Latest news with #Dick
The National
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- The National
Sherlock Holmes adaptation gives feminist twist to classic stories
Botanic Gardens, Glasgow BARD In The Botanics (BiB) – the annual summer theatre programme held in Glasgow's Botanic Gardens – has, for some years, broadened its remit to encompass not only the plays of Shakespeare, but also works by other classical authors. In recent years – to take three examples – we have been treated to adaptations of works by such theatrical luminaries as Euripides, Henrik Ibsen and Christopher Marlowe. I am, I admit readily, open to accusations of intellectual snobbery in suggesting that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – creator of the famous, and enduringly popular fictional detective Sherlock Holmes – is not a natural bedfellow of the dramatists named above. Nevertheless, it is to the Edinburgh-born doctor and writer that BiB's associate director Jennifer Dick turns for the company's latest play in the Botanics' splendid Kibble Palace glasshouse. READ MORE: Scottish tourist attraction wins prestigious award after 11,000 five-star reviews The lovely venue shares its Victorian provenance with Doyle (and, indeed, with Holmes). As such, it proves to be a good fit for this play about Baker Street's most famous fictional resident. Dick – who is both the adapter and the director of this drama – ensures that many of the established pillars of the Holmes myth are resolutely in place. Of course, Holmes (played with the necessary alertness and condescension by Adam Donaldson) has Dr John Watson (played with affection and resignation by Stephen Arden) as his long-suffering sidekick. James Boal (who has a busy evening, playing no fewer than four characters) takes on the role of the befuddled police inspector Lestrade. There are even references to the off-stage escapades of the Baker Street Irregulars. Dick does innovate, however, when it comes to the character of Irene Adler, aka 'The Woman'. As with Lara Pulver's performance (opposite Benedict Cumberbatch's Holmes) in the BBC series Sherlock, Rebecca Robin's clever and glamorous Adler has a seductive power over Holmes. However, here, she is not only a criminal mastermind but a determined champion of the rights of women who is bent on revenge. The truth and justice of the play's contemplation of misogyny are unarguable, as is the pleasure of seeing powerful male chauvinists getting their just desserts. However, Dick has a tendency to write for Adler speeches that are occasionally more polemical than they need to be. This is a pity, as Robin blesses the character with a darkly compelling and sympathetic performance. Boal is required to play central casting archetypes in the rough, but decent, sailor Captain Crocker, the arrogant King of Bohemia and the pernicious blackmailer Milverton. Each character is managed with colourful aplomb in both of his dimensions. Holmes isn't Holmes without his weakness for narcotics, and Donaldson plays the scene depicting the detective's dependency on cocaine with a believable exhilaration and anguish; even if the decision to illustrate the episode by way of the well-worn song The Windmills Of Your Mind is a tad obvious. This is, then, a nicely put together adaptation of Doyle's tales, which has been given a satisfying feminist twist. What it sometimes lacks in subtlety, it makes up for in theatrical brio. Until August 2:
The Herald Scotland
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Dick Gaughan deserves every moment of his newly restored reputation
'I'd heard of people doing that before,' Barbara said on Anna Massie's BBC Radio Scotland programme, Travelling Folk, 'but I couldn't believe my eyes.' The man who was so intent on watching Gaughan's renowned guitar technique, was, she added, 'a real geek, obviously a Dick Gaughan fanboy'. And whoever he was, he was far from being the last person to be bewitched by Gaughan's outstanding work on the acoustic guitar. Dick, now 77, is one of Scotland's most renowned musicians. The power of his live performances has long been recognised. As the Glasgow Herald remarked, back in 1989: 'It is impossible to listen to Dick Gaughan and remain unaffected by his work; he is a performer of such unremitting force, such devastating persuasiveness, and an orator of considerable weight … In everything he says, in every song he sings, Gaughan preaches humanitarianism.' Read more: A few years later, a Guardian review noted that Gaughan took no prisoners: 'his songs of the dispossessed were delivered with the electrifying passion of a zealot, cutting through any Aran-sweatered Celtic twilight mist like a Stanley knife at a rave … Those who welcomed a return to social realism in pop with Bruce Springsteen's depressive The Ghost of Tom Joad, should seek out Gaughan's blast-furnace performances to hear how music from the gut really sounds.' When he was inducted into the Scottish Traditional Music Hall of Fame Gaughan was described as Scotland's 'most passionate troubadour, a singer and guitarist whose performances both burn with a fierce conviction and smoulder with equally heartfelt compassion and invigorate audiences across the world with eloquently expressed conviction'. He has inspired such people as Kate Rusby, Karine Polwart and Billy Bragg. To Kathryn Tickell, the feted exponent of the Northumbrian pipes, he is one of the absolute greats of the folk music world. Dick suffered a stroke in 2016. Today, he is legally blind, and can no longer play guitar. His name and his work, however, are being widely championed. A sum of £92,000, raised by a Kickstarter campaign, led to a substantial amount being given to him to pay for his living costs. The balance is being used to finance R/evolution: 1969-83, a comprehensive seven-CD, one-DVD boxset of his recorded work, which will likely be released in November or early December, distributed by Last Night from Glasgow. At the same time, a GoFundMe appeal launched at Dick's behest has so far raised most than £32,000 to raise legal fees 'to test the claims by an entity called Celtic Music to the rights to a tranche of [his] recorded works – music recorded between 53 and 30 years ago'. The fund's target is £35,000. The albums in question are No More Forever (Melody Maker's Folk Album of the Year in 1972), Kist O' Gold (1977), Songs of Ewan MacColl (1978, with Tony Capstick and Dave Burland), Live in Edinburgh (1985), and Call It Freedom (1988). Also covered are one album he made with Boys of the Lough in 1973, and one he made in the mid-nineties with another group, Clan Alba. Dick fervently hopes that his legal process will be a bridgehead for other artists of his generation, or their heirs, whose 1970s recordings are effectively 'locked up' by the same entity. Dick Gaughan was born in Glasgow in May 1948, the eldest of three children to Dick and Frances Gaughan, from Leith. His family were all musicians; his grandfather played the fiddle and his father played the fiddle and guitar, and his mother was a Gaelic singer. Dick picked up his first guitar at the age of seven and at length began to develop his own style of singing and playing. He was in his late teens when in 1966 he landed his first paid gig, in a folk club in Bathgate's Rendezvous Roadhouse. For his pains he received £2. 'In those days it was all word of mouth and very informal and anarchic, and clubs were generally run by dedicated and pretty fanatical amateurs', he told JP Bean, author of an oral history of British folk clubs, more than a decade ago. 'As I got more work, I just kind of drifted into earning my living exclusively from playing, finally giving up other jobs in January 1970.' He released his first solo album, No More Forever, the following year. In June 1972 he joined Boys of the Lough for eight months, after which he returned to solo work, before, in June 1975, joining the electric folk band Five Hand Reel, with whom he made three albums. Handful of Earth, released in 1981, came to be regarded as classic solo Gaughan, its potent blend of traditional and contemporary folk songs underpinned by his intricate guitar work. It was his considered reaction to the 'extreme right-wing government' that had come to power under Margaret Thatcher in 1979. Its power quite undimmed by the passing of the years, Handful of Earth was voted Album of the Decade in Folk Roots magazine's poll in 1989. Alighting upon that opportunity to reassess the record, Mark Cooper, writing in Q magazine, observed: 'Despite the sense of outrage that lurks behind most of the material on Handful Of Earth, the overall mood is of a kind of gruff sorrow. Perhaps Gaughan still saw himself more as a reporter than a revolutionary and certainly the two ballads at the album's heart, 'The Snows They Melt The Soonest' and 'Lough Erne', are mournful, measured laments whose power is all the greater for their restraint. 'Yet this collection is full of songs which trace the diaspora of the Irish and the Scots as poverty drove their poor towards America. Landlords, bailiffs and beagles pursue the emigre of 'Craigie Hill' just as the hunters pursue the birds in 'Now Westlin Winds'. 'Despite the straightforward power of Leon Rosselson's 'World Turned Upside Down' (since popularised by Billy Bragg) and Ed Pickford's 'Worker's Song', it is the juxtaposition of these contemporary songs with the haunting traditional material which makes this both a poetical and a polemical collection with the poetical holding the balance.' In the mid-eighties in Belfast, a city where Gaughan often played, his music was discovered by a university student by the name of Colin Harper. Today, Colin is, amongst other things, a music writer and curator, author of an excellent biography of Dick's fellow Scot, Bert Jansch - and creator of the very Kickstarter campaign that has marked such a resurgence of interest in Gaughan. Read more On the Record: 'Handful of Earth is a masterpiece,' he said earlier this week. 'As a young listener …I was drawn in by the power and charisma of his stage performances, and the magic guitar playing on things like 'Erin-Go-Bragh' and 'The Snows'. But the deeper magic reveals itself in the more subdued songs, especially 'Craigie Hill' and 'Both Sides the Tweed'. 'Compiling a box-set of live and BBC material as we speak, I know now the other songs in his repertoire in 1980/81 that he might have recorded for Handful of Earth but I can see why he didn't - the mood of it would have changed. 'He got the contents of it exactly right. It's frustrating that much of Dick's 1972-88 commercially recorded work is currently inaccessible. Handful of Earth is the only album from that period that's been physically available ever since. But by happy chance, it's the best of them all!' Handful of Earth would later be described by Billy Bragg as one of his all-time favourite albums. 'World Turned Upside Down', he said, saw Gaughan grabbing the song "by the scruff of the neck and [chucking] it into the twentieth century where it lands at my feet and I think 'f———' hell, that is an incredible song. 'Both Sides Of The Tweed',' he added, 'is probably the best song you could ever imagine about English and Scottish thoughts of independence'. The comedian Stewart Lee accorded Handful of Earth a similar accolade, taking the view that it was 'a great album of Scottish nationalist songs and really old Highland ballads, with this fantastic intricate guitar playing'. It is all happening for Dick Gaughan now: the forthcoming boxset (there will be roughly 500 copies on sale to the general public), plus limited-edition releases of Live at the BBC (on vinyl), a CD, Live in Belfast 1979-82, and a twin CD collection, Live in the 70s. More is on the way. 'Next year', adds Colin, 'we hope to release an expanded True And Bold: Songs of the Scottish Miners [originally out in 1986, long out of print], a 2-CD Andy Kershaw Sessions Plus: 1984-2005 - Dick's six Andy Kershaw Radio 1 sessions plus the best of his other BBC recordings from the 'second phase' of his career - and Collaborations, an exciting album of the best of his studio recordings gifted to themed albums/tribute albums and vocal guest performances with other artists, all from 2000-2015. And from Topic, a new vinyl remaster is in the works.' Dick Gaughan deserves every last moment of his newly restored reputation, having paid his dues in more ways than one. Criss-crossing the country, driving long distances at uncongenial hours and playing in venues that frequently erred on the wrong side of glamorous, was not for everyone. But he persisted, because he was a musician, and because he was very good at it. 'By the time I knock off all the costs of doing my job,' he reflected to JP Bean for his book, Singing from the Floor: A History of British Folk Clubs, 'I probably end up keeping about 15 per cent of what I earn and my taxable income over a year is roughly what I'd earn stacking shelves in Tesco. 'Being on the road isn't a career - it's a way of life. Anyone who gets that the wrong way round isn't going to hack it for long. After a decade they're going to be completely burned out and bitterly disappointed unless they get lucky and hit commercial success outside the folk world … It's just the way of life I chose and it's the price you pay if you decide to do something outside the accepted mainstream.' * The GoFundMe page can be found at Dick Gaughan Live at the BBC 1972-79 (vinyl) is available for pre-ordering from Last Night From Glasgow: ; details of the forthcoming R/evolution boxset can be found at
7NEWS
22-07-2025
- Politics
- 7NEWS
HECS and childcare Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's first order of business as parliament returns
Through church services, smoking ceremonies and ceremonial dragging of MPs, the 48th federal parliament has been opened in a flurry of pomp and ceremony. Veteran MPs and fresh-faced senators gathered in Canberra on Tuesday for the formal opening of parliament before official business could get under way. The day began with an ecumenical service at a Wesley Uniting Church, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese promising to get down to business quickly. 'Every day is an opportunity to deliver for Australians and this week we will have legislation to do that,' he told reporters outside the church. 'We'll continue to work hard each and every day in the interest of Australians.' Albanese will command a large majority in his second term as leader, with Labor holding 94 of the 150 seats in the House of Representatives. The size of the majority was on display on the floor of parliament for the first time since the election, with Labor MPs now sitting on both sides of the aisle in the lower house. Across the chamber, Opposition Leader Sussan Ley will preside over just 43 lower-house MPs after an election wipeout for the coalition. 'We got smashed at the last election and the number of seats that we now hold is a demonstration that we are at a low point,' Ley said. 'But we're here to work hard, we're here to put the interests of the Australian people that we come here to represent front and centre. 'And we know that aspiration connects every single threat of Australian society.' After a ceremonial Welcome to Country and smoking ceremony on the forecourt of Parliament House, MPs and senators were one-by-one sworn in at their respective chambers. Business soon turned to the election of a speaker for the House of Representatives. Labor MP Milton Dick was re-elected to the role with bipartisan support before he was ceremonially dragged to the speaker's chair by MPs. The prime minister said Dick would continue to conduct the role with 'fairness, with humour and with intellect'. The returning speaker said it was a 'profound honour' to carry on in the position. 'My view is the role of speaker is not one of partisanship, but of stewardship, and it's my solemn responsibility to ensure that democracy is not only practiced here, but it's strengthened here,' Dick said. In the Senate, Sue Lines was re-elected as president of the chamber, but not before One Nation leader Pauline Hanson's surprise nomination of political rival David Pocock for the position. The independent ACT senator declined the nomination. Later, Governor-General Sam Mostyn will deliver a speech in the Senate outlining the priorities of the term, followed by a ceremonial 19-gun salute. Legislation due to be introduced in the first week of parliament includes a 20 per cent reduction in HECS debt for university students, penalty rate protections and increased safety measures at childcare centres. The coalition is still reviewing many of the policies it took to the election, but the opposition has flagged it is likely to support the student debt reduction measures, along with childcare protection laws. The Greens, who hold the balance of power in the upper house, are set to introduce a private senators bill to reform Australia's main environment laws. Labor's main policies The Albanese government will look to implement a long list of promises it made at the election when parliament resumes. COST OF LIVING: $1,000 tax deductions from 2026-27 for work-related expenses. Cap prescription medication at $25 and $7.70 for concession cardholders. HOUSING: Five per cent deposits and 100,000 new homes for first-home buyers. Electricity bill rebates of $75 per household for the final quarters of 2025. HEALTH: $8.5 billion over four years for Medicare to expand bulk-billing and create 50 extra urgent care clinics. Free mental health services, new training facilities for professionals, upgrading mental health centres and improvements to mental health organisation Headspace. GENDER: $573 million in funding for women's health, including spending on long-term contraceptives and expanding endometriosis and pelvic pain clinics. Men's mental health support measures, which will include training for primary health care workers and support programs. CHILDCARE: Three days of subsidised child care for every family. A $1 billion fund to build new childcare centres. EDUCATION: 20 per cent off HECS debt for university students and graduates. 100,000 fee-free TAFE placements. DEFENCE: Grow defence spending by $50.3 billion over the next decade, expanding spending from 2 per cent of GDP to 2.33 per cent by 2033/34.
Daily Mirror
17-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Escape To The Chateau stars Dick and Angel's hidden estate area that didn't air
A stunning part of Escape To The Chateau stars Dick and Angel Strawbridge's sprawling estate never made the cut on the Channel 4 show There's one part of Dick and Angel's stunning Strawbridge estate that Channel 4 fans definitely would not have seen on the programme, Escape To The Chateau. Dick and Angel, along with their family became an instant hit with fans when the reality show first aired in 2016, when the British couple purchased a 19th century French chateau and relocated in hope of doing it up. If the show proved anything, it certainly highlighted that the married couple didn't do things by halves as they attempted to refurb their property, raise two small children and continue to run a wedding and event planning business. The show was a real hit and ran until 2022 after a whopping nine series of the programme. Following their TV success the Strawbridge's then went on to start up their very own hit podcast in 2023, called Dick & Angel's Although there have been many updates on their ever-changing home through the show and now via the podcast, there is still one part that remains to be seen. Over on Instagram the family-of-four caused waves recently when they shared a snap of what appeared to be a secret garden that fans had not been privy to. Dick, 65 could be seen alongside his two children, enjoying some time together, in a stunning vegetable garden in country esque surroundings. It appeared that Arthur, 13, and Dorothy, 11, were helping their father to collect some of their home grown produce that seemed as though it was ready for harvest. From the picture which showcased their stunning home in the background, it would seem the veg-patch has been closely situated to their property, despite its sprawling 12-acre grounds. The secret part appeared to be protected by tall trees and bricked walls matching their home, which may explain why this area had been off limits to fans, until now. Their plants appeared to be flourishing in the summer months, with green veg protruding through the earth in neat-and-tidy wooden planters, surrounded by lined walkways with stunning flowers. Although their chateau life appears picture perfect and tranquil, it's safe to say the family's life abroad has not always been as plain sailing as it seems. Back in March, it was announced that Channel 4 were launching a brand new spin off show, this time without Dick and Angel in the mix. Soon after the announcement, the married couple took to Instagram posting a house design picture and completely ignoring the update at all. They penned at the time: "A very good morning to you! We're busy…lots of changes and lots of activity at the Chateau! Any guesses? To keep up to date with what's happening in our world, sign up to our newsletter! Link in bio! Have a terrific Tuesday! Xxx." This year, Channel 4 confirmed they would be launching a new show called Chateau DIY: Win The Dream, with the production company joining forces with Spark media North. The programme sees 12 couples as they go head-to-head in hope of winning their own chateau in France. It follows on from Chateau DIY, which hit our screens in 2018 and follows the lives of families who are renovating homes in France.
Daily Mail
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
The stunning part of Escape To The Chateau stars Dick and Angel Strawbridge's sprawling estate we never saw on Channel 4 show
A stunning part of Escape To The Chateau stars Dick and Angel Strawbridge 's sprawling estate we never saw on the Channel 4 show has been revealed. The reality show, which ran from 2016 to 2022, followed the British couple as they bought and renovated a 19th-century French chateau. The pair juggled doing up the manor in north-west France with raising two young children and running a wedding and event planning business. After a whopping nine series of the programme, the Strawbridges started a weekly podcast in 2023 called Dick & Angel's providing chateau life updates. But despite the wealth of content out there about their home life, there is one aspect of Chateau de la Motte-Husson we have never been privy to. A recent snap the family posted to social media shows off their gorgeous, tucked-away vegetable garden, surrounded by lush trees and climbing plants. In the Instagram post, Dick, 65, was seen walking alongside the abundant beds with his children Arthur, 13, and Dorothy, 11. The youngsters were helping their father pick the homegrown produce, with stunning views of the turreted property behind them. The secluded part of the chateau's sprawling 12-acre grounds is located close to the main house, presumably to provide easy access to the kitchen garden. But it is seemingly surrounded by tall brick walls and shaded by lofty trees, perhaps explaining why viewers have not seen so much of this part of the property before. It is a beautiful outdoor space, with a charming arched entryway, neat and tidy planters and walkways lined by gorgeous flowers and shrubbery. As well as the walled garden, the family's land boasts an enormous barn, lots of outdoor seating and a huge private lake. It looks just as good in winter as in summer, with another postcard-perfect snap shared by the family, in November last year, showing it covered in glittering frost. But despite the looks of their idyllic lifestyle abroad, all has not been plain sailing at the chateau in recent times. As well as the walled garden, the family's land boasts an enormous barn, lots of outdoor seating and a huge private lake In March, Channel 4 revealed there would be an Escape To The Chateau spin-off - and the pair are not involved in any capacity. Dick and Angel took to Instagram shortly after the news broke to share a snap of one of their house designs - opting not to address the new show at all. They wrote: 'A very good morning to you! We're busy…lots of changes and lots of activity at the Chateau! Any guesses? 'To keep up to date with what's happening in our world, sign up to our newsletter! Link in bio! Have a terrific Tuesday! Xxx.' But while they remained silent on the programme, some rushed to the comments section to urge Dick and Angel to create another series of their original show. One wrote: 'We definitely need a new series! Please.' Another added: 'We're gunna need more episodes.' 'We need to have a new series to find out!,' a third pointed out. Dick and Angel took to Instagram shortly after the news broke to share a snap (pictured) of one of their house designs - opting not to address the new show at all A fourth questioned: 'New series? Please make a new series.' Escape To The Chateau was dramatically axed in 2022 shortly after bullying accusations were made in 2021. But earlier this year, Channel 4 revealed it was joining forces with Spark Media North to work on a daytime show called Chateau DIY: Win The Dream. The programme will give one of 12 pairs the chance to win their own chateau in France. It follows on from Chateau DIY, which is associated with Escape to the Château. Chateau DIY, which hit our screens in 2018, follows the lives of families who are renovating their properties in France. There have been eight seasons, with the last on our screens in December 2024.
