JeanneH

to mix my movie cliches, Nobody expects double-secret probation! You're here now, and as one of my co-workers likes to say, it's early days so you can help create the culture.

I had a morbid thought after watching this episode. As we all know, Vanessa Redgrave is the narrator as the voice of older Jenny. Events in this episode were driven by an ultimately fatal fall. And Vanessa Redgrave's real life daughter, Natasha Richardson, died after a fall (hit her head when she fell while skiing, sort of like F1 driver Michael Schumacher). I know VR is an actress acting a part, but I wonder 1) if she reads the script for the episode, or just her lines for the narration, and 2) what she might have thought to see a script with events rather close to home. Like I said, morbid thoughts.

Vanessa Redgrave. Her sister Lynn Redgrave passed several years ago. That is an interesting situation - Vanessa's the voice of older Jenny, so if Jenny goes, Vanessa would likely have to go too. I wonder if they'd try to figure some way to keep Vanessa around somehow.

This was in the UK media in early/mid March, but it does lead to a good question in need of resolution. What do you do when you have a series based on biographical material, and the actress playing the "author" quits. Recast? Write out the character? End the series? Well, we know it won't be the latter, not in the short run, because CTM has already been approved for a 4th series/season.

So many good shows to choose from, but I think my favorite was the one with Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem and Judi Dench. They were promoting Skyfall, and sat there giggling (especially Craig and Dench) the entire show. I think they were all at the wine early :) As for the all-guests at once format, the old Johnny Carson show was that way - sort of. The 1st guest came on and was interviewed while sitting in a chair next to Johnny's desk. Time came for the 2nd guest, that person sat in the chair and the 1st guest took a seat on the couch on the other side of the chair. 3rd guest comes out, 2nd guest takes the 1st guest's sofa seat and the 1st guest slides down. Almost everyone stayed once brought out. The only ones that routinely did not were stand-up comics and musical guests. It was a big deal if Johnny asked you to stay if you were in those groups.

I can't put my finger on why, but Chummy does remind me of some of Keith's characters. I hate to say "she just does" without giving a reason, but I can't come up with a reason I can put my finger on. Sorry! Wikipedia says her name is Camilla "Chummy" Browne (née Camilla Fortescue-Cholmondeley-Browne), later Camilla "Chummy" Noakes. And we all know Wikipedia is never wrong ;)

The closing of TWOP has led to me re-reading the old Farscape recaps there, and also over on Farscape World, during part of my lunch hours. From that, I've come to one conclusion - I miss Aeryn Sun. All these years, and I've still not come across a character like her on TV/movies. Just a triumphal melding of character design, writing, and performance for the ages. So how much of it was the writing and how much of it was the actress? I tend to the performance being a larger part of it, but you have to have the character and the writing to give the performance. My favorite Aeryn episodes? From the drama side, DNA Mad Scientist and The Way We Weren't. Those blow me away every time. For Scientist, it's the horror of trying to deal with what's happening to her, while TWWW is the soldier's dilemma - I did bad things when I was following orders, how do I make it right, now? Can I make it right, now? From the lighter side, I love Out of Their Minds - "You were in my shoes, I was in your pants!"

Are you referring to Brooke, booted just before this season? As for Samantha, she's going to have a double mastectomy this week, and her diagnosis process has been going on for a while now, according to stories on several websites,

Sorry to bring things down, and I'm not sure where to post this. I saw a small piece on EW's site today that said Samantha Harris has been diagnosed with breast cancer. She announced this on ET.

Miranda Hart reminds me of Penelope Keith, and Chummy reminds me of some characters Dame Penelope has played in the past. I'm not sure if people from the UK would consider this a good thing, but I do.