Happy Birthday Angela Lansbury
Earlier today, one of my favourite people I follow on Twitter, Self Styled Siren posted the following:
Happy birthday to Angela Lansbury, 89 today!
Made me remember how much I adore Angela Lansbury and her TV series Murder She Wrote. I loved how unstoppable she was in every episode, solving crimes and getting the bad guys.
I've not seen much of her lately, but maybe I should follow in the footsteps of Slade Sohmer who recently completed watching every episode of Murder She Wrote. In an interview with The Awl he says,
Dame Angela Lansbury's acting is worthy of her twelve Emmy nominations in twelve seasons and four Golden Globe wins. And in the memetic era we're in now, drenched in our lust for irony and an inside joke, it was immediately refreshing to remember what unabashed sincerity and earnestness looked like. It's neither snark nor smarm; it's schmaltz, but the best kind. Don't sleep on a cozy mystery drama.
The murders themselves are just serialized rewards, though. The show is a broader case study in Jessica Fletcher Gives Zero Fucks. She's kind and sweet and polite, with a most neighborly etiquette.
But she's also a ruthless advocate for justice, fearless in the face of intimidation and incapable of buying your weak bullshit. When the killer says "I was at a restaurant 'til 9:30," and she calmly refutes, "No, I don't think you were, Jerry," she does it with equal parts elegance and ferocity. She walks down every dark hallway, she opens every locked door, she meets every lying sack of shit with inquisitive charm. And she never judges you. Slade Sohmer via The Awl
Towards the end of the interview Sohmer adds,
You all can keep Beyoncé, Angela Lansbury is the one true queen, king, dame, diva.
Agree. 100%.
Happy birthday Dame Angela Lansbury. Wishing you many more happy and healthy years ahead of you.