George Formby
George Formby banned by the BBC
Timothy Spall: ‘the brutal, sinister world of my comedy heroes’
The actor’s new film – Stanley, A Man of Variety – echoes David Lynch and a dark Ealing classic. Here he tells why he chose to re-create the giants of music hall as ‘English noir’
Timothy Spall has often played characters that stick in the mind – from Barry in the BBC hit series Auf Wiedersehen, Pet to his award-winning performance as the great British painter in Mike Leigh’s 2014 film, Mr Turner. But Spall’s latest film goes several steps further.In Stanley,
A Man of Variety released in cinemas next month, he concocts a blistering string of recreations of several of the great comic variety acts of the past, including Max Wall, George Formby and Noël Coward. It is an extraordinary tour de force, but not a comfortable one to watch. Spall and his collaborator on the film, the director and writer Stephen Cookson, have a deeply unsettling argument to make and they do not hold back [… ]
Continue story at THE GUARDIAN: Timothy Spall: ‘the brutal, sinister world of my comedy heroes’ | Film | The Guardian
Free Download: British Music Hall Reclaimed
“Barry Cryer takes a look at the cottage industry of music-hall recording restoration, and at the lives and works of some of the genre’s stars. Thanks to modern computer technology we are able to hear again performances by artists such as Mark Sheridan, Ernest Shand, Vesta Victoria, and Albert Chevalier , material originally recorded at the turn of the last century. The music hall artist Vesta Victoria, who gave the first performance of Daddy Wouldn’t Buy Me a Bow-Wow in 1892.
This edition of The Archive Hour not only shines a spotlight on the lesser-known stars of the British music hall but also reveals how this cultural phenomenon is surviving, thanks to a team of dedicated archivists who are using their computers to store recordings that go as far back as the 1890s.