Notes from the Stage Manager's Box (2 page)

Peter Hancock started by insisting we went to see at least one theatrical production a month. We were just ordinary working class boys who never thought about going to
West End
theatres. The following two years we must have seen at least one production a week; and we enjoyed it. That’s the wonderful thing.

By today’s standards it was a small group, ten of us as I remember.
Some of us remain close friends today
. We all lived in North London and the
West End
was
at most
just a thirty
minute bus ride or tube journey away.
We had access to
riches which modern students in the suburbs and county towns just cannot imagine.

As a school we got special group and reduced rates for the
Aldwych
Royal Sha
kespeare Company,
the
Old Vic
and the often excellent, sometimes strange productions of the local Cannonbury Reportory Company in
Cannonbury Square
, better known now as Barnsbury.

We saw
the greats; Ian Holm, Maggie Smith and
Paul Schofield amongst so many others
. We saw the Marat Sade and at the other end of the scale the
Trent
Park
Technical
College
’s end of term production of Peer Gynt.
I do remember going to Sadlers Wells for a matinee showing of the Barber of Seville
as well
but we were all singularly unimpressed
.
Thrown in for good measure was the
Marylebone
Grammar School
’s production of Othello which as an all boys school, had boys playing the female parts. Slightly bizarre but no more
so
than sitting in the middle of Sir Bernard Miles
iconic and revolutionary
Mermaid Theatre for a production of The Shoemakers Holiday.

We were just teenage boys studying for our A Levels amidst the good and great
filling the auditorium in dinner suits and bow ties. They
stared at us with horror and disdain because this was ART and CULTURE and working class oiks should not laugh at the funny bits, even though it was one of the bawdiest medieval plays ever written. Obviously they had never read the play before attending. Sometimes a little education can go a long way.

In the second week of the Upper Sixth we packed ourselves into Messrs Pepper and Hancock’s cars and camped in
Stratford-upon-Avon
where we watched two
productions at the RSC there. One of which was Hamlet with David Warner in the lead role. At the time he was attracting a lot of
media
attention and
the audience was full of
parties of teenage
school
girls who sighed and cried and wept at his every word. No, they screamed and cheered actually which was not quite what you expect when watching Hamlet. But it was a d
ifferent experience and Peter
Hancock used his charm and knowledge and our student membership to get us a tour backstage.

By this time we had grown into cultured young men with a taste for the good things in life which included alcohol. Something that has remained with me down the years and few trips to any form of leisure or entertainment venue would not be complete without a pint or two at a local hostelry. As a group we became very knowledgeable of the pubs worth visiting on the theatre circuit and although the Cannonbury Theatre bar was as good as any local rep company’s bar could be
,
the pub across the road served a better pint.

As everyone knows the pursuit of the good life has its downside. The English A Level group’s nemesis came in an unexpected form.

Despite the best efforts of senior teachers the Lower Sixth
as
we were
then
declined to take part in organised sporting activity, such as PE or Games afternoons. The roll call of excuses would fill a large book but salvation came in the form of Peter Hancock.

He said that in future we would be excused Games on Wednesday afternoons proving we attended drama classes at the Barnsbury School for Girls. Who could resist that? Not just a cast iron alibi for avoiding Messrs Smith, Goldsmith and Wright on the playing fields of Holloway but an afternoon in the company of young ladies. This was the start of something wonderful. The girls were invit
ed to all our sixth form partie
s and at least one marriage came as a result.

Then Peter Hancock bowled an unplayable delivery. We had to take part in the school play.

In previous years the school play was left to the staff. Students had better things with which to occupy their minds such as exams. But the school play was the price we had to pay for missing games and fraternising with the opposite sex.

We accepted our fate with good grace
. We were now the Upper Sixth and things were expected of us.  O
wing to the upcoming mock exams and the pressures of sixth form life generally most of us were spared
leading roles apart from Phil Jackman who was a natural born actor and took to the part of
Mr
Hardcastle in She Stoops to Conquer as a duck to the village pond.

It turned out to be a pleasant enough experience. I decided though that
despite enjoying the role of Sir Charles Marlow
acting was not my forte; I preferred
the other side of the curtain.

I came to realise this when we staged an impromptu revue at a staff/student party in
Nottingham
University
wher
e we lodging
as part of a Sixth Form educational week in
Nottingham
.
The sixth form was no more than about 25 bodies – again, very small by today’s standards. But as a group we went to
Nottingham
at the end of the year in the Lower Sixth.
Some made a film, others conducted research amongst the workers in the factories but the highlight of the week was a tour down a working coal mine.

The experience has remained with the majority of us through the years. We may have been poor, working class boys but compared to the working conditions down that mine we were living in luxury.

However the revue was the brainchild of Peter Hancock and we took the opportunity to rewrite many of the tunes riding high in the pop charts to embarrass the teaching staff. It was probably better than either the staff or students expected. Some of the lyrics were quite clever, the actual singing was awful and the satirical sketches
a little
too near the knuckle. But I decided that this was a good life to lead.

Which is where my artistic horizons remained for the next ten years.

It was no surprise given that background that our
grades in English were exceptional. Most of us got straight ‘A’s or ‘B’s across all the papers. I decided against university and went into my first choice of career which was advertising. As it transpired I didn’t really enjoy the Media Buying role although now in later life the background research and planning aspect makes more sense.

I left to join National Westminster Bank
. This was in
November
1969 and the
newly named
Bank
was launched in January 1970. It was
formed from the merger of Westminster Bank, National Provincial Bank, District Bank, Coutts & Co and
a
small family
Bank named
Smiths
which co-incidentally was based in
Nottingham
. The latter two retained their identity because the Royal Family banks with Coutts. I ended my career at Smiths Office,
1 Princes Street
which was the other concession as Smiths
also had connections with royalty and insisted tha
t their name was retained in the
merger. On the event of a major refit
it
was
re-
opened by the Queen Mother.

This is not about my inglorious banking career but something does need to be mentioned. The Bank looked after its staff. It did not matter what your hobby or interest there was a club you could join that allowed you to pursue it. Every club or society be it
for
bridge, fencing or
swimming had a budget to help with costs from Head Office.

For some this was quite small for others it was a huge investment. No matter what your interest the Bank took the view that you were an ambassador when you competed and thereby it was within the catchment area of public relations. Staff that excelled at sports or interests and represented their local county teams
and in some cases
their country
were given paid leave. Many Bank athletes competed at the Olympics.

One of the oldest societies was the Westminster Theatre Club. It became the National Westminster Theatre Club which is how it was when I became involved. The recipient of the largest share of money was the Bank’s Football Club, then the
Rugby
and
Cricket Club
s; a
nd then the Theatre Club. It was quite a prestigious group to join and gave me ten happy years.

National Westminster Bank in common with other large corporations is based on the pyramid system.
There are hundreds perhaps thousands of branches and departments which are split into areas. These areas have Area Offices and Area Managers who in turn report to
the larger Regional Managers at Regional
Offices.

I spent the entire 17 years of my Bank career
in the City of
London
which is known as City Region. The guidelines for the day to day working of a Bank are set out in Books of Instructions. For every line in the
full set of
Books each Office in City Region had a disclaimer. Things were done very differently in the City than the rest of the country.

This has no bearing whatsoever on what follows but goes a little way to explain that working in the City, the Square Mile, is like being in your own village. You get to know everybody
, people move around from branch to branch and in and out of specialist departments
and
all
paths will cross at some time again in the future. It is not good to upset someone; you may meet them again one day when
you are waiting for your next step up the ladder and
their star is
still
rising!

I began my career at Law Courts branch. It was based on the corner of
Carey Street
which runs alongside the Royal Courts of Justice. ‘Being in
Carey Street
’
is a slang term for being bankrupt. The majority of our customers were so
licitors. I was not
t
here long. Six months later after what was considered an introduction to the company, I was moved
to St Pauls branch.

This was opposite St Pauls Cathedral and a lot of our
cashier
trade
came
from tourists
changing travel cheques and foreign currencies. It was the
friendliest
branch I ever wo
rked at. I was sad to leave
but after five years was sent to Clerkenwell.

This was a small branch on the edge of the City but its customers were all skilled crafts people
working
in silver and gold.
One designed the new decimal currency and another had commissions from the Queen.
When I left many of them gave me silver or gold cuff links as a thank you gift.

However my career in the amateur theatre began
t
here.

In early 1978 along with the usual circulars informing
us of staff move
s
and changes to the Books of Instruction came a letter from the National Wes
tminster Theatre Club inviting staff
to enter the Festival of One Act Plays

The Branch Accountant and Assistant Manager both thought this a good idea and hit upon the name of the Clerkenwell Strollers. Before I had time to think about what I was saying I volunteered the information that I had once appeared in the sch
ool play. This appeared to be just the right
quality to direct a play so the Clerkenwell Strollers were entered in the Festival forthwith.