...but more this!
Yep, thanks to the showery Bank Holiday Weekend weather, our much-loved Grand Annual Picnic has had to be cancelled in favour of gathering at The Perseverance pub in Bloomsbury/Holborn for an all-day Film Club...
Should be fun!
Showing posts with label Rocky Horror Picture Show. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rocky Horror Picture Show. Show all posts
Sunday, 30 August 2026
Saturday, 6 June 2026
Don't judge a book by its cover
And so, farewell to the twinkly-eyed, devilishly handsome, suave and sophisticated Anthony Head, who died this week.
Many people associate him most, understandably, with his long-running character "Rupert Giles" in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I hardly ever watched the show.
Instead, like most Britons of a certain age, it is for this - the role that made him famous, the most romantic "soap opera" ["coffee opera", perhaps?] on telly in the 80s - that we remember him most!
He was so much more than that, needless to say. He had a much-lauded stage career, and as a singer released a few albums of solo work.
This, of course, was perhaps his most surprising role...
Don't get strung out...
RIP, Anthony Stewart Head (20th February 1954 – 1st June 2026)
Thursday, 14 August 2025
In another dimension, with voyeuristic intention
Happy National Allotments Week!
It's another snippets post, dear reader:
- National treasure in drag news: As if the casting of house fave gayer Olly Alexander, Dinnerladies' Shobna Gulati and the multi-talented TV stalwart Hugh Dennis weren't enough - the latest news from the National Theatre production of The Importance of Being Earnest is that none other than the magnificent Stephen Fry is donning the pince-nez, corset, taffeta and hat to play the redoubtable Lady Bracknell!
- You wouldn't fancy finding it in your bedroom news: A massive sixteen-inch stick insect, previously unknown to science, has been discovered in Australia. {{Shudders}}
- Speaking of "ewww" news: Fancy brushing your teeth with your own hair? Or even something made from it..? Me neither.
- Cheap sparkly accessories fans are bereft news: For the second time in seven years, high street tack emporium Claire's has hit serious financial trouble, and this time, the administrators have been called in. Shame. It was great for a last-minute adornment!
- Tabloid hypocrisy news: It's A-Level exam results day in the UK. Cue the newspapers simultaneously taking the moral high ground on the continuing Epstein scandal, while also featuring slighly dodgy photos of pretty seventeen-year-olds in summer gear leaping into the air outside schools...
- And finally: Today marks FIFTY YEARS since the legendary Rocky Horror Picture Show premiered at the Rialto Theatre [now a casino] in London! It's astounding...
And the weather? A lovely summer's day - a bit of a relief after the latest "mini-heatwave".
Sunday, 30 October 2016
Do the snatch, clean, and jerk
He shares his birthday with a mixed bag of luminaries that include Ruth Gordon, Christopher Columbus, Henry Winkler, Michael Winner, Grace Slick, Harry Hamlin, Juliet Stevenson, Stefan Dennis, Diego Maradona and... Charles Atlas!
In a sort of twisted acknowledgement of the latter, here's an old fave [and rather befitting, as an early Hallowe'en treat] to get the old dear up and dancing - Happy Birthday, John-John!
Apparently, in just seven days, he can make you a ma-a-a-a-an..."
The birthday party on Friday was heaps of fun! Shame I can't squeeze into that basque any more...
Tuesday, 18 February 2014
There's a ligh-i-i-ght...
Edina: "God, I hope you're not inviting that bloody, bollocky, selfish, two-faced, chicken bastard, pig-dog-man, are you??"
Saffy: "You could just say 'Dad!' I'd still know what you meant!"
Sad farewells today to actor and producer Christopher Malcolm, best known as Saffy's gay dad in Ab Fab, who has died aged 67.
Facts about Mr Malcolm:
- He was born in Aberdeen, was raised on a farm in British Columbia, Canada, and at 19 he returned to Britain to live with his grandmother in Essex.
- In his younger days he he shared a flat with Malcolm McDowell.
- He was the original Brad Majors in the Rocky Horror Show in the West End in 1974.
- He starred in films such as The Empire Strikes Back, Labyrinth and Highlander.
- Just days before his death, his latest project Oh What a Lovely War opened in London to glowing reviews.
And here he is as Brad, with Belinda Sinclair as Janet, on the original Over At The Frankenstein Place:
RIP, Christopher Malcolm (19th August 1946 – 15th February 2014)
Tuesday, 4 October 2011
An overabundance of original sin
"I look forward to being older, when what you look like becomes less and less an issue and what you are is the point."
"I was told I had an overabundance of original sin."
Happy 65th birthday today to Miss Susan Abigail Tomalin, better known as Susan Sarandon.
Her long movie career began at the end of the 1960s, and over the years she has appeared alongside such luminaries as Sophia Loren, Catherine Deneuve, Robert Redford and Marlon Brando among many many others. Miss Sarandon received five Academy Award nominations for best actress (for Atlantic City, Thelma & Louise, Lorenzo's Oil and The Client), before finally winning the award for Dead Man Walking in 1995. In between making what appears to be two movies a year she found time for a long relationship with Tim Robbins, with whom she had two kids.
She has appeared in some extremely camp cult movies over the years, has our Susan - we at Dolores Delargo Towers adored her in The Hunger and The Witches of Eastwick - but it was (of course) for her brilliant role as "Janet Weiss" in The Rocky Horror Picture Show that we love her the most...
Facts about Miss Sarandon:
- As with many "native" New Yorkers, her parentage is a mixture: in her case, Welsh and Italian.
- She claims to have invented the now commonly-used nickname "cougar" for women d'un certain age who date much younger men.
- Her support for many humanitarian and "left-leaning" causes, including anti-war, gay rights and abortion rights campaigns has led her to be a target of the US right-wing, and as such she was among the stars featured in the infamous and hilarious piss-take puppet movie Team America: World Police.
Thursday, 28 May 2009
You're into a time-slip...
This makes me feel a little old. Patricia Quinn, forever in our hearts as "Magenta" in The Rocky Horror Picture Show celebrates her 65th birthday today!
Unfortunately for Miss Quinn, she has never really been able to shake off the part that really made her a star around the globe - despite being a first-class actress, with roles in the classic series I, Claudius, Fortunes of War opposite Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson, and even Dr Who.
Facts about Patricia Quinn:
- She was born in Belfast.
- She was a Playboy Bunny Girl before becoming an actress.
- From her marriage to the late Sir Robert Stephens, she in fact "Lady Stephens".
- She is is stepmother to Robert's sons by marriage to Maggie Smith: Toby Stephens and Chris Larkin.
- Her nephew Jonny Quinn is the drummer of Snow Patrol.
- She became a London club hostess in 2006, and duetted on stage with Patrick Wolf.
Patricia Quinn, Lady Stephens (born 28th May 1944)
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