Category: Culture

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David Graham

The death was announced yesterday of actor David Graham at the age of 99.

Mr Graham had a long and distinguished career, and you can read about him here.

Graham was a stalwart of the Gerry Anderson series, and did so many voices on Four Feather Falls, Supercar, Fireball XL5, Thunderbirds and Stingray.

His voice was always very recognisable. He did some regular characters (eg Brains) and guest characters and was often found talking to himself.

We have been watching the box sets of ITC shows from the 1960s and 70s. Graham would often pop up on these too.

We loved Four Feather Falls. It looks stupid now, but the introduction is great:

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Silence is golden

It’s that time again here in London, time for the London Film Festival.

There’s always something interesting to investigate, but one thing we really enjoyed over the years was the Thames/Channel 4 silent films.

Films were never silent. There would be music and sound effects.

We saw some great things, including City Lights, The Wind, Broken Blossoms, The General and The Big Parade. All had music from Carl Davis and it was a real event. Some are still available on dvd, but watching with an attentive audience is best.

It still goes on, after a fashion. This year is a set of Sherlock Holmes shorts, again with live music. This year they are at the Alexandra Palace theatre, worth a visit in its own right:

Silent Sherlock: Three Classic Cases
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Pantomimes

If you think of Christmas in the UK you immediately think of the traditional form of entertainment, the pantomime.

This is not to be confused with just an Xmas play, like a stage adaptation of A Christmas Carol. No, there are standard stories, often based on fairy tale ideas, and standard elements that are included.

The ‘home’ of the panto is the London Palladium. They will have a big budget all-singing all-dancing presentation with high ticket prices and great demand, but many local theatres do something.

Mostly they are aimed at children (though there have been adult versions with lots of swearing, crude jokes but nothing too explicit) and run from perhaps the beginning of December to late January the next year. That could well be two shows per day.

If you go, there are likely to be school trips in attendance. We can’t say how well behaved (or otherwise) they will be. Usually noisy and smelly.

Stories include: Peter Pan, Aladdin, Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk and Robin Hood. Oddly, there’s one about Dick Whittington, who became Lord Mayor of London, and his cat. Pop up to Archway and Highgate to see monuments to the cat and pubs and hospitals dedicated to Dick.

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