More than once I went to the Isle of Iona in the Scottish Hebrides, the burial ground of the early Scottish kings, and watched darkness descend on the Sound of Iona while evensong came from the old monastery.
During the Second World War, it was taken by the Italians, taken back by the Greeks, and, finally, seized by the Germans: "At dusk the city, which through the centuries had appeared on maps as a possession of the Romans, the Normans, the Byzantines, the Turks, the Greeks and the Italians, now watched darkness fall as a part of the German empire.
"Though the lamps should be lit and fires started I stay watching the darkness come slowly forward.
Before the advent of the light bulb, said one of its founding members, Heather Griffith, watching the darkness of night encroach on the daylight was a harrowing experience.
This nonexistent improvement on the published film came to mind while watching "In Darkness," the film by Agnieszka Holland that's one of the contenders for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
And stand by and watch as darkness creeps upon us, unsuspected.
He leads the way to Sighișoara's clocktower, and we watch as darkness slowly falls across the snow-covered hills, and clouds of birds swirl home to roost over the town's jumbled rooftops.
They weren't out doing the shopping, were they?" said a voice in the darkness, watching through night vision goggles.
The end of the episode, when Masters sat in darkness watching and rewatching his film of Virginia, surely gave the lie to his own belief that sex is separate from desire.
"I've been lying here in pitch darkness, watching fight rehearsals over and over again … "I'm looking at the fights, figuring out the angles I'll need to film them today.
