Posts tagged Britain

The Guard

The crowd was liquored up. They stomped and swore. But it was all in good fun. No one cared if the opposing team got some verbal abuse. But just in case, the stadium gad security personnel standing between the stands and the field.

Calling them security guards seemed an overstatement. They just stood there mostly. And politely asked fans to stop whatever fan activity the stadium didn’t want to be liable for. I wasn’t sure how secure they actually made the stadium—or any of us watching it.

The guy standing between my section and the field looked earnest enough. He was very serious as he stood there stolidly. He had a wart under his right eye. It stood out against his pale pink face. He was a stocky man, but gave no indication that he knew how to use his bulk in a fight.

He just stood there looking gravely serious. His hair was cropped closely. It was a reddish color. What the Brits might call ginger. He would make me feel very secure indeed—if only I were a jar of marmite.

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Will Romola Garai be the next Christina Hendricks? More importantly, is this noir?  I don’t really think so.  But it’s a darn good show.  It easily could have been a noirish, hardboiled spy thriller à la Graham Greene or Eric Ambler.  Think The Third Man diluted by Mad Men-style office politics and shenanigans.  I love Mad Men, but there’s a reason they stick to Don Draper’s personal drama and haven’t made him a CIA plant.  Hell, James Bond (in the Ian Fleming novels, if not all of the movies) is a secret agent and still has rather hardboiled, pulp sensibilities.  I like this show, but wish they’d upped the noir factor a bit.  The two halves of The Hour—i.e., the Mad Men-wannabe office drama and the Cold War spy plot—are curiously bifurcated. 

Will Romola Garai be the next Christina Hendricks?

More importantly, is this noir?  I don’t really think so.  But it’s a darn good show.  It easily could have been a noirish, hardboiled spy thriller à la Graham Greene or Eric Ambler.  Think The Third Man diluted by Mad Men-style office politics and shenanigans. 

I love Mad Men, but there’s a reason they stick to Don Draper’s personal drama and haven’t made him a CIA plant.  Hell, James Bond (in the Ian Fleming novels, if not all of the movies) is a secret agent and still has rather hardboiled, pulp sensibilities.  I like this show, but wish they’d upped the noir factor a bit.  The two halves of The Hour—i.e., the Mad Men-wannabe office drama and the Cold War spy plot—are curiously bifurcated. 

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theamazingadventuresofspider-guy asked: Awesome blog. Know of any hard-boiled noir set in Britain?

Noir is a subject of continual exploration, so there are parts of it I haven’t thoroughly explored yet.  British noir is one such part.  But I can provide several suggestions:

Akashic Books publishes noir short story anthologies about locations all over the world.  You might check out London Noir and the further works of its contributors.  I recommend Akashic anthologies with two caveats: first, anthologies are, by their nature, mixed bags.  Second, sometimes the stories aren’t strictly hardboiled, and draw on other elements of noir.

Gerald Kersh wrote noirish detective stories.  I’ve heard good things about Allan Guthrie (who is Scottish), though I’ve yet to read his novels. 

There is also a great deal of British film noir—much of which is set in Britain, though the most famous British film noir, The Third Man, is set in Vienna.  You might also check out Brighton Rock (featuring a pre-Doctor Who William Hartnell), Night and the City (an Anglo-American hybrid starring the underapreciated Richard Widmark), the original Gaslight (with Diana Wynward in the Ingrid Bergman role) and Victim (a bold-for-its-time tale of a closeted barrister trying to track down a blackmailer and murderer).

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