Latest news with #WhitehallTheatre
The Courier
30-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Courier
Ocean Colour Scene duo announce Dundee, Glenrothes and Stirling gigs
Ocean Colour Scene duo Simon Fowler and Oscar Harrison have announced gigs in Dundee, Glenrothes and Stirling. The pair will perform acoustic hits at the shows in November. It comes as the full band prepare to play at Slessor Gardens this summer as part of Discovery Festival. The duo will kick off their acoustic tour at Stirling's Albert Halls on November 13. They will play at the Whitehall Theatre in Dundee on November 18 before heading to the Rothes Halls in Glenrothes on November 19. The shows will feature some of the band's biggest hits, including The Day We Caught the Train and The Circle. Forming in Birmingham 35 years ago, the band have released 10 studio albums, four of which have reached the UK top 10 album chart. Tickets for each show cost £36.75 and can be purchased from Ticketmaster.
The Courier
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Courier
Photos of Dundee Cubs and Scouts in the 70s and 80s - from Fordell Firs fun to Gang Show gags
These time warp images show Cubs and Scouts in Dundee having fun and doing good deeds in the 1970s and 1980s. The Scout Movement was formed in 1907 and has provided young people across the world with the opportunity to learn new skills and build lifelong friendships. Many former members will recall their promise to do their best and help other people. Others may have fond – or not so fond – memories of time spent camping under canvas in the great outdoors at places like Douglaswood and Fordell Firs. The Gang Show is performed at the Whitehall Theatre to packed houses and the most famous event is the World Scout Jamboree, with memories lasting a lifetime. Were you in the Scout Movement in Dundee in the 1970s and 1980s? You may find yourself or someone you know in our gallery. The 50th Dundee (Broughty Ferry) Cub Scout Pack at the Scout Training Centre at Fordell Firs, near Dunfermline in June 1973. They were celebrating National Cub Day and enjoyed good weather. Dundee Scouts were setting off from Tay Bridge Station for the International Scout Camp, which took place at Blair Atholl in July 1976. There were 900 Scouts in attendance and some of the overseas visitors came from countries including America, Canada, Gibraltar, Japan, Libya and Uganda. These Scouts from Broughty Ferry were making friends with a group from Spain and cooking a meal together using an open stove. After the camp the overseas Scouts spent a week in the home of a Scottish Scout so they could really get to know about Scottish culture and the country. Amateur short-wave radio enthusiasts from the 52nd Dundee (Ogilvie Church) took part in the 'Jamboree on the Air' in November 1977. It was the 20th event of its kind and allowed the boys to speak with Scouts worldwide. Dundee Scout Association held a 'Superscout' competition at Craigie High School in June 1977, which was based on the popular BBC show Superstars. The competitors took part in swimming, athletics and games. Back (from left) – David Ogilvie (silver), Fraser Middleton (gold), Bob Smith, Assistant Area Commissioner, Venture Scouts, and Neil Holland (bronze). Front (from left) – Craig Simpson (Jubilee Crown), William Wood (Jubilee Crown) and Ross Haston (Jubilee Crown). Rehearsals in full swing in March 1980 at Roseangle Church ahead of the Dundee Scout Gang Show, which took place at the Whitehall Theatre from April 7-12. It was first performed at the 5th (Downfield) Scout Hall in 1967. The Gang Show format of songs, dance and short comedy sketches was created by Ralph Reader, the producer of the Scout movement's original Gang Show. In 1972 the production moved to its current location at the Whitehall Theatre. Youngsters taking part in a Mexican scene in the April 1982 production. The evening was full of songs, dance and comedy. The 1982 Dundee Scout Gang Show featured a Royal Ascot scene. Any youngster involved in Scouting in the city is eligible to enlist for the show. The Scouts of the 23rd troop attached to St Pius Church, Douglas, took ownership of a £200 minibus when it was put up for auction by Dudhope Training Centre. It took them skiing to Glenshee, to camp at Caputh and to the panto in Edinburgh. It was set for its longest journey with a trip to London during the Dundee Fortnight. What a way to make an entrance in April 1983. A group of the Gang Show soldiers were pictured marching on the new university bypass towards the Whitehall Theatre for their dress rehearsals. The 23rd Dundee St Pius X Scout Group ready to head off to London in July 1983. Did the £200 minibus make it there and back? Scouts and helpers who cut the grass at Mid Craigie Parish Church in August 1983. They stepped in after bride and groom-to-be Jean Innes and Charles Barclay complained about having to have their photos taken in the long grass. Some of the cast of Dundee Scout Gang Show line up in April 1985. Thousands of children have taken part at the Whitehall Theatre over the years. Roger Buist was the long-serving show director. Leaders look on during this demonstration of backwoods cooking from the boys of the 25th Dundee Scout Group at Camperdown Park in June 1985. Backwoods cooking is the art of using an open fire with limited instruments. Members of the 5th Downfield opened a shoe shine stand in the Overgate Centre in Dundee for the annual Bob-A-Job Week in April 1985. The tradition involved Scouts carrying out tasks in return for a cash donation. The Western District Cub Scout Annual Indoor Competition was held in Charleston Primary School in February 1987. As our picture shows, the home-made helicopters proved popular. A group of Dundee Scouts leaving Tay Bridge Station in July 1988 to attend an international camp in Wurzburg in Germany over the holiday fortnight. The cost of the trip was £150. It was organised by Doug Winter. The 45th Dundee (Broughty Ferry) Scouts represented Dundee in the Scouts inter-area camping competition held near Peebles in September 1988. They won the overall title and the Coca-Cola Cup for highest camping standards. The 14th Dundee Cub Pack celebrated their 60th anniversary in February 1989. A new badge was designed to mark the occasion. The winning patrol from the 45th (Broughty Ferry), which won the Dundee Scout Association Area Flag Competition at Douglaswood in June 1989. The group went forward to the national final. It is the final image in our Dundee Scouting gallery. Did you spot anyone you recognise? Let us know.
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Sir Julian Seymour, skilled head of Margaret Thatcher's private office after she left Downing Street
Sir Julian Seymour, who has died aged 80, organised a rudderless Margaret Thatcher after her ejection from Downing Street, running her private office from 1991 until he retired in 2001; a director of her Foundation from 1992 to 2011, he was later her trustee and executor. A former advertising executive with a short fuse, a keen sense of humour, great generosity and a gift for organisation, Seymour had a big personality and knew important people, but deeply respected his charge. To Seymour she was always 'Mrs T', never 'Margaret' – but he was never frightened of her. He continued to help out for the rest of her life, making sure in her final illness that she had the best and kindest carers. Leaving office precipitately in November 1990, Mrs Thatcher had, according to Seymour, 'no money – and I mean no money – in her bank account'. She had no income outside politics, and a prime minister's pension of just £25,000 a year. Though her husband Denis was comfortably off, he had never paid for any aspect of her public life, and 'never voluntarily put his hand in his pocket'. Mrs Thatcher was also shocked, upset and disorientated. For 11 years as prime minister she had been working flat out, with her life organised by civil servants in her private office and a small personal staff. The Thatchers had bought a quite unsuitable house in Dulwich and needed somewhere sensible to live. Thousands of letters from the public piled up unanswered in borrowed offices; she had almost forgotten how to dial people direct. Generous friends tried to bring order from chaos. Her son Mark briefly took charge, but he was not a team player and not resident in Britain. After a few months, Mrs Thatcher's close supporters, Tim Bell and Alistair McAlpine, asked Seymour – a friend of Bell's – if he would head her office and inject a sense of order. Seymour had put on the comedy Anyone for Denis?, based on Private Eye's 'Dear Bill Letters', at the Whitehall Theatre in 1981, starring John Wells and Angela Thorne. The Thatchers – daughter Carol apart – hated it, but that proved no bar to his appointment. He quickly realised that Mrs Thatcher needed a permanent home and workplace, and above all, money. Finding the home proved relatively easy: the Barclay twins, David and Frederick, arranged for her to move into 73 Chester Square in Belgravia, which David owned on a lease. The Thatchers moved in in May 1991 and would live there almost to the end of their lives. By that September, Seymour had also found her a suitable office not far away, at 34 and 35 Chesham Place – large and formal, reinforcing her status as a statesman. She became happier and more settled. Where money was concerned, Ronald Reagan recommended the paid lecture tour, and she signed up to an American speaking agency. Seymour negotiated speaking tours in the Far East through Citibank Asia, and she travelled abroad almost every month until 2002. On Seymour's advice, Mrs Thatcher – she would receive her peerage on leaving the Commons in 1992 – laid down what paid work she would not take. She would not join any board of directors, or advertise anything. Nor would she 'fly for $1 million for one speech in Japan; such a big sum is inappropriate'. She spent much of her time raising money for the Margaret Thatcher Foundation, despite being 'bored sideways' with it. Mark Thatcher had set it up without observing the legal niceties, and in July 1991, just before Seymour took charge, the Charity Commission refused it charitable status on the grounds that its work was political. The Foundation's intended purpose was to assist the development of entrepreneurial skills, especially in formerly Communist countries, but Mark saw it as a vehicle for getting the world's wealthy to 'pay up for Mumsy'. Once Seymour had diplomatically taken charge, potential contributors were wooed back. As she became better organised, Lady Thatcher could pay more attention to world affairs, and to her legacy. Seymour left the contacts with world leaders to Charles Powell, concentrating on making meetings happen. He prioritised creating a climate in which she could write her memoirs; the first volume, The Downing Street Years, appeared in 1993. He secured roughly £800,000 for her by arranging for the BBC to show a four-part series based on them – with copyright reverting to the Foundation after one repeat. Later, he secured her archives for posterity, and suggested she commission Charles Moore (now Lord Moore of Etchingham) to write her authorised biography; it was published in three volumes between 2013 and 2019. When John Major, exasperated at the machinations of the Eurosceptic Right, called a leadership contest in 1995, Lady Thatcher was tempted to back John Redwood. Seymour told her that for a former Tory leader to publicly back a challenger to a sitting one would be a step too far. 'I told her I always thought JR a bit odd, and an impossible bet for PM at any time,' he recalled. He got no reaction, 'other than that look when you know either that she privately agreed or was thinking about it, but was never, ever to be drawn into agreeing out loud. In summary, heart will have said Redwood, head will have said No.' When Major gave a dinner for her 70th birthday at Number 10 the following year, the invitations went out without it having been decided who was paying. After an uncomfortable call from the prime minister's office, Seymour said he would personally pay the bill until something was sorted out. It never was; in 2019 he said: 'I have happily written off my £7,000.' Seymour retired in 2001, but remained closely involved in her affairs, in concert with her political secretary, Sir Mark Worthington. Denis's death in 2003 hit her particularly hard. In August 2004, when Mark Thatcher was arrested for alleged involvement in a mercenary coup in Equatorial Guinea, Seymour flew to South Africa and agreed that his mother would meet his bail (about £175,000). As collateral, Seymour gave paintings by Edward Seago that belonged to him but for many years had hung in the Chester Square house. He arranged for the sale of the Seagos and recovered the money. At the handover of Hong Kong to China in July 1997, Seymour noticed that she seemed 'a bit wandery'. He put it down to exhaustion, but later came to see it as an early symptom of mental decline. In 2018, when Major went public with the view that she had shown symptoms of this even in office, Seymour and Worthington wrote to The Daily Telegraph disagreeing. At the time she left Downing Street, they said, she had not been 'ill' but distraught. Only later did she suffer memory loss. Major said the 'sniping' from her during his first days in office 'didn't sound to me like the Margaret I had come to know'. The belief that she was ill had made it easier for him to bear the criticism, 'though it was still uncomfortable'. Seymour and Worthington insisted that at that stage they saw her 'virtually every day', and did not detect any signs of decline; in their opinion, and that of her medical advisers, she did not display such traits 'until after Sir John's time as Prime Minister'. As her health declined in 2009, Seymour and Worthington produced plans for her funeral, under the Downing Street codename Blair Project True Blue. They were based on a letter she had written to Seymour in 1999 expressing 'the wish that she would receive a funeral with no subsequent memorial service, and that she would like her ashes interred alongside those of Denis at the Royal Hospital, Chelsea'. She favoured St Paul's Cathedral for the service because it could hold more guests than Westminster Abbey and was not royal. An early discussion with Buckingham Palace took place, and 'an interesting message came back that 'HM the Queen would wish to attend if she was able.'' The plan proposed a 'ceremonial funeral', which would attract 'less public controversy' than a State funeral. The Thatcher family were keen for all party leaders to agree, 'since high level public political disagreement would be very undignified and offensive to Mrs Thatcher's memory'. In December 2012, Lady Thatcher fell ill and was diagnosed with bladder cancer. At a meeting with doctors involving Carol, Seymour and Worthington, it was agreed that the tumour should be removed. The operation went well, but it was soon clear she would not live much longer. She died on April 8 2013. Julian Roger Seymour was born in Essex on March 19 1945, the son of Evelyn Seymour, who worked in the City, and the former Rosemary Flower. From Eton – where he was known as 'bionic carrot' because of his hyperactivity and flame-red hair – he toured Africa for a year with a friend, then trained as an accountant. Next he went into advertising, becoming a director of Collett Dickenson Pearce in 1969 and of Robert Fox in 1980. He was never on the creative side, but made a fortune as a backroom expert on finance; from 1985 until he went to work for Mrs Thatcher he was finance director of the Lowe Group. Seymour was a non-executive director of Bell's Chime Communications from 1990 to 2007 and a commissioner of English Heritage from 1992 to 1998. He chaired the Margaret Thatcher Archive Trust from 2005 to 2021, and was its president up to his death. He was a compulsive collector – selling successive collections at a profit – a bon viveur with a taste for big cigars and first-growth clarets, and a highly knowledgeable gardener. At his Battersea home he acquired at least one neighbouring garden to intensify the riot of colour. Seymour's wife was South African, and latterly they spent a month there every winter. For many years they had a house on Sandwich Bay – Rest Harrow, once owned by Nancy, Lady Astor – where the Thatchers would stay during the summer. He was appointed CBE in 2001, and knighted in 2014. Julian Seymour married Diana Griffith in 1984; she survives him, with their son and daughter. Sir Julian Seymour, born March 19 1945, died March 23 2025 Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
