Rachel And The Roarettes
Louise Gold
appeared, as Bootleg Jane, BBC Pebble Mill, Broadcast on Thursday 13 June 1985,
BBC 2.
Cast (includes)
The Roarettes
Rachel - Josie
Lawrence
Moll - Jean
Hart
Black Bess - Femi Taylor
Bootleg Jane - Louise Gold
At The Black Dog
Maggie - Terry Neason
Melanie - Susannah Bunyon
Harold - Alan Ford
Eustace - Howard Lew Lewis
Priest - Norman Beaton
The Law
Judge - James Grout
Elizabeth - Linda Polan
Belinda - Deborah Poplett
DC Smear - Barry Stanton
PC Twerp - Christopher Ryan
Production Team
Words and music - Jude Alderson / Sadista Sisters
Musicians - Richard Wolfson, Andrew Saunders, David Adams, Julia Palmer, and, Slaned Jones
Director - Rob Walker
Choreography - Stuart Hopps
Sound - Ian Rae
Lighting - Bob Chaplin
Script Editor - Caroline Oulton
Designer - Sally Engelbach
Producer - Roger Gregory for BBC Pebble Mill
Other Crew - John Greening
The plot seems
to have been about a motercycling homosexual feminist named Rachel popping into
a pub to borrow a spanner, and, along with her gang of multicoloured homosexual
bikers, ends up rescuing the landlord’s daughter, on her wedding day, from what
would have been an enslaving marriage; while at the same time metaphorphosing
into a dashing eighteenth century highwayperson.
A substantial
amount of Gary Oldman’s part was cut, due to the shooting schedule
overrunning (as he still seems to have been billed, one might assume that some
of his part survived). There was actually a photograph of him with Josie
Lawrence in 18th century garb and swords in that week’s edition
of The Radio Times, for the programme’s billing.
Josie
Lawrence went on to appear in
television on A Week In The West End,
and on stage in Happily Ever After.
Christopher
Ryan’s recording credits include Utterly Utterly Live Comic Relief.
His film & TV credits include Alice In
Wonderland. He also took part in Comic Relif 1986.
Christopher
Ryan and Louise
Gold went on to appear together on stage in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
Howard Lew
Lewis and Louise Gold had
previously appeared together on television in BlackAdder.
It’s possible
that Deborah Poplett could be the Debbie Poplitt who may have taken part
in Thing A Thon.
Laugh I Nearly Paid My Licence
Fee, Rita Rudner, Alexei Sayle’s Merry-Go-Round, and,
A Week In The West End were also shown
in BBC 2, as was the national
broadcast of City Lights, and the first terrestrial broadcast of The Alan Clark Diaries.
Critics Comments
Links about Rachel And The Roarettes
BFI
Database
Entry for the programme: http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/325468
TV Cream’s R section: http://tv.cream.org/a-z/r/
Online
Originals article about
songwriter Jude Alderson: http://www.onlineoriginals.com/showitem.asp?itemID=70
Katholm
Productions’ page for Jude
Alderson: http://www.sitecenter.dk/katholmproductions/oftestilledesprgsml/
