Danskcolin: Thursday August 27th 2026 "Are YOU going to the cinema or theatre today? Don't 'miss out' haha!!!

Yes, Friends, are YOU going to the cinema or maybe a theatre today? You don't want to miss out, when almost everybody in the world is set to "indulge" (!), at least, to believe the headlines in today's Onion News, to put it mildly!!!!

And those headlines bring a brief hint of a smile to the faces of me and my wife Lois, here in leafy Liphook, Hampshire, no question about that!!!!

my wife Lois and me - a recent picture

And, for once, Lois and I realise that we're fully "on trend", because we've got tickets to the local community theatre performance of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd-Webber musical "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat" at local "happening" venue, Haslemere Hall, no less, which is exciting!

We'll be in a mini-group with our daughter Alison, and 2 of her teenage kids Rosalind (18) and Isaac (16), and with the cast dominated by talented local teenagers, we're sure that all these kids' families will be packing out the available seats, and giving the cast an enthusiastic welcome - it's the first of 6 performances in the play's 3-day run, and tickets are discounted for this performance only, so what's not to like haha! Isaac is no stranger himself to the musical scene, having recently played stand-out roles in both The Wizard of Oz and Legally Blonde, so fair play to him!

The audience has been asked not to take pictures during the performance, but I manage to take the following "money-shots" while the audience is filing in and finding their seats, in an atmosphere of barely-controlled total hysteria, which is nice to see!

the scene at fashionable local hotspot Haslemere Hall this afternoon, with

(bottom left) Lois studying the programme, and (bottom right) our daughter

Alison and 2 of her 3 teenage kids, Rosalind (18) and Isaac (16)

In case you can't read the programme which Lois is holding up (see above, bottom left!), there are some amusing photos in it of rehearsals, and I especially recommend the last one below, showing a typical final rehearsal, in which the director, Philip O'Brien, is looking really fed up, which is a nice touch !!!!!

candid pictures of the mostly young but talented, local cast during rehearsals,

with below, director Philip O'Brien looking really fed up - poor Philip!!!

Yes, poor Philip haha!!!!!

The programme also includes some "fun facts" about the musical, which Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote when they were complete unknowns, just for a local school. Isn't it always fascinating to see young writers and song-writers in action, totally unaware that the "fun piece" that they were just playing around with for a local school, would eventually bring them world-wide fame, no less!

And it's also very nostalgic for Lois and me to see "Joseph" again. We first took our then young daughters Alison and Sarah to a community theatre performance of the musical in Ellicott City, Maryland during our 3-year residence in the US, back in the early 1980's. Also, I took Sarah to see the musical again, in London, in her teenage years, when "happening" Aussie soap-opera star heart-throb Jason Donovan was playing the lead. Happy days!!!

(left) flashback to the early 1980's: us as a young family during our 3 years in the States,

and (right) the theatre in Ellicott City, Maryland, where we all first saw "Joseph"

(above) flashback to 1991: the London Palladium production of "Joseph..."

starring Aussie soap-star Jason Donovan which I took our daughter Sara to see,

and (below) Donovan reprising the role for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee (2022)

Yes, happy days!!!!

Back to today, however! And Lois and I are treated to an enthusiastic and talented performance this afternoon: the cast really putting their all into it, and getting an enthusiastic reception from the audience, which is nice. All in all a great afternoon, and Lois and I, as two of the many 'old codgers' in the house, excelled ourselves by not falling asleep, and not even asking once to go to the loo, despite the performance duration of two hours plus, would you believe!!

Kudos, us haha !!!!

21:00 Nevertheless exhausted by our little "old codger outing" today, it's with some satisfaction that we can fully collapse on the sofa tonight, all agog to see a fascinating Channel 5 documentary about the Great Wall of China, presented by the intrepid Dan Snow, who, despite his (compared to us!) young-to-youngish years, still looks a bit 'puffed' (!) as he clambers up and down the great monument, in the company of, like, a billion Chinese tourists, to put it mildly!!!!

Poor Dan !!!!

And there's a big surprise waiting for us, right at the start of the programme, because Lois and I had no idea that there's no single Wall of China - there are, like, half a dozen of them, some having been built as long ago as back as 500 BC, would you believe! Who knew!!!!

[I expect a lot of people knew that! - Ed]

The Chinese have obviously had a mania about building "Great Walls" throughout their history!

Got a problem? Build a wall! Whether it's for keeping out the foreigners, or maybe just to keep people busy, or to give them an interest, perhaps?

Talented singer-songwriter Paul Simon suggests, however, in one of our favourite songs - his classic 1973 track "Something So Right" - that the purpose was indeed to keep out the foreigners, so let's go with that theory for the time being, okay?!!!!

Also, for us tonight, there's some amusement when presenter Dan talks about the "loess" that was used to build one of the oldest "Great Walls".

Why the amusement? Well forgive us, but we are feeling exhausted, and we are 80, not to mention entering our second (or is it third??!!!) childhood (!!!!).

In standard Southern British usage, at least, "loess" is pronounced exactly the same as "Lois" - they're complete 'homonyms'. So we can't help smiling when Dan talks about "Lois" being "made of clay, sand and silt" (!).

And we're laughing again, when the intrepid Dan talks about ""forcing Lois into a frame.... to build the wall", because we're old, yes, but we're not that old, thank you very much !!!!