THE FORCE AWEAKENS

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, a schoolboy went to a cinema to watch a film and came away feeling the force for a whole week. Today I went to the cinema again, to the lunchtime showing to avoid schoolboys - and girls, as this was the last day of school before the Christmas break.

Is there anyone like me who still calls the first film Star War, not A New Hope, and was totally disinterested in the prequels? I don't go to the cinema usually and it has to be a film I really really want to see. The draw was to see what had happened to original characters.

Fifteen years ago, I had discovered at the library that the story went on well after Jedi. I remember reading The Thrawn trilogy which I had read somewhere the new films were based on, but I didn't recognise anything in the new film. From my recollection of the books; Luke was running a Jedi academy and Han and Leia were married with three children including twins - Jaina and Jacen.

In fact I was so caught up in the continuing stories I actually wrote to George Lucas on 1st October 2000 and suggested he continue the story via a TV series. I pointed out that two so so films had made really successful TV series - in the US if not here - being Stargate and Buffy The Vampire Slayer. I did get a reply saying that there were no plans to continue at that time along with an R2D2 bookmark.

When I heard the characters were coming back I was expecting a bit of what had been written but was surprised. The same start of course and there are a number of parallels with Star Wars but it isn't really that much of a continuation of the previous characters story, the baton being passed to the new characters who, there is no doubt, are strong stuff, and can keep the saga going.

I did though leave the cinema feeling strangely saddened and I don't know whether it was the complete sucker punch I didn't see coming or just realising from watching the original cast how much time has passed when at times I still feel like that schoolboy who felt the force.

POINTLESS!

You may be thinking that is my opinion of this blog, so much so I have not posted anything for over 18 months, however that is not necessarily the case.

Great minds think alike or, another term I have heard, there is nothing new under the sun. Not only have I seen one idea from my first novel used in Naked Gun and another chapter the basis of an episode of Relic Hunter but now my jokes are being nicked.

About three months ago when playing Trivial Pursuits, US politics came up and I hatched a joke. Which two US presidents used to be cops? The answer being Reagan and Carter. A derivative of this joke was just used on Pointless this evening. Amazing really because this is the second time it has happened to me on this programme. Last year I wrote to them and suggested they have a music round and two months later they did on the Celebrity show.

It just goes to show that different minds who have never met can have the same idea.