.... dancing?

As the Local Council's plan to make Blackpool a European Gambling Den fails, they've unveiled their Plan B - to make Blackpool the "Dance Capital" of Britain, and possibly of Europe too.

No details of what kinds of dance have yet emerged, but Margaret Hodgepodge, Commisar of Kultcha, hints that she wants to see more "community dance" in this report in The Stage:

http://www.thestage.co.uk/news/newsstory.php/20515/blackpool-sets-its-sights-on-dance-after

£4 million quid has already been put aside for the project this year alone - Dover & Torbay have each had a similar sum from the Department for Culture, Media & Sport,  although we're not informed how they plan spending it.

The about-change from slot-machines to salsa is the more remarkable since Blackpool's experts had previously been entirely convinced that only turning the city into a Vegas-style saloon would save them from the current slump in visitor numbers: “no other realistic alternatives for regeneration” were available.

We don't really have any other home for dance-related issues, so I hope the Opera House can accommodate them pro-tem?

I have a soft spot for Blackpool myself, Stanley - sad to see it in such straits, but good to hear that the mega-casino plan was vetoed.

Still, with the falling rate of the pound to the Euro, Blackpool's fortunes may yet shine anew, as British holidaymakers decide to stay in a country where their wages will still buy them something! 

I've heard of "Hindle Wakes" being spoken of with great fondness by old troupers - I must get around to reading it sometime!

Of course I'm deeply down South.  I thought the Great Northern Comedy was Hobson's Choice: King Lear played for laughs with a Northern accent.  (Bossy man with three daughters, and the youngest gets the better of him.)

   I used to watch 'Coronation Street', regularly, until the story lines became like the third carbon copy on my Imperial typewriter.

In the late 1980s/early 90s, 'The Street', veering even then towards a haven for psychopaths, centred on Blackpool for the gory death of Rita Sullivan's (Barbara Knox) abusive partner, (Mark Eden), beneath a tram on the Promenade.

Blackpool, again, for the soap, in a 'Brief Encounter' interlude for Vera (Liz Dawn) during a tryst with an early lover (David Ross) and 'The Street, at its best, caught this with an unexpected delicacy which made it so watchable.

David Ross had been a colleague of mine during our galley years in Rep and, a few years later, I went to see him play an outstanding Archie Rice at the West Yorks Playhouse, Leeds.   I asked him whether he had been nervous about the need for gelling, instantly, with the icon, Vera, on location: she had the advantage in knowing how to pitch her performance, instinctively, as she was well aware of every nuance in the character.      On the contrary, Liz Dawn had felt inhibited by David's credentials as he had just done a season at the N.T. and she was anxious that he may be 'a bit grand', not realising that his Lancastrian background and natural personality would eschew luvviedom. 

# 3       Yes, Anty, I also saw "Hindle Wakes" during the Summer of British Films season, on BBC 2, a year or two ago, although I was disappointed that they showed the anodyne 1952 version - mistakenly set in that era - rather than the 1931 rarity which recreated the earlier and authentic era for Stanley Houghton's play.   The one thing in favour of the later version was the expectancy of the crowds in the packed train for their 7 day annual holiday; the seafront; and a memorable overhead longshot of the swirling dancers at the Tower Ballroom.

"Hindle Wakes" plays well throughout the UK because the narrative,  free from 'trooble at t'mill' posturing has an endemic humanity and, as a contrast to them-us, social division, each character within the argument, is written with credibility. Audiences listen intently.  The options for a young lass, engaging in pre-marriage sexual intercourse, were stark and authoritarian - a stigma of shame for at least the first half of the last century.     The independent woman was well represented in middle class drama, particularly by Shaw and Ibsen; and, even in 1945, Wendy Hiller played such a beacon in the film "I Know Where I'm Going" - still a real joy to watch today.   Houghton and Walter Greenwood did the working class proud.    I only wish the 1952 version of 'Hindle Wakes' had been made 10 years later with, say,  Billie Whitelaw, or Glenda Jackson.   A consummation devoutly to be wished.

I also have a hunch that "Hindle Wakes" was made for TV, several times, but I must check whether it was included in Granada's 'Laurence Olivier Presents..' season.