{"id":2247,"date":"2018-08-11T16:44:55","date_gmt":"2018-08-11T16:44:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gordongriffin.com\/ggnewsite2\/?p=2247"},"modified":"2018-08-11T16:45:05","modified_gmt":"2018-08-11T16:45:05","slug":"northumberland-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gordongriffin.com\/ggnewsite2\/2018\/08\/11\/northumberland-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"NORTHUMBERLAND RULES!"},"content":{"rendered":"

I think you’d need to be of a certain age to remember Alan Melville. In the late 50s he seemed to be everywhere on television (only one channel then, and that in black-and-white) from The Brains Trust, What’s my Line? and a particular favourite of mine “A-Z” (of entertainment) in which he did sketches and interviewed such luminaries as Edith Evans, Bob Hope and Phil Silvers. The Phil Silvers interview is on YouTube. I always loved his mellifluous voice and to me growing up in the north-east he seemed the epitome of sophistication so it was a surprise and thrill to discover that he (like me) was born and brought up in Northumberland! (Now, with my more attuned hearing, I can hear the traces of the accent in his speech). He had a huge career writing funny sophisticated comedies (theatre and film) and revues, most famously the Sweet and Low series for the two Hermiones – Gingold and Baddeley. He wrote the book and lyrics for Gay’s The Word with a score by Ivor Novello and starring Cicily Courtneige – and a batch of musicals including Marigold with Jean Kent and Jeremy Brett. He wrote his first novel WEEKEND AT THRACKLEY while still working in the family timber business in the north-east. Not only was it accepted for publication but it was made into a film (Dry Ice). I was thrilled to be asked to record the audiobook version of that book (in the Golden Age of Crime series); the book that changed the fortunes of young Alan M. It’s a sophisticated thriller and very funny with a cast of wonderful characters. Its success allowed Alan to move south and embark on what was a hugely successful career.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I think you’d need to be of a certain age to remember Alan Melville. In the late 50s he seemed to be everywhere on television (only one channel then, and that in black-and-white) from The Brains Trust, What’s my Line? and a particular favourite of mine “A-Z” (of entertainment) in which he did sketches and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gordongriffin.com\/ggnewsite2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2247"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gordongriffin.com\/ggnewsite2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gordongriffin.com\/ggnewsite2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gordongriffin.com\/ggnewsite2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gordongriffin.com\/ggnewsite2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2247"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gordongriffin.com\/ggnewsite2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2248,"href":"https:\/\/gordongriffin.com\/ggnewsite2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2247\/revisions\/2248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gordongriffin.com\/ggnewsite2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gordongriffin.com\/ggnewsite2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gordongriffin.com\/ggnewsite2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}