Ken goes Beyond

So, farewell then, Ken Russell.

An Oscar and BAFTA nominee but never a winner, Britain's most outrageous filmmaker has died aged 84 leaving behind a legacy of films that ran the gamut of beautiful and trail-blazing to outright repulsive and occasionally inept.

But none of his cinema films - from Women in Love, The Devils, The Music Lovers and Altered States to The Boyfriend, Valentino, Tommy and The Lair of the White Worm - were ever blah.

Purists may argue that it was his TV films - about composers like Elgar, Delius and Vaughn Williams - which displayed the eccentric Russell at his best.

The best biography of this larger-than-life filmmaker ,who actively courted controversy, was titled "An Appalling Talent".

We prefer to remember him as someone who had an appealing talent with the power to appall.