BY ROGER WATSON Tucked away along the bustling Danube Canal, like a secret waiting to be discovered, stands the Schänzel Chapel – officially known as St. John Nepomuk Chapel. This unassuming, pint-sized sanctuary is so easy to miss that most passersby barely glance its way. But for those who pause, who dare to peer beyond its weathered exterior, a hauntingly beautiful mystery unfolds. At first … Continue reading A Hidden Gem: Vienna’s Schänzel Chapel
BY ROGER WATSON I only recently came across The Zone of Interest, released in 2023 to critical acclaim and solid box office returns. With its limited UK cinema release, I might have missed it entirely if not for Cathay Pacific’s in-flight entertainment system. Filmed in German with English subtitles, the movie explores the domestic life of Rudolf Höss, the longest-serving commandant of Auschwitz. Although it … Continue reading The Zone of Interest
BY ROGER WATSON I came to Bob Dylan relatively late. It wasn’t until university that a girlfriend introduced me to Nashville Skyline (1969)—his most country-influenced album, and my belated introduction to Johnny Cash, who duets with Dylan on Girl from the North Country. I wasn’t exactly hooked, but I liked a few songs. Everything changed the following year when I moved in with my cousin, … Continue reading A Complete Unknown
BY ROGER WATSON A good friend lent me The Balkan Trilogy by Olivia Manning. For a while, it sat untouched by my bedside as I worked through Neville Shute’s novels (I’m almost done). But with a long-haul flight looming, I finally began reading—and was hooked from the first chapter. Rather than lug the hefty book to the Far East, I downloaded it on Kindle and kept reading. … Continue reading Watching Tennis with the Queen
BY ROGER WATSON The film Sisu, made in 2022, had passed me by. A box office success on its release in the United States, I don’t recall it being shown in the United Kingdom. But it is available now on Netflix and if you like a good revenge movie with Nazis dying in ways you never imagined possible, then Sisu is the film for you. … Continue reading Sisu
BY ROGER WATSON Fast car chases, energetic sexual encounters, and bloodthirsty violence—none of these feature in Small Things Like These (2024), set in County Wexford, Ireland. Also devoid of humour, the film carries dark undertones, focusing on coal merchant Bill Furlong (Cillian Murphy) and his growing suspicion that something untoward is happening at the local convent. Indeed, something untoward and evil is taking place. The … Continue reading Small Things Like These
BY ROGER WATSON One of the joys of having a small retreat in North Yorkshire is that my wife and I can explore the area, previously unknown to us despite living in the East Riding of Yorkshire for 25 years. There are artisan food shops in Malton and Helmsley, copious farm shops, Ampleforth ale and cider (take care with the 8% alcohol one), country houses, … Continue reading The Best Pub Lunch Ever
BY ROGER WATSON Two nights in a Taiwanese sex hotel, and the earth moved for me The Far East has been the location of many bizarre adventures, as I have reported previously in these pages about airport adventures and trouble in the Taiwan National Museum. One other visit was particularly memorable. Try as I might to flush this one from my memory, it keeps floating … Continue reading A Sex Hotel in Taiwan
BY ROGER WATSON I have never ‘retoured’ to Alexandria. I went once and will never forget it. Fuelled with images from Lawrence Durrell’s masterpiece about post World War II stories in The Alexandria Quartet, I envisaged a bohemian city of bars and clubs, licentious and gay (in the modern sense of the word). Instead, I found a dusty, chaotic dump in the grip of Islamic … Continue reading Retour en Alexandre
BY ROGER WATSON Canary Black (2024) is a right load of old nonsense. But when your Gulf Air flight to Bahrain, already delayed by three hours, sits at the stand with you on board for a further three hours, this is the perfect kind of nonsense to pass the time. For a start there is Kate Beckinsale, looking good in a jump suit and knocking … Continue reading Canary Black
BY ROGER WATSON The persistent and gripping trailers for The Gorge (2025) on Apple TV+ put it high on my list of films to watch. While I am not sure the film lived up to the trailers, literally cliffhangers as the film is about a gorge, this was quite an enjoyable diversion. The film has a limited cast, most of whom play a minor role … Continue reading The Gorge
BY ROGER WATSON I have never managed to connect with South Korea despite several visits. I suppose that the fact these have all been business visits and mostly in winter when it is cold almost beyond belief has not helped. Also, I have only been to Seoul which is a huge traffic-jammed place. I don’t like Korean food, and I find the formality – the … Continue reading Plastic Paradise?
BY ROGER WATSON There seems to be an appetite for tense, violent Netflix western mini-series these days. The latest in the genre, the previous one American Primeval having been reviewed in these pages, Godless does exactly what it says on the can. Godless delivers buttock-clenching tension along with such blood-splattering violence that you are compelled to let the remaining seven episodes roll on. As with … Continue reading Godless
BY ROGER WATSON Number 24 (2024) is a Norwegian production directed by John Andreas Andersen. The film, available on Netflix this year with English dubbing, tells the true story of Norwegian World War II hero Gunnar Sønsteby. Sjur Vatne Brean and Erik Hivju portray Sønsteby in his youth and later years, respectively. The narrative shifts between two timelines: Sønsteby’s wartime resistance efforts and a lecture … Continue reading Number 24
BY ROGER WATSON Not for the fainthearted, American Primeval is, thankfully, only a Netflix mini-series. There is only so much ‘Sexual threat’ and ‘Injury detail’ that can be portrayed, if you consider rape – albeit off camera – and body parts flying everywhere (very much on camera) to be ‘threat’ and ‘detail’, respectively. Frankly, this is a gripping and guiltily enjoyable portrayal of late 19th … Continue reading American Primeval
BY ROGER WATSON Saint Columba achieved the seemingly impossible in converting Scotland from its Druidic pagan ways to Christianity in the sixth century. Travelling across the Irish Sea to Scotland and travelling between the Western Isles of Scotland on treacherous seas in open boats, he faced other dangers on land. Warlike kings, bloodthirsty druids and even the Loch Ness Monster – its first recorded sighting … Continue reading Columba’s Travels
BY ROGER WATSON Why anyone would go to see Conclave, a film about the secretive proceedings behind locked doors at the Vatican – thus ‘conclave’ – in the election of a new Pope, is unclear. But they have, in their droves. It is a box office success netting $75 million worldwide and scoring 93% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and 86% on their Popcornmeter of … Continue reading Conclave
BY ROGER WATSON I am sure that I am not alone. My life is dominated by series of electronic devices which include a MacBook, an iPad, an iPhone (providers other than Apple are available) and a Kindle (Country Squire passim). It is not so much the fact that my whole life is on these devices, having fallen totally for the convenience of the digital age, … Continue reading Tech Grandpa
BY ROGER WATSON The Monk and the Gun (2023) emerges from the relatively new but thriving Bhutanese film industry, centring on events from 2008 when Bhutan held its first general election. The King had shocked the nation by abdicating ahead of the elections, leading to unease among the population, particularly as the internet had only just arrived in the country. This film prompted me to … Continue reading The Monk and the Gun
BY ROGER WATSON There used to be a slaughterhouse in the village where I was brought up in the northeast of Scotland. During my childhood, the slaughterhouse was a modest wooden hut. We spent a lot of time playing near the slaughterhouse as the road was quiet and we could run our carts (makeshift erections of pram wheels and a few planks) down the sloped … Continue reading The Old Slaughterhouse
