The Colour of Magic, Sky
Power-hungry sorcerer Ymper Trymon was on the cusp of learning the final spell of a powerful tome, the Octavo. First, though, he needed to kill the world’s worst wizard, Rincewind, by casting a spell to turn him into stone. The bumbling Rincewind deflected the spell skywards. A conceited Trymon then slipped on a banana peel and landed under his own spell, becoming TV’s most surprised statue.
Sir Trevor McDonald and Julie Etchingham uncover the history behind Buckingham Palace and how an unfurnished building had been transformed to become a symbol of the British monarchy.
The first event, “Sketchy business: making it in animation”, brought together a panel hosted by the university’s Dr Helen Haswell and featured three experts from Belfast animation house JAM Media: visual effects supervisor and director Niall Mooney; animator Jessica Patterson; and animation director Simon Kelleghan. They discussed how to get your foot in the door, as well as giving practical advice, including how best to structure a show reel.
“I wanted to make a drama unlike anything else, because Chernobyl was unlike anything else. I wanted it to be as unique as the event itself.” That was the ambitious goal set by writer and producer Craig Mazin for his epic mini-series about the Soviet power plant that caught fire on 26 April 1986, triggering the most disastrous nuclear accident in history. And Mazin has succeeded.
Surprise hit of the week is 100 Vaginas, in which the artist Laura Dodsworth photographs the genitalia of 100 women and then talks to them about the images and how they feel about their bodies. It’s a great film – bold and political and warm – but firmly at the art-house end of the channel’s output. Everyone is delighted when it attracts an audience of more than 1 million.
Based on the series of novels by George R.R. Martin, A Song of Ice and Fire, the show’s previous series saw Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) and Jon Snow (Kit Harrington) seek an alliance with Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) to prepare for the arrival of the Night King.
The new trailer sees a line of characters, including Jamie Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), Brienne of Tarth (Gwendoline Christie) and Grey Worm (Jacob Anderson) preparing for war in Winterfell, as a smug Cersei remains safe in the Red Keep.
From award-winning director Dan Reed (This World), Leaving Neverland (w/t) documents the accounts from James Safechuck and Wade Robson as they describe the sexual abuse they went through as children by Michael Jackson.
At the time of the allegations, Safechuck was 10 years-old and Robson was seven as they were befriended by Jackson during the height of the music star’s career.
Some feminists might choke at the idea that the highly controversial Barbie doll was actually invented by an ardent feminist. This was one of many fascinating insights to emerge from an RTS event devoted to a new feature-length documentary Tiny Shoulders: Rethinking Barbie.
The film examines the changing face of Barbie from a feminist – and occasionally anthropological – perspective since the doll’s debut in 1959.
