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2025 so far

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Much of 2025 is being taken up with setting lyrics by Chris Lowe as cantatas for schools and choirs. The website First Note Music Tunes has most of the material, and the aim is to provide accessible and singable stuff for young and old and in between. The take-up has been encouraging and performances have been happening with, on the whole, good results. Chris and I have attended many workshops throughout the year to help the choir leaders and singers. The material is all free and downloadable.

Drama Studio in Ealing has been very loyal to me, hiring me for postgrad classes working on repertoire. Later in the year I’ve been teaching back at East 15, covering 1st year classes, as well as doing a workshop with their MA Directors. This was on the relationship between director, musical director and choreographer. The Working Men’s College in Camden asked me to cover some singing classes – again, repertoire-building – and to repeat the playing-for-silent-films workshop I did last July. It was a challenge teaching people who don’t have an end view to the classes, unlike drama students who of course are looking to a future in the acting profession.

The silent film playing continues, and I’ve been given some gems to accompany. In January the Kennington Bioscope (their calendar is on the Cinema Museum website) invited me to play for the 1920 John Barrymore ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ (directed by John S. Robertson), which inspired every gothic-horror phrase I could dream up. Kennington Bioscope has continued to use my services throughout the year so far, including on Silent Weekends like the one in April, at which among other films I accompanied a sequence of clips entitled ‘Nasty Women’. Enough said. I had a particularly enjoyable time playing for ‘Au bonheur des dames’ in May, which is essentially a Zola story updated to the 1920s (directed by Julien Duvivier, 1929). Brilliant piece. In October I was back at the Bioscope to play a couple of comedy shorts, the first one a spoof of ‘The Iron Horse’ (about the building of US railways) named ‘The Iron Mule’. Manic stuff to play, but good fun, with a Stephenson’s ‘Rocket’-type loco.

I’ve also continued to take silent comedies along to Denville Hall, where the residents greatly enjoy the films and my attempts to play along. There are a large number of film buffs at Denville, not surprisingly. I did a silent cinema St Valentine’s Day programme for them of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ (a much abbreviated version of Shakespeare’s original) and one of Chaplin’s comedy-romance shorts, ‘The Pawnshop’. I was back in May to play for Lupino Lane’s ‘Goodnight, Nurse’ and Chaplin’s ‘A Woman’. Lupino Lane, to my surprise, was a big comedy film star here, and I’ve found his work a very rewarding watch. Also in May I visited Barry Cryer’s widow, Terry, in her care home in Haywards Heath, where I played for more silent comedies and also played some songs the residents knew. Very good to see Terry, as always.

The ’Trial & Error’ charity performances in Court No. 1 of the Old Bailey took place for five performances in March as ever, at which I provided appropriate songs (and re-written songs) and I also accompanied. This is always a fun event: this year the trials chosen were of a more serious nature than in the past, and the show was all the better for this.

At the end of March I was asked to spend a day at Westminster Choir School (via a contact who was a parent of two of the boys, she being an ex-student of mine). We worked with wind, brass and stringed instruments on accompanying silent film. I chose two sequences which the boys found stimulating, and they produced excellent work after much discussion. There was a performance for the whole school at the end of the day.

‘I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue’ has proceeded as normal, with strong teams, and Adrian Edmonson proving to be a considerable asset. The spring recordings went fine, and we’re now into the autumn series. BBC Radio 4’s ‘Broadcasting House’, Paddy O’Connell’s Sunday morning programme, invited me on to speak about being involved in ‘Clue’ for half a century. A friend had told them – it isn’t something I’ve made anything of. But, as it happens, yes, I did join the show in 1975.

I was part of the ‘Remembering Philip’ tribute to Philip Hedley at the Theatre Royal Stratford East in June. It was a special pleasure and privilege to accompany Clark Peters, as well as my old-young friend Anthony Corriette. And it was good to see so many chums from the past. But it was a very long afternoon, despite Kate Williams warning us all to keep to our timings…

2024 Review of the Year

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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.

2024

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January 2024 began with a return to East 15 Acting School, working with their MA Directors on Brecht and his use of music; this was quickly followed by more drama school teaching, back at Drama Studio London with 1st year BAs and MFAs, then 1st year postgrads later in May. I enjoy the range of students on different courses and at different stages in their training.

The cantatas I’ve written with Chris Lowe started to garner interest round the beginning of the year. Chris and I went to Holyhead for a day’s workshop to work on songs from ‘Starting Out’ with a local choir formed, rehearsed and led by Marian Bryfdir. The event was successful, despite the cold hall, the songs were enjoyed by participants and audience, and it was useful to try out the material and get feedback.

The silent film playing continued with regular sessions at Kennington Bioscope from January onwards, including ‘Heart o’ the Hills’, which had a song written to celebrate it. This Michelle Facey and I performed before the film was shown. Other feature films I accompanied subsequently were ‘East Lynne’ in April and ‘Charley’s Aunt’ in May, as well as taking on various short films at the Kennington Biograph evenings.

More silent films: in January I visited the retired actors’ home, Denville Hall, where I accompanied a couple of Chaplin silent short films – ‘Behind the Screen’ and ‘A Dog’s Life’. The event was very well received, and it was interesting talking about Chaplin afterwards: there are many silent film enthusiasts among the residents. ‘Behind the Screen’ was especially popular with those who’d had film and TV experience.

I had a similar silent film experience at the London Film School in March where I was booked to accompany twelve 3-minute films made by 1st year students, all of them without sound but not in imitation of the ‘old’ silents. An interesting challenge, and some fine filmmaking in the mix.

On 5th February I was granted Freedom of the City of London, promoted by Judge Peter Rook and Fiona Adler, both of whom I know from the ‘Trial and Error’ fundraising shows at the Old Bailey. Fiona, my wife Penny and our son Rob were witnesses to the occasion. 

No pictures of the family were available, but this is me posing with the toy sheep which is an essential part of the ceremony.

The ‘Trial and Error’ shows went ahead in March as usual, and though I sourced and rehearsed the music and singing I wasn’t free to accompany the performances as I was on tour with the radio show (see below).

The tour of ‘I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue’ – the unrecorded, edited-highlights, guaranteed-laughs version – started in February and continued through March, taking us from Llandudno to Leeds and points beyond. Jack Dee chaired, of course, and the teams were Pippa Evans, Fred Macaulay, Rory Bremner, Marcus Brigstocke and Tony Hawks. Great fun to do, as always.

The recorded series for Radio 4 started off in mid-April: Oxford, Blackburn and Edinburgh.

Sadly, Philip Hedley died in January, and Penny and I attended his funeral in February. He’d been very loyal and supportive to me when he was running Theatre Royal Stratford East, and I learned  a great deal there, MD-ing and composing for shows, as well as playing onstage and off for the riotous Variety Nights. I accompanied Evie Edgell and Lorna Brown singing beautiful solos at the funeral.

2023 so far

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First Note Music Trust now has three cantatas penned by Chris Lowe and myself, the latest being composed by me during May and into the summer. This is Away From the Manger, a set of light and witty choral pieces speculating on discussion and dialogue between all who attended the Nativity – angels, shepherds, Three Kings/Wise Men, animals. Entirely secular in treatment, it’s now accessible on the FNMT website.

In May Chris and I attended a rehearsal of Starting Out, our primary schools oratorio, at Rugby’s Avon Valley School where I ran the morning session, teaching the material to some 100+ lively and engaged pupils. Prince William School, Oundle, expressed an interest in performing part of Away From the Manger, and a keen choir in Holyhead are currently working on selections from Starting Out, to be performed in late January next year.

I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue recorded another series through May to July (Bath, Northampton and Ipswich), the pool of players now strong and many. Jack Dee and I remain the constants. Another series is currently being recorded through the autumn (Bournemouth, Leicester and Dorking), and has started transmission on Radio 4 this week.

Kennington Bioscope at the Cinema Museum near the Elephant and Castle has kept me increasingly busy and enjoyably challenged. 17th May found me playing for a speeding locomotive in the Wild West in The Westbound Limited of 1923 – very busy on the fingers. On 14th June I covered some of the short films in the programme, ditto in an open air Kennington Bioscope silent film night on 27th August. More short films on 13th September – I mainly get given the comedies, can’t think why I should be thus associated – and then on the Comedy Silents weekend of 4th – 5th November I picked up a few lively short pieces but more important the Buster Keaton feature The Cameraman of 1928. This was immense fun to accompany and contains some inspired Keaton moments, not least the one-man base-ball game.

On 13th June I visited Denville Hall, the retirement home for actors and other professional theatre people. I took a couple of Chaplin silent comedies from 1917, The Immigrant and The Cure, and we all had a very jolly afternoon watching the films while I played and then chatting about Chaplin afterwards. One of the residents had known him when she was a girl.

I was teamed up with a previous Clue producer, Paul Mayhew-Archer, for an evening as part of the Worcester Festival on 17th August. Paul does a very funny (but ultimately very thought-provoking) one-man show about having Parkinson’s, and it was a pleasure to sit to one side and contribute the occasional musical offering in an evening which worked extremely well.

I’ve been teaching singing and repertoire to postgraduates at Drama Studio London this term, and will also take the BA 3rd years in the final week, a good group whom I’ve taught before. I’m expected to do something ‘fun’ with them…(See my comment above about being associated with comedy.)

Kennington Bioscope

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Constance Talmadge

Kennington Bioscope hosted a silent film weekend in November at which I had the chance to play for the feature-length Widdicombe Fair (Norman Walker, 1928), and a selection of shorts under the umbrella title of Nasty Women – rather a non-woke misnomer given that these comedy pieces simply showed women successfully rivalling men.

I continue to play regularly for the Bioscope, including in March the delightfully witty The Love Expert (David Kirkland, 1920), with the excellent Constance Talmadge.

The evening was reviewed by Paul Joyce, who regularly writes a (very long and well-informed) blog on silent film showings http://ithankyouarthur.blogspot.com/2023/03/triple-talmadge-love-expert-1920.html. I get a mention:

“Colin Sell played along with style, debonair digits delivering the elegant bon mots this film deserved, celebrating not the epic or the groundbreaking but the sheer entertainment and helping to restore the love for one of the brightest stars of the silent era.”