‘The Trespasser’ by Tana French

27 January 2017

Regular readers will know that I am enjoying working through the Dublin Murder Squad novels by Tana French. After reading ‘The Secret Place’ (reviewed here in December 2016) I have leapt to French’s latest book, ‘The Trespasser’ (which I read as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Hilda Fay). This follows the same two detectives as in ‘The Secret Place’ – Stephen Moran and Antoinette Conway – but tells its story through Conway’s eyes. I found the plot of ‘The Trespasser’ particularly intriguing as it starts with a simple premise – a woman found dead in her own home – and the detectives gradually piece together what happened to her through painstaking investigation and assimilation of evidence. A key focus of this novel is the process of forming and testing hypotheses as a way of unearthing the truth – and the danger of inventing an explanation and then looking for evidence to support it. There is also the usual focus in French’s novels on the relationship between the two partner detectives. This is a fascinatingly detailed police procedural which keeps you hooked until you finally understand exactly what happened to the dead woman.

'La La Land' by Damien Chazelle

18 January 2017

Damien Chazelle’s much praised and garlanded film ‘La La Land’ has been pre-occupying me since we saw it last Saturday. This modern take on the old-fashioned Hollywood musical is beautifully done. It opens with a truly stunning set piece – an infectiously upbeat dance number that had me beaming with delight. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone are both charming and the film is a loving homage to classic Hollywood musicals, with great music by Justin Hurwitz. And yet … I’m not sure it completely works. I don't think it's too much of a spoiler to say our natural yearning for the two leads to fall in love is satisfied surprisingly quickly, with the minimum of jeopardy. There is then a lot of film left to go and what little jeopardy there is revolves around the difficulties of maintaining a relationship when faced with the challenges of careers and money. While this is refreshingly realistic and modern it feels too serious a topic for a musical. In trying to make a mature, self-aware film Damien Chazelle has lost some of the comedy of the musical-comedy. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone are not outstanding singers or dancers but they have clearly worked really hard on their performances and the film showcases their talents very effectively. Ryan Gosling learned to play the piano in three months for the film, see: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04p6drs?ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=thetodayprogramme&ns_source=facebook. Emma Stone’s audition scenes are painfully believable and reminded me of Naomi Watts in David Lynch’s ‘Mulholland Drive’ (another film that uses the Los Angeles skyline to great effect). Nevertheless Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone end up giving us neither screwball comedy nor virtuosic song and dance. And ‘La La Land’ relies almost exclusively on its two leads: after the first fifteen minutes there are are hardly any big ensemble numbers. Maybe my expectations had been unrealistically raised by the brilliant reviews but the film felt too long and, after its explosive opening, didn’t seem to know where it wanted to go. Each of the component parts was very high quality but somehow the whole felt less than the sum of those parts. If you’ve seen ‘La La Land’ I would welcome your thoughts on it – and if you haven’t I really hope you get a chance to watch the brilliant opening.

'Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency' by Max Landis

12 January 2017

In 'Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency' Douglas Adams broke every one of my rules of detective fiction in a glorious subversion of the genre. I loved the two published Dirk Gently novels and the unfinished third novel (published posthumously in ‘The Salmon of Doubt’, reviewed here in October 2009). There have been three dramatisations of Dirk Gently, with Harry Enfield’s portrayal of the detective in Dirk Maggs’ two BBC Radio 4 serials (reviewed here in October 2007 and October 2008) the closest to the character in the novels. The BBC Four TV version starring Stephen Mangan strangely stripped out the supernatural elements of the stories. The result was gentle and quirky but had nothing like the impact of the original. In the new TV adaptation by Max Landis for BBC America, which I have just started watching on Netflix, Samuel Barnett is nothing like my mental image on Dirk Gently but it really doesn’t seem to matter. Landis has created a completely new plot which takes Gently to Seattle (though there are a couple of nods to his previous cases from the novels). This version of 'Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency' has a very high death count: like Noah Hawley’s splendid ‘Fargo’ TV series many characters you assumed were going to be central to the plot are brutally assassinated before the end of the first episode. The slaughter is simultaneously sickeningly real and somehow hysterically funny – watch through your fingers. Elijah Wood is great as Dirk’s reluctant ‘Dirk Watson’, his eyes permanently wide with stunned bemusement but I think my favourite character is Richard Schiff’s laconic Missing Persons cop Zimmerfield. 'Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency' is incredibly confusing, completely bonkers and entrancing: Douglas Adams would have loved it.

'Tules Maas Vedes Taivaal' by Tuuletar

6 January 2017

Tuuletar are a young Finnish female a cappella quartet whose music combines Finnish folk traditions with pop, beat-boxing and percussive clapping. Their first album ‘Tules Maas Vedes Taivaal’ is an engaging, varied collection of catchy, cheerful songs. Tuuletar means "goddess of the wind", and the album title promises songs "on fire and earth, in water and air". The all-female harmonies sound a lot like the great Finnish folk/rock band Värttinä (reviewed here in August 2006) but Tuuletar are a younger generation – more pop/folk than folk/rock. Indeed they have invented their own terminology, describing their music as ‘vocal folk hop’. Some of their wordless backing noises reminded me of the album ‘Music Hole’ by the French vocal gymnast Camille Dalmais (reviewed here in May 2008). And the mixture of female close harmony a cappella singing and beatboxing made me think of London-based five-piece The Boxettes (reviewed here in August 2011). Tuuletar’s music is beautiful, funky, modern and distinctly Scandinavian, never taking itself too seriously.

'The Secret Place' by Tana French

20 December 2016

It was earlier this year that I first discovered Tana French’s superior detective novels featuring the Dublin Murder Squad. Having enjoyed ‘Broken Harbour’ (reviewed here in May 2016) I was looking forward to ‘The Secret Place’, which I have just finished reading as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Stephen Hogan and Lara Hutchinson. Set in an expensive girls’ boarding school outside Dublin, ‘The Secret Place’ is told through the eyes of Detective Stephen Moran who first appeared as a minor character in one of French’s earlier novels ‘Faithful Place’. Although characters recur and there are references to previous cases, each of the Murder Squad novels works as a stand-alone story. ‘The Secret Place’ takes place on a single day as Moran and his new partner Antoinette Conway question girls at the school about the murder of a teenage boy a year ago. In-between chapters narrated by Stephen Moran we also get flashback chapters revealing events leading up to and following the murder, which gradually bring us back to the present day investigation. It’s a beautifully written novel: when the detectives first enter the headmistress’s room Moran notices a “heavy framed oil painting of a nun who was no oil painting”. And when he observes a tension between Conway and the headmistress, who have met before, he notes “history there, or just chemistry”. Said in a different accent these phrases could pass for Raymond Chandler. ‘The Secret Place’ is a meticulous police procedural, cleverly plotted, carefully constructed and exquisitely written. As with ‘Broken Harbour’, alongside the murder mystery the novel is as interested in the new partnership between the two detectives – each weighing the other up as potential long-term colleagues. I’m really looking forward to reading Tana French’s new novel ‘The Trespasser’ which features the same two detectives but shifts the point of view to Antoinette Conway.

Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert

14 December 2016

The annual Northampton Symphony Orchestra ‘Christmas Cracker’ concert always feels like the proper start of Christmas. This year’s Sunday afternoon performance had an animals theme, featuring ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’, ‘The Pink Panther’, ‘The Thievish Magpie’, ‘The Teddy Bears’ Picnic’ and ‘The Flight of the Bumblebee’. We always include a narrated piece  and this year locally based actor and director Dan McGarry gave a splendid debut performance with the orchestra in Prokofiev’s ‘Peter and the Wolf’. As you may know, the French horns portray the wolf in the story but when we played an extract at the start for the young members of the audience to guess which animal we represented, we were slightly perturbed to hear someone shout out “an elephant”! The programme also saw us revisiting two of the British composers we featured in concerts earlier this year, with performances of John Barry’s music from the 1991 film ‘Dances with Wolves’, and the ‘Christmas Overture’ by Nigel Hess. It was a lovely concert – a Christmas Quacker!

The Blockheads

14 December 2016

Regular readers will know we are fans of The Blockheads (reviewed here in July 2007, December 2012, November 2014 and April 2015 – if you missed it do look up the story of my encounter with Ian Dury). On Friday night we were at the MK11 venue in Kiln Farm, Milton Keynes to renew our acquaintance with this wonderful band. Their show is always much the same but I love the band’s enthusiasm: they all look like they are having a ball. Songwriter Mickey Gallagher – one of the less demonstrative Blockheads – sits quietly at the back of the stage behind his keyboards wearing a cheeky grin throughout the performance, whereas bass player Norman Watt-Roy is in constant movement and must lose pounds of weight at every concert. Reasons to be cheerful!

London Symphony Orchestra concert - John Adams at 70

8 December 2016

On Thursday I enjoyed a real musical treat – watching the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican celebrating the 70th birthday of the American composer John Adams. Adams conducted pieces by Bartok and Stravinsky, illustrating some of the traditions in which his own very modern musical style is rooted. You could hear distinct echoes of John Adams in both Bartok's folk music-inspired 'Hungarian Sketches' and Stravinsky's eerie evocation of ancient Greece in the music from the ballet 'Orpheus'. But the main attraction was the performance of Adams' latest composition 'Scheherazade.2' - a piece for solo violin and orchestra, premiered in 2015. Adams explained to the audience that, rather than calling the work a concerto, he had taken the idea of a 'dramatic symphony' from Berlioz and had created four movements which follow a rough narrative, telling the story of a modern, feminist Scheherazade who "speaks truth to power".  Instead of charming her captive to avoid death, this Scheherazade stands up to her tormentors, falls in love, defends herself in a trial and flees to sanctuary. The piece was written for the Canadian violinist Leila Josefowicz and it was a privilege to see her perform it, conducted by the composer. Adams described Josefowicz as "the Lisbeth Salander of the violin" and she definitely displayed a punk-like flair, her restless energy causing her to pace back and forth while waiting to play. Her violent playing sometimes seemed to pull her feet across the stage. This was the violinist as rock star, her stance reminding me of the defiant pose of Martha Wainwright (reviewed here in July 2008). Like much of Adams' music, the symphony was incredibly entertaining – complex and quirky but never inaccessible, with some beautifully serene moments. The narrative structure, unusual soundscapes and character soloist reminded me of Jan Sandström's 'Motorbike Concerto' which I saw Christian Lindbergh perform with the Halle Orchestra about 20 years ago (if you don't know it do look it up on YouTube). Thursday's LSO concert was a similarly wonderful experience that will also live long in my memory. You can see John Adams and Leila Josefowicz talking about 'Scheherazade.2' at: https://youtu.be/kN5SEJSqknc.

John Cooper Clarke and Hugh Cornwell

30 November 2016

Harpo Marx’s autobiography was famously titled ‘Harpo Speaks!’ – a witty play on the one thing you thought you knew about Harpo. (It’s a great book by the way, which taught me much about both croquet and chess.) Saturday’s gig at The Junction in Cambridge might similarly have been billed as ‘John Cooper Clarke Sings!’. The punk poet of Salford (who we saw last year supporting Squeeze – reviewed here in October 2015) has recorded an album of classic rock ‘n’ roll songs (‘This Time It’s Personal’) with Hugh Cornwell (former lead singer of The Stranglers) which they are now touring. I had expected it to be more of a double act but Cornwell, and his excellent band, were clearly backing John Cooper Clarke who was very much the main attraction. His surprisingly strong baritone voice worked well with the punkish interpretation of well-chosen classics including ‘Johnny Remember Me’, ‘Wait Down Yonder in New Orleans’ and ‘It’s Only Make Believe’. And, although, the welcome discovery that John Cooper Clarke really can sing gradually gave way to the realisation that he can’t sing that well, his engaging personality made for a fun evening. He has a very dry sense of humour and a great way with words, dedicating ‘Spanish Harlem’ to that late great ‘Spanianista’, Fidel Castro, and suggesting his version of the Ritchie Valens song ‘Donna’ was being offered as reparations to the Mexican people for the damage done by Marty Wilde’s interpretation. And his rendition of ‘MacArthur Park’ (made famous by that other non-singer, Richard Harris) was a highlight of the evening, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZBH-ArhhyY.

'The Tempest' by William Shakespeare

24 November 2016

On Tuesday we were at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon to see Greg Doran’s new production of ‘The Tempest’, starring Simon Russell Beale as Prospero. I had only seen ‘The Tempest’ once before (reviewed here in April 2012) and regular readers might remember that my low expectations of the play set me up for a very enjoyable experience. This time round my expectations were much higher and, perhaps inevitably, I wasn’t quite so taken with the play. Nevertheless this new production, by the Royal Shakespeare Company in collaboration with Intel and in association with the Imaginarium Studios, was a stunning spectacle. Two years in the making, the collaboration brings groundbreaking digital effects to the stage. Imaginarium Studios, established by motion-capture pioneer Andy Serkis, have created a digital avatar of Ariel, driven by live motion-capture from the body of the actor Mark Quartley, allowing him to appear simultaneously on stage and projected onto a series of moving curtains. Stephen Brimson Lewis’s amazing set turns the auditorium of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre into the innards of an enormous wrecked ship. Projection behind the set and on the surface of the stage creates beautiful dreamlike tableaux, particularly effective in the masque towards the end of the play that features three opera singers – Alison Arnopp, Samantha Hay and Jennifer Witton – singing original music by Paul Englishby. The digital technology is impressive but never overwhelms the play itself, thanks partly to a compelling performance by Simon Russell Beale as a Prospero with an uncanny resemblance to Obi Wan Kenobi. I was feeling my age, reflecting on having seen Simon Russell Beale play Hamlet – it’s only a matter of time before I will be watching him as King Lear! There were also outstanding physical performances by Mark Quartley as Ariel and Joe Dixon as Caliban. But it is the experience of feeling like part of a giant digital art installation that will live long in the memory. You can see videos about the digital development of ‘The Tempest’ at https://www.rsc.org.uk/the-tempest/video-creating-the-tempest and https://newsroom.intel.com/press-kits/intel-shakespeares-tempest/.

Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert

18 November 2016

I first discovered Shostakovich's ‘Symphony No 5’ in my teens, playing 3rd horn in a performance by Stockport Youth Orchestra in Stockport Town Hall, and have loved the piece ever since. I haven’t played the symphony for many years and it was fascinating to get to grips with it again over the past few weeks in preparation for Saturday’s Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert. Having recently read Julian Barnes’ biographical novel about Shostakovich, 'The Noise of Time' (reviewed here in March 2016), I appreciated the ambiguity of ‘A Soviet Artist's Response to Just Criticism’ properly for the first time. It’s a stunningly powerful symphony but its cynical sting in the tail reminds you that all was not what it seemed in Soviet Russia. I think our performance on Saturday achieved the necessary blend of strength and delicacy with some beautiful solos and a devastating finale. We started the concert with another work I first encountered in my teens – Malcolm Arnold’s second set of ‘English Dances’, which was one of the first pieces I played with the Manchester Youth Orchestra – playing those tunes immediately took me back to our tour of the Loire Valley in France in 1984. For the past 16 years I have spent most Wednesday evenings rehearsing with the Northampton Symphony Orchestra in the Edmund Rubbra Hall at Northamptonshire Music and Performing Arts Trust, without ever wondering who Edmund Rubbra was. In Saturday’s concert we played ‘A Tribute’ - a short, gentle piece by the Northampton-born Rubbra, written to mark the 70th birthday of Vaughan-Williams. Saturday’s concert also featured the ‘Violin Concerto’ by William Walton played by the amazing Joo Yeon Sir. It’s an incredibly difficult concerto, for orchestra and soloist, but it was a really enjoyable challenge and Joo’s incredibly precise, rhythmic performance helped to carry us through. I was amazed to learn this was the first time she had performed the work in public.

‘Career of Evil’ by Robert Galbraith

10 November 2016

I’ve just finished reading ‘Career of Evil’ – the third Cormoran Strike detective novel by J K Rowling (writing as Robert Galbraith) – as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Robert Glenister. Fans of 'The Cuckoo's Calling' (reviewed here in May 2014) and ‘The Silkworm’ (reviewed here in August 2014) will enjoy this return to the world of Cormoran and Robin, now on the trail of a serial killer with a passion for dismemberment. As with the previous books, J K Rowling seems to be determined to root the story in a very realistic contemporary setting, throwing in an often unnecessary level of detail. This makes the occasional inaccuracy particularly jarring. At one point Strike and Robin have breakfast in the dining room of a Travelodge – which never have dining rooms: there really wasn’t any need to be so specific about the particular hotel chain. And I’m beginning to suspect that the recurring inaccurate references to televised football matches that it would have been impossible to watch (in all three novels) are actually a deliberate running joke! But I can forgive these niggles because Rowling has created some compelling characters and you really care what happens to them. I was also amused to see an example of my third rule of detective fiction in action, though I can’t tell you what that is without spoiling the plot – ask me after you’ve finished the book.

‘The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen’s Guild Dramatic Society’s Production of Macbeth’ - a comedy by William Shakespeare, David McGillivray and Walter Zerlin Jnr.

4 November 2016

On Saturday we were at the George Street Community Centre in Fenny Stratford, Milton Keynes to see the local amateur theatre group The Branchette Players. They were performing ‘The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen’s Guild Dramatic Society’s Production of Macbeth’ - a comedy by William Shakespeare, David McGillivray and Walter Zerlin Jnr. This is one in a series of 10 play-within-plays by McGillivray and Zerlin featuring the Farndale Avenue Guild. This one might have been subtitled ‘The Scottish Play That Goes Wrong’. Playing an incompetent amateur theatre group allows any actual slips to go unnoticed but for the comedy to work the amateur actors do need to be able to deliver most of the original Shakespearean lines straight. The Branchette Players were clearly very capable with some great Shakespearean acting on show, amongst the farce, particularly from Shona Gilchrist as Macbeth. Sue Noon was wonderful as Mrs Reece who ends up holding the show together. And Wayne Oakes was a surprisingly sympathetic Lady Macbeth. But the funniest moments were the blank-faced confusion of Lynn Homer’s voiceless Banquo.

'Young @ Heart' by Stephen Walker

28 October 2016

Flourish House in Glasgow is a Clubhouse that enables people with mental health difficulties to gain a sense of well-being. Members recover confidence and skills whilst achieving social, financial and vocational goals. It is part of an international network of Clubhouses that provide a safe environment to help people make the transition from hospital-based mental health care to re-entering everyday life. I was at Flourish House on Thursday evening for a film screening and discussion as part of Luminate 2016 and the Scottish Mental Health Arts & Film Festival. We watched the film ‘Young @ Heart’, Stephen Walker’s inspiring 2007 documentary about the Young @ Heart Chorus – a choir of singers in their seventies, eighties and nineties from Northampton, Massachusetts, who sing an unlikely repertoire of songs by Jimi Hendrix, Coldplay, Sonic Youth etc. It’s a wonderful film which shows older people having fun, not taking themselves too seriously but working hard towards a communal goal. These are clearly not the greatest singers in the world but the ecstatic reaction of the audiences for the choir’s performances completely rebuffs any concerns about ‘artistic quality’: the Young @Heart Chorus is obviously ‘great art’. The film really shows the individual characters of many of the singers and the deaths, during the filming, of some choir members is incredibly sad. Ultimately, though, this is a life-affirming story – funny, moving and completely inspirational. After the film, Richard Warden from the Scottish Mental Health Arts & Film Festival chaired a panel discussion involving a mental health nurse from a South Glasgow hospital and the director of a community choir based in the Gorbals. The film provoked a fascinating and uplifting discussion about mental health, ageing and the therapeutic power of singing. It was a lovely end to my two days in Scotland visiting Luminate Festival events.

Cha Cha Cha Tea Dance at North Lanarkshire Heritage Centre

27 October 2016

On Thursday afternoon I was at North Lanarkshire Heritage Centre in Motherwell for the Cha Cha Cha Tea Dance – part of Luminate 2016 and the North Lanarkshire Encounters Festival. Like Luminate, Encounters runs throughout October, offering the chance to experience something new in arts, literature and music. The Tea Dance was well attended with around forty participants, most of whom were local care home residents. There was enthusiastic dancing to live music from people with a wide range of physical abilities, including many who were dancing in their chairs. Both the older people and the care home staff were clearly having a wonderful time: I haven’t been to an event for ages with so much smiling! It was a lovely afternoon, with plenty of tea and biscuits for all.

'Directed by North Merchiston' by Duncan Cowles

27 October 2016

On Wednesday evening I was at North Merchiston Care Home in Edinburgh for the launch of ‘Directed by North Merchiston’ - a series of five short films created by residents of the care home working with the film-maker Duncan Cowles. Cowles, who is only 26 years old, spent three months visiting his five collaborators, whose ages range from 84 to 101. In each case he asked them what film they would want to make and developed five very individual pieces, each about 7 or 8 minutes long. The films are beautiful, funny and very poignant, reminding us that care home residents are each fascinating individuals with very different characters. So many arts in care home projects revert to a standard reminiscence format and it was wonderful to see how Duncan Cowles avoided this. Much of each film was focussed on the process of making the film, with us seeing the residents watching footage of themselves speaking to camera to decide what to use. This self analysis helped to give us a very clear picture of these older people as they are today, rather than just focussing on their memories. After watching the films you really felt you knew these individuals well, so it was fascinating to have three of them in the audience for the screening together with many members of their families. It was also interested to see the effect the project had had on Cowles himself who has become a familiar and regular visitor to North Merchiston Care Home and a good friend to the residents. You can read an interview with Duncan Cowles and watch some short teaser videos at: http://www.creativescotland.com/explore/read/stories/festivals/2016/luminate-2016-directed-by-north-merchiston

'The Flames'

27 October 2016

On Wednesday afternoon I was at the Centre for Contemporary Art in Glasgow to see the first performance by ‘The Flames’ - a new multi-media theatre group for participants aged fifty and over established by Tricky Hat Productions and directed by Fiona Miller. Their devised work, developed through five days of rehearsal workshops in October 2016 and presented as part of the Luminate Festival, combines drama, poetry, mime, film and specially composed music to explore life after fifty and challenge perceptions of ageing. Seven actors sitting on a line of chairs facing the audience took turns to come forward to one of two standing microphones. In each case we had no idea what to expect – particularly from the actor wearing a brown paper bag over her head. This series of vignettes challenged stereotypes and ruminated on the modern world. Often an individual performance was accompanied by silent black & white film of the same actor’s face projected on a giant screen above the stage. These videos by Kim Beveridge provided a wonderfully intimate feeling of really getting to know the performers and valuing them as individuals. We were also treated to a taste of ‘The Flaming Elders’, a sister project by Tricky Hat which is collaborating with older people in Inverclyde, Dumfries & Galloway and North West Glasgow. Four musicians performed live to accompany video projected on the wall behind them. It was great to see older people engaging in innovative, improvised performance after a very short period of intensive rehearsal and to get a sense of the confidence and joy this collaborative process had given them. You can read an interview with Tricky Hat Artistic Director, Fiona Miller, at: http://www.creativescotland.com/explore/read/stories/theatre/2016/the-flames-at-luminate

'The Grinning Man' by Tim Phillips, Marc Teitler, Carl Grose and Tom Morris

27 October 2016

On Saturday we made a first ever visit to Bristol Old Vic – the oldest continuously operating theatre in the English-speaking world, currently celebrating its 250th anniversary. We were there to see 'The Grinning Man', a new musical by Tim Phillips and Marc Teitler, with book by Carl Grose. Bristol Old Vic Director, Tom Morris, has spent five years developing the show and the quality on display attests to the care a publicly subsidised theatre like Bristol Old Vic (which is funded by Arts Council England) can bring to developing new work. ‘The Grinning Man’ is loosely based on a novel by Victor Hugo (‘The Man Who Laughs’) about a man whose face has been disfigured to create a permanent gruesome smile. The character of The Joker in the Batman comics was apparently modelled on an early silent film adaptation of the Victor Hugo story. ‘The Grinning Man’ is set in an imaginary 18th century Bristol, echoing the period Bristol Old Vic was built. It’s a macabre musical that seems to be aiming somewhere between ‘Sweeney Todd’ and ‘The Phantom of the Opera’. While the show is very entertaining – and often very funny – I found it an odd mix. The tone is both childlike and crude – at one moment knowingly breaking the fourth wall and then reverting to a child-like fairy tale. It sometimes felt like a slightly uncomfortable adult pantomime. It is undoubtedly a high quality production, with Jon Bausor’s spectacular set engulfing the stage in a blood-dripping mouth. And I liked the absence of modern technology, in favour of some old fashioned stage trickery that felt in keeping with the period. There is some great puppetry from Gyre and Gimble (the team responsible for the puppets in the National Theatre production of ‘War Horse’, reviewed here in October 2015). The music is tuneful and ageless, if at times a little earnest for the prevailing comic tone of the show. There is a very strong cast with Sean Kingsley demonstrating an impressive singing voice as Ursus the fairground showman and Julian Bleach stealing the show as the pantomime villain Barkilphedro the Fool. Louis Maskell is a fine lead as the hero Grinpayne, particularly as he has to sing most of his numbers through a scarf tied over his mouth. And it was good to see former Bellowhead percussionist Pete Flood among the band. ‘The Grinning Man’ is a fascinating show with high production values but it didn’t feel completely coherent. It will be interesting to see whether it can be honed into a stronger show.

'Round the Horne' by Barry Took and Marty Feldman, compiled and directed by Tim Astley

21 October 2016

When Tim Astley was twelve years old his grandfather was taken into a hospice for end-of-life care. In order to relieve the boredom Tim’s grandmother bought her husband a selection of BBC audio cassettes which Tim listened to with his grandfather. After his grandfather passed away Tim inherited the tapes and became an avid fan and collector of classic BBC comedies. Now, aged 25 and running a small touring theatre company, Tim Astley decided to mark the 50th anniversary of ‘Round the Horne’ by bringing the show to the stage. Astley cherry-picked sketches from the scripts by Barry Took and Marty Feldman, to create two 45-minute episodes. On Thursday we were at the Stantonbury Theatre in Milton Keynes to see these performed by the Apollo Theatre Company. A cast of actors played Kenneth Horne, Kenneth Williams, Hugh Paddick, Betty Marsden and Douglas Smith performing the show as it would have appeared to the original studio audience at the BBC Paris Studio. They stopped making ‘Round the Horne’ before I was born but, like Tim, I was familiar, from repeats and recordings, of the show and its cast of regular characters including Rambling Syd Rumpo and Julian & Sandy. It was great to see the show performed as a faithful recreation of the original – resisting the temptation to add contemporary references to Brexit or Donald Trump. We simply saw the actors gathered around microphones, holding their scripts, with live music and sound effects supplied by Conrad Segal. It was excellently done, with some great radio voices on display. Best of all was Julian Howard McDowell as Kenneth Horne, demonstrating that, amongst the silliness and histrionics, the funniest part of ‘Round the Horne’ was often the calm, completely deadpan delivery of its long-suffering host.

Dancing at Blackpool Tower Ballroom

21 October 2016

On Saturday we returned to Blackpool Tower Ballroom for an evening of ballroom, Latin and sequence dancing with a group of friends from Milton Keynes Dance Centre. We first danced at the Tower a year ago (reviewed here in October 2015) and it was great to be back. This year the organiser, Philip Hurst, had restricted numbers so there were was more room on the dance floor. It’s a very special room to dance in and we certainly got our money’s worth with almost five hours of dancing. The skill and style of hundreds of amateur dancers who had travelled to Blackpool from across the country was very impressive and the sight of so many people dancing together in such stunning surroundings was wonderful. We’ll be back next year!