http://mostlyfilm.com/2013/08/26/hannibal-redux/
Mostly Film asked me to provide an illustration for an article about Bryan Fuller's latest tv show Hannibal and I was delighted to do because this is one of my favourite tv shows, apart from Sarah and Duck on Cbeebies (I am a mum, after all, and it is delightful...)
Hannibal is a massively stylish offering; mean, moody and magnificent. I like the twisted fairytale aspect to it; time seems out of joint when you enter Hannibal's domain and the man himself, as played by Mads Mikkelsen, seems to belong to a different era. Yes, he's a serial killer, but he's also an old fashioned gentleman...in his way... He'd probably be the perfect house guest, provided you didn't do anything foolish like attempting to serve the cheese course too early or make him listen to your endless theorizing as to how you know you would have been absolutely bezzy mates with Michael Jackson.. He's a dandy in the vein of the Duke of Windsor (the one who married Wallace Simpson - worth googling his plaid suits, all the better if you get a full colour image - all the better to wonder at the technicolour glory of his baggy pants) and this guy knows how to rock a double windsor knot like nobody's business.
I think you have to be born a dandy -forget makeover shows; some things you just don't get from book learning - so my young Hannibal is a nattily dressed child with a keen eye for mixing pattern and colour and mother's cooking simply isn't up to scratch.
What's a boy to do?
Here's a musical offering sung by the dark haired lady from Abba, penned by Noel Coward, which might sum up the general audience reaction to this show:
