Who is this Jessica ‘Rennis?’

The damn BBC commentators at the Olympics, (are we allowed to write that word?) are murdering the lass’s name each time they try to say it. Is it to much to ask that people who work for our flagship broadcaster pronounce people’s names properly? It’s Jessica. Ennis. You illiterate oafs.

On the other hand, I have just finished watching the BBC Shakespeare series, ‘The Hollow Crown, and, you know what? That was worth the licence fee for this year. The series covers the four plays from Richard II to Henry V and it is superb – I cannot recommend it highly enough. The production, locations and cast make Shakespeare highly ‘accessible’ without any need to dumb down the language or make any other alterations to allow people to ‘relate’ to it.

I do urge you to get hold of it – all four parts can be downloaded if you don’t have access to BBC iPlayer 🙂

11 thoughts on “Who is this Jessica ‘Rennis?’”

  1. Lass’s name. You will have the apostrophe police after you. You are right though. A bit of better pronunciation would not go amiss!

    I am not sure, but I might be the only person in the world who thinks that Shakespeare is vastly overrated.

  2. Just thank your lucky stars you don’t have to watch/listen to the Yanks and Canadians mutilating names!
    Makes the BBC look positively wonderful!

  3. CO, do I detect the smallest suggestion of approval for something English. Tut, tut! 😉

  4. Four-eyed English Genius :

    Lass’s name. You will have the apostrophe police after you. You are right though. A bit of better pronunciation would not go amiss!

    I am not sure, but I might be the only person in the world who thinks that Shakespeare is vastly overrated.

    FEEG, You’re not. He is for me a regular ‘Emperor’s Clothes’ experience. All the self-selected literary genii ooh and aah while I fail to follow the meaning and just wait for the occasional quote I can remember.

  5. Morning Janus

    But you haven’t answered the apostrophe question 😦

    lasses (okay, plural I know) is it lass’s or lass’ ❓

  8. Corrected. 🙂

    Janus, in this BBC production, the staging, locations and the superb interpretations of the characters by the cast make it easy to follow the meaning without needing an Elizabethan English dictionary.

  9. Janus :

    Janus :

    FEEG, You’re not. He is for me a regular ‘Emperor’s Clothes’ experience. All the self-selected literary genii ooh and aah while I fail to follow the meaning and just wait for the occasional quote I can remember.

    Bravo, good morning.

    I second your recommendation of ‘The Hollow Crown’. ‘Henry V’, in particular, was a superb production which I enjoyed thoroughly even although my nation were on the wrong side during the events it portrayed.

    Avaunt, Janus. I came to Shakespeare through the Beeb’s 1960 production of the history plays, with Robert Hardy as Henry V and Judi Dench as Katherine. I have been a Willie S. fan ever since. Admittedly, some of the plays are far better than others, Of the ones which I have seen, Troilus & Cressida was admittedly truly unmemorable.

    But nothing will shake my belief that he was an inspired word smith, playwright and poet who is well worth the effort of ‘following the meaning’ and whose statue probably does deserve to stand in the poetry corner of Central Park alongside the Immortal Rabbie and the worthy (but wordy) Sir Walter.

    Bugrit. KP out second ball and it was all looking quite promising for a good first innning lead.

  10. JM, my predisposition is probably connected to my… haste-bone, which you famously lack! 🙂

  11. Janus :

    JM, my predisposition is probably connected to my… haste-bone, which you famously lack! :-)

    Janus. good evening.

    Aye weel. ‘Festina lente’ has always worked well enough for me and I see no reason to rush to any alternative philosophy.

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