Good television last night.

Phil Spectors Demons.(ch4)
It has always been debated whether he warrants the genius tag and by my reckoning because his "Wall of Sound" was a completely new concept accomplished with a range of different artists maybe he was.The programmes concentrated on the dark side of his persona(which was most of it apparantly) and ranged fron the bizzare to the sickening.The treatment of his adopted sons was horrible and had a terrible affect on their adult life.He was so posessive with his second wife he had a mannequin of himself placed in the passenger seat of the car she was driving so she would never forget about him.The fact that he kept pointing guns at people including John Lennon proably demonstrates he was a couple of coupons short of the pop up toaster.Great viewing though.I never knew River Deep Mountain High(Tina Turner) was such a flop that it cost him his reputation as the golden boy for a few years
Hidden History(rte1)
Had a lot to live up to after last weeks amazing episode about the Catalpe Rescue which got rave review by lads in the press.This weeks was about the Dev-Churchill face off during ww2.We know a lot of this regarding treaty ports etc but I didnt realise the bitterness between them got so personal.
Churcill in his victory speech could'nt resist having an attack on Ireland but more specificully Dev "frolicking" with the Germans.RTE is getting much better at this stuff.Anybody see these programmes, what did you think?

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This weeks was about the Dev-Churchill face off during ww2

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what was the quote about 800 years of bloodshed, you dont want anymore on your hands. i heard dev got the better of him, but more a point of it was played over in ireland than england. The whole thing was played out over national radio, radio 1 in both countries.

Yeh everybody in Ireland were waiting on Devs response to Churchills caustic remarks and it seems widely accepted his understated reply made Winston look foolish.
Having said that Devs decision to offer the German consulate condolences on Hitlers sucicide did incredible damage to Irelands reputation abroad particularly in the States where there was uproar.The world was becoming aware of the full horror of the Holocaust at the time so even in the context of the time it was an incredibly stupid thing to do.

Ya, the most stupid thing of all was Hitler had "operation green" and was going to use it only for Eduard Hempel told him to resist at the time on several occassions. Dev was using his own little war and bitterness towards Britain to blackguard ireland the world over.