Why Barbara Shines in Sparrows Can't Sing

The other day I caught the 1963 film Sparrows Can't Sing for the very first time. Of course I was aware of it, mainly through Barbara Windsor's starring role and the fact it came from the legendary Joan Littlewood's Stratford East stable. Anyway, finding the time to actually sit down and watch it I quickly became hooked. It's magnificent. 

Sparrows tells the story of the East End of London in flux. The old traditions are all on display: the culture, the language, the range of ethnicities and backgrounds and the pride in who the characters are despite the obvious poverty. The early 1960s saw a great deal of change as this area began to recover from the ravages of the war. Bomb sites are still in evidence although the slums were being cleared and brand spanking new high rise blocks of flats were climbing into the sky. Joan Littlewood notoriously hated all the change, loving the old community feel of the East End. I can see the pros and cons of both sides of that argument but fast forward several decades and we can see how successful some of those new developments were in reality. Breaking up tight communities is never a good thing.

Anyway, the social commentary is the backdrop to this story but it's really important and fascinating for me. The film sprang to life thanks to a script from Stephen Lewis, the man behind Blakey in On The Buses. However the original premise came from Joan's revolutionary improvisational theatre techniques. The original play premiered at Joan's Theatre Royal, Stratford East three years earlier and the success of it led to it transferring to the West End amid much fanfare in 1961. Being loyal and with a beady eye for raw talent, Joan brought most of the cast from her theatre workshop production to the big screen and directed the film herself. 

The cast of characters are loud, proud and vivid. And the actors are thoroughly legendary. While James Booth and Barbara Windsor play the leading parts, the rogues gallery includes the likes of Roy Kinnear, Brian Murphy, Harry H Corbett, Arthur Mullard, Yootha Joyce, Victor Spinetti, Bob Grant, Murray Melvin, George Sewell, Barbara Ferris and Avis Bunnage. Littlewood certainly knew what she was doing and she nurtured each of these individual talents over countless productions. 

The main plot of the film sees Cockney sailor Charlie (Booth) return from a long trip overseas to find a great number of numbing changes to his old life. His home has been demolished and his wife Maggie (Windsor) is nowhere to be found. The film follows Charlie as he reconnects with old faces, friends and family in search of his wayward wife. This allows us to see large swathes of the authentic East End and meet many very typical characters, portrayed honestly but also with great affection. We quickly learn that Maggie isn't missing, she's now living in one of the new high-rise blocks with another man, a bus driver called Bert and a child or indeterminable parentage! While little of this is particularly shocking or out of the ordinary nowadays, portraying ordinary people with such real life issues was novel and added to the groundswell of so-called 'kitchen sink' drama. The rest of the film sees Charlie try to woo his wife back in typically colourful, memorable fashion.

James Booth was new to me, although I had seen him years ago in Zulu. He's magnificent in this film though - brooding, handsome, very much of his time. Deeply charismatic with a terrific screen presence. I think many will agree that the real star of the film however, is Barbara. Barbara had been acting for nearly a decade by this point, mainly in small film parts and television guest roles. She was experiencing her first taste of fame already though, on the small screen. The year before Sparrows was filmed Barbara had starred in the first series of The Rag Trade, a BBC sitcom. Her association with Joan Littlewood at Stratford East would make her a star, and this film launched her film career. 

Windsor is simply brilliant throughout the film. She can sing, she can do comedy and tug at the heart strings. Most of all, she's real. This is the Barbara I love and the Barbara that became somewhat lost on the big screen as she became more deeply involved in the Carry Ons. We saw her true talent re-emerge many years later in EastEnders thankfully, but I can't help but wish, having watched Sparrows Can't Sing, is that she'd made a few more films like this before launching herself fully into the Carry Ons. There was certainly a buzz around Babs immediately after Sparrows came out. The premiere of the film attracted a wealth of publicity and many celebrities attended. Barbara was nominated for a BAFTA and was courted by American agents, making appearances on U.S chat shows. Of course, there was a certain notoriety linked to the fame, as the Kray twins were always there or thereabouts as the film was made, with some even suggesting they can be glimpsed in the film itself. Cutting all that circus away though and it's clear to me just how talented Barbara was. Her star quality and natural confidence just burst out of the screen and she's a joy to watch.

So if you haven't seen Sparrows Can't Sing, look it up next time it's scheduled on the brilliant Talking Pictures TV. And if you're already a fan, why not brighten up your life with some pop art with a Theatre Workshop theme? Art & Hue has a wonderful range of 'From Stage to Screen' prints and Sparrows Can't Sing features amongst them. Find out more here: http://artandhue.com/plays/

And of course the Theatre Royal, Stratford East is still going strong and thriving in 2019. You can find out more about the theatre and its current productions right here: http://www.stratfordeast.com

You can follow me on Twitter @CarryOnJoan and on Instagram

From Stage to Screen: A New Range of Pop Art from Art & Hue

Art & Hue treads the boards for the new collection of stylish pop art inspired by plays adapted into films.

From the glitzy showbiz of musicals to the provocative black comedy of Joe Orton, Art & Hue has transformed images from the archives of Studiocanal into eight stylish pop art prints which celebrate iconic productions and actors.

All prints in the "From Stage to Screen" collection are available in three sizes and a wide choice of colour options, including a new combination of vibrant orange & purple inspired by posters from the 1968 production of "The Anniversary" starring Bette Davis.

The theatrical collection includes a re-imagined poster for the first all-British "talking picture" with sound released in 1929, "BlackMail" directed by Alfred Hitchcock, as well as Joe Orton's "Entertaining Mr Sloane" with Beryl Reid, Peter McEnery & Harry Andrews.

Screen doyenne Bette Davis in "The Anniversary" gets the Art & Hue treatment as does the cult B-movie sci-fi production of "Devil Girl From Mars" with Patricia Laffan.

The Edinburgh-set musical "Let's Be Happy" is pure Strictly-come-dancing ballroom glamour, with Tony Martin in his white tuxedo and Vera-Ellen as a high-kicking showgirl.

Completing the collection, ukelele king George Formby features in an illustrated reworking of "Turned Out Nice Again" and Barbara Windsor takes centre-stage as the prominent star of Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop production of "Sparrows Can't Sing".

A stylish way to bring the theatre into the home, the collection features Art & Hue's signature halftone style (halftone is an age-old technique that uses dots to make up the printed image, similar to newspapers or comic books).

Unlike traditional posters, which are printed on thin paper with inks that fade, Art & Hue creates giclée art prints, printed on 310gsm archival card, made from 100% cotton, with fine-art museum-grade pigment inks to last hundreds of years.

 

Usher stylish pop art prints into your home, exclusively online at artandhue.com/plays  

You can follow me on Twitter @CarryOnJoan and on Instagram

Carry On Watching: Tonight on Talking Pictures TV

 

Talking Pictures TV is showing a couple of very interesting and sadly, rarely seen British films later on this evening. Both feature strong, mostly dramatic performances from two leading ladies who we know best for their comedy work.

First up is the 1972 film, The Best Pair of Legs in the Business. This film tells the rather sad story of an ambitious, yet pretty talentless entertainer at a holiday camp. His obsession with the business and still having a chance to make it in the profession means that he's blind to the fact the rest of his life is falling apart. The lead in the film is On the Buses favourite Reg Varney. This was a very brave role to take on following several years as the star of one of the most popular knockabout sitcoms on British television of the time. Not surprisingly, the public didn't take to the change of pace and the film performed poorly. However The Best Pair of Legs does feature a wonderful co-starring role for Diana Coupland as Varney's wife Mary. Diana is of course best known for her role as Jean, long-suffering wife of Sid James in the long running ITV comedy series, Bless This House. I've always been a big fan of Diana's and it's great to see her take on a different kind of role in this film.

 

The Best Pair of Legs in the Business will be on Talking Pictures TV this evening at 10pm.

Now to a better known film perhaps, although you may need to set your recorders for this showing! I'm a big fan of A Taste of Honey, however the tone and content of the film means I have to be in the right mood for it. The film features extremely strong performances from its small cast of excellent actors, including a young Rita Tushingham, Maggie Smith's first husband Robert Stephens, the great Paul Danquah and Theatre Workshop and Stratford East regular, Murray Melvin. A Taste of Honey was the first play by the British dramatist Shelagh Delaney, written when she was just 18 years old. The play was first produced by Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop and was premiered at the Theatre Royal Stratford East in May 1958. 

 

A Taste of Honey is set in North West England in the 1950s. It tells the story of Jo, a seventeen-year-old working class girl, and her mother, Helen, who is presented as crude and sexually indiscriminate. Helen leaves Jo alone in their new flat after she begins a relationship with Peter, a rich lover who is younger than her. At the same time Jo begins a romantic relationship with Jimmy, a black sailor. He proposes marriage but then goes to sea, leaving Jo pregnant and alone. She finds lodgings with a homosexual acquaintance, Geoffrey, who assumes the role of surrogate father. Helen returns after leaving her lover and the future of Jo's new home is put into question.

A Taste of Honey was and remains a really important film for the way it tackled issues such as race, class and sexual orientation head on at a time when, while these issues existed and affected the people of Britain, they were not yet openly discussed in film. The film features a stunning dramatic (albeit with comedic edges) performance from the wonderful Dora Bryan, again probably best known for her comedy roles. Three years after her role as Norah in the first ever Carry On, Carry On Sergeant, Dora proves what a capable, strong and truthful dramatic actress she could be in the role of Helen.

 

A Taste of Honey will be on Talking Pictures TV tonight at midnight.



You can watch Talking Pictures TV on: Virgin 445 / Freeview 81 / Sky Channel 343 / Freesat 306 / Youview 81

You can follow me on Twitter @CarryOnJoan on Facebook and on Instagram

Celebrating Dame Babs at 80

 

Dame Barbara Windsor is 80 years old today. It's hard to believe the evergreen star is celebrating this milestone yet at the same time it feels like Barbara has been a national institution for ever! Barbara's story is well known and oft repeated however her life has been as dramatic as her career has been varied and while she has never been my favourite member of the Carry On team, I do admire Babs for many reasons.

She only made nine original Carry On films compared to Joan's 24 and Hattie's 14 however her personality was so strong and the characters she played have become part of the British way of life. Who can forget Barbara in that nurses outfit in Carry On Doctor, or her infamous "three hearts" costume from Again Doctor? And what about her famous bra-popping sequence in Carry On Camping? So many iconic moments in only nine films, yet Barbara was terribly typecast in the Carry Ons and her career suffered for a long time as a result. While Joan, Hattie and the others played a variety of characters and had a varied body of work elsewhere, Barbara's early promise as an actress fell by the wayside once she was part of the Carry On crew.

Early success working for the legendary Joan Littlewood at Stratford East led to starring roles in films like Sparrows Can't Sing and theatre productions like Oh! What a Lovely War! and The Threepenny Opera. She had success of television too with a prominent role in the BBC comedy series The Rag Trade. However that image of the bubbly Cockney blonde with comedy firmly aimed at her bust and her appearance proved hard to shift. This is why I admire Dame Barbara. She's probably at her own admission not the greatest actress that ever lived, however through sheer hard work, determination and perseverance, Barbara has forged a lasting, rounded and successful career which has given her a permanent place in our national consciousness, made her a firm favourite across generations and led to a Damehood. Not bad for a little girl from the East End.

There were fallow years in the 1980s when Carry On humour was out of fashion and nobody would take her seriously as a legitimate actress but Babs kept going, even if it meant sleeping on the floor in dingy end of the pier dressing rooms before one nighters of her one woman show and pantomimes all over the joint. There were failed relationships, scandals and health issues but Barbara has always bounced back. Those doubting her credentials as an actress were silenced when she joined the cast of EastEnders in 1994 in what would be a mammoth 16 year run as Queen VIc Landlady Peggy Mitchell. As Peggy, Barbara returned to the centre of the British entertainment industry and everyone fell in love with her all over again. As well as bringing much-needed life and light to the rather depressing London soap opera, Windsor was also given serious, gritty storylines to get her teeth into. I remember to this day how impressed I was by her portrayal of Peggy during the character's battle with breast cancer and the fall out from her husband Frank's affair with Pat Butcher. Such touching, emotional and raw performances surprised many but confirmed to the rest of us what a class act Babs is and always has been.

 

Barbara took risks too - who can forget when her character was at the centre of a scandal when she voiced some truly dreadful opinions on the subject of HIV and AIDS? This wasn't cuddly, fluffy old Babs, this was an actor playing a troubling, difficult and challenging part. There is no doubt that EastEnders put Barbara firmly back in the spotlight and she immediately looked happy again. That, together with a long and successful marriage to husband Scott and she was in a good place again. Following the dramatisation of Barbara's relationships with co-stars Sid James and Kenneth Williams in the play Cleo, Camping, Emmannuelle and Dick in the late 1990s, a television drama was made in 2000, Cor Blimey! This was followed up only this year by the BBC's telling of Barbara's tale: Babs.

Barbara faced some criticism when she was made a Dame however I think that's just sour grapes. Barbara Windsor has endured for decades and has become very much a part of who we are as a nation. Yes, she's not Judi Dench or Maggie Smith but so what? She's carved out a wonderful career across all media and she's still going strong as she approaches her landmark 80th birthday. Thank you Babs for continuing to fly the Carry On flag so many years after the vast majority of the glorious, talented colleagues have sadly left us. Long may your star continue to shine.

 

You can follow me on Twitter @CarryOnJoan on Facebook and on Instagram

Favourites in Five: Judy Matheson

 

I started a brand new series of blogs last week, asking some of my favourite people to write in about the five most important influences on their lives from the world of theatre, film and television. You can read Sarah Miller Walters' wonderful blog here

Today it's the turn of the actress Judy Matheson. Judy has enjoyed a career that has taken in Hammer Horror (Twins of Evil, Lust for a Vampire); European cinema (The Exquisite Cadaver) and comedy films such as Percy's Progress and Confessions of a Window Cleaner. On the small screen Judy has worked on The Professionals, Citizen Smith, The Sweeney, Blake's 7, Crossroads and the first ever colour episode of Coronation Street (which you can read about here). Judy also worked on Michael Apted's The Shooting War and Charles Wood's The Emergence of Anthony Purdy Esq. 

I'm delighted that Judy has agreed to write a blog for me on her greatest influences, so let's find out who they are and more importantly, why she has chosen them:

 

When I sat down to think about this, the first major hurdle was cutting it down to five, so many were the admired influencers throughout my life. The filtering process was hard!

However one name stands out for me above all others. My favourite actor, often described as the greatest actor ever – yes, it’s MARLON BRANDO. From the earliest days of On The Waterfront & Streetcar, his mesmeric performances, the potent combination of realism & dynamism, completely captivated me. I can’t remember quite when I started to watch his films – I think it was the middle teenage years when I would travel up from rural Essex to the Academy in Oxford Street. What treats those trips were. I loved all his performances, even in fairly dire film fare such as ‘Teahouse of the August Moon’& ‘Bedtime Story’. Well, I just loved him!

And talking of travelling up to the exciting metropolis during my formative years, another great name springs to mind. I would wave my parents off on what seemed to me visits to the theatre that were the epitome of alternative glamour. The only problem was that I was deemed too young to join them; some of the output was considered too risqe! How I longed to be old enough to see such amazing shows such as ‘Fings ain’t Wot they Used To Be,’ ‘The Hostage’ & ‘A Taste of Honey. But my time did come & suddenly I was old enough to go to what was to become my favourite theatrical venue, run by that indomitable theatrical revolutionary genius JOAN LITTLEWOOD. I was able to see such plays as ‘Sparrers Can’t Sing’ & the superb ‘Oh What A Lovely War’ - the latter remaining one of the finest pieces of theatre I have ever seen. Joan Littlewood had not been dubbed ‘The Mother of Modern Theatre’ for nothing. And of course, Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop gave us such extraordinarily talented performers as Brian Murphy, Barbara Windsor, Yootha Joyce, Harry H Corbett & so many more.

The third great influence might be a surprise to anyone who knows my work. But it is another great theatre director, a man the theatre critic Michael Billington calls ‘the most influential director of modern times’. And, reader, I worked for him! After drama school, I was working in Harrods toy department, as you do, ( when you are an out-or-work actor trying to get a first job) when I received a call from The Bristol Old Vic Company, saying the legendary director SIR TYRONE GUTHRIE was auditioning for a theatre tour that was to take three Shakespearean productions all round the world, including a stint on Broadway! 

 

Well, I was full of misgivings & self- doubt, but I duly took the train to Bristol where, with several other aspiring actors, I was asked to run across the stage & scream ! ( Yes, folks, the very beginning of what’s been dubbed my ‘Scream Queen ‘career!) And blow me if I wasn’t asked to stay behind and rehearse with the rest of the company there & then for small parts & understudying for this forthcoming theatrical tour. I had got the job!

I was astonished and honoured to be selected by this great man, particularly as he had a reputation for considering the tiniest part as crucially important to the whole. And the legacy and the memory of working with him have stayed with me always.

You can read more about Tyrone Guthrie here

The next great influence for me has been the actor RICHARD O’SULLIVAN. I spent the best part of a year working with him on two record breaking National Tours of the farce Boeing Boeing. It was hard to keep playing the same thing for so long & to keep it fresh, but I enjoyed every minute of it, largely due to Richard’s permanently twinkling & mischievous eyes and the ease with which he performed each night, keeping it just a little different each evening. His stagecraft & timing were second to none and, somehow, as in his TV performances, he made always it all look so very easy. 

 

As an addendum, I met up with Richard after many years, quite recently, visiting him in Brinsworth House where he now lives and he & I spent a lovely morning reminiscing.

And finally...

The most consistent influence in my life from the world of TV, Film, & Theatre has to be DAME HELEN MIRREN. From our early days sharing flats, problems & clothes, hitchhiking to Southend as wayward drama students, to the present day, she has been the best & most loyal friend a girl could have. But she is so much more than that. It goes without saying that she is an extraordinary actress. She has also kept the flag flying for feminism, speaking out again and again against sexism & ageism and becoming a role model for all, young & old, men & women. A huge influence on me. But also, I suspect, on all of us. 

 

You can read my interview with Judy here. And you can follow Judy on Twitter here 

Thanks again to Judy for taking the time to write such an interesting, thoughtful piece for the blog. And thanks also for allowing me to share that wonderful photo of Richard O'Sullivan, which hasn't been published until now.

  

You can follow me on Twitter @CarryOnJoan on Facebook and on Instagram

Barbara Windsor to unveil tribute to Joan Littlewood

Barbara Windsor is well known for her long-standing relationship with the incredible force of nature that was Joan Littlewood. Joan, of course, made waves in the late 1950s and 1960s by bringing working class actors and playwrights to the forefront of British theatre, shaking the whole scene up and changing the landscape forever.

Barbara got her big break working for Joan at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East. She starred in productions of Fings Ain't Wot They Used To Be and Sparrers Can't Sing (being nominated for a BAFTA for the film version). She worked again briefly with Joan on the infamous flop Twang! which was written by Lionel Bart.

Barbara, along with the likes Yootha Joyce, Roy Kinnear, Murray Melvin and Harry H Corbett, became a regular in Littlewood's productions and despite criticism from Joan that Barbara had sold out in later years, the two remained friends. 

Tomorrow, Sunday 4 October, Barbara and Murray will unveil a new sculpture of Joan Littlewood outside the Theatre Royal, Stratford East. The day will also include a special screening of Sparrers Can't Sing and a celebratory tea party. 

Further details can be found over at A Younger Theatre.  

£250,000 was raised to create the sculpture - here's a video of Barbara explaining why it's so important to remember the late, great Joan.

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