Wine and...Books: BENIGHTED by J.B. Priestley (1927)

OR, for additional bonus content, interactive chats, polls, and the UNCUT version of this episode, join us on our Substack at: https://wineand.substack.com

Benighted is the second novel by J.B. Priestly, both his first and second were published in 1927, though he didn't hit it big with the public until his third novel, The Good Companions which came out in 1929. Benighted was released in the US as "The Old Dark House" which references how it's a deconstruction or summartion of "Old Dark House" stories, a popular subgenre at the time. Similar to how Joss Whedon's CABIN IN THE WOODS was named to be the same for that particular subgenre.

THE WINES
DALLAS' WINE:
2018 Chateau Laubespin Le Moulin Medoc
A robust, straightforward Bordeaux, perfect for everyday drinking. It has beautiful notes of acidity, balanced with jammy red and black fruits, cedar and a hint of graphite. Enjoy on its own or with a dark and stormy night.

DAVE'S NOT-WINE:
J. Rieger Caffe Amaro
A one-of-a-kind take on coffee liqueurs. Amaro (the Italian word for "bitter") is a category of liqueur characterized by its bitter, herbal, and slightly sweet flavor which stems from the use of botanicals, herbs, and cane syrup. Rated 92 points by the esteemed Ultimate Spirits Challenge, Caffè Amaro is a collaborative spirit with Kansas City-based coffee roasters, Thou Mayest, who selects a single-origin coffee roast to contribute to the flavors the botanicals generate.

Caffé Amaro spends a brief amount of time in a whiskey barrel resulting in a rich, bittersweet flavor that works great in cocktails or can be enjoyed by itself after a meal on a dark and stormy night.

Chapters

• 4:22 Introduction to Benighted and the "Old Dark House" Subgenre
• 6:48 Movie Adaptations vs. the Book
• 15:13 Author J.B. Priestley
• 21:23 Why this Book?
• 26:46 Thundercrack (Is it Porn?)
• 29:04 Set-up to the Story
• 38:50 Removing Pretense: Honest Dialogue and Inner Thoughts
• 45:51 Two Love Stories: Rekindling Love vs. Newfound Love
• 51:02 Wine Pairings: Bordeaux Red and Bittersweet Coffee Liqueur

Transcript

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;27;04
Unknown
He's dead and I'm down and we have opinions on just about it. Sometimes they're on politics. Sometimes they go down there with a glass of water. Join us. This is the one in the past. Welcome back, everybody, to wine and the show where we pair wine with movies, TV, music, comics. And today we are tackling our first book.

00;00;27;11 - 00;00;46;26
Unknown
Full blown novel. We are literate. Hooray! If you like what you hear today, please make sure to hit that follower subscribe button. It does help the podcast grow and reach new listeners. If you love us, then please leave that five star review for five stars. Don't quibble. Don't equivocate. Not 4.5. Not four. Come on, man. What are you doing to us?

00;00;47;02 - 00;01;06;16
Unknown
Five star review. And if you don't love us, well, the good taste police called, and I want to loan you some good taste, all right? Because we are a great show, in my humble opinion. Don't miss Dallas. You will actually probably tears. All right. Like we could be better. This is not the best show I listen to better podcasts.

00;01;06;16 - 00;01;30;11
Unknown
And this fucking thing anyway. You can. Also, I wanted to mention Find Uncut lengthier versions of these episodes, along with articles on the intersection between entertainment and wine at and I just posted. This is at our Substack wine and.substack.com, and I just posted yesterday. But at least when we were recording this, which is not when you're listening to it, of course.

00;01;30;17 - 00;01;58;16
Unknown
But yesterday before we started recording this, I posted a lengthy article on how 1992 Bram Stoker's Dracula, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, rescued his entire wine empire. That movie was so critical, it kind of rescued his production company, too. It rescued everything. He was on the brink of insolvency. It goes into the history of his career in the 70s, the 80s, and how he got to where he was at the beginning of the 90s and what happened with Bram Stoker's Dracula.

00;01;59;03 - 00;02;20;09
Unknown
the some of the behind the scenes, quirkiness that was going on on set, how it was a bit of a minor miracle, like all movies that it got made, that it came out well, and how it did in the box office to be the lifeline that he desperately needed at that point in time, and how it rescued his entire wine empire and allowed him to grow it to where it is today.

00;02;20;13 - 00;02;40;23
Unknown
So you can find that entire article on our Substack, wine and.substack.com. That article is free for all to read. there will also be the uncut episodes are only for the paid subscribers who support the show, so please come support the show if you like it, and you will also find interactive polls, bonus pairings, and more on the Substack.

00;02;40;24 - 00;03;01;21
Unknown
The best place to interact with us? you can also shoot us an email, especially if you hate the show and have feedback and you're like, you guys suck and I know how to make it better. Great. Don't leave that review. Leave that review alone. Shoot us an email at wine the letter N as in Nancy pod as in pod podcast wine and pod at gmail.com.

00;03;01;21 - 00;03;20;00
Unknown
She just had a email. We will take it seriously. We will read the whole thing. We may not agree with everything you send us, but we will absolutely read it all right and take it into consideration. We may even read elements of it on the show if there if you have really good points and we're like, hey, let's talk about this, we might even read it and disagree with you on a few things.

00;03;20;00 - 00;03;23;13
Unknown
And we're going to discuss why we disagreed. But we want you to know that you've been heard.

00;03;23;13 - 00;03;24;25
Unknown
also, one last thing.

00;03;24;25 - 00;03;43;07
Unknown
If you're on your phone when you're listening to this podcast, you can also send us a quote unquote text. I shouldn't say quote unquote. It is actually a text, but, it's a special kind of text. You'll find a clickable link at the beginning of the description of this episode. It says, send us a text. It doesn't work as an active link on every single podcast platform.

00;03;43;07 - 00;04;00;11
Unknown
When when our RSS feed sends it out to all the platforms, but it does on most. And if it's clickable, click that. If you're on your phone and it opens up your text app, and send us a direct message via that which shows up in our buzzsprout inbox as a message, it does not show us your phone number.

00;04;00;11 - 00;04;17;07
Unknown
Never fear. it only shows us your final four digits of your phone number. Kind of like a credit card on a credit card receipt, right? It's just your final four. and then it gives us your message. it's just a right here, right now. Quick and easy way. Send us a quick note. We really do want to hear from you.

00;04;17;07 - 00;04;47;19
Unknown
Even if you're tearing us in. We we want to hear from you. It's okay. All right, folks, today, our first novel, we are covering John Boynton or JB Priestley's Be Knighted. That's knight without a K. And yes, it's actually a word. Look it up. It is be knighted like Knight falls. Knight befalls you. So you are then be knighted in that context.

00;04;48;00 - 00;05;11;14
Unknown
I didn't actually know that was a word until I discovered this novel. but I love it. I think it's a great novel title. it Was Knighted is the second novel by JB Priestley. Both his first and second were published in 1927. Yeah, we're going back, baby. Going back in time. this is so this is not a new novel, but it has gotten new life just very recently.

00;05;11;14 - 00;05;48;14
Unknown
We're going to cover that here in just a moment. But both this first and second novel were published in 1927. So this was the beginning of his career. He did not hit it big with the public until his third novel, The Good Companions, which came out in 1929. Benighted was actually released in the US originally as The Old Dark House, and that title references how the novel is a deconstruction or summation of old dark house stories, a popular subgenre at the time, similar to how you know Joss Whedon's Cabin in the woods was named to be the same for that particular subgenre.

00;05;48;14 - 00;06;11;06
Unknown
The cabin in the woods is still in that sub genre. so old, dark House stories typically involves a group of eclectic strangers gathering at an old, dark house for, you know, like like a reading of a will, or because the bridge had been washed out by a storm, which is a little bit what happens here. There's a massive storm at night, and everyone is forced to take shelter in an old dark house.

00;06;11;09 - 00;06;37;29
Unknown
This was, this was a subgenre that was extremely popular in the theater, live theater of the 1920s and then into the silent films, cinema, and even the quote unquote talkies of the 1930s and 40s. to modern audiences, we all know and maybe love, the ultimate parody of old dark house stories in the movie The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which was a parody of old dark house stories.

00;06;37;29 - 00;07;18;17
Unknown
So even if you've never really heard that subgenre or weren't really familiar with it, and honestly, I kind of was not either. until I started digging into the background of this novel. but speaking of movies, benighted is best known for its film adaptation in 1932, which was titled The Old Dark House, based on the American novel or based on the American title of the novel which has been called that movie has been called, quote, the apotheosis of old dark house chillers, unquote, by William K Everson in his 1974 book classics of the Horror Film If You're in the States, the film is freely available to watch on Tubi, and I

00;07;18;17 - 00;08;02;18
Unknown
highly recommend it. Directed by James Whale, who directed the OG Boris Karloff Frankenstein Guy Frankenstein and Invisible Man, and Old Dark House, also stars Boris Karloff, alongside James Will, regulars Ernest Thesiger, Lillian Bond, Evermore and Gloria Stewart, and additional well-known actors Charles Laughton, who I love, Melvyn Douglas and Raymond Massey. The producers actually hysterically added a note to the opening credits of the film that said, quote, producers note Karloff, the mad butler in this production, is the same Karloff who created the part of the mechanical monster in Frankenstein.

00;08;02;20 - 00;08;23;20
Unknown
We explain this to settle all disputes in advance, even though such disputes are a tribute to his great, versatile, a great, It's great. That's a good disclaimer, I like that. Isn't that a good disclaimer? But the funny thing about that disclaimer is it goes to show that back in the day, this is before monster makeup. Was that really well understood or that much of a thing.

00;08;23;20 - 00;08;47;04
Unknown
So the movie makers were literally like, we need to tell people this is the same guy. They're not going to know. And it's funny because Hollywood still, we just talked about this. no no no no no no, I talked about this, in my Bram Stoker Dracula. article, which is that, Johnny Depp was up for a role in Bram Stoker's Dracula, and he had just done Edward Scissorhands.

00;08;47;13 - 00;09;08;26
Unknown
you know, the the right. And the studio rejected him, saying he was not a big enough draw. And even after Edward Scissorhands. And the reason they said that is, is we think, anyway, there's no no one's on record having said this, but Hollywood has long had a belief that if you're behind a lot of makeup of any kind, that the audience doesn't really know, it's you, right?

00;09;09;02 - 00;09;33;07
Unknown
They don't know you as the actor. If you're too much, there's too much. And nowadays it might even be CGI that you're behind like some, some mix of practical and CGI effects to where you don't look like you really like. You're only a hint of you. And if that's your first big role or one of your biggest roles you've ever had, they're going to assume the audience has not figured out that you're the one, there.

00;09;33;07 - 00;09;55;17
Unknown
So they don't give you credit for being a name from that know they'll put you in makeup again, right? If they you have need for another monster. Awesome. Like Boris Karloff did that for a lot of his career in that way. So I feel like this is the beginning of Hollywood already getting into that mindset where they're like, look, this is the same guy we know you don't know and can't tell the difference, but it's the same guy.

00;09;55;17 - 00;10;01;14
Unknown
And of course, to modern audiences, we're like, fuck off! Of course we know it's past Boris fucking Karloff. What are you talking about?

00;10;01;14 - 00;10;22;25
Unknown
All right. So I also wanted to shout out one other actor in the movie, Brimmer Wills. You've probably never heard of him, and for good reason. He was a stage actor on the British scene and did precious few movies like it. 2 or 3, I think actual like he had a a role of any significance, any significant screen time.

00;10;23;10 - 00;10;49;11
Unknown
the old dark house being his most remembered. He plays a character who is essentially is the finale. He is the finale of the movie and he's tremendous, incredible physicality, amazing performance. I cannot praise it enough. but apparently because he was predominantly a theater, a stage actor, and this was his one and only real movie of significance, this is it.

00;10;49;11 - 00;11;14;15
Unknown
This is what modern audiences get of him with there's no other record. There's no other recording of him, to my knowledge. So watch this movie and check out Remember Will's at the very end because damn man, he's good and so good. real quick guys, in case anyone is unclear of, the sort of, the genre of this book, let's give you some themes real quick here.

00;11;15;06 - 00;11;35;28
Unknown
it draws heavily on the gothic horror conventions. Of course. You've got, as they were saying, the haunted house, the sort of eccentric inhabitants, you get that atmospheric dread and mystery. you know, the old dark house thing? I would say the most interesting version of that in the last 60 or 70 years is probably The Addams Family.

00;11;36;21 - 00;12;01;13
Unknown
a very similar sort of, concept. appreciate very much veering much more into comedy. Absolutely. 100%. But even even with a comedy, the gothic sort of horror elements are still there. that's just sort of a turn on, on the concept. this is a, you know, I said in a few interviews that this novel is essential.

00;12;01;15 - 00;12;14;11
Unknown
Hold on, hold on, guys. I'm going to get there. I'm going to get there. Hold on. Don't jump the gun. Wait. Okay. All right. Okay. All right. Don't jump the gun on what he said. Because I know that quote you're about to pull up. And yes, we're going to get we're going to get to that quote in just a moment here.

00;12;15;21 - 00;12;40;23
Unknown
but I will say yes to Dallas's point. This is a gothic drama thriller. It has it's a psychological drama, more than a straight up horror movie. some people have said the movie. I'm sorry. Yeah. Book a straight up horror book, a straight up horror story. Some people have said the movie veers more into comedy. in many ways than the book ever does.

00;12;40;25 - 00;13;06;06
Unknown
I both do, and don't agree with that. I think the last thing I'm going to say about the movie before getting back to the book is that the movie and there are actually two adaptations of this film that have been made. They remade this film again very loosely. In 1963, William Castle did an adaptation of the book as a comedy, a very black comedy, very modern, very different from the novel.

00;13;06;06 - 00;13;23;17
Unknown
From what I can tell, that one's not that well regarded, whereas the 1932 one is. And maybe we'll do an episode where we do those two adaptations as a single episode, like just back to back and do it as a sort of companion piece to this. So I don't want to say too much about the movies, but I will say this one thing the movie's very short.

00;13;23;17 - 00;13;43;09
Unknown
I think it's like 70 minutes long or something of that nature. and it's it does not take time. It is like a scene. Scene onto the next, onto the next beat, onto the next beat. It's so fast and pitter patter that it I can see why people are like, it's almost comedy. It's like it's got the speed of comedy and the book.

00;13;43;11 - 00;14;05;12
Unknown
The book is short. It's about 150 ish pages. Right? And it is not a long novel whatsoever. by modern standards, you could almost call it a novella. but it it does take its time, and it's got a lot of atmosphere and a lot of mood, and it's thematically very dense. There's so much more happening in the novel that, you know, film.

00;14;05;12 - 00;14;21;22
Unknown
You're not inside the heads of the characters in the novel has no problem getting inside the heads of the characters. It's very in the heads of every single character, every character gets his chance to shine in the movie. Characters do things and turn on a dime to behave certain ways that the movie takes no time to explain.

00;14;21;22 - 00;14;23;16
Unknown
and the ending does differ.

00;14;23;29 - 00;14;43;14
Unknown
the end. While the novel contains a charming quality, it's darker, it's more brooding. and the movie did not have the balls to go as dark as the novel does in the finale. The movie pulls back quite a bit from that. the movie is more exciting in its way at the end, but the novels ending is dark.

00;14;43;16 - 00;15;06;01
Unknown
It's it's electric in a very different way. Whereas the movie, it's very energetic, it's very intense in, whereas the novel, it's very intense in almost a Poe or H.P. Lovecraft way, where it's all anticipation. It's like just the dread of what's happening and what might happen. And it but anyway, the ending does differ. So have you seen the movie?

00;15;06;02 - 00;15;29;23
Unknown
You have not experienced the end of the novel yet? I guarantee you that. So the novel will reward you with something different there. so a quick coverage of who JB Priestley was before we get into this novel. In specific, he was a British novelist, playwright, screenwriter, broadcaster and social commentator. He wrote 26 novels, 20 plus plays, plus additional short story collections and nonfiction books.

00;15;29;25 - 00;15;50;12
Unknown
He was a soldier in the First World War, and he is on record. I think this was Dallas's quote here as saying the benighted is, quote, forms of postwar pessimism pretending to be people, unquote. Was that your quote, Dallas or. No, but go for it. Awesome, awesome. Okay, bro. So you so you've got you can surprise us here in just a moment.

00;15;50;25 - 00;16;18;18
Unknown
but yes. aka the characters in the novel are variations of what the British public was like during that time, post-World War and pre Great Depression, because this was just two years before the Great Depression was going to start hitting and sinking everyone into its own, a new, crises to deal with all over again. Priestley was so a few things about Priestley that I do think are actually kind of important to this particular novel.

00;16;18;20 - 00;16;41;09
Unknown
Priestley was married three times. He also had a number of affairs, including a serious relationship with the actress Peggy Ashcroft. Writing in 1972, Priestley described himself as, quote unquote lusty, and as one who has, quote, enjoyed the physical relations with the sexes without the feelings of guilt, which seemed to disturb some of my distinguished colleagues, unquote.

00;16;41;09 - 00;17;06;18
Unknown
in 1925, his first wife, Emily Pat Tempest, died of cancer only four years into the marriage. Now there is a major character in Be Knighted that has suffered the death of a wife and is really processing that emotion and that feeling, and he's out and about with other women at this point, and yet distant from them.

00;17;06;18 - 00;17;27;15
Unknown
It's like he's doing it. But his heart isn't into it. And I feel like this might have been JB Priestley really processing where he was with things because he had already remarried by 1926. but that death of his first wife and this character in the book also lost a wife to, a disease. I can't remember if he said it was cancer in the book.

00;17;27;15 - 00;17;44;10
Unknown
I don't think they specify, but just that know she died of something that seemed to be kind of natural causes. He's like, I know she died of a, that I don't want to ruin the novel, but he he thought he thought it was how she was treated by his colleagues and things like that. And then she died of it's kind of a broken heart or feeling like she wasn't good enough.

00;17;44;23 - 00;18;09;07
Unknown
so kind of like her emotional state was not great regardless. but here's the fun part. In September 1926, so one year after the death of his first wife, Priestley married Jane Wyndham, Lewis ex-wife of the one time Beachcomber columnist DB Wyndham Lewis. No relation to the artist Wyndham Lewis, by the way. they had two daughters included, including music therapist Mary Priestley.

00;18;09;07 - 00;18;36;04
Unknown
Conceived in 1924 while Jane was still married to DBE Wyndham Lewis, and a year before his first wife died. So yeah, this seemed to be a bit of a stick with him. I think he's one of the things in this novel we're going to talk about is, is the the love and sex themes go on in this novel, which seemed very forward for 1927, frankly.

00;18;36;21 - 00;18;55;27
Unknown
but we'll get to that in just a moment. I will say last thing about Priestley that's important to note. He was very left leaning in his politics. he was socialist by nature, but he did distrust organized parties and political dogma. He was a socialist, but very anti-communist. He hated Stalin and all that Stalin stood for at the time.

00;18;56;00 - 00;19;21;28
Unknown
Priestley's name, however, was nevertheless put on Orwell's list. A list of people that George Orwell, the author, prepared in March 1949 for the information Research Department, or the IRD, a propaganda unit set up by the Foreign Office by the labor government. Orwell considered or suspected all the people on this list to have pro communist leanings, and therefore to be unsuitable to write for the I, r d and.

00;19;21;28 - 00;19;47;20
Unknown
Well go ahead. Yeah, I was just going to say, I guess George Orwell wrote what he knew, right? Right. Yeah. Right. curiously enough, about the socialist, connections. there is a thing in there, 57 called the Wolfenden report. which published recommending partial decriminalization for homosexual men. and, Tony Dyson, who was a literary critic and wrote some very famous criticism.

00;19;48;04 - 00;20;37;19
Unknown
in the 50s and 60s. but he essentially had this sort of recommendation, that he wanted to be enacted. And one of the leading dignitaries of the day who signed it, was JB Priestley, and his bisexual, wife, Zachariah Hawkes. and curiously enough, what's most interesting about it is apparently Priestley was a really strong supporter of homosexual rights, and there's quite a bit of information on him, with sort of statements about his sort of, experimentation with the sexes at large, the sexes, plural at large, and, even more curiously, apparently there's, a great story here, about his son coming out formally as a gay

00;20;37;19 - 00;20;57;13
Unknown
man and Priestley being extraordinarily disappointed. So apparently the, the message there is, is, you know, heavy fun. But, you know, you know, you don't need to formalize it. You know, you don't need to shout it from the rooftops. Don't cause don't cause trouble for the family. What are you doing? What are you doing? So, yeah, keep it discreet like me.

00;20;57;13 - 00;21;14;22
Unknown
Son, I'm so disappointed in you. You learn nothing from me. Yeah, precisely. Well, well, thus endeth the history lesson. So, Dallas, I'm going to turn it back over to you for that quote that we didn't get yet. so. Oh, no, actually, you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna save that quote for the end. Yeah. I'm glad you're okay off, actually.

00;21;15;13 - 00;21;34;16
Unknown
okay. It comes, it come. It's more impactful. Lafayette. Okay. so because I will say that, so this is where we usually say, what is your history with this book and whatnot? So for me, I'm the one who picked this book for our first book. I picked it for a number of reasons. I had purchased a copy of it not too long ago.

00;21;34;17 - 00;21;51;11
Unknown
Now, one of the reasons why most people are not going to be familiar with this book, outside of the movie is it was out of print for decades, for sure. And you could, yeah. You had to really hunt down, like, an old copy. Maybe it was affordable, but it was not on bookshelves. It was not being promoted.

00;21;51;11 - 00;22;15;27
Unknown
It was not, you know, easily accessible per se. So, Vaillancourt Books recently, I think a 2013 finally put out a new edition. First off, this cover is just awesome. God, do I love this cover so much. This is the OG. They they reproduced the cover of the OG UK edition and whoever the artist is who did this cover, it's lost to time.

00;22;15;27 - 00;22;42;01
Unknown
No one knows. There's no credit on this. There is. He signed it or she signed it m ob. And I've, I've deep dived the internet and there's nothing on this art on this artist. So it is lost to time. If anyone wants that challenge look up the Vaillancourt edition of benighted. which is the same cover that was on the Heinemann original 1927 edition in the UK.

00;22;42;03 - 00;23;02;07
Unknown
And see if you can track down this artist. Because I love the artwork. It's simple, but so fucking good. so I would love to know who that is, but Vaillancourt has been putting out JB Priestley novels once again. They put out about, probably like half of them at this point. and benighted was one of the first because it was one of his first novels.

00;23;02;25 - 00;23;26;05
Unknown
and when this hit Amazon many years ago, I bought it sight unseen. I was like, yeah, all right, I want to do it. so I did, and it just sat on my bookshelf for many years, unread, untouched. And when we were ready to finally do our first novel, me and Dallas, I used to read voraciously, like prose, read voraciously.

00;23;26;08 - 00;23;44;27
Unknown
And I think we in Dallas have both gotten off that fallen off that horse pretty hard in recent years because we got so busy with so many other things, and I knew we needed to baby step back into the discipline of being able to read something prose wise and commit to that time and make sure we're reading every day and getting X number of pages done a week.

00;23;45;01 - 00;24;01;03
Unknown
So I was like, look, a 150 page novel is where we need to start. That's going to be our baby. Step into this and we're going to make sure we can do that, and then we're going to get on to thicker and bigger books. I so b night and then I when I saw United sitting on the shelf, I'm like, I've been so curious about this book, I didn't really know what it was.

00;24;01;03 - 00;24;19;07
Unknown
I'd never heard of JB Priestley. I loved the title, I loved the cover, and I was like, let's do it. It's the right size. I it's been sitting on my bookshelf, languishing for a long, long time. so by dint of those reasons, I chose it. I'm really glad I did. I enjoyed this a shit ton. But Dallas, any any history whatsoever with this book?

00;24;19;25 - 00;24;42;04
Unknown
well, curiously, I had seen the film first, and there was a JB Priestley play, which I read years ago, and I actually can't even remember which one now. and so they did do a play of this, the old dark house. Well, after his death, I think it's only like, ten years old or something like that.

00;24;42;04 - 00;25;13;22
Unknown
They're interesting. so, yeah, I remember years ago, decades ago, probably mid 90s, reading a play, a JB Priestley play, and even that had sort of smatterings of sort of homosexuality and sort of alternative lifestyles, apparently a recurring kind of theme in some of his work. and, you know, when you suggested this book, I do recall coming across an audio book, radio play, of this.

00;25;13;25 - 00;25;40;24
Unknown
Okay. And not having that make sense to it, it was one of those things where I was like, oh, this is very interesting. And so I, you know, added it to the list, the to do list, you know, the reading list, so to speak. The listening list. and so after I got a copy of this for this podcast, I went back and listened to the audio book, the audio radio play and, you know, after reading the book and I gotta say.

00;25;40;26 - 00;26;08;14
Unknown
They do a fantastic job on this radio play. It is just moody and dark and it's good. The book is the book is the book totally is. But what's amazing about hearing it in audio format? Because not all books make great radio plays or audio format. They just don't. Yeah. yeah. And, you know, of course, this being sort of, gothic parallel, it definitely lends itself to that.

00;26;08;16 - 00;26;41;27
Unknown
And they really did a phenomenal fucking job of amping up that aural or auditory, auditory, creep factor. yeah. And so reading the book first and then listening to the radio play, I gotta say, sometimes that's the way to go because it really it really made it sing for me. So. So yeah. long story short, I was familiar with Priestley prior to this, and the book, to a certain degree, having not read it.

00;26;42;29 - 00;27;05;07
Unknown
and, I like. Yeah, I'm glad we put it on the list. It's it's kind of fantastic. One more bit of trivia here. Another film which I've seen, which I recommend. You see, Dave, that is inspired loosely by this short story is a film called Oh, God. What was the name? Oh, Thunder crack.

00;27;05;09 - 00;27;17;28
Unknown
Thunder, crack, Thunder, crack. It is. All right. That sounds like porn, but. Okay. it's not not porn. It's 1975, so it's 1975. So it's cult film status.

00;27;17;28 - 00;27;28;04
Unknown
I suppose you could call him and, yes. Combining an old dark house mystery with hardcore sex scenes. Okay. Yeah, it is porn.

00;27;28;05 - 00;27;49;13
Unknown
Yeah, yeah, it's well, it's poor, it's it's porn adjacent. We can get a kick out of this for the for the 70s. No no no no no. If if Deep Throat and, deep throat, you know, dormant deep throat three the one after the fact. Deep throat sort of sort of. It is porn. It's just there was an era where porn was released in actual cinemas.

00;27;49;14 - 00;28;09;07
Unknown
Yeah, exactly. But it wasn't. Yes, but but I will say it was. It was like that, though. After that, McDowell was, counter-culture, performance artist who came out of, San Francisco, I think. I don't know if he's born there, but again, San Francisco, I believe he died. Sorry I have so much porn on the brain now.

00;28;09;07 - 00;28;34;04
Unknown
I thought you just said I don't know if there's porn there, but San Francisco and. And I was like, yeah, there's probably porn there. I'm pretty sure there's porn everywhere. Now in the titles of his, some of his other great masterworks are Beaver Fever, peed into the Wind, and Confessions. and but not porn. Absolutely not. Nope. Not porn under the correct people.

00;28;34;04 - 00;28;50;29
Unknown
So please photograph under crack. Wow. So that is his subtlest title that I came up with. That's his magnum opus. so yeah. Oh my goodness. Somebody check that out and let us know. give us a brief review on the, on the sites there anyhow. Oh, oh, oh, you like how that was just like, it's not porn, but we're not watching.

00;28;51;02 - 00;29;11;07
Unknown
Oh, I'm definitely I'm definitely watching it again. I've seen it. Okay, okay okay. All right. Because you're like, report back. You guys go watch it. It's like, don't make us watch it, for fuck's sake. Just tell us almost how it is. All right. So, All right. Cool. So neither of us had read the book before. I did, and then after reading the book, I watched the movie.

00;29;11;10 - 00;29;30;27
Unknown
I do recommend, you know, it's hard. Like, do you watch the movie? Do you read the book first? That is always one of the hard questions out there where I will say, I probably would have liked the movie more if I hadn't read the book first, because the book is superior. in many ways, at least in terms of substance.

00;29;30;29 - 00;30;00;14
Unknown
And really just these characters are very rich in the novel, and they're not movie, they are caricatures in the movie. They are one. They each have one exact note and they're like, that's my note. That's what I'm doing here. And the movie has moments where they get dimensions. Yeah, but the movie moves so fast and you're not getting the reasons for why they're they're suddenly becoming dimensional.

00;30;00;17 - 00;30;16;05
Unknown
That the moments just kind of happen and you're like, okay, yeah, that. And that's it. If I'd watch the movie first, I would've been like, oh, these are some cool moments, right? Where you're just sort of like, oh, I wasn't expecting someone to be this, like to have this moment where they're not just they're one note. They're more than that.

00;30;16;05 - 00;30;34;19
Unknown
Cool. Good on your movie. But having read the novel and watched the movie, I'm like, could you have set that up better? You know, it's like, now you're suddenly kind of critical because the book is richer, but at the same time, books take a lot longer to consume. Even on 150 page book, you're going to be spending more time with that than you are going to be with the movie.

00;30;34;21 - 00;30;56;06
Unknown
So should you watch a movie that is 90% exactly what the book is in terms of plot and and and plot beats and even character beats are they are pretty much the same thing. yeah, I would say read the novel first, just because it's so much like it'll surprise you more. You you really don't know where this book is going.

00;30;56;06 - 00;31;16;27
Unknown
And I think that's part of its joy. I think the movie's kind of the same way where you're just sort of like, but the movie moves so fast, you don't have time to really think about it too long before you're like, oh, this is where we're going. Okay, great. Where's the book? It's so slow burn. Yeah. They arrive at this castle, in pieces, one group, then a second group, and then the inhabitants of the castle themselves.

00;31;17;00 - 00;31;21;04
Unknown
I, I say castle, it's a manor. Manor. It's a big house. It's the house on a hill. Yeah,

00;31;21;04 - 00;31;41;06
Unknown
so everyone arrives here. It is a storm of the century kind of a thing. like we'll say, we'll say storm. Storm of a decade. Because obviously centuries is a very long time. So in 1927, but it was a storm that like, it flooded the roads, it was land. And this was the countryside of Britain. Landslides are happening.

00;31;41;06 - 00;32;00;13
Unknown
Rockslides, mudslides. So the roads are getting buried and covered. So, like I said earlier, like a bridge getting washed out like this was a classic old dark house trope where it's like the weather forced you off the roads. These were the early days of cars. So, you know, these cars were not the most robust or able to to weather this kind of terrain.

00;32;00;29 - 00;32;17;24
Unknown
one of the fun things in the book, I couldn't quite picture it. I had to watch the movie to see this because they kept talking about how they're in the car, but they're so wet. Yeah, even in the car. Yeah. And I was like, right, it's an old car. But I'm trying to picture exactly how the water was getting in, even in an old car.

00;32;18;00 - 00;32;36;06
Unknown
And it took watching the movie where it's just sort of it's got kind of like a canvas sort of top that the water is leaking through. There aren't really window. There's no windows roll up. Right. It's just open. And so you're like, oh yeah, they were my eyes cast at that point. Yeah. Right, right. And I'm like, that's not a good car.

00;32;36;08 - 00;33;12;04
Unknown
You know, like by modern standards I'm like, shit, you're open to the wet the elements there, man. So the car was not shelter in that regard. And you could they couldn't treated this shelter. so they had to get off the road and go to this manse, this mansion, and, take shelter there and then the inhabitants are all very weird, quirky old folks, and then a very quote unquote brutish manservant who was dumb, dumb in the sense of not being able to speak called more than he was really, called Morgan and played by Boris Karloff.

00;33;12;06 - 00;33;40;12
Unknown
Karloff. And if anyone is aware of the concept in Welsh mythos, I think it's Welsh, of Morgan le Fay, which is essentially sort of, the idea of an assistant or a pleasant sort of, character or who transforms over time, to something a bit more sinister. it it's I feel like he was not pleasant to begin with, though, in this book.

00;33;40;12 - 00;34;03;18
Unknown
He was a narcissist to begin with. He was sort of neutral to begin with. He definitely, evolves. But, well, the only thing I will say is no. Everyone was still kind of scared of him, right from the get go. Oh, okay. So he's described as a large lump of man with a black right, full beard, matted hair, and a low forehead that, when he tried to speak, would just do this like strangled gut gargle.

00;34;03;19 - 00;34;25;13
Unknown
Yeah, of a sound. And so people were like, you didn't know exactly. It's lurch, it's Frankenstein, it's the monster. You know, the worst kind of monster. Yeah. Right. and so most of this novel, and this is the fun part of the novel for me, I think, is it really is just these characters in this house dealing with the weird inhabitants.

00;34;25;13 - 00;34;48;29
Unknown
There's Morgan, there's this old couple, brother, sister that kind of run the place. They mention there's a master of the house who's upstairs somewhere. Sir Roderick or Sir Robert. I know I'm forgetting. right. Was. Yeah. Roger, sir. Roger. sir. something, that was very British. that's up there. And you don't see him for the longest time.

00;34;49;08 - 00;35;08;19
Unknown
but he's up there somewhere, and everything about these characters seem off, but not in an alarming way. Just in and off. They're weird and but then, you know, the characters are like, well, they're stuck out here in the country. They're country bumpkins for the most part. It's a big house, but it's a country bumpkin big house. and this is again, postwar.

00;35;08;19 - 00;35;29;08
Unknown
So like, modernization is really trickling in and seeping in into, into British public, but American public too, everywhere, you know, modernization was happening. And so a big part of the push and pull of this novel is that the people living with barely any electricity that are mostly, you know, the storm is going to cut that out. They're far away from the rest of civilization.

00;35;29;08 - 00;35;50;25
Unknown
They don't interact with people very often. And so we're very awkward and clumsy with it and weird and a centric. And here are the civilized people trying to take shelter here who have all these mores and ways of communicating that are very, quote unquote, civilized, but, you know, breaks down a little bit when you're talking to people that don't play that game on a daily basis.

00;35;50;25 - 00;36;06;16
Unknown
And so they're just sort of like, what do we do with each other? And how do we how do we use. But for the most part, they're like, well, it's one night. We're just here to like, shelter from the storm. So everyone's taking it pretty cool. They're a little weirded out. Some of them get freaked out now and again, whether with Morgan.

00;36;07;01 - 00;36;29;09
Unknown
the sister of the older couple. The lady is almost half deaf, and so she screams, yeah, all the time. Rebecca. Rebecca Femm, these are the femmes. And I do. This is a great name. again, one of those weird like me and it's just FEMA, by the way. It's not FEMA, right. So they're like, this was not the word that became like feminism.

00;36;29;09 - 00;37;16;15
Unknown
And you're a femme or effeminate. They're just femme. So femme. although they are. Oh. Although hold on, there is a butch femme dynamic between Rebecca is Masculinity and Horace 100 100%. And it's 100% there's it's. I was good. Yes. And I was going to say when you were talking about JB Priestley's, possible, bisexual tendencies and his, support for homosexuality and everything, the there's one more character we haven't mentioned that kind of appears at the very end that, Morgan, the big, brutish guy, is very protective, and very into, and now that we're talking about sort of the homosexual undertones and themes, I'm like, oh, oh, yeah.

00;37;16;18 - 00;37;38;09
Unknown
I'm like, now I'm seeing that. Now I'm seeing that heart like, oh, I almost said hardcore. Now I'm seeing that very, very no, no, firmly doesn't work either. That damn it, there's no, no, there's no good words for this. Now I'm seeing that very much. So I'll just say that I leave. Although now, now it's easy to see how we get from, from this piece to thunder crack.

00;37;39;27 - 00;38;02;22
Unknown
yes. There's a I think so. And Rocky Horror to, for that matter, what it's like. Yeah, yeah. I think the films are, in terms of masculinity and femininity. Yeah. The brother sister are a little reverse, and a little one is very powerful and acts like she runs the place. And the other one is very just kind of wants is very in the background.

00;38;02;26 - 00;38;05;09
Unknown
He's forced to be,

00;38;05;09 - 00;38;22;14
Unknown
he's forced to be presentational as a host. Yeah, like a woman would. Right. Or it's sort of like, especially for that time where it's like you're the hostess, like the be out there and be pretty, but don't say too much and don't you're not in charge right of anything. And the Mister Femme is very much that character where he's just kind of along for the ride.

00;38;22;22 - 00;38;44;19
Unknown
He and this. Now they are siblings, so they do give each other shit both ways. they're they're both old siblings that you can tell, mostly don't like each other anymore. If they ever did. very critical of each other. very critical of each other's ways of doing things and beliefs. so, yeah. it's a quirky two characters and a second group of characters.

00;38;44;19 - 00;38;59;04
Unknown
Two more people show up that also take shelter. And then then you have a full group and they're all bouncing off each other. One of the I think the part where the novel really took off for me, and where these characters really came alive, is when they do the truth. it's kind of truth or dare, but no dare.

00;38;59;04 - 00;39;17;21
Unknown
It's just truth. Yeah. Right. Where they go around the table and everyone has to ask the question of the person next to them. Any question, and the person next them must answer truthfully, but then they in turn get to ask a question of the person on their next side, right? And then that person has to answer truthfully. And so you go around the table and get some nice insight.

00;39;17;21 - 00;39;36;10
Unknown
And like that was a brilliant that's a great scene. That's that's a great scene. Just in, in a way to force your characters to not just in their heads thinking about their past. They're not flashbacks. They have to tell something about themselves that they would not do in strange company like this. Yeah. If it wasn't for this game.

00;39;36;10 - 00;40;04;26
Unknown
And I'm like, good, this is cool. Yeah. And you do. So the other thing I really love about this novel is that all these characters have an arc, like every single one of them. Arcs, like in the entire ensemble starts is one thing and ends is something at least a little different, if not wildly different. By the time this novel was over, I think, and so lot it's so, so much and so deeply because, you know, that's sort of a central tenet of just storytelling in general is the character arc.

00;40;04;26 - 00;40;31;29
Unknown
And when you have this cast of, what, 12? No, probably less than 12, ten, ten, I guess journeys. Right. people. And each character has an identifiable arc. let's just say so just that is their own. That is that isn't really their own connect. Right. And the Arcs aren't even directly connected to the main through line. The main old dark house horror element of of the book or thriller element of the book.

00;40;32;01 - 00;40;49;19
Unknown
I think people could quibble whether this is a thriller or a horror. It's it is. It does straddle that line. and the thing that makes it a spooky old dark house story isn't even the thing that pushes most of these people. They're being pushed just by bouncing off each other. Right? And being where they are. And like, right.

00;40;49;19 - 00;41;14;03
Unknown
think this is where the book is so superior to the movie, is that the movie pays a lot of that very short shrift. Like, you're not, you don't notice the arcs between a lot of the characters, only maybe 1 or 2. And in the book, it's crystal clear. Everyone's going through an arc, and that arc is solid and meaningful and well done and presented in a way that you buy it wholeheartedly and makes these characters really rich.

00;41;14;06 - 00;41;33;27
Unknown
The themes of the book and what it's really exploring between these different characters are very rich. the way they interact with each other feels very real, and feels like it's not Pat. It's not just, oh, we need an arc. So this is what's going to happen. Like nothing seems particularly plot driven. one thing. Yeah, it's very, very good.

00;41;33;28 - 00;41;58;18
Unknown
One thing I really, really, enjoy, just as a writer, was his ability to take, like a version of the dialog between characters and remove pretense. It's like he's just. Yeah, removed all pretense. you know, when the characters arrive at the door, there is that initial kind of, you know, we could. Could you guys offer some shelter?

00;41;59;09 - 00;42;23;07
Unknown
you know, in that way that's sort of, you know, that pretentious kind of thing. but the fans at home are just sort of like, yeah, okay, whatever. And they're just so indifferent to the arrival of these individuals. And then when the characters interaction around interacting around the table, there's just no pretense. Characters. Right, you know, are able to kind of be really just right, you know, honest.

00;42;23;07 - 00;42;52;11
Unknown
Which again, you know, I think there are literary critics who would look at that and say, okay, that's just that's a bit forced. But in the context of this story, I mean, it's got that gets a little elevated. So it works and it is really satisfying. And as a person who tries who gets a little too crafty sometime in his writing with the end, with the connections of characters, it was really good to see someone just remove all of the pretense and have characters kind of say what they feel

00;42;52;11 - 00;43;10;12
Unknown
this is actually a bit of a, what a lot of writer, a lot of advice on writing says that this breaks a rule that you shouldn't break. But I think this novel does it in a way that is so organic and so natural that it works perfectly well, which is, you know, you shouldn't you have to pick a POV, right?

00;43;10;13 - 00;43;36;24
Unknown
And stick to that POV. And a lot of books will maybe do something where each chapter will switch the POV. And this book does that. Like it will it will stick to a POV, sometimes largely in each chapter, but it has no problem when it wants to and thinks it deems it best to be like, say there are two characters husband, wife and the book really wants to explore what's going on between them both before and during the scene.

00;43;36;24 - 00;44;06;02
Unknown
Like, you know, before they arrived at this house. And now how that's being processed with what's happening in this house. And let's say it picked the POV of the wife to start the chapter. Right? But at one point she'll be thinking something about the husband and being like, oh, he's doing this. And that's what he does when this type of thing is happening and it will for a paragraph or two, jump over to his head and you'll see the reflected version of that where he's looking back at the wife and thinking his thoughts on that, and they pair so magically together.

00;44;06;02 - 00;44;26;06
Unknown
Then it will jump back to the wife and then continue going forward with the wife as it started that chapter. But it will jump from POV to POV and get into the heads of different characters to make a match up of thoughts in a way that forms a picture where you're like, damn, I, you, you. You're used to novels being more coy about this shit, and this novel really isn't.

00;44;26;10 - 00;44;48;22
Unknown
It's like, no, I'm going to I want you to know these people. I want you to know who they are and what they're doing and what they're processing in this moment. And in a way, JB Priestley does do it in a way where it's not boring. It's not just him. Because, you know, they say show, don't tell. But in this case, the way he's telling it is so narrative that it's okay, you will.

00;44;48;22 - 00;45;17;00
Unknown
And from a character POV standpoint that it's okay, you're getting it from their thoughts. And so, you know, like thought bubbles in comics almost. It's like half this book is thought bubbles. And but the thought bubbles are so interesting and well structured. And the way he matches them together and cuts between them that, yeah, it works. And it's so crazy you say that because the entire time reading this thing, I kept thinking, okay, this reads like a graphic novel.

00;45;17;04 - 00;45;46;29
Unknown
It reads like a fucking graphic novel because of that, because of the idea that these characters break sort of, yeah. The writing breaks traditional rules because the characters speak overtly, because you have, insight into what they're feeling or thinking about a person sitting across, sitting across from them. So it does kind of lend itself to the graphic novel format because of that, which I think might be part of the reason it was such an easy read.

00;45;47;27 - 00;45;51;07
Unknown
you know, it is. It flows, it flows, flows.

00;45;51;07 - 00;46;08;23
Unknown
the other thing I mentioned about this book, there are two love stories going on within it. one that is sort of a rekindling of a love, and the other one that is a new found love. and both love stories are also like there's something very real about both.

00;46;08;23 - 00;46;36;05
Unknown
He wrote about how people meeting each other for the first time fall in love in a way that seemed absolutely accurate and absolutely like, yeah, this is the excitement and electricity of that. And you're like, okay, this is, you know, we talked about Carly Rae Jepsen, Call me maybe, oh, God, is all the way to Carly. Carly Rae Jepsen just got an episode about a book I've read about doing shut up, shut up like I read your so.

00;46;36;07 - 00;46;52;23
Unknown
But that whole thing of like, you know that where you're like, this is crazy. But I think and especially back for 1927, they had to almost speak in terms of like, I want to get married to you on your day one. Right. And but it's like, but it is that feeling of like, I think if I can do like that's nuts.

00;46;52;23 - 00;47;07;19
Unknown
But I think I do like you. Like what? What is this? at one point they even have a thought where it's like they're not even the most attractive person in the world. But what is this? Yeah. You know, this is like. But this is something much better than that. Even greater than that. And it's not like they're not attracted to the person.

00;47;07;19 - 00;47;27;26
Unknown
So they're, you know, it's not something where they're like, oh, well, I do like their personality. It's there's more to it than that, but there's that. And then there is an already married couple. And one thing I give the novel credit for, it never reveals why their love is falling apart. When the novel why I kept, I kept expecting the backstory of that.

00;47;27;26 - 00;48;01;03
Unknown
Like some there would be some event. And I think the point of the novel is like there was no event, there was no thing that caused it. They just were drifting and they were falling out of love in that slow, entropic way that relationships sometimes do. And the events of this night and the way they understood each other and the way they started to look at each other again, it was one of the and kind of the moral was like, oh, we just have to try sometimes, like not always.

00;48;01;04 - 00;48;23;05
Unknown
Yeah, but some like some. And I think there's even a moment in the book where the writing is even. It doesn't have to be hard all the time, but sometimes it's okay for it to be hard. Like sometimes it's okay for it to be work and for it to be a struggle. And but that is the point. When those moments happen, you have to work to make it happen, and then you'll get to that other side.

00;48;23;10 - 00;48;43;26
Unknown
So it had this beautiful POV. it had a beautiful understanding of both versions, both, ends of the spectrum of love, like the beginning and well into it. Yeah. And what it takes to rekindle that and to get it there. So the book is it's a double love story. It's a gothic romance. It also does. If there are any writers.

00;48;43;26 - 00;49;13;18
Unknown
I'm sorry, did I cut you off good. Yeah. Yeah. No no no no no. Poet. for any writers out there, creators, if you are interested in what it means to be, meteor as to be dropped into a world that is already moving uphill or downhill, so to speak. this does a fantastic job of just dropping you right into the flow of things so that the inertia, the momentum, the energy is already there.

00;49;14;16 - 00;49;39;22
Unknown
you know, it is just so visceral and so interesting. I do think a lot of the heavy lifting is done by the sort of gothic framework he's established. You know, it was a dark and stormy night that that does do a lot of the initial work, at least. but, it really is kind of, a bit of a masterclass on how to drop into a world, get interesting, find different angles.

00;49;39;22 - 00;50;09;22
Unknown
Blake, break some rules. make it creepy. you know, you got a love story in there. again, my favorite character. I'm gonna be rambling here for a second is Morgan. just because he's the most interesting character in the entire thing for me. I mean, think the characters are great. They're great, the great. but because everyone else has a reaction to him, a number of reactions to him, it makes that story a bit more interesting.

00;50;10;19 - 00;50;34;10
Unknown
he is the one we learn the least about precisely. Yes, precisely. He remains a cipher, right? Yeah, but which might just be more of a testament to my sort of, habits as a reader and, an artist. But, I tend to like those characters who are remain a bit mysterious. right. You know, unresolved.

00;50;34;24 - 00;50;38;27
Unknown
right. Anyway. All right. So, yeah, the last thing I'll say about this novel,

00;50;38;27 - 00;50;52;05
Unknown
this is this is a thriller novel. In the ultimate end, there is a thriller element, even though by about page 100 out of 150, like I was like, okay, this is nothing's going to happen in this now.

00;50;52;05 - 00;51;02;01
Unknown
I love it, but nothing's going to be happening in this novel. But then it will it does get there. So just keep going. Go along for the ride. it's a fun one. It's great.

00;51;02;01 - 00;51;17;20
Unknown
all right. so wine pairings. Yes. Wine pairings with be knighted by JB priestly. this will be for the novel. Not necessarily for the movies. we will if we, if and when we hit the movies, we will hit the movies.

00;51;17;22 - 00;51;36;21
Unknown
But for this is going to be the version of novel because novel is, stylistically and tonally and from an an esthetically, it is distinct from the film, whereas the film has its own flavor. Some people call it more comedy. I just call it more frantic, more, more movie, where it's like, yeah, we're going to lose the audience.

00;51;36;21 - 00;51;51;25
Unknown
We're going to lose the audience. Move, move, move. Keep going, keep going. and so it does wind up with a little bit. The movie's honestly quite good, so I highly recommend it. But if you can slow yourself down to read the novel first, do that. You might be one of those people, though, where it's like, well, I want to enjoy both.

00;51;51;25 - 00;52;11;00
Unknown
So I'll watch the movie first, really like it, then read the novel and like it even more. Then you like both rather than going vice versa, which is fair. That may be accurate. I like I said, I would have liked the movie even better probably if I saw it first, but I also want the novel to be the surprising part, because it is you're spending, you're committing more time.

00;52;11;03 - 00;52;19;11
Unknown
Okay, so I went first last time. Dallas. So you go first. You know, this whole time, so. Okay,

00;52;19;11 - 00;52;33;09
Unknown
I'm I'm easy to please in certain ways from very, very small places. Very small places in my life. And one of those places is anything that begins with, anything similar to it was a dark and stormy night.

00;52;34;07 - 00;52;54;26
Unknown
I'm in. I'm in. It's it's probably going to satisfy me. Just in terms of the novelty. so I never wanted to read wine. I knew I wanted something that I was, familiar with, because I'm very familiar with the sort of worlds that he, the world that he's crafted, the narratives that

00;52;54;26 - 00;52;59;10
Unknown
in terms of the grape, I wanted to go with something that was,

00;52;59;10 - 00;53;03;21
Unknown
it was used very often in blending and very popular, I suppose.

00;53;04;01 - 00;53;35;17
Unknown
so I knew I wanted the cornerstone to be a cab SOV. and, you know, with the cab sides, you can find great blends with Merlot, cab frogs. I went with them, Bordeaux. just because, again, it mirrors the idea that this is a very accessible, well known, well, sort of his old, world and things.

00;53;35;17 - 00;54;00;11
Unknown
And, I actually have had at least 3 or 4 of these vintages before from this particular vineyard. and this blend itself is a merlot. I know I'm not a huge fan of my love, but it blends well in this, cab sort of cab from, this is the Chateau. A Spanish, label on it is, Medoc 2018.

00;54;00;13 - 00;54;24;25
Unknown
And I can't express how easy drinking this wine is. just like this story, just like this. I say it's a very everyday Bordeaux things. Especially for an imported Bordeaux, like, I know, I don't know if they drink it over there, but we drink it over here. Like that is an easy one to find. It is a very easy one to find.

00;54;24;25 - 00;54;50;20
Unknown
It is really satisfying. It it it it holds well, like, I mean I enjoy this is going to this is going to piss off a lot of wine drinkers. But, I enjoy opening this bottle, having a glass and leaving it on the counter open for a day. That is insane. I know, but not really. It just does something to this wine and this story opens it up.

00;54;50;22 - 00;54;55;17
Unknown
It really does. and and what Priestley does with this story is,

00;54;55;17 - 00;55;17;15
Unknown
it is the kind of thing, like you said, it's kind of an everyday reader. It really is. And if you're looking for a story that it's going to take you two days, because you want to put your phone down, you don't want to look at television, you don't want to hear any music. You just want to deep dive into some really satisfying story, satisfying tale that had some interesting twists and turns but wasn't too out there.

00;55;17;15 - 00;55;47;19
Unknown
It's going to be, this guy, and, so, yeah, that's my my pairing. It's the 2018. Yeah. 2018. All right. And say the name of it one more time. This is a chateau a little bit spa. It is, the Lamola. Right? Moulin is, limo, my pretentious, French. French suite. So I went, a different direction.

00;55;47;19 - 00;56;05;19
Unknown
I agree with that pairing. I think that'd be great. I'll have to try just an everyday Bordeaux, with, I mean, I, I've to read the novel, but, I'm just thinking about the novel in my head. Right. and going with that, but, so I went. I went a little outside the wine world, for this one.

00;56;05;26 - 00;56;23;16
Unknown
Now, I was very tempted to try and find a gin because that's what they were stuck drinking in most. But that was my first thought, too. And I, I'm a young guy like, I, I, you know, I so yeah, me too, me too. But they had it was straight gin. Yeah. So they were like roughly what you have is right there.

00;56;23;16 - 00;56;41;11
Unknown
Like all we have is gin. We use this drink and for wounds with, you know. Right, right, right. But this is postwar Britain, so, it's so funny because all the characters are like, I love gin. This is good. Gin. And they're straight drinking it, and they're. I'm just like, woohoo! I'm like, okay, I don't like gin that much, guys.

00;56;41;11 - 00;56;55;24
Unknown
I'm sorry. I don't know if I'm going to go there. And to be fair, they liked gin, but they also didn't have any choice. And then at one point I don't know if it was whiskey or scotch, but one of the characters had a bar, a flask stashed in a car outside and like, went to go get that.

00;56;56;00 - 00;57;17;00
Unknown
So these were the there was no wine in this book, unfortunately. I wish there was, but there was not. But instead I decided, look, it's not going to be gin. I don't think gin pairs with this book really. It could do in a pinch. There's, But this book is has a. It's charming. Those love stories are so well done.

00;57;17;12 - 00;57;40;26
Unknown
there's a lightness to it while also being heavy and atmospheric and oppressive in its other way. And then, of course, it veers towards the dark side in in its final act. So it had a lot going on there. The gin would work in a pinch, but it wasn't like a match match. And what I tried to really think about is a lot of this book are these people sitting around a fire just dealing with shit and talking to each other?

00;57;40;28 - 00;57;59;18
Unknown
And it's they have a meal. But then a lot of it is, most of it is post meal. So I'm like, what about an aperitif, a digestif, right? Yeah. I'm like, that's where I think I really wanted to go. Something one a little heavier. All right. So something higher in alcohol. Yeah. Something that is going to that. This is what I would sip around that fire.

00;57;59;20 - 00;58;17;10
Unknown
This is what they would sip around that fire if they had it. Now and I even went a little far. Now this book is this story. It's charming, but it has a it has a bitter side to it. There's a bit. Yeah, yeah. Yes. and even with the way it ends, like bittersweet is the right way to think about it.

00;58;17;10 - 00;58;43;06
Unknown
It's not just sweet. It's not just charming. It's not just dark and monstrous and horror driven. Horror filled. So bittersweet is the best word I could think of it. And this is late at night. No one's getting any sleep. Everyone's staying up all night. So I had this bottle of Cafe Amaro. I know. All right. Now, Amaro is is an,

00;58;43;09 - 00;59;04;10
Unknown
It means bitter in in Italian. and it is now there is amaro out there that is grape based. So it is kind of sort of wine based. This is not this is corn based, liqueur. And but it is, cold brew coffee has been added to it. So this is a one of a kind take on coffee liqueurs.

00;59;04;22 - 00;59;33;08
Unknown
and this is by J. Ryder and Company, J Aria r j Ryder, you can find this this this is out there. I got this at a wine shop, but. Yeah, like, total wine carries it. Bevmo carries it. So it gets out there. It's it's got a pretty good distribution. it is a bittersweet coffee liqueur. Amaro, is a category of liqueur characterized by its bitter, herbal and slightly sweet flavor, which stems from the use of botanicals, herbs and cane sirup.

00;59;34;23 - 01;00;08;19
Unknown
so this one in particular was rated 92 points by the esteemed Ultimate Spirits Challenge. And Cafe Amaro is a collaboration with the Kansas based coffee roasters called Thou Mayest. Thou mayest select a single origin coffee roast that is then utilized to contribute to the flavors of the that the botanicals generate. And this cafe amaro spends a brief amount of time in a whiskey barrel after all of that, resulting in a rich, bittersweet flavor that works great in cocktails or for me, can be enjoyed by itself over some ice as a meal.

01;00;09;00 - 01;00;25;18
Unknown
either refrigerated and just poured straight. Oh yeah, 1 or 2 ice cubes and just let it sit in there because it'll it'll, be the first couple sips will be very powerful, and then it gets just a tiny diluted as it goes. Don't pour so much that you know, it's going to dilute, dilute. But like small apple teeth, glass, one ice cube.

01;00;25;18 - 01;00;47;15
Unknown
Sometimes if it's a big ice cube, two if they're small, this is 31% alcohol. So 62 proof. I might have to try and eat it a little bit the first time, actually a little that just because of the coffee. Yeah, it's cold brew coffee now though. It's meant to be cold. It's meant that like, even the coffee part is that cold brew concentrated version where it's meant to be cut with that ice.

01;00;47;15 - 01;01;23;12
Unknown
That's why you make a cold brew. and then the the botanicals involved are juniper berries, cardamom, orange peel, star anise, spearmint leaves, GNT and root and vanilla beans, juniper berries. Guys, if you're familiar with gin, that generally is the it gives you the bite you get from motions. Yes, and this one was a Sumatra coffee that was used in the current vintage that is out in about, and every 700, every full bottle of this contains, a little bit less than the equivalent of five hot drip cups of coffee.

01;01;23;19 - 01;01;40;16
Unknown
So not a ton like when you think about this whole bottle when you're taking little versions. It's not a ton. But I will say this if it is late at night because I was mostly reading this late at night. If you really are worried about the coffee, the cold brew coffee part at like ten at night, or how late it is, just get an amaro Amaro.

01;01;40;17 - 01;01;53;25
Unknown
Don't worry about the cafe part. I just thought, you know, this is a sleepless night kind of book. It's all about people that are sleepless and are trying to stay up desperately. They don't. I mean, there are no beds in this house. They say that right there like no beds. No. And they're like, look, we're just we'll entertain each other.

01;01;53;25 - 01;01;59;20
Unknown
We'll stay up all night. It's all good. So this is a coffee and amaro type of book

01;01;59;20 - 01;02;10;24
Unknown
All right, I would. I try that out. Actually, that sounds interesting. I generally not a guy with I am not a coffee liquor guy in any, you know, to any degree, but that actually sounds interesting.

01;02;10;24 - 01;02;11;26
Unknown
I

01;02;11;26 - 01;02;26;19
Unknown
so that has been John Boynton or JB Priestley's right be knighted. Best title awesome character art. Go look up the Vaillancourt Paperback, which is now out and about everywhere. And then they have many more JB Priestley novels that they brought back into print.

01;02;26;25 - 01;02;43;13
Unknown
I'm going to check out at least a few doomsday Men is one, magicians is another. Both look amazing, and he had quite a few screenplays which were taken to sell quite a few screenplays. And I will also recommend that, audio book or radio play, which, if I don't have it. Yeah, the title, The Dark House radio play.

01;02;43;13 - 01;03;03;01
Unknown
Go, go try and look that up as well. Yeah, that's amazing. All right, folks, this has been wine. And we will be back next week for another wine and entertainment pairing for your entertainment. We will see you then. And chow chow go quick. So someone go out and find a copy of Thunder, not Thunder cop. What is it?

01;03;03;04 - 01;03;19;08
Unknown
Let me try. Oh, that's a, different movie. Oopsy Thunder crack and let us know. So I've. I've had an image of a butt crack ever since that title. So I'm never going to forget it. And that's why I was like, yeah, sounds like I'm, like, all I can. Oh, I can see is a. But now I'm sorry.

01;03;19;08 - 01;03;38;18
Unknown
Thunder cracked. All right, there we go. Later, guys. You can call other things Thunder crack on the on the human body. So this is true. Yeah. Absolutely. All right. So anyone's thunder crack and they're probably all featured in this movie is my guess. So, All right, Chao, for now, folks, we will catch you next week. And. Good night.

01;03;38;20 - 01;04;02;20
Unknown
Later, guys.