Museum Piece

Why was I wandering around an industrial estate in Birkenhead last weekend with my friend Scott? The answer may surprise you!

I was here to visit the Bloom Building, an events space on the edge of Birkenhead town centre, conveniently located between Cammell Laird shipyard and the Queensway Tunnel toll plaza. The event this space was hosting on 25th March was The Big Chat about the Transport Shed from National Museums Liverpool (NML).

Exterior of Bloom Building, an industrial corrugated metal building painted in blue and yellow with bright patterns.

The subject of the event was NML’s extensive Land Transport collection, which includes more than 200 items. As part of the event, there were activities for kids, a guitarist playing transport-related pop songs – a thankless task when no-one in the room was paying the slightest bit of attention – and trinkets from the museum’s collection on show.

The main attraction, though, was a talk given by senior persons at NML, about some exciting plans that they have for the future of the collection.

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For the love of PO’G

Desperately sad news about the untimely death of Paul O’Grady at the age of just 67. Social media has predictably been full of tributes, with nobody having a bad word to say about him.

O’Grady, originally from Birkenhead, made his name performing as Lily Savage in the Royal Vauxhall Tavern in London in the 1980s. This was a time when gay men were routinely persecuted by authority, and on one occasion the pub was raided by police while Savage was on stage. This time marked the height of people’s ignorance about AIDS, and the police turned up wearing rubber gloves. Savage’s glorious riposte, “It looks like we’ve got help with the washing up,” got her arrested.

Savage was later recruited to conduct celebrity interviews on The Big Breakfast, gleefully sailing close to the line every morning, as this interview with Julian Clary shows. Later she moved to prime-time BBC One, and Blankety Blank was required viewing for me on Saturday teatimes. Unfortunately a lot of Savage’s humour had to be cut from the early evening broadcast, but luckily for us somebody saved the the outtakes, which are incredible.

Travel documentaries such as Paul O’Grady’s Orient allowed O’Grady to appear on TV as himself rather than Savage. More followed – a chat show on ITV, which moved to Channel 4, then back to ITV.

He became well-known for his love of animals, forming close ties with Battersea Dogs Home and running a farm in Kent. However, as his fame and wealth grew, he never forgot his working class roots. There was no better illustration of that than his fine rant about the Tories on live TV in 2010, which hopefully gave some ITV executives palpitations.

Whether it was as himself, or as Lily Savage, O’Grady’s presence was a massive step forward for LGBT representation on screen. Don’t underestimate the power of seeing a drag queen on mainstream television.

Channel 4 News on YouTube has a look-back over O’Grady’s life and a nice interview with his friend, the actor and Labour peer Michael Cashman.

Vigesimal Views

This isn’t quite the blog post I intended to write today.

You see, today is the 20th anniversary of me starting my original blog over at roberthampton.me.uk. My first post hit the internet at 10.37am on 22nd March 2003. It seems like a long time ago – not least because that day was a Saturday, and the idea that I would actually be out of bed at that time on a weekend seems fanciful now.

Screenshot of Robert Hampton's website as it looked in April 2003, with plain grey header graphics and black text on a white background

The following decade or so was fruitful, but then there was a gap between 30th December 2015 and 31st August 2017 when I deliberately stopped the blog. Even when I started up again at the new hampo.uk address, there were the two rather barren years of 2020 and 2021, when I hadn’t officially stopped the blog but still didn’t write much at all.

I came back in January 2022 promising to write more, and I hope I mostly lived up to that. It helps that, with lockdown restrictions lifted, and now an actual boyfriend to enjoy social events with, I have been getting out a lot more.

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Queer joy

The final show in our London theatrical trilogy was My Son’s a Queer (But what can you do?) at the Ambassador’s Theatre.

Rob Madge has created a one-person show largely based on their family’s home videos, most of which depict Rob’s childhood where they regularly staged shows in the family living room, roping in their tolerant parents to stage parades, re-enact films in the front room and turn the house into Disneyland (complete with theme park rides).

Rob’s school was less supportive. Cuttings from their school reports show exasperated teachers criticise Rob’s flair for the dramatic and difficulty making friends. Thankfully for Rob, their family continued to support them, enrolling them in a stage school. They were soon performing in plays on the West End, including Oliver!, Les Miserables and Matilda. Although it is just Rob on stage throughout, their family is present so much in the videos, that by the end of the show you feel like you know them.

A beautiful, uplifting show that demonstrates how a loving family can make all the difference to a child. The message for parents is one that is more crucial now than ever: allow your kids to be who they are, and to hell with what anyone else thinks. There’s plenty of laughs to be had at Rob’s precocious theatrical adventures, but it’s sure to leave you with a lump in your throat at the end.

My Son’s a Queer (But what can you do?) is on at the Ambassador’s Theatre until 1st April

Set of "My Son's a Queer"

Sardines

Play number two was a matinee of Noises Off at the Phoenix Theatre. This was the second time in months that we had been to the Phoenix, having seen Come from Away there just last year. We were in almost the same seats too.

Noises Off is, of course, the 1982 comedy by Michael Frayn, going behind the scenes of the production of a comedic play, which becomes even more farcical behind the scenes than it does in front. This new run, for several weeks in February and March, boasted a stellar cast, including Felicity Kendall, Matthew Kelly and the splendidly-named Hubert Burton.

The play starts with Mrs Clackett, the housekeeper, preparing some sardines for tea. It soon becomes clear that all is not well – she stumbles over her lines and gets confused over her props. From the wings comes the booming voice of the frustrated director, Lloyd Dallas, and it’s apparent that we are actually watching a rehearsal of a show. So Mrs Clackett is played by Dotty Otley, who is played by Felicity Kendall. Hope that is clear.

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Pledge of Allegiance

I was lucky enough to spend a few days in London last week, with my boyfriend Ben. Being the theatre-obsessed gays we are, we naturally managed to squeeze three shows into two days.

The first of these was Allegiance at the Charing Cross Theatre. After a run in Broadway in 2015-16, the show has transferred to London for a limited run, with its original star – Star Trek‘s George Takei – returning to his role.

The theatre itself was interesting, located under the railway arches on the approach to Charing Cross station – the play was punctuated by the rumbling of trains over our heads at regular intervals. The seating was arranged in an almost ‘in-the-round’ layout, with the audience either side of the stage. We actually had to walk across the set to reach our seats.

Set of Allegiance, showing barbed wire and huts of an internment camp. The audience sits either side.

Allegiance recalls the tale of the 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent who, upon the outbreak of war between the USA and Japan, were rounded up and forcibly relocated to internment camps. The show centres on the Kimura family, who are uprooted from a happy life on a Californian farm to be interned alongside many others in dusty rural Wyoming. Conditions in the camp are severe, with poor food, no medicine and military discipline.

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Own Goal

As Match of the Day goes out on BBC One, chopped to twenty minutes and with no studio punditry or even commentary on the action, here are some random thoughts on Gary Lineker’s tweet:-

  1. He is absolutely correct to point out similarities between the language being used now and that used in 1930s Germany.
  2. He is a sports presenter, so his views on issues outside of the sporting arena are irrelevant to his ability to do his job.
  3. Compare the reaction to that when Andrew Neil regularly spoke out on political matters, including calling Carole Cadwalladr a ‘crazy cat person’ after she exposed Brexit corruption.
  4. If Lineker had gone the other way and praised the government and its policies, there would have been no outrage and no suspensions – Tim Davie refused to deny this when asked about it earlier today. The BBC has capitulated to the right-wing ideologues again.

Lineker will be just fine whatever happens – his skills as a presenter and pundit will have him in high demand from sports channels. The BBC, I’m not so sure about. I cherish it and want to see it thrive, but it has lost its way on matters of impartiality and needs to have a good long rethink of its purpose and goals. A clearout of the Tories at the top couldn’t hurt either.

King Brilliant

Ben was nervous as we took our seats in the theatre. “I hope you like this,” he said. Several times.

It was partly my fault. When we went to see White Christmas a few months back, I mentioned that this wasn’t the sort of show I would normally see. White Christmas is a cosy sentimental, feel-good show – an old-fashioned good time which displays its 1950s origins clearly. I like my musicals contemporary, and ideally full of swearing and gay references. The Book of Mormon, Avenue Q, that sort of thing. Less wholesome, more holes.

I did go on to say that I had very much enjoyed White Christmas and was glad we had gone to see it. Nevertheless, my boyfriend was anxious about bringing me to see The King and I. A new production — with her off Call the Midwife in the lead role — but an old show, originally performed on Broadway in 1951.

It’s also Ben’s favourite musical. No pressure then.

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Whale of a Time

The Whale is a new film which released in cinemas a couple of weeks ago, and which I saw last Friday with Ben.

Brendan Fraser plays Charlie, an English teacher struggling with health problems caused by morbid obesity. He makes a living teaching courses online, never turning on his laptop camera. He orders pizza, ordering the delivery guy to leave it outside so he doesn’t have to interact.

Brendan Fraser wearing 'fat' make-up as Charlie in "The Whale"

Brendan’s only friend, Liz (played by Hong Chau) is a nurse who implores Charlie to go to hospital, but he refuses, not wanting to run up debts (that US healthcare system again).

Ty Simpkins plays Thomas, a Church missionary whose first encounter involves seeing Charlie in a compromising position (ahem) and subsequently decides it is his mission to save Charlie’s life, much to the chagrin of Liz who has had dealings with this church before.

Completing the cast is Sadie Sink as Charlie’s estranged daughter, Ellie, whom Charlie has not seen for years and now desperately wants to reconnect with.

The cast is great, but the star is undoubtedly Brendan Fraser, buried under a mountain of latex to make him look morbidly obese. This could easily have been a grotesque disaster, but Fraser gives an utterly compelling performance which carries the film. It’s impossible not to feel sympathy for Fraser’s character, as he wheezes and gasps his way around the apartment, struggling to even stand up. It’s fair to point out that some people have criticised the film for its portrayal of obesity – I suggest you watch and make up your own mind.

The film is set entirely in Charlie’s home, never venturing further than his bedroom or the front porch. This may be because of its roots as a stage play, but the film doesn’t need to go anywhere else. The claustrophobia adding to the tension, as Charlie declines over the course of a week.

Ben and I saw the film in a cinema where we were, shockingly, the only people in the auditorium. The people watching Magic Mike in the other screen missed something special. This film is an amazing experience, well worth two hours of your time. I hope Brendan Fraser, back in a leading role after a long time, gets some awards sent his way.

Liverpool calling

It’s been nearly four months since we got the fantastic news that Liverpool will host Eurovision 2023 on behalf of Ukraine.

Things went a little bit quiet after that. There was the announcement of the production team, and a fantastic New Year’s Eve show with Sam Ryder showing just how Eurovision can boost an artist, if they want it. But if there was activity behind the scenes, not much of it was in the public eye.

Things kicked up a gear on Monday with the unveiling of the theme for this year’s contest, United by Music, and the logo and graphics, which combine the colours of the UK and Ukraine.

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