I have an extremely good memory for names and faces. So good in fact that when I was at a conference recently, I saw a guy who I recognised and managed to work out that he was from my home town, and that his surname was Jones. He went to the same school as me when I was 10 or 11 or so, but in the year below me. I’d never even spoken to him, but still my brain managed to pull him out of the database. Of course, I naturally had to go and do the “Excuse me, are you originally from Eastbourne? Thought so.” bit. Freaked him out somewhat, as I knew it would.
So the other day I was watching “Silent Hill” on DVD, and thoroughly enjoying it. Then an actress came along who I knew I recognised, but could not for the life of me place where from. This continued to bug me throughout the film, so when it ended I looked her up in the credits. Turned out I didn’t know the name, so I figured I must have just seen her in something else, but still it irritated me that I couldn’t remember what.
Then on Monday night I was watching TV with Saffron, and we happened to watch an episode of the Amanda Redman/Dennis Waterman[1] series “New Tricks” and damn it if the same thing didn’t happen again. There was this actress who I knew I’d seen in something before, but couldn’t place where. Again it bugged me to the end of the show, but this time I didn’t even remember to look up her name.
Fast forward to lunchtime today when I remembered both these events, and realised that I had an intarweb to hand. Within 30 seconds I had the first one nailed – the actress from Silent Hill was Alice Krige, and I had previously seen her in “Star Trek: First Contact” in which she played the Borg Queen. Easy.
The second one proved harder to nail, but I eventually discovered that the part of Hannah in New Tricks, series 2, episode 5, was played by Georgina Rylance, who I had previously seen in “Poirot – The Mystery of the Blue Train“.
The internet’s a wonderful thing, isn’t it?
–c.
[1] Yes, he does sing the theme tune.
So, now you’ve nailed two actresses and a bloke from your hometown?
Pretty good average, in my opinion.
–c.
I was walking down Northcote Rd in Clapham a few weeks ago when a girl (who, in case my significant other should ever read this, was definitely not hot and blonde) stopped me and said “Are you originally from Bristol?”
I answered in the affirmative (more than a little taken aback) and she just said “Thought so, seen you about”, and walked off. Random.
I used to have a Blackberry in my last job but was annoyingly addicted to be permanently browsing imdb.com whenever I was watching TV. Certified nerd.