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.
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.
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/
