Television Personalities

Willie Carson
John McCrirrick
Derek Thompson
Ian Wright
Andy Townsend
Alan Hansen

George Lee
Marty Morrissey
Charlie Bird
 
I don't think under 14's should be allowed to watch Julian Clary. Any one over 14 who watches him needs to get a life.
 
I saw Clary fairly recently on "Who do you think you are". and thought he came across very well.

I generally enjoyed the series and this was one of the best offerings.
 
Au contraire, DIVER: 'life' would be very, very dull if one were forced to watch only straights. Gays, bi's, trannies, lady boys, call the gamut of sexual variation what you will, add much to the fun of life without constantly asserting that they're 'right' and others aren't. Perhaps some straight men protest a wee bit too much at times? Especially those who've revelled in playing the Dame... :brows:
 
Yes, I've played and enjoyed Dame parts on stage, sometimes with a moustache, sometimes with a beard and nearly always wearing pit boots. Yes, I'm an old fashioned straight and no one's going to make me ashamed of that although that seems to be the aim of some folk.
Traditional pantomimes require explanation to a lot of kids "That's a man dressed up as a woman for the purpose of making us laugh, Jimmy" But this bloke lives his actual life in that fantasy. I wouldn't know how to explain him to kids. His affected voice grates on me for the short time he appears on my tv. I fail to see how anyone can take him seriously.
 
Panto Dames are a leftover from the time when wimminfolk weren't allowed to perform on stage, so the parts of women were played by males - lissom youths subbing for lissom girlies, etc., etc., to put it into its historical context for children. They may ask then why women weren't allowed on stage, but the answer would be because they wouldn't have had time to clean their houses, do the laundering, the sewing, milk the cows, kill the chickens, cook the meals, haul the coal, chop the wood, make the fires, go to market and bring up the 15 kids if they'd been titting about in a playhouse... <_<

Julian Clary simply has a stage persona, as I assume you do when required, DIVER. I've seen him being interviewed or on discussion programmes where he's dropped the professional camping about and been as straight in his talk as the next guy, gay or straight. Just as I doubt that Vinnie Jones stomps in and decks the interviewer with a headbutt, so JC drops the made-for-the-show disguise.
 
Talking of lads having to take on the female roles too - one of the best productions I have seen was Anthony & Cleopatra performed at the Globe Theatre by the RSC in the traditional format - an all male cast. It was superb - not to mention as the setting of the Globe is amazing. I really would recommend it.
 
Just for the record and to dismiss the red herring of an earlier poster, cross dressing in panto was pioneered by the famous clown Joseph Grimaldi, after whom "Joeys" became a popular name for clowns, in the nineteenth century. The Dame emerged from early Music Halls of the Victorian era - long after women had started acting on stage. Men as Ugly Sisters were first seen at the Royal Strand Theatre in London in 1860. Principal Boys were and often still are played by women. It all had absolutely nothing to do with down trodden women.
 
Diver, I said panto dames were a 'leftover' from the time when women were portrayed by men. It wasn't thought of as 'cross-dressing' then. It was because apart from yowling in Greek choruses, women were not permitted to represent their own gender in forms of theatre. I didn't offer a potted history of the dame per se, just that s/he is a remnant of the time when men impersonated women.

I expect there's a published history of theatrical cross-dressing and other gender impersonation which would be interesting, if only to try to understand why the theatre is so prone to it, and why it persists today in a number of forms, when both of the sexes are legally sanctioned to perform. Frankly, I see no difference in essence of a dame or an ugly sister and the desire of Paul O'Grady to be Lily Savage or for the existence of 'Dame' Edna, or the drag artistes we have in residence in Brighton. Their forebears are rooted in ancient theatre, however much Signore Grimaldi claims to have 'invented' the dame. What interests me is why men perform as the least attractive female forms in pantomime, and why they perform as the most extreme forms of femininity - again to the point of parody - in non-panto drag.
 
I'll take a shufti, thanks, D. BTW, enjoyed the new production of 'Evita' yesterday at the dear little Art Deco Adelphi Theatre in The Strand. The new lead is actually Argentinian, Elena Roger, and was SO like Eva Peron I could believe Evita had been resurrected! Very simple but effective sets, monochromatic in palette, but a belting show!
 
Back
Top