Drop The Dead Donkey

I must stress right at the start of my blip that the title doesn't mean that I am calling either of these two gentlemen donkeys. Lol. The reference is simply made because of the gentleman on the right of the photograph - Mr Robert Duncan.

Tonight I visited Swansea Grand Theatre with my friend Jamie aka to fellow blippers as ValleyAllBlack and who is on the left of the photo. We went to see Agatha Christie's Verdict which is a 1958 play, unusual in more than one way: for example, it is an original play, not based on a story or novel; and though there is a murder in the story, it is a melodrama more than a typical 'whodunnit' mystery as the murder takes place on stage.

The main character, Karl Hendryk, is a brilliant professor who, with his wife and her cousin, have fled persecution in their country. The professor is contentedly ensconced in a British university, where he is respected by students and faculty alike. His wife, Anya, an invalid suffering from a progressively debilitating disease, bitterly regrets having been forced to leave her home and her friends and is unhappy with all aspects of her life in England. Her cousin and close friend, Lisa Koletzky, has moved with them to care for Anya and to manage the professor's home. Karl and Lisa have suppressed feelings for each other, and the situation is further disturbed when a young rich student, Helen Rollander, takes on private lessons with the professor.

Karl Hendryk was played by Robert Duncan who some of you may remember played Gus Hedges in Drop The Dead Donkey, a situation comedy that ran on Channel 4 in the UK from 1990 to 1998. It was set in the offices of "GlobeLink News," a fictional TV news company. Recorded close to transmission, it made use of current news events as a means of giving the programme a greater sense of realism. Gus was Chief Executive of the company, a management stereotype who transforms GlobeLink from a serious news network to a ratings chasing tabloid channel. Away from office life, Gus is a lonely man with no friends and in work he is disliked by the staff.

After this evening's play, Jamie and I attended the Meet the Cast Party that the Friends of the Theatre were holding in the Circle Bar and it is here that the cast mingled and this photograph was taken. The reason that I have chosen this photograph for today's blip is because Jamie was so excited to receive his Tantallon Victoria AFC football shirt that he blipped that today instead, forgetting that he would be meeting Robert Duncan later on (and he calls me blonde)!!!!!

All in all, it was a lovely evening and it is now far too late and way past my bedtime so night night.