Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
100 years of Fred Jeffs
Fred Jeffs was born at Bridge of Allen, near Stirling, on the 23rd April 1919, which makes today a special occasion indeed. The above photo is the earliest I can find in my family’s possession and shows him in the back-yard at Bath Row, Birmingham, in the late 1920’s. This morning, on what would have […]
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A Lost Starting Handle
The murder of my great uncle, Fred Jeffs, in 1957, remains one of the West Midlands’ great unsolved crimes. I first stumbled across the story when I was in my early teens. My Nan – like so many of her generation – did not yield family secrets so easily, but she had been sent a […]
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Crumpled Portraiture
Another stunning Ed Dimsdale image from the Bodies in Flight archive, part of an exhibition celebrating 30 years of the company’s work. Ed has been a collaborator since BIF’s beginnings in Bristol back in ’89. View this post on Instagram
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Following the performance of FRED JEFFS: The Sweetshop Murder at Thimblemill Library (12th July 2018), I was interviewed by James Sandy (aka. King Of The Buttons) for his excellent podcast , The New Curiosities Box, show #19, (first broadcast 25th July 2018 on 107.5 Switch Radio) https://www.podbean.com/media/player/avcgy-974155-pb?from=share&skin=1&share=1&fonts=Helvetica&download=0&vjs=1&skin=1 From 37:30 mins you can hear an authentic record of me talking […]
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Bells are ringing…
There were plenty of excuses NOT to come to see us in Engine Brake at Salisbury Playhouse last Saturday afternoon, (19th May.) The much-touted ‘Making of the Mayor’ parade was bringing the sun-drenched Wiltshire streets to life with its celebrations; whilst footie fans were busy clearing the mart-shelves of Carling in readiness for the Cup […]
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Tags: Bleckammer, Fred Jeffs, Stalag VII, Stalag XXID, The Sweetshop Murder
We Design, You Desire
ENGINE BRAKE opened last week at the New Diorama Studio in London NW1. The process of making has been hugely enjoyable one, with a bright and talented team of collaborators assembled by The Plasticene Men director Simon Day. Show premieres are terrifying things at the best of times, but if you are devising new performance […]
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Engine Brake
The trailer for Engine Brake, a new piece I’m devising along with co-performer Radhika Aggarwal and director Simon Day under the moniker of The Plasticene Men. The show opens at the New Diorama Theatre, London, 8th – 12th May 2018. Further dates; Salisbury Playhouse (17th-19th May), Plymouth Fringe Festival, The Drum, Theatre Royal, (28th May – […]
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Listen …. Again!
After an early morning interview with presenter Alex Lester on the WM Breakfast Show, I appeared on Caroline Martin’s lunchtime show (BBC Radio WM, 3/4/2018) talking to her about the mysterious unsolved murder of Fred Jeffs and my community project with the Birmingham Rep Furnace programme. The broadcast is available for ‘Listen Again’ until 29th […]
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Maundy Thursday
What is it about an unsolved murder that holds its grip on us? Perhaps it’s a need to complete the story and provide some sort of closure? Or a fascination with gruesome misadventures? Wherever I have been in the last month – whether talking to local history societies, visiting retirement homes or holding sessions in […]
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Fred Jeffs: The Sweetshop Murder
Last April, on the 60th anniversary of my great uncle Fred Jeffs’s untimely death, I marked the occasion by writing a blog post “Murder By Person Or Persons Unknown“. I’d visited the press archives at the Library of Birmingham, and sifting through pages of journalistic speculation about this remarkable case helped me renew my determination […]
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