The Guide #247: As the Wombles stage their latest comeback, what sort of country are they returning to?
In this week’s newsletter: The last time they were a British screen staple was the mid-90s. Once a genuine cultural phenomenon, the Wombles could be
In this week’s newsletter: The last time they were a British screen staple was the mid-90s. Once a genuine cultural phenomenon, the Wombles could be successfully resurrected – or derided as woke At the height of Womble-mania in the mid-70s, Elisabeth Beresford, creator of the snout-nosed, litter-collecting sensations, laid down three strict ground rules for anyone appearing in costume as her characters: no smoking; no drinking; and absolutely no taking your head off in public.
The latter was a real problem: in 1974 a cabaret club in Liverpool was forced to sack the entire cast of Wombles – the cast provided by theatre impresario and future Everton FC chairman Bill Kenwright, no less – after a disastrous opening night performance of their Christmas panto that featured inaudible singing, under-rehearsed dance routines, Wombles that looked “too thin” and, most unforgivably, one of the cast members removing their head in the theatre wings “in full view of the children”, according to the club’s director.
Things got worse at another shambolic Wombles performance in Belfast, which was cut short after less than an hour, after booing, catcalls and furious mothers
storming the stage, brandishing handbags and umbrellas. Continue reading...
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