Lately #33: Black Mirror, Little Orphan Annie and Shakespearean insults
Five things to entertain you, and one piece of advice.
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Every morning this past week - on the school run with my daughter - I’ve been listening to the original soundtrack for the 1982 movie musical, Annie. Yara and I grew up on different continents and yet we both sat so absorbed by the film as kids that we BOTH wore out our Annie VHS tapes. Every word and little aside is still stored in my brain - an excellent use of that crowded space, isn’t it?
Did you know that the ‘Little Orphan Annie’ story was inspired by an 1885 poem? More on that, AI and Carol Burnett below.
Gillian
Something we should all be watching…
I wouldn’t recommend Black Mirror to just anyone - and that trepidation stems way back to that first ever episode of Season 1 (The National Anthem), which redefined ‘shock factor’ (remember??). That was 14 years ago now. It’s gone on to become a show notorious for crossing into the morally uncomfortable, emotionally devastating, and socially taboo - sound like good entertainment? It really is.
Season 7 is here, and creator Charlie Brooker has gone back to the show’s roots with dystopian tech and bleak outcomes blended with dark comedy. For a great episode breakdown and ranking, check out
’s newsletter here. I would just bump Eulogy up in Aurelie’s rankings because Paul Giamatti can make me love any flawed character, and it’s such a moving episode.
Hotel Reverie tops the list - a story about a Hollywood actress who enters a fully immersive AI-generated film set in the 1940s. It raises questions about authorship and has led to some AI discussions with Charlie in interviews - I liked this quote as he is clearly someone who values AI as a tool but thinks we will always crave human-made stories:
“All creative work is basically an attempt by one human to communicate with some other humans. If you take one of the humans out … then I don’t understand what you’ve got anymore.”
If you’re like Yara and have never seen Black Mirror and don’t have time for 7 series, here are five episodes I’d recommend from across the seasons (safe for viewing, as far as I remember!).
Series 3 - Nosedive
Series 3 - San Junipero
Series 4 - USS Callister
Series 6 - Demon 79
Series 7 - Common People
Black Mirror fans - what’s your must-see episode?
A podcast you’ll want to share…
I’ve been keeping it light on the podcast front recently, so plenty Parenting Hell (an old favourite hosted by British comedian dads Rob Beckett and Josh Widdicombe, with plenty laugh-out-loud moments) and less of the serialised investigative stories (mostly because I haven’t found any good new ones - any recommendations?).
But if you’re a fan of the celebrity conversation format, Amy Poehler has a new podcast, Good Hang. And she is (a Good Hang). The first episode is with Tina Fey, just as the world would want it, but I jumped straight past to begin with Martin Short because this man brings guaranteed joy. Personal stories, comic tangents and chats about what makes us all laugh - have you listened?
An origin story of a beloved character…
I mentioned above how much we love Annie. We all know her as the irrepressible, red-haired star of the hit Broadway musical - but I didn’t realise her roots run much further back. Long before the stage or even the comic strip that brought her fame, the character began as a poem.
In 1885, American poet James Whitcomb Riley wrote The Elf Child, inspired by a real girl named Mary Alice ‘Allie’ Smith, a young orphan who briefly lived with Riley’s family. On its third printing, Riley retitled the poem Little Orphant Allie (‘orphant’ being an old form of ‘orphan’) - but a typesetting error transformed it into Little Orphant Annie, and the name stuck.
The poem was a hit and went on to inspire storybooks, a silent film, and eventually the comic strip. In 1924, cartoonist Harold Gray created Little Orphan Annie, borrowing the poem’s title, but not the story.
As this Lithub article explains in more detail than I expect you to read, the character was based on Gray’s life experiences, from his upbringing, to his military experiences, to the books he read. He also claimed he found inspiration from a real girl he met on the streets of Chicago:
“I talked to this little kid, and liked her right away. She had common sense, knew how to take care of herself. She had to. Her name was Annie. At the time, some 40 strips were using boys as the main characters; only three were using girls. I chose Annie for mine, and made her an orphan, so she’d have no family, no tangling alliances, but freedom to go where she pleased.”
Harold Gray, Editor and Publisher interview, 1951
From there, Annie’s story kept evolving - radio shows, 1930s films, and in 1977, the beloved Broadway musical. Then those worn-out VHS tapes I mentioned, and spin-off films and remakes that I didn’t even realise existed.
Annie has remained a symbol of grit, hope, and unshakeable optimism. Maybe it’s time for a rewatch.
A backstory you’ll want to read…
Who’s been watching Andor? I haven’t yet, but with the new season just started I wanted to share this fascinating BBC article that dives into the show’s real-world inspiration. The series creator Tony Gilroy - who wrote the Bourne films and Rogue One - says he devours non-fiction and “just can’t get enough history”. One book he found particularly gripping featured a dramatic bank robbery that he immediately envisioned as a thrilling movie sequence.
So, what was he reading?
Young Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore, which explores the lesser-known early life of the Soviet dictator. The real-life revolutionary movement on the edge of a vast empire became - in part - an inspiration for Gilroy’s fictional galaxy and fed in to Cassian Andor’s journey:
“The scavenger who becomes a passionate revolutionary leader is kind of fascinating. That's a great trajectory, because that's exactly what Stalin did. And it'll be interesting to see how deep Gilroy uses that – how far he goes to create a character with both heroic and villainous features.”
Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of Young Stalin
Something for a brain break…
What’s the problem, you Bootless Milk-livered Vassals??!
Excuse the outburst, but it wasn’t me - it was Shakespeare. Anyone or anything irritating you today? Insult like the Bard, courtesy of this 3-step guide from Simon & Schuster...
One piece of advice:
Some sound advice for those hard-knock times from Miss Hannigan herself, Carol Burnett:
“You have to have faith that there is a reason you go through certain things. I can't say I'm glad to go through pain, but in a way one must, in order to gain courage and really feel joy.”
The original Annie film is THE soundtrack. Love all the songs. Also the sound of her tap shoes climbing up the tower thing, lives in my head rent free.
Really enjoyed season 7 of Black Mirror. (Common People was the darkest, I thought , though brilliant. Just all too depressingly plausible.) Loved the reprise of USS Callister.
I’ll watch the new season of Andor. My adult son persuaded me to watch the first series and it was a good shout!