Jon McKnight

An actor with aplomb in his mouth

It's one of those moments every actor dreads. All that rehearsing, all that learning of lines... but you suddenly can't think what you're supposed to say next.

Picture, then, Tony Haygarth - an acclaimed Shakespearian actor and veteran of everything from Boys From The Blackstuff to Clockwise and Midsomer Murders - who found himself lost for words (or at least, lost for the right words) a few minutes into his performance as Alfred Doolittle in Pygmalion at the Theatre Royal in Plymouth.

It's a tough role for any actor, and possibly the most demanding in Shaw's play, calling as it does for flights of articulacy that would have impressed any real-life Professor Higgins as much as it did the audience for Peter Hall's touring production.

Sitting with his back to the wings, Tony stuttered, then spluttered, and without missing a beat, announced, in character: "Could somebody please give me a line?"

At which point a prompter in the wings shouted out the line that had eluded him, the audience erupted with cheers and applause at his masterful recovery from what could have been an embarrassing situation, and the play continued as intended.

I've very occasionally seen professional actors forget their lines on stage - but never, ever, have I seen an actor deal with it with such aplomb.

It takes a brave actor to invent an extra line for a George Bernard Shaw play, but I couldn't help feeling that Shaw himself, had he been there, would surely have shared our utter admiration for Tony Haygarth's imaginative handling of every actor's nightmare.

Leaving the Stage Door afterwards, Tony confided that it was just one of those things and he was glad the audience appreciated the way he'd solved the problem.

Actors don't get much more professional than that.

If you get a chance to catch his performance elsewhere on the tour, treat yourself. I can't imagine he'd forget that particular line again, but the way he delivered the rest of them was something to behold - and certainly worth the £19 a ticket, as he stole the show whenever he appeared.

Jon McKnight
Author of Sort The Bastards!

Una signed my stubs!

Actress Una Stubbs, the British institution who shot to fame in Summer Holiday and burned her way into the public consciousness as Aunt Sally in Worzel Gummidge, is still wowing audiences in Peter Hall's touring version of Pygmalion.

After her dazzling performance as Mrs Pearce, Professor Higgins' housekeeper, in Shaw's classic play, I couldn't resist trying to catch her for a word as she left the Stage Door at the Theatre Royal in Plymouth.

As a journalist and TV producer rather used to meeting celebrities in the course of my work, I never, ever, ask them for autographs as it's really not the done thing.

But I made an exception in Una's case - not because I was star-struck, but because I still had the remains of my theatre tickets and wanted to see if Una would sign my stubs.

She did, willingly, and was absolutely charming about it... though I didn't disclose the reason I'd asked for her autograph.

Jon McKnight
Author of Sort The Bastards!

Vue to the rescue for Silverstone

F1 fans who object to being robbed of a quarter of an hour of live action by ITV and its insensitive advertisers at every Formula One race now have an alternative... at least for this weekend's British Grand Prix.

Vue Cinemas are screening the entire race, live and without interruption, on Sunday at 30 cinemas around the UK.

It will be on the big screen, in HD, with fantastic sound - and not an advert to spoil things.

To add to the sense of occasion, rather than detract from it as ITV manages to do, Vue's screenings will include a live commentary by Jonathan Palmer and an exclusive 10-minute pre-race interview with Murray Walker and Lewis Hamilton.

While we will have to pay for our tickets, of course, this will be the first time this season that we've been able to see an entire race from start to finish.

As readers of this site will know, ITV has so far robbed us of the equivalent of more than an entire F1 race - and as we're only halfway through the season, we'll be losing the equivalent of a second race, too.

Perhaps no-one other than me has been sad enough to sit down with a stopwatch and time all the ad breaks in ITV's coverage before, but that might explain the revelation, brought to you exclusively here, that we have lost more than an entire race worth of live action so far with that likely to double by the end of the season.

You can read about that here and see previous postings about the ITV F1 Ads Campaign here.

Tickets for the event on Sunday 8th July are available from www.myvue.com or by calling 08712 240 240 or directly from participating cinemas.

Only 7,000 seats are available at £15 each. All Vue ticket holders receive a free official race program which normally costs £10 plus a soft drink and popcorn, the press release says.

Can't go myself, of course, as I shall be sitting here with my stopwatch recording ITV's crimes against sports coverage so that we will all have reliable statistics for the entire season.

Jon McKnight
Author of Sort The Bastards!