I continued to accompany silent films at Kennington Bioscope (at the Cinema Museum), playing for Stan Laurel’s The Sleuth in June. I paid a return visit to Denville Hall in July to play for two Buster Keaton shorts, Cops and One Week; I was back to do the Harold Lloyd comedy feature Safety Last! in October.
In October I visited Barry Cryer’s widow, Terry, at the Summerlands Care Home in Haywards Heath, where I entertained the residents by accompanying Keaton’s One Week and Chaplin’s A Dog’s Life. I also accompanied Barry and Terry’s daughter Jackie there in December in an informal afternoon cabaret, her voice – excellent as ever, reminding me of the Two Old Farts in the Night days when she was in that show – rendering a beautiful selection of standards.
This time not in a residential care home but in a public space: Shirley and David Scott, who used to look after the technical side of Clue, invited me to Worcester to play the fine piano in their fine church and accompany Chaplin’s The Immigrant and, again (will the top of that building never be reached?!) Lloyd’s Safety Last!
In early December silent comedy film buff Paul Merton was invited to provide an afternoon of silent comedy entertainment at the Kennington Bioscope, which I was pleased to accompany: Chaplin’s The Pawnshop, Laurel and Hardy’s Liberty and Buster Keaton’s Seven Chances. Paul spoke knowledgeably and wittily between the screenings to a packed house.
In connection with all my playing for silent cinema I ran a day’s workshop in July at the Working Men’s College, Camden, on accompanying silent film. This was very successful, the students demonstrating in an informal session at the end of the day what they’d learned by playing for short clips of silent cinema.
A gig I now do more regularly recurred in July: playing for 1st year student short films at the London Film School. These are always an interesting watch, the musical language of necessity being more contemporary and therefore challenging but enjoyably so.
Over the year I continued setting Chris Lowe’s witty lyrics to music for professional and amateur choirs. By the end of the year we had had premiere performances of Carmina Comica and Away From the Manger, the former sung by Thrapston Plaza Opera on November 3rd and the latter by a choir at Downing College, Cambridge, on November 28th. The Lowe-Sell collaboration continues, with another cantata planned for St Peter’s Church, Stoke-on-Tern, on 28th June ’25. Meanwhile, Market Drayton Choral Society are performing Carmina Comica on 26th April ’25.
Another series of I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue, visiting Exeter, Basingstoke and Sheffield, came back in the autumn. The teams were all strong and the houses packed.
At the end of the autumn I was back at East 15 Acting School, working with director Tony Graham and international MA students on an end-of-term production. This was Charles Way’s adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Tinderbox. Most of the original score for the play having been lost, we decided to start afresh: I wrote a new score and MD’d the show, playing keyboard for the performances.
Colin Sell 