As I said last night, I’m in Richmond, Virginia visiting family. It was my first flight since the pandemic. I hate flying but it wasn’t too bad. So it goes.

Since I’m on the road, I’m keeping this brief. On with the show this is it.

Allen Toussaint wrote this week’s theme song in 1973. I have an explicable love of Allen Toussaint’s music and an inexplicable love of songs with nonsense titles. Those two passions collided this week.

We have three versions of Shoorah Shoorah for your listening pleasure: Allen Toussaint live, Betty Wright, and Joan Osborne.

One more nonsense song title for the road:

Yeah, I know the opening sounds like The Doobie Brothers. It was intentional on the Other Peter’s part.

I’m keeping the second act short because I’m on holiday. Sue me.

The Secret Of Crickley Hall is a rip-snorting spook fest from 2012. I found it on Britbox but it’s also streaming on Hulu.

The Calleighs are a London family who just experienced the disappearance of their only son. His mother Eve (Suranne Jones) blames herself as do many others. They’re all wrong.

Gabe Calleigh (Tom Ellis) is an engineer who takes a job in the North of England. They move into Crickley Hall, which used to be an orphanage. It’s now haunted by the angry and bitter ghost of its former owner played by Douglas Henshall of Shetland fame.

There are many flashbacks in this three part mini-series. They’re handled beautifully. I was never confused as to what epoch we were in. That’s unusual.

I don’t believe in ghosts, but I like haunted house flicks. The Secret Of Crickley Hall is an excellent example. It stacks up quite well against the haunted house series that Mike Flanagan has done for Netflix.

The cast has many of my favorite British actors. In addition to the three already mentioned, the cast includes Maisie Williams, David Warner, Donald Sumpter, and Craig Parkinson all of who should be familiar to Anglophiles.

Here’s the trailer:

Grading Time: I give The Secret Of Crickley Hall 4 stars and an Adrastos Grade of A-. Props to everyone involved.

The last word of our second act goes to Richard Thompson:

We begin our third act with our favorite stolen feature.

Separated At Birth Casting Edition: General Leslie Groves is a lucky man casting wise. The military honcho has been played by two of Hollywood’s handsomest actors, Matt Damon and Paul Newman. Newman played the General in the underrated 1989 movie Fat Man & Little Boy.

I just gave myself an earworm. Let’s try and eradicate it:

The Movie List: It’s star character actor week with Thomas Mitchell. The first five movies on the list were released in 1939, which was the year Mitchell won his supporting actor Oscar.

The Thomas Mitchell Dozen

1. Only Angels Have Wings
2. Stagecoach
3. Gone With The Wind
4. Mr. Smith Goes To Washington
5. The Hunchback Of Notre Dame
6. High Noon
7. It’s A Wonderful Life
8. Dark Waters
9. While The City Sleeps
10. Out Of The Fog
11. The Dark Mirror
12.  Alias Nick Beal

Your Weekly Oscar: The news continues to be gloomy, so I decided to lighten things up with OP’s version of this Arlen-Mercer classic.

Have I told you lately how much I love Oscar Peterson?

Saturday GIF Horse: A few GIFs from the number one film on the Thomas Mitchell Dozen:

Mitchell is in neither GIF but how can you argue with Rita Hayworth lighting Cary Grant’s cigarette?

I feel a song coming on:

Best Of SNL:  It’s Greek diner time. No Coke, Pepsi but never in my house. I’m a Coke Zero guy.

Let’s close down this virtual honky tonk with some more music.

Saturday Closer: Another post, another Tiny Desk Concert. This time, the Tedeschi-Trucks Band in 2016.

Why Derek Trucks is wearing a Jacksonville Jaguars is beyond me.

That’s all for this week. The last word goes to Tom Ellis and Suranne Jones in The Secret Of Crickley Hall: