TalkAwhile - The Folk Corporation Forum

I've noticed all these clips that have been appearing on Youtube from the above - it seems fascinating! Anyone got a full copy of this, or is it available anywhere??

Thanks!

Jamie

Yes, at the National Sound Archive in London.

Unfortunately it was shown shortly before we got our first VHS!

I do remember it vividly because there was a TV technicians' strike on the broadcast date and it didn't screen. I was absolutely mad as hell, also younger and a lot dafter in those days. I got the union's number via 192, rang them from a phone box in Leicester and had a go at some poor sod at their headquarters.  :o  My behaviour may have been influenced by copious beers consumed at lunchtime, because I was anything but a Thatcherite! Luckily the programme was eventually aired but it was a few months late.  

I seem to remember it was John Penhallow who got the clips onto YouTube, but I may be wrong. I do know the tape was something like a fourth generation copy, which accounts for all the dropouts etc. I contacted Shirley Collins with the link when the clips were uploaded and she was really chuffed, I think it's still on her website. I wish there was some way the programme could be resurrected on BBC4 or summat, because it was excellent and I think it's the only visual record of the National Theatre Lark Rise.    

Thanks for that.

It does seem brilliant - especially as it also gives you a taste of the "alternative" band from that time with Barry Dransfield, Andy Roberts, etc. And as for the Lark Rise stuff - awesome.

We are seeing Lark Rise at the Churchill Theatre in Bromley this coming Saturday, Ashley Hutchings' son Blair is one of the musicians!

We saw it in Windsor last Friday!

Did you enjoy it? How was the music?

It was ok. The music was a lot "gentler" (if that's the right word) than the original production at the National Theatre.
There were a few comments from the audience at the end along the lines of "ok what happened to the Candleford bit" ! Maybe they'll do that next year. (It is billed as Lark Rise to Candleford).

Thanks, that's interesting. The version we saw at the Bridewell Theatre in London back in July contained some different music - I'm not sure if it worked.

Having played the album a couple of times before seeing it, I had the lines

"sun's fair blazin innit" and "only one half pint mind, that's all we can afford"

in my mind, but they were not spoken. I can't actually find them in the script!!

At Windsor, the "half pint" quote (or a variant) came up but I think that it was set in the pub at the end of the day so I doubt that the "sun's fair blazin, innit" applied. Happy to be corrected, however.

When all is said and done, the final scene always tugs at my heart strings.

If you know the play, or the recording, a brief reminder when the names of the fallen from the first world war are read out by the rector ... a brief exchange between Edmund Timms and his mother, Emma, during the commemoration service:

   Edmund: "E. Timms? That's me!"

   Emma: "Hush, Edmund"

And indeed it was him...

This production does that scene spectacularly well...

I believe it's still tucked away in the BBC archives somewhere.

Maybe I'll drop the folks at BBC4 a line about it. A lot of their programming is "heritage" stuff.  

Some are real gems. Like a 1963 B & W doc about Hartlepool called "Waiting for Work". Done by Jack Ashley, well before he became an MP. His daughter Jackie went back there recently and found lots of people who were in the original film. Apparently some shots in 1963 caused family feuds which are still in progress (a Hartlepudlian trait - they never forget y'know pet)!

I'd never heard of this film - wonderful that somebody found it. Let's hope the Ashley Hutchings one appears again, after all (ahem) Folk Is Fashionable innit - must be with Sandy Denny compilations at £150!   ;D    

Thoroughly enjoyed Lark Rise at the Churchill Theatre in Bromley this afternoon, also booked for Brighton Theatre Royal in 2 weeks! Just thought that the music might have been a touch louder - especially as the average age of the audience seemed to be about 75 ::)

Some idiots were moaning that it was "nothing like the TV production" - which of course is nothing like Lark Rise!!!

The only music missing was Bonnie Labouring Boy at the end. I agree that the roll call section at the end was very moving.

There may be better quality versions of these clips appearing on YouTube in the future.  That's all I'm saying.  :)

And Blair Dunlop was very good!

We are seeing Lark Rise in Brighton tomorrow afternoon. It's a good job my wife looked at the tickets today because we both thought we were going to the evening performance ::)

An excellent performance and a fine redition of Sally drive the geese home from Blair Dunlop.

"Aye. It were thirty year ago, when I faced that old bull at Fishponds. It were the year my brother, James, married that Candleford woman. By hem, but she were near! She were that near she 'udn't give away enough to make a pair of leggings for a skylark."  ;)

A word of warning about Brighton on a Saturday afternoon

1   It's very crowded
2   Parking in the Church Street car park costs £20 for over 3 hours :o