Part 98
Part of History Pitt
Historical Performance Talks – Video Greetings – Meet, Greet and Mingles – and Merchandise
Young Snotty, in the North, Heading South
My History, Behind the Scenes History, and Fun History
The My History Part
It was May 2010. We were heading South into England after camping in the North of Scotland near Inverness. We took our time travelling through Scotland. We had just had a night in a hotel to charge things but now it would be another six nights in our tent before we would be in a hotel again.
First, we had two nights near Morecambe. We arrived at the campsite in the evening. We set up tent as far away from other people as we could get and then walked around the site which was surrounded by fields. The next day we headed to Morecambe.
It is a nice town to visit. There are a lot of shops, some nice statues – including one of Eric Morecambe of British comedy act Morecambe and Wise – and a nice large beach.
After this we headed back to the camp.
We were up early in the morning to pack up our tent and head off to the next site. This was in Yorkshire. It was on a farm on the edge of the village of Grassington, near the town of Skipton.
We were the only ones staying this first night. We found the farmer – who was so miserable it was as though he was a character in a comedy – and paid for our four nights stay.
I remember Penny saying to him ‘It’s lovely here’ to which the farmer replied ‘It’s alright, if you like that sort of thing!’.
We set up our tent at the bottom of a large field, not too far from the farmhouse outside of which were some basic toilets and showers. We spent that evening sitting quietly enjoying the country views. After a while a small dog came running excitedly towards us from the direction of the farmhouse. Not sure if he was supposed to be out, we caught hold of him. He was very friendly.
A few minutes later the farmer came strolling over. ‘Is he your dog?’ We asked, ‘Yes!’ he replied ‘And I would prefer it if people didn’t encourage him to run away!’. He then took the dog back to the farmhouse in his natural happy- by which I mean miserable – way.
The next day we went to the town of Skipton. It was quite a nice town, especially on this day as it was market day. We looked around the stalls, looked around the shops, and visited the museum. The upstairs of the museum told the history of the town, which we enjoyed. The downstairs had a temporary exhibition about football. This, despite the efforts of an enthusiastic staff member, we declined to visit.
We had another quiet evening in the farmer’s field. The next day we visited the village. Grassington is a very nice example of a Yorkshire village, and may be familiar to some as the location for filming the newer series of All Creatures Great and Small.
Set in the 1930s, Grassington is the ideal place for filming. As far as I can remember there are few if any newer buildings in the village, and it must appear much as it would have done during the 1930s or even the Victorian Era.
Our third night was quiet again. The next day we went for another look around Skipton, then settled into our tent for the evening. We watched something on our portable DVD player – I think it was David Lean’s 1946 Great Expectations – throughout which we were aware of other vehicles arriving in the field.
We looked out and there were quite a few more tents. It was then we realised it was the Friday evening of the Bank Holiday weekend. We went to bed to the sound of more and more people arriving.
When we got up the next morning we saw we were surrounded by what seemed like around a hundred tents, all with cars parked beside them. It was wet – as quite often happens during a Bank Holiday – which meant most people were still in their tents.
We packed up, then drove slowly through the tents and cars, only just managing to find a route out of the field without having to drive over anyone. It was quite a different scene to what we had the previous mornings of our stay there.
We had been camping for another six nights, and it was now time for our one night in a hotel. We drove south from Yorkshire and arrived at our hotel just as check-in opened. It was somewhere just north of Birmingham.
It was nice being in a hotel after this second lot of camping, especially as it was quite a wet day. We could dry off, warm up, charge the phone and DVD player, and watch TV. It seemed that most of the time we were camping was dry but almost every time we packed up it was wet. It wouldn’t do the tent any good staying packed up wet so a lot of the time when we had our night in a hotel the tent was draped over our car to help it dry out.
We had a lie in the next morning. It was nice having a rest and it gave the tent more time to dry. Late morning we checked-out of the hotel and headed over the border into Wales. We were making our way through Wales to the coast, staying near Harlech. It was a part of Wales we had never visited before, and being a fan of castles there would be a lot to see.
What we got up to in this part of Wales, what we saw, and where we headed next, I will let you know in the next blog.
The Behind the Scenes Part
In 1970 an album was released that the following year would become a stage musical, and two years later a film musical. Telling an ancient story in a modern way – for the early 1970s – it is most often described as a Rock Opera rather than simply musical theatre. The album, musical, and film are Jesus Christ Superstar, with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, and lyrics by Tim Rice.
The album became more popular in the US than in the UK, and this may be why the stage musical premiered on Broadway before opening on London’s WestEnd a year later in 1972.
I saw the stage show when I was about 10 years old. I was brought up hearing Bible stories from my Grandmother Ruby, and I understood what was going on, but this was my first time experiencing this Rock Opera and 10 year old me didn’t really understand why Jesus and his followers were wearing flared jeans, why the Romans looked modern, or why Pilate sang with a microphone in his hand.
It wasn’t until the following year when it came on the TV in the UK and my parents recorded it on video that I appreciated what Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice had done. I loved the film, and watched it many times. A couple of years later when we moved to London so that I could attend Stage School it was the songs from Jesus Christ Superstar that I knew the words to – and understood the storyline to – probably more than anyone else there.
The choice of film locations was perfect, being in or near where the actual events would have taken place, which was not – and still is not – the safest place in the world for a film crew to film.
The director Norman Jewison was already an experienced filmmaker but almost all of the cast received their first film credits whilst making this film.
Despite their inexperience the cast are ideal. Also ideal are the Israeli and Palestinian locations. As someone who loves history, seeing archaeological sites of both historic and religious significance being used as the backdrop to the film hugely appealed to me, even as a child.
It didn’t matter that some of the buildings were held up with scaffolding or had few or no walls fully intact. Jewison made use of things like scaffolding – particularly for scenes involving Caiaphas and the Pharisees – and the realism of the partly standing ruins all add to the experience.
The production had four bases – Jerusalem, Beersheba, Nazareth, and by the Dead Sea – and filmed in twenty different locations. Not always an easy or safe part of the World to be in, we were extremely fortunate to visit the Holy Land in March 2023.
We travelled almost the entire length of Jordan, spending some time on the shores of the Dead Sea before crossing the Israeli-controlled border into Palestine and then onto Jerusalem.
Driving through Palestine to reach Israel was not enough for us, and Penny and I organised an excursion to the Palestinian city of Bethlehem. We bought extra insurance for the day from a company that specialises in the more dangerous parts of the world as our other insurance only covered Jordan and Israel.
We were a little concerned about how getting through the Israeli checkpoint would go, but when we reached it there was no one there, and we were driven straight through to the Palestinian side of Israel’s West Bank Wall. One of the first things we drove past was the Walled Off Hotel, which is sort of named to sound like the famous New York hotel The Waldorf, only in a very different setting.
This hotel in Palestine was set up and financed by artist Banksy. I generally don’t approve of graffiti but in some cases Banksy has created art that is much more of a statement than simple graffiti. It is hard to think of any place where such statements are needed more than they are in Palestine.
We weren’t sure what to expect as far as security was concerned but we needn’t have worried. The organisers Elijah Tours had assured us that the area around Bethlehem was extremely safe, and at this time they were right. There were a few Palestinian policemen around and although they were armed it was nothing like the heavily armed police, army, and in some cases uninformed young men and women carrying assault rifles in the narrow streets of Jerusalem.
We visited the historical and religious places such as the Church of the Nativity, Manger Square, and the Field of the Shepherd’s that you would expect people coming to Bethlehem to see, but we also saw the towering blocks of apartments built by Israeli settlers.
Our guides were Palestinian Christians, and they discussed their situation. They explained how things were often difficult but that the greater part of Palestine and the Gaza Strip were very different places run by very different people. When discussing the Israeli Settlers they said there was room for everyone and that there was no need for fighting. This, I consider to be a way of looking at things which is more than generous.
I don’t get involved in discussing politics online or in this blog, it’s for people to make their own choices. However, I will just say that we have met many Arabs from many nations and in this case from Palestine, both Islamic and Christian. In Jerusalem we came across many Israeli Jews. One of the two peoples that make up the population of this part of the Holy Land – the Arabs – greeted us as friends, brothers, sisters, and with extreme generosity, while with the other people that make up the population we were mostly met with indifference, suspicion, and a grudging tolerance with no other reason than that we weren’t ‘them’. As one travelling companion from Germany observed whilst we were having dinner one evening in Jerusalem ‘What happened in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s was terrible, but you can see the beginnings of it happening here in Israel! And the people doing it are the one people in the world that should know better than anyone that it is wrong!’
Returning to Jesus Christ Superstar, we recently attended a touring stage production in Cardiff. It was the first time for me seeing the show on stage since that time when I was about 10 and was left not disliking it but was confused and not thinking about wanting to see it again. It was the film that made me understand it, appreciate the music and the lyrics, to grow to love it, and want to watch it again and again.
I was a little concerned that this new production would have changed things and that the cast would not match up to the cast of the film. If anyone else has these concerns then you need not worry.
For me, as long as the roles of Jesus, Judas, and Caiaphas were well cast then I would be pleased. Ian McIntosh as Jesus was an extremely good choice although I think that Ted Neeley in the 1973 film is unbeatable. In this stage production Judas was played by Shem Omari James. Shem played the vocally difficult role perfectly, and although again the film casting of Carl Anderson may be unbeatable, Shem was a very close match.
We then have Caiaphas. This stage production had Jad Habchi in the role that in the film was played by Bob Bingham. This role needs someone who can reach those very low menacing sounding notes that Caiaphas has to sing, and just as in the film Jad’s Caiaphas seems to do this with ease.
These weren’t the only great castings. The entire cast seemed just right for their roles, particularly Ryan O’Donnell as Pilate who gave a performance that was extremely close to that of Barry Dennen in the film.
It was Barry Dennen who voiced the role of Pilate on the original 1970 recording. He gave a copy of the album to director Norman Jewison whilst they were making the 1971 film Fiddler on the Roof. Jewison says he was ‘curiously moved’ by the album and was determined to turn it into a film. This he did, casting Dennen in the same role of Pilate.
If anyone hasn’t seen the film I would highly recommend doing so. Although you may get a little more out of it and may be more moved if you are a person of faith you don’t have to be to appreciate the music, the lyrics, and how Jesus is portrayed as a ‘man’ as well as the ‘Son of God’. I also feel it truly shows the internal struggles of Judas, and I think asks the question ‘Judas was doing God’s will too, wasn’t he?’.
If you like the film then I highly recommend seeing the touring stage show if anyone gets the chance. It is well cast, well staged, well directed by Timothy Sheader and excellently choreographed by Drew Mconie. Whilst the first production I saw left 10 year old me confused, this production I found moving and uplifting. However, for me, the best production will always be the 1973 film made on location where the events are actually said to have happened.
In the next Behind the Scenes Part I will be talking about a British comedy film that was a favourite of mine in the 1980s. What that film is and what it was like visiting the locations where it was filmed I will let you know in the next blog.
The History Part
Those of you familiar with Blackadder 3 will be aware how long it took Dr Johnson to write his dictionary. Well, in the days when books were handwritten using a quill and ink it did take a little longer than today.
Not all writers took as long as Dr Johnson. Charles Dickens’ novels were often serialised giving him a few weeks to come up with the next chapter, but some books he wrote extremely quickly. A Christmas Carol was written in just six weeks, and the printing was done very quickly too in order to get it into the shops before Christmas.
We should, however, remember how hard it must have been for the printers in the days of quill and ink. Imagine being handed hundreds – or thousands – of pages, all handwritten, bits scribbled out, new bits written in, and possibly with many spelling mistakes. Often they were given very little time to get the book printed, and in the case of A Christmas Carol Charles Dickens even added new lines whilst in the printers with the printing process already started.
Even when early ink pens came along it was still loose handwritten pages that the printer would be given, and even with new styles of pen Charles Dickens preferred to continue using his favoured goose feather quills.
In my Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol Talk I use a copy of one of his handwritten pages. Although only a copy it shows very well what a printer of the time would have been faced with.
A Christmas Carol is not a long book, and it was printed quickly, even with Dickens making the printer keep changing the colours of the pictures in it. However, the well over 2,000 pages of Dr Johnson’s dictionary must have been quite a thing to work out, handwritten with quill and ink, and perhaps with some hastily added words at the last minute if someone mentioned to him something he had forgotten to put in.
So, next time you read a classic novel or pick up an original book from the Victorian Era or before, just remember that such books were written with a quill, given to a printer to work out what was written, then printed, bound, and turned into the book you are now holding. Everything had to go through this same process, novels, plays, classical histories, and even the first English dictionary.
For anyone interested in the writing of Charles Dickens then I would highly recommend a visit to the Charles Dickens Museum housed in his former home in Doughty Street, London. Also anyone interested in more on my Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol Talk or any of the talks I offer then please take a look at http://www.historypitt.co.uk for more details.
If you haven’t done so already, give the fantastic King of Blackadder on Twitter a follow!
https://twitter.com/pitchblacksteed?s=09
Then take a look at this also fantastic Blackadder fan group! https://www.facebook.com/groups/1507847676134507/?ref=share
For more on the seaside town of Morecambe https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morecambe
For more on Morecambe and Wise https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morecambe_and_WiseFor
More on the village of Grassington https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grassington
For more on the town of Skipton https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skipton
For more on the newer series of All Creatures Great and Small https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Creatures_Great_and_Small_(2020_TV_series)
Fore more on the original series of All Creatures Great and Small https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Creatures_Great_and_Small_(1978_TV_series)
For more on the 1946 film Great Expectations https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Expectations_(1946_film)
For more on the 1970 album Jesus Christ Superstar https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_Christ_Superstar_(album)
For more on the stage musical Jesus Christ Superstar https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_Christ_Superstar
For more on the 1973 film Jesus Christ Superstar https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_Christ_Superstar_(film)
For more on Andrew Lloyd Webber https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Lloyd_Webber
For more on Tim Rice https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Rice
For more on Norman Jewison https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Jewison
For more on Larry Marshall https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Marshall_(actor)
For more on Ted Neeley https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Neeley
For more on Carl Anderson https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Anderson_(singer)
For more on Bob Bingham https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Bingham
For more on Barry Dennen https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Dennen
For more on the 1971 film Fiddler on Roof https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiddler_on_the_Roof_(film)
For more on Dr Johnson https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Johnson
For more on Charles Dickens https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Dickens
For more on the Charles Dickens Museum https://dickensmuseum.com/
For more on Quills https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quill#:~:text=A%20quill%20is%20a%20writing,%2C%20eventually%2C%20the%20ballpoint%20pen.
History Hunger with Pitt the Younger 