Mr Keith Fortner (4/7) By The Silver Fox

(1/7), (2/7), (3/7), (4/7), (5/7), (6/7), (7/7).

The film resonates throughout with truth; every frame an exposure of our trite and shallow values - the sort of values that force us to sneer and question the sincere; to assume that all around us are charlatans…My God, when I think of what I've said and done …" (At this point, the commentary became a prolonged and disjointed confession that was eventually handed over to the Metropolitan Police.

It led to the arrest and subsequent imprisonment of the professor in question in connection with the disappearance of five women and - by some peculiar coincidence - a dog with a missing hind foot that belonged to his neighbour.)

This view was - more or less - echoed by most of those who saw it. With many prestigious awards under his belt, Keith was poised to take the world of cinema by storm. Indeed, rumours abounded at the time that everyone from Bertolucci to Di Palma wanted to work with him, and that some of the biggest studios in Hollywood were courting him with blank cheques and the sort of creative carte blanche that would have had Orson Welles in his prime drooling like Orson Welles as he was by then at the sight of a steaming plate of fresh fish fingers.

An Academy insider was reported to have said that the only reason that The Canary Sings for You received no Oscar nominations was that the small and independent distributor that had handled it was in bad odour with the Academy (due, he hinted, to a romantic dispute between its CEO and a noted producer whose marriage was "hanging by spit as it was".)

This snub was generally believed to be responsible for Keith turning his back on movies. "Sour grapes," the self-appointed cognoscenti said, and left it at that. The truth was that Keith had never intended to work in film; for him, television was the only field worth considering. He considered TV to be the most wide-reaching, the most democratic, and thus the most potentially powerful media on earth. Pretty much everyone, his reasoning ran, has access to TV, whereas going to the movies was becoming more and more expensive.

He also, with his customary insight, realised that this would eventually mean that the once-scornful moguls of movie-making would have to come to terms with their hated rival - would depend on it for their very survival, in fact.

Besides this, he felt no affinity for the snobbish condescending attitudes of those who felt that their work was more important and creative than that of people who worked just as hard for a fraction of the pay: "TV at its best will always be as good - if not better - than film at its best; not that it often gets there, " he told me the first time I met him. "These arrogant pricks think that just because it's a film it's inherently better than a TV show: they'd rather make shite like Weekend at Bernie's 2 than dirty their hands with The Singing Detective. Bastards!" Whatever the dispute about his reasons, it is undeniable that Keith poured the same energy into his work for television.

Continued...Next Page (5/7)

Fiction - Off To See The Wild West Show Part 18 (1886: Hull, Yorkshire) By Frank Beill
	My sister and I were sitting on my bunk. A funny feeling came over me: it was almost like relief. My hero knew about me and about my circumstances but he'd not decided automatically that I'd have to go back to the orphanage. 'I have always wanted a brother. I do not want to lose you.' Laughing Waters didn't share what she considered to be my unfounded confidence. Read more...

Fiction - Welcome To Hellville - Part 17 By Rich Mills
	29th November 2040 The information is coming thick and fast. The latest version of Arc-iSearch is a truly amazing piece of AI software. It sweeps across the huge net archives, sniffing out the smallest of references, eliminating the irrelevant with an intelligence that grows as it goes. I set it on its way yesterday, now it has started to Read more...

Fiction - The M1 McDonalds Girl and the Most Suitable Bloke By Andy Bilton
	So I'm heading home. Heading north. Eighty, on the M1, just south of Sheffield. Pissing it down. That horizontal stuff that totally obscures your view, your only safe option being to get in to the inside lane and follow the red cat's eyes. Not ideal weather conditions for a must-get-there-quicker sort of situation such as this. I should slow down really but Helen's already been on the mobile Read more...

Fiction - Complicity Part 5 By Nick Quantrill
	Complicity is the new crime-fiction novella set in Hull featuring Detective Sergeant Coleman and Detective Constable Maynard. The thisisull.com serialisation is accompanied by the stunning black and white photography of Roland Standaert, which illustrates the story and takes a unique look at the city. Complicity and other stories are available for free. Read more...

Fiction - The Guy Who Had All The Time In The World By Joe Hakim
	Sometimes it gets to be a bit too fuckin' much, I decide, after another day spent wandering the streets aimlessly. The sky is still bright purple - the colour of a fresh bruise - and the streets are still completely silent; not even the sound of birds chirping or distant traffic in the distance. Aside from that, everything seems to be much the same, at least on the surface. There's no visible Read more...

Fiction - Kat Out of the Bag Chapter Fourteen By Steve Rudd
	Yogesh, my abandoned guide on all things Nepalese, had said that the small yak-herding settlement of Langsisa was worth seeing if seeing meant believing, being as it is so isolated and yet further east of Kyangjin. Yogesh and I had discussed where I might like to trek on my trip before we embarked from Kathmandu, and he'd proposed the Langtang trek as being an ideal one Read more...

Fiction - The Burden - A Short Story By Joe Hakim
	I step out into the sun and close my eyes, letting the light wash over my face. It's cold, and the wind pinches my cheeks but I feel complete, for the first time ever. Today the world is different. Today is the first day of a new beginning. Everything feels real and vivid, and I bathe in it, taking it all in like a child seeing a painting for the first time, judging the angles and Read more...

Fiction - Off To See The Wild West Show Part 17 (1886: Hull, Yorkshire) By Frank Beill
	When we got further out into the Atlantic my companions became wary of going up on deck. When they did they scanned the horizon and talked in low voices if there were dark clouds heading towards us. The ocean swell was stronger but these weren't the rough seas they expected in repetition of the previous crossing. I was pleased we weren't enjoying the great sickness Read more...

Fiction - Kat Out of the Bag Chapter Thirteen By Steve Rudd
	I remembered the ring simply because it wasn't the type of ring that a man would usually choose to include in his pro-macho jewellery box. The rare stone at its heart shone like a bewildering beacon demanding attention in the pits of hell, while its subtly alluring design was elaborately detailed yet delicate. To all intents and purposes it looked like a lady's bridal ring, and thus the plot thickened. Read more...

Fiction - Complicity Part 4 By Nick Quantrill
	Complicity is the new crime-fiction novella set in Hull featuring Detective Sergeant Coleman and Detective Constable Maynard. The thisisull.com serialisation is accompanied by the stunning black and white photography of Roland Standaert, which illustrates the story and takes a unique look at the city. Complicity and other stories are available for free. Read more...

Fiction - Welcome To Hellville - Part 16 By Rich Mills
	"What music are you into, man?" The American exchange student who had earlier introduced himself, without any regard for Alan's need to be alone, suddenly threw a curve-ball of a question like this in his direction. "Well I listen to..." What followed was a definitive list of bands from Alan's wide-ranging rare vinyl and CD collection, he even Read more...

Fiction - Complicity Part 3 By Nick Quantrill
	Complicity is the new crime-fiction novella set in Hull featuring Detective Sergeant Coleman and Detective Constable Maynard. The thisisull.com serialisation is accompanied by the stunning black and white photography of Roland Standaert, which illustrates the story and takes a unique look at the city. Complicity and other stories are available for free. Read more...

Fiction - Off To See The Wild West Show Part 16 (1886: Hull, Yorkshire) By Frank Beill
	It took only three days for timidity to turn into brutality and two little girls were directing it towards the latest addition to their family. Two small bodies were jumping on my bunk and I was still in it. If I hadn't been so exhausted I might have enjoyed the experience. 'Ger off!' I yelled. They didn't know the words but they understood the meaning. Two frightened rabbits leapt off the bunk and Read more...

Fiction - Complicity Part 2 By Nick Quantrill
	Complicity is the new crime-fiction novella set in Hull featuring Detective Sergeant Coleman and Detective Constable Maynard. The thisisull.com serialisation is accompanied by the stunning black and white photography of Roland Standaert, which illustrates the story and takes a unique look at the city. Complicity and other stories are available for free. Read more...

Fiction - Complicity Part 1 By Nick Quantrill
	Complicity is the new crime-fiction novella set in Hull featuring Detective Sergeant Coleman and Detective Constable Maynard. The thisisull.com serialisation is accompanied by the stunning black and white photography of Roland Standaert, which illustrates the story and takes a unique look at the city. Complicity and other stories are available for free. Read more...

Fiction - Welcome To Hellville - Part 15 By Rich Mills
	They always cut it close but their timing was always impeccable, arriving at the house right on schedule. Schedule was a bad choice of word as they'd never been organised enough to have a schedule, let alone keep to one. Chaos was their maxim really. Everyone else thought that their apparent external serenity was one of infinite calm. However, this was Read more...

Fiction - Kat Out of the Bag Chapter Twelve By Steve Rudd
	Dinner-time came and went, and on us four hardy men trekked. I hadn't been feeling too well for the past couple of days, so I hadn't been eating all that much. The reason I was probably feeling so down and out was no doubt due to the lack of food that I'd consumed, so it was bit of a Catch-22 situation all round. Read more...