Ding dong! Maggie’s back!

Is Pip Utton going to give his audience a self- scripted, Margaret Thatcher monologue at Ashbourne Festival? No, that would be far too boring! He is actually going to take questions from the audience and answer them as Maggie. It will be like having an exclusive meeting with the Iron Lady herself and people attending this particular performance are invited to come prepared with a question or two. Pip’s courage cannot be denied. Previous reviewers of his ‘Playing Maggie’ show have commented on how well he has absorbed Thatcher’s way of thinking and given the audience a provocative and fascinating performance. 

This type of ad libbed show is unpredictable and absolutely anything could happen. Obviously Margaret Thatcher was a hugely controversial politician and people’s views of her legacy tend to be polarised. Sparks could fly and there’s one thing we can be sure of: if we get Maggie’s back up we won’t leave saying it was like being savaged by a dead sheep!

Pip Utton Playing Maggie is on at the Town Hall on Wednesday 29 June and tickets can be bought from the Festival website.

Pip was kind enough to answer some questions I put to him about his life in the theatre:  

Robin:  You were born and brought up in Cannock. Did you do any acting there?

Pip:       I did quite a lot of amateur pantomime and drama between ages 23-27 but then stopped. I didn’t start acting professionally until I was 42.

Robin:  You have appeared regularly at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for over twenty years. Why do you keep going back?

Pip:       It is the most exciting festival there is, as well as the biggest. This year for example there will be over 3000 different productions and over 50,000 performances. It is an opportunity to try new work and develop it in front of a great audience who want you to do well.

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An Islay Love Affair

Ashbourne photographer and film maker Clive Booth has spent 22 years producing a photographic record of the daily lives of the people of Islay (pronounced 'eye-la'), one of the Inner Hebridean islands off the west coast of Scotland. The people who live on the island are called Ileachs (pronounced e-lucs) and Clive has spent so much time on Islay that he knows more people there than he does in his home town of Ashbourne! He is giving a talk on the Ileachs project at this year's Festival and some of his photographs will be on display in the Summer Exhibition running from 18th to 25th June in the Town Hall.

Islay lies exposed and at the mercy of the Atlantic Ocean, and the RNLI lifeboat crew based there have to embark on rescues in the most extreme weather conditions. Recently Clive has been supplied with a cutting edge pre-production camera by Canon (the EOS 5DS R) to help him capture the courage, character and professionalism of the crew. Did this expensive bit of kit get wet?  A little, as Clive reveals in his interview with me:

Robin:    In 1989 you filmed an epic climb of the Old Man of Hoy sea stack on the west coast of Scotland for the BBC. What memories do you have of that day?

Clive:    That was an exciting time for me. While running a design business I was away on these fantastic adventures. I filmed the Old Man of Hoy climb from a cliff opposite the stack. In those days the equipment we used was very heavy and filming the climb was extremely dangerous. At around the same time I filmed a climb up the Eiger for Blue Peter and also a trip to the Arctic. I remember the Eiger film was one of the first times compact video tape had been used and the quality was only just good enough to broadcast. I climbed draped in all kinds of equipment and when we reached the top we were helicoptered off. To keep fit for these kind of assignments I used to run up and down Thorpe Cloud.

Robin:   Which presents you with the greatest challenges? A fashion shoot or braving everything the elements can throw at you while photographing a lifeboat crew?

Clive:    Now that's a difficult one! They both raise different challenges and it comes down to preparation. For a fashion shoot you need the right model and a good team. When photographing a lifeboat crew the weather was important. I would check the forecast and only ask the crew to go out when conditions were bad so that I could get some dramatic shots. Fortunately I don't suffer badly from sea sickness but I think when the adrenaline is flowing it's a great help. Your’re shooting boat to boat with the Lifeboat Operations Manager at the helm of mine and the Coastguard  station officer making sure I didn't go overboard, taking care of the incredibly expensive camera that Canon had supplied me with. If it had got wet it would have been ruined. It's the only one of its kind in Europe and I only had a rain cover to protect it! So for both types of shoot- fashion and adventure- you need the right ideas, talent and execution.

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