Lady with the Little Dog

Late last night/early this morning I waxed (rather too) lyrical about a Russian painting by Savrasov.

This afternoon, on the BBC iPlayer I caught up with a Woman's Hour dramatisation of an Anton Chekhov short story called Lady with the Little Dog, jolly fine adaptation it was too.

It reminded me of the film version that I'd seen in the early 1970s on the BBC2's World Cinema season. The film, dama s sobachkoy, was a delightful and poignant portrayal of a doomed love affair between two people already married, which reminded me so much of David Lean's Brief Encounter.

Much of my love for and knowlege of cinema was sparked in many ways by that series. I felt that the BBC lived up to its Reithian ideals of to "inform, educate, and entertain".

I strongly, passionately believe in the BBC both TV and, probably even more so, radio, which is why I am aghast at the constant attacks on it by the Tories and the rest of the "right-wing goon squad".

I am under no illusion that the given half a chance, they would carve up the BBC and sell of the more "profitable" bits to the likes of their chums including News Corp(se) and one Rupert Murdoch Esq.

This corporation who maintain a myriad of subsidiaries in low-tax havens like the Cayman Islands, the Netherlands Antilles, and the British Virgin Islands, simply to avoid paying its dues in a civilised society.

As far back as the 1990s, The Economist magazine was reporting that they were probably paying only one-fifth/one-sixth of the taxes they should worldwide, and NONE in Britain. Matters have not improved!

The BBC is part of the cultural fabric of this country having given so much to enrich us (as well as some duffers Kilroy, Dog Borstal, Kilroy...).

What has Murdoch given us? Oh yes, Page 3 of the Sun.