Ramblings, rumblings, grumblings, and rambling grumbly rumblings.

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1971 Alpine A110, Bewdley
I was pleased to see this in Bewdley: a 1971 Alpine A110. There aren't that many of them still around, and it's a nice little thing that looked very appealing sitting in the parking bay in Load Street. These cars had Renault engines, so you often see them referred to as Alpine-Renaults. Under that title, and using tuned versions of cars like this, the manufacturer ran away with the 1973 World Rally Championship, winning six of the year's 13 rounds.

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I grabbed a coffee this morning and managed to spill the last inch or so. Naturally the rich brown coffee went all over my fawn-coloured trousers! Go me. I had no choice but to dash into a nearby charity shop and buy half-decent replacements to change into. Fortunately I found a reasonably nice navy pair by Tu (Sainsbury's clothing brand) so at least I fell on my feet a bit. Even so, it was annoying I hadn't done this when I was wearing black trousers!

Not a lot else to report about the day: that was pretty much the highlight, or at least the lowlight. The rain held off, though it looked a bit threatening briefly in the late morning and really wasn't very warm for May. I also had time between boring stuff to pop into B&M to see if I could find a new power bank that wasn't either overpriced or some garish colour. (Answer: no.) I'll have a look in a different discount shop at some point in the next few days, as I'm not in a rush for it.

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A pretty ordinary day, despite it being Bank Holiday Monday. The weather was dry but mostly cloudy, and I didn't do anything interesting. I did watch a documentary on the making of Life on Earth, which was interesting, and after all it's hard to find anything David Attenborough does boring. Quite a different world in those days: once you'd set off to the other side of the planet, you could literally go weeks between contacts with your employers back home. Not even satellite phones back then (late 1970s) let alone the internet!

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...is "Poor Ginger", and it is devastating. I sometimes wonder how many parents buy Black Beauty for their kids under the impression that it's a "cute fluffy animal" story, only to find those children traumatised by details of Beauty rediscovering her former friend suffering a slow and painful death doing the lowest rung of cab work. Anna Sewell was of course writing mainly for adults, and with the intention of her book being a campaign for more humane treatment of horses. Pulling her punches would not have done that job.

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It is such a shame that Deliverance has been reduced in the popular imagination to one segment of one sequence. While the rape scene is genuinely disturbing – which is as it should be, as long as the actors are safe – and arguably too long, the canoeing scenes in the wilderness are remarkable, the relationships within the group are fascinating, and there's a pervasive sense of discomfort the entire way through, making you believe these men really have found themselves seriously out of their element.

I don't go along with those who lament the ability to make a film like this today. While the production was not quite as reckless as sometimes made out, eg Jon Voight only did some of his own cliff-climbing, it was still genuinely dangerous, while the notion I saw recently that an intimacy coordinator would have "ruined" the rape scene is eye-rolling. I also won't forgive Burt Reynolds for his frankly defamatory later comments implying that Bill McKinney was on the point of attacking Ned Beatty for real until he (Reynolds) intervened.

You can't say that this film does a whole lot for the image of northern Georgia in the 1970s, and for me on the other side of the Atlantic it's an even more alien world, but the overpowering atmosphere is there in spades. Despite the generally excellent cinematography there are a few scenes, such as part of the cliff climb, which are so obviously shot day-for-night as to take you out of the story a bit. Still, Deliverance is one of those films I'm glad I've finally seen, appreciate for its audacity – but probably won't ever watch again. ★★★★

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An hour-long B-movie whodunit perhaps most notable for a pre-Bond Honor Blackman in a supporting role. The story of a banker's wife murdered with multiple suspects in the frame is well enough told, and the acting is generally reasonable. Ursula Howells is the best of them, though sadly she's the one who is bumped off early on! The ending is a bit rushed, but the short running time keeps things watchable. ★★½

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From the Guardian a couple of days ago: US won’t give unredacted Epstein documents to UK police without formal request in the Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Peter Mandelson cases. The US Department of Justice is insisting on the bureaucratic and lengthy process of a mutual legal assistance request. The Metropolitan Police commissioner and others have tried more informal routes, but the DOJ is proving unhelpful. Now there's a shock.