KODS

Big apologies to Kirkby Overblow Dramatic Society! They invited us to their production of Rumours, a farce by Neil Simon, on 3rd December and this is the first opportunity I've had to sit down and write about it. So, 280 Christmas cards and a lot of visiting, caroling and shopping later, I cast my mind back three Saturdays to what was a really entertaining night out. The farce itself was reminiscent of the Brian Rix type farces of my childhood, though with an American flavour rather than a British one, and we laughed a great deal, caught up in the sheer madness of the fast unfolding and ever more ridiculous plot. (The skill of farce is surely that it could just actually happen that way?) The timing of all the actors was good - it needed to be - and although the play was fast moving, as is the way with the best farces, in fact, not as much happened as you might initially think would be the case. A crime that became more of a terrible misunderstanding with consequences for everyone who had been invited to the party would be my take on events. The set was ambitious - a two storey creation by Bruce Noble which stood up well to the constant dashing from one level to another (and, the Vicar tells me, vanished speedily to return the church to a worship space in time for the Christmas services!) The lead part was played by the director Adam McKenzie and we especially enjoyed the performances by Simon Stockill, Alice Sheepshanks and Simon Vale. Vanda McKenzie's eye for detail showed up in her handling of the production; as with other KODS performances I've seen, the set was rather beautifully presented with attention to colour as well as style. 

The performance supported the work of St Michael's Hospice, Harrogate and The Friends of All Saints, Kirkby Overblow.

KODS took part in the Wharfedale Drama Festival for the first time, this year, and came away with no less than four awards - the Richard Whitley shield for the best overall production, The Yorkshire Post trophy for the most outstanding acting by the whole cast, the best actor (to David Zucker) and the best supporting actor (to Simon Stockill). This is no surprise once you have seen the company perform: I would say that one of the outstanding features of KODS is that every member of the cast and production team contributes to the overall quality and there are no very obvious passengers. We look forward to their next production - I'd like to see them tackle Hedda Gabler (Ibsen) or a Checkov play and see what they make of it!          

Reality Rev

The Revd Adam Smallbone returns to our screens this Thursday evening and it seems likely that 2.2million people or so will tune in to Rev - many of them having dashed home from the latest PCC meeting, bible study group or welcome service for their new Vicar, no doubt! Why did the nation take to Rev so whole heartedly? For Anglicans, and perhaps especially for anyone who has lived in a vicarage in an urban parish, the answer has to be because the writers did their homework so well!' It really does feel like that! Vicarage events that stick in my mind include
- wondering why some notes on the piano wouldn't sound and finding jam doughnuts had been stuffed into the strings by members of the toddler group.
- having the lawn strewn with organ pipes the same day we were interviewing four people for the post of youth worker.
- getting up feeling rather ill to find the kitchen inhabited by church wardens, tramps and an area dean.
- finding a lad with learning disabilities had wandered off the street into a party we were holding; everyone went home, thinking he had come with someone else and he couldn't tell us his surname or where he had come from.
- having a traveller turn up at midnight on New Year's Eve, locate a precious video tape we had lost and predict the downfall of President Clinton.
- making ash for the Ash Wednesday service in the freezing cold on the patio with a blow torch and getting locked out along with a visitng monk.
- fielding 192 phone calls in two days enquiring about a community development post we had advertised.
- looking out of my study window to see the Social Services Building opposite ablaze (it was an arson attack by a 7 year old.)
- holding a meeting for 14 people with 19 different languages spoken in the room.
- forgetting to tell my long suffering family that 24 people were coming for supper and a meeting.
- nearly burning the kitchen down while answering the phone at the same time as cooking for an Alpha supper.
- having a garden full of archbishops, bishops and archdeacons from four continents.
- having the whole church turn up to transform my garden from a building site into a lawn.
- having a visitor come for a night and stay 10 months.
- entertaining someone to lunch at short notice (and with some grumbling, I'm ashamed to say) who unexpectedly donated a very large sum 'for the children in the community'.
- lending a room for a coffin after a mix up over the date of a funeral.

And those are just the ones I can tell you about!

People often say that clergy live in ivory towers. Well that may be so, but they are very crowded, busy ivory towers with a range of life in all its forms that many people don't get to see - and certainly not all at once and probably not when they are at home! Tom Hollander's comedy has been hailed as 'rehabilitating the Church of England.' While preparing to write the first series, he and his fellow writers, James Wood and Richard Coles (himself a vicar), 'spent time with vicars and discovered how interesting it was that they sat right in the middle of society, although everyone thinks of them as marginal, because we are a secular society. But the church is still right at the heart of it with weddings, funerals and schools. You can look at what is going on in our lives through the perspective of a priest, because he has access to everything. Also their lives are full of tragi-comic stories and their beleaguered status seems to chime with our feelings about ourselves as a nation. From looking at the Church of England, it's not so very far to seeing where we are with ideas about England.' This is the kind of insight that makes the show what it is and explains its wide appeal. Hollander also recognises the enormous number of demands that are placed on the clergy by people from every part of society and comments that they live through a series of 'minor crises all the time in the same way that doctors do.'

Speaking as a member of the clergy, it's deeply refreshing to be hailed as relevant and at the heart of society! Usually we are told that we are out of touch. Families of vicars and vicars themselves tend to smile wrily when this is said - we know we are in touch with a lot of people who see what we stand for and what we do as relevant. It's just that many of these encounters tend to be counter-cultural and, paradoxically, can be seen by those involved as deeply valuable and by those not involved as completely valueless. That's the space we inhabit. So Thursday evening will see me and my cuppa installed with the Rev who seems to understand my world, odd as it may be.   

(The above quotation is taken from Tom Loxley's interview with with Tom Hollander in the Radio Times 5-11th November.)  

http://www.radiotimes.com/episode/npg5s/rev--series2---episode-1 

Outnumbered

Hooray! Outnumbered returns to BBC1 at 9pm next Friday. Beautifully observed and partly improvised, this is a comedy about three children effortlessly and expertly outwitting their well-meaning and politically correct parents, mostly by the use of what might pass as common sense and bald statement of truth, from their perspective. This will be the fourth series and, given the ages of the children - Ramona Marquez (Karen), Daniel Roche (Ben), Tyger Drew-Honey (Jake) - I suspect it may be our last opportunity to cheer them on as they wind up their parents, played by Claire Skinner and Hugh Dennis, to a hilarious pitch of bemused impotence. Come to think of it, Ben also out-smarted the Vicar when he took his opportunity, at a boring wedding reception, to quizz him about God's chosen method of atonement ('Couldn't He think of a better way than the cross?'). Earlier, Karen had gone through a phase of slightly self-righteous Christianity; as someone whose Christian parents worried that we might not choose Christianity, it was interesting to see it all from the reverse perspective - a secular mother, troubled by her daughter's espousal of Christianity under the influence of a fundamentalist teacher. The children have razor sharp minds, questioning techniques worthy of highly trained barristers (especially Karen) and the wisdom of those who are not afraid to state the truth. The series portrays what I Iove best about being with children - their ability to get straight to the heart of a matter and to ask the questions which adults avoid but which really challenge our understanding of ourselves and our social norms.

Written by Guy Jenkin and Andy Hamilton of Drop the Dead Donkey fame, the series knocks spots off most of the comedies about family life seen over recent years. I am looking forward to Friday nights, this Autumn!

For a taster see

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00fq31t 

     

The Archers (2)

Does anyone feel, like me, that we have been rather misled over the impending tragedy which was going 'shake Ambridge to the core'? Nigel was a much loved character whom we will miss greatly but his untimely demise seems merely to follow in the stream of untimely deaths that occur every few years in the Archers - Grace, Polly, Mark, John, Sioban, Betty, Sid. Once again we are to be treated to a close up of a community in shock and mourning, a family facing the considerable challenge of keeping a business going and farms running at a time of personal crisis. Once again listening will become harrowing for some, catheractic for others and dispensable for others, depending on our mood and whether we have recently faced bereavement or crisis ourselves. We  may simply feel in need of more laughter, intrigue and cerebral challenge at the start of a new year. In the middle of the coldest winter for ages which is causing extra work and travel, heating and utilities difficulties, if we are sitting in a snowbound traffic jam on the A1, are we not going to feel more inclined to tune in to something a bit more cheerful or gripping?

I suppose that the Archers tends to try to reflect ordinary life whereas other soaps often  seem to over-dramatize life. However, is a steady diet of 'more of the same' really so true to life?  Once every sixty years doesn't seem too often for something really complex to shake the village or for a series of seemingly unrelated changes of fortune to impact on the whole community. But perhaps I am jumping the gun. Is the unfolding story line going to be about Kenton and David's guilt reaching competitive heights - or is there something more dramatic lurking? Will the police think that David pushed Nigel ? Will Elizabeth be inclined to blame someone?  

I think the nearest guess from my post on 24th December was Keith's suggestion that Nigel would die as a result of patricide. Well scented on the character front!  Graham Seed, we will miss you! I think Nigel was pretty much my age, so I grew up empathizing with many of his struggles from the days when he and Shula first dated.  

The Archers

Yes, the Archers celebrates its 60th anniversary on 2nd January! At the Bishop's Christmas dinner party a new pastime emerged - guests indulged in a deluge of speculation about what is going to happen in Ambridge.  Now, you might be like me and feel that the greatest virtue of the Archers is that you can not listen to it for five years and yet when you do tune in again you immediately recognise everyone and more or less understand everything that is going on. This is in distinct contrast to East Enders (my other prefered soap) where not to listen for a couple of months renders it necessary to ring a friend for a synopsis of the latest deaths, preganacies, crimes and dramatic departures from the Square. But for better or worse, the writers and director have decided to stage a repeat of the Grace-Archer-dies-in-a-fire technique for improving listening figures. I never met Grace; she died before I was born but she was nearly as real to me, in my childhood, as Winston Churchill and John F. Kennedy both of whom died before we got TV in our household.

So who is about to be immortalized? What is the impending disaster we have been led to expect will strike Ambridge on the 2nd January? Five of us who were at the party would like to invite you to comment with your predictions - we are offering public acknowledgement for the nearest guess.

Best guesses so far;

• Matt is going to massacre the entire Borsetshire Board and heaven knows the outcome of that. South America with Lilian again perhaps?
• Freddie is going to comit patricide because Nigel is pushing him to do extra schoolwork in the hols. Chosen weapon - the blade of one of his skates. (Enormous implications as to whether Lily can inherit the estate!)
• Will is going to finally do for Edward. (How has he waited so long?)
• David and Ruth are going to have a road accident on the icy lanes, leaving the farm for Pip to run. (There are endless ramifications with all the Archer children and grandchildren expecting a slice of the inheritance. Years of bitter wrangling follow.)
• Helen and Tony are going to have a major row. Helen will rush out and have a road accident because she is so upset. Tony will be unable to cope with losing a second child and will commit suicide, leaving Pat to bring up Helen's baby (which will be born just before the life support system she has been on for weeks is turned off.)
• In a not totally uncharacteristic fit of rage, David Archer will murder the bloke who has been threatening him after he (David) accused him of stealing his hay. David will end up in prison serving a life sentence and Jill and Ruth will squander every penny they have on useless appeals, making the family bancrupt. Support the Ambridge One! (Did he really do it or has he been framed?)
• A gypsom hole will open up and swallow Ambridge in its entirity, leaving only Grey Gables. The story will then continue with an almost new cast as 'the everyday tale of country hotel folk' headed up by Caroline Bone (as was) and Linda Snell (heaven help us all!) This, of course, will come to be known as the 'Ripon ending' because of the incidence of many gypsom holes around Ripon.

Can you do better?

www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/the-archers  (See the message board for thoughts about the new archdeacon! Who is she?)