This is my account of Live & Unrehearsed from 2003, performed at the Theatre Royal in Brighton. I also attended Live & Unrehearsed 2004 and am currently in the process of formating the pictures and writing up my review. In the meantime, please enjoy the following report from last year's performances......

This is "Skirted Hamish from Storrington"
up on stage during one of the audience
participation sketches.

If you were lucky enough to be at The Theatre Royal on Sunday 28th September, you were in for a real treat. Live & Unrehearsed was directed again this year by BBC SCR's Nigel Campbell. Purely for research and journalistic purposes, I forced myself to attend both the matinee and evening performances! Joking apart, when we are talking about the greatest and most tallented group of people in broadcasting, how could I not leap at the chance of seeing the staff of BBC Southern Counties Radio perform three times in one day! Yes, I said three times, two performances of Live & Unrehearsed and a performance down the pub in between! William The Fourth is the pub which has become the radio station's regular hostelry between performances.

As with previous Live & Unrehearseds, Neil Pringle and JoAnne Good were our hosts for the evening. Jo was very elegent in a couple of very nice dresses which showed off her yoga-toned figure nicely, starting off with a little red number. It was was held together with lacing criss-crossing up the front and both sides. Half way through the show (each performance), she changed into a posh black backless number. These dresses were provided by "Walk In Wardrobe" and can be found at 89 Western Road, Hove, East Sussex BN3 1JB; their telephone number is 01273 775583.

Those who take part on stage normally freely admit that the two performances are quite different. During or just before the first performance, they are all a little nervous but during the second performance they have all been down the pub, are therefore drunk and not in the slightest bit nervous! The second performance is always regarded as the time to give a slightly more x-rated performance as, generally, there are no or very few children in the audience.

Live & Unrehearsed is a "variety" type show. There are comedy sketches, songs, chorus girls dancing, tap-dancing, specially written song by Bill and guest appearances by people who normally talk as regular guests on the radio station. There are those who obviously take their performance far more seriously than others and there is no doubt a bit of illegal rehearsing had been taking place by certain people! Most BBC SCR staff do not have time to rehearse very much at all, which is just as well because missed cues and stumbling over lines is what it's all about.

Listening to Bill Buckley sing is always a treat and always very popular with the audience. He is the only person I let do a bit of practising, not that he needs much at all of course. But he does normally write a special song for the occasion which he might need to go through once or twice before going live on stage. His song this time was an amusing tale all about "healthy eating" and someone's struggle with changing his eating habits, he eventually fails and falls back into his old ways.

Many members of production staff, weather and travel reporters did song and dance routines. There were a few audience participation sketches where a few audience members were not told what they were going to do until after they were dragged on stage and it was too late! For one sketch four male audience members were lined up and asked to wear clear plastic raincoats while Alina Jenkins danced around them singing "It's Raining Men".

We were scheduled to have two guest appearances, Tony Adams (mainly of "Crossroads" fame) for the matinee performance and Dora Bryan (who has appeared in everying including "Last of the Summer Wine") for the evening performance. Unfortunately Dora was ill the day before and was very busy out of the area on the day, so was unable to attend. We were treated with two appearances by Tony Adams who kindly appeared in the evening show too. Tony and JoAnne did a little reminiscing about Crossroads and then did a song and dance routine singing "Let's Face The Music & Dance".

During JoAnne's varied career (but extremely short due to her young age) has appeared in a tv show called "Cabbages & Kings". L&U celebrated this with references to it on stage. With Jo narrating, Alison Ferns played Jo's part of "Brenda Broccoli", Nigel Campbell as "King Edward" and Neil Pringle as "King Carrot". Unfortunately, during the second show in the evening, the curtain decided it was not getting enough attention and made an unscheduled crash landing immediately behind Jo bringing down bits of plaster which did land on Jo! After she finished her lines, introducing Brenda Broccoli, the curtain refused to rise. Jo spent several minutes "filling in" while stage hands desperately tried to get the curtain to rise, the mechanism obviously having broken. Brenda Broccoli, King Carrot and King Edward had to make their entrance via the audience and perform on about six to 12 inches of stage in front of the curtain - very difficult for a large stuffed vegetable! It was obvious the curtain wanted loads of attention and still refused to rise, so an unscheduled interval had to be taken. After the audience took their seats after the interval, it was evident the curtain mechanism was damaged beyond a simple five minute repair job, but stage hands managed to get it up. So, the rest of the show was performed with no curtain closing and rising and stage hands moving props on and off the stage in full view of the audience. Not that we in the audience minded at all of course, it made the show all the more interesting.

Listeners to Dominic Busby's drive-time show will be familiar with his brilliant impersonations, especially Sean Connery. For a while, Dominic produced a soap opera during his show featuring himself as Sean Connery and Kerry Aitkin (a.k.a. Miss Tyne & Wear) as Mitchelin Connery. Joe Talbot (from the "through the night" show) did a brilliant Michael Parkinson schetch for Live & Unrehearsed and interviewed "Sean Connery" and "Mitchelin Connery". This went down really well with the audience.

Regular listeners to Bill Buckley's weekday afternoon programme will be familiar with his antiques hour on a Friday (from 2pm to 3pm). There are a number of regular guests who advise callers on their antique pieces and if you listen to this slot you will know why an hour has to be dedicated to this subject rather than the usual half hour for specialised 'phone-ins. Mark Stacey has definitely got to be one of Bill's most popular regular guests and has made special guest appearances at Live & Unrehearsed before. On this occasion Mark appeared with Fanny. Regular listeners to JoAnne Good's Saturday morning programme will be familiar with Fanny from "Fanny's Farm Shop" in Merstham. Fanny is another very popular regular guest of the radio station and a large number of listeners visit Fanny and her family at the shop. At Live & Unrehearsed this year Fanny and Mark chipped in with a line from the opening song. During the evening show, it was decided to place them on the steps up to the stage from the auditorium with a hand held microphone rather than one of the boxes as that didn't work during the matinee performance!

This is a picture of Neil's legs and on the sofa are two prominent members of BBC Southern Counties radio. It is probably more than my life's worth to say who they are! Call Our Bluff has got to be my favourite quiz in the history of radio and television! For the uninitiated, Call Our Bluff is an unashamed rip-off of a popular television quiz of a similar (but not totally identical) name. Click here for details of how the quiz works. For Live & Unrehearsed, Call Our Bluff is a popular featured item and the audience always get to vote (as they would do for the radio version). This year, the organisers decided to do the voting in a different way - by tv remote control! The idea being that audience members would bring in their tv remote control and it didn't matter what make or type it was. A technician then came on stage with a trolley over-loaded with computerised equipment and all sorts of wizardry which was supposedly rigged to be able to read all types of remote control signal. There was a large plasma screen to show the results as they were being received. This was all very exciting and great entertainment. As you know, I went to both performances of Live & Unrehearsed this year and thought it very interesting that the results received for each of the three presenters (which were in the hundreds) were identical on each occasion - I shall therefore leave it up to you to make your own conclusions about this particular voting set up!

Sports and cricket fans will remember this year the historical win by Sussex of the County Championship. John Lees was ecstatic, as you would expect as he must be Sussex's biggest fan as well as an ace BBC sports reporter. On air he broke into a rendition of "Sussex By The Sea" and immediately (while he was still singing) I sent an e-mail to Neil Pringle saying "you must get John Lees to sing that at Live & Unrehearsed". Of course, the powers that be wouldn't listen to the likes of me unless it was a brilliant idea! "Sussex By The Sea" was the grand finale song with everyone back on stage and the audience singing along too (with the help of large prompt cards). It made a great ending to both performances of Live & Unrehearsed this year. Well done BBC SCR!

As many of you are aware, Nigel Campbell is a very talented man. He is a great presenter, performer, knows his music and is a great show producer. Nigel excelled again as this year's L&U producer and really really really did a brilliant job. Thanks Nigel.

So, that's it. Another Live & Unrehearsed over for another year. Listeners are now "queuing" up for tickets for the BBC SCR Pantomime which this year is at the Epsom Playhouse. Look for the link on the homepage for details of the pantomime. If you were unable to make Live & Unrehearsed, please make try to get to see the pantomine. This year it is Jack & The Beanstalk.

Oh, yes, one final thing (teehee - nearly forgot!) Ed Douglas nearly got missed in the "credits" at the end of Live & Unrehearsed (both performances), until he stormed on stage and stamped his feet like a two year old next to Neil who was introducing everyone on stage!