Lambeth Fantastical - May 2024
Carter, Jacobs, and Mackie
No, this is not a firm of solicitors, or a South London estate agents. Or even a new chain of trendy gastro pubs. It's the latest trio with Lambeth connections to be inducted into my expanding Lambeth Fantastical pantheon.
Angela Carter was born in Eastbourne on the 7th of May 1940. But she lived in Lambeth's Clapham Common area from 1972 onwards. She is one of the women writers featured in Inspirational Women of Lambeth, co-authored by four of my fellow Lambeth Tour Guides.
Her best remembered exploration of the fantastical came with her 1979 short fiction anthology 'The Bloody Chamber' in which she remagined classic fairy tales from a feminist perspective. She said in an interview later in her career 'My intention was not to do 'versions' or, as the American edition of the book said, horribly, 'adult' fairy tales, but to extract the latent content from the traditional stories.'
The source material for the stories include Bluebeard, Beauty and the Beast, Puss in Boots, Cinderella, and Little Red Riding Hood. In 1984 Carter worked on the screenplay for Neil Jordan's darkly gothic fairy tale movie 'The Company of Wolves' based on the Red Riding Hood stories included in the 'Bloody Chamber'. The film starred Hollywood vetran, Angela Lansbury, in the role of 'Grannie'.
Carter also had a brief encounter with science fiction. In 1970 she wrote an episode enititled 'This Used to be Such a Nice Planet' for the short lived television scifi comedy series 'The Adventures of Don Quick', about a bungling intergalcatic Don Quixote type character. Despite featuring guest appearance by the likes of Anoushka Hempel, Patricia Haines, and future Doctor Who, Colin Baker, the show was cancelled after the first series of six episodes. So Carter's script was never actually produced. A copy of it, however, survived and is currently held by the British Library's script department.
Born in Streatham Hill on 19th May 1926 David Jacobs is perhaps best known for his roles as the chair of BBC Radio 4's 'Any Questions', the host of iconic 60s panel show 'Juke Box Jury', and compere of 'The Eurovision Song Contest'. Jacob's career, however, started with a trip into the fantastical in the pioneering 1950s BBC radio series 'Journey into Space'.
The series ran for no less that fifty-three episodes and was hugely popular, being the last radio serial to attract a higher audience than anything being shown on the fledging television. The plot concerns the crew of the rocket 'Luna' and their explorations of space. Jacobs was not one of the main characters but, due to his ability to play different characters who each had a distinctive voice, he was a permanent member of the cast. Over the course of the four seasons of the series he played no less than twenty-two roles and would mark his scripts in different coloured pencils to remind himself which role he was voicing. Journey into Space is considered highly influential in terms of the BBC's future science fiction output, including Quatermass and Doctor Who.
Someone else who journeyed into space, and through time for that matter, is Pearl Mackie. Born in Brixton on 29th May 1987 Mackie is the grandaugher of Philip Mackie who wrote the televion screenplay adaptation of Quentin Crisp's 'The Naked Civil Servant'.
In 2017 she played Bill Potts, companion to Peter Capaldi's twelfth regeneration of Doctor Who. She appeared in the role for thirteen episodes and broke new ground a the first openly gay companion. In her final episode both she and her love interest, Heather, have transformed into a different type of life form. They set off together into the galactic sunset, seeking further adventures across time and space.
With the new collaboration between the BBC and the Disney Channel Russell T Davies has suggested that this opens the door to the possiblity of a host of spinoff shows, along the lines of what Disney and Lucas Films have done recently with the Star Wars franchise. I for one would be up for tuning in to the 'Excellent Adventures of Bill and Heather.'
Other News
The new series of Doctor Who starts on May 11th. If you want to brush up on your Whovian history join my monthly Doctor Who walk in Waterloo.
Also on the 11th of May is the televised final of this year's Eurovision song contest. On that day I will be exploring the links between pop music and the South Bank as well as celebrating the fact that the 1960 Eurovision was hosted by the Royal Festival Hall. This walk is free. Details on this link.
Comments
Post a Comment