I Am A Swede

Even though Dynasty at this time clearly was a dying show I think it did get an injection of energy with Stephanie Beacham's arrival as Sable. I didn't miss Krystle at all after she fell into a coma. And although Emma Samms couldn't hold a candle to Pamela Sue Martin as Fallon the writing for her did improve slightly at the end. So personally I feel that Dynasty's last season was better than Falcon Crest's final season. That poor show definitely went out with a whimper.....

Here's some rare footage of Vivien performing a number from her Tony-winning role in Tovarich.

I think the show is quite watchable now. There's no "big" story going on, but after the fiasco of Kim's weeklong return it feels nice that they've dialed things down a bit. It's more relatable human stories right now which is far more preferable than big stunts.

It might not be a spoiler anymore, but just in case..... is returning for a short visit in the new year. No word on how long the visit will be.

I'm not even sure they had that illusion in the first place. From what I gather many people just voted against the E.U. without any thought to what a British exit would lead to. I think it's quite revealing that so many of the younger people voted to stay while many older voted for Brexit. Sadly it seems that a lot of people in Britain still live in the past when their island empire ruled the world. Now that the actual ramifications of Brexit are beginning to dawn on people many regret their Brexit vote.

How come I haven't seen this before now! The one and only, the fabulous and lovely Ms Leigh!! I loathe Ken Tynan though. He had some kind of personal animosity going on towards Vivien and constantly criticized her acting. He did change his mind about her Lady Macbeth after her death though, but too little, too late Kenny-boy!

Primetime soaps at their peak. Dallas #1, Falcon Crest #2 and Dynasty #4. Happy days.

To be honest I have a hard time seeing Gail as Georgina. Not because I think she would have been in any way wrong for the role. It's just that "Upstairs, Downstairs" is so special to me and it's hard for me to imagine anyone else playing those characters. But I liked Gail on "Emmerdale Farm" and I don't think she would have been at all bad. But for me Lesley-Anne Down is Georgina Worsley. There were some other choices for other roles that would have been a disaster though. Apparently Honor Blackman was mentioned as a possibility for the role of Lady Marjorie. While I love Honor she would have been completely wrong for that part. At least the way Lady Marjorie was written. Rachel Gurney however was fabulous in the role, which is funny since she had a lot of issues with it, which eventually made her leave the show.

But isn't that a presidential trait now?

Since there's not much else going on here right now I thought I'd share a little Emmerdale Farm trivia. I was browsing through "Inside UpDown", a book about the creation and production of "Upstairs, Downstairs" (my all-time favourite tv-show), and discovered that Gail Harrison, who played Marian Wilks off and on during the 1970s, was a contender for the role of Georgina Worsley. The role eventually went to Lesley-Anne Down. I had of course already read this, since I have owned the book for several years, but I never really connected the dots before.

Oh no, Mrs. Oleson!

Kei Nishikori beats Roger Federer in straight sets (7-6, 6-3)!

I'm more surprised that she actually went out in public with that hairstyle! Babs darling, you know I love you but that hair is almost as bad as that horrible curly stuff you had in the 1970s! Her makeup is not the most flattering either. I wonder if she had fired her stylist before this?

It looks like this site https://www.thelocal.se/politics could be a good start. The 4 party alliance that they want (The Moderate party, the Christian Democrats, the Centre Party and the Liberals) doesn't have enough seats in parliament to be able to rule. They even have one less seat (143) than the left (the Social Democrats, the Green Party and the Left Party) which has 144. You need 175 seats to have the majority. The Sweden Democrats have 63 seats, so with their support the Alliance could have the majority, and while the Moderate Party and the Christian Democrats have hinted that they're willing to rely on them for support the Centre Party and the Liberals have categorically refused to consider that. But at the same time they (especially the leader of the Centre Party, Annie Lööf) has insisted that their first choice remains a government consisting of the 4 Alliance parties. How they will make that work is beyond me though. There's been some talk that Lööf wants to try and entice the Green Party away from their collaboration with the Social Democrats, but even with their support the Alliance won't have a majority. And since the Sweden Democrats view the Green Party as one of their main foes, due to the Green Party's immigration-friendly stance, such a government would stand no chance in parliament. To me the only solution (other than a new election, which would solve absolutely nothing) is a coalition with the Social Democrats, the Green Party, the Centre Party and the Liberals. They wouldn't have a majority, but would almost certainly be able to rely on support from the Left Party, even if it might be passive support. One can only hope that these supposedly grown up people will stop behaving like obstinate children soon and face the facts and deal with them accordingly.

Right now we are a perfect example of this. It's now been two months since our election and we still have no new government, because the parties, especially the Centre Party and the Liberals, are clinging to the Alliance with the Christian Democrats and the Moderate Party despite it being impossible for them to get a majority without turning to the right-wing Swedish Democrats, which the Liberals and the Centre Party have sworn they will never do. It's like they are burying their heads in the sand and refusing to face up to the actual election results. The Social Democrats have repeatedly invited them to talks about working together, but they keep repeating, like parrots, that a four-party Alliance government is their first choice. Meanwhile the political life here is at a stand-still and it's becoming more and more ridiculous. It's time for especially Annie Lööf, leader of the Centre Party, to face up to the fact that if she wants to keep the Swedish Democrats from having any influence, which is what she has stated over and over, then a coalition with the Social Democrats is the only way, unless she wants to force us into a new election process. And the only thing that that would accomplish would almost certainly be that the Swedish Democrats would increase.... Time to grow up and face the reality Annie!!

Yet another mass shooting with 12 dead so far. No motive revealed yet, and the perpetrator is dead so perhaps we'll never know why this happened. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46135459

The final Falcon Crest episode of the season saw Richard being (supposedly) killed by Eric Stavros, and Melissa gaining control of Falcon Crest itself through some old deed. The cliffhanger was Angela meeting a mystery man (with a beard) and asking him "Isn't it time Maggie knew you're alive" or something similar.