Rhodes - All the Gold

[byslantedlight]

Ohmigodses! Why did nobody tell me? You've let me leave Rhodes sitting on my shelf all this time without a single mention, anywhere on my flist, of Rhodes/Pickering! Rhodes/Pickering!

I'm just... there was Rhodes/Pickering! And in the most tragic, heart-tearing of circumstances! I mean - what if Pickering hadn't died? Would history be different? Maybe it wouldn't be, but...

Oh, and MS plays it just gorgeously! Who would have thought it of a man with a moustache? I mean, I really hate moustaches, but I swear MS could carry off... oh, I dunno, a really bad one!

Okay - some pic spam. Beware for scenes of wrenchingness aimed at your heart... *sniffs*

So - to set the scene, Rhodes and Pickering meet and have dinner...


Pickering moves in (MS gets to throw furniture around in a tantrum cos he's peeved when Pickering says it might be too "cramped" for him after all - the furniture throwing is to make room for a bed, and Pickering is amused enough by it all to say yes...


And they just... get on really well, and Pickering makes MS Rhodes laugh and laugh...



But wouldn't you give it all up for someone who looked at you like this?


And oh but wouldn't you look like that for an MS who looked like this?


Except... just... (prepare yourself...) tragedy strikes - Pickering is thrown from a horse, breaks his leg, and scepticemia sets in... And Rhodes looks after him, but... but...



...it's just... *sniffs*... it's just not good...


And...and... just... ohhhh, more tissues please... Rhodes doesn't want them to take Pickering away for the funeral... See his face, oh see his face!




At the funeral...


Really, I was so not ready for that to happen - for Rhodes to fall in love with Pickering (I know, I know, not historically proven, but they did share a house together, and Rhodes did ride hundreds of miles on top of the mail coach, amidst the mail bags, to get back to him when he found out he'd had a relapse, and he did break down at the funeral...) and then for Pickering to... oh, and just when they were looking so happy, you know?

*sighs sadly*

"Rhodes" in happier times...





And oh, I know I need to catch up on replies and drabbles too, but... sometimes I forget how relaxing, and how good it is to just watch telly of an evening... *vbg*

(PS - I'm up to four placement offers... *headdesk*)

Comments

Re: Maybe spoilers for other people

[shooting2kill.livejournal.com]

I did, too! I think the characters and their relationhips in JJD are nearly all pretty unreal e.g. a judge facing a court which contained his lover, his ex-wife and his daughter?....pleeeease (Although I think the writing of the legal jousting and the development of the cases were very good).

But MS and Pickering....it was so real and intimate that at times I did actually feel like a voyeur watching them - jealous of them. Left out. And it's so refreshing to see Shaw in a part which, for a lot of the time, wasn't blustering, authoritative etc like so many of his other parts have been (not pros). It was his labour of love and to his credit it shows (again) how he doesn't shy away from playing characters with questionable sexualities.

Re: Maybe spoilers for other people

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Sorry, later than a late thing replying to your comment, I do apologise!

It is good to see MS in that sort of part, isn't it! I suppose he actually has done quite alot of that sort of acting, but what we remember him most for are his sort of superhero roles - The Chief, JJD, Pros, even as a surgeon in A&E. And he is very equal opps about the characters he plays, isn't he?

I've just had a book in the post today about the making of The Scarlet Pimpernel, and he says somewhere in there that he likes playing villains because it's interesting - to do it well you have to like the villain yourself, because villains don't get out of bed and say "Right, what can I do that's evil today?" - they genuinely think they're right to do what they do, which is absolutely true... Mickey Hamilton, for instance! *g*

Re: Maybe spoilers for other people

[shooting2kill.livejournal.com]

I suppose he actually has done quite alot of that sort of acting, but what we remember him most for are his sort of superhero roles - The Chief, JJD, Pros, even as a surgeon in A&E.

They're the ones he's done on TV but if he'd done more classical stuff on TV like Shakespeare or something then I'm sure I'd remember that as well (as I do his role in Macbeth), but he hasn't! And I'm not sure why he didn't do stuff with the RSC, for example, he's certainly good enough. And yes, I really wish he'd done more baddy roles rather than some of the other roles which I think have tended towards self-righteousness and suchlike characteristics. (And so many roles where's he wearing some kind of uniform!) Still, anything's better than nothing and it's great to see him at all, unlike poor old Lew.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's the thing about tv isn't it - it's not the controversial stuff, cos most people want the heroes and the uniforms...

I wonder about the RSC thing too - although... the landlady of the B&B I stayed in, in Windsor, was involved with the stage, and had been involved obliquely with MS in plays etc - I hope we're buried far enough down here that this won't be picked up by anyone! - and she reckoned that Murder on Air, the play I was there to see, would suit him down to the ground, because the actors read from scripts while on stage, as they were playing actors reading a radio play (still with me?!). The "business" insiders-thing was that he was really bad at learning lines - so presumably RSC wouldn't suit him at all? Or of course it could be complete bunkum! *g*

And yeah, I'm just happy to see him around still, and I wish Lew was too - wish he'd never gone away! *sniffs sadly*

[shooting2kill.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's the thing about tv isn't it - it's not the controversial stuff, cos most people want the heroes and the uniforms...

Yeah, I don't know if classical is controversial, but he doesn't seem to have done much in the way of classical (non shakespeare) serialisations etc. either, which the BBC do so well. (I could see him in so many fine roles e.g. Rochester in Jane Eyre). And not many series, like Cranford, where he hasn't headed the cast but has just been one part of the ensemble.

Finds it hard to learn lines? That's very interesting and would certainly explain why he hasn't done much Shakespeare! (Or maybe he just doesn't like Shakespeare?!)

Spoilers?

[shooting2kill.livejournal.com]

Now that I'm sure you've watched it all(!) the bit I really loved was the scene when Pickering returns after he's been ill and comes into a boardroom meeting where Rhodes fusses over him and helps him to sit down. etc. Honestly, I swear, I've never seen MS acting so well, so touchingly, it was absolutely *amazing*....the look of love on his face, the tenderness he shows for Pickering and the way the rest of the room spotted it and felt slightly ill-at-ease... and you can see *why* Rhodes loves Pickering - he's just so beautiful, sweet and vulnerable-looking! A fantastic scene.