I watched the BBC Northern Ireland drama, Scapegoat, for about thirty-five minutes this evening on BBC HD. I'm afraid I simply did not find it sufficiently captivating and, instead, switched over to BBC2 for Newsnight.
Scapegoat refers to Iain Hay Gordon, who was wrongfully convicted of the murder of Miss Patricia Curran, daughter of a prominent High Court judge in Northern Ireland, the Honourable Mr Justice Curran.
The first error I immediately noticed by the scriptwriter was that the actress who played Lady Curran referred to herself on the phone by saying "this is Mrs Curran"; and, in the dining-room of their home at Whiteabbey, near Belfast, the commentator described them as "Mr Curran" and "Mrs Curran".
Had the scriptwriter researched the story properly, he or she would have learned that High Court judges are invariably granted knighthoods; so the Currans would have been known as Sir Lancelot and Lady Curran socially.
Newsnight, on BBC2, wasn't much more entertaining this evening, either: We were treated to a debate about whether, or not, Tony Blair would be enthroned as President of the European Union. I find the subject so boring and irrelevant myself. Who cares? If we left the EU tomorrow and forged closer commercial links with our Commonwealth and American friends, I'm sure that would be fine by me. The most appropriate EU president would be somebody like Nigel Farage!
Monday 26 October 2009
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10 comments :
On the Mr. & Mrs. point; I don't think Lance Curran was knighted until the 1960s, notwithstanding that HCt judges now invariably receive Knighthoods on appointment. William Lowry, whose son was Lord Lowry, was never knighted, despite being on the High Court bench.
Agreed, the acting was pretty terrible though!
I stand corrected! To be truthful, I don't exactly know when he was appointed to the High Court.
I know he went on to become a Lord Justice of Appeal, which he still was in 1974.
Perhaps he was a County Court Judge at the time of his daughter's untimely death?
He was on the High Court bench at the time of Patricia's death, he just hadn't yet been knighted.
Presumably the knighthoods weren't given out so efficiently back then!
The Attorney General of NI never received an ex-officio knighthood either. Gone were the early days of Northern Ireland when (almost!) every notable unionist became a baronet! Ha
...and even a few viscountcies! Viz. Sir Basil Brooke, Bt. and Sir James Craig, Bt. :-)
Tim
I think it unlikely the Currans in 1952 would have had wine at lunch.
And if he received a phone call at his club causing him to abandon his card game the waiter would have known who it was. So was it Mrs Curran?
The mystery remains, Anon. Many believe, to this very day, that the answers lie in southern Africa; and that it was inconceivable that Miss Curran's grieving mother committed the Act. To be truthful, I do not know.
OMG!! Who cares about the "Mr & Mrs" thing anyway? And I think Martin Mccann did a brilliant job of playing the part of Iain Hay Gordon! You're just nit pickin' It's just stupid you two may need to watch it again !
I know this is a old post but you may be interested to know that the lane way scenes of this BBC NI Drama Scapegoat where filmed in the grounds of Craigdarragh House in June 2009.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/craigdarragh-house/7453873948/in/set-72157630270078190/
Regards Owen
Anyone know where Patricia curran is buried?
Anon, I think she's buried at Drumbeg parish church.
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