The Essay

Traditional Variety has been a lifelong fascination for poet and playwright Amanda Dalton. She grew up in a family that included several amateur and professional entertainers and from an early age the world of Variety Theatre was ‘in her blood’... During WW2, her dad organised and performed in a night of entertainment at King Farouk’s palace in Cairo, She recalls her mum tap dancing in the kitchen as the dinner burnt. One of her most precious and prized possessions is a poster, retrieved from her uncle’s home, for a variety show at the New Hippodrome, Darlington in 1938 - acts including Waldini’s Famous Gypsy Band, Billy Brown Upside Down and his wonderful dog Lady and her uncle himself, Barry Phelps. With Idina Scott Gatty, Entertainer. As a child, Amanda never missed Sunday Night at the London Palladium or the Good Old Days on TV. Variety shows were her parents’ favourites - her obsession with them is perhaps not surprising.

The acts that have always most fascinated her are those ‘speciality’ acts that disturb even as they entertain, designed to bamboozle the audience and mess with the mind. These essays will explore Amanda’s relationship with the different kinds of acts that thrived as UK Variety emerged from the embers of Music Hall (1930s – 1950s). Listeners are introduced to some of the key performers, a fascinating collection of unusual and striking characters with extraordinary skills and showmanship.

Essay 4: Girls! Girls! Girls! Women in Variety

For today’s essay, Amanda turns her attention to female variety acts including those frequently unnamed, scantily clad ‘glamorous assistants.’ Built around the rediscovery of her mum’s 1920s and 30s scrapbook which charts her ventures into the world of entertainment, Amanda considers the role and frequently disturbing representation of women in old Variety Theatre, and her own mum’s journey through this landscape.

Writer and reader, Amanda Dalton

A Naked Production for BBC Radio 3.

Biog

Traditional Variety has been a lifelong fascination for poet and playwright Amanda Dalton. She grew up in a family that included several amateur and professional entertainers and from an early age the world of Variety Theatre was ‘in her blood’... During WW2, her dad organised and performed in a night of entertainment at King Farouk’s palace in Cairo, She recalls her mum tap dancing in the kitchen as the dinner burnt. One of her most precious and prized possessions is a poster, retrieved from her uncle’s home, for a variety show at the New Hippodrome, Darlington in 1938 - acts including Waldini’s Famous Gypsy Band, Billy Brown Upside Down and his wonderful dog Lady and her uncle himself, Barry Phelps. With Idina Scott Gatty, Entertainer. As a child, Amanda never missed Sunday Night at the London Palladium or the Good Old Days on TV. Variety shows were her parents’ favourites - her obsession with them is perhaps not surprising.

The acts that have always most fascinated her are those ‘speciality’ acts that disturb even as they entertain, designed to bamboozle the audience and mess with the mind. These essays will explore Amanda’s relationship with the different kinds of acts that thrived as UK Variety emerged from the embers of Music Hall (1930s – 1950s). Listeners are introduced to some of the key performers, a fascinating collection of unusual and striking characters with extraordinary skills and showmanship.

Essay 3: It's The Animal In Me: Animal Acts in Variety Theatre

In this third essay of the series Amanda looks not only to the dancing dogs, disappearing doves and rabbits pulled from hats, but to the wild animal acts that at one time were a regular feature of Variety. A lifelong animal lover who grew up in a houseful of pets, she recalls her uneasy childhood experiences of watching animals on stage – something she loved and hated in equal measure - and asks what is the appeal of watching animals ‘perform’ and what can the lens of Variety reveal of our attitudes to other species and ourselves?

Writer and reader, Amanda Dalton

A Naked Production for BBC Radio 3.

Biog

Traditional Variety has been a lifelong fascination for poet and playwright Amanda Dalton. She grew up in a family that included several amateur and professional entertainers and from an early age the world of Variety Theatre was ‘in her blood’... During WW2, her dad organised and performed in a night of entertainment at King Farouk’s palace in Cairo, She recalls her mum tap dancing in the kitchen as the dinner burnt. One of her most precious and prized possessions is a poster, retrieved from her uncle’s home, for a variety show at the New Hippodrome, Darlington in 1938 - acts including Waldini’s Famous Gypsy Band, Billy Brown Upside Down and his wonderful dog Lady and her uncle himself, Barry Phelps. With Idina Scott Gatty, Entertainer. As a child, Amanda never missed Sunday Night at the London Palladium or the Good Old Days on TV. Variety shows were her parents’ favourites - her obsession with them is perhaps not surprising.

The acts that have always most fascinated her are those ‘speciality’ acts that disturb even as they entertain, designed to bamboozle the audience and mess with the mind. These essays will explore Amanda’s relationship with the different kinds of acts that thrived as UK Variety emerged from the embers of Music Hall (1930s – 1950s). Listeners are introduced to some of the key performers, a fascinating collection of unusual and striking characters with extraordinary skills and showmanship.

Essay 2: Gokkle o’ Geer: Ventriloquists and their Dummies

Fascinated by the ‘speciality’ acts that disturb even as they entertain, in this second essay of the series Amanda turns her attention to ventriloquism. Rooted in Amanda’s personal experience, she considers ventriloquism’s extraordinary relationship with the human gut and traces its origins to the ancient belly prophets – or gastromancers. What might the anarchic truth-speaking of the ventriloquist’s doll have to tell us about both our physiology and our minds?

Writer and reader, Amanda Dalton

A Naked Production for BBC Radio 3.

Biog

Traditional Variety has been a lifelong fascination for poet and playwright Amanda Dalton. She grew up in a family that included several amateur and professional entertainers and from an early age the world of Variety Theatre was ‘in her blood’... During WW2, her dad organised and performed in a night of entertainment at King Farouk’s palace in Cairo, She recalls her mum tap dancing in the kitchen as the dinner burnt. One of her most precious and prized possessions is a poster, retrieved from her uncle’s home, for a variety show at the New Hippodrome, Darlington in 1938 - acts including Waldini’s Famous Gypsy Band, Billy Brown Upside Down and his wonderful dog Lady and her uncle himself, Barry Phelps. With Idina Scott Gatty, Entertainer. As a child, Amanda never missed Sunday Night at the London Palladium or the Good Old Days on TV. Variety shows were her parents’ favourites - her obsession with them is perhaps not surprising.

The acts that have always most fascinated her are those ‘speciality’ acts that disturb even as they entertain, designed to bamboozle the audience and mess with the mind. These essays will explore Amanda’s relationship with the different kinds of acts that thrived as UK Variety emerged from the embers of Music Hall (1930s – 1950s). Listeners are introduced to some of the key performers, a fascinating collection of unusual and striking characters with extraordinary skills and showmanship.

In That’s Entertainment...? Variety and Me, Amanda revisits some of the acts that made up this form of light entertainment, exploring how they connected with her own family’s life and considering their personal and cultural meaning for her both as a child and as the writer she is today.

Essay 1: Singing, Dancing and Having a Laugh: The Backbone of Variety.

The first essay of this series introduces listeners to the world of Variety as it morphed from Music Hall and journeyed into televised entertainment. It considers the backbone of the Variety Show – song, dance and comedy – through the lens of Amanda’s personal memories of growing up in a rather unusual family.

Writer and reader, Amanda Dalton

A Naked Production for BBC Radio 3.

Biog

Essay 5: Christmas Pudding

A new series of essays written and read by the very popular Fiona Stafford, Professor of Literature at Somerville College, Oxford, following her much praised series of essays The Meaning of Trees and Composers and their Dogs. Here Fiona explores some of the world’s favourite puddings, all of which have surprising stories and have become symbols far beyond the pudding bowl.

Christmas pudding. A British icon, supposedly a classless, medieval religious symbol but which owes its modern prominence to Dickens. Exported as Empire Pudding, it is loved around the Commonwealth. There are surprising local adaptations in Asia (especially India) and the Caribbean, adding spices and exotic elements and renaming it as their own Christmas tradition. Thus it symbolises the reverse appropriation of imperialism. Key ingredient: dried fruit. Dates back to 4000 BC, much older than any religion, hence its role in nearly all of them. Christmas pudding is an example of the Victorians inventing many of our “traditions” we think of as older. Charles Dickens was a major creator of modern ideas of Christmas, with Mrs Beeton’s recipe for 'Exceedingly Good Plum Pudding' (later Christmas pudding) whether flambéed or teetotal, establishing the British idea of Christmas centring on particular foods. Literary examples include Edward Lear's wacky villain, 'The Plum Pudding Flea'. Seeing and eating a Christmas pudding is like breaking into hot earth, a sweet, steaming mound of loam that looks rich enough to plant and grow the healthiest of Christmas trees; a universal substrate for a global festival. And then … there’s the tooth-breaking sixpence-in-the-pudding tradition.

Producer – Turan Ali

Essay 4: Pavlova

A new series of essays written and read by the very popular Fiona Stafford, Professor of Literature at Somerville College, Oxford, following her much praised series of essays The Meaning of Trees and Composers and their Dogs. Here Fiona explores some of the world’s favourite puddings, all of which have surprising stories and have become symbols far beyond the pudding bowl.

Pavlova is a much-disputed national symbol claimed by rival neighbours. A crisp meringue with whipped cream and fruit, it has become a source of pride and national identity for New Zealand and Australia; both claim its creation with disputed historical citations. For both it is their Christmas dessert. But the pavlova symbolises the re-writing of history. Actually, it’s a 1700s Austrian Habsburger dessert, long before ballerina Pavlova's 1926 Australian tour (a story of celebrity hysteria) supposedly inspired it. The USA documented an almost identical dessert in 1896 with another name. Thus Australia or New Zealand can only claim to have renamed it. Key ingredient: egg white. We explore its amazing properties and health benefits. Addressing a pavlova is like looking into a huge cloud at sunset, the surface bright with warm colours (strawberries, passion fruit); breaking it open reveals the white fluffy interior one expects (whipped cream). No wonder the world recognises and loves this pudding.

Producer – Turan Ali

Essay 3: Crème Brûlée

A new series of essays written and read by the very popular Fiona Stafford, Professor of Literature at Somerville College, Oxford, following her much praised series of essays The Meaning of Trees and Composers and their Dogs. Here Fiona explores some of the world’s favourite puddings, all of which have surprising stories and have become symbols far beyond the pudding bowl.

Crème brûlée (meaning burnt cream) - a pudding thought of as a French creation (1697). But its surprising backstory saw British food historians claim it as a creation by the chefs at Trinity College, Cambridge (founded in 1546), prompting French academics to then cite their version from the early 1500s, with literary references. French aristocracy’s fervent embracing of it as a wealth and status symbol put this pudding on the international map, but post-revolution the French abandoned it as a decadent symbol of the rejected gentry, with expensive cream, eggs and scarce refined sugar. For two centuries it was in obscurity until a New York chef championed it in 1980, creating a new worldwide favourite. A phoenix rising from the blow torch that caramelises its sugary lid. Key ingredient: refined sugar, connecting it to slavery, and we explore the complex science of brittle caramel. Breaking into a crème brûlée is like cracking the carapace of a well-protected creature, breaching its security to scoop out its warm brain, a dramatic audible pudding that turns us into diggers for liquid gold.

Essay 2: Summer Pudding

A new series of essays written and read by the very popular Fiona Stafford, Professor of Literature at Somerville College, Oxford, following her much praised series of essays The Meaning of Trees and Composers and their Dogs. Here Fiona explores some of the world’s favourite puddings, all of which have surprising stories and have become symbols far beyond the pudding bowl.

Summer pudding, supposedly quintessentially English, (mixed berries encased in juice-soaked stale bread) began life as a symbol of health food for weight conscious American women over a century ago. It’s an invention from Victorian times, originally called ‘hydropathic pudding’, (low-calorie dessert for US health spas). Key ingredients: berries, sugar and stale bread. The changing variety of berries charts the growth of global trading and capitalism. Through this relatively low-calorie dessert we explore how, before refined sugar, desserts were not seen as an especially unhealthy course. Poorer families would have soup and a hearty dessert, as their main meal, with desserts much more likely to be fruit and wholegrain based. Summer pudding symbolises millennia of puddings that were not calorie bombs of refined, hyper-processed ingredients with little nutritional value, quite the reverse. The colours in summer pudding are a large part of its enduring success. Cutting into a summer pudding is like conducting a surgical operation; oozing with deep purple and blood-red syrupy fruit juices; a dramatic pudding that impresses and surprises us all; gory theatre on the dinner table.

Producer – Turan Ali

Essay 1: Tapioca

A new series of essays written and read by the very popular Fiona Stafford, Professor of Literature at Somerville College, Oxford, following her much praised series of essays The Meaning of Trees and Composers and their Dogs. Here Fiona explores some of the world’s favourite puddings, all of which have surprising stories and have become symbols far beyond the pudding bowl.

Tapioca is equally loved and loathed; this hot and cold 'frogspawn' pudding’s story is reverse imperialism; an east Asian dessert with many guises, seen as old-fashioned in Britain, now hyper-trendy, conquering new global markets as 'pearls' in bubble tea. Key ingredient: starch from cassava. It is native to South America, taken to Asia and Africa by Portuguese merchants, it is also made into alcoholic drinks. Tapioca, a global staple food, bringing British school dinners many comic tales of revulsion. symbolises one of many puddings that came to Europe from 'the colonies' and was embraced and customised in the UK. Haters will easily believe it is used as a biodegradable plastic substitute (a renewable, reusable, recyclable eco-product) to make bags, gloves and aprons and as the starch used for starching shirts before ironing. Seeing tapioca is a primeval experience; it is viewing the elements that combine to form new life, the ova, the massive spawn of fish or frogs, the quantity ensuring some survive; speaking to us all with wonder or disgust.

Producer – Turan Ali

Khadijah Ibrahiim’s essay, A Journey of Things Past and Present, looks at how Leeds’s built environment has changed and what that tells us about it as a society. Leeds is a rich north England city in a beautiful rural setting, but only the former is reflected in its physical development. The starting point is a much-loved mural that Khadijah contributed to as part of a school art project about the city’s historical and modern architecture.

The essay will consider what the built city tells us about its identity and why/how the landscape is developed, then move us into the future, talking about the imminent David Oluwale memorial sculpture by Yinka Shonibare, Hibiscus Rising, in currently empty open space down near the river.

Khadijah Ibrahiim is a literary activist, theatre maker and published poet/writer. She is the Artistic director of Leeds Young Authors, and executive producer of the award-winning documentary ‘We Are Poets’. Recently work includes writing and directing ‘Sorrel & Black cake’ A Windrush Story, a Heritage Lottery funded program as part of GCF. ‘Dead and Wake’ Opera North 2020 Resonance and Leeds Playhouse Connecting Voices.

Writer/reader, Khadijah Ibrahiim

Looking at Leeds is a co-commission between BBC Radio 3 and The Space with funding from Arts Council England.