Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

James Martin Charlton

@jmcfire.bsky.social

83 followers 91 following 1K posts

"...a poet of the tower blocks" - What's on. Theatre 🎭 and Film 🎬, Academic 📚. Author of Fat Souls, Divine Vision. Views my own. https://linktr.ee/jmcfire

linktr.ee

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

James Martin Charlton @jmcfire.bsky.social · Nov 30

My two most recent play publications - Divine Vision: William Blake in Felpham and The Pilgrim's Progress - are available from TSL publications:
tslbooks.uk/product-tag/...

1 1 6

James Martin Charlton @jmcfire.bsky.social · 4h

Not lovely Diane Keaton! Sublimely funny in Woody Allen films, heartbreaking as Kay in The Godfather films, a feisty Louise Bryant in Reds. Always wonderful in everything. RIP.

James Martin Charlton @jmcfire.bsky.social · 1d

Madhouse (1974), which I've waited years to see, is a self-referential Vincent Price horror with some great moments , but its weak script squanders a fine cast and its promising meta premise. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...

A ★★★ review of Madhouse (1974)

The last in the series of veteran-led horror pictures made by American International Pictures, beginning with House of Usher in 1960. Vincent Price, the perennial star of these offerings, plays an act...

letterboxd.com

James Martin Charlton @jmcfire.bsky.social · 2d

In my latest for The Critic, I write about the dramaturgical problems with the didactic drama Jonathan Pryce pitched to the Guardian earlier this week. thecritic.co.uk/the-pryce-is...

The Pryce is wrong | James Martin Charlton | The Critic Magazine

Despite (and often because of) their many odd ways, I like actors. You might reckon that’s a good thing for a playwright. I usually get on with them, and the talented ones are like gold dust.

thecritic.co.uk

James Martin Charlton @jmcfire.bsky.social · 3d

Wicked Stepmother (1989) is a grotesque curiosity and Bette Davis’s sorry swansong, its doomed shoot and dire script collapsing into cinematic hell. boxd.it/biDE41

A ★ review of Wicked Stepmother (1989)

A supposed fantasy comedy about a witch (or two) going around ripping off and killing families. As such, it plays out like a particularly poorly written and directed 1970s Disney live-action romp, ful...

boxd.it

James Martin Charlton @jmcfire.bsky.social · 4d

jmcfire.substack.com/p/the-path-t...

The Path to Dachau

A visit in 2010

jmcfire.substack.com

James Martin Charlton @jmcfire.bsky.social · 4d

Substack: The Path to Dachau. The first in an occasional series of archive posts from previous blogs, this piece of travel writing tells of a visit I made to Dachau in 2010.
Link 👇

James Martin Charlton @jmcfire.bsky.social · 5d

Steve (2025) is a chaotic if well-acted bore that mistakes intensity for insight; like its troubled teens, it could use a bit more self-discipline. I came away more convinced than ever that Nordic social science models are catastrophic. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...

A ★★ review of Steve (2025)

It’s 1986 and Steve runs a school for disturbed older boys, an experimental unit along a Finnish model. The technique seems to be that the teachers bond with the kids, who also get some talking cure, ...

letterboxd.com

James Martin Charlton @jmcfire.bsky.social · 5d

John Woodvine was Malvolio in the first Shakespeare I ever saw on stage, an RSC Twelfth Night in 1980. A wonderful performance, my classmates and I’s sides ached with laughter. I am eternally grateful to him for that Induction. RIP.

James Martin Charlton @jmcfire.bsky.social · 7d

The Pyx (1973) is a haunting Canadian mystery/horror sustained by Karen Black’s intensity and a powerful sense of unease, even if it doesn't quite hang together. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...

A ★★★ review of The Pyx (1973)

This review may contain spoilers. Visit the page to bypass this warning and read the review.

letterboxd.com

James Martin Charlton @jmcfire.bsky.social · 7d

Mosquito Squadron (1969) is a routine late-war adventure weighed down by cheap production values and a limp romance, with Charles Gray adding limited fruit flavour. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...

A ★★½ review of Mosquito Squadron (1969)

This review may contain spoilers. Visit the page to bypass this warning and read the review.

letterboxd.com

James Martin Charlton @jmcfire.bsky.social · 7d

Some info here. Looks like they added some songs. Predictably, Beverly Cross co-wrote the book. www.guidetomusicaltheatre.com/shows_h/hans...

Hans Andersen

www.guidetomusicaltheatre.com

James Martin Charlton @jmcfire.bsky.social · 7d

Oh yes.

James Martin Charlton @jmcfire.bsky.social · 7d

How have you never seen it? It was on TV constantly when we were kids. Haven’t watched it for years, and can only recall the songs. They staged it at Palladium with Tommy Steel in the 70s.

James Martin Charlton @jmcfire.bsky.social · 8d

The McKenzie Break (1970) is solid POW drama with a twist - Germans escaping from a camp in Scotland. The main protagonist/antagonist dynamic is pure Arden - rectilinear vs curvilinear man. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...

A ★★★ review of The McKenzie Break (1970)

This review may contain spoilers. Visit the page to bypass this warning and read the review.

letterboxd.com

James Martin Charlton @jmcfire.bsky.social · 8d

This is an extraordinary scene with Lammy in Manchester. It plays out just like Shakespeare. We’re neck deep in history now, and we know what that entails - Shakespeare was very eloquent on the matter. www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRrP...

'Shame on you': Deputy PM heckled at Manchester synagogue vigil

YouTube video by Sky News

www.youtube.com

James Martin Charlton @jmcfire.bsky.social · 9d

substack.com/@jmcfire/not...

JMC Fire (@jmcfire)

Troilus and Cressida is one of the toughest of Shakespeare’s plays to pull off. One of the first revisionist works in the Western canon, it takes the Homeric/Chaucerian view of the Trojan War and turn...

substack.com

James Martin Charlton @jmcfire.bsky.social · 9d

Troilus and Cressida at Shakespeare's Globe is disappointing staging that leans too broad, but almost worth seeing for Samantha Spiro’s inspired Patroclus.
Link 👇

James Martin Charlton @jmcfire.bsky.social · 10d

Matthias & Maxime (2019) is that dreaded entity, French-Canadian arthouse cinema; a sensitive, tasteful, and sanitised romance that takes faffing and avoidance to absurd extremes - and lengths. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...

A ★★★ review of Matthias & Maxime (2019)

This review may contain spoilers. Visit the page to bypass this warning and read the review.

letterboxd.com

James Martin Charlton @jmcfire.bsky.social · 12d

Operation Kid Brother, aka OK Connery (1967) is a joyless Bond knock-off fronted by Neil Connery’s non-performance, its cynicism as blatant as its title, and lots of weary Eon veterans earning a fast buck. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...

A ★½ review of Operation Kid Brother (1967)

Blatant cash grab, in which some Italian (of course) chancers sign up Sean Connery’s brother, Neil, to play the younger brother of a secret agent. The main character, imaginatively named Dr Neil Conne...

letterboxd.com

James Martin Charlton @jmcfire.bsky.social · 13d

I saw a brilliantly done revival of Philip Ridley’s cult play The Pitchfork Disney, though for all its bravura the play itself left me a tad underwhelmed. substack.com/@jmcfire/not...

JMC Fire (@jmcfire)

The Pitchfork Disney by Philip Ridley is a play that I read and enjoyed years ago but never got around to seeing. A cause célèbre in its time, it’s credited with starting off the spurious In-Yer-Face ...

substack.com

James Martin Charlton @jmcfire.bsky.social · 13d

Tony Harrison’s sinewy version of the Oresteia is a seminal example of theatre language. His The Trackers of Oxyrhynchus was the perfect Olivier auditorium play. His film poem V is the greatest example of that form. A huge contribution. RIP. www.theguardian.com/books/2025/s...

Tony Harrison, poet and dramatist, dies aged 88

Known for his outspoken politics, the author was acclaimed for work in theatre, opera, film and TV but wanted to be thought of as a poet above all

www.theguardian.com

James Martin Charlton @jmcfire.bsky.social · 15d

Ordeal by Innocence (1985) is a flat Cannon Agatha Christie misfire in Dartford, where camp performances fail to excite and Dave Brubeck’s jarring score hammers the final nail in the coffin. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...

A ★★ review of Ordeal by Innocence (1984)

This review may contain spoilers. Visit the page to bypass this warning and read the review.

letterboxd.com

James Martin Charlton @jmcfire.bsky.social · 15d

Megalopolis (2024) is a humiliating spectacle, like watching a once-great master publicly soil himself in a haze of bad ideas and cheap effects. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...

A ★ review of Megalopolis (2024)

A sad watch. Coppola made one of the greatest runs of films of all time from 1972 to 1978, every one of them worthy of a place in the “best of all time” list. He’s been at best erratic since, and had ...

letterboxd.com

James Martin Charlton @jmcfire.bsky.social · 16d

They and many people in the progressive classes simply don’t seem to be able to believe it.

James Martin Charlton @jmcfire.bsky.social · 16d

It certainly won’t be stopped by people crying “far right” and lecturing voters on how wicked their views are. The main parties seem to be trapped in the headlights, seemingly incapable of doing or saying anything which will turn the tide.