#with June Whitfield

[judi-daily]

The Last of the Blonde Bombshells, 2000 with Ian Holm, Olympia Dukakis, Leslie Caron, Joan Sims, Cleo Lain, Billie Whitelaw, June Whitfield clip: tayryn

[rosalie-starfall]

Absolutely Fabulous

Bloopers

[sconesfortea]

Countdown to the 60th anniversary rewatch | 4.17: The End Of Time Part 1

[potzlife]

Gran and Margaret Thatcher

[azspicegirlstimeline]

6/5/97 - the spice girls record a segment for their girl talk special. it shows them writing never give up on the good times and doing a runthrough of spice up your life. you can view the clip here.

[abfabsweetiedarlings]

Whitfield, a true British comedy great who died at 93, and who was made a Dame during the 2017 Queen’s Birthday Honors, was best-known to American audiences for playing “Mother” in the hit BBC show and later 2016 film. She was the perfect needling foil to Edina (Jennifer Saunders) and Patsy’s (Joanna Lumley) raucous outrageousness and never-ending rebellion.

(x)

[myfavoritepeterotoole]

Peter O'Toole at Richard Ingrams 70th birthday party Oldie Literary Lunch 21st August 2012

from L/R Richard Ingrams, Peter O'Toole, Marjorie Wallace, Barry Cryer and June Whitfield (photo by Neil Spence)

* Richard Ingrams/English journalist

[sanitariumslumber]

[perfettamentechic]

28 dicembre … ricordiamo …

28 dicembre … ricordiamo … #semprevivineiricordi #nomidaricordare #personaggiimportanti #perfettamentechic

2022: Tamara Baroni, attrice e modella italiana. Iniziò la propria carriera molto giovane come modella e indossatrice. Divenne Miss Cinema Emilia, e nel 1967 partecipò a Miss Italia dove vinse la fascia di Miss Eleganza. Nello stesso anno partecipò a Miss Mondo collocandosi nella top 15. Acquisita notorietà, iniziò a recitare in teatro e soprattutto nel cinema. Fece scalpore la sua relazione con…

[jules-has-notes]

Boy Bands in 5 Minutes — VoicePlay music video

People have been singing together since there have been people, but the specific phenomenon of boy bands really took form during the mid-20th century. In that grand tradition, VoicePlay had been performing a medley of songs from their mainstream counterparts infused with their own trademark silliness at live shows for years. With a few tweaks and a lot of hard work, they created this incredible audio-visual tour through decades of pop, rock, motown, and hip-hop hits. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride. That is, if you can resist dancing along.

Details:

title: Boy Bands in 5 Minutes

original songs / performers: "I Want It That Way" by Backstreet Boys; [0:16] "I Want You Back" by The Jackson 5; [0:42] "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" by The Beatles; [1:02] "Ain't Too Proud To Beg" by The Temptations; [1:23] "Walk Like A Man" by The Four Seasons; [1:54] "Candy Girl" by New Edition; [2:05] "Poison" by Bell Biv DeVoe; [2:23] "You Got It (The Right Stuff)" by New Kids on the Block; [2:39] "Thank You" & "Motownphilly" by Boyz II Men; [3:08] "The Hardest Thing" by 98 Degrees; [3:29] "I Want It That Way" (reprise); [4:03] "Pop" by *NSYNC; [4:29] "Best Song Ever" by One Direction; [4:50] "Fake Love" by BTS

written by: "I Want It That Way" by Andreas Carlsson & Max Martin; "I Want You Back" by Berry Gordy, Freddie Perren, Alphonso Mizell, & Deke Richards; "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" by John Lennon & Paul McCartney; "Ain't Too Proud To Beg" by Norman Whitfield & Eddie Holland; "Walk Like A Man" by Bob Crewe & Bob Gaudio; "Candy Girl" by Maurice Starr & Michael Jonzun; "Poison" by Elliot "Dr. Freeze" Straite; "You Got It (The Right Stuff)" by Maurice Starr; "Thank You" by Dallas Austin & Boyz II Men; "Mowtownphilly" by Dallas Austin, Michael Bivins, Nathan Morris, & Shawn Stockman; "The Hardest Thing" by Steve Kipner & David Frank; "Pop" by Justin Timberlake & Wade Robson; "Best Song Ever" by Wayne Hector, "John the Blind" Ryan, Ed Drewett, & Julian Bunetta; "Fake Love" by "Hitman" Bang Si-hyuk, Kim "RM" Nam-joon, & Kang "Pdogg" Hyo-won

arranged by: Geoff Castellucci

release date: 14 June 2019

My favorite bits:

easing into things with harmonies of a memorable song from their own youth, then jumping back to the early stuff

Earl at nearly 40 sounding just as good as preteen Michael Jackson on those high vocals

the clever camera wipe transitions that allow them to change outfits and positions to reflect each group

the rhythm section doing some air instrumentation during "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" 🎸🥁

J.None actually not being too proud to ask his bandmates to come back after they jazz-square-slide away

using the whip pan to and from the gossipers to make another costume change

Geoff pushing past Earl, which propels Eli off screen and into the right order for the next dance sequence

the beautiful juxtaposition of the "Single Ladies" choreography done to "Walk Like A Man" 💃🕺

the airy decending sounds Layne makes as they all fall down and the camera spins into the next song

getting back to their barbershop roots for "Candy Girl"

bracketing "Thank You" with the unmistakeable bell chords from "Motownphilly"

Layne doing the quick change "wrong" and yanking off his dickie with dramatic flair as he starts beatboxing again

the whole montage of "Pop"-able items, particularly the intense Bubble Tape™ stand-off, and J.None being showered in bubbles

playing up the dork-itude of the One Direction dance moves

that chromatic descent transitioning into the final song

the delightful floof of Geoff's hair as he rebounds the cascading movement back down the line

that lush ending, complete with Eli's fantastic riff

Trivia:

○ This video was the result of a Patreon poll, and the option the guys least wanted to win, because they knew how much work it would be. But they committed to it like the professionals they are, going all out on the music, costumes, and choreography.

○ The medley is an update / expansion of the previous version they had been performing at live shows for many years. They took the opportunity to swap out some songs in the earlier arrangement for others by the same artists:

Jackson 5 — "ABC" ⇒ "I Want You Back"

Four Seasons — "Sherry" ⇒ "Walk Like a Man"

*NSYNC — "Bye Bye Bye" ⇒ "POP"

One Direction — "What Makes You Beautiful" ⇒ "Best Song Ever"

○ To get the dance moves right, they called in a ringer — choreographer Kristin Denehy from The Sing-Off competition show and live tours, who they'd also worked with on their "Cheerleader" video several years before.

○ The group of gossipers during "Walk Like a Man" is all of VoicePlay's spouses at the time — Nick Perez, Kathy Castellucci, Cyndi Stein, and Ashley Jacobson.

○ The sandwich delivery guy in "Thank You" is the fellas' longtime friend and collaborator Rek Dunn. Given that Boyz II Men are proud Philadelphians, he's probably handing over a cheesesteak.

○ Eli sings some of the Korean lyrics in the closing BTS section. Given that he speaks Japanese, he was probably the most likely of the guys to get the pronunciation right. (And judging by the YouTube comments from BTS fans, he did a good job.)

○ When Geoff was rehearsing the choreography at home, he got some personal coaching from Kathy and little William.

○ The guys also had group dance rehearsals at a local studio.

extracted from Geoff's Instagram farewell post for J.None

○ Things got a little out of hand while they were filming the bubble wrap section of the "Pop" montage.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by VoicePlay (@thevoiceplay)

○ They got their act together for the transition to the next song, though.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by VoicePlay (@thevoiceplay)

○ The long day of filming and dancing aggravated Earl's old foot injury, so he spent the next day wearing a brace to help it recover.

○ The streaming audio version is separated into 4 tracks with 3 or 4 songs each, primarily due to licensing restrictions.

○ The 4:2:Five boys had opened for 98 Degrees at Sea World all the way back in September 2001, just a few months after they'd released their first professional EP. When VoicePlay appeared on the fourth season of The Sing-Off in 2013, working with Nick Lachey again was a little bit of a reunion.

[justforbooks]

It’s seven in the morning. The Bantrys wake to find the body of a young woman in their library. She is wearing evening dress and heavy make-up, which is now smeared across her cheeks. But who is she? How did she get there? And what is the connection with another dead girl, whose charred remains are later discovered in an abandoned quarry? The respectable Bantrys invite Miss Marple to solve the mystery… before tongues start to wag.

One of Miss Marple’s finest cases, here we see her at the height of her female intuition, an inconspicuous elderly lady who can investigate undetected. Several other detectives get involved in the case - almost as many as there are suspects. Of course, it is Miss Marple who will unveil the ultimate clue.The novel was first released in February 1942 in the US and later that year in the UK. There is a rare example of Agatha Christie name checking herself, via the voice of Peter Carmody, who claims to love detective fiction and has signed copies by Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers among others. The novel’s title was an in-joke between Agatha Christie and her character Ariadne Oliver, who reveals in Christie’s earlier work Cards on the Table, that she herself had written a crime novel titled The Body in the Library.

It was adapted for TV in 1984, starring Joan Hickson as Marple, her first appearance in what would become an acclaimed role for her. It was broadcast in three parts over the Christmas period of that year. 2004 saw a more radical adaptation, with Geraldine McEwan as Miss Marple. It featured several well-known British actors, including Ian Richardson and Joanna Lumely. BBC Radio 4 dramatised the story in 2005, with June Whitfield reassuming her role as the radio Marple.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[kwebtv]

Common As Muck - BBC One - September 7, 1994 - January 12, 1997

Comedy / Drama (12 Epispodes)

Running Time: 60 minutes

Stars:

Edward Woodward as Nev Smith

Neil Dudgeon as Ken Andrews

Richard Ridings as Bernard Green

Tim Healy as Foxy

Stephen Lord as Jonno Fox

Roy Hudd as John Parry

June Whitfield as Irene Watson

Kathy Burke as Sharon

Terence Rigby as Dougie Houd

Saeed Jaffrey as Nat Prabhakar

Lesley Sharp as Christine Stranks

Freda Dowie as Dulcie Green

George Raistrick as Mister Arnold

Paul Shane as Mike Roberts

Tony Melody as Nev's Friend

William Ivory as Vinny

Simon Ashley as Stan

Anthony Barclay as Sunil Prabhakar

Michelle Holmes as Marie

Nimmy March as Denice Andrews

[randomnessoffiction]

I really wish BBC Radio 4 would do a series of adaptations of the Tommy and Tuppence stories. I love their adaptations of Poirot with John Moffat and Miss Marple with June Whitfield. Tommy and Tuppence have been severely neglected compared to Monsieur Poirot and Miss Marple, and this needs to change.

[fatehbaz]

The Caribbean entered modern history “as the pawn of European power politics, the cockpit of Europe, the arena of Europe’s wars hot and cold,” wrote Eric Williams almost a half century ago [...]. Indeed, Shalini Puri and Lara Putnam argue that military operations and the political culture of militarism make for the coherence of the region [...].

Certain zones -- including Guantánamo, the subject of the collection by Don E. Walicek and Jessica Adams -- have borne special, enduring burdens in this regard. [...] The Caribbean moved into the twentieth century on a major martial note. In 1898 the United States intervened into the armed Cuban anticolonial struggle against Spain, [...] and taking on the imaginary white man’s burden. For North Americans, the many consequences of this speedy and “splendid” war included the appropriation of Cuba’s Guantánamo Bay (1903) for use as the republic’s first overseas naval base. [...] Diana Coleman, for example, locates the symbolic significance of the base and prison in a deeper past, a history that goes back to the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. [...] Walicek’s essay establishes that the very embeddedness of Guantánamo in an imperial past has been erased by official discourse. He notes that even before the post-9/11 war on terror, Haitians and Cubans seeking asylum found themselves detained in Gitmo. [...] Examining visual representations, Esther Whitfield emphasizes the struggle of local artists to show Gitmo, against the cliché as a “no man’s land,” to be a place inhabited by people. [...] The greatest physical expansion of Gitmo came during World War II, a period of profound militarization across the Caribbean  [...]. Also set in wartime Trinidad, Rita Pemberton’s essay plays up the paradox of food scarcity and insecurity in the midst of Yankee-sponsored prosperity. [...]

---

Meanwhile twenty-first-century Caribbeans have had to deal with a nominally novel form of warfare, the U.S.-led “War on Drugs.” This campaign, Deborah Thomas recounts, pushed Jamaican security forces to invade the Kingston community of Tivoli [...]. How residents have remembered this “Tivoli Incursion” and how their memories expose doubtful feelings about sovereignty in Jamaica is Thomas’s central concern. [...]

Grace Johnson focuses on the early twentieth-century U.S. occupation of Haiti, stressing [...] the way these women played a central role in the protests that eventually led to the end of the occupation. [...]

Vieques also serves as the setting for Daniel Arbino’s piece on the violent history of the U.S. military presence and the protests that led to the demilitarization of the little island in 2004.

Don Walicek brings awareness to the landing of British paratroopers and marines in Anguilla in 1969 after leaders on the island declared “independence” from St. Kitts and Nevis. Little known outside of Anguilla, this British Invasion (“Operation Sheepskin”) reminds us that in the age of decolonization tiny Caribbean societies too were caught up in militant struggles for self-government. Unlike the case of Anguilla, the U.S. invasion of Grenada in 1984 has been the subject of numerous studies [...]

---.

Two other essays concerned with Trinidad also center on music.

Jocelyne Guilbault insightfully links the anxiety about armed violence to the increasing use of militarized policing at the large soca “fetes” that define the island’s Carnival season.

And Louis Regis (recently passed) turns away from the insecurity of soca fetes and toward the texts of songs to examine the treatment of military issues in calypso and soca across the twentieth century. Dealing with a massive discography, Regis stresses a range of themes, showing how lyrics have moved from warning women about predatory policemen, to condemning the U.S. invasion of Grenada and pleading for peace. [...]

---

Text by: Harvey R. Neptune. “A Force in the Field: Recent Interventions into the Military History of the Caribbean.” New West Indian Guide. Online publication date 3 June 2020. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me.]

[azspicegirlstimeline]

6/5/97: the spice girls (pictured here geri, emma and melanie c) arrive at whitfield studios in london to record their second album spice world.

[abfabsweetiedarlings]