Witness For The Prosecution - County Hall, London

 

Witness For The Prosecution, marvellously curated by Agatha Christie and brought to life in many forms from the film with Marlene Dietrich and Tyrone Power, to the BBC production a few years ago; boasts a whodunnit of intrigue.  At least on first viewing.  The husband accused of killing a middle aged lady he befriended, or she befriended him, for money: s an oft used plot but is made all the more interesting as the barrister called upon to defend Leonard Vole, is taken by his innocence to the point of being arrogant in his defence.  Only to have been fooled by the Voles.  Mrs Vole coming across as a superior intellect and actress in ensuring her husband is acquitted of the crime.

This adds a certain irony in that barristers are meant to be actors themselves when bringing poise and elegance to the defence of the accused, especially when said accused is a bit of a ladies man.  So it's no wonder that the stage production is equally as exciting and fast paced, even if you are familiar with the story.  A brilliant portrayal by all concerned and deliciously evocative in its production at none other than County Hall, London, on the banks of the River Thames.  A most suitable setting if ever there was one.

Very enjoyable and a must-see if you're into your crime mysteries and courtroom dramas.  That had some of the audience gasping at the end reveal.  Though if you have seen it before it won't be a shock, however the mystery still plays to you as you're not quite sure how it will pan out and be true to the original story or not. 

Doctor Who "The Church on Ruby Corner"

 Narrated by the new Doctor Fifteen (Ncuti Gatwa) as he tells of an abandoned baby left by the church and a woman, her mother leaving her behind and she is unknown.  Named Ruby after the church on the street where she was left.  Then back to 23 December 2023 where Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) is at a club and things go wrong for her and then the Doctor dances in the crowd in a skirt/kilt.  As she watches him and then he mentions that things will go wrong for her, as she puts her drink on a table , or so she thinks but the glass falls to the floor.  He then sees her in the taxi where a giant snowman is about to fall on her taxi but he uses his new sonic to make the traffic lights change to green.  Then a woman with a pram walks by and it falls onto him.  He comments on her out with a pram at midnight.  She tells him it's her shopping.  Even if she was out at midnight with a pram, so...??  

The TARDIS is parked on Ruby Street where Ruby lives and the neighbours argue over who left it there.  Ruby lives with her foster mother, Carla Sunday (Michelle Greenidge) who's fostered 33 children, as they get another baby named Lulabell coming for Christmas.  A goblin tears Ruby's bag so she drops her shopping.  The social worker brings the wrong nappy size so Carla has to get some as Ruby is meant to look after the baby.  She gets a call from Davina McCall who tells her that they weren't able to find anything out about her parents.  Also she says that bad luck started when Ruby was there and she's been affected badly, sitting on a wheelchair with bandages, as the Christmas tree falls on her and she's knocked out by the star.

Lulabelle is taken by the goblin as Ruby finds his part of his eye and face on the Polaroid under the crib.  As she gives chase through the skylight (which seems to feature a lot re the earlier eps with Doctor Fourteen (David Tennant).)  However she manages to hold on as the Doctor appears and grabs onto the ladder too.  He gives her gloves so she can hold onto the ropes easily and her body becomes light.  Inside the goblin ship as he calls them, they are tied up as the baby is about to be feasted upon.  With a song sung by a goblin.  He works out how to undo the ropes as there is no electricity or wires around, it means the rope must have a certain frequency too.  The baby is about to be fed to Jabba the Hut lookalike and the Doctor and Ruby sing as they save her, using the ropes to get back down.  

At the loft, he finds that everytime he talks about coincidences something bad happens and the ship is still there as they leave a crack in the entire loft as they alter time.  ( Just like the crack in the wall from earlier series.) Ruby vanishes and is back on the ship as a baby.  So he has to rescue her and leaves her at the church where she's found by the priest. He also sees her mother walk away but we don't know who she is.  Though rumours abound about it being River Song.  He then returns and sees the crack is back at the ceiling and Ruby returns.  As he leaves the neighbour. Mrs Flood (Anita Dobson) spots him and his TARDIS and Ruby chases after him.  

We get a glimpse into how things were sad without Ruby being there.  As Carla only fostered when she needed the money and only fostered no more than five or six children.  Ruby reminded me of Clara (Jenna Coleman) she had that much energy and enthusiasm.  From the teaser/trailer seems there are some good eps to come but having to wait until May to watch them, seems so far away.  Also people saying that Mrs Flood is actually River Song: River = Flood.  

Ghost Adventures "Devil Island"

Devil Island thought it was called Angel Island.  Zak talks with Felicia who done a doco on the Island and the immigrants there.  Billy nearly crashes into a car, but Zak didn't use to drive that much in the past.  Billy had their equipment almost stolen from the car and one of their crew members got news about a family bereavement.  Angel Island founded in 1795 and was declared a military reserve and to protect against Confederate Civil War attack.  Asian and other immigrants were processed here.  Steel bars and the water separated them from their dream.  Couldn't leave without supervision, interrogated, island of suicide and deaths.  Those that escaped Alcatraz were dragged here by the currents and spending their last moments of freedom here.  

Zak thought of the sensitivities of what happened with the immigrants on the Island and he wants to know what experiences her father and grandfather went through.  They didn't speak of their experiences, pain, fear, the psychological trauma.  Her father was interviewed three times and they had to sign their names and on one document he had shaky handwriting, showing his fear.  There were cases of suicide.  The dark history needs to be explored where the energies are born.  In China Town Jay speaks with Jeff, who speaks of a young bride-to-be, she answered some wrong questions and they deported her here.  So she wore her wedding dress and hanged herself.  Lots of hauntings are associated with her aka 'the White Witch'.  She's been seen wandering on the Island.  Islands keep secrets and the dark past might not be known.  These hauntings are strong enough to last as Zak says.  The perfect environment to get stronger and to breed.  He hates deep, dark water cos of sharks.  He sees the buildings looking back with eyes speaking of the horrific past.  

Former resident, Dan, he worked on the Island as a boat ranger.  He believes it's haunted and has had experiences.  Everyone told him about the hauntings.  She bride walks on Perimeter Road, in front of the house where he lives, the firehouse.  He says it's very dark and how everyone says it should be called 'Devil's Island.'  Zak thinks it's a sign of things to come and he's honestly afraid.  Dan tells of a gym in a warehouse and he went there by himself and heard a blood curdling scream and then it wasn't a human scream.  Was a crematorium on the island.  Zak thinks the scream could be of Civil War soldiers.  Dr Jeff Dwyer heads to the Civil War hospital with them.  Due to no antibiotics many who were here didn't live or leave.  He tells them of a murder/suicide and where they were stored after Emma Spores was shot and killed by Francis Kimmel in 1872.

Ranger Casey tells them of the band leader and another member had a daughter, Emma who was 15 and he liked her and stalked her.  At the party he shot her in the head and then himself.  Billy says that story bothers him and that one stood out to him.  Billy shares his fascination with the murder/suicide calling out her killer.  Aaron says she can leave and doesn't have to stay around here.  4.3 spike on the EMF reader.  Billy says she should stay close by if she wants to leave.  Billy doesn't like it here.  

At the murder/suicide house Zak asks about the dark force on the Island.  'Where are you Emma' 'car' comes back.  Zak uses the Paranormal Puck.  What is inside this house?  'Horrible.'  Voice saying 'leaving.'  comes through.  Billy says Emma's coming with them.  "Crossover" comes through on Ovilus.  "Remove Master" comes through.    All of Zak's equipment stops working since they arrived here.  Voice comes through "there's a tree behind this house"??  Also she sounds like she had an accent: Japanese/Chinese ???

Ranger Casey tells them about symbols painted on one of the rooms: occult symbols.  They are diving deeply into the curiosities of this Island.  They may have been affecting the people on this Island.  Bone wind chimes are found.  Something feels different.  They repainted and found the symbols but they didn't paint over them and they preserved them out of caution.  On the third floor and Zak says he saw a woman with dark hair hunched over.  Billy's hands are freezing cold.  He tells them not to watch the wall.  Jay talks of the symbol directing to Alaister Crowley (of course!)  Seven pointed star a heptagram, part of the Seal of Babylon.  Her husband is the creator of Chaos.  A man and a woman.  Goal of Babylon is to possess a living person and then to manifest his powers of chaos.  The symbol is also inverted.  The Tree of Life and the symbols are out of order.  Hmm I said that voice said 'tree', who knows?  Zak says there's so many different layers on this Island and could be the main doorway with the beast coming through with Babylon on its back.

He's pumped up on this investigation and the clues don't want to be discovered and they're into something that could be dangerous for them.  He and Jay head to the abandoned warehouse, whilst Billy and Aaron head to the hospital.  Billy uses the XLS device to conduct a quick sweep.  Before heading to the murder house.  Aaron says he saw a woman's shadow with long hair but it couldn't be confirmed.  Use the SB7 spirit box.  "I'm glad it good" is what I hear in a man's voice.  They go to the basement where the morgue is.  As they head to the basement they hear "followed me down."  "Here again" or "did it again" as opposed to "not a woman."  Billy says she was sixteen and he got the gun, said bye to his friend and pulled the trigger.  It took her ten minutes to die and he died before her.  A ball of light is seen when Billy talks of the story.  "You see him"?? in the female voice.  Billy tells Jeff to speak to Emma and Fritz and to invite them to the hospital.  A mist leaves through the doorway. 

At the murder house and they're trying to set up an experiment.  Aaron shouts he needs Billy and he felt strange.  A mist is caught when they begin feeling like this.  The Tesla coil turns on by itself.  They argue amongst themselves.  It then just goes off.  They can't even begin to explain what they're doing.  Billy doesn't want to be in the circle.  Aaron is also upset.  Has been over an hour.  Something happens to Jeff.  Billy says they should shut the devices.  He's getting a headache.  Jeff says it's not him.  He needs to leave.   Billy uses infrasound and "homicide" comes through on the Ovilus.  Billy asks if Emma's here?  "Us" comes through.

At the warehouse they hear a scream.  Then some sort of a screeching noise, he calls high pitched.  Was it something being moved.  They then hear a crashing sound.  One of the rooms is empty.  "I want to scream and fight."  On the recorder.  Sounds like Jeff to me.  After they leave the warehouse a black mist is caught on the camera, loud crashing sounds.  

At the ritual house Zak says Jay left him and he says that he was here for him.  There's an anomaly behind him on his left shoulder side at 41.46.  Zak uses the binaural microphone and the full spectrum as he feels something is off in there.  Zak hears a female voice.  "I'm there" or "here."  Sounds like she has an accent again.   Jay begins an incantation of Babylon.  Two snake-like anomalies are captured going in and out of the circle.  They feel ecstasy.  "There's all kinds of... love??...Zak...you're nothing" not 'awesome.'  "Bend with it..." the paint can is knocked off the shelf downstairs and is heard upstairs.  Something lured them in and he doesn't know how that will affect them.  

Aaron felt like it was jumping through them and he didn't see Billy looking at him.  Billy wanted to hurt them both.  One word to describe what happened, it was chaos.  Said that too.  Jay and Zak experience the opposite.  They hear a scream when they say 'chaos.'  Was the scream Babylon or the White Witch.  They were being seduced.  Babylon is the goddess of sexual impulse and they went through chaos.  Jay goes into Quarters 10.  The three of them head to the Thousand Man barracks.  The human spirits are being contained here and Zak feels they need to help them.  When he saw it for the first time he just saw people and faces at the windows and they were trapped and couldn't leave.  This path they've been led to here.  

At the Quarters building a man was attacked.  Jay hears whispering.  Jay heads to the bedroom.  They saw Jay's face rotting when they conjured Babylon.  On the X camera in the kitchen a black shadowy mass is caught and is translucent, at the same time the motion ball lights up.  

The Paranormal Puck is placed at the doorway.  If they've been followed then guise the spirits to talk to them.  "Where are the trapped souls kept?" "Island."  They can't leave cos of the water and the salt etc.  "What people on the Island?"  "Wars" ie the army barracks.  "Where on the Island?" Witch" comes through and then vanishes.  A voice is caught on the boom mic.  They haven't been in this building before and no one is allowed in.  Something drops or is thrown.  Billy tells the Witch to show itself.  A voice is heard.  Aaron gives Billy the camera and says he's having a heart attack and vanishes.  Billy asks how that would've helped?  Said the same before Billy did.  They feel something.  Zak says something's coming up on him, ice cold.  An anomaly is caught and a breath is heard, didn't even sound like a laugh.  Billy has rapid heart rate.  PSB7 Pro where a girl's voice says "get off me" not "I love you."  Then a disembodied voice says "can you find me?" not "do you love me?"  

They find another door and a large black anomaly manifests on the XLS and climbs the wall.  Aaron walks by a figure on the ground which wakes up and moves up the wall.  

There are lots of sinks there.  The EMF lights up all the way.  Zak goes to find the 'little girl' he couldn't get her voice out of his head.  He uses the night vision goggles and captures a plank of wood falling by itself.  Then a light anomaly leaves it.  As if it knocked it over.  Zak says Emma did it.  A figure crawls up the pillar and to the floor on the XLS.  Were they fooled by something darker or were they in contact with Emma?  They stare back at the eyes of the devil with something having a tight grip on the spirits of the island attached here.  They've only just scratched the surface.  

Well that was an eventful episode and just like the GA doco another piece of wood is captured falling but in this case, an anomaly is also seen leaving it, so it pushed it over.