For the second part of her report on this year’s edition of the Talking Pictures TV festival in Monmouth’s Savoy Theatre, Julia Deli hears about paranormal experiences, shonky Doctor Who props and fielding Merthyr Town FC-related enquiries from Her Maj.
Following an excellently entertaining opening day to this, the latest visit to Monmouth by Noel Cronin and Sarah Cronin-Stanley’s travelling Talking Pictures TV Festival, Lola Lamour kicks off day two with songs to fit a Sunday morning, and the Aston Belles freak out in a 60s Monkees-via-Tina Turner medley. Andre Vincent’s second foray into comedy history follows, with a talk titled ‘Funny Men Of Monmouth’.
We learn of mid-18th century comic Richard Winstone, from the town but finding fame at Drury Lane before taking over the Bristol Old Vic to put on satires, and Charles Danby, dubbed “the first saucy comedian”: attached to the Gaiety Theatre, he toured the USA 37 times between 1858 and 1906. Biographies of character actor Paul Whitsun-Jones, Usk’s Lyn Harding and Newport’s Desmond Llewelyn (best known as Bond movie staple Q) follow – and then there’s Victor Spinetti, “born just up the road, over the Marine fish and chip shop”.
Winning a place at the Royal Welsh School Of Music & Drama, Spinetti’s very first job was in South Pacific. Asked to play roles in all the Beatles films – “because my mum fancies you,” George Harrison informed him – he later directed a play based on John Lennon’s book In His Own Write. From Mog Edwards in Under Milk Wood to voicing Texas Pete in SuperTed, audiences loved his characterisations.
Now aged 91, beaming like the alchemical sun as ever, writer, broadcaster and paranormal investigator the Reverend Lionel Fanthorpe chats with Mike Reid next. He was born in Norfolk, but Wales has been the Rev’s home for decades; growing up in a Methodist family, he became a journalist, a teacher, joined the Masonic brotherhood and was ordained as an Anglican priest, all in furtherance of his quest. Known for hosting Fortean TV, he claims there is no clash of ideologies.
“I feel we live in such a wonderful universe, and if we believe that God created the universe, we should be investigating all those things deemed paranormal, not running away from them. If we live in parallel or infinite universes, there may be intelligent beings that have visited our world and are responsible for many of the mysteries… or perhaps there are interplanetary beings, or psychic beings who have never had a body, or souls left trapped when the body departed. It’s a great philosophical and spiritual debate.”
Reid wonders, as we all do, if Fanthorpe has had any paranormal experiences himself. “In my teaching years,” he tells us, “I had a colleague, Bill. My best friend, in fact. He sadly became ill, and died quite young; I asked the priest if I could share the funeral service with him, which I did.
“During the service, I quite clearly saw Bill standing there – no longer ill, and asking me for a certain reading. The other priest couldn’t see him, but he blanched when I began the reading. He said, ‘That’s the very thing I read to Bill just before he died!’ I still shiver when I think of that moment – and I feel my friendship with Bill is still alive, and has lasted all these years.”
Deciding to eat lunch by the Monnow River, sitting on a bench that said “happy to chat” on the back, I find my neighbour is Jeremy Rees – a former journalist from the Swansea valley with a background in support work, also spending the weekend with TPTV.
“Since I got my bus pass,” he tells me, “I visit towns to see what we can do there for free. There are so many cultural places that cost nothing to visit, charities that offer what people might need, community projects, eco-gardens… Swansea High Street, for example, has had a bad rep for years, but now organisations and creative groups are offering positive experiences to people who otherwise might be marginalised and left to the streets.” Rees’ podcast A Penniless Pilgrim recounts these journeys: as a collective, Footage Detectives are a fascinating bunch.
A trailer for Australian kangaroo-centric kids’ series Skippy introduces one of its human stars, Liza Goddard. Her father David was a producer and director, and when the Goddard family moved to Australia, she landed a job as the kangaroo’s partner in justice. “Actually, there were quite a few Skippys!” she tells us; “between takes, they were hung up in special bags, made like their mother’s pouches.”
Moving back to the UK, Goddard found work in Take Three Girls, and its followup, Take Three Women. Many prestigious parts followed, but she has fond memories of the classic teatime sci-fi.
“I was a space pirate in Doctor Who, with a fantastic gun and my hair all brushed back. But every time I’d pull the gun out of the holster, the end dropped off! We were in stitches. At a Doctor Who convention recently, a man came up to me with that very gun – he’d bought it on eBay.”
Goddard’s recent work in theatre has included playing Maxine in Alan Ayckbourn’s Earth Angel. “I’m about to play Miss Marple in The Mirror Crack’d at The Mill,” she adds. “Dinner there is wonderful, too. You have to think about these things!”
With her CV also including a half-decade as team captain on Give Us A Clue, a round of the Charades-themed gameshow is worked into today’s Footage Detectives quiz, with Goddard joining Mike Reid’s team. And the quickfire silliness continues with multi-award winning magician Mark Shortland, in a fast-paced show which heralds a break to refuel with tea and cakes.
Savoy Theatre trustee and director Chris Ryde shares with me some of the history of a building which has been many things to its community, and had many changes of name. “We’re said to be the oldest theatre site in Wales, apart from the Roman amphitheatre down the road in Caerleon!” he says. “The foyer was the old Bell Inn, and the auditorium was built in 1829 as an assembly room for meetings and entertainments. The Chartists met here to pass on political information, and in 1850, a touring theatre – or ‘fit-up’ – put on a season of plays for the first time.
“Later it was a corn exchange, then a temperance hotel. In 1909, it was a rollerskating rink for a year, during the Edwardian craze; in 1910, the first film screen was put up, and Cinevariety, a combination of films and acts, continued until 1930. Cinema entrepreneur B.T. Davies bought the building in 1958, and the family still own it. Monmouth Council helped with a large sum to refurbish, and we now run as the Savoy Charitable Trust. At the moment, we have 55 volunteers.”
Back in our seats, we learn of the joys and perils of setting up in broadcast, with Noel Cronin and Mike Reid discussing ‘How do you launch and run your own TV channel?’ Reid then turns interviewer again, welcoming broadcaster and comedian Owen Money. Born Lynn Mittell in the family’s Merthyr pub, his dad played the piano, and the future Owen learned to sing along.
“I was playing bass with The Crescendos, and my bandmate Clive John and I went along to audition for another band, The Rebels. We started rehearsing harmonies and discovered Micky Jones had a falsetto voice – a diamond in the band. The bands came together and we became The Bystanders in 1962.” Playing with Deke Leonard and Martin Ace, future members of prog rockers Man, they were part of a wave. “South Wales had its scene, like Liverpool or London. There were thriving scenes in lots of towns then.”
His first standup gig was in the 1980s. “Somebody had pulled out, and I filled the slot and got £80 for half an hour. I couldn’t believe it! Bands were getting £50 a gig between them in those days.” In 2007, he received an MBE – cure for a textbook Owen Money tale. “It was a great day. I met the Queen, and she knew I was then the president of the football club, but I was amazed when she said, “and how did Merthyr get on on Saturday?” The only other Welshman there was Mark Williams, the snooker player – neither of us knew the other one was getting an MBE, but we were both dressed like this, in white suits. Now I’ve started doing over-fifties discos, I wear this suit cos it’s like John Travolta’s. Though someone thought I was from Randall & Hopkirk…”
The ghosts of Victorian children, the actors and ushers and the spectre of friendly Fred, begin to gather in the wings as the last reel of the festival is loaded. A hush descends as we contemplate the fact, then we’re swept into the arch humour of a recovered Inspector Hornleigh film, starring Alastair Sim and Gordon Harker.
People say their farewells: “See you in Redditch!” “Catch you in Wimborne!” Some superfans attend every TPTV festival; others are dressed in vintage finery. Co-founder Sarah Cronin-Stanley, herself in fetching peacock blue and feathers, has time for a last word about what it was like growing up in a film family.
“People were always popping in the house with cans of film. Chloe Annett helped me with my homework! I used to fetch Gemma Craven’s lipstick and handbag for her when she was due on set, and Bernard Hill was a frequent visitor, being great friends with mum and dad. I often think, if only I’d known then what I know now about the great actors that were part of my everyday life.
In her teens, Sarah starred alongside Russell Brand, Brooke Kinsella and Russell Tovey in shortlived kids’ comedy drama Mud. After school exams, she changed tack, though remained in the orbit of filming. “I was doing aid work in East Africa, but if there were film crews in the area, I was always pointed out as someone with knowledge about film. So I ended up being a fixer and a runner quite often.”
Returning to the UK, she made documentaries for Sky’s Real Lives strand, before returning to the fold. “I worked in Renown, the archive side of dad’s company, doing some production. Renown had been distributing film stock to TV channels, but those channels suddenly stopped wanting black and white films. Dad and I were talking and he said, ‘There isn’t much on the schedule I’d like to watch these days. I wonder how many people feel like me?’ We were privileged in having the originals of many great films, and in the position to set up a channel to show them.”
Talking Pictures Festival Of Film & TV, Savoy Theatre, Monmouth, Sat 18 + Sun 19 July
words JULIA DELI
