#Iain loves theatre

[enterthedisneyverse]

Hearing people talk about the finale of Young Sheldon, there is a voice in the back of my mind that says “Yeah but I’ve been a fan since Iain was known for his Broadway interviews.”

In the wide world of weird flexes, I don’t quite know where that fits. But it’s an odd one.

Now that Young Sheldon is over, I feel it is necessary that Iain do a Broadway show next. It would be lovely for his childhood to come full circle like that.

[amuseoffyre]

I was watching the bts videos yesterday including the making of the opening credits and Mr. Anderson said “We added plaques to the back of chairs and Neil chose who to honour on them”.

He’s referring to the chairs we briefly see in the theatre where Aziraphale is doing his magic act:

Left to right: A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and The Crow Road by Iain Banks.

I want to focus on these three in a row specifically because Neil chose to put those books there in that order and I had something of an epiphany last night about it all when insomnia was chewing on my toes.

These three books have also been mentioned out loud in the show in episode 2 when Gabriel is reorganising the shelves:

“It was the day my grandmother exploded” - The Crow Road

“It is a truth universally acknowledged-” - Pride and Prejudice

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” - A Tale of Two Cities

For those unfamiliar with the books, I’ll do a quick potted summary of each, with a focus on why I think they’re relevant and especially why the order of the chairs in the theatre feels relevant.

A Tale of Two Cities

Set during the French revolution with one lead who is an aristocrat who has stepped away from his class and background to support the less fortunate than himself because he disagrees with the way they did things. Also, he changed his name because he doesn’t want to be associated with the place where he came from.

The big culmination of the books is when said man is betrayed and set to be executed, but his friend takes his place. There is very literally a body swap by someone who looks very like him in order to save his life. This body-swap is done out of love.

aka - season 1.

Pride and Prejudice

Two people from very different class backgrounds have a very very bumpy start to their relationship because of misinterpretation, miscommunication and a lot of external pressure put on them by the rules of their respective societies. Both of them have different information and because of that, both of them are seeing exactly the same situation very differently. One of them tries to express his affection, but does it so badly that the other tells him there is no chance she will join him.

aka - season 2

The Crow Road

A young man tries to solve a mystery of someone’s disappearance using only the papers they left behind, with said young man’s background rooted in faith and belief in a higher power. There’s also a secondary plot about emotional growth into a more mature and more fulfilling relationship.

(And wouldn’t you know it, it’s the book handed to Muriel by Crowley, who tells them they’ll like it, and the Metatron comments on it)

aka - season 3

Needless to say, I am quite excited :)

[bastardtrait]

oc tag game

thanks to @changingplumbob for the tag <3 I will tag whoever i see on my dashboard first: @thegloomiestwhim @papermint-airplane @beebeesiims @hauntedtrait @gothoffspring @wistfulpoltergeist @samssims @simatrix @akitasimblr @thebramblewood ! feel free to ignore tho live laugh love. :3c

I'll answer for...I guess the Lucky heirs since I'm posting them rn.

Which OC is...

...the first at a movie theatre opening night for a movie they've been excited for?

girl that's Lionel. and the movie in question was the chris pine dungeons n dragons movie. i feel like he was probably an mcu girl too like idk. next would be Toby but he likes action movies.

...the pickiest?

hmgmg I want to say Mischa not for any particular reason other than that he's a vampire. lol. next would probably be Lionel idk he seems like a dino chicken nuggets kind of guy.

...the most stubborn?

this is SOOO Jakob coded; I mean we saw his entire raggedy ass personality during his gen lmfao. second, a very close second, is Iain, but in a very 'but daddy i love him' kinda way.

...looks like a pushover but could actually kick someone's butt?

100% Franklin. idk i feel like he gave soft boy but while u were off partying he was studying the blade. the others.... I feel like this applies to Iain too. Toby, he's visibly built so no. Jakob talks big shit but can't throw a punch. Lionel is actually a pacifist like. and Mischa, again, vampire.

...most likely to excitedly talk about hobbies?

totally Jakob, man has no filter. he will talk your ear off unprompted. hmmm and probably Franklin too. the others have to be asked first.

[scotianostra]

Happy 98th Birthday the Scottish actress Gurdrun Ure.

Every year when I get to this anniversary I have a wee smile, Gurdrun was born on 12th March 1926 in Campsie, Stirlingshire, making her probably the oldest living person feature in my posts.

A lot of people , even now thought that Supergran was played by Rentaghost actress Molly Weir who passed away in 2004 aged 94, and theatrical rag The Stage even confused the two in Molly Weir's obituary, but it was always Gudrun in the award winning series, I must say I never confused the two, I loved Supergran, the series based around a grandmother with super powers. I even found a picture tagged Gurdrun that was in fact Mary Ure in one source, as far as I am aware they are not related.

The show was made for Tyne Tees Television for Children's ITV and became hugely popular with people asking 'Is there nothing that she cannae do?'. Gudrun's enemy on the show was The Scunner Campbell played by the late actor and theatre director Iain Cuthbertson and the show was so popular it won an Emmy, and was sold to over 60 countries worldwide.

In the mid-50s, she decided to start using the name "Ann Gudrun" to make it easier for her audiences but, by the 60′s it looks like she had started using her real name, according to IMDb, certainly though by the times her bout of fame came about in the 1980s she had reverted back Gudrun Ure in a new climate of more acceptance of unusual names.

Gurdrun starred in Orson Welles' 1951 stage production of Othello and also appeared in 1953 film 36 Hours at the age of 27 under the artist name Ann Gudrun. She later appeared in shows including T-Bag and the Pearls of Wisdom, Midsomer Murders, The Crow Road, Where the Heart is and Casualty, the latter being her last TV role in 2009. She also appeared around the country on stage and on radio.

Oh and the name originates from the old Norse language, but is also nowadays has been one of the most frequently given female names in Iceland as Guðrún.

There has been a buzz kately that a big screen version of the show may be in the air, Tilda Swinton, an adopted Scot has been mooted for the lead role.

[consanguinitatum]

David Tennant's Plays: An Experienced Woman Gives Advice (1995)

I haven't done a thread on any of David's plays in a while, so I had some time yesterday to rustle one up about his 1995 play, An Experienced Woman Gives Advice. It premiered 28 years ago yesterday (which was why I chose to do a deeper dive about it) so let's get into it! An Experienced Woman Gives Advice (I'll use EW to refer to the play from here on out because what a long title!) would be David's first time performing onstage at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester.

Prior to winning his role in EW, the last play David had done was What The Butler Saw as Nicholas Beckett, a role he was warmly praised for. What The Butler Saw ran for two months at five different venues around England before closing its run at the Nottingham Theatre Royal in late May 1995.

EW's playwright, Iain Heggie, had seen phenomenal success with his 1987 tour-de-force, A Wholly Healthy Glasgow. But in the years afterwards, Heggie had produced only a few more plays before deciding he'd rather go back to teaching and let his writing commence at its own pace.

Originally written as a miniature sex comedy, EW was long in development, and received further script development workshops at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow in 1992, and at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh in 1993.

Its world premiere would see Heggie's return to the stage.

Initially, it might have seemed odd that EW - with its Glasgow setting, Scottish writer, and fully Scottish cast - didn't make its debut in Scotland. But because Heggie and the Royal Exchange had similar actor-centered outlooks and many of the artistic directors in Scotland preferred a more visual style, Heggie chose to work with the Royal Exchange (who liked his work anyway) and the play made its debut in Manchester.

Previews for EW began at the Royal Exchange Manchester on 21 November 1995, with an opening day of 23 November 1995. It had a small cast of five: Siobhan Redmond as Bella, David Tennant as Kenny, Jenny McCrindle as Nancy, Alastair Galbraith as Irving, and Alexander Morton as Stick. It was directed by Matthew Lloyd, and its assistant director was Marianne Elliott.

The set, which was designed by Laurie Dennett, was quite sparse - a communal back garden and garden shed of a block of Glasgow tenement flats. The music was composed by Paddy Cunneen, who fans will recognize from many other projects he did with David, some of which I've previously done deep dives into (like Sunburst Finish, The Pillowman and Bite).

The three-act play had a runtime of 3 hours and 20 minutes, with two intervals - one 15 minutes in length, the other 10 minutes in length. It closed its run on 16 December 1995. Tickets were priced from £5.50 to £18, with matinees on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

The action takes place on two Sunday mornings and opens with Bella, who's a 39 year old teacher, gardening in her back garden. We learn she's in a three-year long relationship with a live-in toyboy lover, Kenny (DT) who's a former pupil and 15 years younger than her. And that he didn't come home the previous night.

Bella calls Kenny her "charming, fallible boy", and she treats him like one. Former lovers say he's "tall, kind of blond, with a lovely lean build" and "incredibly rich brown eyes." There’s "just no resisting him,” and he's "bastardly good looking.”

David in rehearsals as Kenny (from program of An Experienced Woman Gives Advice)

In a series of interruptions from people passing into the garden, Bella (Redmond) dispenses advice to the inquiring strangers Nancy and Irving (Galbraith), and learns Kenny spent the night with another woman...from the woman herself, Nancy (McCrindle), who doesn't realize who she's told. What Bella does with this information - and how her meticulously cultivated freedom of choice lifestyle shatters, especially given her first love, Stick (Morton) lives nearby - is what the rest of the play explores. We see love, lust, and lies play out as Bella makes her choices.

And there's a scene with Bella and Kenny...and sex behind the doors of a rocking, exploding garden shed!

I haven't been able to locate a production script of the play to see whether this scene was enacted onstage, but Heggie's published script book says this scene, where Bella strips Kenny of his clothes piece by piece before they go into the shed to have sex offstage, had some brief nudity. None of the play reviews I've been able to find mention any nudity, though one article about the play does state that due to "strong language and the sexual nature of the story, the play is not suitable for children under 15." (I don't know how much weight I should give this particular article, however, because it also calls the lead character "Maggie" rather than "Bella"!) Anyway, if this scene was included in the play, it would be the second known instance (the first being that now-infamous What The Butler Saw full frontal nude photograph) where DT was onstage in the buff!

Speaking of reviews, they were wildly different - some found it hilariously funny with barbed, sharp dialogue, while others found it fatiguing. David's "able portrayal" as Kenny was praised as part of an extremely talented cast, and his was called a "great performance".

David and Siobhan Redmond earned Manchester Evening News Theatre Awards (MENTA) nominations - Redmond for Best Actress, and David for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. They also earned British Regional Theatre Awards nominations; Redmond for Best Actress and David for Best Actor. The play itself was also awarded a MENTA nomination for Best New Play. Redmond won both her nominations; David and the play didn't.

Photos from the play are almost nonexistent. I haven't located any images housed in any archives anywhere...so far. That doesn't mean they're not out there, mind you, just I haven't found them yet! I did manage to find a few of horrible quality while digging around in newspaper archives (I'll refrain from venting here about the quality aspects of digitizing newspapers, as that's a rant for another day) but it's a damned shame. I mean, in one of these, David just looks like a David-shaped black hole with floating arms! Nevertheless, I'll leave them here.

Something else I found fascinating during my research was that, like many venues, the Royal Exchange had a tradition of scheduling at least one informal discussion with the director and members of the company for each of their productions. While I didn't find any information on whether a discussion of this sort occurred during EW's run, I have to assume it did. Ah, to be a fly on the wall for that!

And that, my friends, is pretty much the story of An Experienced Woman Gives Advice! I wish I knew much more about this play, but like many parts of David's theatre career, wide gaps in our knowledge remain. But I keep on looking.

Thanks for reading!

[anunusers]

Hiya love!!

Saw your post and though I would ask! 😁

Can I ask all of them? 1-36 lmao

Last question is: what's your biggest fear?

Love u, byeeeeee🩷

OMG this made me so happy!!!!! I'm a nobody and you want to know about me?!?!? 😭means the world to me!!!❤️I love you !!!!!

I did try to answer all of the questions and I thought I posted it but I am new with posting so please forgive me! Also, I'm an over sharer so I'm sorry in advance for that too!

What is your nickname?

Lately, my colleagues have been calling me Jay. Other times I'm Jen or Jenni.

When is your birthday?

4/3 :)

What was your longest relationship?

I've only been in one serious relationship and those were the hardest 4 years of my lifeeeee! Seriously, barely made out alive. 😮‍💨

What is your favorite book?

I have so mannnnyyy! It's so hard to pick one but I'll share a few that actually caught my attention and still have resonated with me:

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

Anxious People by Fredrik Backman

Tony and Susan by Austin Wright

It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover

I'm thinking of ending things by Iain Reid

I honestly have so many more, but these are the ones I have read recently and absolutely loved. Also, Fredrik Backman is currently my fav author so I definitely recommend checking him out !

What is something you're insecure about?

My appearance for sure. I don't feel confident in my looks whatsoever haha. I feel like I am fugly most of the time but that just what has been embedded in my brain since I was younger. Also, I've recently have gotten insecure with my voice. Which is so random but I kind of hate my voice LOL.

5 Male celebrity crushes

Jake Gyllenhaal (obvy LOL), Pedro Pescal, Jaime Camil, Tenoch Huerta, Aaron Taylor-Johnson. I honestly have many more and they are all from Novelas. That is all I grew up watching with my mom hehe.

5 Female celebrity crushes

Elizabeth Olsen, Emma D'arcy, Scarlett Johanssan, Ana de Armas, Anne Hathaway and again, I am many many moorreee.

What is your dream job?

I always wanted to do something in music or theatre. A singer or actor. I was a huge choir nerd in high school. I even did piano lessons for a few years. On my last year of high school, I ended up doing theatre and it was so much fun! I did plays and that experience really made me love theatre. Maybe one day in the future... 🙏

What do you consider your biggest accomplishment?

I haven't accomplished much in life to be honest so I don't know what I would consider an accomplishment. Maybe being able to learn different professions throughout the years. I am a Certified Patient Care Tech and all though I am not even that work field anymore, I still very much enjoyed learning about the healthcare process and what different titles mean when it comes to taking care of patient and getting the help that they need.

What is a fact about you that nobody would believe?

I have no clueeeeeeeee......maybe that I'm from MX ?? LOL My accent is completely gone now from the 12 years that I've lived in the States. Which is so sad cause not only do I suck at speaking English, my Spanish is going down hill too.. I'm slowly turning into a sabo kid!! 😭😭

What were your highs and lows for this last month?

Lately, my lows have been just feeling very lost and out of place. I feel like I should be at a certain point in my life but I am so far from reaching it or maybe I won't ever come close but yeah, its a very crappy feeling. My high this month is definitely receiving this ask from you. Made my day 100% better! ❤️

Where is somewhere you'd like to visit?

I have sooooooo many places I would like to visit!!! In States, I would love to visit New York, Florida for Universal Studios and World Disney. Out of States, I would love to visit Sweden, Italy, Japan, South Korea.

How do you de-stress?

I nap like my life depends on it. I'm stressed, NAP. Upset, NAP. Happy, NAP. Sad, Nap. I could rot happily in my bed if I could get paid for it.

What are your favorite apps besides tumblr?

I honestly only mainly use Tumblr and Tiktok LOL they control my life right now. I don't think I use any other apps. Maybe Amazon and Barnes & Nobles 😁

Describe yourself in one sentence.

Lover girl in a world where love no longer exists. 🫠

What do you think makes you attractive?

I don't know actually... I would like to say my personality perhaps? I think I'm pretty cool I think I'm quite hilarious actually haha. I had someone once say that my eyes and smile was the most attractive thing about me, but I think the opposite.

What is something you're really good at?

Procrastinating. I procrastinate so good that when the deadline of something is like 5 minutes away, I overwork and stress myself out so bad that my work just comes out beautifully. I work amazing under extreme and stressful situations. Not healthy at all so please don't try!!!!

What is something you're really bad at?

Math. Which is funny because I was doing accountant work for a Retail store as my first job and I was amazing. Maybe it was the power I felt while holding thousands of dollars a night while making minimum wage 🥲LOL

A time that you told a lie.

I never lie, I speak my truth all the time but while I was in my first serious relationship, I lied ALOT about being okay and happy. It was such unhealthy relationship for me and I wanted to keep the peace at all times that I lied a lot to my family. Trust me when I say, even if they are older, does not mean they are mature. Learned that the hard way.

What's a totally random and useless fact that you know?

Our brain doesn't know our eyeballs exist and if they did know, they would attack them. You can permanently go blind if our brain was like, "wait a min, where did they come from??" Freaking GNARLY!

Who knows you the best?

My mommy ❤️

What is your most prized possession?

I am in LOVE with V for Vendetta. From the moment I saw it back when my dad would let us rent random movies from Blockbusters, I just love it. I read the comics and love the theatrics of how V is and how beautifully he was portrayed by Hugh Weaving. I ended up buying a screenplay book that contains the directors notes and small changes that were made that didn't make it to the movie and that is my most prized possession. Definitely fueled my love for acting and everything that comes from just being able to shoot a movie.

What is your longest friendship?

9 years but unfortunately, life drifted us apart :(

When did you first feel like an adult?

When I did my taxes for the first time. I was not ready to adult, and I still can't adult correctly but surviving!

Do you/ Have you played any sports?

Yes, volleyball!!!! My family used to play it all time when we lived in MX. I turn into a competitive monster.

How are you feeling right now?

Tired and hungry. I've been surviving on Moster Energy drinks these last few days.

Are you an early bird or a night owl?

I'm honestly neither. I used to be able to stay up all night but now, I can barely wake up early and can barely stay awake lol I'm old now.

Do you believe in love at first sight?

I do, I'm a hopeless romantic.

Favorite song lyrics right now?

I've been listening to sad songs lately. Currently have I Can't Make You Love Me by Bon Iver on a constant loop. "I'll close my eyes, then I won't see. The love you don't feel when you're holding me. Morning will come and I'll do what's right. Give me 'til then to give up this fight." UGH gets me every time! 😭

What does self care look like for you?

Honestly, a nice hot bath in a candle lit bathroom, bright enough to be able to read a book and because I love in AZ, thunderstorm sounds in the background. My definition of self care ❤️

Describe yourself with 3 singers.

This is on hard! I don't know. Ummmmmm can I say 3 of my favorite singers? Amy Lee from Evanescence, RAYE, and Beyonce.

What makes you nervous?

Knowing that we have only explore 5% of the ocean and ocean nearly takes 70% of our planet. Not sure what phobia that is but thinking about that makes me nervous. Also meeting new people. I'm very shy so I get super nervous and anxious.

What’s a pet peeve you have?

When I am with someone and I am sharing something or just telling them something and they are on their phone, not listening at all. Then they have the audacity to say, "Huh?" Like no thank you. The excitement is over and now I'm hurt. 🥲

What will always make you cry?

Thinking about my life. Kidding! I am a huge crybaby so it doesn't take much to make me cry. Show me a sad video, I'll cry a river.

What kind of first impression do you think you make on people?

I don't know, I smile a lot so maybe they form some kind of opinion based on that. I hope it's all good first impressions though. 😊

Special Question: What's your biggest fear?

I have a lot of fears and some may seem so little. I am afraid of never being able to accomplish or become the person I dreamt of being. I'm afraid that I will never get back on track with how I envisioned I would be right now at 24. It's dumb little things that scare me. Never finding love and having a family of my own or not being able to be fully happy. Sometimes it feels like something is missing and maybe that's why I have been feeling lost lately. Those are biggest fears.

THANK YOU SO MUCH AGAIN!!! I really enjoyed answering these questions and would totally love to see you answering them too!!!!!! Love you!!!❤️❤️❤️

[grandmaster-anne]

Coronation Music at Westminster Abbey

The Royal Family | Published 18 February 2023

Twelve newly commissioned pieces of music will be performed at The Coronation of Their Majesties The King and The Queen Consort at Westminster Abbey on Saturday 6 May 2023, showcasing musical talent from across the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth.

A range of musical styles and performers blend tradition, heritage and ceremony with new musical voices of today, reflecting The King’s life-long love and support of music and the arts.

His Majesty The King has personally commissioned the new music and shaped and selected the musical programme for the Service.

Andrew Nethsingha, Organist and Master of the Choristers, Westminster Abbey, will be overseeing all musical arrangements and directing the music during the Service.

Sir Antonio Pappano, Music Director for the Royal Opera House, will be conducting the Coronation Orchestra which comprises a bespoke collection of musicians drawn from orchestras of The former Prince of Wales’ Patronages including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Six orchestral commissions, five choral commissions and one organ commission, have been specially composed for the occasion by world-renowned British composers whose work includes Classical, Sacred, Film, Television and Musical Theatre. Commissioned works include a new Coronation Anthem by Andrew Lloyd Webber, a Coronation March by Patrick Doyle, a new commission for solo organ embracing musical themes from countries across the Commonwealth by Iain Farrington plus new works by Sarah Class, Nigel Hess, Paul Mealor, Tarik O'Regan, Roxanna Panufnik, Shirley J. Thompson, Judith Weir, Roderick Williams, and Debbie Wiseman.

Soloists will include bass-baritone, Sir Bryn Terfel; soprano, Pretty Yende and baritone, Roderick Williams. The organ will be played by Sub-Organist, Westminster Abbey, Peter Holder, and Assistant Organist, Westminster Abbey, Matthew Jorysz.

The official Royal Harpist Alis Huws will perform as part of the Coronation Orchestra in recognition of The King’s long-standing and deeply held relationship and affiliation with Wales. One of the liturgical sections of the ceremony will also be performed in Welsh.

At the request of His Majesty, in tribute to his late father His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Greek Orthodox music will also feature in the Service performed by the Byzantine Chant Ensemble.

The Service will be sung by The Choir of Westminster Abbey and The Choir of His Majesty’s Chapel Royal, St James’s Palace, together with girl choristers from the Chapel Choir of Methodist College, Belfast and from Truro Cathedral Choir. The Ascension Choir, a handpicked gospel choir will also perform as part of the Service and The King’s Scholars of Westminster School will proclaim the traditional ‘Vivat’ acclamations.

Fanfares will be played by The State Trumpeters of the Household Cavalry and The Fanfare Trumpeters of the Royal Air Force.

Sir John Eliot Gardiner will conduct The Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque soloists in a pre-Service programme of choral music. A small group of singers from The Monteverdi Choir will also join the main choral forces for the Service.

Music by the likes of William Byrd (1543–1623), George Frideric Handel (1685–1759), Sir Edward Elgar (1857–1934), Sir Henry Walford Davies (1869–1941), Sir William Walton (1902–1983), Sir Hubert Parry (1848–1918) and Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958) has historically featured in the Service over the past four centuries and will be included in the programme along with the music of one of Britain’s most loved and celebrated living composers, Sir Karl Jenkins.

[sonyclasica]

BANDA SONORA ORIGINAL

THE TIME TRAVELLER'S WIFE - THE MUSICAL (ORIGINAL CAST RECORDING)

SONY MASTERWORKS BROADWAY lanza Original Cast Recording de THE TIME TRAVELLER'S WIFE: THE MUSICAL con nueva música de Joss Stone y Dave Stewart, el musical se estrenó el 1 de noviembre en el Teatro Apollo del West End londinense.

Consíguelo AQUÍ

El reparto de THE TIME TRAVELLER'S WIFE: THE MUSICAL está encabezado por David Hunter (Henry), Joanna Woodward (Clare), Tim Mahendran (Gomez), Hiba Elchikhe (Charisse) y Ross Dawes (el padre de Henry).

THE TIME TRAVELLER'S WIFE: THE MUSICAL está basado en la novela superventas de Audrey Niffenegger y en la película de New Line Cinema, con guion de Bruce Joel Rubin. Cuenta con música y letras originales de los compositores Joss Stone y Dave Stewart, ganadores de varios premios Grammy. Con texto de Lauren Gunderson, música adicional de Nick Finlow y letras adicionales de Kait Kerrigan; la producción está dirigida por Bill Buckhurst y diseñada por Anna Fleischle, con coreografía de Shelley Maxwell, diseño de iluminación de Lucy Carter y Rory Beaton, ilusión de Chris Fisher, diseño de vídeo de Andrzej Goulding, diseño de sonido de Richard Brooker, diseño de efectos de sonido de Pete Malkin, supervisión y arreglos musicales de Nick Finlow, orquestaciones de Malcolm Edmonstone y diseño de pelucas, peluquería y maquillaje de Susanna Peretz.  El reparto corre a cargo de Grindrod Burton Casting.  Está producida en el West End por Colin Ingram, InTheatre Productions, Gavin Kalin Productions, Teresa Tsai, Warner Bros.  Theatre Ventures, Crossroads Live y Ricardo Marques.

SOBRE THE TIME TRAVELLER’S WIFE:

La relación de Henry y Clare no se parece a ninguna otra.  Y, sin embargo, es como todas las demás.  Clare es una escultora de talento y Henry es, bueno, un viajero en el tiempo. Se conocen, se enamoran y se casan, pero no en ese orden.  Separados por el tiempo, pero unidos por el amor, Henry siempre intenta volver con Clare. Su viaje es un viaje de resistencia, de imposibilidades y de intentar aferrarse el uno al otro cuando todo les separa.

THE TIME TRAVELLER’S WIFE: THE MUSICAL (BSO)

TRACKLISTING:

1 Prologue

2 Masterpiece

3 Wait For Me

4 One Day

5 Damn Fool Love

6 I See Her

7 Who Are We

8 Entr’acte

9 Journeyman

10 This Time

11 A Woman’s Intuition

12 I’m In Control

13 Make It New

14 On and on

15 Love Wins The Day

16 Story of Love [Bonus Track]

Reparto Álbum:

David Hunter

Joanna Woodward

Tim Mahendran

Hiba Elchikhe

Ross Dawes

Eve Corbishley

Directora musical y Keys 1: Katharine Woolley

Director musical asociado y Keys 2: Chris Guard

Violín: Laura Melhuish

Violín & Viola: Cat Parker

Cello: Rebecca Jordan

Guitarras: Justin Quinn

Bajo: Richard Coughlan

Batería: James Powell

Dirección: Nick Finlow & Katharine Woolley

Maestra del coro: Annie Skates

Voces: Annie Skates, Hazel Fernandes, Sumudu Jayatilaka, Emma Kershaw, CJ Neale, Mike Henry, Iain Mackenzie, Andrew Playfoot

[lovewilltellamillionstories]

Euan Morton is Iain armitages dad!? How did I not know this.

[bruhhh--moment]

I've tried for years to explain how I want to work in theatre because I love its ability to make people okay - someone could be having the worst week/month/year of their life but when they go to a show they can be okay for 3ish hours. And nobody has put it into words as well as Nick at the BiT concert: “Sometimes terrible events are just terrible and they didn’t deserve to happen to you and you didn’t deserve it and there are no greater meanings to be found in those events and that’s okay because you’re here now and we’re all here together and that’s all that matters” and then Iain comes in with the 'we don't have to be alone. We can all sing this together and be together in those feelings' and 'Through love and connection we can save each other's lives' and I am once again reminded of the power of humanity and the power of the arts and how we are all just people desperate to be heard and felt and seen and maybe that's in a room full of people singing about Mossy cobblestone

[eppysboys]

hi eppy !! do you know how the boys were like as students? as in, their behavior and academic performance? i think i have a general idea lol but i just wanted to know if there is something else you know:))

Hi darling! I apologise for the lack of links to sources and ugly formatting, tumblr is being a bit silly and not allowing me to do anything?? Sorry about that!

George:

I think as clever as we know George was, his distaste for the institute was very strong. He was disappointed that the school's music programs didn't offer enough/any guitars, which was his primary love. His focus was on music/guitars completely. I remember reading he used to just draw guitars in his notebooks at school (he was smitten!)

"George, on the other hand, hated school and all the teachers, simply hated the Institute with a passion. He refused to work ("it's impossible to judge this boy's work because he hasn't done any" says one of his reports), he hated the dress code and deliberately wore as many colourful items as he could get away with under the uniform, transforming himself into the Institute's tiniest teen rebel, and he hated a lot of the other students. Paul's actual younger brother Michael, also at the Liverpool Institute at the time, comments: 'One of his new friends was George Harrison, who at this time was a bit of a joke at school because he wore his hair so long. And the more the kids laughed and jeered, the longer George let his hair grow. I think in the end he'd have let it grow below his knees if they hadn't all got fed up and left off jeering at him.'" (x)

John:

We know young John was a little bookworm, reading beyond his years and had a keen interest in art and writing in particular. He clearly had a lot of energy and when the subject didn't interest him he created mischief. He did end up failing his O levels by a few points, his interest in school just wasn't there.

1956 report card from Quarry Bank High School for Boys in Liverpool:

In art college John was much the same, and relied on Stuart Sutcliffe tutoring him after class on all the things the teachers had just said. There were certain teachers that did encourage him and try and guide him down the right path, but I think John was just very restless, a tad insecure and simply not right for the traditional academic route, despite his intelligence.

Paul:

"Before the double whammy of his mother dying and meeting John Lennon, Paul was a good student ("I ruined Paul's life," John informed Ray Connolly once; "he could have been a teacher, you know"), and fond enough of some of his teachers to rave about one of them, Alan Durband, decades later. ("I had the greatest teacher ever of English literature, called Alan Durband, who was a leading light in the Everyman Theatre, when Willie Russell and everybody were there. He led the fund raising. He'd been taught at Cambridge by F. R. Leavis and used to talk glowingly of him. And he communicated his love of literature to us, which was very difficult because we were Liverpool sixteen-year-olds, 'What d'fuck is dat der?' He'd actually written a ten-minute morning story for the BBC, so I respected this guy. He was nice, a bit authoritarian, but they all had to be in our school because we would have gone had they not held us. We needed holding. He was a good guy. "

“I got to know Paul McCartney in my last two years at the Liverpool Institute. I had seen him around, but I didn’t know him very well. Someone dug me in the ribs and said, ‘We’re in for a couple of good years here,’ because Paul already had a reputation for being a guy who could create quite a bit of mayhem. Butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. He was able to turn it on and off. He could look as sweet as an angel just after he’d done the most incredibly disruptive things, and usually the blame went to someone else.” Iain Taylor, The Beatles: An Oral History

"McCartney was not much of a student, Taylor, a retired history teacher, recalled. In fact, he left on a trip to Hamburg before the finals. Taylor remembers McCartney as "quite a character."

"I still have very vivid memories that I'm trying to put down in this history of the school. He was very artistic, a left-hander, and he wasn't particularly good in the early part of his school days with mathematics and science. He hated organized sports and games. He was a bit of an anarchist and wouldn't participate," Taylor said.

"He seemed to excel verbally in being able to mimic the teachers, but do it quietly so the teachers didn't hear but everybody else did. He was kind of a rebel," Taylor said.

Harrison and McCartney were among the youngest boys to hang out in the smokers' corner, a spot out of sight of the teachers.

"George Harrison was beaten many times for many things. Paul McCartney was usually quite skilled at negotiating his way around things without feeling the consequences," Taylor said.

The cafeteria had an interesting reverb and McCartney spent his lunch hours drumming out Little Richard songs.

"I nearly did very well at grammar school but I started to get interested in art instead of academic subjects," Many Years From Now

So clearly Paul was a really intelligent kid with a rebellious streak who had his head turned by music and that's where he decided all his interest would go to. His parents wanted him to be a doctor/scientist, and provided him with all the support and encouragment he needed to excel. He was reading encyclodpedias and solving crosswords left and right, and many teachers and students commented on his artistic and academic abilities.

Ringo:

Ringo's schooling life was constantly interrupted by illness and hospital visits. He simply did not have the oppurtunities the others did, being the poorest and obviously so ill so often.

"Ritchie is not learn to read until he was nine years old when he was taught by a friend of his mother, the daughter of Annie Marie Maguire. Later attended Dingle Vale secondary modern; he left at the age of thirteen due to him being so behind."

He talked later about being self conscious about not knowing as much, or not speaking as well as others could. But Ringo was/is a very smart guy, and has always had a really wonderful attitude towards learning new things which I personally admire a great deal.

[lonelier-version-of-you]

All in all, I thought those were two pretty good episodes tonight!

I feel like Casualty had a tendency to kind of drop patient storylines by the wayside for a long while now, but looking back on these past couple of months (excluding the Christmas flashback episodes, WTF were they thinking with those) I’m really optimistic that it’s improving in that regard. It feels like we’ve had a lot more focus on the patients lately than we have for a while - they’ve got a good balance between patient stories and staff stories, which I think is ideal.

(Meanwhile, on Holby, actual proper patient storylines have been practically nonexistent for a very very long time now. We literally get, like, one scene of a patient, then they’re taken to theatre and there’s a scene or two of the staff operating on them, then they disappear and all we get is a one-off line like “Mrs. Smith’s surgery went well!”. You can’t even blame COVID/the shorter episodes for it. There’s been practically no focus on the patients for years. Sigh. The only exception is when the patients have some kind of connection to the staff, and that’s a whole other kettle of fish.)

The first episode, “Balancing the Books”, was good. I think its biggest struggle is the focus on Matthew. His storyline is decent, but Osi Okerafor just isn’t that good of an actor (though I suppose he’d never improve if they didn’t challenge him!), and obviously a lot of people hate Matthew due to him causing Fenisha and Lev’s deaths. Casualty, seriously, you probably shouldn’t have introduced this character for a pointless love triangle, done nothing with him for weeks’ worth of episodes, and then had him try to convince his ex to leave her fiance for him last minute before the wedding and then while doing that get in a car crash that kills both said ex and (indirectly) another beloved character. It was kind of inevitable that he would not have the biggest fanbase.

Matthew’s biggest draw for me, however, is this: he isn’t Faith. And I could not possibly hate any other character on the show anywhere near as much as I hate Faith. So a Faith-centric episode last week followed by a Matthew-centric episode this week? Give me the Matthew ep ANY day, thanks.

Casualty has done a lot of PTSD storylines over these last couple of years. It’s becoming almost their gimmick at this point. Seriously, I’d bet if you listed off the Casualty characters, it would turn out the majority of them are neurodivergent... and the reason for that would be that at least half of them have some kind of PTSD. Ethan, Iain and Matthew are all confirmed to have it just off the top of my head. (Oh, and Chrissie, Iain’s ex, too, if we’re gonna count a recurring character.) Connie had PTSD and she only left last year. And that’s not even getting into other characters who appear to show signs. (Dylan is a textbook case of CPTSD, you can’t change my mind.)

But, regardless, at least they’re all done differently enough to be distinguishable. The circumstances under which Connie developed PTSD are totally different from the circumstances that led Matthew to develop PTSD, and so on.

And I think Matthew’s story seems to be taking an interesting angle. If anything, it reminds me less of any of the other PTSD storylines Casualty has done in recent years, and more of Oliver’s PTSD on Holby. Probably because one of the aspects of Oliver’s storyline also revolved around him having hit his girlfriend without realising after waking up from a nightmare. The stuff we saw between him and Stevie in the spring trailer intrigued me, so I’ll be interested to see how the story plays out from here.

The patient story with the prison officer who was in love with the inmate was... weird, but I did think the bloke playing Nathan was very very good so there was that.

Adi talking about looking at flats for him and Marty reminded me of Dylan, a year ago as of tomorrow, looking at houses for him and Faith. Something we all thought meant Dylan was about to have a breakdown but no it just didn’t go anywhere for some reason. Weird. But I digress. Anyway, I can’t stand Adi. He’s an asshole. After his first episode or two I thought maybe he was being written as just one cog in a terrible system, but nah, the system is terrible but Adi is also terrible. Look at how we’ve seen him behave towards Paula. He’s a jerk. Marty deserves better. This is an anti-Adi blog. As I say, I don’t know if we’re actually supposed to hate him as a person or just hate the system that he’s a part of, but nope, I hate him as a person too. Get Marty away from him.

Also, the special effects in the first ep weren’t as bad as usual. You can kind of get away with overdone special effects if you’re using them to represent that a character’s having a flashback. Still hate the incidental music though. No excuse for the incidental music.

I loved how kind Stevie was when she was talking to Sasha and helping her realise her mum was abusive. I want a Stevie in my life, dammit.

I think that’s about all I have to say about that ep, onto my thoughts on “Apron Strings”:

This was probably my favourite of tonight’s two episodes, although, as I say, both were good.

I just hate that Paul the Creepy Annoying Receptionist is back. Seriously. I despise him. What a weird, openly misogynistic little fuck. Why do they keep bringing him back when they know the entire audience hates him?

Although I do have to admit that that “cars aren’t deadly unless they hit you, aren’t they?” line was inexplicably hilarious to me. But one funny line does not make Paul’s existence worth it. I hate him. Get rid of Paul.

But the actual storyline with Robyn and the girl from Charlotte’s school was very powerful. Absolutely heartwrenching to watch, though - especially since the actress playing Kendra’s mum was so brilliant.

I guess we’re not going to find out what’s actually going on with Teddy’s health for a while yet, then. Should be interesting to see how it plays out.

I love to hate Teddy’s mum, by the way. She’s perfectly irritating.

Also, speaking of Teddy, that line where he told the woman’s daughter that she had “a chance for a fresh start” reminded me of that Holby scene where Henrik says he envies an amnesiac patient for having a “blank canvas” and “the opportunity for reinvention”.

I loved getting to see a good old “Dylan solves a medical mystery” storyline tonight. I feel like we don’t get those much anymore. His interactions with the patient were lovely. I also adored his bizarre, visibly autistic posture tonight. As they say, he’s just like me for real.

[scotianostra]

The respected Scottish actor Roy Hanlon passed away on June 30th 2005.

Throughout his career Roy Hanlon was a much loved and respected character actor. He appeared often on television, with many theatre companies in Scotland and Ireland and graced many productions at the Edinburgh Festival. Indeed he had the distinction of appearing in three productions of the epic Three Estaites in the same role. His well-known face, however, was seen in important supporting roles in a host of Scottish drama series, including Dr Finlay’s Casebook, Sutherland’s Law and The Borderers.

Roy Hanlon trained with the Scottish Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, graduating in 1960. He joined the Glasgow Citizens’ Company and was a member of the company at that year’s Edinburgh Festival in Durenmatt’s seldom-performed Romullus the Great. He was back two years later in an equally rare play - The Doctor and the Devils - with a host of leading Scottish actors.

In 1964 Hanlon made the first of several appearances in Dr Finlay’s Casebook and appeared as a menacing doctor in Edward Bond’s acclaimed radio drama Castles in Spain. In 1967 he was in two films. The first (Robbery), starring Stanley Baker, was about a gang who robbed the overnight Glasgow to London train. He then appeared in an espionage thriller, The Naked Runner alongside Frank Sinatra and Edward Fox. Critics greeted neither movie with much enthusiasm. Two years later, Hanlon was cast in several leading television dramas of the period, notably the underground spy drama Jason King, which made a star of Peter Wyngarde.

Throughout the 1970s, Hanlon appeared in a host of roles. These included BBC Scotland’s popular 1972 drama Sutherland’s Law, about a procurator fiscal, starring Iain Sutherland, and The Saint - the award-winning series on ITV starring Roger Moore.

It was in 1984 that Hanlon first came to the Festival to play Spiritualitie in Tom Fleming’s dramatic production of the Thrie Estaites. The production starred such actors as Andrew Cruickshank, David Rintoul, Edith Macarthur and Alec Heggie and was repeated the following year. Hanlon also returned to the same role in the 1991 production of the play. In 1985 it was performed at the Assembly Hall in tandem with Sydney Goodsir Smith’s The Wallace, in which Hanlon played John Mentieth. The Wallace demanded much of the huge cast: the opening scene alone was given in old Scots and contemporary English.

In the early 1980s, Hanlon became a regular visitor to Ireland and worked often with the Abbey Theatre of Dublin (including a memorable Doctor’s Dilemma in 1982). Two years earlier he had made a notable impression in the world premiere of Brian Friel’s Translations, in which Hanlon delivered an engrossing account of Jimmy Jack alongside the young Liam Neeson and Stephen Rea.

Hanlon was with the Abbey in 1995 for Patrick Mason’s production of Sebastian Barry’s The Only True History of Lizzie Finn. In 1998 Hanlon was nominated for a Barclay’s Theatre Award for his appearance in Juno and the Paycock.

Hanlon remained a fiercely proud Scot and was devoted to his profession and his family. He was still working up to 2004, when he was seen in BBC2’s Takin’ Over the Asylum.

[consanguinitatum]

David Tennant Audios I'm Trying To Find: Supermarket Zoo

I've been posting a lot about the rare and obscure David Tennant works I've been able to find, or ones he did early in his career, or....you know, pretty much anything weird and wonderful this incredible Scottish thespian ever did, no matter how niche! I spend a lot of time hunting that stuff down and oftentimes - as this story about my journey trying to find his short film, Bite, explains - I manage to score and find what I'm looking for in a big way. But not always. So tonight, dear readers, I'll switch gears and have a rant about talk about something I'm actually trying to FIND. I'll preface all this by saying I believe I'm only missing a few of David's audio works (well, at least the audio works which I know he did.) Sadly, there's no IMDb-like comprehensive source for the entirety of his audio work like there is with his film and television career: the closest thing to this is the BBC Genome Project, which - while remarkable! - is primarily a source which catalogues audio broadcast over the BBC, not a repository for the names of the actors involved in each audio. The Genome Project has some gems - for example, you can listen to David's remarkably in-depth 45-min 2009 interview for Desert Island Discs, where he talks about his family life as a child, dealing with his fame, and what music he'd take on a desert island - but it doesn't do as well for old audio broadcasts, mostly because prior to 2000 or so, the BBC didn't really keep copies of audio broadcasts! The Project does have copies of the Radio Times, though, so often it is these which provide some clue as to David's audio projects. But they're not comprehensive, either.

All this to say, I think I have the majority of David's audio work. I've found a few more over the years which weren't attributed to him in any other place but his biography blurb in the programmes of his theatre work - and I've found those, too (a few very recently!) But David's done a lot! He's as prodigious with his audio as he is the rest of his career, and I would not be surprised in the least to learn that the list I have isn't as complete as I think it is. He's more than likely done more audios than I currently know about, because....he's David, that's why. The Energizer Worker Bunny! Regardless....I do have a lot of his audios. Put it this way - I have over 120 audios he's done since 1993, and if my list is accurate, I only lack five (!!) audios to make the list complete. Three out of the five I need are early 2000s (when the BBC didn't always archive their recordings), one is from 1989 when he was in drama school, and the last, weirdly, comes from 2010 and isn't even from radio!

This last one is his narration of a children's book called Supermarket Zoo by Caryl Hart, and illustrated by Ed Eaves.

Here are a few of Eaves' illustrations for the book:

from https://edeavesillustrator.com/supermarket-zoo-2

I would LOVE to find this audiobook...somewhere. Damn it!

Supermarket Zoo was published by Simon and Schuster and copyrighted 2010. The ebook was published in 2011, and I believe David recorded the narration for the audiobook sometime before May 2011. The audiobook music was written and composed by Iain Carnegie, and he lists it here on his website.

You can find copies of the book all over the internet. But try finding a copy of the audiobook! Arghhhh!

[scratchybeardsweetmouth]

Iain Glen: From Game of Thrones to cycling's dark side when Le Tour came to Ireland

November 4, 2020 | By Esther McCarthy (x) Irish Examiner We last saw him as Daenerys' trusty sidekick, but in The Racer - opening movie at Cork Film Festival - Iain Glen plays a shady character involved in the Tour de France in 1998 Excerpts:

[...] Now a new movie recounts that 1998 tour through the eyes of a cyclist. Though fictional, The Racer shows the dangerous lengths teams will go to for a competitive edge. Shot in Ireland and Belgium, the opening film for the Cork International Film Festival centres on a domestique (support rider) regarded as one of the best in the business. Iain Glen plays the team’s Mr Fixit, the man with the syringes and vials. “I studied documentaries and a couple of films just to get to know the world it occupied,” he says. “What drew me to the script was it didn't hold back its punches, I thought it was a very frank and honest, quite a wry, insightful look at a particularly bad period for drug abuse within the sport.” “That tour became known as the Tour de Drugs because of the amount of drugs that were going down at the time. The people within the team and my character, certainly within the context of the film, didn't have any great qualms about it - everyone was doing it and we were doing it as well. That was the norm. It's ironic to think that (Lance) Armstrong was about to enjoy his great stretch as being the world-leading cyclist and he won so many tours in a row and this was prior to that. During Armstrong’s time everyone thought the sport had got its act together a bit more.” Directed by Kieron J Walsh, the movie shows the extraordinary dangers the cyclists face as a result of blood doping...    [...] “People weren't wrestling with their consciences as they decided how they could compete at the highest level, they were just doing what everyone did. And I thought that was accurate and telling,” says Glen. “You would have to have a gallows humour.” “The conceit of zoning in on this domestique, someone who had sacrificed his entire life for cycling with the intent of never, ever winning himself, who would put his whole life on hold, and then physically put his own body through the abuse that he did to try and compete, I thought was a very powerful conceit for the film.” Glen is one of Scotland’s best-known actors, mixing it up between roles in theatre and the big and small screen. But he didn’t initially consider an acting career, stumbling into drama while studying at Aberdeen University. “It was there that friends of mine got involved and I was slightly dragged against my will into it. I had no idea what actors were and that you could earn a living for what they did.”   That changed when he performed a small part in The Crucible. “I felt that I could occupy that space in my imagination where I believe the world in which I was standing in and seemed to be able to project that in a small way. I just got really addicted very quickly for that feeling. I bumped into it very accidentally, I had no great desire, I didn't even know what it was until I was 18, really.”  Many of those projects have brought him to Ireland - including playing Jorah Marmont in Game of Thrones. A movie shot in Ballyvourney, Co Cork, is one he has happy memories of despite its dark subject matter. “I do have very strong memories of Song For a Raggy Boy and it’s among my favourites,” he says. “It put me together with Aisling Walsh again, who was a great friend and still is. It's an awful part of history. And I thought that the film portrayed it very powerfully and very accurately.” “I played a very disturbed man and all the kids were slightly scared of me, because they were at an age where they didn't see a division between actors and and the roles that they're playing. I remember the last weekend just before we wrapped, I took them all out. We went and hung out and saw a film together and did different things.” “It's amazing how much in denial the higher echelons of the church were and politics and society too. You need to keep banging on the door for it to be really broken down and owned up to comprehensively and fully and certainly the film was one of the early knocks in the door, I think.” LOCKDOWN CULTURE Parenting a young family during initial Covid restrictions made for a busy household, but when Glen turned to culture he found comfort in reading and his guitar. “It's been a tricky time for everyone. I'd love to say that massive new things opened up but to be honest, it's really very pragmatic: how do you cope with young children when they're in the same house all day?” “I've got young kids as well as older ones. The home education was a challenge that was very preoccupying. I play the guitar and that's always a means of getting away from it all a little bit. William Boyd was a writer who opened up to me. I'd worked with William on a film that he adapted the screenplay for. And then I did a play of his called Longing.” “He was very present in the rehearsal for that and he’s a lovely man, but I'd never read any of his writing. I just started to read a William Boyd book and I just couldn't stop reading. So during lockdown, I read about nine William Boyd books, starting with Any Human Heart.”

[trevorbarre]

Johnny Cash: Performing for Nixon (and a Previously Divided America)

Yesterday, I learned yet more about the America of 1970, and its massive contradictions. 

Johnny Cash performed, at the request of ‘Tricky Dicky’ Nixon, at the White House in 1970, just two weeks before the infamous Kent State killings of four unarmed students on May 4th. ‘The Man in Black’ was, in fact, more of a ‘Bichrome Man’, at the very least. The divisions within the MIB himself reflected the divisions within the America he loved so much, divisions which sadly have not gone away or been even partially resolved, over the past 50 years since the WH event. Watching the video documentary ‘Remastered: Tricky Dick and the Man in Black’ (available on Netflix) just reminded me of the entrenched problems in American society, wounds that may have been (ad)dressed in the 60s and 70s, but which have been re-opened in the Trump era, and continue to fester as Chief Surgeon Biden takes over the gory operating theatre of American politics.

Comparisons will be made to Tony Blair’s use of Noel Gallagher in July 1997, and Harold Wilson’s of The Beatles MBE awards in October 1965. Move on, nothing new here?

Musicians appearing at White House functions and in WH publicity events was hardly a new phenomenon. An obviously stoned Elvis Presley was photographed next to a grinning Nixon as part of a folie a deux photo opportunity on 21st. December 1970, for an early doomed ‘war on drugs’ project, which proved to be as successful as you can imagine, especially given that both of the participants were clearly, in their different ways, part of the problem rather than its solution. Nixon’s late night drunken paranoid ramblings were soon to became legend. Donald Trump could only conjure up Ted Nugent and a clearly delusional Kanye West to promote his brand. The much-maligned Jimmy Carter, however, was cool enough to request the presence of Charles Mingus and Cecil Taylor in 1978 at his own bash on the WH lawn. Johnny Cash was in a difficult position in 1970 - a conservative by instinct, he was increasingly disturbed by the various administrations’ behaviour in Vietnam and their repressive actions in terms of civil rights, prison reform and racial profiling (all linked, of course). “Our leaders let us down”, he was to ultimately conclude.

Johnny Cash managed to (somewhat uncomfortably) straddle ‘straight’ and ‘counterculture’ music in 1970, as he was later to do in his Rick Rubin recordings 25 years later. (That voice transcended artificial binaries, as did Sinatra’s, distinctions that were to become much more mutually accommodating from that time on.) The Johnny Cash Show reified these contrarian impulses, a TV show designed for Lyndon Johnson’s ‘Great Society’, but which slyly invited the likes of Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell into the tent. He famously played in the Folsom and San Quentin maximum security prisons, a very brave move in retrospect, and one that very few ‘politically radical’ acts have ever repeated. (Can you imagine The Clash doing a Wormwood Scrubs gig? Or being taken seriously by the cons?) 

Prison reform still remains a major issue in both the USA and the UK, as just one aspect of the Black Live Matter movement has highlighted.

Nixon wanted Cash to perform Merle Haggard’s reactionary (and provocative) ‘Okie from Muskogee’, a dog whistle redneck calling card, and ‘Welfare Cadillac’, an unpleasant and weaselly dig at welfare claimants, that has undoubted echoes in this country from the likes of Iain Duncan-Smith and his ilk. Cash refused to perform these numbers when it came down to it at the last moment, thus giving his famous ‘Middle Finger’ to ‘Middle America’ (at least in some of its more unpleasant aspects). and finally asks in the video, “what is truth?”  

At least The Man in Black was spared the indignities of the Trump presidency, with its attacks on the ‘problem’ of truth.