Tuesday 21 November 2023

I never took the time

And, so, farewell then, Joss Ackland (who died on the weekend) - a man with the most mellifluous voice; his career ranged from his earliest beginnings in the Old Vic's theatre company alongside the likes of Maggie Smith, Judi Dench and Tom Courtenay to Z-Cars to Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, to starring roles in White Mischief and The Mighty Ducks, taking in lead roles in the original stage versions of Evita and A Little Night Music in-between. He appeared in everything from Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey to the Royal Shakespeare Company's King Lear - and this!

RIP, Sidney Edmond Jocelyn Ackland CBE (29th February 1928 – 19th November 2023)

By way of a finale, one for Mitzi and Ms Scarlet, who were having a recent conversation about the place, this:

It's a lovely and charismatic place, indeed - all made better by that voice...

14 comments:

  1. Such a beautiful voice and expressive face.

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  2. Another sad loss.
    But that was a sweet tribute to Clovelly, my favourite Devon place.

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    1. I've only been once, and found it utterly magical! Shame it's so commercialised, though - it's the only time I was ever charged an entrance fee to visit a village! Jx

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  3. Last time I was there...a cracking great storm blew in and three coaches, full of Northern tourists, were trapped in a big ol' barn and complained loudly that they "di'nt think mooch o' 'ospipibloodytatlity."
    No entry fee back then!

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  4. He did have a splendid voice didn't he. Thank you, Jon, for finding this clip, it makes me want to pop out for another visit. I also love Hartland, but I hadn't heard the story about the cannibals in the caves before!!
    Sx

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    1. Clovelly's not far from you, is it? A lovely day out in the summer! Jx

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    2. Saying that - if you pop down in a few days, you might catch the funeral cortège! I wonder if they use donkeys to pull the hearse? Jx

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    3. Yes, it’s very close. North Devon can be wilder than the south. I think they also use Land Rovers on a back lane to take tourists who can’t walk very well to the hotels. I’m sure Mr Ackland will go out in style.
      North Devon has emergency helicopters for when things get desperate - one came for my neighbour who fell off his barn roof.
      Sx

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  5. I reckon his wife will sit astride his coffin and someone will follow behind booting it down the cobbles. Do they still feast on human flesh there?

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    1. That'd be one hell of a send-off! Just don't touch the vol-au-vents... Jx

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  6. A great loss and a great actor.
    Love the pet shop boys video but never understood what the intro was about.
    Its quotes from a 1987 film called 'It Couldn't Happen Here'
    " I smell youth... vintage youth.
    I'm glad you asked me twice. You see I'm a bilingual. A bilingual illiterate - I can't read in two languages."

    Fab though it is, I'm still none the wiser why it is in the video.

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    1. It Couldn't Happen Here was the Pet Shop Boys' own "vanity film project" (it starred Mr Ackland, Barbara Windsor and Gareth Hunt, among others), so I assume it was a relatively cost-effective thing to do, cutting a three-minute pop video out of the rest of the film... Jx

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