High Society at The Swan Theatre, High Wycombe

 

I cannot remember how I stumbled on an advertisement for the tour of High Society, but I was lucky that there were just a few single seats left at The Swan Theatre in High Wycombe for the Thursday matinee. This production opened at the Barbican Theatre in London and now has a tour of fifteen different theatres across the country. That started in High Wycombe. 

The curtain, when closed, mentions Newport, which is where the original production is set. That is Newport, Rhode Island. Not that far away from our holiday in Hyannis on Cape Cod. When the curtain opens, we are treated to a spectacular set. Later, more scenery drops from above, so this is a serious production. With a full-size orchestra and twenty-eight strong cast members, we were in for a treat.

Leading the cast were Helen George as Tracy Lord (famous in our house for playing Trixie in the eighty-one episodes of Call the Midwife), Freddie Fox as Mike Connor and Julian Ovenden as Dexter Haven. (I have given up buying a programme when everything is online).

Others included Nigel Lindsay and Carly Mercedes Dyer. One of the unexpected pleasures of my seat in the circle was how steep the rows were. I had a completely unimpeded view of the stage and, as a bonus, a good view of the orchestra. The musicians were all impressive, especially the young woman on woodwind. It was great to watch her changing from clarinet to flute, piccolo and saxophone. Sometimes during a number. The biggest thrill for me was the end of the first half when a band (actually members of the orchestra) took to the stage to play Now You Has Jazz. The same instruments as the Louis Armstrong band in the original film, and with that clarinet soaring high. 

The songs were all so familiar. I have somewhere an old LP of the 1956 musical starring Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Grace Kelly and Celeste Holme. Tracks on the album that all played last night include "Little One", "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire", "True Love", "You're Sensational", "I Love You, Samantha", "Now You Has Jazz", "Well, Did You Evah?" and "Mind if I Make Love to You". Then we had lots of other Cole Porter songs, including "I Love Paris", "Let's Misbehave", "I've Got You Under My Skin" and "Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love". 

Here are Helen George and Julian Ovenden singing "True Love". Note the small stand-in for that yacht in the film.

My visit to see the show was enhanced by long conversations with the couple next to me and with another couple at the interval. They were even regulars at the Rex Cinema in Berhamsted.

One thing I found on the net was the absence of one line in the song with the title "Well, Did You Evah?" Apparently my old MONO LP of the musical was the only version to include the words sung by Bing Crosby, "You must be one of the newer fellas", in response to a Frank Sinatra croon. No subsequent stereo LPs, CDs, etc. have these words. Strange.

Garden in mid July

 

The star of the show, tucked away in the border at the front of the side patio. The Hydrangea macrophylla is apparently susceptible to all kinds of problems, from poor soil to too much sun in the afternoon and not enough moisture. The list goes on. But ours seems to like it where it is. It's not one of those huge hydrangeas, but so much the better for its position. If I remember correctly, it was given to Alison for helping out at an event.    

In the photo below, the Weigelia Red Prince is flowering again. I was just about to give it a major prune after the first flowering was over, but just in time, no pruning is required until next February. 

These flowers next to the wall of the conservatory are stocks dwarf mixed from Chiltern View Garden Centre. I have never grown stocks before, and I'm thinking they might do well in the bedding border next year. 

On the subject of bedding plants, I made a mistake buying these antirrhinums. They grew far too tall, and I had to give them all a chop before they flowered. The one below is the first to come into flower, and, as you can see, the ones next to it are a while off flowering. In the main border at the back of this photo, the pink flower is a bank of marjoram, normally grown as a herb. It is usually covered in butterflies and bees. 

The acanthus below has had a severe pruning as some of the spikes had fallen over. It looks fine from this angle, but not at the back.

At the end of the side patio are the hostas 'Fire and Ice'. All three pots have flowered when only one did last year.

I have already included photos of the echinacea on my previous post. But this one shows how the flowers change shape.

I think I also mentioned previously the repeat flowering of the Weigelia Red Robin. Here it is again.

Two plants were struggling in their large pots: the Salvia nemerosa Cardonna and a geranium. When I tried to repot them, I had great difficulty digging them out of the containers. They were completely root-bound. So everything was cleared away, new compost added and small parts of the plants repotted. 

Desert Island Discs - 70 Years of Castaways - The 1940's, 1950's, and 1960's

 

Over seventy years, Roy Plomley, Sue Lawley and Kirsty Young have interviewed nearly three thousand personalities from all walks of life. The foreword to Desert Island Discs: Seventy Years of Castaways is by Kirsty. She describes how most found it "impossible to choose just eight". Then, "When the former head of MI5, the redoubtable Eliza Manningham-Buller...chooses The White Stripes, it was all I could do not to punch the air and shout "Wowza"." 

My castaway this week is...

In his introduction, author and compiler Sean Magee explains how the programme works. Especially what happens if you agree to appear. (Not everyone does.) Here is "a series of snapshots of the times in which they were broadcast ...... from Vic Oliver in January 1942 to the last in this book, Sir David Attenborough, in January 2012, when this book was compiled. The contents section at the beginning contains those individuals included in this book. The index at the end also contains these in bold type. This is preceded by a list of the complete castaways. Apparently, the one luxury and one book were expanded later to one choice of a record if the others were washed away. 

THE 1940's

The introduction includes the letter from Monday, 3rd November 1941, that Roy Plomley sent to Lesley Perowne (in charge of light entertainment programmes) with his idea for Desert Island Discs. The rest is history. But first we hear about Roy's background and how his idea was originally dismissed. When at last given a trial run, it was right up to the mid-50s that the programme was prescribed! We hear about the discussion between the two men about the format and about how they chose the theme tune: Eric Coate's By the Sleeping Lagoon. It has remained with this music ever since.

The first castaway on 29th January 1942 was Vic Oliver, the Austrian-born comedian. We hear a lot about the first castaways, which included Arthur Askey and Ivor Novello. After two months of castaways, a second series began. But at the end of the fourth series in January 1946, after sixty-seven programmes, it was shelved.

From the interviews of those castaways included in this book, I have only selected a few. From the six selected for this book from the 1940s, here are

Ivor Novello: 30th April 1942

This is someone who has eight thousand records at home. I had to listen to his choice of Londonderry Air by Lionel Tertis, as it was described as "the loveliest tune in the world". But to us it's just Danny Boy.

Deborah Kerr: 17th November 1945

One of her early films was The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. See post of the 31st October 2025.

THE 1950's

Five years passed between the last episode of the 1940s and the first of the 1950s. It returned on 3rd January 1951 with the actor Eric Portman. From there we have a "steady stream of sporting heroes". 

Stirling Moss: 4th June 1956

Interviewed on 4th June 1956, his choice of records was closest to my own particular taste so far. These include Frank Sinatra singing The Tender Trap, but it does not say who with. Mine is with Count Basie. The intro is great. 

Alfred Hitchcock: 19th October 1959

Unfortunately all too predictable.

Joan Sutherland: 23rd November 1959

The opera star wasn't. Seven years at Covent Garden. An Australian by birth, her final choice was from Puccini's La Bohème with Donde Lieta Usci. 

THE 1960'S

There is a long introduction over twelve pages as Sean Magee describes "a decade of comprehensive upheaval". This was the decade when the programme really took off, with so many personalities wanting to appear. The programme on the 1st April 1960 (note the date!) featured Sr Harry Whitlon whose luxury was a mountain. Then later Shirley Bassey. 

Cliff Richard: 31st October 1960

An interesting part about how they came up with his stage name. I remember in either 1959 or 1960 (around when I was fifteen) we were bought two of Cliff's records: Living Doll and Travelin' Light, both on 78 rpm, as our radiogram would only play that speed. 

Noel Coward: 28th January 1963

I liked his varied musical tastes, from Bernard Cribins' Hole in the Ground to Verdi and Rachmaninov. 

Then two icons together:

Harold Pinter: 14th June 1965

Roy Plomley asks the castaway about his writing. "Four lines of Pinter are unlike four lines of anyone else." His reply is "I think any given person, when he speaks, there is an awful lot he does not say and is not prepared to say and cannot say." This was before his even more successful plays, such as my favourite of all time: No Man's Land from 1975. 

Alan Bennett: 28th August 1967

There is a lovely introduction about how he came to be included in Beyond the Fringe with Peter Cook, Dudley Moore and Jonathan Miller. Even taking it to America. This interview was well before his hugely successful plays, but he never returned to the programme as others had done. 

Then the final programme of the sixties:

Viscount Montgomery of Alamein: 20th December 1969

Monty was eighty-one when he appeared on the programme. He describes his somewhat turbulent relationship with Prime Minister Winston Churchill during the war, who visited the front on more than one occasion. Monty told him, "You must do what I tell you because we cannot afford for you to take risks. I shall get into awful trouble if you get bumped off by a shell or something." 

Wiggington and Tring Park

 

We were out early on Wednesday morning before it became too hot. Alison had suggested a walk from Wiggington that she had done a couple of times before. There was plenty of room in the car park near the cafe. A route through the woods, and suddenly we were entering Tring Park. I immediately knew where we were, as this part of the Ridgeway is on the course for Tring parkrun. I think that I only ran it once in a double event with Aylesbury parkrun. See the post of 3rd January 2015.

But I did use to walk here on many occasions, including maybe that first time I posted on this blog on 20th October 2009. The photo above is from Alison's phone and was taken walking down the Ridgeway. At the end of this section, we turned back and found our way back to Wiggington. We stopped at the cafe and sat in the shade outside with our welcome iced coffees. A really nice morning.

A Private Life, My Mother's Wedding and Minions and Monsters

 

A Private Life is a mystery drama that I thought was going to turn into a predictable search for a murder suspect. But nothing of the sort. This is a far more complicated story dealing with relationships past and present. Jodie Foster stars in this French movie as a therapist who, when her office is broken into and records stolen, wants to know who. She (now sixty-three) turns for assistance to her ex-husband, played by seventy-six-year-old Daniel Auetile. That wonderful part in the fabulous La Belle Époque. The best part of the film is the conversations between the two. Foster is so serious; we never see the glimpse of a smile until the very end. Her work now seems to bore her, and she is not at all a pleasant person. But thrown together in a search for an explanation, there are times when you see why they are now living apart. This was my sort of movie.

Written and directed by Rebecca Zlotowski with an original script with help from Anne Berest and Gaelle Mace, it ticked all the boxes. Mark Kermode said he "enjoyed it because it played so well". Philip Concannon in Sight and Sound Magazine said, "It's a pleasure to watch these two great actors bounce off each other."

Not quite Four Weddings and a Funeral, but My Mother's Wedding had definite similarities. An all-star cast includes Scarlett Johansson in the lead as one of the three daughters coming together at the same time for the latest wedding of their mother. Johansson plays a scowling career naval officer on the verge of a huge promotion. Nothing like I have ever seen her in before. Her sisters are played by a deadly serious Sienna Miller and a quieter Emily Beecham. Not a happy mix. Based on the experiences of writer and director Kristin Scott Thomas, she plays their mother getting married to the solid (thank goodness) James Fleet. (Why is he missing from the wikipedia short cast list when some foreigner makes it after appearing for what seemed five minutes?) The ending is quite unexpected and strangely has nothing to do with the wedding. In The Guardian, Benjamin Lee was not impressed apart from the performances. I thought it was well done and everything looked fabulous.

Watching all the trailers before the film (they were all animated features), I wondered why I was there. They all looked pathetic. But Minions and Monsters was completely different. There was so much packed into every frame; it was all fast and furious. So much so that at times I wished they would slow down so I could appreciate all the many, many references to films past and present. I'm sure I saw bits in the corner of the screen that I missed. I guess these glimpses were for real film buffs; that would have been lost on the younger audience. Not sure what children would get from this barrage of old movies. And Gru from the earlier films does not get a look in. Fortunately. It's left to James and Henry to lead the way, especially when they get separated from their friends later on. 

This is close to top-class silent comedy as we mine the vaults of old Hollywood. The Minions somehow find themselves stars of the age of silent comedy. We have the Bright Brothers representing old-time studio bosses at their worst. But they find the lovable excess of the Minions perfect for their success. It's just when talkies arrive that the fact we cannot understand most of what they are saying turns out to them being kicked out of the studio. 

However, I agreed with critic Tom Shone in the Sunday Times that this is when the film takes a really disappointing turn. The introduction of brand new monsters from whom the Minions have to save the world is awful. Much too feeble and obvious, especially as what would normally have been quietly violent scenes had to be toned down for the U certificate. But then we get some of the best of all in those little clips amongst the credits at the end. Definitely worth waiting for. It's all chaotic and funny, and I'm left with incredulity at the quality of the animation. I just wished it were not so rushed. Then, perhaps the sequence of a runaway train would have provided a better ending. It's left to Rafaela Bassili in The Guardian to reference director Pierre Coffin's "love letter to cinema".

England v Mexico: The 1966 and 2026 World Cups

 

It was sixty years ago that England played Mexico in the group stage of the 1966 World Cup at Wembley Stadium. It was the only England game I missed seeing live, as it was the twenty-first birthday party of one of my work friends, Rowena Higgs. I have to say that I sat on my own in her family's living room watching it on their TV. That is to say, except for her father, who joined me on numerous occasions. (It was he who gave me the season ticket in the main stand at Chelsea for the second half of the 1964/5 season). England won 2-0, which included that wonderful goal from Bobby Charlton.

Fast forward sixty years, and England once again beat Mexico in the World Cup, this time at their iconic Estadio Azteca. No, I didn't stay up to watch the game. I didn't even record the match, as I knew it was on iPlayer. I was not convinced they would win, but as one report on the BBC website confirmed, maybe this was England's best victory since 1966.

Garden in early July

 

Above is a new penstemon called Phoenix Violet. Then below one of the roses in the long border, Rosa chinensis, or Bengal rose.

Below is the Hydrangea macrophylla, much smaller than normal hydrangeas but neat and nice.

This year I remembered to support the achillea in the far round border with conical supports that have been in the garage for some years, bought especially for this plant. It should bush out soon. 

Next to it is the Lilium lancifolium Thumb, or tiger lily, that I think were tiny bulbs we won as part of a prize.

The echinacea "Sunseeker's White Perfection" by the side patio has grown since that photo in June and is amazingly healthy. I like how the flowers start with the petals turning upwards and then that unusual downturn.

It first arrived in the garden two years ago. This was how it looked then, so it must like it where it is. 

The agapanthus has been in this pot next to the back wall for a few years. I have always meant to transfer it into the garden, but while it flowers like this, I will probably leave it here.

It was Alison's sister who gave me the Salvia Amistad below. It really needs to go in the main border in the autumn.

The hostas Fire and Ice are coming into flower on the side patio. 

These dianthus love it in pots.

At the very far end, the Elaeagnus, or silverberry, has recovered from that hard pruning in the spring.

Next to it by the fence is an unexpected buddleia coming into flower.

It was only in March last year that it needed a major prune, so that must have done some good.

And last of all, the acanthus has spread with its usual number of flowering spikes.