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.
Josie Lawrence, and, Louise Gold had previously appeared
together in Bag.
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/
