Happy New Year - 2014 is going to be a great year

Script: The Lutterworth WI Entertainment, December 12, 2013

Good evening, Madam President, and the Ladies of the Women’s Institute.  Thank you for inviting me to your Christmas party and, more importantly, to share this very special meeting, the last of the Lutterworth Women’s Institute.

In words similar to those of one of my guests tonight, I would like to share with you the collective and unfinished works of Madalyn Morgan.  And, I’m hoping you’ll help me by writing down the names of my guests and where you know them from. 

[Pass note pads and pens round]  I shall give you lots of clues, I might even sing.  And if the clues aren’t good enough, you must make me work harder.  I hope you enjoy it.

My first guest this evening is a CBE.  She was born 1929, Cheshire.  One of our most talented comedy actresses.  Never been married, no children.  She’s 84 and still working

Oooops!  The telephone. [ring ring, ring ring]
'The Bucket residence, the lady of the house speaking!  [Shouts to kitchen]  It's my sister Violet!  She's the one with the Mercedes, sauna, and room for a pony.  [phone] Poor daddy.  Hang onto him dear until we get there.'

The telephone again. [ring ring, ring ring]

'The Bouquet residence, Lady of house speaking’    Sheridaaaaaaan!  [to Richard  It's Sheridan!  Calling to say hello to his mommy. [ phone, to Sheridan]  Now, what is it dear?  [stops and blinks] Hyacinth: How much?'

What was Mrs Bucket Christian name.      Hiacynth
What was the television series called?       Keeping up Appearances
What is the actress’s real name.                 Patricia Rutledge
TV Series in the 1990s?                             Hetty Wainthrop Investigates.

My second guest's mother was an eccentric American, one of the beautiful Langhorne Sisters.  Her grandfather was Chiswell Langhorne, the American railway millionaire, and her aunt became Viscountess Nancy Astor.  She grew up around the Clivenden set; around people like George Bernard Shaw and Noel Coward.  And she made my stage debut in 1939 in, The Little Revue.  And she is famous for her monologues.
In 1942, she wrote her signature song.     I'm Going to See You Today 

Does anyone know her catch phrase?      George, don't do that.
Her name is?                                             Joyce Grenfell
 

My third guest:  A British comedienne and actress.  Born: 1905, Lancashire.  She became one of the biggest stars of Music Hall in the 1940s and 50s before moving to film and television in the 1960/70s.
She was short and stout. Her female friend (a man) was six feet five inches tall, thin, and silent. 
 Some of her Catch Phrases were, "She knows you know" "Be soon I say...  Be soon”

“You big girls blouse”

Does anyone know the name of the comedienne?                Hylda Baker

Anyone know the name of her tall friend?                            Cynthia
Does anyone know the name of actor called Cynthia ?         Ely Woods

More clues: 

In the 1970s she starred in a television series called,  Not On Your Nellie, playing Nellie Pickersgill, a tea total Bolton woman who moves to London to help run her ailing father Jed Pickersgill's pub 

And 1968-75  ‘Nearest And Dearest’.  Pledge's Purer Pickles factory, falls into the hands of Nellie and Eli Pledge. Who played Nellie’s brother Eli - Jimmy Jewel 

The Mistress of Malapropisms with remarks like "I've had lessons in electrocution” and “What are you incinerating?" "You haven't had the pleasure of me yet have you?"  "I'll inhale that remark"  "This is a fine hysterical building, kept up by the National Truss" "I can say that without fear of contraception."  "I must get a little hand put on this watch"  "Have you been, Walter?"  
 

Fourth guest: She is an OBE. An English singer, entertainer television personality  Born: 1943 Liverpool.  She has just celebrated 50 years on showbiz.  Her husband, Bobby was her manager. Known for her red hair, nose and teeth job.  Knew The Beatles, The Cavern, and two or her famous UK singles from 1964  (Anyone Who Had a Heart"  You’re My World.)

You're my world

You are my night and day
You're my world
You're every prayer I pray
If our love ceases to be
Then it's the end of my world
End of my world
 End of my world for me

Anyone who had a heart

Would take me in his arms and love me, too
You couldn't really have a heart and hurt me,
Like you hurt me and be so untrue
What am I to do

Who is she?                                                               Cilla Black

Fifth guest:  Born 1947 Oxfordshire.  MBE – English poet, comedienne & presenter of radio & TV

They Should Have Asked My Husband

My husband has an opinion on everything – Politics,  teenage mothers, immigration, crime – you name it, and he’ll discuss it, in an ever rising voice that is twice as loud as yours or mine.
So any little niggle, anything you want to know
Just run it past my husband, wind him up and let him go.
I often wonder what it must be like to be so strong,
Infallible, articulate, self-confident …  and wrong.

1970s Dentist surgeries all over the UK had a notice that read:

I was young then, and careless, and My toothbrush was hairless
How I laughed at my mother’s false teeth,
As they foamed in the waters beneath.
But now comes the reckonin’
It’s me they are beckonin’
Oh, I wish I’d looked after me teeth.

More recently:

I’ve just had my hair done
At the new place what’his’name.
It cost me fifty quid,
What do you mean it looks the same?

Who is she?                                                            Pam Ayres 

Last guest: Born: 1932, Epsom Surrey. She has a CBE.  She' an singer, actress, and composer.  At 81 she's been working for 70 years.  Her professional career began on BBC Radio during World War II
She became known as "Britain's Shirley Temple,"   When she was 11 she appeared in films; Medal  For the General, followed by Strawberry Roan and I know Where I’m Going.

In 1947, she met Joe "Mr Piano" Henderson who introduced her to her record label. 
In 1961 she met and a Frenchman, Claude Wolff.  And in 1964 recorded this song,

When you're alone

And life is making you lonely,
You can always go downtown
When you've got worries,
All the noise and the hurry
Seems to help, I know, downtown

Composed by Tony Hatch, the song?                     Downtown
Who is this Blonde curly haired singer?                 Petula Clark


Photographs: 

 

The outgoing President, Frances with Margaret and Kitty

  

Mickey and Frances - An emotional Goodbye

 

Enjoying a Christmas Buffett

 

 

 

                                         

 After the party, the quiz of 'Who am I?'

 

 It was great fun.  Everyone won a prize for guessing who I was impersonating.  One lady got 12 right out of 15, others less.  But everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

 

Thank you ladies of the Lutterworth WI.  I shall miss you. x

 

 

Wear your poppy with pride

Lest we forget!

 

My father was in the Royal Navy during The Second World War.  He was on the minesweepers.  His ship wasn't a big British built ship with the proud name of, HMS Harrier, or Hazard, and a crew of a hundred sailors. It was a small wooden craft, not much bigger than a boat really.  Some had come from America. They didn't have names, only numbers, and some weren't even seaworthy when they arrived on our shores. 

Dad's job was to guide the anchor when the ship entered or left port.  He was locked in an airtight compartment.  If a mine had touched the anchor, or its chain - the only part of the minesweeper that was metal - it would have exploded.  The small compartment would have flooded, dad would have drowned, but the ship would have been saved.  Whether it was luck, or that dad was good at his job - I'd like to think the latter, though I expect luck played a big part in it - the ship survived the war and, thank God, so did my Dad.

 

My handsome father, Jack Smith, is standing top left as you look at the photograph.  As an amateur boxer for the Royal Navy he was exceptionally fit, in every sense of the word. 

Dad's ship was the first up the Seine, France, and the lead ship into Copenhagen harbour, Denmark, after sweeping the North Sea.  He told me once that an officer on his ship fell overboard into the North Sea and he jumped in and saved him. The officer got a medal.  Dad?  He got a double ration of rum.  Which he told me was his reward for doing the dangerous job he did.     

Many brave men and women have lost their lives in conflicts before and since WWII.
 

We remember them all .  

I wear my poppy for the men and women who did come home,

and the men and women who did not
 

More photographs from WWII

Dad, back row second from right,

taking a break on a beach somewhere

 

Dad's Ship

 

 

Dad, back row far left, and the football team

WWII (Left to right) Uncle Tom (Army), uncle Arthur (Navy), Aunty Dorothy (WAAF)  

First World War, grandfather Tom Ward (Royal Engineers on horseback)

Two world wars - Two generations

Sunday November 10th  2013, Lutterworth Church

World War One helmet on a cross
made from two sticks in front of the alter

Flags at salute

With my lovely friends, Mickie and Ken Secker.
Ken was with RAF Bomber Command in WWII


 

Pauline Barclay : Sitting Round my Pool is the Amazing Multi-Talente...

Thank you for your generosity in interviewing me about my acting career, Pauline. Talking to you about it brought back some happy memories, and some life changing ones.  I don't do bitter or anger, I believe everything happens for the best, eventually, though we don't always see it at the time. If my life hadn't gone down the road it did, I wouldn't be a writer now which, I love.  I have no regrets. 

Today I am so pleased to have Madalyn Morgan sitting round my pool. I met Madalyn a few months ago on Social Media and from the first m...   Log onto the link below to read the interview.

Pauline Barclay : Sitting Round my Pool is the Amazing Multi-Talente...:

 

A trailer, "Entertaining the WI with sketches by Joyce Grenfell"

Click on the link below for Entertaining the WI Trailer

 

Entertaining the WI with sketches by Joyce Grenfell

Performing at The Leicester & Rutland AGM of the Women's Institute, Oct 2013

Fifteen minutes of entertainment at the Leicestershire and Rutland Annual Women's Institute Group Meeting, hosted by Lutterworth WI and held at, The Lutterworth Cricket Club, on October 4th 2013.
                                                          

Madalyn Morgan in dinner suit

It was a fantastic evening.  Lutterworth WI President Frances welcomed everyone, and then we stood up and sang, Jerusalem, which got the evening off to a great start.  

 
    Toastmaster, Geoffrey Harris
When we arrived both Geoffrey Harris and I were dressed in black. Then Geoffrey changed into his red Toastmasters tails and I changed in to... Well, you'll see what I changed into lower down the page.

Geoffrey had been a school teacher, and then a professional clown. Ten years ago he trained as a Toastmaster and is now a Fellow of the National Association of Toastmasters, working in some of the grandest hotels and houses in the country.

"A Toastmaster's Tale" is a light amusing talk about his work, which Geoff has performed in a wide variety of venues all over the UK.

N.B. And, Geoff knew every word of Jerusalem. What a star!

I was asked to judge "A Diamond Celebration" with the WI Federation Representative. So difficult.  The half a dozen amazingly clever table top designs were made of white and silver, fabrics and crystals. They were, Diamond Jubilee arrangements. I know everyone says it, but they really were brilliant. They were all winners, but there could only be a first, second, and third. Thankfully we both agreed on the placing. There was a lovely home made buffet with wine. I was given a large glass of very nice red wine, which I put on a side table for after I'd finished my stand-up performance. In more than thirty years as a professional actress, I have never had alcohol before going on stage - and I wasn't about to start then. So after putting my wine on a side table, alongside a glass of water, which I might or might not need between sketches, I set out my costume. I needed to put it in order, so I could slip in and out of it easily, unobtrusively, while introducing the next sketch. I'd rehearsed it until it was slick.

First, on the table behind me, I put a black chiffon and sequinned stole and a string of pearls for Mrs Fanshaw in "Stately As A Galleon." Next to that a polka-dot headscarf, already tied in a bow at the top, wave grippers, nappies and clothes pegs. I draped a 1950s bibbed-pinafore on the back of a chair, so I could easily and quickly slip my arms into it while introducing the second sketch as a cockney girl, "Rainbow Corner." Finally, I set a simple brown cardigan and a beige woollen scarf for the nursery school sketch where I play the nursery school teacher in "Story Telling".

Frances introduced me and I joined her in the middle of the room in front of the table.  I smiled broadly, but I had never been so nervous in my life. 

Mrs Fanshaw in "Stately As A Galleon"

I thanked Frances for inviting me, said what a lovely evening I was having - and how good the Toastmaster was - and began chatting about Joyce Grenfell's life and career while I took off my jacket and put on pearls and stole to play, Mrs Fanshaw in, Stately As A Galleon.

The audience laughed in all the right places (not difficult to achieve when you're saying Joyce Grenfell's amazingly funny lines). And, after being more nervous than I had ever been, I was enjoying myself. At the end of the first sketch, still talking, I went for the second costume, the pinafore on the back of the chair. And it had gone. I got myself ready all but the pinafore, and then said, 'Who's nicked my pinny?' The audience laughed. They looked around. I think they thought it was part of the show. Then I said, 'It was on a chair just here.' The super lady who had adjudicated with me said, 'I took the chair.' I pulled her leg accusing her of trying to steal the show and there was more laughter. She had been sitting on it. It was great fun.

Cockney friend of Gladys and May

in "Rainbow Nights"

This sketch is set in a kitchen some years after WWII where London girls look back to when they were young; when they used to go, up West (the West End) to a US canteen called, Rainbow Corner.  I play, Me, Gladys, May, and four yanks - Joe, Hank, Red and Slim.  Yep! No kiddin.  I don't think I could have written a better bit of audience participation script, if I'd tried.  At the end of the first paragraph I look to the left and say, 'Me and Gladys had some fun.  We did, didn't we Glad?'  And before I could say the last line as Glad,  'We did.' The lady on the table where I was looking said, 'We did.'  It was perfect.  

A photograph of London girls dancing with American servicemen at Rainbow Corner, 1944

A Getty image, borrowed x ? x

The last sketch, Story Time, was written in 1944 and is one of Joyce Grenfell's Six Nursery School Sketches.  It has the famous line, 'George...  Don't do that!'

                                   Nursery school teacher in "Story Time"

                 Preparing to play the girls in "Rainbow Nights"

  

  'George...  Don't do that!'

An article celebrating Dr Martin Luther King's famous speech, "I HAVE A DREAM" by Madalyn Morgan

St Peter’s Review – Autumn 2013 Edition – Page 8

 www.stpeters-streatham.org
 

FIFTY YEARS AGO MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. SAID

“I HAVE A DREAM”

by

Madalyn Morgan 

Dr Martin Luther King Jr. was a Baptist minister, a social activist, and the leader of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States of America from the mid-1950s until his death in 1968.  For tens of millions of African Americans he was the leader of their crusade for racial equality.  His was the educated voice needed to end discrimination and humiliation, and bring black Americans human dignity. 

 

The first I knew of the Civil Rights Movement was when I was a schoolgirl living in a small rural town in England.  I used to listen to the protest songs of Bob Dylan and Joan Baez.  So it is a great privilege to research and write about the icon of that movement, Dr Martin Luther King Jr. and some of those who risked everything to fight for change and freedom. 

                       Martin Luther King’s dream was for racial equality

In the spring of 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. led a nonviolent demonstration in Birmingham, Alabama.  Thousands of African American families, marching peacefully, were met with violence when police set dogs on them; turned fire hoses on the children, and kicked young black men to the ground.  By the end of the march, Martin Luther King and many of his supporters were in jail.  After Birmingham, Dr King and his supporters organised a bigger, but still peaceful, demonstration.  On August 28, 1963, the historic March on Washington drew more than 200,000 black and white people to the Lincoln Memorial.

 

Madalyn Morgan Actress Trailer

My actress trailer suddenly was no more. Gone! Disappeared! So, because I want to put it on my non-fiction Writing Blog, I've produced it again.

 

Click on the photograph to see Madalyn Morgan's Actress Trailer

 

Copy of Madalyn Morgan Actress

Foxden Acres by Madalyn Morgan Book Trailer

Log onto Morgen Bailey's blog to see how to make your own book trailer.  Click the link below.

Morgen Bailey It's very easy. I have instructions on http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/videos.

Videos

 

morgenbailey.wordpress.com

"I've been a member of Animoto.com for a while but never got round to doing anyth...ing about it. One evening (22nd November 2012) I decided it was time I created one... it was so easy that I created t... "See more

Madalyn Morgan Actress

Madalyn Morgan Actress

Madalyn Morgan - Radio presenter

Foxden Acres Book Trailer

The first short book trailer of Foxden Acres

http://animoto.com/play/FVxNujlZAOb4oBOCFPGcnQ#

Another copy of Foxden Acres sold. Thank you to everyone at The BookStop Cafe, Lincoln.

"Where you can enjoy lovely cup of Tea or Coffee and read a good book, from our shelves, in comfortable surroundings."

The BookSop Café is situated a stones throw from the centre of Lincoln, on Steephill, beneath Imperial Teas. 

 A Unique Idea
 

And a fabulous idea for anyone who wants to relax with a cup of fresh coffee, or tea, and read a  book.

This amazing café supports Indie authors by having 'café book shelves' where customers can take a book, read it while relaxing with a drink - and a slice of delicious cake - and if they like it they can buy it.

I'm proud to have signed copies of Foxden Acres, with bookmarks and cards, in the BookStop Café.  With so many good authors, and so many page turning books on sale, to sell a copy is an achievement.  Thank you.

                               Foxden Acres in Good Company






What a spectacular bookcase
Foxden Acres is right in the middle of it.

 

Good luck Joff. 

 

Inside the BookStop Café  
 
 *


A little piece of history about the building in which BookStop Cafe is situated.

Norman House on Steep Hill, Lincoln in England is a historic building and an example of Norman domestic arthitecture.  The building is at 46-47 Steep Hill and 7 Christs Hospital Terrace. The architectural evidence suggests a date 1170-80.  The building was known for many years as "Aaron the Jew's House", and appears as such in many references, as it is believed to have been the residence of Aaron of Lincoln (d.1186), then the greatest Jewish financier of England.  The building has been a shop for many years, and currently home to a tea importers.

 

The BookStop Café is through the black doors.



Smart Entrance

*
And Parking?

There are several carparks in the Bailgate area. The nearest is in the corner of Castle Square. You can get to it by driving up Drury Lane. The carpark is about 100yds from the Cafe. :)


 
 
 
 

Lizzyspit: Goodbye (to the ones who screwed you over)

Lizzyspit's new single: Goodbye (to the ones who screwed you over)

          http://www.triplejunearthed.com/artists/view.aspx?artistid=55135

                    Artist Website: www.youtube.com/iamlizzyspit

Genre: Indie, Pop
Region: Sydney, NSW
Members: Lizzyspit - lead vocals, songwriter, guitars.                             
Sounds Like: Missy Higgins, Laura Marling, Kate Bush

Influences: The Doors, Ben Howard, Eels

Radio Presenter on: www.raidersbroadcast.com
& www.raidersbroadcast.fm
Podcast: http://raidersbroadcast.podomatic.com/
& http://madalynmorgan.podomatic.com/

 

Famous Five Plus: HUG A BOOK with Madalyn Morgan

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Sometimes It Happens: 5* Rich mix of entertaining characters

Rich mix of entertaining characters17 Sep 2013

The 'rich' mix of characters had me intrigued from the first page. From Doreen, the Cockney Sparra who wasn't used to being rich, to snooty Sheila who took her wealth for granted - and all the lovely characters in between - took me back to the fun of Majorca and Ibiza in the 1970s and 80s. I laughed from the beginning. It isn't only a rags to riches story, it's also one where everyone get's something out of their time at Villas Bonitas. I don't want to give the game away, but all the ends are tied up perfectly, and all the residents get what they deserve!! A very enjoyable read.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/reader/B0050K7NVE/ref=sib_dp_kd#reader-link

 

Madalyn Morgan's Fiction Blog: "Literature, love and insights" Thank you, Georgi...

Madalyn Morgan's Fiction Blog: "Literature, love and insights" Thank you, Georgi...: 4 out of 5 stars Literature, love and insights , 16 Sep 2013 By  Georgina Shaw - See all my reviews This review is from: F...