Nights at the Movies

I can go months without wanting to go to the cinema - and then two films I want to see come along in the same week.
The first was Peterloo - as a proud Mancunian, I had to go and see this. It's about the peaceful meeting in 1819 on St Peter's Field in Manchester that turned into a massacre. Over the years, I've done a bit of research into this important piece of Manchester history, and Mike Leigh got it right - the vicar gabbling the Riot Act while no-one could hear him, the disagreements between Henry 'Orator' Hunt and Sam Bamford (I've read his memoirs, too), even the removal of stones from the Field on the morning of the gathering. I was amused, though, when they talked about practicing drill and marching on Kersal Moor and the scene shifted to somewhere that most certainly was not Kersal Moor! Having said that, it would be impossible to film on Kersal Moor today, because it has been so much encroached on by more modern buildings (I used to live there).
There was another scene that had been filmed in Lincoln, in the square between the Cathedral and the Castle, at the top of Steep Hill - we recognised it (where the coach pulls up outside the newspaper office) straight away!
So, 'enjoyed' is probably the wrong word to use about such a grim tale, but I'd recommend the film to anyone who wants to know the history.

Then at the end of the week we went to see Bohemian Rhapsody.
The music was marvellous, of course, and the actor playing Freddie Mercury, Rami Malek, looked uncannily like the real Freddie - the actor playing Brian May could have been his twin, too. The Live Aid concert at Wembley was recreated extremely well, with original film of the crowd in the background of the modern actors - and when Freddie started to sing Bohemian Rhapsody on stage I was almost in tears, having seen what he was going through in his private life at the time. Again, a very good film, and I've been singing Queen songs all week!

The 7.30pm showing was fully booked when we got tickets, so we went to the 5pm showing, and went to Red Indigo for a very good curry afterwards, which made a perfect last evening before my Young Man had to go back to the Big City.