The Arbor and Welsh Celebrities

I have been making this mental list of famous Welsh celebrities all day! and I will be buggered if I can think of a final character! ( see previous blog entry)
2  .Rob Brydon (Comic and presenter)
3.  Timothy Dalton ( ex James Bond)
4.  Anthony Hopkins (nuff said)
5   Ioan Gruffuth ( Supposed Welsh Movie heart throb)
6.  Rhys Ifans ( Scruffy actor)
7.  Ruth Jones ( Buxom Actor)
8.  Sian Philips (Glorious Dietrich impersonator stage and screen actress)
9   Jonathan Price (actor)
10  Mathew Rhys (actor)
11. Michael Sheen (Tony Blair impersonator and actor)
12. Catherine Zeta Jones ( Grandad lover and actress)
13. Peter Greenaway (weird director)
14. Dawn French ( funny girl)
14. Rhod Gilbert ( VERY funny bloke)
15  Terry Jones ( actor and director)
14  Paul Whitehouse (comic actor)
15. Russell T Davies (writer)
16. Gethin Jones (Heart throb and presenter)

Gethin Jones

17. Carol Vorderman (know all and presenter)
18  Jamie Owen ( journalist and presenter)
19. Shirley Bassey (fag hag and singer)
20  Charlotte Church (singer)
21. Ann Duffy ("Duffy" singer)
22. Karl Jenkins (Composer)
23  Kelly Jones ( singer)
24  Carys Mathews ( singer)
25  Bryn Terfyl ( Opera singer)
26. Bonnie Tyler ( Meat loaf -ish singer)
27. Neil Kinnock (Politician)
28  John Prescott (fighter)
29  Tanni Gray-Thomspon ( wheelchair athlete and charity worker)
30  Colin Jackson ( camp runner)
31. Gavin Henson (Rugby player)
32. Steve Jones ( tv presenter)
33. Owen Teal (actor)
34  Ian Hislop ( Journalist and presenter)
35 Tom Jones ( sex god)
36. Ryan Giggs ( footballer)
37. John Humphreys (Journalist)
38  Griff Rhys Jones ( comic)
39  Brian Hibbard (actor)
40  Angharad Rees (actress)
41. Anna Ryder Richardson (designer)
42. Jason Hughes ( actor This Life)
43. Tom Ward (actor Silent  Witness)
44. Philip Madoc ( actor)
45. Sara Sugerman ( director)
46. Peter Wingfield (actor)
47  Pam Ferris (actress)
48. Lloyd Owen ( actor )
49  Aled Jones (singer and presenter)
Blood hell One more to go !!!! Can anyone help......must be alive and well known


This evening I just couldn't miss a "quality" one night showing of the artist and writer Clio Barnard's acclaimed movie The Arbor at the Scala.
The Arbor is the nickname of the infamous Buttershaw estate in Bradford where the writer Andrea Dunbar grew up in the late 1970s. She found the inspiration for her works such as Rita, Sue and Bob Too  and The Arbor ( a play she wrote when only 15) in this poverty filled Yorkshire slum where she lived until her death in 1980.
Dunbar was a tragic character, despite her talent , she was an alcoholic and neglectful of her three children from three different men. (one daughter became a heroin addict herself and was convicted of the manslaughter of her own child)....At the age of only 29, she died of a brain hemorrhage in a pub toilet.

Natalie Gavin who plays "The Girl" in several reenactments of Dunbar's writing

This drama/documentary about Dunbar concentrates its attentions to the actual spoken words of her children and surviving family and friends and has actors lip syncing their stories in a remarkably innovative and at times terribly moving piece. The two actors portraying Andrea's daughters: the tragic Lorraine (Manjinder Virk) and the more emotionally robust sister Lisa (Christine Bottomley) are quite amazing when they live the real womens' story to camera, and after a  minute or so, the audience literally forgets that the actors are in fact miming.

As it turns out, the documentary concentrates less of Andrea Dunbar herself and turns it's spot light upon the sins of the mother revisiting the lives of the children, but is no less interesting for the fact.

The Arbor  is a gripping, innovative and absorbing piece of cinema

8/10

I got home around 10.20pm and with Chris away the dogs galloped around the house in  giddy excitement at my return. It was lovely to see Constance bouncing her hefty welcome along side her new pack......it feels as though she has been accepted