Strange Conversations: With Special Guest Stars, My Female Relatives
Posted 29 December 2008 in Strange Conversations by Catriona
What happens when you have a mix including my mother, my sister, Patrick McGoohan’s Danger Man, and an iconic British cartoon:
MY SISTER: We also saw DVDs of something called Danger Man.
NICK: With Patrick McGoohan? It’s basically a dry run for The Prisoner. And, of course, the inspiration for Danger Mouse.
MY MOTHER: Of course, he was quite a well-considered Shakespearean actor.
ME: Who, Danger Mouse?
MY MOTHER: Oh, yes—Shakespeare was well known for his roles for mice.
ME: Well, one of them was a mole.
MY MOTHER: Who?
MY SISTER: Penfold.
MY MOTHER: Penfold?
ME: Yes, Penfold was a mole.
MY MOTHER: In Shakespeare?
(Slightly stunned pause from all parties.)
ME: Yes. He was one of Henry V’s lords. It was a very small role.
MY SISTER: Because he was a mole.
Share your thoughts [17]
1
Wendy wrote at Dec 29, 09:44 am
I’m humming the theme song from Danger Mouse right now
It’s great
2
Catriona wrote at Dec 29, 09:47 am
Now Danger Mouse I would love to get on DVD. I haven’t seen it in years, and I adored it.
3
Leigh wrote at Dec 29, 11:03 am
This shows just where you get your strange conversation genes from :) and yes and if you get Danger Mouse i would love a copy.
4
Wendy wrote at Dec 29, 11:25 am
I remember it was one of the first videos my brother and I ever rented as children (which was great excitement in itself)…we were avid fans!
5
Catriona wrote at Dec 29, 09:36 pm
I would like to put more of my strange conversations with my mother on the blog, but I can’t get the tone right. There was one where she ended by telling me I’d always been jealous of the dogs (not true!), which was hilarious in person but when I went to write it down it made her sound like a heartless termagant, which didn’t seem a fair representation.
6
Drew wrote at Dec 30, 07:44 am
ah yes, the controversal mole role in H5:
Gower: Captain Fluellan, you must come presently to the mines, the Mole would speak with you.
Fleullan: To the mines? Tell you the Mole it is not so good to come to the mines, for, look you, the mines is not according to the disciplines of the wars; the concavities of it is not suffucient, for, look you, th’athversary, you may disuss unto the Mole, look you, is digt himself four yards under the countermines. By Cheshu, I think ‘a will plow up all, if there is not better directions.
Shakespeare fascinatingly highlights both the ancient Welsh/Mole antigamisms here, as well as examining the non-honourable actions often taken by many moles during seige warfare.
7
Catriona wrote at Dec 31, 01:18 am
Hee!
8
Tim wrote at Dec 31, 04:34 am
> Shakespeare was well known for his roles for mice.
And he wrote a whole play about a shrew.
9
Catriona wrote at Dec 31, 04:56 am
True.
But it wasn’t a patch on The Killer Shrews, starring James Best, in which the shrews were actually dogs.
Which barked audibly in more than one scene.
10
Drew wrote at Dec 31, 05:26 am
of course, the thing about Shakespeare is that you can never tie him down to a single opinion on anything, he is perhaps the most self-efacing writer in English Lit, the ultimate fence sitter. Why even on the subject of moles he would have his cake and eat it too:
Hamlet: Well said, old mole. Canst thou work i’th’ earth so fast? A worthy pioneer!
So as you see, his exact personal opinion on moles is once again impossible to detect.
11
Tim wrote at Jan 1, 01:04 am
> So as you see, his exact personal opinion on moles is once again impossible to detect.
That’s if you accept that Shakespeare wrote all of the plays attributed to him. Consider that Marlowe is an anagram of ‘war mole’.
12
Catriona wrote at Jan 1, 05:04 am
Ooh-er.
Are you suggesting, Tim, that Christopher Marlowe added the militant mole sub-plot in Henry V? This could ignite a whole new Shakespearean controversy! Somebody tell Notes and Queries!
13
Tim wrote at Jan 1, 06:50 am
Yes, and/or that Christopher Marlowe was a pseudonym for a militant mole writer who was unable to write publicly due to the anti-mole prejudice of the period.
14
Catriona wrote at Jan 1, 08:27 am
Pseudonym and/or perhaps amanuensis—what with moles not having opposable thumbs.
15
Tim wrote at Jan 1, 09:39 am
He might have held a pen in his mouth.
16
Matthew Smith wrote at Jan 1, 12:04 pm
I’m tempted to buy Danger Mouse on DVD fairly regularly when in the childrens section with Sol but it wouldn’t be fair on him until he’s a little older.
17
Catriona wrote at Jan 2, 12:53 am
I guess I’m probably just about old enough to watch Danger Mouse on DVD.
Hmmm.