Sunday 30th November 2003 at the Epsom Playhouse

Staff of BBC Southern Counties Radio excelled again with another brilliant pantomime production at the Epsom Playhouse. There were two performances at 4pm and 7.30pm. Although my ticket was for the evening performance, I turned up early to meet with George Holland in the BBC Shop in Epsom before it closed at 4.30pm and meet Linda from Ash who was watching the show in the afternoon. It was great meeting Linda, as we have never met face to face before. Linda has kindly sent me her collection of pictures which you can see here.

This picture on the right of Dominic Busby - let me explain the pose! If you are a regular listener to Dom's show between 4pm and 7pm during the week or Sunday morning co-hosted with Zoe-Ann Phillips, you will know how excited he was and still is by the Rugby World Cup final result. Rightly so, of course, because England won. But, reference had to be made during the panto and Ed Douglas held a ball (balloon) and Dom took position while some relevant music was played.

Here's my report of the show. I am still formatting some of the pictures which is taking me more time than usual. Please be patient! Casting directors of the show admitted trying to typecast people into appropriate roles. Here is who played what and I will let you decide why they chose each person for their part!

CAST LIST

Narrators - Neil Pringle and JoAnne Good
Jack - Dominic Busby
Jack's Mother - Ed Douglas
The Giant - John Radford
The Giant's Wife - Charlie Crocker
The Golden Goose - John Lees
The Golden Harp - Bill Buckley
The Good Fairy - Nigel Campbell
The Cow - Kerry Aitken
The Dog - 1st Show = Mark Carter
The Dog - 2nd Show = Guest who won a bid to play the part
Lurch - Joe Talbot
Chorus - Alison Ferns, Alyson Mead, Jenny Freeman and Karelle Plummer
Realistic Sound Effects Department - Steve Cranford and David Miller (pictured right)

This adaptation of Jack & The Beanstalk was written by Mike Hapgood, produced by Jenny Caynes, directed by Dave Battcock with music by Nick Franklin & Ann Odell.

Neil and Jo (Jo pictured left) did a grand job of rousing the audience before recording began. And, although they were there to entertain the audience, the utlimate objective really was to produce one brilliant piece of radio broadcasting from the two performances suitable for airing on Christmas Day to the listening thousands; the best bits from each show being blended seemlessly together.

On the right, David Miller kindly posing for my camera on the way to the bar. Brilliant job, David, chopping those vegetables on stage!

In true BBC SCR stage production style, we had some audience members up on stage doing something they would never do normally. On this occasion it was performing the "Can Can". The four "Golden Chicks" came on stage to help out, Alison being the only one wearing a proper frilled Can Can skirt, Neil suggesting the BBC could only afford the cost of one! During the afternoon performance, Mervyn (who's none other than the Chairman of the local "BBC Southern Counties Local Advisory Council") was picked out to kick his legs about up on stage! All great fun, but unfortunately not part of the recorded end product.

I was impressed with the special sound effects department. Steve Cranford and David Miller had a real assortment of general household objects to obtain those "oh so important" sound effects essential for a successful radio play or pantomime. Apart from a few items you might expect to see like a balloon and an alarm clock, some of the more unusual items included a couple of whoopi cushions and a chopping board with real vegetables with which they really did chop the vegetables!

The performance itself - well! Staff of BBC Southern Counties Radio definitely did themselves proud! I believe this must be the best form of entertainment. You have a group of people who essentially are not actors (with a few exceptions of course), but are in the entertainment business, therefore you get a more relaxed performance because they know that you know that they are not professional actors and it doesn't matter if they make mistakes. I think this makes them more relaxed and as it's a comedy performance anyway, some parts of the pantomime can come across far funnier than they would have done with very high brow professional actors.

Pictured on both sides here is "not so giant anymore" Giant John Radford! Regular listeners to the radio station will know John has recently been on a diet and you can read all about it in the current edition of the BBC SCR Magazine (only £1.95 from all good newsagents!). He has lost a large amount of weight, about six stone so far. Well done John, and you looked really great when I met you in the bar! Got your money out to buy me a drink? Thanks John, mine's a vodka & lime!

Mike Hapgood's adaptation of this traditional pantomime story is great. There are local references (like the Guildford abattoir) and accents to suit the performers. The beanstalk itself was made from tights kindly donated by listeners. But, basically, the plot was kept very much to the original storyline. There were a few twists, of course. Every version of a pantomime has to have a few twists and local references. One of the nicest changes made (and I suspect the bit that Dom liked best!) was the fact that Kerry Aitkin didn't get slaughtered at the abattoir, he managed to find and "marry" her and get to have a great "on-stage" canoodle!

On the left, Giant's wife Charlie Crocker. Great performance Charlie.

Thanks to the Good Fairy (played by Nigel Campbell), the show wasn't short of a few "double entendres". What would a panto be without a few of those! See a picture of Nigel further down the page.

The person who I feel really stole the show, actually, was Joe Talbot (pictured right) who played "Lurch". He didn't have the fanciest costume and he certainly didn't have many words to say! In fact, most of his "lines" were more of a low pitch long grunt! So why was he so great? Well, Joe had his timing down to a fine art, his body language and facial expressions were brilliant and the noises he made - well, let's just say that he had the audience in stitches more than any other performer on stage! Great performance Joe, I'll nominate you for an Oscar!

I haven't actually done justice yet to "The Gentleman of Sport", John Lees (a.k.a. the Golden Goose). I could quite easily also say John stole the show. His costume was great and his acting was brilliant. I was just a little disappointed that he wasn't actually able to lay any real golden eggs! Brilliant performance John, brilliant. I cannot take the credit for this picture of John (on the left), I did take one myself, but this one is better. Thanks to the BBC photographer for this one.

As I work my way through the cast list, I keep remembering the brilliant talents of each person and their great performance on Sunday. Bill Buckley, as many of you will know, definitely comes under the heading of "professional performer" and is so talented in many areas. He has a supurb voice and many people will have made the trip to see this year's BBC SCR pantomime just to hear Bill sing. He didn't fail us again this year. Thanks Bill

Neil Pringle looked remarkably smart in his suit and I bet he was relieved he didn't have to be a vegetable again! JoAnne looked stunning as usual, with a change of dress half-way through. Unfortunately, the quality of the only picture I took of Neil was far too bad to use and the official BBC photographer didn't take any individual shots of him either.

As 30th November drew closer, it was becoming evident that Ed Douglas (pictured left) was getting more nervous about the pantomime and how to portray his part. A few presenters (Neil in particular) had features on their programmes about pantomime shows before the station's own pantomime performances. Seasoned pantomime actors gave advice to Ed and one useful tip was not to try putting on a woman's voice and, if anything, try sounding even more male than usual! As we all know, pantomimes typically have men playing women's roles and women playing men's roles and it should be obvious that this is what is happening. Therefore, there is no point a man trying to be a convincing woman as he would then just be a man in drag. Well done Ed - you were great!

Here's a not very clear picture of Kerry Aitkin who played "Julie" the cow. Sorry Kerry! I was very impressed with Kerry's acting and I hope her husband, in the audience, wasn't watching too closely during the "intimate" scene with "Jack" (played by Dominic Busby)!

Pauline (seated), newly married Emily Marchant, Joe Talbot,
Penny from Bexhill (behind Dom) and Dominic Busby.

Pictured right, Penny from Bexhill
like me, a regular listener to BBC SCR

On the left "Lurch" (a.k.a. Joe Talbot)
relaxing between the two performances.

Here's Pauline or "Po" to her friends, this
picture also taken between performances.

Here's Skirted Hamish in his smart blue
kilt suit before the evening performance.

Photogenic Dominic after the afternoon performance
still wearing his "posh" pantomime outfit

Pictured left, The Good Fairy, Nigel Campbell

John, I thought you were going to
buy me a vodka & lime!

Here's Linda from Ash, a great supporter
of the station and this website

Conclusion

Well, what a year it's been for the station. As I write this, the panto will get it's second airing today, New Year's Eve, at 6pm. The panto was also broadcast on Christmas Day. I would love to get feedback from people who heard the panto on the radio but were unable to be in the audience during the recording of the panto on 30th November as they will not have heard it before. What did you think of it? Send me a message. In my opinion, this was yet another great BBC SCR production. Members of the cast ranged from little to loads of acting experience and the performance came across as being as much fun for them to do as it was for us to watch. Well done BBC Southern Counties Radio!

Thank you to the Epsom Playhouse for the picture of the Playhouse.

Thank you to the BBC official photographer for the following
excellent pictures which I've used on this page -