John Sessions Solo – Beecham – Edinburgh Nights – tape 989

A few more unusual programmes are on today’s tape, starting with John Sessions Solo. Unlike his ‘On The Spot’ series, which was improvised, this is a scripted one man show, performed at the Donmar Warehouse (and directed by Kenneth Branagh). I have to give him points for starting with a reference to Horizon and a namecheck for regular Horizon narrator Paul Vaughan, but I’m skeptical as this starts. It starts with various references to West Germany, with every German phrase greeting with huge laughter from the audience.

The early material about Germans seemed a bit odd to me, and then I looked at Sessions’ wikipedia page and discovered that he was a UKIP supporter, and suddenly the whole thing takes on a slightly more unpleasant tone. Particularly when he starts doing a bit on the recording of West Side Story with Bernstein, Kiri Te Kanawa and Jose Carreras, where his treatment of Carreras is just horribly racist.

But he’s clearly putting a lot into it, as by the end, he’s sweating rather profusely.

After this, another one-man show – well, one man and the Halle Orchestra show, as Timothy West plays the conductor Thomas Beecham rehearsing with an orchestra. It’s full of all the ‘bon mots’ Beecham was apparently famous for. “Beethoven’s last quartets were written by a deaf man. And in my opinion should only be listened to by a deaf man.”

There is another character, the narrator, played by Terry Wale, who plays Beecham’s music librarian, and tells the story of Beecham’s life, interspersed with short pieces of music.

This is a lot of fun. He’s a curmudgeon, but nobody does curmudgeon like Timothy West, and the music is also lovely. I wonder if the music was recorded separately, so that while Timothy West is conducting it doesn’t matter if the players get a bit lost.

Here’s the whole thing. I found someone else’s recording, but the quality isn’t good and it’s split into 9 sections. So this one’s mine.

 

After this, recording switches to BBC2 and Edinburgh Nights an episode of the series looking at what’s happening at the Edinburgh Festival. I recorded this one because it starts with an interview with John Landis, as the film festival is putting on a retrospective of his career. “I’ve only made 14 movies” he protests.

They’re driving around in a left hand drive car, and that seatbelt doesn’t look very safe on Tracey Macleod’s arm, so it’s a relief at the end when the artifice of the shoot is revealed.

There’s also a piece about a play telling the stories of homeless people.

Clive Anderson looks at the journalists who cover the festival.

There’s a musical piece called Busqueda, about the Disappeared of Argentine, with narration by Diana Rigg.

The programme finishes with a piece by the Danish performance group Hotel Pro Forma, called Why Does Night Come Mother? It’s very modern.

BBC Genome: BBC Two – 16th August 1990 – 23:15

The tape ends just as this programme finishes.

In the ad breaks, there’s an advert for Schweppes Slimline Tonic Water featuring John Cleese extolling the Citric Bite of the beverage. There was a series of these, all of them very simple and cheap looking, that then culminated in a ludicrous, glossy ad shot on a beach.

Adverts:

• N&P
• St Ivel Shape
• trail: Almost You
• Kenco
• Western Union Money Transfer
• Natrel Plus
• Schweppes Slimline Tonic Water – John Cleese
• Light Philadelphia
• Renault
• Powergen
• Right Guard
• Labatt’s – Tony Slattery
• Daily Telegraph – Anthony Andrews, Terence Alexander
• BT – Maureen Lipman
• Tennent’s Pilsner
• Braun Silkepil
• St Ivel Shape
• McDonalds
• Piat D’Or
• Dulux
• Fruitini
• Gillette Sensor
• Heinz Tomato Ketchup – Matt LeBlanc
• Lonsdale VW
• N&P
• Schweppes Slimline Tonic Water – John Cleese
• Carling Black Label