18 January 1997: John Random (Burns) & Jenny Mill At Sandall Close
I think this was the first time we had dinner with those two. Janie dutifully wrote in her diary “fish only, no meat” so my guess is that we did indeed eat fish.
Who would have thought that, inadvertently, we’d see those two for a meal almost exactly 25 years later, but we did indeed go to their place in Bromley for a super meal on Sunday 16 January 2022.
24 January 1997: Bridge At Maz’s Place
I’m guessing here, but the four would probably have been Maz (obvs), me (also obvs), Andrea and Tessa at that time.
I think Maz was living in Becklow Road, Acton by then.
The eating and drinking will have been as central to the evening as the bridge, if not more so.
25 January 1997: Dinner At Stuart & Cathy’s Place
Stuart Kent (“Little Mick” Kent, my dad’s cousin’s son) and his partner Cathy Andrews.
They lived in Muswell Hill in a rather eccentric-looking penthouse apartment designed in an uber-1970s garish style, which they had inherited from the previous owner – an unusual look they clearly liked & had enhanced.
Oh by gosh we enjoyed this one. I wrote in my log:
Great fun. Subsequently, the cast changed every five minutes, but we saw the “original” UK cast.
And what a cast that was: Albert Finney, Tom Courtenay and Ken Stott.
Unusually, it was Janie who booked this one. How do i know – because the details are all over her diary, not mine…and boy did Janie write down details. So I can report that the play was 1 hour 40 minutes without an interval and that we sat in K22 & K23.
While the play/production was a huge hit and ran for yonks, it was not universally praised by the critics.
Fewer than 24 hours after my hive-ridden return from the frozen north of England, Janie and I went to see this Robert Lepage/Ex Machina production from The Great White North (Canada).
In truth I remember little about it. I think I was squirming in my seat only in part because of the hives.
At the time, this sort of multimedia theatrical experience was novel, but it did seem, to us, that the technological wonder of it was rather superseding the drama and/or tension that we normally experience at the theatre.
This was my first visit to The Actor’s Workshop in Halifax.
It was an unusual start to the new year, that year, in several ways. Janie’s and my diaries both suggest that we had planned to attend a party at Anthea’s for New Year’s Eve, but we are pretty sure that party didn’t happen in the end.
After new year’s day, Janie had a diary full of work for the rest of the week, while I got in the motor to do a round trip taking in Halifax for the New Year revels show and then, the next day, a visit to a soft drinks factory in Nelson, Lancashire, across the Pennines.
Naturally I chose a freezing cold, snow and ice early January for that trip.
The journey to Halifax I recall being problem free (motorway more or less all the way) and of course I received warm hospitality from Mike and Lottie Ward when I got there.
I had met Mike in London two or three years earlier and had submitted material to the New Year Revels show for a couple of previous years, but this was my first (of several) visits to The Actor’s Workshop.
I was clearly impressed by the show. My log reads:
Much better than I expected. Did justice to most material and more than did justice to mine.
There were lots of in-jokes in the show and programme about The Ridings School, Halifax, which, in 1996, had:
…received nationwide attention when staff said 60 of its pupils were “unteachable” and school operations were temporarily suspended while the headmaster and other leading staff were replaced.
I don’t think the entire cast and crew were really alums of The Ridings School…but perhaps they were.
I stayed at The Imperial Crown Hotel in Halifax on that occasion. I think we ate a fine meal pre show at the Ward’s House. That must have been the first occasion I met Lottie and I have a funny feeling that Adam (whom I met at NewsRevue and through whom I had met Mike) was there on that occasion – perhaps also Olivia.
Janie (who was not with me, remember) wrote more details and contact numbers into her diary for that trip than I did into mine – including the local Halifax police and the AA – I suspect she scribbled down the latter two after seeing the weather forecast!
The drive across the Pennines from Halifax to Nelson early the next morning (3rd January) was truly nerve-wracking but I got there and did whatever I had scheduled to do at that factory for most of the day before setting off in the still treacherous driving conditions back to London.
In those days I was still driving “Red Noddy” the Honda Civic, which, although air conditioned, was still a late 1980s vehicle not ideally suited to freezing conditions. I struggled to stay warm throughout the journey and started to itch terribly before arriving at Janie’s place…
…covered in Hives.
I itched through Robert Lepage’s Elsinore the next (Saturday) evening, but that, as we say, is another story.
