.
And here were Tom Chambers and Camilla Dallerup on Saturday as a reminder of the vagaries of the public vote. As sparkling and entertaining as their dancing was and still is, Rachel Stevens and Vincent Simone should have won (that was claer on Len's face last series). Could Arlene Phillips have paid the price of being dropped when she gave a 9, when all the other judges gave 10 to Brendan and Lisa, which meant that Tom and Camilla could not escape the dance-off, prompting the "semi-final" public voting kerfuffle of last series.
Kristina Rihannoff with Joe Calzaghe - who could have been replaced by a tree blowing in the wind with no discernible difference - finished bottom of the judges' scoring, despite her nymph-like prancing round his wooden trunk. But after last series, she must have got used to that.
As a final flourish, the former ballplayers all agreed that Thomas Vermaelen encapsulated the Total Football philosophy of his home country. Pity then he's Belgian and not Dutch. What was that about footballers and intelligence?