Old Guildhall, Eye, Suffolk
Easter Sunday evening and I write this after a lovely peaceful Day spent in the Suffolk countryside with closest friend Jenni and her partner David. Easter has always been for me, as for most people the most important Christian Holiday in the calendar. It is the message of Love that Easter brings us all and the renewal of Hope. The world – its story is a difficult one and we live in all sorts of pressures and demands…..it seems even more so, with the speed of communication, which brings all the bad news and sad stories to us in much more detail and much more quickly.
However the message is always the same ……Love is the most powerful force in the world. 
That message rides through much of the stories told in my world of the arts and the media, it may not be always obvious, but look and in general, you will find it, always in the major work. Its the first thing I look for in a character, a script…..where’s the love? Most artists find it an irresistible ingredient, even if they don’t intend it in the first instant…….but it is generally the driver, which will push a story, a painting, a piece of music. Without that essential component, humour doesn’t work, comedy, tragedy, drama all fall flat and are meaningless. There is plenty of creative work that is sharp, edgy, clever, but its the essential ingredient: love, which “separates the exceptional from the mundane” and leaves us wanting more.
This message was driven home powerfully by the writer/actor Phoebe Waller-Bridges in her terrific series FLEABAG. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5687612/When I initially watched the first episode of the first series, I was far from convinced and nearly didn’t bother with the next episode. I came back to it and was hooked. It was clever, funny, modern and above all written and made with love. This is largely why series two has been so successful, love permeates the whole story…..love between sisters, paternal love and the fated love story between our heroine and her priest. The newspapers have written about it…newscasters have talked about it and Phoebe is the star of the moment…..she gets it!
All for now, friends….go forward with love! Happy Easter…….
Parish Church Eye, Suffolk, Easter Sunday 2019
Happy Easter, Jane
I was born and raised in Suffolk, a lovely county.
I shall have to give Fleabag a whirl.
What saddens me about our world these days is the naked *anger* which is so apparent … so many of us are ‘against’ so many things and not thinking of what we are ‘for’ … I am For Love 🙂
For some unknown reason i came downstairs this morning singing “I’m in the Mood for Love” …. so the tone of your entry seemed particularly apposite!
Roger (a fan since your Hadleigh days!)
Happy Easter, Jane. We missed you at St Michael’s, but it is nice to imagine you enjoying the loveliness of Suffolk.