A Regular Royal Queen

Today would have been the 80th birthday of the late, much-missed Mr George Logan, better known (of course) as "Doctor Evadne Hinge" [pictured left, above] - one half of one of the most enduring British drag acts of all time. By way of a celebration, here's an extract of my post way back in 2009:

Hinge and Bracket [for it is they] first became a double act with their regular bookings in the early 70s every Sunday lunchtime at a gay Kensington restaurant run by the iconic April Ashley. Their earliest breakthrough into the mainstream, however, was their smash hit appearance in 1974 at the Edinburgh Festival.

Patrick Fyffe (Dame Hilda Bracket) and George Logan (Dr Evadne Hinge) both had brilliant operatic singing voices, and their evocation of middle class gentility in the mythical "Stackton Tressel", suffused with smutty double-entendres, kept their flame alight until they were "discovered" by the BBC in 1977 - resulting in hit radio series such as The Enchanting World of Hinge and Bracket, followed by The Random Jottings of..., and At Home with....

As well as gracing us with their TV commercials for sherry, they appeared in two Royal Variety Performances, their own series of "Gala Evenings", starred on The Good Old Days, landed their own prime-time TV series Dear Ladies, and made a number of records. They also appeared in a televised Royal Opera House production of Die Fledermaus in 1983, conducted by Placido Domingo and starring Kiri Te Kanawa as Rosalinde.

Our own precious copy of the Best Of Hinge and Bracket is often on an evening's playlist, not least for the pair's superlative versions of We'll Gather Lilacs, Zigeuner and A Regular Royal Queen.

Sadly Patrick died in 2002; George moved to France to run a guest house - and departed to join him in Fabulon just last year. But we will never forget the sheer joy that Hinge and Bracket gave us...

Perfect "Sunday Music".

George Logan (7th July 1944 – 21st May 2023)

Hinge and Bracket official website

Late, lamented variety

I am having a verrry slow start to the day, as is my wont on the weekend.

Just having listened to Babs Windsor's fab show on BBC Radio 2 (in which she always does a "Music Hall" slot), I am now suitably woken up and in the mood for a couple of extracts from the late, lamented Good Old Days.



One of the longest-running variety shows the BBC ever had, for some bizarre reason it was axed in the early 80s. Such a shame, for during its thirty years at the top of the ratings, compèred by Leonard Sachs, it featured more than 2000 performers - among them the very best of British showbiz talent, including Morecambe and Wise, Bruce Forsyth, Georgia Brown, Roy Castle, Larry Grayson, Dora Bryan, Arthur Askey, Edward Woodward, Les Dawson, Gemma Craven, David Kernan, Beryl Reid, Bernard Cribbins, Barry Cryer, Sheila Steafel, Roy Hudd, June Whitfield, Frankie Vaughan, Hinge and Bracket, Ken Dodd, Ron Moody, Tessie O'Shea and Barbara Windsor herself, and special guests from America like Eartha Kitt and Dolores Gray...

...as well as these two camp favourites - Danny LaRue and John Inman:

Good Old Days selection 8 featuring Danny La Rue

Good Old Days selection 7 featuring John Inman

The Good Old Days indeed!

Regular Royal Queens

As the Edinburgh Festival draws to a close this week, it is worth reflecting that it was at this very festival 35 years ago that a certain magnificent pair of "old ladies" made their international debut.

Hinge and Bracket [for it is they] first became a double act with their regular bookings in the early 70s every Sunday lunchtime at a gay Kensington restaurant run by the iconic April Ashley. Their earliest breakthrough into the mainstream, however, was their smash hit appearance in 1974 at the Edinburgh Festival.

Patrick Fyffe (Dame Hilda Bracket) and George Logan (Dr Evadne Hinge) both had brilliant operatic singing voices, and their evocation of middle class gentility in the mythical "Stackton Tressel", suffused with smutty double-entendres, kept their flame alight until they were "discovered" by the BBC in 1977 - resulting in hit radio series such as The Enchanting World of Hinge and Bracket, followed by The Random Jottings of..., and At Home with....

As well as gracing us with their TV commercials for sherry, they appeared in two Royal Variety Performances, their own series of "Gala Evenings", starred on The Good Old Days, landed their own prime-time TV series Dear Ladies, and made a number of records. They also appeared in a televised Royal Opera House production of Die Fledermaus in 1983, conducted by Placido Domingo and starring Kiri Te Kanawa as Rosalinde.

Our own precious copy of the Best Of Hinge & Bracket is often on an evening's playlist, not least for the pair's superlative versions of We'll Gather Lilacs, Zigeuner and A Regular Royal Queen.

Sadly Patrick died in 2002, and George moved to France to run a guest house. But we will never forget the sheer joy that Hinge and Bracket gave us...

Hinge and Bracket official website