BAFTA Cymru & the London theatre

Well dear reader this week has certainly been more eventful than last. As ever college was uneventful and rather unexciting.

Jess and I ventured over to Chapter on Wednesday evening having not been for quite some time, to hear a rather fascinating talk from the new head of BBC Studio, Wales and one of the new co-producers of Who. It made for a fascinating panel, particularly as they were both very new to the BBC.

Members of the Radiophoninc Workshop

I found myself heading off to London come Friday, literally making the train with seconds to spare (evening the most straightforward of tutorials overruns). I had a delightful lunch and catch-up with Richard Franklin at his rather historically interesting home. From there I met up with Rob Goodman and we put the world to rights again (although I've still not watched an episode of 'Columbo'). I then headed over to the British Library which was the impetus for my trip to London, as the Radiophonic Workshop were doing not only a talk but also a performance there. The talk was utterly fascinating and what was great, was that all bar two of the surviving members of the workshop were present making for a great discussion, followed by a brilliant concert of both old and new music (including the Doctor Who theme, which sounded amazing over a sound system). After a busy day I met Jess and we headed to Eastbourne for an extended weekend away.

Saint George and the Dragon

Saturday was another busy day as we headed back to London to see not one, but two shows. Our first was 'Victory' at the Royal Court, Jess's first visit there. It was an interesting play looking at how the human mind deals with the idea that at any one point in time thousands of unrelated things are going on simultaneously. It was a two-hander featuring Jonjo O'Neill who was great as ever and quite by chance I bumped into him on the way to the theatre so was able to have a chat with him about what he's up to and the show. After a very filling trip to Pizza Hut we headed over to the National to see 'Saint George and the Dragon'. As ever I kept an eye out for any Who related people and was not disappointed, meeting a designer, two actors and a floor manager all of whom were charming and seemed to be delighted that I knew who they were. The show it’s self was brilliant and used the space beautifully and again this was Jess's first visit. I know the reviewers were somewhat divided but I felt it rather cleverly took the tale of George and the Dragon and used it to critique society, exploring how the dragon has become out greed and ambition.

Sunday was a quieter day as we went into Eastbourne to visit a wonderful fair of local print artists. It was great to see such variety of local work and it was nice to see some of the techniques that I had tried at A level developed into proper works of art. After a lovely lunch (thanks Jess), we headed back to Cardiff through the joys of rail maintenance, after a very busy week.