A Little Bit of Walford Found At Home
By Larry Jaffee
In the last issue, dear readers, you might remember I was about to embark on my annual trek to London with the main quest of landing a ticket to Martine ('Tiffany') who’s starring in a revival of My Fair Lady.
I knew it was a long shot since the run was already sold out and the theatre’s press office wasn’t at all encouraging beforehand that a press seat was waiting for the Walford Gazette, no matter how much coverage we had been giving to their leading lady.
Likewise, neither her music management company nor her mum-run fan club, could accommodate my admittedly extraordinary request. My timing was bad; following a smashing opening night, Martine became seriously ill and missed a string of performances. On the day that I was leaving, a fan club representative faxed a letter that even if there was a ticket it was unlikely I’d get to see her perform that week because the understudy was filling in. (As it turned out, Martine did make one performance during my eight nights in town, albeit without me in the house.) The local press weren’t as largely forgiving as me, with one tabloid’s cover headline blaring: 'ELIZA DONE LITTLE.'
I was able to get a ticket for the slightly disappointing West End production of The Graduate, starring Amanda Donohue, who you might remember from LA Law.
Another disappointment was not being able to arrange interviews with castmembers we hadn’t previously interviewed, partly due to the shortened holiday week. (I arrived the night before Easter Sunday, which also meant that for the first time in three years I wouldn’t be able to visit the studio.) I also frantically called as many of the actors’ agents as I could in a long-shot hope of snagging an impromptu interview with one of their EastEnders clients on a day or two’s notice-of course, to no avail.
It was about this time that I remembered what really brought me to London-a DVD conference produced by the company for which I work full-time. (No, the Walford Gazette doesn’t pay the mortgage or feed the kids.)
It also gave me opportunity to spend some quality time with good friend Gretchen ('Ethel') Franklin, who is celebrating her 90th birthday this 7th of July.
My first free day I caught a showing of Sexy Beast, a terrific English movie starring Ben Kingsley (Gandhi) and Ray Winstone (Face, The War Room, Nil By Mouth). I had a hard time convincing Gretchen that it wasn’t 'a dirty movie,' as she surmised from the title. It’s actually about a vicious East End mobster (Kingsley) exerting his menace to get his former cohort (Winstone) to briefly give up his quiet, retired Costa del Sol life for one last bank robbery. The film opened in New York in mid-June to rave reviews; make sure you catch it when it hits video.
I saw another great English film, The Last Resort, with Deepak ('Sanjay') Verma, who is busy putting together his own film projects. The Last Resort is about a Russian woman and her pre-teen son having difficulty emigrating to Britain, and being held in a modern-day internment camp somewhere on the English coast.
And just when I thought I was going to be shut out from publishing some fresh, first-hand material in this edition of the Gazette from an EastEnders actor I hadn’t yet the pleasure to meet, I receive an e-mail message that Wendy ('Pauline') Richard was coming to New York for a holiday, and would I fancy meeting up?
Wendy (and her companion, John Burns) were gracious enough to also meet a small group of her New York fans.
Given Gretchen’s birthday, I must share a tidbit that Wendy mentioned. She said she recently met a man who had seen Gretchen starring in a West End musical in the 1940s, and that she mesmerized the audience with her amazing dancing and singing.
Just a brief, housekeeping note: We’ve sold out our supply of Wendy’s autobiography and working on reordering it in a less expensive paperback form.
Also regretably, we’ve sold our very last copy of the Radio Times’ 15th Anniversary EastEnders magazine; no more can be obtained.
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