So I announced to Julia, "We've got five minutes to get ready and get out the door!" From a state of 'settled in for the night', we threw on street wear, and made it in plenty of time.

The movie is excellent. It is thrilling and uplifting, the kind of thing I like in a movie. I'm glad to know the history behind a song I formerly hated. The words "a wretch like me" still make me cringe. But it is really a story of transformation, as the songwriter had been captain of a slave ship for many years, and then had an awakening, "Was blind, but now I see." Having become conscious of the immense cruelity he'd enabled, he quit the ship and began a different life. Thus it was he was able to inspire Wilberforce to bring forth the many changes that brought about a much better England.

All through out the film, I kept thinking I would like to sketch the many interesting characters in it. I didn't find any picture in webland that was quite what I was looking for. But I did follow the bio of one of the actors, Rufus Sewell, and found a very arresting photo from which I sketched: