THE SINGER NOT THE SONG...

I`ve been watching some TV series lately about Cornwall.  There seem to be quite a few of them, I guess because in a time of lockdown we have all been on the lookout for some relief, if only vicariously.   There`s been Rick Stein`s series, one about Cornwall`s fishing life, a more serious one by Simon Reeve and one by Julia Bradbury, which is still ongoing.

It`s the Julia Bradbury one which is `interesting.`  The screenshot above shows her on a clifftop overlooking one of the enchanting coves along the coastline close to Gwennap Head.  This was the first episode in the series and promised to cover the walk from Porthcurno to Sennen Cove, via Lands End.   Which was a fine ambition but the challenge to do any kind of justice to that walk was not helped by the fact that the first eight minutes or so were actually filmed some miles away - at Botallack, where Julia got involved with an artist who was captivated by the sight of the Crowns Engine Houses perched on the cliff.  Well, who wouldn`t be?

And having spent that amount of time, given the need for a long advert break half way through the half hour programme, there wasn`t much time left to cover the advertised journey.  So we were left with very short glimpses of the spectacular landscape of that part of the Cornish coast - the odd stop at Porthgwarra, a longer look at the Minack Theatre and a couple of interviews with passing historians and wildlife experts along the way.  And when Sennen Cove was eventually reached, the short time left was spent with another artist, this time one who was doing his thing with a rake in the sand.

We`ve done that walk - OK, in bite size chinks, which is really the best way to do walks like that, so you can really take in what it`s all about;  far more satisfying than the rather self indulgent glimpses which Julia allowed us to see.   What`s needed is for someone to do the walk with a camera and just walk it - no interviews, no distractions, no faux whooping and hollering, just show the world what it`s really like.  

It strikes me too that series like Julia`s, passingly entertaining though it may be, tend in the end to be more about the presenters than the landscape they`re passing through, which is a pity.  In the final analysis it tends to be all about the singer rather than the song being sung.

 And the sun always seems to shine - they pick a good day for it.  When we did that walk a few years ago now, we saw it like it really was.  Here`s a photo I took  then - it could be the same spot where Julia was standing in the picture above - showing the bit of coast path above Nanjizal Bay.......please click on the photo for a better image.....

No sign of Julia or anyone else on that day, which was all the better for it.  It`s called living.