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*I ran a film club at the Gosforth branch of Abbeyfield residential care homes from June to December 2017. What I had envisioned as the first of three festive film clubs ran into difficulties. (I’ve written about the second in a previous post , and the third didn’t happen.) The activities coordinator booked an event during our weekly slot and didn’t informed me. The care staff kindly asked around the residents who weren’t planning on attending the carol-singing, and one – a newcomer who had fast become a regular – was interested in giving The Shop Around the Corner (dir. Ernst Lubitsch, 1940) a go.  While annoyed at the almost wasted 45-minute walk in the cold and a growing feeling of being side-lined in a role I answered a specific ad for back in the spring, I was happy to watch this classic movie in good company. We were also joined by a new volunteer who I hope will take over the club for a while to free me up to explore doing an oral history/memory project with t...

*I’ve been running a film club at the Grove, Gosforth, branch of Abbeyfield residential care homes since June 2017. In a special festive film club, we watched the 1947 version of Miracle on 34 th Street written and directed by George Seaton and starring Maureen O’Hara and John Payne. To my surprise, the DVD included a colourized version, which we collectively decided to have a go with. As vision is an issue for many residents, colour is easier for them than black and white film. Being a joyful story about the spirit of Christmas, the colour (first added in the 1980s) was full of vibrant hues of red, green and gold, and rarely was its addition discernible. Six residents attended, and we were joined by two relatives. I was surprised that not only had no one seen this version before, but they also hadn’t heard of the story at all. It has experienced quite a few incarnations in theatre, radio, television, novelization and film since the original story was written by Valentine...