Dice (miniseries)

Dice (2001) is a Canada/UK co-produced drama television mini-series. It was directed by Rachel Talalay and written by A. L. Kennedy and John Burnside, inspired by cult 70s novel The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart.

Plot

Dice tells the story of charismatic psychology teacher, Glenn Taylor (Aidan Gillen), who manipulates people by teaching them how to live by the throw of a dice. When the small community is shattered by the death of student Sally Quine, Detective Patrick Styvesant (Martin Cummins) finds himself drawn deeper into a bizarre world where decisions are ruled by the dice. As Taylor's influence over the community deepens, Patrick also has his own demons to contend with as he battles alcoholism and his repressed homosexuality, all of which make him a perfect target for Taylor.

Main cast

Dice

Dice (singular die or dice; from Old French dé; from Latin datum "something which is given or played";) are small throwable objects with multiple resting positions, used for generating random numbers. Dice are suitable as gambling devices for games like craps and are also used in non-gambling tabletop games.

A traditional die is a rounded cube, with each of its six faces showing a different number of dots (pips) from 1 to 6. When thrown or rolled, the die comes to rest showing on its upper surface a random integer from one to six, each value being equally likely. A variety of similar devices are also described as dice; such specialized dice may have polyhedral or irregular shapes and may have faces marked with symbols instead of numbers. They may be used to produce results other than one through six. Loaded and crooked dice are designed to favor some results over others for purposes of cheating or amusement.

A dice tray, a tray used to contain thrown dice, is sometimes used for gambling or board games, in particular to allow dice throws which do not interfere with other game pieces.

Horae

In Greek mythology the Horae (/ˈhɔːriː/ or /ˈhɔːraɪ/) or Hours (Greek: Ὧραι, Hōrai, pronounced [hɔ̂ːraj], "seasons") were the goddesses of the seasons and the natural portions of time. They were originally the personifications of nature in its different seasonal aspects, but in later times they were regarded as goddesses of order in general and natural justice. "They bring and bestow ripeness, they come and go in accordance with the firm law of the periodicities of nature and of life", Karl Kerenyi observed: "Hora means 'the correct moment'." Traditionally, they guarded the gates of Olympus, promoted the fertility of the earth, and rallied the stars and constellations.

The course of the seasons was also symbolically described as the dance of the Horae, and they were accordingly given the attributes of spring flowers, fragrance and graceful freshness. For example, in Hesiod's Works and Days, the fair-haired Horai, together with the Charites and Peitho crown Pandora—she of "all gifts"—with garlands of flowers. Similarly Aphrodite, emerging from the sea and coming ashore at Cyprus, is dressed and adorned by the Horai, and, according to a surviving fragment of the epic Cypria, Aphrodite wore clothing made for her by the Charites and Horai, dyed with spring flowers, such as the Horai themselves wear.

Dice (Finley Quaye song)

"Dice" is a single released by Finley Quaye. It was written with Beth Orton and recorded by William Orbit.

Composition

The segment of the song sang by Beth Orton is sampled from "Roll The Dice", a song which originally appeared on her 1993 debut album Superpinkymandy. The album was also produced by her then-boyfriend William Orbit.

Single use

The single was used in the American Fox network TV series The OC in episode 14 of season one, entitled "The Countdown". The song was a minor hit, helped in part by its inclusion on OC's the Season 1 sound track called Music from the OC: Mix 1 (track 10). The TV series Chuck used the same song in episode 6 of season one ("Chuck vs. the Sandworm.") as a parallel to The OC episode. The song was also featured in episode 14 of season 3 ("Since you've been gone") in the TV Series "Everwood." It can also be found on the Ministry of Sound's Chilled 1991 - 2008.

It has also been used by BBC Scotland in their TV trailer for the TV series called 'Hebrides" 2013