The men who knew too much (about Alfred Hitchcock's films)

This week, being Young and Innocent, we ran North by Northwest from Spitalfields, through Haggerston, followed the Regent's Canal westwards and were Spellbound by Hoxton and Shoreditch.

The canal is an ideal place to hide a Secret Agent or to Catch a Thief and is Notorious for good photo opportunities ...



He's always been in a bit critical ... but at least he's happy that he's not the Wrong Man or a local Psycho...

We then found ourselves for the first time in Shoreditch Park, being buzzed by the local Birds and got a bit over-excited and in a Frenzy about a huge granite boulder - did you know that granite is made of quartz (white), Mica (black) and a Suspicion of Topaz (pink) - I didn't, I Confess, so it was lucky that I was running with a granite expert ( and not a Stranger on a Train),



Shoreditch Park and Mabley Green, which is further north, are now permanent homes to two massive pieces of solid granite, each weighing up to 100 tonnes and measuring over four metres high - almost impossible for a Saboteur to Sabotage.

They are, without A Shadow of a Doubt, impressive. Boulder 1 (above) and Boulder 2 together form Boulder, an ambitious public space sculpture project by John Frankland.

Frankland intends that people should engage with the boulders in a direct and physical way through rock climbing, or "bouldering". We'll be taking our climbing kit and Rope next week and will probably be suffering from Vertigo ...

See http://www.peeruk.org/projects/frankland/john-frankland.html for great pictures of the 39 Steps it took to quarry and install these boulders and see the video opposite if you are as excited as we are about big rocks ...



Even more exciting is that the new building in the background is on the site of the old Gainsborough Studios, where one of my favourite films, the very funny "Oh, Mr Porter !", starring Will Hay, was made. In it, a Lady Vanishes down an old railway tunnel but is finally found when they find a Torn Curtain blocking the entrance to the tunnel.

More importantly, this is where Alfred Hitchcock started his career in 1920, designing titles for silent movies - as someone who has watched all 50 of his films and is halfway through his many made-for-TV programmes - my Family think I've lost the Plot - this is clearly hallowed ground and will need to be revisited ...



Our Foreign Correspondent chooses his top 6 Hitchcock films -

Rear Window
The Trouble with Harry
The Man who knew too much (1956 version)
North by Northwest
Vertigo
Dial M for Murder.