Yesterday we went up to London to meet up with the family (sans Jenny) for OktoberFest!
The day started with the 12th Annual Raindance Film Festival - held at the UCG Shaftesbury Avenue (in the Trocadero Centre).
www.raindance.co.uk. We had tickets for :
14:00 – ALEXANDER MACKENDRIK MEMORIAL: TERRY JONES
The ex-Python and prolific filmmaker will screen a surprise film of his choice, followed by a Q&A session.
Before we went in Terry had arrived and was waiting in the entrance with some of the audience who had arrived (including us). Other people had Python stuff for him to sign so Toby asked if he could have his photo taken with him. He said "of course" so Toby dragged mum into it (she was really embarrassed) and I took the shot - Toby's very proud of that photo!
The film he chose was the Wind in the Willows (1996) for which wrote the screenplay, directed & starred in. The Wind in the Willows features an all-star cast from the cream of British comedy including:
- Terry Jones (Toad)
- Eric Idle (Rat)
- Steve Coogan (Mole)
- John Cleese (Mr. Toad's Lawyer)
- Stephen Fry (The Judge)
- Michael Palin (as a type of Telly Tubbies sun)
- Bernard Hill (The Engine Driver)
- Julia Sawalha (The Jailer's Daughter
- Victoria Wood (The Tea Lady)
- Nigel Planer (The Car Salesman)
and Nicol Williamson as Badger - although Terry told us that Sean Connery was meant for the role initially. Unfortunately he rang shortly before filming and said he couldn't do it - prior commitments or something - what a shame, he would have been so cool and very well suited to the role!
It was a fun film but the best bit was the Q&A session afterwards! It was cool to hear him talk about all manner of things, of course some of it Python related. He has such a great voice!
Toby was brave enough to pose a question so he asked Terry
"What happened with the ending to the Holy Grail - where the police came in - did you just not know how to end it?"
Terry laughed and said that it was supposed to mimic a film the Pythons had seen at a film festival on the Champs-Elysées in Paris. The film "ended" with a long scene of traffic circling the Arc de Triomph and the lights simply come up for the audience to leave. As they walked outside that was exactly what they saw and he said they all felt there was a real impact in that. Apparently the cinema film-boxes / tins for the Holy Grail had instructions on them for the house lights to be lifted 30 seconds into the final scene but of course, Terry said, no-one read or followed these instructions so people just sat through 10 minutes of nothing!
He's a lovely bloke and it was good to hear him talk about his life & his projects - its striking how very down-the-earth he is about his achievements.
Toby was so excited to have met him...1 Python down, 4 to go!
Afterwards we went to Belgo Centraal, the Belgian restaurant in Covent Garden that specialises in their beer! Caroline and Fazel met us there. We ordered from their special Oktoberfeast (pun) menu where you choose any four tapas style dishes from a set menu of sixteen and receive four very different tasting beers selected to compliment the food.
PROS: Mostly good food (although a little stingy in portion size), in particular the duck in Hoegaarden jus and the Leffe icecream!
CONS: They were a little militant in their booking times and rushed us on our courses. Fazel, who ordered after us, had all three dishes at once as the early birds had none!
It was a very eventful evening that saw us receiving lots of free stuff - including a round of different flavoured Schnapps, a yard of ale for Mark and lots of exclusive Delerium Tremens tasting glasses to take home as souvenirs!! All the booze disappeared quickly, even the strawberry beer which was a little fizzy, so needless to say we were all a little foxed on our departure!
One fun day all in all!
P.S. Terry Jones was also a writer in the Two Ronnies - so watch out for our next Blog!
