WC July 19
Had a great start to the week with a Sunday night visit to Carisbrooke Castle to see the open air Ad Lib production of Trouble in Camelot, cleverly written by Simon Dabell. It was excellent family entertainment enjoyed by both the players and the audience. It was a real team effort and there was plenty of audience participation from panto boos for the baddies, to a cooking scene and interval sword fighting lessons for the kids. Shows like this need a pied piper for the youngsters – and with Patrick Barry in the cast they had to look no further. I hope he never grows up!!!
Tuesday was an amazing day. I had planned to go to London to meet one of my favourite actors – a lady from Lark Rise to Candleford and other hit series. On Monday afternoon her agent phoned her to say he had arranged a last minute audition for the next day. Hence she had to postpone our meeting to a later date. It had been set for 1pm in Soho. By sheer good fortune, I had a phone call from Chichester Festival Theatre to offer me three lunchtime interviews around the same time I had planned to be in London. So I ended up meeting three actors from the Minerva Theatre’s production of For Services Rendered. All three, Matilda Zeigler, Stella Gonet and Anthony Calf, are well know TV faces and theatre actors. All lovely people and I obtained three great interviews. Their hit TV series include EastEnders, Lark Rise to Candleford, New Tricks, House of Elliot, Crow Road, Mr Bean and Pride and Predudice. Listen out for them soon on IW Radio’s John Hannam Meets.
After wanting to interview Tommy Steele for around 40 years I finally caught up with him a couple of years ago at the Southampton Mayflower, to help promote the Scrooge show which was heading for the theatre. He requested a copy of our broadcast on a CD and I was so thrilled to receive a personal letter from him stating how much he enjoyed the interview. I was delighted to be invited back on Friday afternoon to interview him again. This time to promote his Glenn Miller Story stage show that is at the Mayflower from September 2 to 8.Once again he was such a joy to interview and I tried something different on this occasion. All will be revealed soon when he makes his return to John Hannam Meets. I got soaked going to and from the interview but it was well worth it.