Bond in Motion, National Portrait Gallery and Skylight

Not a lot to write about regarding this day as such; I did, however, take quite a few photos - so, I'll let those do the talking.

First up was the Bond in Motion exhibit at the London Film Museum. This wasn't something I'd planned to see; in fact, I didn't even know it was on until I saw an advertisement for it on the tube I was on coming back from Albertopolis (see the previous post for that). But at that point I didn't have anything particular planned for the next day, and was going to use the time to go to the National Portrait Gallery and, depending on how that went, go see what I hadn't already seen at either/both the National Gallery and/or the British Museum.

But I'm a bit of a Bond fan, so this worked out quite well - as did the fact the London Film Museum was around the corner from my hotel.

Here's some of what they had there:

They had a few other vehicles there from different films, and things like scale models they used - like the helicopter in Skyfall - and some other small props as well, like the fake IDs of several Bonds and so forth. All very cool to see in real life. Oh, and the audio guide was narrated by a guy named Ben Collins, who's been a stunt driver on the last few Bond films, and was also the second Stig (the first one to wear white) on Top Gear.

Then it was time for the National Portrait Gallery. I took some photos but only of those I found especially interesting for whatever reason. There were some going back quite a ways - Sir Thomas More, John Donne, Sir Walter Raleigh. There are of course a bunch of Queen Elizabeth I, including this one:

Shakespeare's famous one is here as well.

A few of the characters from the play Compleat Female Stage Beauty are here - Charles II (of course) but also Samuel Pepys, Nell Gwyn(n) and George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham. The famous dictionary compiler, Samuel Johnson. A score of painters, novelists, musicians, scientists. A pencil sketch of Jane Austen. American writer Thomas Paine, Percy & Mary Shelley, Lord Byron, William Blake and a rare picture of JMW Turner.

Scott of the Antarctic - whose middle name, mind you, was 'Falcon'. Pretty much every British Prime Minister and significant politician has a portrait here - I particularly like the one of Benjamin Disraeli. Thomas Huxley, whose statue is in the V&A, and his good friend Charles Darwin. Engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel and steamtrain builder George Stephenson.

There's also a lot of more recent portraits, though I didn't get all the way through to the present day; I did see some of the last few monarchs of the UK, as well as some Andy Warhols. The NPG also had a special section of Vivien Leigh, with a few different pictures from the one at the V&A.

And these, starting with (of course) Richard III.

James Joyce.

Composer Henry Purcell - not because of his work (I barely know who he is apart from variations on his music appearing on film soundtracks like A Clockwork Orange and Moonrise Kingdom) but because of the great expression on his face.

Sir Isaac Newton.

And, of course, the Iron Duke himself: Arthur Wellesley,1st Duke of Wellington. "Sir, prince or pauper, when a man soils a Wellington, he puts his foot in it. This is not a joke. I do not find my name remotely funny and people who do end up dead."¹

If you do want to see any that I mentioned but didn't include, you can find them online at the National Portrait Gallery site here. It's really very nice of them.

Theatre that night was Skylight at Wyndham's Theatre. Before that I had dinner at a place called Salvador & Amanda's which I didn't enjoy; not because of the food but because they took so damn long to bring out my dessert (churros) that I had to basically eat them without chewing (a shame; they seemed quite nice) and then run to the theatre.

Anyway, the play itself was superb, possibly the best I've ever seen. Carey Mulligan and Bill Nighy were just unbelievably good; direction - by Oscar-nominated director Stephen Daldry (The Hours, Billy Elliott, The Reader; he's also won a stack of theatrical directing awards) and the script features some of the best writing I've ever encountered; I was mesmerised.

Afterwards I thought I might as well see what hanging about the stage door might bring, and after a while Carey Mulligan came out and signed things and took photos with people; I was far too shy to ask myself. Bill Nighy, on the other hand, slipped out a side entrance.

And that was that.

¹This, I'm hoping you already know, is from Blackadder where Wellington was played by the great Stephen Fry - and almost certainly didn't happen in real life.