Hellier 2.1 "Noise and Signal"

                                               
Hellier returns for season 2 with more into their investigation started in season 1.
Cincinnati February 2018.

The hand of Fatima/Mary/Miriam was spotted by me when the camera was panning the bookshelf. Here and in the world for those who do garner meaning from it.  Also known as the Hamsa - five (Middle Estern) as in five fingers.  A symbol to ward off evil and evil gazes.  It is about protection, bringing good fortune.  Okay that was digression.
Also the synchronicity element is so relevant too, firm believer in that as well, as it's affected me in lots of ways and not just in relation to the paranormal.

Lots of talk on Tyler who's really into this, as well as his research skills, enthusiastic and being hands on with the investigations.  That'd be me then, love my research in whatever I do, not just the day job! This looks at what new information has surfaced since season 1 and how it affects the current season 2 aspects of the investigation, deciding what they want to continue with.  First off the list was David who appears to have vanished off the face of the earth.  As Greg said he wasn't sure of he even exists or was just a 'conduit' per se to get them to investigate.  As well as mentioning the house that Greg and Dana had found.  Having footage of the house too.  David Matthew Parsons owns the house after researching this address.  David was found online and they realized that the wording in his Facebook posts and the emails didn't fit and he wasn't a doctor either.  Taking that as a strange coincidence and they accepted it wasn't who they were looking for.  Except for the synchronicities.

Connor explained how the Harliss name and his sister's research into their family ancestry with their grandmother, found this name in relation to family and how their great, great, great grandfather was named Joseph Harliss who owned land in a part of Pikeville, Kentucky.  So the goblin pics could've been taken at Harliss Creek.  Which he thinks could be "noise" in this area.  Needing to see if they can follow leads due to such discoveries. Greg wanted to email David and Terry again.  Connor wondered if Terry had seen their 'teaser' for this case and started the email again, and whether it's someone who follows either Dana or Greg on social media.  So Greenfield could be Terry.  Allen Greenfield is the author of  Secret Cipher of the Ufonauts thus concentrating on who Terry is.  According to Woodrow Derenberger, Indrid Cold was accompanied by two others, Karl Ardo and Demo Hasan.  So the EVPs they got in season 1 could have been in reference to that Karl.  That has to be more than synchronicity.
Stillwater Bridge was in Minnisota and where Indrid could be.  Eerily similar to Point Pleasant, such as the bridge and a Mothman statue also found in Point Pleasant, Virginia.  Taunia Derenberger-Bowman wrote Beyond Lanulos Our Fifty Years With Indrid Cole. It says that Indrid is dead. Posted on Facebook by Taunia 18 September 2018.

A little more summary in this opening as a recap which may have been useful or helpful if you haven't watched season 1, but I just wanted to get right into it.  Forget impatience but there was a lot I wanted to see in this ep especially since I won't have a chance to watch them all in one go. But glad to see the synchronicity element was still present and how that still played a big part in their clues and search for some sort of meaning to what has gone before and was yet still to come.  As the title suggests some critics have viewed the first part as being just that - 'noise' with little going on here.  At least there were pieces to the continuing puzzle that could be seen as possible signs, a 'signal' to their quest, in my view.

Agatha and the Curse of Ishtar

                                              
Lots of dramas being churned out about Agatha Christie, as well as her books being remade over and this one delved into an aspect of the writer's personal life after her divorce and meeting her second husband, Max Mallowan.  A rather comical tale which had her wanting romance, not for the romance factor per se, but rather for research.  Romance not to be equated with sex, as Katherine Woolley (Katherine Kingsley) tells her, not it's different, but romance still being a precursor to sex, right.  Katherine suggests Agatha (Lyndsey Marshal) should visit their (her husband Leonard's (Jack Deam) dig in Iraq when she can't get anywhere with her romance story.  Which she finally decides to do but still wants her male publishers to publish the 'romance' book when it's completed.  Not too impressed, they're more interested in the Belgian detective and his little grey cells solving mysteries.  The publishers wouldn't be too impressed with her, 'cutting off and feeding it' joke either in the beginning.

Finally she travels to Iraq and after the train not being able to go all the way as the conductor tells her, the earth has been sick.  She finally arrives at the dig site only to find a man who's been shot and she drives him for help, though only after she drives over him twice, his leg to be precise.  She draws in a pad for help and the concierge who speaks English, not that she notices, sends for the doctor and tells the boy she's a mute.  The doctor tells her next time she should use a bigger gun since the bullet missed the bone in his head.  That was the beginnings of this comedy. 
Finding out that when the tomb was opened a man was found dead inside.  When she arrives at the house of her guests, the Leonard's, she stumbles upon a hanged monkey belonging to Katherine.  Thus the mystery ensues, Max (Jonah Hauer-King) the shot man is also an archaeologist too.  Leading to plenty of digs and not just of the excavating variety.

More an allusion to one of the Poirot stories, set in Mesopotamia, or thereabouts, such as Appointment With Death for example, and how Agatha could have come up with that plot, but probably didn't.  As dinner is served, the suspects gather, Lord Marmaduke Ponsonby (Rory Fleck Byrne) Lucy (Bronagh Waugh) strangely Pearl (Crystal Clarke) wasn't present at dinner as she was meant to be Katherine's companion; but was relegated to a "dog's body".  Some digs at men and how they don't listen to women, much less think they can be intelligent, as Pearl has a doctorate too.  Agatha sends a telegram to Conan Doyle who suggests she perform an autopsy on the monkey's liver to ascertain cause of death.  Though neither she nor Max know where the liver is or what it looks like.  Eventually she removes it herself after some bungling from Max, so much for being an archaeologist and adds some chemicals to find the monkey was poisoned and most likely drank the strychnine, which could have also been used on the dead man in the beginning.

Plodding on and investigating Agatha finds from Sir Constance (Stanley Townsend) that his wife Lucy who is younger than him and is 24 is having an affair with someone younger too.  But she doesn't figure out who that is.  Enlisting Max's help in investigating she finally learns who the suspects are, to cross off the list.  As well as being enamoured with Max to the point of having sex, so much for romance.  Rudely interrupted by an explosion.  She tells him she didn't want that, apologizes when he says she used him for sex.  And so she uses again when she tells him that she wants him.

Eventually working out who the murderer is, yes it was obvious, she solves the mystery, writes two books, one a 'romance' and gets the man too.  Had its ups and downs in this but it was watchable, if only it wasn't riddled with ad breaks almost every ten minutes.  Shows Christie is still popular, even with lots of author name droppings such as Bernard Shaw, Conan Doyle, as mentioned.  Well, curses, this could've been much better than the end result...

Ghost Adventures "Pasadena Ritual House"

                                               
Why do these episodes all have a 'ritual house' tag anyway and yes they're also associated with Satanic rituals, demons and something dark.  Why don't they come up with more catchy titles (ha).  Also I found this episodes rather repetitive in content, as though everything happened on cue.  Maybe it does the paranormal being so unpredictable and sure as that happens, Aaron has his first and last seance with using the Ouija board and his name comes through, or as close as possible, "GODWIN" with a woman saying she's been waiting for him.  A shame the question of who she was and why she wanted him wasn't asked on the Puck either.  Or perhaps it was, but we just didn't get to see that part.  It was easy to see that's what the letters would spell out.  Also a question as to why it was spelled "God" and not with two 'o's.

Then again as regular as clockwork, there are three knocks from Richard's bedroom wall.  Again as we've discussed on occasions, they don't necessarily have to be associated with the Holy Trinity and mocking it.  They could just as easily be three knocks which is commonplace for people to use when they knock on a door.  Wonder why they didn't let Jay in on the seance, giving his past history with the Ouija board.  I just find that part more than just coincidental.  As Aaron was the one sitting next to Richard and holding his hand.  Why didn't Zak sit next to him or Billy.

Patty Negri brought them to the house and tells them about Richard, a friend she's met the last year and has participated in a seance with him.  He's a psychic medium as well.  She saw the darkness from behind and figures and she doesn't know if they were demons.  This 1890 Victorian home appears to be a mystery as to why it's so highly charged and Zak speaking with Richard.  He claims to be haunted himself as well as the house being haunted before he arrived here.  He's a Satanist and he believes in "inter-dimensional beings" and the devil.  He conjures and he closes the door afterwards.  The events open with tapping or the chandelier shakes.  The original owner of the house has communicated with him and a woman who asked for a seance and she spoke of her son and wanted to cause him harm.

Dawn, a room mate, spoke of a man getting into bed with her and suffering sleep paralysis.  It could have been the original owner, Victor.
Zak believing her bedroom is a portal.  As they use the SLS a figure appears on her shoulder.  As well as having an attachment.  Which appears as he uses the word "darker."  Oh stop calling her a woman, her name was Dawn, you can't just forget their names so easily.  A figure also stands on the seance table and on the chair by it.  As the equipment makes a buzzing sound.  Zak takes a Polaroid photo.  When he looked at the Polaroid with the white mass, it appears to be a hooded man, or at least it resembles some sort of a figure.  Apparently it appears the energy in the house has changed and there's a full moon too.

Using the digital recorder a voice comes through saying "have a drink."  It's when Zak talks of the chair, that's what they do when they take part in the seance and drink as pointed out by Billy too.
During the seance the table rocks. Billy and Zak hear a hissing sound later in one of the bedrooms and the jar on the dresser rattles. On the Direct Link which Aaron is holding, a woman says "coming" a different voice says "for you."  "The enact? will haunt Satan" is what I heard when the man comes through, not "you will want Satan."  Which doesn't really make sense, he doesn't want Satan.  Though listening to it over it sounds like "will upon" and not "haunt."
The 'unexplained woman's voice' on the Direct Link at approx 31 minutes, says "she's here, I'm sure."  Probably in reference to the woman coming for Aaron.  As there are lights seen at the same time.  Then after listening to this a few times, she sounds like "sit there, I'm sure."  Aggh so frustrating!

When Zak takes photos by the bathroom on the Polaroid there's a face captured in the light anomaly.  Took this pic with the phone and it resembles a proper man's face rather more than a clownish face in the Polaroid.

Here Billy gets a stabbing pain in his head.  Aaron want to go into the room and get angry at them. 

"Who are you attached to?" Zak asks on the Puck.
Sign
Card

"What do you want to tell Aaron Goodwin?"
Keep
Being
Devil  Is Aaron a demon in disguise?  Just joking.

Tom
Hematus comes through: an ancient deity from Ancient Babylon, whose name means 'secret'.  Known as a demon now.  The Puck turns off and something was touching Aaron's hand.  Way to scare Aaron with him going to be affected by this long after they leave here.  But he is used to this kind of activity though not directed all towards him.  Who is Tom??

Emailed those pics to post here and the one with the anomaly on the chair didn't go through.  Yikes, also when I opened up the face one to upload all I saw were two creepy eyes staring at me??!!

Ghost Adventures "Cerro Gordo Ghost Town"

                                             
Another western adventure as they head to Cerro Gordo Ghost town in California fully equipped in cowboy attire, well hats and boots.  A mining town which holds spirits from a mine collapse where at least 35 Chinese perished in an area known as the China Stope and a poker player getting shot in the poker room with his blood still staining the floor where he was shot and died.  The bullet hole still ridding the wall too.  With witnesses telling of being pounced upon in bed with pressure on their chest and seeing a full blown man in the Bell Shaw house.  Also the place where two children locked themselves into a trunk and died.  Lots of scary stuff going on here, not least of which was Zak's driving up the dirt road to the town. Including the caretaker, Robert and the historian's wife telling of their experiences.  Dr Jonathan Vanover a computer engineer, PhD had a recording where you can hear children. 

Zak and Billy head to the building where the poker player, Alphonse Benoit was killed and Billy's hand freezes, caught on the thermal it's blue when it should have been orange/red coloured.  As well as the thermal capturing a free floating spirit in the spot where he was killed. 

Zak brings back Tim France (The Pioneer Saloon ep) to dig for artifacts, where Zak's more afraid of snakes.  Finding yet more nails with the metal detector.  Billy and Aaron send a Go Pro camera down the mining shaft attached to the deep sea fishing rod where the Chinese miners died.  Billy manages to find the horizontal shaft leading to the mine. 

Zak and Aaron head back to the Bell Shaw house as Billy heads back to the mine shaft with Jay.  Zak tries to lock Aaron in the closet but he holds the door open with his foot.  Zak catches a light anomaly fly past him and reacts to it.  Jay and Billy hear banging sounds, it sounds like hammering, maybe for help or actual mining.  Zak captures a light anomaly over the bed when setting up cameras. 

Asking someone to "please play with us" as they go to separate rooms.  Footsteps can be heard from the living room.  Aaron asking if it's nice to have some attention and then later he farts due to the pressure and being nervous!  Ha.  Billy lowers a digital recorder and camera on the fishing reel.  Billy says he'd freak out if someone pulled on the line.  He later feels tugging on the line and the camera catches the reel being pulled down after Jay tells if he sees the "stuff hanging by the mine."  EVPs "can somebody hear me" and "I'm going to work."  Gotta say they don't sound like miners, uncannily the one that says "I'm going to work" sounds almost like Zak??  The "somebody hear me" almost sounds like a high pitched Billy almost as it's an echo of him.  Or I'm hearing things!  Ha.

Outside where the bodies are buried in the graveyard Zak sees a ball of light travelling down from the mountain.  In the bunkhouse, Jay is walked up on from behind and a bang can be heard in the hallway.  In the hotel, Aaron has a tingling sensation in his finger. Not knowing Billy felt the same earlier on.  A noise is heard from the poker room.  An EVP is caught there "you both just walked to me" or is it "talked", I hear talked it makes more sense since they were talking more than walking.  "Imagine you sure fuckin' talked to me" after playing it several time is what I get. 

The Ovilus shows "slain" as Zak places it over the bullet hole.  Would've been interesting if he asked who he was talking to.  In the kitchen he hears a groan when the anomaly enters the kitchen door after Zak sees the flying anomaly show up again.  Maybe it's such an ancient spirit it resembles this form.  As well as resembling a bird.

A full bodied apparition is captured outside by the game camera. 

What's remarkable or uncanny is the very first apparition they captured was caught by Nick in the Old Washoe Club during their documentary, another western town in Virginia City, as well as the same or similar anomaly that was caught at the Washoe Club in one of their later GA eps.  Is this following them or timely showing up here when they arrive, as the voices they still get of their names when they've returned back to Washoe Club in the past and even when they're not there.  It just seems so much more than a coincidence. 

Ghost Adventures "Albion Castle"

                                           
Albion Castle, San Francisco, have heard of this place so many times for so long and it becomes a GA investigation.  Not surprising there is a woman spirit appearing everywhere since it is built on Ohlone Indian burial mounds.  Especially where they buried children.  So it wasn't very surprising that they picked up on screaming there, which could be from a burial.  Okay let me just say it straight out here, started watching the ep and about ten minutes into it, my left eye felt irritated.  You know when you get an eyelash in it and it stings sometimes until you get it out, well there wasn't any eyelash in it but it felt kinda sore and a little red.  Telling my sis I hope there won't be any eye stuff going on in this ep!!  Uncannily or coincidentally Zak felt some eye pain during the investigation!  Holy heck let it not be like the eye pain of the Demon House doco all over again when it came to my eye pain!  Luckily it wasn't!  Soo I have no idea why that happened, I just thought of it and there you have it!

The Ohone Indians fought over this land and for the water underneath the land.  Spring water which has healing properties and was considered sacred by them.  There are three tunnels (and someone out there shouts Zak used the word "moist" to describe the passageways! Ha.)  Owner, Jennifer's daughter, Gerelyn had an encounter with the "woman in white" for the first time in her bedroom as she hovered over her bed.  The second time she saw her was when she took her friends to the tunnel and went swimming in the water.  She saw her in the water.  But why would you even go swimming there to begin with, yes it's natural water, but you don't really know what's in there.  It's no wonder she appeared to her, probably protecting the water.

Aaron thinks he and cameraman Mike may have heard a woman singing.  Zak thinks it could be audio pareidolia.  Doesn't sound like singing.  Jennifer's five year old daughter also saw the woman and she told the woman that she would stay there.  The landscaper left and never returned.  The Stone Tape theory is mentioned again, which states past events are recorded in the stone.  Contractor Jeff also saw the mysterious dark haired woman in one of the windows at the top of the tower.  Using an underwater camera to see what's in the water, they find a jawbone and teeth, belonging to a possum but can't work out how it drowned.

Billy applies a Go-Pro to a remote boat, balanced with plastic bottles for buoyancy and the camera shuts off, as well as having its battery drained.  Also there seems to be a mist appearing at the end of the tunnel where the camera went out.  Billy and Aaron try to get some voices on the recorder by placing it on a stick and lowering it through the hole above the water in the cavern below where they just were, but receive no replies.  Lots of light anomalies are seen including a twisty one.

Seen by the stair where I screen shot it, maybe it's me but I see a woman's face in there.  Could be a woman, but it does look like a face.
In front of the kitchen where Zak sits, a light anomaly is seen and an EVP of a male voice Hecob??  A tap is heard from the wall when the light anomaly is seen on the wood at the side.

In the tower, Aaron and Billy set up a Geophone in the window to pick up any movement.  As screams are heard by all three.  Could they be from a burial that took place there?  After which Zak gets pain behind his eyes, around 31 minutes into the ep.  Aaron and Billy hear a voice.  When Billy tells it to show it's here.  I heard "I am" but it doesn't sound female to me.  Zak feels sick and a response is received from the Direct Link device, I don't hear "Jesus" but "believe us or leave us."  Zak strips!  As he has scratches on his back and a red mark forms on camera too running down his back.

Even the front of his body was affected too.

When Billy gets a reading on the Geophone a light anomaly goes past it and then by Zak's leg.  A female voice says "stay positive."  I hear "what price" when the light anomaly goes over the direct link.  As in what price are they willing to pay for being here perhaps.  A stick figure is picked up on the SLS and looks to be moving in an erratic manner, or could be doing some sort of a dance.

Ghost Adventures Hallowe'en Special "Curse of the Harrisville Farmhouse"

                                              
The Harrisville Farmhouse, Rhode Island, investigation proved to be as disturbing as was promised.  The curse upon the Arnold family from a century ago and the black mass seen in 1973 which led to this paranormal activity.  Seen by the Perron family to the point where a seance led to the mother of the family being thrown across the room in her chair.  Zak brought back the daughter of the Perron family, Andrea, to the house. Currently the present family Corey and Jen, who bought the house in 2019 are concerned for their son, Kyler who also witnessed the black mass; as did their friend Bill.  Kyler refused to return to the house for two weeks.  Zak wanted Andrea to show them inside the house, who was grateful to Zak for his work.  She advised caution with something that Lorraine Warren unleashed.  She told Andrea she didn't know that she and Ed were "in over their heads forty years ago."  The story being made into the films The Conjuring and now number 3 is on the way.

Andrea could hear footsteps outside their room and her sister got into bed with her the first night they moved in and could hear voices.  The farmhouse going back decades and also how there are seven dead soldiers buried in the outside wall.  The library was her parent's bedroom, where Zak felt unbalanced and anxiety.  Feeling no anger until he entered that room.  The Perron children witnessed the seance and saw their mother fly across the room.  As well as the table lifting from the floor.  Billy and Jay getting so phased out and seeing figures. 

Carl and Keith Johnson were investigating the house before the Warrens arrived there.  They could feel electricity around the area when they arrived and saw something dark by the bedroom at that time.  The drone caught a black mass in the screen area of the porch.  Also a storm approaches. Footsteps are heard upstairs, potentially, as Zak takes Polaroids.  Carl uses an old cassette recorder.  Feeling a transient cool breeze.  When a prayer is read a growl is heard.  A creaking sound from the chair can be heard.  A black mass passes in front of Billy when he is downstairs alone and is captured on his camera.  As Zak sits in a rocking chair upstairs two stick figures appear.  One appears to be on the ceiling with the second one reaching out to it. 

In the Polaroid a black mass appears at the bottom of the photo which is gone from the next photo taken immediately afterwards. 

Zak feels pain on his side where his kidney is located, like a knife.  In the same room where Carl felt a stinging in his fingers.  Zak finds himself unable to speak when he tries to tell us this is where they saw the flickering light in the photo. 

Zak decides to investigate by the river as he believes this is where some from of activity takes place.  Another growl is heard.  Receiving a message on his phone which he swears he switched off: "are you dead?"  What was uncannily funny, unintentionally of course, are the words under which say: "I don't have the answer for that.  Is there something else I can help you with."  The voice Zak catches on the parabolic mic says "reverse back" almost automotively, like it was something from a car or truck.  And sees a ball of light in the woods.  Using the thermal he sees a mass move across one of the windows which Aaron says is the window of the library. 

Not so clear on this photo, as my screen shots aren't working, but there seems to be a figure circled in red in the next window.  Go back and rewatch if you didn't see it.  I didn't pay attention to it at first. The black figure was in the window on the left.

Aaron doesn't want to go any further.  As Zak calls Cody to ask if Jay can carry out a conjure ritual   in the basement and he can close it afterwards.  Using salt to form a circle, he and Aaron sit inside the circle as Zak heads to Andrea's old room and Billy investigates in the dining room.   "Cellar; lasting; blaze" show on the Ovilis.  Billy hears footsteps in the library or seance room and can't move.   A loud thump can be heard by all of them.  As Billy checks on Zak, Billy then captures hangers moving on the closet railing.  Jay comes to find Billy and Zak but feels like he's in another time as he hears walking upstairs.  He then closes the ritual and buries the ashes outside. 

At his museum, Zak sits on the Devil's rocking chair feeling a shock and days later says he's got a pain in his back. 
Explaining to Kevin, the ET reporter who visits the museum for a second time; he was violently ill after this investigation which lasted for around three weeks.  Kevin refuses to touch the chair and Zak tells him he's mocked it and it's then he says he feels a pain in his back and isn't sure what caused it.  Zak invites him back to the museum next Hallowe'en and to spend the night alone there by himself, which he replies would break him.  Zak adding then they'd investigate as to what happened and why.  At the 26.59 mark there's an orb that flies over Kevin's head which appears to go into the top of his head. 

Don't know if that's why he felt a pain in his back or if the orb appeared from elsewhere in the museum.  Heck I'd spend a night there, but on the provision someone else could be brought in with me.  Well you need back up incase something goes wrong, even if you would be filmed.

Ghost Adventures Serial Killer Spirits "Ted Bundy Ritual House"

                                     
Ted Bundy ritual house in Bountiful, Utah, was where he took possibly Debra after he abducted her from school.  The house now abandoned was home to rituals and much activity.  People have been attacked and a little boy, a nearby neighbour, said how he heard children there and left a log outside the house, which Zak surmises he peed on after he touched it.  Paranormal investigators, such as Vincent have been attacked and wanted them to be prepared mentally before entering the house. The previous family also moved in to find pentagrams around the house.  As Zak claims this is a portal to hell.  (Another one!)  Vincent stating how it drains you mentally and physically when he leaves.  The UV light shows chambers.
Sue Perkins was almost a victim of Bundy's as he tried to abduct her by feigning car trouble.  She was lucky to escape.  However, Debra Kent, his next victim was not.

When Zak mentions the afterlife, as he's reading the ritualistic words, the door by them falls open outside. The EVP chants, the last one sounds like "the gates are open, come." That part sounds English.  Zak also gets an unknown cut or scratch on his finger which bleeds. As he sends Aaron inside to investigate alone first and they show the others sitting in the chairs, looks like there's an orb that comes out of Jay and vanishes into the back of his chair.  Doesn't appear to be dust or a bug.  As there were none around. Maybe some form of foreshadowing since his name is the only one mentioned later when he enters the house.

A female voice comes in saying "basement."  Where they go.  On the Ovilus, 'Base' is shown, could base be part of basement or even their nerve centre base?  Trust written on the closet door, there's not much of that now.  The words written there were just like what was happening to them.  As Billy says "our trust is over" as Zak says he never does that to him.  Sure he doesn't!  The Intercom box, a female voice coming through.  Saying "Emma" maybe when Billy asks what her name is.  What was Aaron doing in that punching pose??  HA.
Zak locked Billy up in and they got responses on the Intercom box with a female voice.  Even the graffiti pointed out what he was going through inside.  But dude left him locked in there long enough anything could've happened.  Billy loses it when he comes out of there and is negatively affected.

As Zak calls them around the pentagram to goad and provoke the entities, Billy walks straight through the circle and at the stairs a light anomaly/orb is seen there.  As well as Aaron having to leave the house earlier on.  More anomalies are seen and enter him too.  Zak experiencing more adverse feelings. Zak gets a stick figure in the cubby hole on the SLS.  See the "come" that is heard  is reminiscent of what I said earlier on with the EVP they caught about the gate being open.

"For Jay" comes through from the circle as Billy wanders off.  An anomaly comes out of him on the stairs.  One of the times where they had to cleanse themselves after a lockdown. 

Lungs Old Vic Theatre, London

Lungs: "Breathe!"

A modern play for modern audiences particularly highlighting decisions to have a family, choosing or having the right partner, whilst the world around you falls apart.  Or said in many ways, is just "f**ked!"  With a look at green issues, the environment, political correctness be damned.  It's a personal choice and despair of how to live in this world.  To bring a child into it, or not.  To adopt, or not.  Sigh.  Want a baby, wait we're just talking about it.  It's just a "f**king conversation."  She's thinking out loud, then wants his input.  But doesn't really, but she does.

This couple had no names, no personal descriptions, they could be me, or you, facing the same challenges in a fast moving world.  Bring a child into it, with so much carbon consumption, the baby would be the size of the Eiffel Tower.  Do we need more people in the world, so adopt someone who is not loved.  Fast moving, breath taking, leaving you breathless.  Physical attraction, it's more than sex.  Want to make babies.  Their respective parents hate the respective partners.  She's studying for a PhD.  He's a struggling indie musician.  Get a real job, they both should.  He's not such a good musician in her opinion.  Oh sorry, sorry, sorry.  Full of apologies after the fact.  She was thinking it, so she said it.  So did he.  He reads books, books she reads, highlights passages he doesn't understand even after he reads the entire paragraph.

More dialogue on the state of the world, flying in planes.  They get together, make love some more.  Anxiously await the pregnancy test results.  It's positive, time moves on.  She has cravings.  He gets a corporate job.  Encourages the company to have a more social outlook and agenda.  He misses the meeting over lunch since they agreed to meet every Tuesday for lunch.  She bought a picnic, doughnuts and an apple to balance out the doughnut.  It's iced.  Let's be daring, have sex in a corner of the park. 

Sleepless nights, the baby...the baby.  More despair, depression...business as usual.  He goes to work.  She sits alone at home.  Time moves on.  They grow apart.  He meets a temp at work.  Years later they meet again.  Confess their feelings.  He's grown a beard.  He has a fiance.  Her mother's passed, so has his father but he didn't tell her.  Passions engulfs and enrages once more.  They jump into bed together.  Another baby...They don't marry.  The baby grows, gets older.  They marry. Years go past...fade to black

With a disco-y dance by the couple: Matt and Claire at the end.  Let it all out...

Wow, catch your breath!  Fast paced, exhilarating.  A momentous production.  Claire takes point in this and turns out has more to say than Matt does.  Sometimes she did drown him out a little, but you know, she's Queen Elizabeth so it's all good!  HA.  A simple stage, composed of solar panels, no change of clothes, just dialogue and lines and emotion.  It was different, it was topical.  It was a great production.  Matt was kind of his usual comedic self, not far removed from the Doctor, though I'll get berated for the comparison.  [Though she was the one who became a doctor, technically!  Ha.]  But it works for his character since he is musician, he's meant to be carefree.  Saying why can't musicians have kids.  Her response; the successful ones can.  Oof!  Claire is meant to be the calming voice, erratic, intelligent but can cut like a knife with the harshest of words.  But it works.

At stage door all Matt could ask is whether everyone enjoyed the play as he whizzed by signing autographs!  At least he signed for everyone!  As did Claire.  I got him to sign my newspaper clipping cos I could not for the life of me find that Doctor Who sketch I did of him years ago!  Never mind, it'll turn up.  He was surprised "wow a paper" as everyone else got their programmes signed!  Wonderful to meet him too finally!  My Doctor Eleven!  His energy was electrifying on stage and can see how he was mesmerizing as the Doctor.

A must see play for anyone who's interested in serious life issues interspersed with comedy and a lot we can all relate to!  After all they are "good people."

Lungs written by Duncan Macmillian
At the Old Vic until 9 November