I have to be honest, I am fretting. We are halfway through the final series of Call My Agent!, the highly entertaining French series about a talent agency in Paris. We have been watching one episode a night for weeks now and I don’t know what I’ll do with myself when it’s finished. Should we save the last few episodes and space them out over the next few Saturday nights or just watch them daily until we’re finished? Actually, I don’t know why I bothered to ask that question – there is no way I can wait weeks to find out what’s going to happen to Andréa, Gabriel and the full cast of eccentrics. So, in a few days it will all be over and I will be bereft, hunting for my next obsession.
In these dreary times we all need an obsession to get us through and Call My Agent! has fitted the bill perfectly. I studied French many years ago, but am lucky if I can decipher 1 in 100 words of their rapid-fire dialogue. They speak so fast and use so much slang that it’s hopeless, but I have found some great YouTube videos of a particularly animated man explaining all the baffling expressions they use. It doesn’t help my comprehension at all, but he makes me smile and it does while away the time. Then I found an article about the obscure cinematic references in the series, which I read attentively, but now have no memory of whatsoever. My brain has only very limited space these days and there certainly isn’t any room for the complexities of French cinema.
So, what next? I’ll have to tear my gaze reluctantly from glamorous Parisian scenes and find something else to fill up my time and my brain. And I don’t mean decorating the spare room. Maybe it would be useful to begin to contemplate life outside the house, assuming that we’re going to be let out some time this year for good behaviour. I have a plan. I have just used the last of my Christmas book tokens to order piles of books by travel writers, past and present, and I’m going to enjoy spending time with them as they explore the world.
I’m starting with Monisha Rajesh’s Around the World in 80 Trains. This one’s a safe bet because I enjoyed her first book, Around India in 80 Trains. I also saw her speak at a book festival and she was good company with fascinating stories to tell. I liked her and I always think that’s a good start with a travel writer. Then I’m going back in time to read Eric Newby’s A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush, from 1958. This classic charts Eric Newby’s unlikely (and entertaining) journey from a career in haute couture to incompetent mountain climber in Afghanistan. He and his friend take on the challenges of the Hindu Kush hopelessly ill prepared and with seemingly very little idea how to climb mountains. I’m looking forward to it.
I think my new obsession is looking suspiciously like an old obsession. Travel once again. Maybe I should be looking harder at what else television has to offer (Deutschland 89 is getting good reviews), but those books are already winging their way to me with their promise of adventure.
We found the first episode of Deutschland 89 a bit confusing. The main problem was that we were struggling to remember half the characters from the first two series, which we really enjoyed. It’s that memory problem that you talk about. We will definitely stick with it and I am sure enjoy it.
The best thing we’ve watched recently is It’s a Sin on C4. We’ve got one episode to go and I suspect boxes of hankies will be needed.
I think we’ll start watching the Deutschland series when we’ve recovered from reading all the subtitles in Call My Agent! It’s a Sin was great, wasn’t it?