Allow Parents The Joy Of Joining Their Kids On Set
Back in 2010, the actor Dominic West whose daughter was following in his acting footsteps told an interviewer that, in the production hierarchy, parents of children who act are ‘lower than the s**t on the shoes of the humblest runner..”.
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Film Review: The Lobster
At first glance The Lobster might not seem ideal first date fodder but anyone managing to translate a swipe right or an online encounter into a real-life rendezvous could do worse.
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Play charts West’s passion for the beautiful game of baseball
Not everyone has their mother write a play about them but Plymouth teenager Mitchell Prescott can boast that singular honour. His mother, award-winning theatre maker Ruth Mitchell, was initially inspired to pen her show Homeward Bound in a bid to understand more about her son’s passion for baseball.
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Guardian Film Clip Joint: International Child Actors
Full disclosure: I was, briefly, a child actor, and now I am the mother of one. These clips from recent films neatly put to rest the first part of that industry saying to never work with children or animals.
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Bringing Street Food To Plymouth
There’s almost 6,000 miles between Laos and Plymouth but every Saturday for the past few months Tip Newman has been cooking up a tiny slice of the land-locked South East Asian country.
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Rediscovering Simple Family Pleasures
A recent survey revealed that an astonishing one in ten lottery winners spends a chunk of their winnings shelling out on a new caravan somewhere in Britain – now I understand why…
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Sisters’ Harmonies Take Your Breath Away
Before I start I should declare an interest – I would love to be a Stave. As my sole foray into public singing was in the 80s and all I have is a certificate signed by Ken Livingstone to show for it (and between you and me I’m beginning to think the signature was a photocopy) I know it’s not going to happen in this lifetime.
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Couple’s Undertaking To Reconnect Us With Death
Admittedly the first thing you think of when you hear the words funeral director these days is no longer Oliver Twist’s Mr Sowerberry. But the casually dressed couple sitting in front of me on a comfy sofa, basking in the warmth of a log burner is probably not what immediately springs to mind either.
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Behind The Bike Shed: Acting Up And Striking Out
There’s no place for the fabled “Stage Door Johnny” at Exeter’s Bike Shed Theatre.
The performers and the audience enter and leave through the same door, so there’s no need to hang around waiting for the cast to leave the theatre to get a glimpse of your favourite actor up close.
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Guardian Film Clip Joint: Twisted Sisters
I have a soft spot for the troubled, and trouble-making, female relations who pepper fictional families. This selection of septic siblings may make fascinating watching – but you probably wouldn’t want to have any DNA in common with them. Read more…
BBC News Features
Click here for a selection of news features I wrote during my nine years at BBC South West from Banksy making his mark in Torquay to Devon’s most unusual polling stations as well as a BBC Woman’s Hour piece about the real silver surfers.
Contacts 2013: How To Get An Agent
I was contacted via Twitter recently by a mum whose eight-year-old son wants to get into acting.
Clearly confusing me with someone who actually knows something about anything she asked if I might advise what she could do to help him achieve his dream.
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Diary Of A Child Actor’s Mother:
I write a regular column for Spotlight about being the mother of a child actor and you can find them all here. I cover most aspects of the child acting world from trying to get an agent to how to prepare for castings and this is the latest one: When Pushy Comes To Shove.
Tender Years Belie 14-year-old’s Contribution To Politics
Entertainer Russell Brand issued a rallying call for young people to get involved in politics. And a Devon teenager is already making a contribution.
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Plymouth Arts Centre: The Making Of Boyhood
In an era where instant gratification is the norm, the forward-planning, patience and dedication of the cast and creative team behind Richard Linklater’s Boyhood is nothing short of heroic.
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Plymouth Arts Centre: Where did it all begin?
Odds are I don’t look at the Oscar nominations in the same way as you.Because I write regularly about the ups and downs of being the mother of a child who acts, and having acted as a child too, I’m always keen to see which Oscar nominees started their careers as mere minnows before successfully navigating the risky waters of the juvenile-to-adult-actor swim upstream.
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Murder Is No Mystery For Candleight Theatre
It’s not unusual, when Teresa Hood sits at her desk at the start of a working day, for a passing colleague to enquire whether she was murdered last night.
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The Signs Are Good For Exeter’s Cafe 55
You may not have visited Cafe 55 yet – quietly delivering its own slice of cafe culture down a side street in Exeter, just a stone’s throw from Exeter Central Station. At first glance it looks like any other welcoming cafe – warm and inviting with enticing aromas emanating from the kitchen.
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Meet The Family Roped In By The Pull Of Bell Ringing
We all have to-do lists as long as our arms over the festive season but as well as the usual merry-go-round of cooking, celebrating and present-wrapping, Sarah Peck will also have to find time to fit in a few bell-ringing sessions.
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Trying To Keep Mum About Son’s Big Screen Debut
As the 10.44 First Great Western Paddington service pulls out of Plymouth, Noel Coward’s fabled advice for ambitious mothers pops into my head.”Don’t put your daughter on the stage, Mrs Worthington,” he famously wrote, so I wonder if he’d be OK with me letting my son appear on the silver screen.
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Jemima Laing 