The Turn of the Screw is a British television film based on Henry
James's 1898 ghost story of the same name. Commissioned and produced by
the BBC, it was first broadcast on 30 December 2009, on BBC One. The
novella was adapted for the screen by Sandy Welch, and the film was
directed by Tim Fywell. Although generally true to the tone and story of
James's work, the film is set in the 1920s instead of the 1840s. The
story is told in flashbacks during consultations between the
institutionalised Ann, played by Michelle Dockery (pictured), and a
psychiatrist, Dr Fisher (Dan Stevens). Ann tells how she was hired by an
aristocrat (Mark Umbers) to care for the orphans Miles (Josef Lindsay)
and Flora (Eva Sayer) at their home, Bly House. Ann soon begins to see
unknown figures around the manor, and seeks an explanation. Though the
film generally received a positive response, critics disagreed over
whether it retained the novella's much-discussed ambiguity.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Turn_of_the_Screw_%282009_film%29>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1702:
Queen Anne's War: James Moore, the British colonial governor of
Carolina, abandoned a siege against St. Augustine in Spanish Florida,
retreating to Charles Town in disgrace.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_St._Augustine_%281702%29>
1903:
In the deadliest single-building fire in United States history,
the Iroquois Theatre fire in Chicago claimed over 600 lives.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iroquois_Theatre_fire>
1954:
The Finnish National Bureau of Investigation was established to
consolidate criminal investigation and intelligence into a single
agency.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Bureau_of_Investigation_%28Finland%29>
2009:
Pro-government counter-demonstrators held rallies in several
Iranian cities in response to recent anti-government protests held on
the holy day of Ashura.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_30,_2009_Iranian_pro-government_rallies>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
hyperthymesia:
(neuroscience) A rare condition in which an individual possesses a
superior autobiographical memory and is able to recall the vast majority
of personal events and experiences in life.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hyperthymesia>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
The emperor needs all the headmasters he can get. If a quarter of
his people were headmasters he would be perfectly happy. But more than
two poets would tear his kingdom apart.
--Alasdair Gray
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alasdair_Gray>