Worrying times

[Matt Mackenzie]

As for the present crisis, I think we're beginning to see here the downside of globalisation, and that pernicious "just in time" approach to the movement and storage of goods. So much of the world's mass-manufacturing capacity is concentrated in a single part of the world (east Asia). All right - in some people's terms anyway - as long as transport is able to function freely, but now ...

All a bit incoherent, but I haven't really time to write it up properly. Just look on it as ideas being tossed in for consideration and discussion.

There are going to be major changes as a consequence of this, for (almost certainly) both good and ill.

[Colin Purdon]

I seem to remember an old disaster movie, where the world was doomed, then it rained and it solved the problem. Maybe an early appearance for Christopher Lee?

Night of the Big Heat which indeed starred Christopher Lee.

[NickFaulks]

As for the present crisis, I think we're beginning to see here the downside of globalisation, and that pernicious "just in time" approach to the movement and storage of goods.

Statement of the bleeding obvious for most of us, with the only people who didn't see it coming being the really clever ones who run the place. They will of course have organised matters so they don't come to any personal harm whatever happens.

[JustinHorton]

I have a memory the final BBC Day of the Triffids (1981) episode. The last of the main characters steal a Land Rover and flee the remnants of the military, who were planning a new feudal society. A bit like so many zombie stories, the actual killer plants end up being the least of their worries.

It wasn't the Military - it was a man (Torrance) who had set up a system of serfdoms in the South of England. The main characters escaped to the Isle of Wight.

Very much a good-bad book, to use Orwell's term: I read it only three or four years ago. Some fantastic stuff like some of the sequences in London. Some very iffy stuff like for instance the same sharing-women idea that's parodied at the end or Dr Strangelove being taken very seriously.

. They will of course have organised matters so they don't come to any personal harm whatever happens.

Maybe. Epidemics tend to cross barriers of class and wealth though, there's no escaping them. (Already here in Spain some very senior political.figures with very dubious reputations have tested positive.)

[Kevin Thurlow]

"Night of the Big Heat"

Yes - that's the one!

On the same theme, I know "Tripods" was supposed to be for children but the TV series was good. Actually, the third book was so scary, that BBC refused to broadcast a dramatization, which is odd, because TV/movie adaptations are so frequently nothing like the book, they could change everything.

I agree John Wyndham was awesome usually.

[Matt Bridgeman]

I remember reading the third Tripods book just to see what happened. Wasn’t it dropping hand grenades from hot air balloons onto the tripod factories that win the day, or something like that?

[Kevin Thurlow]

"I remember reading the third Tripods book just to see what happened."

Sadly, I didn't - I just recall the story that BBC wouldn't use it.

[Matt Bridgeman]

Essential Sunday viewing (or was it Saturday) at a time when there was only 3 channels I’d guess. I was really upset when they canned the final series. I’m not sure the BBC ever gave a great explanation for that one. Late night repeats of classic scary films like Invasion of the Body Snatchers were the stuff of nightmares!

[Peter Turner]

And don't forget 'The Quatermass Experiment' from BBC 1953. I remember the family getting together (Sundays I think) at an aunty who had a tv. Very scary, I hid behind the sofa and poked my head around to have a peep every now and then.

[Daniel Gormally]

They did a tripods series as well (possible you can still watch it on youtube)

They didn't get as far as the books though, because i think they dropped it after a second series.

[Daniel Gormally]

Sorry just saw Kevin's post. Didn't realize that was the reason, although they were different, quainter times. Now they'd probably be asking the producers to make it more scary...

[Matt Bridgeman]

It will be interesting to see if tv audiences now lose a bit of appetite for these end of the world type stories for a while.

[NickFaulks]

I agree John Wyndham was awesome usually.

Yes, he was a favourite of mine at school and is well worth another read. The Midwich Cuckoos raises some quite deep questions which are of relevance today.

On the subject of reading, I formed a plan yesterday to stock up on library books for the coming period of isolation. Too late, the libraries have already closed their doors.

[JustinHorton]

For some years now I've been taking every opportunity when back in the UK to uy secondhand books so as to build up a large stockpile for my retirement or a long period of unemployment. The second part of this was always previously said in jest.

[Matt Bridgeman]

For some refreshing crime/mystery novels in an Australian setting, these two new authors are writing some terrific stories;

Jane Harper;
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jane-Harper/e/B001KI8MCE

And Chris Hammer;
https://www.amazon.co.uk/kindle-dbs/aut ... B07JR7CCRX