As an act of (apostate) Christian charity, I am going to forgive you for your unkindness towards a fictional 96 year old man who served in two world wars to defend our nations.  I do not judge you. God will take care of that.

OK, so with that out of the way, please may I be totally random and talk about the similarities between Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka and Jeremy Piven's Harry in the ITV drama Mr Selfridge. Because ever since the first episode aired, I have had the two characters melded into one in my mind's eye.  The theatrical, choreographed movement, the wild ideas, the quixotic temperament, the dazzling smiles.  Yes? No?

Here is Mr Selfridge: 

And here is Mr Wonka: 

And it would make my life complete to have them greet each other with a "How do you do? How do you do? How do you do?"

On 4/5/2016 at 7:54 AM, blessalessi said:

As an act of (apostate) Christian charity, I am going to forgive you for your unkindness towards a fictional 96 year old man who served in two world wars to defend our nations.  I do not judge you. God will take care of that.

OK, so with that out of the way, please may I be totally random and talk about the similarities between Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka and Jeremy Piven's Harry in the ITV drama Mr Selfridge. Because ever since the first episode aired, I have had the two characters melded into one in my mind's eye.  The theatrical, choreographed movement, the wild ideas, the quixotic temperament, the dazzling smiles.  Yes? No?

 

Is that worth watching?  I'm not a Piven fan, but love British TV so if you recommend it I'll give it a shot.

ETA I've never been great around strangers and irl Gene Wilder in this role would have scared the hell out of me.  He's way creepier than Johnny Depp.  When my mom was sick someone had given us Gilda Radner's book about her fight with cancer and Gene was really there for her...I had to keep reminding myself he was only creepy in my head.

I have only ever seen Jeremy Piven as Harry Selfridge.  I liked it enough to watch all four series and to be sad when it ended, if that is any recommendation?. It is fairly light Sunday evening stuff, the same tv genre as Downton Abbey,  I suppose.  I will probably watch it right through again if it is repeated.

Harry isn't vaguely scary unlike Gene Wilder's Mr Wonka. He is portrayed a lot more warmly than the real Harry, I think, although the story only follows a potted history of the real events.

For future reference though, when things get scary on screen, you need to remember that the camera and sound crew are right there with the bad guys. #OnlyTheBookIsReal  (When books get scary, I have no words of comfort. It is the price we pay for our love of literature )