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Raymond Briggs 'Ethel and Ernest' to be shown on BBC this Christmas?


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Old 28-12-2016, 21:38
Woodbine
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That's where you are very very wrong, it highlighted important parts of history through their lives, the political changes were important historical facts.

Without it and without their different beliefs it would loose 50% of the story. Ethel was a strong lady with strong views, and from strength then lost her mind, it was poignant.

No one should be trying to make something political out if this.
Perfectly put and better said than me.

It was a beautifully well told story, the politics should be a none issue.
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Old 28-12-2016, 21:46
DelicateKitten
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They could have changed the story line to make it more exciting like a murder or an affair or the cat going postal.
I think it's the simplicity of the film which makes it so beautiful.
It reminds me a bit of The Royale Family - not a lot happens but the conversations and everyday life is what makes is entertaining.
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Old 28-12-2016, 22:06
CollieWobbles
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What a wonderful little programme that was and very moving in the end. No doubt some will complain that nothing exciting happened but for me it's charm was exactly for that reason. Nothing exciting does happen to most people, in our neighbourhood something exciting would be a powercut or the binmen coming on the wrong day when none of the bins are out. The show's draw IMO is the simple everyday occurrences and chatter about the sort of stuff anyone discusses and can relate to, no loud noises or fancy gimmicks, just two everyday people living everyday lives. And the best bit? No wretched CGI in sight, lovely to see proper artwork from a proper artist for once and nice to know that real animation does still exist.
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Old 28-12-2016, 22:12
BionicBard
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This is the best thing on TV this Christmas. Gentle, affectionate and touchingly evocative of its time.

It is a true story about real people living through some of the most catastrophic and challenging events of the last century. In it's simplicity and truthfulness it is a testament to their resilience, humour and honesty when all is crumbling around them. It's about love and honour and hope, and not to be missed in my view.

Brenda Blethyn and Jim Broadbent really bring these two lovely people to life - depending on your generation they could be your parents, grandparents, great or even great great grandparents. Their story is mirrored by so many of their generation, and is thoroughly deserving of this tribute.
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Old 28-12-2016, 22:14
xendesktop
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Perfectly put and better said than me.

It was a beautifully well told story, the politics should be a none issue.
Well that's it. It ought to be. The animation, the story, the little vignettes of daily life through the war were excellent, but the ham-fisted political stuff just felt very forced.

It's just a viewpoint. I don't begrudge anyone's enjoyment of it.

Probably the first and last pre-watershed animated pig sex, too.
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Old 28-12-2016, 22:16
Straker
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And the best bit? No wretched CGI in sight, lovely to see proper artwork from a proper artist for once and nice to know that real animation does still exist.
Take a look at the bike again and the planes and cars.

The computer animation deployed to render planes flying and cars in motion jars a little at first with the lo-tech, traditional look of animation elsewhere...
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/rev...-review-938090


The animators work with a computer software called TVPaint. All the other classic Raymond Briggs films – The Snowman, The Snowman and the Snowdog, Father Christmas etc – have been animated on paper; Ethel & Ernest is the first to be made 'digitally'.
http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2016-...-ethel--ernest
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Old 28-12-2016, 22:23
Woodbine
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Well that's it. It ought to be. The animation, the story, the little vignettes of daily life through the war were excellent, but the ham-fisted political stuff just felt very forced.

It's just a viewpoint. I don't begrudge anyone's enjoyment of it.

Probably the first and last pre-watershed animated pig sex, too.
Wasn't forced at all. With the war and jobs back than, naturally politics was always going to be mentioned and it's based around real people so it's just being true to who they were.
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Old 28-12-2016, 22:36
BionicBard
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Wasn't forced at all. With the war and jobs back than, naturally politics was always going to be mentioned and it's based around real people so it's just being true to who they were.
Absolutely. It's how it was and who they were, not a political statement at all. Its truthfulness is a pleasant antidote to today's political paranoia. These are ordinary folk living ordinary lives against the odds in extraordinary times. Their differing views are just a part of the story, not the story itself.
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Old 28-12-2016, 22:45
Sifter22
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A nice little bit of old England. Reminded me of the Orwell novel 'Coming up for air' which is set between the first and second world wars.
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Old 28-12-2016, 22:45
oldhag
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It was absolutely beautiful. Probably the best thing I've seen on TV this Christmas AND this year. I find animation can be even more moving when done right.

I also loved those photographs on the credits.
I thought that was superb.
Absolutely wonderful, I cried for ten minutes.
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Old 28-12-2016, 22:52
Imogen_Richards
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I watched this with my mother who is almost exactly the same age as Raymond Briggs. We both enjoyed it and she recognised many of the household items used and remembered many of the events. But she did wonder how the family afforded their home on a milkman's salary.
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Old 28-12-2016, 22:57
Sunshine&Solace
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Absolutely beautiful and the best thing I've seen on television this Christmas, my husband and I were spellbound, It's ordinariness was the whole point, it reminded me so much of my grandparents who were about Raymond Briggs's age and lived in London.

As for the inclusion of politics, my grandparents were absolute political animals because of the tumultuous times they lived in. They lived through the 'hungry thirties,' then evacuation and serious injury during World War 2. The introduction of the welfare state was a huge deal to them (my Nan recounted vividly how amazing it was and how almost everyone in the older generation that she knew suddenly went from having no teeth and being unable to eat anything much to having a mouth full of false teeth in the months following the introduction of free dental treatment). Later on my grandfather did National Service in Korea and they both went on to live through the upheavals of the political and social changes brought about in later decades. To have divorced politics from their life story would have been to tell half a story and I'm sure it was the same for Ethel and Ernest. I find it bizarre how people have to have a political axe to grind regardless of what they're watching.

This was a wonderful tribute to Ethel and Ernest - and Suzie the cat of course.
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Old 28-12-2016, 22:59
sw2963
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Lovely animated drama
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Old 28-12-2016, 23:13
MR_Pitkin
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I was thinking that. I made it over 20 years old ? They never said what happened to her either.


That was wonderful yet so upsetting.
They got married in 1929 and they died in 1971, slightly more than 20 years!
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Old 28-12-2016, 23:26
emptybox
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A lovely film. And very moving.

Yes I was looking at each photo, love old photos, and thinking 'that sounds like Paul McCartney'.

I did notice though that Rosie the cat didn't seem to age.
I thought the cat was called Susie?
But if it was supposed to be the same one as when they moved in, then it would be over 40.

I watched this with my mother who is almost exactly the same age as Raymond Briggs. We both enjoyed it and she recognised many of the household items used and remembered many of the events. But she did wonder how the family afforded their home on a milkman's salary.
I missed that bit, and wondered the same, as they obviously couldn't afford furniture right away?
Perhaps they inherited it, or rented it?
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Old 28-12-2016, 23:44
moonlily
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It was lovely. I just knew there'd be people on here moaning that there wasn't much happening on it. Just observing the details of the animation is enjoyment enough for me, I wish there had been more of this quality on over Christmas.
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Old 28-12-2016, 23:47
BionicBard
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Most working class people of the time would have rented - it was the norm in those days.

Maybe their cat always had the same name, I often call the current incumbent by the name of a previous resident!

So many things are redolent of my own family history, I laughed and cried too. Mrs B's one-upmanship with the neighbour, not wanting to go out in the new car in her slippers, the first telly, the first phone, the first fridge, the iron plugged into the living room light, not wanting to make the bathroom dirty so washing in the kitchen sink, and most of all, Mrs B licking her hankie and wiping the dirt off her son's face - nearly everybody's Mum did that!
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Old 28-12-2016, 23:51
CollieWobbles
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Ok I I didn't know that, I thought it was all hand drawn old school like The Snowman, but even so, it still looks like it's drawn properly with a pencil. When I say it's not CGI, I mean it's not like a Pixar film or the animation in the British Gas advert.
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Old 29-12-2016, 00:12
Doghouse Riley
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I thought they overdid the political aspects.
As for a mortgage on an £850 house over 25 years, that would have been roughly a fiver a month. They would have had to put down a sizeable deposit, and only his earnings would have been taken into account, but It still fell within the "two and a half times annual earnings" rule for mortgages.

I thought it unlikely that the mother did not embrace the social changes too well.
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Old 29-12-2016, 00:16
Fibromite59
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I thought it was meant to be two different cats, one called Rosie and one called Susie. Or else they always named their cats by the same name. I remember an aunt of mine who had at least three cats called Fred.

I loved the programme, but like someone else has said, I did wonder how they manged to afford the house and live fairly well on a milkman's wages. My dad was a hospital worker and my parents couldn't afford a telephone until the end of the 1960's and they never had a car.
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Old 29-12-2016, 00:27
BionicBard
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I thought they overdid the political aspects.
As for a mortgage on an £850 house over 25 years, that would have been roughly a fiver a month. They would have had to put down a sizeable deposit, and only his earnings would have been taken into account, but It still fell within the "two and a half times annual earnings" rule for mortgages.

I thought it unlikely that the mother did not embrace the social changes too well.
My view is that the 'political' references were probably there to set time and place as part of the story. Contrary to what you say, I think Mrs B's reaction was probably fairly typical of the time - the changes in her lifetime were enormous and maybe difficult to put into context for those who didn't experience them. Watching it brings back so much of the later part of their story, it is very true to how it was then for a lot of people. It's their life, as first probably told to him, and later remembered by their son, and so very touching because he's clearly stayed true to who they were.
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Old 29-12-2016, 00:41
zoni
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I thought it was meant to be two different cats, one called Rosie and one called Susie. Or else they always named their cats by the same name. I remember an aunt of mine who had at least three cats called Fred.

I loved the programme, but like someone else has said, I did wonder how they manged to afford the house and live fairly well on a milkman's wages. My dad was a hospital worker and my parents couldn't afford a telephone until the end of the 1960's and they never had a car.
My father was a postman and mother worked in various catering assistant posts and bought a 3 bed house in London 1968 only 4 years after arriving in the UK. They even found time to have 3 children soon after, though took in lodgers to help with the mortgage. A close family friends parents bought a bigger house in the early sixties on the salary of a bus conductor and auxiliary nurse. The nurse in question is still resident in the now 1 million pound house having celebrated her 90th earlier this year and would consider herself working class.

I spoke to some neighbours of hers at her birthday party earlier this year and they too bought in the 1960's and also never had well paid jobs throughout their lives. The husband worked in a local factory as a manual worker.

Prior to the 1980's it was possible to buy a home (even in moderately desirable areas), based on the 3X salary and a good deposit. Your could save for a deposit without fear that the house was raising in value quicker than the deposit you were saving!

Ps, Not that it is relevant but the nurse, bus conductor and their neighbour's mentioned all immigrated to the UK in the late 1950's and just didn't want to live in council housing.

Pps. I should add, whilst my parents owned a house when many of my friends parents didn’t, there was no colour tv’s (until the 80’s), cars, foreign holidays, washing machines, modern hi-fi’s. That wasn’t their priority in life.
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Old 29-12-2016, 00:42
Lilylilac
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Ethel was my nan, the bit where Ernest goes to make a cuppa because he doesn't want or try to explain homosexuality to her was perfect and brought but such memories of my nan.
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Old 29-12-2016, 00:50
charlie1
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That was just so incredibly moving. Not ashamed to say that I was in tears watching it.

Wonderful animation.
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Old 29-12-2016, 08:05
theid
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In an age when a tv personality is about to become the President it's fantastic to be reminded that the real heroes and heroines are people who manage to house, feed, and clothe their children, usually by doing jobs they hate but enjoying life through their families.

Ethel and Ernest managed to have their own home because Ernest had a secure income, did a lot of DIY at home, bought second-hand, and enjoyed all the benefits introduced by a Labour government after the war (nationalised utilities and transport, the NHS and education). Today's families have a real struggle by comparison. A little more interest in politics and a lot less interest in personalities and designer brands wouldn't go amiss.
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