Davina wrote:

Veecee the thing we Brits do with two fingers (not me of course, you understand) means F...Off! The back of the fingers have to face away from you and you use your index and middle finger with your thumb sticking up between them. Origin...the wars against the French in the Middle Ages. If an English archer (longbowman) was captured his two string pulling fingers were cut off so that he could not pull a bowstring again. So, when in battle the English archers took to sticking two fingers up at the French, just to show them that fingers were intact. An aside here is that it was mandatory for all boys to be trained in the use of the longbow (except the nobility) from the age of about 7, I think. Robert Hardy, the well-known English actor (Churchill, All Creatures Great and Small) is also a world authority on the long-bow and has written books on the subject. Wen Sir Winston Churchill made the famous V for Victory sign during WW2 he was careful to get his fingers the right way round...could have been embarrassing.

Finally, and rather sadly, this gesture is being superseded by the American middle finger up gesture. Seems weird but I think that is rather a pity.

That's so interesting, Davina, thank you very much. It reminded me of Ken Branagh's Henry V film I've always loved.

Yes, I think so. Maybe it will get back to a normal degree of admiration after some time or if someone new comes up. So that he can just continue his work and make us happy with it.

I've got both films but I must admit that I prefer the modern one. Of course the Olivier film was made out of the spirit of WW II and it's interesting how they use the bright colours from the book of hours. I watched both and read about them because a long time ago I started to write my thesis on them (which I never finished). But then I've always liked Ken Branagh. That reminds I'll still have to watch series 2 of Wallander 

One of my absolute favourites of classic British film is "Odd man out" with James Mason.

Last edited by SusiGo (July 7, 2012 11:45 am)

I'll never forget the summer evening when I went with my mother to watch "Hamlet". It was one of the hottest days of the year and they told us at the box office that we should go in and see if we really wanted to spend four hours in this heat. I told my mother that there was a lot of snow in the film and we could imagine to be cool. We sat there, not moving, sweating from all pores and imagining ourselves in snowy Denmark. But I loved every minute of it.

Strangely I don't like reading the Wallander novels and I didn't watch the Swedish films but I really like Kenneth Branagh so I bought the DVDs. Personally I find the stories extremely depressing but he's excellent in the role. And he has a very fine voice - a tenor to Ben's baritone (I guess).

Last edited by SusiGo (July 7, 2012 8:17 pm)