Oh what a treat the last week has been. All the girls in Essex were going fake tan crazzzy and the boys of Old Compton Street were having a ‘body off’!
A1 NEWS
Charles was ‘the voice of the balls’ on Friday night and took the live performance, (as always), in his professional stride. Never have balls been in better hands!
Charles also commandeered the drive time slot on BBC Radio Oxford this week. You can catch him back on his ‘home from home’ this Monday and Tuesday early mornings, on BBC Radio 2.
Some of the A1 VOX team are off to watch Cool Hand Luke for the press night on Monday so I will be able to report back to you on how our Andy’s show is shaping up . Too excited for words!
So with Stephen Critchlow (39 Steps), and Andy Loudon (Cool Hand Luke), monopolising the West End for the boys I thought I would share the goss on Joan Walkers ‘treading of the London boards’ for the gals.
Joan can be seen in Sir John Vanbrugh’s The Provoked Wife, presented by Perfect Mayhem, at The Greenwich Playhouse from 12th October – 6th November.
Trapped in a bad marriage, Lady Brute contemplates her fate, her reputation and her options. Should she leave her abusive husband Sir John Brute, or take a lover. Joining this tragicomic rollercoaseter of a Restoration play are Lady Brute’s niece Belinda and the young love interests Heartfree and Constant firing off witty retorts between the florid conversational dialogue.
Serving up an extra slice of chaos, the cast of characters is topped off by the deluded Lady Fancyfull, played by the wonderfully fantastic, Joan Walker, and her pert French maid Mademoiselle.
Sir John Vanbrugh had a colourful career – the army, navy, political activism, theatre management, playwriting, architecture, a committed Whig and even imprisoned ostensibly for espionage! See, it just goes to show that you don’t always come out of uni or school and knowing exactly what it is you want to do - mix it up, that’s what I say.
As a playwright of his particular era, Sir John offended many people with the sexual explicitness of his plays and their then outrageous notions of women’s rights.
Perfect Mayhem is therefore warning people in advance, and apologising (though not very sincerely), for the content of the play and for jarring any conservative sensibilities. So basically leave any prudeness at the door and unleash your inner beast to embrace this frolicking, riotous romp which is sure to dazzle with much aplomb!!!!!!!
Trust Joan to pick another boring, conservative role eh!
Tickets can be purchased by calling 020 8858 9256 or by going to boxoffice@galleonthetheatre.co.uk
A1 VOX Guests
This week we had a very exciting guest to visit us at A1 VOX. Jodie Whittaker may not be a name or face that you would instantly recognise but you bet your bottom dollar that you have seen her both on TV and the big screen.
In her own words Jodie says ‘I love my chameleon face’ and it is this that helps her shun the celebrity lifestyle. Professionally, she is one hot and upcoming English actress.
Her big break came in 2006 when she made her movie debut as a tracksuited ugly-duckling-turned-swan in the film Venus. Jodie was just a 23-year-old-newbie when she was picked by Roger Michell, director of Notting Hill, to play a tenaged misfit opposite a veteran Peter O’Toole.
Fast forward a few years and Jodie appeared in the BBC1’s star-studded bonnet-saga Cranford, as well as alongside her pal Gemma Arteton in Tess of the D’Urbervilles, and starred in the two St Trinian’s films, as Rupert Everett’s blingtastic secretary Beverly.
‘Rupert was a right laugh, but then no-one is going to be in a bad mood on St Trinian’s are they?’ she says.
She was also drafted in at three hours notice to play the lead role of Nina in several performances of Chekhov’s The Seagull at London’s Royal Court after Carey Mulligan contracted appendicitis.
The list of work continues from Marchlands, to Abi Morgan’s, Royal Wedding, and Jimmy McGovern’s The Accused, and even in the recent aliens-verses-hoodies sci-fi comedy Attack the Block.
Jodie is often such a serious mournful screen presence, that on meeting her it is genuinely surprising that she is chatty, bright, funny and extremely down to earth, however, she says that this was not always the case at school:
‘I was the attention seeking child in class who needed everyone to look at meeee…..’ she laughs. But then perhaps her characters way of saying “Don’t look at me” is really a clever way of saying “Actually look at me”.
She managed to ditch the doom and gloom by playing Anne Hathaway’s best friend in current box office smash One Day. Well I say….they are some sharp shooting creditentials right there!
She can next be seen playing Dougray Scott’s abused lover in A Thousand Kisses Deep and then in Ashes, a film about a road trip, featuring a bloke with early onset Alzheimer’s. All that and playing an idealistic Nazi opposite Viggo Mortensen could have led me to cry out ‘we’re not worthy!’ but she was so darn nice that I felt I could open the door to the Green Room where in between voicing takes she would wander out and mix with all the A1 VOX crew. What a lege!
So from a movie star to a movie filmmaker.
Mr Kevin Brownlow is best known for his work documenting the history of the silent era. He has rescued many silent films and their history.
His interest in World War II prompted the creation of an alternative-history film, It Happened Here, in which the Nazis have conquered Britain, Brownlow began to collaborate with Andrew Mollo on the film which was completed in 1964 with the last-minute aid of Tony Richardson.
After this cinematic feat Brownlow began another project, Winstanley, about Gerrard Winstanley and the Diggers commune following the English Civil War.
On 13th November last year Kevin Brownlow received an honorary Academy Award for lifetime achievement alongside Francis Ford Coppola. In his letter of nomination none other than Martin Scorsese declared that:
“Mr Brownlow is a giant among film historians and preservationists, known and justifiably respected throughoutthe world for his multiple achievements: as the author of The Parades Gone By, a definitive history of the silent era, and ..a biography of David Lean…and as the director with Andrew Mollo of two absolutely unique fiction films, Winstanley (1975) and It Happened Here (1964)…On a broader level, you might say that Mr Brownlow is film history”
This pretty much sums up the extraordinary record of a remarkable Englishman.
We at A1 VOX found him utterly charming and I think it is fair to say we have had a pretty epic week!
Till next week then my budding Voxers when I will be a year older (cringe), yet hopefully wiser, (every cloud!), and Daniela Denby Ash of My Family fame will be in to see us. Now go forth and catch the last rays of summer!
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