#the jewel in the crown

[vox-anglosphere]

Reflections of India's most famous building, bathed in evening light.

[mariocki]

RIP Zia Mohyeddin (20.6.1931 - 13.2.2023)

"It would be foolish of me to say that my acting career began on the stage in a play, written by my father, at the age of 11. A lot of people who act as schoolboys become lawyers or accountants or insurance agents. But something happened to me during that first experience. I lost all sense of time and space. It was as though I had lost my sense of recognition. The people I had been rehearsing with were strangers whom I had never seen before. As for the actual setting, it appeared to be a space in another world, a dream. And although I spoke my lines, it was quite some time before I realized that it was I who was speaking."

[cantsayidont]

THE JEWEL IN THE CROWN (1984): Frequently interesting, never really satisfying 14-part Granada TV series, adapted by Ken Taylor from four novels by Paul Scott, about the final years of British rule of India (from about 1942 to 1947), set in a fictional province called Mayapore.

The first episode, which is two hours, adapts the title novel, about a young white Englishwoman named Daphne Manners (Susan Wooldridge) whose relationship with an Indian man called Hari Kumar (Art Malik), recently returned to India after attending an English public school, has disastrous consequences for them both, with Hari persecuted and eventually imprisoned at the behest of particularly racist and sadistic local police superintendent Ronald Merrick (Tim Pigott-Smith), a lower-middle-class functionary whose hatred and envy make him determined to put Hari in his place. This is by far the most cohesive portion of the story (although it's not very pleasant and needs CWs for rape and police brutality), and the only one whose main characters are particularly sympathetic, but it ends with Daphne dead, Hari in prison, their daughter Pavarti in the custody of Daphne's great aunt, and Merrick ascendant.

The remaining episodes shift focus to the upper-class Layton family, whose elder daughter Sarah (Geraldine James) joins the WACs after her father (Frederick Treves) a British Army colonel, becomes a German POW. The central figure, though only occasionally the POV, remains the monstrous Merrick, who parlays his avocation for torture into a high-ranking military intelligence role and eventually tries to ingratiate himself with the Laytons, particularly after he loses an arm and is badly burned in a failed attempt to rescue Sarah's brother-in-law following a roadside attack. In the last few episodes, the POV shifts to Guy Perron (Charles Dance, in a rare non-villainous role), another public schoolboy and a former classmate of Hari Kumar's, who becomes Merrick's reluctant aide and has a fleeting romance with Sarah before returning to witness independence as an academic observer.

There is much of interest throughout, but in discarding the novels' epistolary format and placing events in chronological order, the dramatization leaves the story feeling lumpy and occasionally threadbare: Important characters simply disappear and are later casually mentioned to have died, and important plot threads only occasionally have dramatic resolution within the narrative. More vexingly, after the first episode, the story's interest in presenting Indian characters as anything other than minor background figures (often depicted in a demeaning light) basically evaporates; even Hari Kumar is mentioned more than he's seen, serving more as a symbolic figure rather than a character, and the official subtitles never bother to translate dialogue in Urdu, even when spoken by the white leads. The story's ideological foundation is similarly uneasy, particularly as to class — Merrick is a thoroughly vile figure, but while Sarah and Guy both detest him, their contempt for him is based not in his racist brutality, but in his not being of their class and resenting it, and the finale then attributes his sadism to being a closeted gay man. The story's final episodes also strongly suggest that British rule has provided an important civilizing and stabilizing influence that will promptly collapse with independence.

Although the actual plot can't be accused of being especially nostalgic, it's hard not to see THE JEWEL IN THE CROWN as a colonialist apologia, and it's one of those stories that insists on framing other countries and cultures as something that happens to the white protagonists rather than having any independent existence, politically or otherwise. CONTAINS LESBIANS? There is an extremely depressing subplot about an elderly gay missionary named Barbara Batchelor (Peggy Ashcroft), the companion of Sarah's aunt Mabel, whom the family hastens to shut out after Mabel's death. VERDICT: Superbly acted but dramatically uneven and frequently unpleasant, and its politics leave a bad taste.

[kwebtv]

The Jewel in the Crown - ITV - January 9, 1984 - April 3, 1984

Period Drama (14 episodes)

Running Time: 60 minutes

Stars:

Peggy Ashcroft as Barbara Batchelor

Janet Henfrey as Edwina Crane

Derrick Branche as Ahmed Kasim

Charles Dance as Sgt Guy Perron

Geraldine James as Sarah Layton

Rachel Kempson as Lady Manners

Art Malik as Hari Kumar

Wendy Morgan as Susan Layton

Judy Parfitt as Mildred Layton

Tim Pigott-Smith as Supt./Capt/Maj/Lt Col Ronald Merrick

Eric Porter as Count Dmitri Bronowsky

Susan Wooldridge as Daphne Manners

Ralph Arliss as Capt. Samuels

Geoffrey Beevers as Capt Kevin Coley

James Bree as Maj/Lt Col Arthur Grace

Jeremy Child as Robin White

Warren Clarke as Cpl "Sophie" Dixon

Rowena Cooper as Connie White

Anna Cropper as Nicky Paynton

Fabia Drake as Mabel Layton

Nicholas Farrell as Edward "Teddie" Bingham

Matyelok Gibbs as Sister Ludmila Smith

Carol Gillies as Clarissa Peplow

Rennee Goddard as Dr Anna Klaus

Jonathan Haley and Nicholas Haley as Edward Bingham Jr

Saeed Jaffrey as Ahmed Ali Gaffur Kasim Bahadur, the Nawab of Mirat

Karan Kapoor as Colin Lindsey

Rashid Karapiet as Judge Menen

Kamini Kaushal as Shalini Sengupta

Rosemary Leach as Fenella "Fenny" Grace

David Leland as Capt Leonard Purvis

Nicholas Le Prevost as Capt Nigel Rowan

Marne Maitland as Pandit Baba

Jamila Massey as Maharanee Aimee

Zia Mohyeddin as Mohammad Ali Kasim

Salmaan Peerzada as Sayed Kasim

Om Puri as Mr de Souza

Stephen Riddle as Capt Dicky Beauvais

Norman Rutherford as Edgar Maybrick

Dev Sagoo as S.V. Vidyasagar

Zohra Sehgal as Lady Lili Chatterjee

Frederick Treves as Lt Col John Layton

Stuart Wilson as Capt James Clark

Leslie Grantham as Signals Sergeant

[proverbialschoolmarm]

[egophiliac]

do skully have pokemon?

Pumpkaboo is the obvious one, but y'know, sometimes the obvious one is the right one! (we'll say SUPER SIZE Pumpkaboo, just for fun. big pumpkin for big skeleton boy.) and another person actually also suggested Greavard, which I somehow hadn't considered, but feels so perfect that I feel like I should have. dangit.

(they can also have little Nightmare Suit costumes :D)

[foreverlyjay]

“Have fun, be safe, love you”

Roman to The Usos

🥹🥹🥹

[squidgirlautism]

is it safe to say the american jewish golden age is over for real or is that too alarmist

[katarinanavane]

I've just finished making these ancient Roman inspired "laurel wreath" crowns out of jewel beetle shells and preserved 17 year cicada wings. I've done three of the jewel beetle ones, so one is in my Etsy (link in bio), the cicada wing one is one of a kind so far so I haven't listed it yet. I'm really happy with how these came out!

[princedevitt]

LA Knight - Crown Jewel 2024

[renegadesstuff]

BRIDGERTON MEN AND THEIR DECLARATION ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

[jonmoxleys]

[kwebtv]

Charles Dance, Art Malik, Susan Wooldridge and Geraldine James in "The Jewel in the Crown"

Tim Pigott-Smith in "The Jewel in the Crown"

[romanvampire]

[fabxpunk]

[punksrhea]

ROMAN REIGNS WWE Crown Jewel, November 2nd, 2024