SURELY one of the most famous of all action-packed adventures, John Buchan’s novel was famously filmed by Hitchcock in 1935, and has been adapted for film, radio and television many times since, with Kenneth More, Orson Welles, Robert Powell, and most recently Rupert Penry-Jones, taking on the role of 37-year-old amateur sleuth and gentleman Richard…
SHAKESPEARE’s The Winter’s Tale was presented by students following the International Acting Course at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. It was directed by Kim Durham, the course head. Often described as one of Shakespeare’s problem plays, the production itself was not without its problems, not all of which were solved in a totally satisfactory…
WE love France as much as the Dorset-born travelling chef Philippa Davis does, so when we saw her latest Postcard Recipe was cherry clafoutis, we couldn’t have been more pleased. It is one of our favourite puddings, redolent of warm days in the Midi, just totally French. Philippa has been down in the south of…
BRISTOL Old Vic Theatre School’s production of London Road is quite extraordinary. The story, both shocking and true, deals with the murder of five prostitutes in Ipswich in 2006, or, to be more precise, the effect these murders had on the residents of the street where they took place; it focuses very much on the…
IN Deadwood, where almost every shop offers gambling and Wild Bill Hickock is shot five times a day on Main Street, Mary Tautkus started her Chubby Chipmunk Chocolate shop ten years ago. She trained with the best in Belgium, and now makes truffles and various caramel delights, often with a gold flavour to match the…
IFORD Opera’s production of Puccini’s La Rondine marked my first ever visit to Iford. I hope I can be forgiven for thinking I had arrived in paradise; a picnic, a perfect English summer’s evening and the exquisite gardens of Iford Manor. All this and Puccini too – absolute bliss! La Rondine is one of Puccini’s…
NATIONAL Theatre Production: three words which for me ensure quality, high production values, top-class casting, attention to detail at every level, and a great programme, with plenty of quality background material. One Man, Two Guvnors lived up to these standards in every way possible. Most of what I had heard about the play was James…
THEY’RE back, they’re performing very nearby, and they’re just as good as they were last time, possibly even better! Living Spit theatre company have been given a tiny budget by Theatre Orchard and Artsreach to take free live theatre to villages in Somerset and Dorset, and following their hugely successful Six Wives of Henry VIII…
MANY towns no longer have an independent green-grocer (Shaftesbury, Bridport, Wimborne and Glastonbury are among the lucky ones) but if you have a Somerset or Dorset farmers market locally you will be able to get some of the freshest, most delicious and locally grown vegetables around. A couple of years ago Somerset Farmers Market organisers…
TRAVELLING chef Philippa Davis from Shaftesbury visits some of the most beautiful places in the world, cooking for clients in locations from the south of France to the north of Scotland. She was back in Scotland again in May, cooking for a dinner party for 18 people outside Edinburgh. After several trips to Scotland’s capital,…