Dick Whittington screened live from Bristol Hippodrome to your local cinema

Ashleigh and Pudsey
Panto stars coming to cinema screens
December 7

Earlier this month, America's Big Apple Circus made history - or rather, missed its chance to make history - by broadcasting its show live from New York to cinemas across America.

Sadly, as reported on the Showbiz David blog, hardly anyone showed up in the movie houses to see the show. In the cinemas attended by Showbiz, his family and friends, ticket-buyers were outnumbered by the usherettes. And there were plenty of empty seats up on the big screen. The BAC couldn't even fill its tent before putting it on display for the world.

Presumably, it will be a while before another circus repeats the experiment, although it's not entirely without precedent.

As chronicled in my book Circus Mania, Gerry Cottle's fame in the 1980s rests in no small part on the fact that the BBC televised a Saturday night variety show from his big top every week, mixing circus acts with the singing stars of the era. Other more established circuses had apparently been offered the gig but turned it down. They didn't want to surrender their tent on the most profitable night of the week in exchange for the fee the Beeb offered.

What the old circus families couldn't see, but the young and hungry Cottle could, is that the fee was immaterial compared with the publicity. The TV exposure helped Cottle become the most famous and successful showman of his era - and what was to stop him taking a second tent out on the road on Saturdays?

Jump back to the present and, although not a circus, it's interesting to learn that the Bristol Hippodrome is following in the Big Apple's clown shoes by broadcasting it's pantomime, Dick Whittington, to cinemas across Britain on December 7. The cast includes Ashleigh and Pudsey, the dancing dog act that came to fame on Britain's Got Talent and Mr Bloom from children's TV programme CBeebies.

Clive and Danny
Clowns and panto
stars

One thing's for sure: I doubt there will be any empty seats on screen. While I've often been in a circus tent more empty than full I've never attended press night at a pantomime and found it anything but sold out. And they don't fill the theatres with comped seats, either. In many regional theatres panto is so popular the annual show pays for the venue to stay open the rest of the year.

Could the circus learn something there, such as casting bankable names famous from TV? Maybe, maybe not. At the Theatre Royal in Newcastle they stopped casting minor celebs when they realised that for the past ten years the big draw was father and son clowns Clive Webb and Danny Adams - perhaps the only true stars on the British circus scene.

If you've never seen them, take a look at this YouTube clip to see just how funny they are.

But, given that panto relies even more than circus on audience participation and the experience of "being there" in an excitable crowd, will Dick Whittington be able to break through a cinema screen and work up a multiplex crowd into shouting "He's behind you!"

Did you know clowns are nicknamed Joeys after Victorian funny-man Joseph Grimaldi? And that although joeys are synonymous with the circus, Grimaldi never performed in a circus - he was a pantomime star.
For a full chapter on Britain's funniest clowns, Clive Webb and Danny Adams, plus much on the history and dynamics of clowning, read Circus Mania - The Ultimate Book For Anyone Who Dreamed of Running Away with the Circus.

Circus meets Pantomime!

ROLL UP, ROLL UP!
THE CIRCUS COMES TO PANTOLAND!

Valerie Murzak
in a publicity shot from
Cirque de Glace
- Read the behind-the-scenes
story of that show
and many other circuses
in Circus Mania

What could be more fun this Christmas - a pantomime or a trip to the circus? At the Norwich Theatre Royal there’s no need to choose between the two, thanks to an inspired decision to set this year‘s Jack and The Beanstalk in a travelling circus.

Yep, Jack (played by Hollyoaks heartthrob Stephen Uppal) has been transformed into the star of the Trott Family Circus, which even boasts a pantomime elephant instead of the traditional pantomime horse.

With scenes set inside the big top and during the circus parade through the panto village of Norwichvale, as well as scenes around the Trott Family caravans, the circus costumes and scenery give the production a huge infusion of life and colour.

Genuine circus thrills come from rising star Valerie Murzak (one of the stars of my book Circus Mania) who gets some of the biggest audience reactions of the night for her glamorous and dramatic performance on aerial silk - as well as standing on her hands and spinning a hula-hoop around her ankle.

Not to be out-done, writer and director Richard Gauntlett, who plays the Dame, turns in a slick plate-spinning routine, while a stilt-walker and dancing clowns add to the carnival atmosphere of the crowd scenes.

Other visual treats come in the portrayal of the Giant, represented by an enormous foot and hand descending from the proscenium arch.
Comic Andre Vincent gets the biggest laugh of the night when the giant is slain. “Give him a big hand!” says Vincent, as an enormous forearm flops from the wings and flattens the funny man.

This is Gauntlett’s tenth panto at Norwich and, thanks to a slick, fast-paced show - plus the magic of the circus - it’s undoubtedly his best yet.

Jack & The Beanstalk runs until Jan 16. Box Office: 01603 630000.
If you want to learn more about aerial silk star Valerie Murzak and her anglo-Russian circus family, meanwhile, look no further than Circus Mania - The Ultimate Book For Anyone Who Dreamed Of Running Away With The Circus. Just click up the button above right for speedy delivery from those nice people at Amazon.

CIRCUS MERRY CHRISTMAS!
You know your life’s a circus when your first Christmas card of the year comes from Gerry Cottle, but that was the case here at Circus Mania towers!

It’s a shame I live on the other side of our snowbound country as Gerry’s Christmas show at his famous Wooky Hole Caves sounds like the perfect alternative to panto.
50 Acts In 50 Minutes does exactly what it says and stars the kids of Gerry’s Wooky Circus School alongside circus pros Bippo the clown and his acrobatic fiance Lucy Ladbrooke. If you’re in the west of England hurry along to see them before the final show on Jan 3.

Here in East Anglia, meanwhile, there’s a panto theme - Oh yes there is! - to the Christmas show at the Great Yarmouth Hippodrome, so don’t miss your fix of circus thrills and spills, between Dec 11 and Jan 3.

Finally, are you stuck for Christmas presents? Why not treat your friends to a copy of Circus Mania - The Ultimate Book For Anyone Who Dreamed Of Running Away With The Circus, which the Mail on Sunday called “A brilliant account of a vanishing art form”?

Click the link to Amazon above right for speedy delivery complete with gift-wrapping. Or why not buy a copy for ALL your friends? Buy six or more and you’ll qualify for wholesale prices. Just call Michael O’Connell at Peter Owen Publishers on 020 8350 1775.

Circus Mondao Pantomime

Ringmistress Petra Jackson (left) and Bippo the Clown (3rd from left)
are joined by Ugly SistersAlan Stratford-Johns and
Oliver Dane Sanders Imbert-Terry esq
(Can that really be his name? Oh yes it is!)
in the Circus Mondao pantomime

- Oh yes it is!

As you drive along the A11, near Thetford in Norfolk, the sight of the light-bedecked Circus Mondao tent poking over the wall of the Elveden country estate like a well-lit Christmas tree is a welcome sight on a wintry day - and the show that awaits you inside the big top is a welcome alternative to the traditional theatre panto.

Circus Mondao's
Christmas Programme

There have always been links between circus and pantomime, not least in the person of Joseph Grimaldi, the early 19th century panto star regarded as the father of modern clowning. Circus clowns are still nicknamed Joeys in his honour, and although Grimaldi never worked in a circus ring, he employed many elements of circus, such as performing animals on stage.

In previous eras, meanwhile, many circus stars, and their animals, found winter work in theatre pantomimes.

So although the idea of a circus putting on a panto may seem novel, it’s not without precedent, and the two genres combine extremely smoothly in this new show, which plays every day from now until January 3.

The story picks up where ordinary pantomimes end. Cinderella has married her Prince Charming, but now that the new has worn off her happy ever after, life for poor Cinders has reverted to domestic drudgery. To relieve her boredom, she asks her fairy godmother to conjure up a circus.

My preview of Circus Mondao's
visit to Elvenden in the
Weekly News

That’s about it, as far as plot is concerned. But, with little story to slow the proceedings, it’s action all the way as a string of high standard circus acts - silk, solo trapeze, aerial straps - are interspersed with panto routines featuring Alex Morley and Ian Jarvis as a pair of well costumed Ugly Sisters.

Panto’s traditional ‘ghost’ routine gets a literal lift from a flying spook that spirits one of the Ugly Sisters away into the roof, and there’s plenty of space in the big top for a very messy ‘slosh’ routine, starring the Uglies and Mondao’s regular clown, Bippo.

The beautiful, plumed spotted horses galloping through the sawdust, meanwhile, add to the impression that we’ve been whisked away to a magical dreamland.

Kids will love the parade of zebras, lamas, camels and Shetland ponies - and the chance to meet them in their own, smaller big top after the show - while dads will have their spirits lifted by the glamorous showgirls performing a can-can.

Perfectly timed to coincide with Amanda Holden’s Big Top on BBC1, this alternative to the traditional theatre panto is the perfect opportunity for a new audience to get their first taste of the real big top.

So roll up, roll up for the greatest Christmas show in Norfolk.

Circus Mondao is run by sisters Gracie Timmis and Carol Macmanus - the youngest generation of Britain's oldest circus family. To read the full story of their 200 years in the circus, plus behind-the-scenes visits to and interviews with the showmen and stars of Britain's most popular circuses,  buy Circus Mania direct from Peter Owen Publishers for the special offer price of £10 including postage and packing in the UK (for overseas orders add £2.75 worldwide)
Send cheques to:

Peter Owen Publishers
81 Ridge Road
London N8 9NP

Or download the Kindle edition from Amazon

"Circus Mania is a brilliant account of a vanishing art form."

- Mail on Sunday