The Day of the Doctor.

TV ... review will appear here when I have the time and watched it several hundred times more. But as a spoiler I can say that my reaction was the exact opposite of poor Steven here:



Bless you sir, you did us proud.

"the electronic Buena Vista Social Club"

Music The Observer has a rather poignant interview with the Radiophonic Workshop, who are out on tour:

"This is life with the Radiophonic Workshop – the electronic Buena Vista Social Club, a "band that never was", masters of their craft finally coming together late in life. While their demeanour might occasionally seem a little more Krankies than Kraftwerk, these old colleagues – playing together as a band for the first time, after decades working separately in little studios tucked away deep in the BBC's Broadcasting House – are now getting their due as true pioneers of electronic sound. Deceased RWS members Delia Derbyshire, Daphne Oram and John Baker may have retro cachet already, with Derbyshire, who recorded the original Doctor Who theme, beloved of the electronica and record collecting communities, and Oram now the subject of a Science Museum exhibition. But this is a concerted effort to bring their tradition well and truly to life: gigging, remixing and recording new tracks. And generations of musicians are queuing up to work with them, or to simply pay tribute to their music and influence."

And here they are at on The One Show the other night. Superb:

"superfan"

TV I'll post this here without comment. Doctor Who fan from Yeovil watches every episode:

"A Doctor Who "superfan" has spent 10 months watching every available episode of the series in time for the show's 50th anniversary.

"Tom Jessop, 29, from Yeovil, has watched all 798 episodes - more than 3,000 hours - of the popular sci-fi drama in chronological order."

Well no comment, but a link to this. Again.  You and me both friend.

My Gravity comment on Kermode Uncut.

Film Finally after weeks of commenting on Mark Kermode's Uncut, I've finally had something appear on his video blog. It was about Gravity. Here's a screenshot:



Now all I need is for him to actually read it out, one Gary Ingrey having been favoured on this occasion.

Doctor Who at the BBC:More local news clips.

Radio I'll try and keep across these as they appear:

BBC Radio Leicester's very own Matt Smith with a beginners' guide to Doctor Who.

BBC Radio Leicester's Matt Smith meets Paul McGann, who played the 8th Doctor in 1996. That's Matt Smith.

BBC Radio Leicester's Matt Smith meets Sophie Aldred, who played Ace in Doctor Who.

Jim Davis chats to John Leeson, who's originally from Leicester. John provided the voice of K9 (as well as Bungle in Rainbow).

What do today's children make of Doctor Who from fifty years ago? A group of Beaver Scouts from Glenfield review the first-ever episode of the classic series.

Ken Caswell from Norwich remembers his dad's job of painting the TARDIS prop in 1963!

Brian Hodgson, who lives in Norfolk, explains how he created the Dalek voices in 1963. (Clip from "The Ordeal", written by Terry Nation, directed by Christopher Barry, 1964).

Essex based author Jacqueline Raynor chats to Mark Punter about writing Doctor Who.

Mark Punter shares his memories of Doctor Who and meeting Tom Baker.

On The Day of the Doctor Jane Smith gets her facts straight with some young super fans.

Odd things are happening to Janice Forsyth in this Dr Who Special....

Ian Puckey shares his memories of Doctor Who and appearing in a book based on the series.

Wroxham-based actor Graham Cole remembers his days playing a Cyberman in the 1980s.

Norfolk-based scenic designer Spencer Chapman recalls his work on Doctor Who in 1964.

Dave Monk shares his memories of Doctor Who and recalls turning his shed into a TARDIS.

Essex born and raised actress, Deborah Watling reveals what life on set was like playing a Doctor Who companion, alongside Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor and Frazer Hines as Jamie McCrimmon.

It's the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who. BBC Radio Manchester 's Allan Beswick interviewed the Doctor's greatest enemy - A Dalek!

Bonus round: The World Service's Witness on the making of Doctor Who.

Their names fit their jobs #3: A Doctor Who Special.

Photographer Oli Scarff. This photo at The Guardian.

Romola on Doctor Who.

TV It's Doctor Who day then. Thank goodness and the riches it brings amid the mass of content on the BBC News website we find this voxpop:



"I have to say that, like, of all the Doctors I really love a lot of the recent ones and I think that Matt Smith was amazing as the Doctor and I think that it's great that they've gone with Peter Capaldi, he's an actor I've worked with he's really brilliant, and to have a sort of variety of different ages is really important and maybe one day they'll have a woman and would be good too."

And maybe it'll be you.  Please?

BBC 1963: August.

Radio 4: Martin Luthor King Archive
"On the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech, Radio 4 brings you a unique radio event, global figures read Dr King's words. Here is a selection of programmes from BBC Radio covering the speech and events in America in 1963."

Witness: I Have a Dream
"On August 28th 1963, the American civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, made his historic plea for an end to racial discrimination in the USA. Standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, he addressed hundreds of thousands of activists who had marched to Washington to demonstrate for black rights. Listen to John Lewis, the youngest speaker on the podium that day. "

Outlook: I Have a Dream
"Extraordinary personal stories from around the world. Today, another chance to hear from Clarence B Jones, Dr Martin Luther King's speech writer, lawyer and confidant. Clarence was part of Dr King's inner circle of advisors and helped to organise the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which culminated in the civil rights leader giving his famous 'I Have a Dream' speech to a reported 250,000 people. Clarence who helped to draft the speech, stood behind Dr King as he uttered the words that have gone down in history and says that the atmosphere was like "capturing lightning in a bottle". His book is called Behind the Dream: The Making of a Speech that Transformed a Nation."

BBC News: John Lewis on his friendship with Martin Luther King Jr
"US Congressman John Lewis is the last surviving speaker from the March on Washington 50 years ago. The student activist turned civil rights leader spoke on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial just before Dr Martin Luther King Jr delivered his famous I Have a Dream speech on 28 August 1963. Mr Lewis has also just published a graphic novel called March which chronicles his role in the civil rights movement through the 1950s and 1960s. He spoke to the BBC about how he was inspired by Dr King's speeches on the radio and later became his friend."

World Have Your Say: 'I Have a Dream' Fifty Years On
"We speak to black Americans to find out how life has changed since they heard Martin Luther King's famous speech."

Beyond Belief: Martin Luther King
"Beyond Belief debates the place of religion and faith in today's complex world. Ernie Rea is joined by a panel to discuss how religious beliefs and traditions affect our values and perspectives. Its fifty years since Martin Luther King addressed an immense crowd in Washington and told the world that "I have a dream." His words galvanised black people across America and paved the way for the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Out of deep Christian conviction King wanted to fight against ingrained injustice using exclusively non-violent means. In this programme Ernie Rea explores the religious influences and ideas of Martin Luther King and asks, half a century on, whether we have sanitised the tough message of that speech."

Witness: The Great Train Robbery
"The Great Train Robbery of 1963, when thieves stole more than £2 million. The Royal Mail train was bound from Glasgow to London when it was held up. Most of the robbers ended up behind bars, but most of the money has never been recovered."

History of the BBC: The Marriage Lines, 16 August 1963
"The first episode of Marriage Lines was broadcast on 16 August 1963. It launched the career of Prunella Scales and gave a significant boost to that of Richard Briers. The sitcom was written by Richard Waring for Briers, the two having previously worked together on Brothers in Law. Scales and Briers played Kate and George Starling, a young couple, in “a quizzical look at the early days of married life”."

Tonight: Arriving in Britain on Windrush and finding somewhere to live
"One man describes how he tried to rent a room in Brixton, having arrived in the UK from Jamaica on Empire Windrush, and the reactions he faced. Footage taken from Tonight 21 August 1963 and Windrush 30 May 1998."

BBC News: Weston to Penarth hovercraft trial remembered
"For one summer in 1963 a trial hovercraft service took place between Weston-super-Mare and Penarth in south Wales. The experimental SRN2 model took just 10 minutes to make the 10-mile (16km) crossing of the Bristol Channel. At the time it was believed to be the world's largest passenger carrying hovercraft - and it was built by Somerset based Westlands. Clinton Rogers reports."

BBC 1963: July.

BBC News: Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust celebrates 50 years
"The Jersey-based Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust is celebrating its 50th anniversary of becoming a trust. Naturalist Gerald Durrell registered the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust on 6 July 1963 in the Royal Court. Renamed Durrell in memory of its founder, the wildlife park in Trinity has become world famous, thanks to its work saving endangered species."

BBC News: SA: Rivonia ANC raid remembered 50 years on
"On 11th July 1963 on a small farm near Johannesburg, a police raid took place which proved a pivotal moment for South Africa's anti-apartheid struggle. Nelson Mandela was already in prison, but police seized other top leaders of the ANC's military wing, and found evidence which led to Mandela's life sentence. Mike Wooldridge reports."

BBC News: The truck that smuggled ANC weapons into South Africa
"Liliesleaf Farm in the Rivonia suburb of Johannesburg was a site used by the African National Congress from which to launch its armed struggle against the apartheid state. On 11 July 1963, leading ANC members were arrested there by the police - and went on to face what became known as the Rivonia Trial. Nelson Mandela and his colleagues were subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment."

BBC News: Mandela's hideaway farm revisited
"Liliesleaf Farm in the Rivonia suburb of Johannesburg was a site used by the African National Congress from which to launch an armed struggle against white minority rule in South Africa. On 11 July 1963, the heads of the ANC military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), which means Spear of the Nation, were arrested there by the police. They went on to face what became known as the Rivonia Trial, at which Nelson Mandela and his colleagues were sentenced to life imprisonment."

Desert Island Discs: Lord Joffe
"In 1963, Joel Joffe was a young defence solicitor, so dismayed by the apartheid system of his native South Africa that he was on the brink of emigrating. Then he was asked to take over the defence of a group of ANC activists including Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki and Nelson Mandela. The trial gripped the world and was all the more extraordinary because, far from aiming to secure his clients' freedom, Joel Joffe was simply fighting for them not to receive the death penalty. He tells Kirsty how, even in his prison clothes, Nelson Mandela was a figure of calm authority, who guided them through the trial."

Peer Today: What were the implications of the 1963 Peerages Act?
"Fifty years ago this summer - 31 July 1963 to be precise - Labour politician Tony Benn finally won the right to renounce his hereditary peerage and return to the Commons. Mr Benn inherited the title of Viscount Stansgate when his father died, barring him from the Commons where he had been serving his Bristol South East constituents for 10 years. The MP regained his seat in the Commons after winning a by-election held weeks after the Peerages Act came into force. But the Act would also have significant implications for the Conservatives, as Susan Hulme explores."

Change Makers: 1963 Peerage Act and former Labour MP Tony Benn
"Tony Benn's Peerage Act of 1963 is probably not his biggest legacy but, without it, this "persistent commoner" as he likes to call himself, might never have got his career off the ground. Giles Dilnot spoke to the former MP on his battle to stay in the House of Commons and why he would "not be seen dead" in the House of Lords. This is part of a series of interviews, entitled Change Makers, in which the Daily Politics talks to people who have radically changed Britain."

Panorama: Cuba
"'Panorama' reports from Cuba on the celebrations held to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of when Castro first rose up against the Batista dictatorship. In the process, reporter James Mossman reviews the current way of life for the Cuban people in and around Havana and asks whether Castro remains as popular as when he first took up arms on 26 July 1953."

America, Empire of Liberty: Cuba - That Four Letter Word
"An American-backed invasion of Cuba fails but President Kennedy saves face when he stops the Soviet Union from placing missiles on the Caribbean island."

Panorama: Ambulances
"Through following those whose lives are involved in various ways, this programme provides a picture of the ambulance service 15 years after the creation of the NHS."

Good Morning Wales: Rhyl's Little Theatre for children marks 50th anniversary
"A gala is being held in Denbighshire to mark the 50th anniversary of Rhyl's Little Theatre, which was purpose-built theatre for children. It opened in its current building in 1963 and now original members now help run it. Theatre director Gwynne Williams joined the theatre as an eight-year-old, a year after it opened, and Imarlie Stewart, aged 14, sings in Saturday's gala. They spoke to Peter Johnson on BBC Radio Wales' Good Morning Wales."

The Beatles live in Rhyl, 1963
"A brief clip about the Ritz Ballroom and the Westminster Hotel in Rhyl, from the BBC Wales programme The Slate, February 1996."

BBC Proms 1963 season.
An archive guide.

BBC News: Clyde Tunnel marks 50th anniversary
"Glasgow's Clyde Tunnel has marked its 50th anniversary. The crossing beneath the River Clyde was officially opened by the Queen in 1963. The Princess Royal will attend a ceremony to mark its half century, and will meet some of the workers who dug the tunnel by hand."

Hadley Freeman's interviewed Danny Dyer.

Theatre Hadley Freeman's interviewed Danny Dyer. It's a transcript thingy but it's amazing nonetheless, saving the hatchet for the footnotes. Here he is on working with Harold Pinter from The Abominable Snowmen:

Harold Pinter mentored you as a young actor. What do you remember about him?
I miss him, you know, he was a good influence on me. He was the only person who I feared but loved. He had faith in me, he suffered all my shit because he knew I was a talented actor. He was a fucking tyrant, too, you know, but he could get away with it because he was so enchanting. He was a poet.

Do you think he'd like Vendetta?
I'd love to know what he thought of Vendetta. If he didn't like it he'd tell me straight; there were no airs and graces about him. I learned so much from him that set me up for the rest of my career.

No really. And it's all like that. Amazing.

Doctor Who at the BBC: Local Radio Coverage in general.

TV As the anniversary approaches, local news radio from across the BBC is amassing material, mostly interviews with the creatives. Here's what I've been able to find. I've added in the Radio Solent links from the other day for your convenience and let's face it mine.

Donald Tosh on working with William Hartnell. Includes impression of William Hartnell.

Brian Hodgson, who now lives in Norfolk, recalls how the famous tune was created by his colleague Delia Derbyshire at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in 1963.

Sue Webb from Winchester worked on the very first Doctor Who story to feature the Daleks and shares her memories with Richard Latto.

Peter Holmes (BBC Essex DJ) shares his memories of Doctor Who and hiding behind the sofa! Spot the moment when he turns into the TARDIS Datacore.

Bournemouth's Michael E Briant directed several highly regarded Doctor Who stories. He shares his memories of episodes including; Power Of The Daleks, Fury Of The Deep, The Sea Devils and The Robots Of Death.

Richard Latto explores the time when Jon Pertwee came back to his old home of Portsmouth. See rare footage of Doctor Who being made when the sea devils came out of the waters of the Solent.

South coast resident John Levene played Sgt Benton in the classic series of Doctor Who for many happy years. He shares his memories with Richard Latto.

Stuart Fell from New Milton talks about portraying many of the shows famous monsters. He shares his many happy memories with Richard Latto.

Karen Davies from Norwich remembers how she won the BBC's Doctor Who Mastermind in 2005.

In August 2005, nine year old William Grantham from Colchester won a Blue Peter 'Design a Monster' competition. His invention later appeared in an episode of Doctor Who, starring David Tennant. Sorry everyone, he's now in his late teens.

Kevin Hudson from Bournemouth talks to Richard Latto about being as a Doctor Who monster.

BBC Radio Wales's Doctor Who Day Live blog.

Dr Keith Johnston from the University of East Anglia in Norwich explains how he uses the show in his lectures.

Southampton's Bill Baggs has led several ambitious science fiction drama projects. Many involving people associated with Doctor Who. An amazingly thorough interview that covers everything.

Paul Vanezis has handled the return of missing doctor episodes found on the south coast. He talks to Richard Latto about the skills and methods used to secure the return of several classic Doctor Who stories.

Hear how Terry Burnett from Fareham returned two previously missing Doctor Who episodes. He tells Richard Latto about their discovery and how they made their way back to the BBC archives.

And as a bonus, Night Waves on Radio 3 the other night had Matthew Sweet discussing the TV series with historian Dominic Sandbrook, philosopher Ray Monk and New Generation Thinker and cultural historian Fern Riddell.

Oh and Jo Whiley put together a special Doctor Who mixtape which has some tracks which Confidential didn't even think of back in the day.

Plus Radio 4 has a new archive page, but you've probably heard most of that already.

A BBC website search suggests loads of local radio stations are having specials tomorrow so expect a few more of these...

BBC 1963: June.

BBC News: Fifty years since John Profumo 'sleaze' resignation
"It is 50 years since Britain's Secretary of State for War, John Profumo, resigned following an affair with Christine Keeler - who was allegedly also having an affair with a Russian spy. The 1963 scandal, which is the subject of an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London, laid bare the corruption at the heart of the British establishment. Nick Higham reports."

Letter From America: The Stand in the Schoolhouse Door of 1963
"Cooke recalls the moment when the segregationist George Wallace, Governor of Alabama, attempted to prevent a black student enrolling at the University of Alabama in 1963."

Witness: The Death of Thich Quang Duc
"In June 1963, Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc shocked the world by setting himself on fire in protest against the Catholic South Vietnamese government. Sister Chan Khong was there. "

Witness: JFK in Ireland
"In June 1963 the US President John F Kennedy made a state visit to Ireland, his ancestral home. Irish novelist Colm Toibin remembers the effect he had on the people lining the streets to welcome him."

Radio Newsreel: The Kennedy Brothers Visit Berlin
"Cold War paranoia is highlighted in this report by Ivor Jones about a visit to Berlin by Robert and Edward Kennedy. Jones details the labyrinthine diplomatic implications of Edward Kennedy having shown his passport to East German officials so that he could visit the communist sector of the city."

Witness: Robert Kennedy on civil rights, 1963
"US Attorney General, Robert Kennedy responds to criticisms that legal and constitutional complexities are slowing the progress of the civil rights movement. Martin Luther King had criticised the US government for not taking legal action to force individual states to implement measures to outlaw discrimination."

Panorama: US Attorney General Robert Kennedy speaking about Civil Rights, 1963
"In this clip, Martin Luther King criticises the US government for not taking legal action to force individual states to implement measures to outlaw discrimination. Here, presenter Robin Day puts the question to Robert Kennedy who responds by explaining a range of legal complexitites and indirectly criticising King for not getting approval from the authorities for a demonstration at which he was arrested. Kennedy also uses legal arguments to explain the actions of President John F Kennedy with regard to condemning discrimination as unconstitutional and passing legal measures against it. First broadcast in Panorama on 13 May 1963. The Flash version of this clip has subtitles available."

Great Lives: Henry Cooper
"The date is June 18 1963, the final seconds of the fourth round of a boxing match. In the ring, Henry Cooper, eight years older and 26 pounds lighter than his opponent, Cassius Clay. And then Cooper hits Clay, just as the bell rings."

Frankly Speaking: Self-Portrait of a Star: Bette Davis
"Actor George Coulouris, accompanied by BBC producer Peter Duval Smith, speaks to Bette Davis in an occasionally heated conversation about the actress's career. Davis shares her opinions on what it means to be a star after 30 years in the business and is at great pains to counter Duvall Smith's claim that she uses the same mannerisms in every performance. Films discussed include 'Dark Victory' (1939), 'Juarez' (1939), 'Watch on the Rhine' (1943) and Davis's most recent hit, 'What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?' (1962)."

The Beatles live in Abergavenny, 1963
"Welsh singer Bryn Yemm discusses The Beatles' appearance in Abergavenny, 1963."

Shakespeare at the BBC:An Age of Kings released in the UK.

Well, this is exciting news.  Here's the full press release because it is such exciting news.

FOR RELEASE ON DVD DECEMBER 8 2013

Illuminations presents an exclusive 5-disc DVD of

An Age of Kings

Eight History plays by William Shakespeare


'Monumental; a landmark in the BBC's Shakespearian tradition.'
The Times

Groundbreaking adaptation of Shakespeare's Histories available for the first time in 50 years

960 minutes including extras
£34.99 including VAT

An Age of Kings is the BBC's compelling 15-part series from 1960 of William Shakespeare's great national pageant of eight History plays. Watched by over three million viewers, it is the most ambitious Shakespeare project ever filmed for television.

Hailed by the Guardian as 'ambitious ... exciting ... a striking example of the creative use of television', it was a powerful demonstration of the BBC's unique strengths and abilities in a time when Britain's public service broadcaster was not principally in the hunt for ratings.

Planned as the inaugural production in the newly-built BBC TV Centre, An Age of Kings was later broadcast live on Thursday evenings every fortnight from Riverside Studios in Hammersmith as the series wasn't ready in time for the opening.

For more than 50 years, this TV landmark has been entirely unavailable in Britain. Yet its drama of power politics, betrayals, deceptions and deadly rivalries is as alive as ever. So too is the beauty of some of Shakespeare's greatest poetry and prose.

An Age of Kings features outstanding actors, including Robert Hardy, Eileen Atkins, Judi Dench, and Sean Connery, at the beginning of their highly successful careers. More than five decades after it was first seen, An Age of Kings is a vivid and vibrant drama, with an unparalleled clarity and immediacy, sense of scale and poetic depth.

With 600 speaking parts and 30 weeks of rehearsal before filming, each episode cost £4000. The series was shot on only four cameras with a cyclorama used for the battle scenes and lots of smoke.

DVD extras: The Making of An Age of Kings features Tony Garnett (Cathy Come Home, Days of Hope) interviewed at Riverside Studios. Garnett recalls his experiences on this groundbreaking series and the challenges of making one of the most ambitious Shakespeare projects ever filmed.

Also included in the 5 disc DVD pack is a 24-page booklet giving background information and critical writing about the production.

Barcode: 5060291820072
Catalogue number: AOK166

Gordon Seed on Doctor Who.

TV Neil at ScifiLove has a rather good interview with stuntman Gordon Seed who has filled in for both David Tennant and Matt Smith on Doctor Who:

He also got the job with a little help from the Doctor himself.

Gordon explained: “I was doubling for David Tennant on Harry Potter, when he was stunned and thrown across a courtroom. Anyway we were chatting during the shoot and he told me he’d just been confirmed as the Doctor.

“A short while after that, I had a call from the production team asking me to go down as David had put my name in. It was a very nice thing to do, but he is a really nice bloke.

“Matt is a brilliant bloke too, in fact everyone is really great to work with. They’re like a big family and I love going back down to Cardiff.”

Gordon added: “The production of Doctor Who is a machine, but the attention to detail is staggering. I was dressed as the Doctor and had to fall down some stairs, and I wore the Doctor’s watch which was set to the right time. No-one was going to see it, but just in case, it was correct.”

There's also plenty of detail about the kinds of films and television series he's worked on too especially locally.

William Shakespeare & Others: Collaborative Plays. Edited by Jonathan Bate and Eric Rasmussen.

Books  Oh the apocrypha, the elusive, teasing Shakespeare apocrypha, plays which somewhere along the line, either because a publisher ambiguously slapped some initials on a title page or wedged new texts into a reprint of the Folio edition and may, or is most often the case, may not contain the words of one of literature’s great geniuses. Or the anonymous plays which critical and theatrical tradition has been suggested to have a glancing connection with him. Or the works, solidly attributed to someone else, but which may still contain his hand in later additions. It’s got to the point where you can’t definitely say how many plays are in Shakespeare’s canon any more.

Which is the point of the multiple authored William Shakespeare & Others: Collaborative Plays. Having produced their sumptuous “complete works” a few years ago based on the First Folio, the RSC in a companion volume, turns its attention towards everything else, the list of plays that show signs of Shakespeare attention, in a couple of speeches, odd scenes or through later adaptation, once again highlighting that he wasn’t a man who worked alone and utilising centuries of literary criticism attempts an arbitration as to what should be considered canonical and what has been simple wishful thinking and then producing properly edited versions of those considered worthy enough.

Jonathan Bates’s general introduction introduces the concept of Shakespeare’s canon and then offers a brief history of the apocrypha which is in general the result of the good faith of critics desperate to increase Shakespeare’s canon and printers who in bad faith and greed were desperate to do the same. Literary criticism has changed markedly over time. In the past, whole texts would be dismissed as being unworthy of Shakespeare with little regard for outside evidence especially if they were collaborative and only relatively recently has the “problem” been considered more scientifically or dispassionately, with a more evidentiary approach to these works relying heavily on biographical knowledge and textual comparison.

The majority of the volume contains the selected plays and there are a few surprises or at least seem so until Will Sharpe’s section on Authorship and Attribution explains some of their workings out. The proof copy I was sent to review only contains Arden of Faversham, The Spanish Tragedy and Sir Thomas Moore, all of which are now pretty much assumed to have had Shakespeare’s hand in them somehow, however minimally and all are treated with the same care and attention in the complete works with an introduction covering the play’s themes and key facts boxes containing a synopsis, summary of authorship, creation date, sources and publication history followed by textual notes.

But undoubtedly the most compelling section of the volume is Sharpe’s as the methodology of textual analysis is investigated before explanations are given for the inclusion of each of the plays in the volume, with justifications for omissions included as an epilogue. In what must have been a superhuman task, the writer must have read through dozens of volumes, acres of print as forces for an against passages and plays fought with each other across time, usually directly criticising each other’s ignorance about what constitutes Shakespeare and whether a play under consideration fits within their criteria. Speeches, lines, even individual words have been scrutinised to the point where the dramatic elements of these dramas almost becomes beside the point.

Of those chosen, some plays feel like a given: Arden of Faversham, Edward III, Sir Thomas Moore and most lately The Spanish Tragedy 1602 and Double Falsehood. Locrine with its teasing W.S. on its printed title page is included because there simply isn’t enough evidence that those initials don’t mean William Shakespeare. Thomas Lord Cromwell is utilised as an example of the collaborative nature of theatre companies, Shakespeare possibly having been in the room when it was written. The London Prodigal and A Yorkshire Tragedy are both atypical but contain passages of a literary complexity, which might betray his presence. The new outlier is Mucedorus which computer analysis has thrust into the limelight after years of dismissal.

Between the lines, the background theme, and this is especially true of the omitted plays, is that once a work, especially an anonymous work, has been thrown out of Shakespeare’s orbit, there’s little appetite in discovering who the author actually might be, which is another example of the inbuilt snobbery which overhangs Shakespeare’s contemporaries whose work has become eclipsed by Shakespeare across the years. No serious textual analysis has been done on Thomas Lord Cromwell other than to disprove Shakespeare’s involvement and though it’s not widely considered to be a “great” play, it could be an important part of another author’s story, but because the world’s not interested in other author’s stories, we might not ever know.

This is frustrating. If there’s a greatest theme to the book it is that Shakespeare should never be viewed in isolation and that, because he did collaborate with is contemporaries, it’s important to pay attention to the great worth of those contemporaries. The shift in complexity in his plays in the Jacobian period wasn’t some whim but a reaction to the changing tastes of the market with the likes of Measure for Measure his attempt to create his own version of the city dramas being produced by Dekker, Fletcher, Jonson and the rest. But their work is so little produced (because of a self-perpetuating disinterest) that someone approaching these aspects of Shakespeare’s career for the first time will find them someone alien (as I did at school).

The volume ends with Peter Kirwan interviewing theatre professionals about the challenges of producing these plays and the extent to which Shakespeare’s potential authorship effects their work. For the most part the answer is simply that it doesn’t, that it’s about serving the story and characters and themes and that it’s generally left to the marketing department to decide on the extent to which they want to highlight the connection. But there is some recognition that they’re pioneers because most of the audience will be seeing these plays for the first time unaware of the story and characters and themes. Perhaps the best legacy for this volume would be for that to change.

William Shakespeare & Others: Collaborative Plays. Edited by Jonathan Bate and Eric Rasmussen. Published by Palgrave Macmillan. RRP: £25.00. ISBN-13: 978-1137271440. Out now. Review copy supplied.

William Shakespeare & Others: Collaborative Plays. Edited by Jonathan Bate and Eric Rasmussen.

Oh the apocrypha, the elusive teasing Shakespeare apocrypha, plays which somewhere along the line, either because a publisher ambiguously slapped some initials on a title page or wedged new texts into a reprint of the Folio edition and may, or is most often the case, may not contain the words of one of literature’s great geniuses. Or the anonymous plays which critical and theatrical tradition has been suggested to have a glancing connection with him. Or the works, solidly attributed to someone else, but which may still contain his hand in later additions. It’s got to the point where you can’t definitely say how many plays are in Shakespeare’s canon any more.

Which is the point of the multiple authored William Shakespeare & Others: Collaborative Plays. Having produced their sumptuous “complete works” a few years ago based on the First Folio, the RSC in a companion volume, turns its attention towards everything else, the list of plays that show signs of Shakespeare attention, in a couple of speeches, odd scenes or through later adaptation, once again highlighting that he wasn’t a man who worked alone and utilising centuries of literary criticism attempts an arbitration as to what should be considered canonical and what has been simple wishful thinking and then producing properly edited versions of those considered worthy enough.

Jonathan Bates’s general introduction introduces the concept of Shakespeare’s canon and then offers a brief history of the apocrypha which is in general the result of the good faith of critics desperate to increase Shakespeare’s canon and printers who in bad faith and greed were desperate to do the same. Literary criticism has changed markedly over time. In the past, whole texts would be dismissed as being unworthy of Shakespeare with little regard for outside evidence especially if they were collaborative and only relatively recently has the “problem” been considered more scientifically or dispassionately, with a more evidentiary approach to these works relying heavily on biographical knowledge and textual comparison.

The majority of the volume contains the selected plays and there are a few surprises or at least seem so until Will Sharpe’s section on Authorship and Attribution explains some of their workings out. The proof copy I was sent to review only contains Arden of Faversham, The Spanish Tragedy and Sir Thomas Moore, all of which are now pretty much assumed to have had Shakespeare’s hand in them somehow, however minimally and all are treated with the same care and attention in the complete works with an introduction covering the play’s themes and key facts boxes containing a synopsis, summary of authorship, creation date, sources and publication history followed by textual notes.

But undoubtedly the most compelling section of the volume is Sharpe’s as the methodology of textual analysis is investigated before explanations are given for the inclusion of each of the plays in the volume, with justifications for omissions included as an epilogue. In what must have been a superhuman task, the writer must have read through dozens of volumes, acres of print as forces for an against passages and plays fought with each other across time, usually directly criticising each other’s ignorance about what constitutes Shakespeare and whether a play under consideration fits within their criteria. Speeches, lines, even individual words have been scrutinised to the point where the dramatic elements of these dramas almost becomes beside the point.

Of those chosen, some plays feel like a given: Arden of Faversham, Edward III, Sir Thomas Moore and most lately The Spanish Tragedy 1602 and Double Falsehood. Locrine with its teasing W.S. on its printed title page is included because there simply isn’t enough evidence that those initials don’t mean William Shakespeare. Thomas Lord Cromwell is utilised as an example of the collaborative nature of theatre companies, Shakespeare possibly having been in the room when it was written. The London Prodigal and A Yorkshire Tragedy are both atypical but contain passages of a literary complexity, which might betray his presence. The new outlier is Mucedorus which computer analysis has thrust into the limelight after years of dismissal.

Between the lines, the background theme, and this is especially true of the omitted plays, is that once a work, especially an anonymous work, has been thrown out of Shakespeare’s orbit, there’s little appetite in discovering who the author actually might be, which is another example of the inbuilt snobbery which overhangs Shakespeare’s contemporaries whose work has become eclipsed by Shakespeare across the years. No serious textual analysis has been done on Thomas Lord Cromwell other than to disprove Shakespeare’s involvement and though it’s not widely considered to be a “great” play, it could be an important part of another author’s story, but because the world’s not interested in other author’s stories, we might not ever know.

This is frustrating. If there’s a greatest theme to the book it is that Shakespeare should never be viewed in isolation and that, because he did collaborate with is contemporaries, it’s important to pay attention to the great worth of those contemporaries. The shift in complexity in his plays in the Jacobian period wasn’t some whim but a reaction to the changing tastes of the market with the likes of Measure for Measure his attempt to create his own version of the city dramas being produced by Dekker, Fletcher, Jonson and the rest. But their work is so little produced (because of a self-perpetuating disinterest) that someone approaching these aspects of Shakespeare’s career for the first time will find them someone alien (as I did at school).

The volume ends with Peter Kirwan interviewing theatre professionals about the challenges of producing these plays and the extent to which Shakespeare’s potential authorship effects their work. For the most part the answer is simply that it doesn’t, that it’s about serving the story and characters and themes and that it’s generally left to the marketing department to decide on the extent to which they want to highlight the connection. But there is some recognition that they’re pioneers because most of the audience will be seeing these plays for the first time unaware of the story and characters and themes. Perhaps the best legacy for this volume would be for that to change.

William Shakespeare & Others: Collaborative Plays. Edited by Jonathan Bate and Eric Rasmussen. Published by Palgrave Macmillan. RRP: £25.00. ISBN-13: 978-1137271440. Out now. Review copy supplied.

BBC 1963: May.

BBC News: Climber Jim Whittaker retraces historic Everest ascent
"On May 1, 1963, Jim Whittaker climbed into history, becoming the first American to reach the highest point on Earth - the summit of Mount Everest. Fifty years later, he is still one of the most highly regarded mountaineers of all time. Last year, at the age of 83, he returned to the mountain with his family. Now aged 84, he looks back at his historic climb and the perspective he gained from standing at 29,000ft (8,848m)."

David Bailey - Recreation of an Iconic Photograph
"Photographer Rankin recreates a famous photographic image. He works alongside David Bailey on the famous 1963 Vogue picture of model Jean Shrimpton using 60s photographic technology."

Adventure: Quest under Capricorn
"David Attenborough visits the Northern Territory of Australia"

Panorama: Race riots in Birmingham, Alabama, 1963
"American scientific advancement is contrasted with the more primitive problem of racial antagonism. British reporter Robin Day details the large presence of Federal troops in Birmingham, Alabama, as a result of violence between police and demonstrators, including school children, who were trying to force desegregation in Birmingham. Robin Day also reports from a meeting in a church where a fiery speaker demands action. First broadcast in Panorama on 13 May 1963."

Panorama: Desegregation in Birmingham, Alabama, 1963
"British reporters interview Martin Luther King on the non-violent campaign to desegregate Birmingham, Alabama, USA, in 1963. Martin Luther King responds to a series of questions about the involvement of school children in protests. He expresses his views on the actions of the US government to bring about desegregation and other improvements in civil rights. His questions are put to the Attorney General in clip 5232. First broadcast in Panorama on 13 May 1963."

Panorama: Views of the Civil Rights Law in Birmingham, Alabama, 1963
"Eugene Connor, Public Safety Commissioner, is interviewed by British news reporter Robin Day on his views about the Civil Rights campaigns taking place in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963. This is followed and contrasted with an interview with Martin Luther King in which he refuses to criticise Connor, but to some extent expresses sympathy for him and uses his opponent's views as a platform to explain his own non-violent approach. The two interviews were first broadcast in Panorama on 13 May 1963 and Encounter on 23 December 1964."

Witness: Race riots in Birmingham, Alabama, 1963
"Robin Day reports on the 1963 civil rights demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama for Panorama. In the spring of 1963, Martin Luther King organised a large-scale protest campaign in Birmingham, Alabama, where Governor George Wallace had declared his total support for segregation. There was serious violence - the Alabama state police brutally attacked the marchers, using fire hoses, dogs, and tear gas - King and other leaders were arrested."

Panorama: Civil Rights: Alabama 1963
"In 1963, BBC reporter Robin Day reported for Panorama from Birmingham, Alabama. At the time, the US deep south was at the centre of the civil rights struggle of African-Americans. In the middle of a lengthy campaign of protest, headed by Martin Luther King, Day discovered just how deep racial segregation was and how the pressure brought by King and others eventually forced the local government to change the city's discrimination laws. This is an abridged version of Panorama which was first broadcast on 13 May 1963."

The Beatles live in Cardiff, 1963
"The Beatles performed at the Capitol Cinema, where they returned on two other occasions. Also on the bill, in order of appearance, were the Terry Young Six, Ian Crawford, Louise Cordet, David Macbeth, Gerry and the Pacemakers, comedian Erkey Grant, and Roy Orbison."

Pavarotti: 50 years since singer's forgotten UK debut
"Nan Murray and Margaret Smyth return to the Grand Opera House in Belfast 50 years after they performed there with Luciano Pavarotti. Peter Coulter reports for BBC Newsline."

"Did I ever tell ya? Best temp in Chiswick. Hundreds words per minute."

Dr Who reception, a photo by The British Monarchy on Flickr.

Doctor Who at the BBC: Radio Solent Collection.

Radio The Richard Latto show on Radio Solent has collected together a number of clips related to Doctor Who on their website and collectively they look for wall the world like an audio Doctor Who Magazine. There's the star interviews with John (Benton) Levene and Stuart (Alpha Centuri) Fell, archive piece with Sue Webb the production secretary on The Daleks/The Mutants/whatever, nuWho interview with monster man Kevin Hudson and interviews about missing episodes with Paul Vanezis of the Doctor Who Restoration team and findees Terry Burnett and David Stead.  That should keep you busy until Thursday.

The Doctor's Waking Life.

TV This rather lovely animation [via] reminds me of Richard Linklater's Waking Life, which is itself full of quotes which might as well be about Doctor Who or quotes about and from the Time Lord himself.

"The trick is to combine your waking rational abilities with the infinite possibilities of your dreams. Because, if you can do that, you can do anything." -- Guy Forsyth.

"Life is a matter of a miracle that is collected over time by moments flabbergasted to be in each others presence." -- Speed Levitch.

"They say that dreams are only real as long as they last. Couldn't you say the same thing about life?" -- Man with the Long Hair.

"The ongoing WOW is happening right NOW." -- Speed Levitch.

"Resistance is not futile, we're gonna win this thing, humankind is too good, we're not a bunch of under-achievers! We're gonna stand up, and we're gonna be human beings. We're going to get fired up about the real things, the things that matter! Creativity, and the dynamic human spirit that refuses to submit." -- Alex Jones

"The idea is to remain in a state of constant departure while always arriving." -- Boat Car Guy.

"What you do makes a difference. We should never simply write ourselves off and see ourselves as the victim of various forces. It's always our decision who we are." -- Philosophy Professor.

"There's only one instant, and it's right now. And it's eternity." -- Pinball Playing Man.