Coming Up
Oliver Crocker has put together something really very special for our next episode, as we remember actor and playwright, Frank Williams, who passed away June 26th, 2022, aged 90.
Frank Williams is remembered with enormous fondness by generations of fans as Timothy Farthing, the perpetually exasperated Vicar in the BBC’s Dad’s Army, on television, radio, stage and in two feature films separated by almost half a century. Victoria Wood once described Dad’s Army as ‘the most affectionately regarded comedy programme in the history of television’, and Frank Williams more than played his part in why the show remains popular and relevant even half a century on.
Oliver joins us to share some personal memories about this incredibly talented, generous and exceedingly kind gentleman, and has also gifted us some very special audio from his own personal archive, of Frank Williams himself, reminiscing about the adventures and misadventures of a working actor, from his earliest theatre and film roles, to pioneering and undoubtedly terrifying live-to-air television drama and, of course, Dad’s Army.
Going live on all the usual platforms, including lots of additional information here on the website, from June 26th.
Learn more about Oliver at our community page.
An Interview with Francesc Lopez:
Creator of elvisconcerts.com
Pioneering webmaster, Francesc Lopez, the leading online authority on Elvis’ live career, very kindly agreed to a written interview about elvisconcerts.com, an incredible online project that he created during the very early days of the internet, and has been working on constantly for nearly 30 years. We find out about the technical challenges during the internet’s formative years, and explore some of the features that make this site unique and an essential, trusted source of detailed information on Elvis concerts from the fifties to the seventies. We ask a couple of ‘fans’ questions as well.
Publishing here and on Substack in late July.
In Other News…
On his own website, our leading contributor Gary Wells has written a great piece on the 1987 Ritchie Valens biopic, La Bamba, and singles out the stunning performance of Esai Morales. Link here.
Gary featured most recently here in our clip episode, Backstage with the Beach Boys. We also recommend a great conversation Gary had on Donna Loren’s Love’s A Secret Weapon podcast.
Oliver Crocker’s The Bill Podcast is now hosted by Natalie Roles, who played DS Debbie McAllister in nearly 200 episodes of the legendary ITV drama. Following the recent podcast relaunch, it has cracked the Top 40 in Apple’s film and television genre, and is in the top 1.5 % of podcasts globally.
Natalie Roles is currently starring in the scripted audio series, Letter From Helvetica, written by and also starring fellow The Bill alumni Andrew Mackintosh (DS Alistair Greig). Episodes are available on the major podcasting platforms, and the series is produced by Oliver Crocker.
Both are proudly co-sponsored by George Fairbrother and DEC4.
The DEC4 Podcast by George Fairbrother 