Doggin' Around

The BFI is one of the best things about living in London, an opportunity to see classics and curios of various types on the big (or biggish) screen.

The other week, I noticed they were showing a screening of 'Doggin' Around' a one-off BBC drama from 1994 starring one of my very favourite actors, that king of shambling laconia, Elliott Gould.

It was shown as part of an Alan Plater season to commemorate his passing. I'd never heard of Plater before but on this evidence I'll be dipping into more of his work.

Aside from some (forgiveable) broad comedy, this was a lovely piece of work. It's a paean to the dream of the travelling jazz musician, the hip cat. Great to see Gould given a script worthy of his comic talent. Many terrific lines for Gould here.

Then, the shots of roadsigns and the headlights of lonely cars on Yorkshire motorways in the dead of the night accompanied by melancholy jazz go beyond ironic juxtaposition of themes and just come off as plainly beautiful.