Art show
A MAJOR exhibition of paintings by one of the senior figures of the British art scene, John Napper, will be on show at Machynlleth's Tabernacle Centre from Monday of next week.
Artworks
THE Friends of Oriel Ynys Mon, Llangefni will be holding a social evening at the gallery on Friday.
Paintings by Charles Tunnicliffe will be displayed.
On show
A MAJOR exhibition of paintings by one of the senior figures of the British art scene, John Napper, will be on show at Machynlleth's Tabernacle Centre from next Monday.
Award for lighting up Broadway
A MID-Wales theatre enthusiast who graduated from village amateur dramatics to the bright lights of Broadway has crowned a string of successes with a Tony award, the New York stage equivalent of an Oscar.
Chris Parry, whose home is in Welshpool, received the accolade this week for his stage lighting of the musical, Tommy.
His mother, Mrs Noelyne Parry, said yesterday: ' The show flopped in London but it has become something of a cult in America and was a rave success on Broadway.
The critics ran out of superlatives. '
Now 41, Mr Parry started his working life as a GPO technician but was soon attracted to acting.
He joined Guilsfield Amateur Dramatic Society but it was not long before he decided that his interest lay in production.
His confidence grew and he applied for a job at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre at Stratford upon Avon.
He moved to America four years ago where he is a member of the faculty of the University of California at San Diego lecturing on stage work.
Chris Parry: Success
Garbo letters
A LETTER from Greta Garbo shows she did not always want to be alone.
Sixty-six letters were sold for 26,450 at Sotheby's in London yesterday.
And in one to actress Salka Viertal she says: ' It is sad to be alone, but sometimes it is even more difficult to be with someone. '
Britons join pasta set BRITONS are eating more pasta than ever before but they still have a long way to go to match their continental neighbours, according to a survey by pasta makers Buitoni.
We munched our way through an average 18 pasta meals per head last year a mere drop in the ocean compared to the Italians, who managed to swallow a massive 300 meals each.
EC aid plea A EURO MP is to meet EC Commissioner Bruce Millan to press for funds after the cliff landslide which destroyed a 110-year-old hotel.
North Yorkshire's MEP, Edward McMillan-Scott, will put the case for cliff protection work at Scarborough after the destruction of the Holbeck Hall hotel.
' Castrate rapists' A TORY MP has demanded that rapists should be castrated so that women could walk the streets safely at night.
In a Commons debate on law and order, David Evans (Welwyn and Hatfield), also called on new Home Secretary, Michael Howard, to reintroduce the death penalty for violent crimes.
Garbo: lonely McMillan-Scott
EastEnders: Misery all the way Lighten up Brookside, Coronation Street and Eldorado!
PETER GRANT pleas to our soap writers: Can we have a laugh, please?
STOP all your moaning!
MURDER, love affairs, violence, robberies, mounting debts... our soap operas are packed full of every gloomy scenario that surrounds us in the real world.
But there's one thing blatantly missing in the majority of our top telly dramas the ability to laugh at ourselves and some of our predicaments.
Granted, life's not a continual merry-go-round, but it's also not all bleakness either.
Yet our soaps are top of the ratings but they could increase their viewers even more if they eased-up a little and balanced things out.
It's not all doom, gloom and despondency in life, even when things are going wrong we all need to laugh.
And laughter is infectious... so a little bit of effort on the small screen could start the ball rolling.
The scriptwriters should take note of our FUN FORTNIGHT include a few more comical characters who can lighten up and shake off all these severe scenarios.
Top of the Fun Fortnight favourites is Coronation Street (17.4 million) with Mavis and Derek Wilton.
The dithering duo are now so popular that Mavis's catch-phrase ' I don't really know ' is the first choice of telly impressionists.
Too heavy And then there's Vera and Jack Duckworth their barmy battles always make for a Punch and Judy-styled double act.
Unfortunately, Reg Holdsworth is getting a bit too romantic the bespectacled romeo should get back to his impish, eccentric ways.
Brookside (7 million) is so seeped in worthy but heavy storylines that there is a definite need for a few lighter moments.
Merseyside, host of the Festival of Comedy and birthplace of so many comedians and top sitcoms, is a naturally funny place so where are the Brookie bluffers, the wise-cracking wags?
Give Sinbad a better break is the answer he's one of the most endearing soap characters on the box, yet now he's fast turning into a busybody.
Gone are the happy days when Barry and Terry were verbal sparring partners.
Now they are simply sinister to each other.
We need another Harry Cross and Ralph to present a silver lining to the ever present cloud of worthwhile issues which can be quite a daunting thing to watch especially the 90-minute Saturday omnibus edition.
Over on EastEnders (17.65 million) the misery lingers on and on.
Morose Michell wins the wet blanket award.
Droning Dot and nurdish Nigel do have the odd laugh, but there's never been a character who you could call easy going and game for a laugh.
Back over on Emmerdale (9.64 million) only the ducks have gone quackers!
Amos, Seth and Mr Wilks used to be like the Yorkshire version of Three Stooges, but now it's all arguments and impending family feuds.
Pathos rules and Seth is just silly.
Home and Away (12.32 million) and Neighbours (13.69 million) are simply a different culture but at least there's plenty of sunshine.
And finally Eldorado (6.39 million): This ill-fated soap is rising despite the fact that it ends in July.
What a pity there wasn't a stronger launch with some modern day clowns in there to offer fun, frolics and festivity.
Welcome relief Sadly, while we have plots focusing on homelessness, drug abuse and adultery in the 90s dominating our regular visits to soap land it would be a welcome relief to have the odd outburst of laughter.
Soaps shouldn't take themselves so seriously.
WHAT do you think?
ARE Soaps just right or do you think we need more fun?
WRITE to Couch Potato; Liverpool Echo Features, PO Box 48, Old Hall Street, Liverpool, L69 3EB.
TOMORROW'S WORLD: In New York (BBC 1, 7.30pm)
THE Big Apple's the location for a special programme where inventions are even wackier than here in the UK.
But they are making real advancements.
There's the ex-taxi driver, the chicken farmer and the house decorator who are building robots in their spare time for space projects.
There's also news on the current US system to crack the car thieves circles and how stolen motors are tracked down.
The idea should arrive in Britain later this year.
U.S. CUP SOCCER
USA v England
(ITV, 10.40pm) LIVE soccer from Boston which is ideal for our Fun Fortnight judging by the way Graham Taylor's mob are playing of late.
Rodney Marsh and Alan Parry commentate on the biggest thing in Boston since the Tea Party.
PLEASE SETTLE an argument by telling me who was the comedian who used to end his act with the words' That's yer lot. '
I. Pickering, Wirral.
He was the one and only Jimmy Wheeler.
He died at the age of 63 in October, 1973, after 58 years as an entertainer.
His famous catch-phrase was' Aye, aye, that's yer lot. '
I HAVE been given a new camera but have lost the instructions.
It is a Halina 110.
Can you help a pensioner?
George, Huyton.
You want the Halina head office in the U.K. The address: Halina Marketing U.K. Ltd., The Haking International Centre, City Park, Watchmead, Welling Garden City, Herts AL7 1LT.
Tel:.
I NEED a wick for a Max Sievert petrol blow lamp.
I have tried many ironmongers without success.
A. Connelly, Skelmersdale.
Try Rapid Discount DIY in Renshaw Street.
They have a good stock of wicks and, if they do not have your particular one on the shelf, are confident they can order one for you.
IF YOU have any questions, write to: The A Team, Features Dept., Liverpool Echo, PO Box 48, Old Hall Street, Liverpool L69 3EB.
PLEASE note: We can not answer queries personally and no correspondence will be entered into.
The editor reserves the right to select and edit questions.
Joey tops the bill
PROMOTER Brian Snagg brings down the curtain on the dinner/boxing season at the Devonshire House Sporting Club tomorrow night.
In his final offering until the autumn, Brian features lightweight prospect Joey Moffatt in top spot against Norman Dhalie (Birmingham).
For Moffatt, with a good winning streak behind him, it is an unexpected but welcome return to action following a lengthy lay-off with a facial injury.
He comes in as a replacement for unbeaten fellow Liverpudlian Shea Neary, who is out with a hand injury.
Two other Liverpool fighters, Andrew Jarvis and Charlie Payne, complete the card.
Jarvis, ex-St Teresa 's, goes in with Chris Mulcahy (Manchester) and Payne, a former Golden Gloves amateur, makes his paid debut against a selected opponent.
BRUCE'S GUEST NIGHT (BBC 1)
The Old Pals' Act appears to be alive and well in the TV world.
Bruce Forsyth and Jimmy Tarbuck have been more likely to be found together on the golf course than on a chat show in recent times.
But Brucie dragged Tarby off the fairway to talk about The Good Old Days of Great British Comedy.
Ho-ho!
He introduced the jolly, gap-toothed Scouser by saying: ' He always has been and always will be your favourite funny man. '
Really?
It could have been an interesting double act but it was bunkered immediately by all the showbiz flannel.
Brucie should have asked his old mucker why he had apparently given up his comedy career to become a fulltime golfer, but he seemed more interested in sticking to what appeared to be a well-prepared script.
There was, however, one genuinely rib-tickling moment when the pair waxed lyrical about the old Sunday Night at the Palladium days.
Tarby declared: ' I think there should be a show like that for young talent. '
Hear, hear!
So why don't you both get off prime time telly immediately and make way for the new generation?
COMICS (Channel 4) THIS wasn't funny either.
Lynda La Plante is in grave danger of burning herself out and it's no laughing matter.
There were few chuckles in this heavy duty drama, which followed in the footsteps of Widows, Prime Suspect Civvies.
Too many stereotypes an American who only eats hamburgers, a fat feminist comic, a Scotsman called Haggis, a smooth, fast-talking agent and a series of unlikely events was its downfall.
Johnny Lazar steps off the plane from the States and one of the first things he sees in London is a gangland killing... happens all the time.
La Plante obviously enjoys writing tough, all-action thrillers but this latest epic was crying out for a little more subtlety and a couple of rounded characters.
Paddy Shennan
BRUCE'S GUEST NIGHT (BBC 1) The Old Pals' Act appears to be alive and well in the TV world.
Bruce Forsyth and Jimmy Tarbuck have been more likely to be found together on the golf course than on a chat show in recent times.
But Brucie dragged Tarby off the fairway to talk about The Good Old Days of Great British Comedy.
Ho-ho!
He introduced the jolly, gap-toothed Scouser by saying: ' He always has been and always will be your favourite funny man. '
Really?
It could have been an interesting double act but it was bunkered immediately by all the showbiz flannel.
Brucie should have asked his old mucker why he had apparently given up his comedy career to become a full-time golfer, but he seemed more interested in sticking to what appeared to be a well-prepared script.
There was, however, one genuinely rib-tickling moment when the pair waxed lyrical about the old Sunday Night at the Palladium days.
Tarby declared: ' I think there should be a show like that for young talent. '
Hear, hear!
So why don't you both get off prime time telly immediately and make way for the new generation?
COMICS (Channel 4) THIS wasn't funny either.
Lynda La Plante is in grave danger of burning herself out and it's no laughing matter.
There were few chuckles in this heavy duty drama, which followed in the footsteps of Widows, Prime Suspect Civvies.
Too many stereotypes an American who only eats hamburgers, a fat feminist comic, a Scotsman called Haggis, a smooth, fast-talking agent and a series of unlikely events was its downfall.
Johnny Lazar steps off the plane from the States and one of the first things he sees in London is a gangland killing... happens all the time.
La Plante obviously enjoys writing tough, all-action thrillers but this latest epic was crying out for a little more subtlety and a couple of rounded characters.
BRUCE'S GUEST NIGHT (BBC 1) The Old Pals' Act appears to be alive and well in the TV world.
Bruce Forsyth and Jimmy Tarbuck have been more likely to be found together on the golf course than on a chat show in recent times.
But Brucie dragged Tarby off the fairway to talk about The Good Old Days of Great British Comedy.
Ho-ho!
He introduced the jolly, gap-toothed Scouser by saying: ' He always has been and always will be your favourite funny man. '
Really?
It could have been an interesting double act but it was bunkered immediately by all the showbiz flannel.
Brucie should have asked his old mucker why he had apparently given up his comedy career to become a full-time golfer, but he seemed more interested in sticking to what appeared to be a well-prepared script.
There was, however, one genuinely rib-tickling moment when the pair waxed lyrical about the old Sunday Night at the Palladium days.
Tarby declared: ' I think there should be a show like that for young talent. '
Hear, hear!
So why don't you both get off prime time telly immediately and make way for the new generation?
COMICS (Channel 4) THIS wasn't funny either.
Lynda La Plante is in grave danger of burning herself out and it's no laughing matter.
There were few chuckles in this heavy duty drama, which followed in the footsteps of Widows, Prime Suspect Civvies.
Too many stereotypes an American who only eats hamburgers, a fat feminist comic, a Scotsman called Haggis, a smooth, fast-talking agent and a series of unlikely events was its downfall.
Johnny Lazar steps off the plane from the States and one of the first things he sees in London is a gangland killing... happens all the time.
La Plante obviously enjoys writing tough, all-action thrillers but this latest epic was crying out for a little more subtlety and a couple of rounded characters.
Paddy Shennan
Well chuffed... head of 29 rail stations Belinda Lovett aboard a train.
CRYSTAL ROOMS Melvyn Bragg 5.99, (Sceptre) YOUNG Harry, an orphan from an impoverished council estate, becomes the link between starkly contrasting worlds.
North and South, the deprived and the over-privileged.
In this tale of blackmail, media politics, corrupted innocence and redemptive love, Melvyn Bagg produces a portrait of contemporary life.
FOOL'S GOLD June Wyndham Davies 4.99 (Coronet) ALICIA LANGDON is a woman with a dark secret.
Born into society, she struggled against the hardships of the mining camps during the outbreak of Gold Fever in California.
And now she is on the run from the vigilantes, accompanied by her Chinese companion and an orphan.
As Alicia begins to build a new life for herself she is increasingly drawn towards the brusque yet magnetic charms of the Cornishman who owns Tresco, a remote ranch near the High Sierras.
LOVE DOWN UNDER James Leasor 4.99 (Grafton) BEFORE Jason Love, the West Country doctor with a passion for the 1930's American Cord car, flies out to visit fellow Cord enthusiast Charles Robinson in Cairns, Australia, he is entrusted with a mission from his Wiltshire village.
This is to find the truth behind a relation's mysterious drowning accident off Cairns.
But when he arrives down under, the simple enquiry leads to other more disturbing questions.
Book of the Week
HOTEL PASTIS Peter Mayle 14.99 (Hamish Hamilton)
THIS is the book which Peter Mayle planned to write when he went to live in France.
But then he started scribbling away at A Year in Provence and the rest is history.
In a way this novel is A Year in Provence fictionalised.
It is about a man who gets fed up with the New York rat race and forsakes advertising to buy a Gendamerie in Provence.
He turns it into a hotel and falls in love with a local French lass.
Though I enjoyed the book immensely it did seem that to an extent Mayle had used the plot to answer the numerous critics who, riddled by jealousy at the success of his two books (Toujour Provence was the second), have given him a good going over.
There is even a drunken journalist who sends dispatches to upmarket London papers saying how this particular corner of Provence has been ruined by people writing about it!
Romantic misfits Christian Slater and Marisa Tomei.
UNTAMED HEART (15) CHRISTIAN Slater has specialised in off-beat roles ever since he lost his screen virginity at 20, playing a novice monk in The
Name of the Rose.
Trite though it was, Jean-Jacques Annaud's version of Umberto Eco's bestselling novel did wonders for the selling of young Christian.
During the intervening seven years, he has become replacement therapy for little girls who have just donated their dolls to Oxfam.
His latest outing yet another mediocre teeny-bopper heart-throb movie sees him playing orphan Adam, a young man who rarely speaks (so no problems in getting through the script).
Ostensibly a social misfit, he is most at home with his new books, old records and middle-aged pet Labrador.
But when Adam does emerge, he works at a roadside diner, where he's smitten with waitress Caroline (1993 Oscar-winner Marisa Tomei).
But whereas Ms Tomei was Best Supporting Actress in My Cousin Vinny (with Joe Pesci), here she is the fully-fledged leading lady of a romance which appears to have Beauty and the Beast and Tarzan and Jane as dual inspirations.
Adam was raised in the jungle, where he's convinced he received a baboon's heart as a replacement for his own.
Whatever the truth, he is not a well lad, despite being tough.
Which is why Caroline likes nursing him as if he were still a lost child.
Mr Slater appears to enjoy the attentions of his doting raven-haired companion, who sees their love as a fixture in a minefield of misfortune (including a brutal attempted rape).
Adam may be primeval, but he is also kind and gentle; the ideal match in the context of the film's unseasonal Christmas setting.
Jungle Boy and City Girl reach for the stars but it can't last, can it?
A love story with more than its regulation quota of tragedy, this is the sort of tear-jerking fantasy which will be the talk of the fourth form.
And not least because after an era of relative restraint in 15-cert films, we appear to be returning to the near glorification of casual sexual encounters.
THE mystery of prisoners of war at Speke (Yesterday, May 15), is cleared by reader Mr A. Glavisky, of Speke.
He states, while British and US soldiers were billeted thereabouts, no P.o.W. camp existed.
Mr Glavisky thinks people probably recalled German prisoners filling in the water-logged tank traps in Speke, which were a danger to children.
' The prisoners were brought daily from their camp in the Widnes-St.Helens areas, roughly at the end of 1944. '
Ms J.V. Salmon, of Knotty Ash, reckons Woolfall Heath Estate, Huyton, was the site of a prisoners of war or aliens' camp which, she thinks, was the only one in Liverpool.
' The occupants were later removed to the Isle of Man and the site was made into a transit camp for our men, ' she writes.
Duke wants just deserts
THE MAJOR purses Duke McKenzie has fought and campaigned for over the last seven years could finally be just two victories away.
The Croydon stylist first has to dispose of Puerto Rico's Daniel Jimenez at the Lewisham Theatre tonight.
Then he must win a proposed world super-bantamweight unification match against WBC champion Tracey Patterson the adopted son of the legendary Floyd to at long last approach the big money bracket.
McKenzie, however, will only believe it when cheques displaying that elusive, extra figure are deposited in his bank account.
Despite being Britain's only world champion at three different weights and a highly respected professional, McKenzie has never approached star status in the eyes of the fight public or television paymasters.
' I 'm sick of hearing about the money Lennox Lewis, Frank Bruno and Chris Eubank are earning, ' said the 30-year-old WBO champion, making his first defence of the 8st 10lb title.
' To say you can't earn any money in the WBO division is rubbish just look at Eubank.
' He's made a fortune from his title defences and Tommy Morrison and George Foreman shared millions of pounds.
Plenty of people are making a lot of money but it's not me.
' I know Colin McMillan has had some good pay days.
I 'm not being greedy but if someone paid me 50,000 for a fight, I'd be the happiest man in the world.
Glandular fever
' I've got a young family to look after and I have a full-time job.
I 'm not in boxing for the love of it, just the money.
I hoping that some serious pound notes come after this fight I 'm getting despondent. '
A bout of glandular fever forced McKenzie out of a New Year fight against Jimenez, the WBO's official leading contender who could have weight-making problems, having been as heavy as 9st 10lbs for a fight.
She is softly spoken, naturally courteous woman, but with a quiet confidence that suggests she would brook no interference.
Cleese and Prince Charles on the set of Grime goes Green.
Cleese enlisted Royal patronage to work on the top-selling environment number.
It is a serious business but inimitable Cleese brings light relief to the set.
TACKLING the tough stuff executives meet the challenge on a dry and dusty hillside, above, part of the Territorial Army's Executive Stretch Challenge.
Another would-be leader finds a makeshift ' bridge ' over troubled waters as the training course gets tougher.
Executives from over 300 North West firms have taken up the Challenge this year
Musical lunch
ORGANIST Mark Duthie will give a lunchtime recital today at St John's Church, Chester.
Refreshments will be available.
Choir concert
MUSIC from five centuries will be sung at a choral concert tonight by the St Cecilia Singers.
The Chester based choir will be appearing at St Michael and All Angels Church, Little Leigh, near Northwich (8pm).
History today
ANYONE interested in local history is invited to an open meeting of Malpas Field Club this evening in the Jubilee Hall (7.45pm).
Angry Rix quits over ' policies'
LORD Rix has quit the Arts Council after seven years, accusing it of ' devising fatuous so-called policies'.
His resignation comes after a report claimed it was cumbersome and spent too much on administration.
The Council is faced with a possible 5m cash cut next year.
Lord Rix farce actor Brian Rix has accused them of not fighting back, saying: ' We rush like lemmings to the water's edge, devising fatuous so-called policies... which are feeble attempts to cover up the fact that we have been defecated on from a great height. '
Lord Rix: Furious
Two more jots of the writes tuff
MERSEYSIDE has once again shown itself to be at the centre of new writing talent.
Two Merseyside writers, Terry Adams and Paul Goetzee, will have new plays Shadows of My Father and Act of Faith respectively professionally performed at Britain's leading platform for new writing.
North West Playwrights' Workshops 1993 in Manchester will feature both works with Terry's Shadow of My Father being chosen to open this year's event as the Press Night production on the evening of June 30.
Paul's Act of Faith is to be co-produced with Soho Theatre of London on the following night.
Terry and Paul are two of six talented writers from around the region whose plays have been chosen to receive script-in-hand performances produced by a team of award-winning directors, playwrights and actors at Contact Theatre, Manchester, between June 30 and July 3.
Each performance is followed by an after-show discussion where the audience will have the opportunity to meet the writers, directors and cast.
Drumming up support
AFRICAN music came to Liverpool yesterday when African musicians joined up with local performers at the Gallery arts centre in Sandon Street, Liverpool 8.
The dance and music workshops are part of the Africa Oye festival, now in its second year, which runs from Thursday to Sunday this week.
The festival a winner in last year's Daily Post arts awards hosts four days of concerts from African and Caribbean performers.
Some will be joining in the workshops, which are led by Eugene Skeef, a South African musician/poet who worked closely with Steve Biko.
The Africa Oye workshop band will be performing in public on Saturday afternoon as part of the Big Splash event in Birkenhead Park.
On the festival beat in Sandon Street yesterday Picture: TRACEY O'NEILL
Anyone's welcome by Jackie Newton
MARGI Clarke will launch her new one-woman show among an audience of her favourite people.
But while most of Merseyside is invited along, there is one notable exception.
Her mum, former Knowsley mayor Mrs Frances Clarke, is barred.
' I 'm leaving a picture of my mother up at the front door with a notice saying this woman is not allowed into the theatre, ' says Margi.
' She's already doing a novena for me because of the Good Sex Guide she 'll be praying forever when she sees this show. '
The X-rated extravaganza 21st Century Scut, is on at the Everyman Theatre on Friday and Saturday evenings as part of Liverpool's Festival of Comedy.
' It's very funny, and it also gives the audience things they know about my work.
The Chicken Plucker is a starting point because everybody loved Letter To Brezhnev, and some of the favourite lines from that appear in the show. '
After its Merseyside premiere, 21st Century Scut will go on tour, calling at the Edinburgh Festival and finishing in the West End.
It marks a return to the stage for Margi after a host of television and film projects such as Making Out, The Good Sex Guide Blonde Fist.
Nervous
' I haven't been on the stage for a long time, so I 'm bound to be as nervous as a kitten before I go on.
I hope I can fall back on my talent because you can't stop the tape and go again. '
Margi won't be off our screens for too long, though.
She has just completed a film shoot in France, with French dialogue (' I drove my family mad learning it '), and wants British audiences to see it.
She's also working on a chat show idea with the production company responsible for the Good Sex Guide.
Her style will no doubt be strikingly different.
' I want to get as many scousers on it as I can, and a lot of women; I want it to favour women. '
Ann Scargill would be one of her top choices as a guest, but her number one quarry is US President's wife Hillary Clinton.
But is there really any likelihood of landing an interview with the First Lady?
' If I can get the British public to think about their sex life, I 'm sure I can get Hillary Clinton to do a good PR job on herself. '
Theft setback for student ART student Eva Woodstock, 21, of Ullet Road, Sefton Park, has appealed for the return of six of her framed prints stolen by thieves from the Liverpool Institute of Higher Education in Woolton.
She is desperate to get the prints of Liverpool churches and arches back because they form part of her degree work on her Bachelor of Design.
Cyclist hurt: A 50 year old cyclist suffered serious head injuries when his bicycle collided with a motorcycle on the Greasby by-pass.
Harold Caston, from Greasby, was taken to Arrowe Park Hospital and later transferred to Walton Hospital.
Air show: The famous Red Arrows are to provide a grand finish to the Southport Air Show.
Organisers say record crowds are expected for the air spectacular to be staged on September 12.
Fatal crash: A 67 year old West Kirby woman died and two men were seriously injured in a road accident involving a car and a van at Burton Road, near the Marshland Road crossroads, Neston.
School fire: Vandals caused smoke and fire damage when they smashed windows and set books alight at Roberts County Primary School, Waterloo.
Shop raid: Ski-wear and outdoor clothing worth 40,000 has been stolen in a raid on the Ellis Brigham shop in Bold Street, Liverpool.
Wirral blaze: A builders' portable unit was destroyed in a blaze at the Clayhill industrial estate in Liverpool Road, Neston.
ASTHMA STRIKES STREET'S LYNNE
' Severe attack ' leads to star's collapse
By Echo reporter
CORONATION Street actress Lynne Perrie was recovering in hospital today after what is believed to have been a severe asthma attack that led to her sudden collapse at Granada's TV studios in Manchester.
A spokeswoman for Hope Hospital in Salford said: ' Miss Perrie had a fairly comfortable night.
' We are expecting doctors to review the situation at some stage today. '
The 60-year-old actress, who plays' Poison ' Ivy Brennan in the top-rated TV soap, has been plagued with health worries for years.
Miss Perrie was about to film key scenes for Coronation Street when she was dramatically taken ill.
She was brought round by actor Charlie Lawson the show's fiery Ulsterman Jim McDonald who applied first aid.
Miss Perrie, who has starred in the series for 17 years, spoke recently of being shattered by her six-days-a-week work schedule for the show.
But Miss Perrie's collapse will not cause any major problems for the makers of Coronation Street.
A Granada TV spokesman in Manchester said: ' The majority of Lynne's scenes have already been filmed for the next few weeks.
There will be no major rewrite needed. '
Heart
He said that episodes for the show were recorded on average three weeks before they were transmitted.
Doctors are believed to be carrying out heart tests on Miss Perrie who has suffered heart problems in the past.
Gary Pettitt and Jean Larkin... devoted Liverpool couple who were victims of callous killers
Cinema stories
THERE was a reminder that Gwynedd, and particularly Caernarfon, had a film industry long before the present upsurge in media activity started in the county, at a ceremony yesterday in one of the area's best known media features.
The Stiwdio Barcud event was to launch a new guide to the services and expertise Gwynedd has to offer film and video producers.
The Gwynedd Production Handbook lists 21 titles filmed on location in the past 56 years, from the first, Elephant Boy in 1937, to the last, Robin Hood in 1991.
Oddly enough, it was not a star of either film who was recalled in speeches at the launch, but Wil Napoleon, who after appearances as an extra in two 1958 films Inn of the Sixth Happiness and The Vikings, always registered as unemployed under the occupation of ' film star '.
Needless to say, there was not much work for this legendary character as a film star; the next film in which he appeared was Carry on Up the Khyber in 1960.
He was said to have caused an inordinate number of retakes when unable to keep up with fellow Afghans in an attack scene.
The story told by Sion Pyrs, director of TAC, the association of Welsh independent television producers, was of the Vikings.
Overboard
In it, he was filmed diving overboard in one scene, and in order to get the sequence right, he had to dive over the side seven times.
Eventually, the finished film was given a public airing in Caernarfon.
Wil paid good beer money to see it and of course himself.
Naturally the film only showed the sequence once, and having seen it, Wil got up and walked out of the cinema.
Sydney Samuelson, the British Film Commissioner, whose father opened a cinema in Southport in 1910, said his association with the industry had been so long that he remembered receiving a letter signed Wil Napoleon asking how to become an extra.
Obviously, success in some of those early films had their effect on Wil he promoted himself to a star on the strength of them.
I don't expect any of the players in Cwmni Theatr y Dreflan will suffer from any such illusions of greatness.
Alaw Bennett Humphreys and her husband, Gareth, and Huw Alun Roberts take the leading roles in a Welsh adaptation of a Ray Cooney play, Allan o Drefn (Out of Order).
Gary Nicholas's translation means Welsh speakers can see the play well before an English version is staged in September.
Nic Parry produces it at Theatr Clwyd on Monday and Tuesday of next week.
Cambrian News Ltd
IN yesterday's Daily Post we inaccurately stated that The Cambrian News at Aberystwyth intended closing its printing works department and that a number of jobs would be lost as a result.
In fact, The Cambrian News is not closing its printing works department.
It simply intends contracting out the printing of its newspaper, which occupies a very small part of the work undertaken by the department.
We understand the printing department is currently involved in a substantial expansion programme and continues to print high-quality books, magazines and brochures, published throughout the United Kingdom.
The Daily Post apologises unreservedly to The Cambrian News for any embarrassment caused by the report.
Riotous farce produced with a frantic energy
A Flea in her Ear
THEATR CLWYD
Review by Penny Kiley
HALF WAY through the play you will have seen a walking table, several fast opening doors, the rapid interchanging of numerous couples, and a hotel foyer that is busier than Piccadilly Circus and has more familiar faces than your family tree.
Georges Feydeau's turn of the century French farce is a classic of its kind and this production brings it to funny, frantic life.
This kind of action needs precise timing and director Mike Alfreds and his 14 strong cast provide the elegantly energetic execution required.
It all starts when Parisienne wife Raymonde (Susie Blake) suspects her husband Victor Emmanuel (Colin McCormack) of having an affair.
Mistaken
He is actually one of the few men around who is not obsessed by faithlessness.
She sets a trap and sets off a series of events that entangle household, family and friends.
The play has some inventive touches.
There is a servant mistaken for a master, a wife mistaken for a mistress, a deliberately revolving invalid and a reluctantly revolving hotel proprietor.
Then there are the lost continents.
One character, Camille, can not pronounce them until he is fitted with a false palate one more object to get comically lost.
It may not be politically correct to laugh at speech impediments but Simon Roberts' excitable characterisation gets some of the biggest laughs.
And with or without his full quota of words he makes as much noise as anyone in what is a rather riotous production.
Adding to the energy level is Colin McCormack doubling at deceptive speed as two mistaken characters.
He is almost a one man optical illusion.
The rest of the cast is equally enthusiastic in this exuberant production.
King-size facelift for historic fortress
Liverpool Castle set to
By Peter McBride Daily Post Correspondent
A RUINED castle is to be rebuilt, 750 years after the first brick of its historic predecessor was laid on the banks of the River Mersey.
The rundown remains of Liverpool Castle a replica of King John's famous fortress have received a 40,000 cash boost.
Restoration work is scheduled for completion this August when the ' new ' castle will be opened to the public.
The project marks the fulfilment of a dream which was held by one of the city's legendary entrepreneurs, the late Lord Leverhulme, who started building work on the replica castle in 1912.
Work was never completed and when the wealthy founder of the Port Sunlight-based Lever Brothers died in 1925 the project remained unfinished.
Since then the replica castle has fallen prey to vandalism and decay.
Situated on the shores of Rivington Reservoir, near Wigan, it is now owned by North West Water.
' It represents an important piece of both Liverpool's and Rivington's history, ' said North West Water project manager Phil Luff.
' Our first priority is to make the castle structurally sound and safe by securing the stone work and clearing away the rubble.
' Then we will rebuild parts of the castle walls and clean off the graffiti.
When the work is completed the public will have access to the castle once more, just as Lord Leverhulme intended 80 years ago. '
The wealthy Liverpool businessman never intended to rebuild the complete castle, but to recreate the ruined remains as they were in Liverpool before demolition in 1725.
The original fortress was built during King John's reign on the present-day site of Castle Street in the city centre.
An estimated 750,000 people are expected to visit Liverpool Castle over the next 12 months.
The renovation forms part of an 80,000 cash package to help boost the numbers of visitors to the Rivington estate.
History in the making Phil Luff surveys the ruins of Liverpool Castle
Driving force behind Theatr Clwyd in line for major arts award
By Carl Butler Daily Post Correspondent
THE MAN whose effort and vision was behind the creation of Theatr Clwyd has been nominated for a top award.
Haydn Rees, former chief executive of Clwyd County Council, is one of four nominees for a special award in the annual Arts Council and British Gas Working for Cities Award.
His nomination is for work in using the arts to encourage economic investment in North East Wales.
Despite a barrage of criticism Mr Rees pressed ahead with plans for Theatr Clwyd in Mold and in 1976 it was opened by the Queen.
When British Steel closed its Shotton works with the loss of 8,500 jobs, Mr Rees became chairman of Deeside Enterprise Trust charged with the responsibility of creating new jobs.
By the time he retired from his post eight years later 8,000 new jobs had been created and he believes the artistic opportunities presented by Theatr Clwyd played its part.
' International companies in particular were impressed as they did not want to move their top people into a cultural desert.
' Theatr Clwyd was a turning point on many occasions and is still an important factor when attracting new industry, ' said Mr Rees, who lives in Mold.
The winner of the special award will be announced in London on June 8.
' I was very surprised to be nominated but very honoured, ' said Mr Rees, recently retired chairman of the North Wales Arts Association.
Haydn Rees nomination for arts award
Leonardo
STRAND, LONDON
Review by Tony Austin
Leonardo show a might-have-been despite fertile Lisa
PREDICTABLY, the first night audience with the Cabinet of the Pacific island of Nauru in the dress circle, gave Leonardo, the Musical, a rousing welcome at London's Strand theatre.
At the time the critics were less predictable.
Would they review the show, financed on the proceeds of sea fowl excrement from the guano rich, world's smallest republic, from (as it were) a great height?
Would they, er, give it the bird.
In the event the show was rated a splash rather than a smash.
At least they weren't specifically sarky about the Liverpool connection which, as well as providing music and lyrics, also helped out with advice to the islanders on how to gamble with their fortune.
' Bird droppings are bird droppings wherever they land, ' wrote the Mail's Jack Tinker, rising to the bait.
' With the right fertiliser Leonardo might make it through the summer, ' opined Today with vague hope.
' Bob Bettison directs with the lightness of an anvil. '
' Vapid and feeble... the end of this foolish farrago comes not a moment too soon, ' thundered the Express, and, shocked, sought out the sex angle: ' This 2m show seeks to turn gay Renaissance man Leonard da Vinci into a heterosexual pop singer.
' A great deal or risible tosh, ' sniffed the Telegraph admitting: ' At times it even achieves a level of plodding competence. '
And now, the Daily Post eye view of the Leonardo and Lisa show, packed with the right ingredients, but lacking in inspiration.
Pretty Jane Arden as Mona Lisa, pleasing Paul Collins as Leonardo, menacing James Barron as the baddie, head an admirable cast with strong voices and passionate punchy acting.
But the music and lyrics by Birkenhead entrepreneur Duke Minks, who also fixed the finance, Tommy and Greg Moeller, both with a Liverpool background and Russell Dunlop apes early Andrew Lloyd Webber, less the rock beat, while the words sometimes deny sense or logic.
And then there is the plot from John Kane.
That's the real nub.
The man doesn't know history from histrionics.
Artist (Leonardo) meets girl (Lisa).
Artist gets girl pregnant and paints her (in which order is not clear).
Girl marries nasty man because her father owes him money.
Nasty man discovers he is impotent.
So who fathered his daughter?
Nasty man suspects Leonardo.
Nasty man gets nastier.
Nasty man takes revenge, but stabs Lisa by mistake.
Artist lives unhappily ever after, bequeaths portrait of Lisa to the world.
Behold the Mona Lisa and a 500 year old mystery solved.
She wasn't smiling after all.
No wonder.
Nothing to smile about.
Not with a plot like this.
So Mills and Boon live on.
And what, you might ask, is wrong with that?
The answer is it's pseudo.
Just one star, just one memorable song, just one really spectacularly staged number, and the Leonardo effort would have been more than a might-have-been.
Urdd brings' high point '
THE Urdd National Eisteddfod at Gorseinon in West Glamorgan represented a high tide of Welsh culture in the area, the president of the festival said yesterday.
Locally-born actress Rhian Morgan said she was delighted to be surrounded by such an ' ocean of Welshness' at the festival, but realised how empty it would seem after the festival was over.
' After every high tide, comes the ebb, and in an area surrounded by sea, it is part of the natural rhythm of life.
' As the cockle-gatherers of Penclawdd, the seaside village a few miles from the Eisteddfod field realise only too well, the ebb never leaves empty-handed it leaves behind traces of new life.
' As long as we are ready, the ebb will leave behind fertile ground to sustain us to the future that is the true value of the visit of the festival to this area.
' After the excitement of the flood has been silenced, we will seek our objective with new confidence.
Let us announce to all that Welsh in this county lives and insists on achieving its proper place in the order of things. '
Earlier, Mrs Morgan called on West Glamorgan County Council to make more provision for Welsh medium education.
She contrasted the authority's performance with that of neighbouring Mid Glamorgan, where there are four Welsh medium secondary schools.
A fifth is already planned and there are 22 Welsh primary schools.
Volunteers' are vital ' to success of play scheme
By Emyr Williams Daily Post Correspondent
A ' FUN FACTORY ' play scheme planned for Machynlleth this summer needs more volunteers to ensure its success.
Last year's summer play scheme was the first in the Dyfi Valley and attracted more than 800 children over a period of four weeks to Ysgol Bro Ddyfi.
Activities included drama, model making, cookery, woodwork, art, circus skills and games.
There were also trips to Ynys Las, Ynys Hir, Felin Crewi and the Centre for Alternative Technology.
' For this year's event to be as successful it is vital that local people support the bilingual play scheme by helping where they can, ' community enterprise officer Angela Evans said last night.
' The Children's Act means there has to be a certain ratio of adults to children at the play scheme so we do need people to help out.
' Anyone able to spare a day during July and August will make a lot of difference between putting a limit on numbers or keeping the doors open for all children. '
This year the play scheme, which is open to children of school age and upwards, has won funding from Children in Need to provide subsidised places and help towards transport costs.
Plans for the project will be on the agenda at an open meeting to be held at Ysgol Bro Ddyfi next Thursday evening.
The organisers are also looking for a play scheme leader to manage the project.
It will be a part-time paid post during July and August.
' There is an open invitation to anyone interested in the Fun Factory to come along to Thursday's meeting, ' Miss Evans said.
' This is a chance for people to show their support for the play scheme and for anyone who would like to help to let us know. '
Meanwhile, Menter Bro Ddyfi has set up new computer courses at the school, which commence next week.
The sessions will give people within the community a chance to find out more about modern technology.
' The sessions are designed for the curious and the inexperienced, ' Miss Evans said.
' Tutors will begin with simple introductions to computers and also explain how the equipment can be used in everyday life. '
Sessions run during the day and evening, with special times for different groups.
They start on Wednesday evening of next week and on the afternoon of June 17.
Those courses are aimed at business people and farmers, and will look at how to make life easier using a computer to do accounts and lists of information.
There is an opportunity for parents as well and their course starts next Thursday.
Thousands set to flock in for country festival
By Emyr Williams Daily Post Correspondent
THIS year's Festival of the Countryside in Mid Wales is set to attract thousands of visitors into the area and encourage local people to appreciate their environment.
The festival's aim is to promote interesting activities in the countryside which at the same time encourage environmental awareness and boost the local economy.
A 76-page directory to more than 600 events and attractions taking place during this year's seven month long festival is now available free from tourist information centres, public libraries and the festival office in Newtown.
' For the past nine years, Mid Wales has played host to this unique celebration, and we are looking forward to yet another success during the coming months, ' said festival director Arwel Jones.
The guide, he said, sets out a variety of events taking place in Mid Wales, with particular emphasis on a very special approach towards rural tourism.
' The festival seeks to encourage the development of environmental common sense and recreational opportunities as well as economic prosperity, ' said assistant director Matthew Davies.
' Recently this has become known as sustainable tourism, and the key to it lies in co-operation, and once again the festival is presented to the public through the dedication of many individuals and the commitment of its sponsors. '
The aim of the guide, said Mr Davies, is to make the visitor realise the wealth of rural activities taking place in Mid Wales, as well as highlighting places of interest to visit.
' For instance, as far as nature and wildlife is concerned, there are parks, nature reserves, wildlife centres, aquariums, beaches and waterfalls that are not only aimed at the tourist but at local people too, ' he added.
Local people should be encouraged to obtain a copy of the guide, said Mr Davies, as it contains so much information about Mid Wales and its attractions.
' The glorious past of Mid Wales, for instance, is kept alive in part of the guide, with emphasis on castle and abbey ruins, slate, gold and lead mines, woollen, water and flour mills, prehistoric stones and burial chambers, working farms and rare breed centres, all of interest to both locals and tourists.
' There is emphasis too on cheese making, sites of industrial archaeology, museums, brass rubbing, forestry, centres, power stations, craft and pottery, organic farms a wealth of places to explore here in Mid Wales.
' The emphasis throughout the guide is to follow the Country Code enjoy the countryside but respect its life and work.
' And the guide has a clear message Mid Wales, escape to our beautiful landscapes. '
Defiant to the end... women protesters outside doomed Parkside pit
THE NATIVITY four designs in coloured chalks on brown paper for the west window of St Deiniol's Church, Hawarden, near Chester, expected to fetch 80,000-120,000 next week.
Photo: Sotheby's
