Category: entertainment and leisure news

THAME Players will be presenting See How They Run, by Philip King, from Tuesday to Saturday May 3 – 7, at 7.45pm each evening, and at 2.30pm on the Saturday. Tickets cost £9, concessions £8, and are available from Spear Travels, Greyhound Walk, Thame, telephone 01844 217228, or online from www.thameplayers.co.uk.

See How They Run is a farce set towards the end of the second world war, in the living room of the vicarage in the village of Merton-cum-Middlewick. Penelope Toop, a former actress, is now happily married to the local vicar, the Reverend Lionel Toop, with whom she lives a life of married bliss – or would do if it wasn’t for the interfering Miss Skillon, churchgoer of the parish and a gossip.

When Lance-Corporal Clive Winton, an old friend of Penelope’s, stops by for a quick visit and they decide to watch a play by the local dramatic society that they used to belong to, things quickly take a turn for the worse. Confusion and assumption work in equal measure to turn a perfectly innocent excursion into a disaster. Then, when Penelope’s uncle, the Bishop of Lax, a clergyman from another parish, and a German soldier on the run from the nearby POW camp, arrive unexpectedly, complete chaos ensures.

The action culminates in a cycle of running figures and mistaken identities. Who is the real Reverend Toop? Where is Miss Skillon? What has happened to Clive’s uniform? Will the German POW get away with his dastardly plan? All will be revealed in See How They Run…

THE team behind a series of short term radio broadcasts to support and promote Haddenham’s summer beer festivals, has been awarded a full time radio licence by the government regulator Ofcom.

Red Kite Radio, based at the Haddenham Garden Centre, won the five-year licence after convincing the body that this area deserves and can sustain a full time version of its successful Summerfest Radio broadcasts.

Covering Haddenham, Thame and all of the surrounding villages, the team of volunteers, with professional backgrounds in national and local radio, have operated three highly successful short term broadcasts supporting and promoting the Haddenham summer beer festivals (Summerfest) with a fourth due to hit the airwaves this June.

Summerfest Radio began life after a conversation in a pub and has grown ever since, heavily supporting the beer festival, which has also grown significantly during the three summers it has been on the air.

Pete MacFarlane, General Manager of Red Kite Radio said: “We are all delighted to be awarded this licence by Ofcom. The regulator can clearly see the huge amount of support from charities, groups and residents of both Haddenham and Thame for what we do. We’d like to thank the people and organisations who took the time to write and support our application and those who participated in our application research.”

Red Kite Radio will continue to support the Haddenham Beer Festivals Trust, promoting not just one but both its annual fundraisers; “Being on air 365 days a year means we will now be able to promote the Winterfest event and cover the various beneficiaries and the subsequent grant awards by the trust throughout the year,” added Pete MacFarlane.

On air 24 hours a day, the station will cover and promote local news and issues, charities, schools, sports clubs, churches, community groups and offer radio skills training courses to people in the area.

The Red Kite Radio team has two years to launch the FM radio station. Local businesses will have the opportunity to promote themselves through cost effective radio advertising and at the same time know that they are helping to fund a unique broadcast service in the area.

SOURCE: Contributed

GRAB those dancing shoes ready to boogie the day away, or chill out on the grass with a leisurely picnic! Music in the Park returns to Elms Park on Sunday, May 1. Featuring more than 30 performers on three stages, Music in the Park offers music and dance acts across a wide range of genres, run entirely by volunteers.

Topping the bill on the main stage are the popular Dung Beatles, who blend Beatles’ chart hits with some of their beautiful album tracks. The Dung Beatles’ reputation has led to them being invited to play Liverpool’s world famous Cavern Club.

Tickets are on sale now at a range of outlets in Thame: The Black Horse Hotel, The Falcon, Wally’s Toy Shop, Vintage & Modern Guitars, Fore Golf and Thame Town Hall; or online at https://www.wegottickets.com/event/357031.  Advance tickets cost: Adults – £9; concessions (students, under 18s, senior citizens) – £5; family ticket (2 adults and up to 3 concessions) – £23. On-the-door prices are £12, £6 and £28 respectively. Under 5s go free.

With such a wide variety of music and dance talent, there’ll be something for everyone. The two main stages will feature live music and dance, while the third will be dedicated to acoustic acts. Throughout the park there’ll be all the usual goodies you’d expect at a festival, including tasty real ales, a wide variety of delicious foods, fun activities for children and adults, and a range of trade stalls.

More details on the website www.musicinthepark.org.uk and the Facebook page: www.facebook.com/MusicInTheParkThame including the full line-up.

PLANS for this year’s Thame Carnival are off with a flying start as the organisers have managed to secure a repeat of 2014, with a flypast of two aircraft.

Furthermore, some fantastic float ideas with this year’s theme, The Best of British, are coming in thick and fast, reports Carnival organising team leader, Sue Martin Downhill, and already six local streets have signed up for the Giant Carnival Street Party planned for the big fete on Southern Road Recreational ground after the Carnival, and if YOUR street would like to join in the celebrations of Her Majesty the Queen’s 90th birthday year, contact thamecarnival@gmail.com.

Great Bunting Creative

“Leading up to the Carnival on June 11, we are going to be attempting to craft enough red, white and blue bunting to decorate the street party gazebos, arena, beer tents and other marquees,” revealed Sue. “Anyone who would like to be involved in this fun and creative activity in the next couple of months then please contact thamecarnival@gmail.com.”

The Carnival Fete

How about a spot of splat the rat, egg throwing or gnome ringing? Or tackling the Thame Scouts’ climbing wall or even competitive games including Human table football, courtesy of the Cross Keys pub! – Just some of the fun-events planned for the whole family to take part in.

All this fun and games will of course, require those taking part to take refreshment from time to time so, as usual there will be a beer tent run by Thame Round Table and a Pimms Tent which the organisers are hopeful will be run by Lord Williams’s Association. For youngers members of the family will there will be a variety of food and drink vendors on site incuding a huge selection of food from burgers to pizza, cakes and sweets.

Arena and stage

The brilliant Dan Blasor will be back as the compere this year and Simon Markland, of Thame Music Academy, has been busy arranging for music and dance entertainment for the arena and on the stage.

All the ingredients are there for fabulous Carnival on Satuday, June 11, so all we need now to bind it all together is of course, sunshine !!

If anyone would like to meet to discuss getting involved in any of these or any aspect of the event, Sue Martin Downhill would love to be contacted via email: suedownhill@gmail.com or by phone on 07860 328880:

If you can put a poster in your window
If you can help sew bunting
If you could run the parade
If you can help with the marshalling of the road closure, please talk to Sue.

BUDDY Holly and The Crickets will be brought back to life, as they looked and sounded in 1958 when they first toured the UK, at Thame’s Players Theatre, when Spencer J and the Copy-Cat Crickets will create the feel of a Rock ‘n’ Roll concert, straight from the ‘fifties.

The band will take you back to the age when a young Texan first played his heart out to screaming crowds in theatres and concert halls across Great Britain. At every performance, audiences clap, cheer and sing along. They dance, yell for encores and ask for photographs. And at the end of every show, the question is always: “When are you coming back?”

Song choices are based on Buddy Holly’s late-fifties performances. Besides legendary hits like Peggy Sue, That’ll Be The Day, Oh Boy and Heartbeat, other gems from his catalogue are also featured, as well as hits by the other Kings of Rock ‘n’ Roll, all of which Buddy actually performed with at live shows (La Bamba, Blue Suede Shoes, Rip It Up, Shake Rattle & Roll).

In terms of energy, originality and ability to connect with an audience, Spencer, JJ, Gerry and Spencer succeed in re-creating The Crickets’ special brand of “feel-good fifties fun”. And whenever they are on stage, fans everywhere agree that, once again, Buddy Holly lives!

Sunday, April 3, at 7.45pm – Thame Players Theatre, Nelson Street, Thame.

Tickets cost £12 from Spear Travels, 01844 217228 or online from www.thameplayers.co.uk

IT’S that time of year again! Let’s don the wellies, fish out your rain macs (just in case, of course), find that ridiculous hat you only wear this time of year and head on over to Watlington Beacon Festival.

We have some new and exciting things lined up for you this year, not to mention your regular favourites. There’s yummy food selections in store at the numerous stalls, including burgers, pizzas, cream teas and more. Returning in 2016 will also be the Cider tent and Cocktail bar.

There’s the improved Kidzone to keep the youngsters amused (not to mention some of the adults!). And various stalls, where you will no doubt buy yourself another crazy hat or a tankard to drink your ale from.
But there’s more……..

New for 2016, we have the comedy tent! Offering some of Oxfordshire’s funniest local talent. So if you didn’t think you already laughed enough over the course of the two days, then come and tickle your ribs some more;
the Health and wellbeing zone is expanding with even more therapies and experiences on offer; Workshops – just too many to mention, but something for everyone.

Finally there’s the music! That wonderful catalyst that brings us all together and makes us lose ourselves up here in the Oxfordshire hills. If you haven’t already heard on the grapevine, ‘Not the Rolling Stones’, will be treading the boards and getting this community festival off to a flying start on the Friday evening. For the Saturday we have ‘The UK Foo Fighters Tribute’. This is not just any Tribute Band! The Foo Fighters are essentially a super band and the UK Foo Fighters Tribute have, equally in their own right, earned the title of super tribute band. The amazing Van Susans who are presently touring the festival circuits, will be supporting too.

And this is just the headliners!! Over two days we will be delighting you with some of Oxfordshire/Bucks finest talent, national touring bands such as the Van Susans, not to mention some amazing acts from around the UK and even from across the world.

So that’s it in a nutshell. What more could you ask for?

We literally can’t wait to welcome you at Beacon Festival for the June 17 & 18, 2016. Tickets are available from the website http://www.beaconfestival.net/

BEST known as one third of the TV comedy trio The Goodies, Tim Brooke-Taylor has been delighting audiences with his gentle, zany humour ever since joining the famous Cambridge Footlights back in the early 1960s.

One of Clive Conway Production’s most successful and popular speakers, Tim talks about a career that started when as a student performer he appeared alongside Bill Oddie, Graeme Garden, John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Eric Idle and was elected Footlights president. In this show Tim is in conversation with writer and Broadcaster, Chris Serle, and a funny and fascinating evening is assured.

His TV credits include On The Braden Beat, The Frost Programme (as editor), At Last the 1948 Show, Me and My Girl and, of course, The Goodies. For the past 40 plus years Tim has been a regular panellist on the ever-popular radio show I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue.

The show is At The Players Theatre, Nelson Street, Thame, on Sunday, March 20, at 7.45pm

Tickets cost £16 and are available now from Spear Travels, telephone 01844217228 or online from www.thameplayers.co.uk

FOLLOWING a book launch at the local book shop, a body count in Thame – or ‘Causton’ as it’s usually known in the world of ‘Midsomer Murders’, revealed that everyone who had arrived, left alive, which was a relief to the authors of Roaming Midsomer – Walking and Eating in the Murderous Heart of England.

Chris Behan and Martin Andrew were at The Book House in Thame, to launch Roaming Midsomer, the follow-up to Chris’s solo project, the hugely successful, Exploring Midsomer, which drew fans from all over the world, away from their TV sets and out into the beautiful, pastoral landscape of ‘Midsomer’ locations.

For this new book, it was Martin, an avid walker himself, who researched and designed the walks, and Chris who took the photographs for this compilation of ‘interesting and pleasant walks, offering plenty to do and see, to eat and drink while exploring locations used in the TV series’.

Most of the walks are designed for the serious walker, but Roaming Midsomer will also satisfy the ‘Sunday afternoon’ stroller, armed only with a mobile phone app, to punch in the useful postcodes for eating and drinking establishments close to the routes.

Both Chris Behan and Martin Andrew have lived in the area for nearly 40 years, and know well many of the locations featured in the series, which is among the most-sold British TV shows worldwide, whether as TV Programming or DVD. In other countries, the series is known as Barnaby, the name of the leading Midsomer Constabulary sleuth.

Roaming Midsomer will no doubt be vital reading for fans of the show who will want to get out there and experience for themselves, the Midsomer Murders factor – without the fear of violence – and return ready for series 17, which as of this month, March 2016, will be available in episodes via streaming through Netflix; surely bound to be the inspiration for another book from Chris and Martin?

Roaming Midsomer: Walking and Eating in the Murderous Heart of England, by Chris Behan and Martin Andrew – Published by The History Press, and available from The Book House, 93 High Street, Thame, OX9 3HJ – See WEBSITE http://www.thebookhousethame.co.uk/

MORE Midsomer Murders news stories from Thame.Net’s archive

POND dipping, bug hunting, planting sunflower seeds and making bird feeders, are just some of the activities to take part in at Soha’s Come out and Play, at Cuttle Brook Nature Reserve in Thame.

So, bring a picnic and join in a FREE morning of family fun on March 31, during the Easter holidays, 10am to 1pm.

To find out more, call the RI team at Soha on 01235 515900 or 08000 141545, www.cuttlebrook.org.uk
Free 2 hour parking at the Scout Hut, Southern Road, Thame, OX9 2EB

IN 2000, Mari Wilson was the obvious choice to play Dusty Springfield on the hugely successful UK tour of Dusty the Musical. Following her sellout 2014 shows – Mari Sings Dusty – Mari launches her brand new show, Ready Steady Girls featuring unique interpretations of the songs that influenced her as she was growing up, including iconic classics by Dusty, Petula, Cilla and others.

Join Mari on her personal, emotional and often hilarious journey through life at The Players Theatre, Nelson Street, Thame, on Saturday, March 12.

Tickets are £17 from Spears Travel, in Greyhound Walk, Thame, phone: 01844 217228 or online from thameplayers.co.uk