GRAYLY OUTRAGEOUS

Because of competing programs that only ran once in the week, I quickly fell out of watching Charles Dickens' 'Bleak House' on 'Masterpiece Theater' Sunday nights. But I also failed in picking up the missed episodes on their repeat nights.

So I checked in Netflix.com and the series comes out on DVD February 28th. I added it to my queue far enough down the waiting list so that I'm just about first in line to get it when it comes out. (I have enough eps of 'Doctor Who' and 'Nighty Night' to get through first.)

But of the episodes I did see, there was a character that's been disturbing the vision of my own chronology.

Smallwood is a typical Dickensian stain on human society. An evil maggot of a man, he's old - a grandfather with a grown grand-daughter who has to "shake him up" every few minutes. He's infirm, but still vital in his repulsive nature; a usurer who buys up people's debts to force collections.

And in this production he's played by Phil Davis, who was the teenaged, sullen "hero" Chalkie in the movie version of The Who's "Quadrophenia" back in 1979.

It wasn't that long ago, I found myself protesting, and already he's playing a grandfather?

I bet it kills Sting, who played Ace - the Mod that Chalkie and his like looked up to... and who was the titular character for one of the songs contributed by Keith Moon.

BCnU!
Tele-Toby