Month: November 2019

Christmas pantomimes come earlier every year

Hello, hope you’re well and keeping busy. I am delighted that four productions of my pantomimes are underway this Christmas season.

The Bodicote Players in Banbury and Woodhouse Phoenix in Hatfield are staging Rumplestiltskin. You can watch the former between 3rd December and 7th December, and the latter in the new year, January. Meanwhile, down the road from me, in Oldham, there’s a production of Aladdin in January.. Wish I could tell you more about that production but I have not been given any more details. Finally Winterslow Drama Group, in Wiltshire are staging Dick Whittington. Intriguingly their website tells me that they have been filmed by BBC1’s The One Show for a feature in December. You can rest assured I’ll be reporting on that when I know when it’s being broadcast. Many thanks to all these groups for showing faith in my writing, and that of my co-scripters Pam Hope and Adrian Barradell.

Rumpelstiltskin poster

Joining BERGcast – X the Unknown

I’m delighted to announce that not only is there a new episode of BERGcast, the podcast celebrating and investigating the entire Quatermass phenomena over the years, but that I am a guest on it. Jon Dear kindly invited me to join him and Howard David Ingham on Skype to discuss X – The Unknown, Hammer’s unofficial follow-up to their massively successful movie The Quatermass Xperiment. Wanting to make another Quatermass film, but denied permission by Nigel Kneale to use his character, Hammer turned to production assistant Jimmy Sangster to write a script in a similar unearthly vein, but featuring a surrogate scientist called Royston. Eventually Oscar-winning character actor Dean Jagger played the maverick scientist in his first and so far only appearance.

You can hear us discuss the film’s plot, its origins, its background of growing public unease over nuclear weapons and atomic energy, and Frazer Hines’ child acting precociousness. It was great fun to record and to rewatch this entertaining SF monster movie from early days of Hammer Studios. Find BERGcast on Apple Podcasts, Podbean, or Jon Dear’s own site bergcast.room207press.com/

Whilst on the subject of film review podcasts, the latest edition of The Talking Picture TV podcast is out now as well, featuring amongst other items, my review of Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb starring the gorgeous Valerie Leon. Again, you find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or its webpage https://www.attaboyclarence.com/the-talking-pictures-tv-podcast