Sir David Attenborough is, by common consent, the world’s master wildlife documentary presenter, the last of the great TV communicators whose career began with the birth of the medium in which he works. He has made many epic and wide ranging TV programmes, telling the story of how creatures proceed along the perilous tightrope of… Continue reading
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Cricket as national balm – the all conquering Australians at Worcester
Our cricket season is longer than it used to be. As the hectic short form of the game has expanded, the traditional county fixtures now begin in early April, concluding at the end of September. The lucrative televised games are scheduled for warmer summer days and evenings. The less fashionable county games have to… Continue reading →
Salute the two-sport heroes
21 January 1933, Twickenham. England v Wales. It was one of the outstanding sporting crossover occasions. The Wales rugby XV that day (there were no substitutes in those times), beating England, included no fewer than four current or future Glamorgan cricket players. The man who scored all the points in the famous 7-4 victory, raising… Continue reading →
Thames play based on Dickens flows through National Theatre
In London Tide, the National Theatre comes as close to the subject matter of one of its plays as it ever has. The River Thames flows serenely, endlessly, within metres of the theatre, with a timely, imperceptible pause twice a day when the tide turns. So many writers have turned what, in terms of the numbers… Continue reading →
Under Milk Wood – 70 years on
The BBC first broadcast Under Milk Wood, “‘A Play for Voices”, on the Third Programme on 25 January 1954 (two months after Thomas’s death). The play featured a distinguished, all-Welsh cast including Richard Burton. Dylan Thomas knew Under Milk Wood was good, even in its hurried, jumbled, unfinished form in which he gave several performances in 1953, with a cast,… Continue reading →
Holly and Ivy – perennial seasonal hit returns to its hometown
Illustration from 1958 edition of The Story of Holly and Ivy – Adrienne Adams A new display about Aylesbury and a famous Christmas story – at Discover Bucks Museum in the Buckinghamshire town. The Story of Holly and Ivy, by Rumer Godden, is set in an English market town full of seasonal atmosphere. This warmhearted Christmas fantasy… Continue reading →