Category: entertainment and leisure news

SHOWING at Thame Cinema 4 All, Thame Players Theatre, Nelson Street, Thame – Shadow Dancer – 2012, 101 minutes, 15 certificate, Directed by James Marsh, Starring Andrea Risborough, Brid Brennan, Clive Owen, Aiden Gillen, Domhnall Gleeson

James Marsh is best known for documentary film making ? notably 2010?s Project Nim and 2009?s thrilling Man on Wire. Screenwriter Tom Bradby, who has adapted this from his own novel, was once an ITN journalist reporting from 1990?s Northern Ireland. The combination of real life politics, edgy fiction, and cinematic realism is ideal for this gripping Troubles-set thriller about the murky paranoia of the 1990?s IRA.

Andrea Risborough has already demonstrated her place as one of the most talented chameleon-esque actors of her generation. She can convince as pretty much anything: from ditzy Essex flirt (Made in Dagenham), or painfully vulnerable victim (Brighton Rock) to a ruthlessly ambitious Margaret Thatcher (The Long Walk to Finchley) or an imperiously glamorous Wallis Simpson (W.E). Here she is superb as Colette McVeigh, a single mother from a well known republican family in West Belfast, with two brothers who are active in the IRA, a woman consumed by self-loathing and moral compromise, tainted by the political culture of her upbringing.

Set against the backdrop of the Good Friday agreement, with its connotations of secret deal-making between sworn enemies, Colette is caught between high politics and gritty familial loyalties: she must negotiate her desire to protect a young son, the pressure from menacing republican activism at home and the demands of an ?agreement? with Clive Owen?s Mac, a British Intelligence Officer. The whole is enigmatic, understated, compelling.

Doors open 7.30pm – film 8pm – Licensed bar

IF you haven’t yet made any new year’s resolutions, how about taking up singing – or may be rekindling the joy of singing you once had, may be in the school choir?

Professor Graham Welch, Chair of Music Education at the Institute of Education, University of London, has studied developmental and medical aspects of singing for 30 years. He says: “The health benefits of singing are both physical and psychological. Singing has physical benefits because it is an aerobic activity that increases oxygenation in the blood stream and exercises major muscle groups in the upper body, even when sitting.

“Singing has psychological benefits because of its normally positive effect in reducing stress levels through the action of the endocrine system which is linked to our sense of emotional well-being.

“Psychological benefits are also evident when people sing together as well as alone because of the increased sense of community, belonging and shared endeavour.”

Thame Choral Society have been going for over 50 years now and there next concert on May 4, will be Mozart?s Requiem and rehearsals start tonight, and are every Wednesday in term time, from 7.30pm to 9.30pm, at Haddenham Methodist church.

The choir is would like to encourage more singers to join this term so that they can make a really full sound with the orchestra, so please tell your friends and spread the word. No audition is required.

To find out more about Thame Choral Society, visit the website: http://www.thamechoralsociety.co.uk/

PHOTO: Members of members of Thame Choral Society joined forces with Wycombe Choral Society and sang to an audience of 38,000 people at Twickenham recently

A Have Your Say meeting is being held on Friday, January 4, at the Co-Op Cafe, High Street, Thame, between 3pm and 5pm.

Please come along; this is your opportunity to speak with your neighbourhood officers to discuss any local issues of concern you may have. If you are unable to attend but wish to speak with your neighbourhood officers, please call 101.

FOR ONE NIGHT ONLY – SCARAMOUCHE JONES by Justin Butcher – The Players Theatre, Theatre, Nelson Street, Thame – 7.45pm on Saturday, January 12, 2013 – Tickets

AFTER all that over-eating and lounging around watching TV over the Christmas period, why not join 21st Century Thame for a leisurely walk, in convivial company?

The town partnership’s Environment Group has organised the event which will start at Thame Town Hall at 11am, along the Phoenix Trail to Towersey and back again, or via Kingsey for a longer walk.

The Three Horse Shoes at Towersey have offered a very good value, warming lunch of potato and leek soup, and jacket potato, for just

FOR ONE NIGHT ONLY – SCARAMOUCHE JONES by Justin Butcher – The Players Theatre, Theatre, Nelson Street, Thame – 7.45pm on Saturday, January 12, 2013 – Tickets

AFTER all that over-eating and lounging around watching TV over the Christmas period, why not join 21st Century Thame for a leisurely walk, in convivial company?

The town partnership’s Environment Group has organised the event which will start at Thame Town Hall at 11am, along the Phoenix Trail to Towersey and back again, or via Kingsey for a longer walk.

The Three Horse Shoes at Towersey have offered a very good value, warming lunch of potato and leek soup, and jacket potato, for just

LADYBIRD Pre-School, Sydenham, is holding a children?s Christmas craft event on Saturday 15th December 2012 at the Old School Room in Sydenham to raise funds for new equipment and activities at the pre-school.

The event, which takes place from 10am-1pm, will offer a wonderful range of crafts for children. As well as icing their own Christmas biscuits, they will be able to create wonderful decorations such as glittery Christmas trees and fluffy snowmen, whilst being able to make their own individual calendars and crackers (which could make great presents for parents or even grandparents).

Tickets are on sale now at

ONCE all the Christmas fun has died down, we all need something to look forward to in the dark days following.

THE Ultimate Elvis tribute, Alvin, will be appearing at Racquets, Thame, on January 25.

WHETHER you?re a primary, junior, secondary, music or dance school, the Florence Nightingale Hospice Charity (FNHC) is encouraging talented students to register for Thame?s Got Talent, to be held on Sunday, February 10, 2013, at the Spread Eagle Hotel, to be in with a chance of taking home the coveted ?Best School Act? silver plate award.

?We really want to entice more schools to take part in this event and have introduced a new category and special award of a silver shield for the winners of the ?Best School Act?,? said Karen Shardlow, Development & Events Manager at FNHC. ?It?s a fantastic new category, which we hope will showcase a range of talent and acts from local schools, be it a school choir, soloist, musician or even drama students ? this new category is very much open to everyone. Just last week, Bloxham School Jazz Band registered to take part, so this new category really does promise to be a good one.?

Stagecoach Thame sign up!

Another local school already signed up to take part is Stagecoach Thame, who have also generously offered a wonderful prize of a summer term scholarship to the lucky winner of the Under 15s category.

With more fantastic prizes up for grabs including a day in a recording studio courtesy of Black Frog Studios, a photoshoot, courtesy of Frank Millar Photography, a cash prize and many more, the event, now in its fourth year, is not one to miss.

Registration is now open and entry forms are available from the Spread Eagle Hotel, Kismet Jewellers of Thame or by visiting www.thamesgottalent.co.uk and downloading a form.

Since the event started it has helped to raise nearly