PACK the picnic hamper – Winslow is set to join the likes of Glyndebourne with its very own open-air opera this summer.

Professional company Stowe Opera has been invited by the owner of Winslow Hall to perform in the grounds at the end of July.

There will be a covered stage and auditorium to the rear of the hall, and the audience will sit on raked seating.

Parking will be in the field opposite the hall

Stowe Opera, which used to perform in Stowe School’s Roxburgh Hall, has been dark for the past six years due to building work at the school.

Conductor Robert Secret said he was approached by Winslow Hall’s owner, Christopher Gilmour, about putting on a show in his grounds.

The company will be giving six performances of Mozart’s Marriage Of Figaro, on Saturday and Sunday, July 21 and 21, Wednesday and Thursday, July 25 and 26, and Saturday and Sunday, July 28 and 29.

On Saturdays, Wednesday and Thursday, performances will start at 6pm with a 90-minute supper interval. Sunday matinees will begin at 3pm with a 30-minute interval.

Mr Secret, who ran Stowe Opera for 14 years before its enforced break, said: “We hope it will become an annual event.”

He will be carrying out auditions for cast members in London next week.

“We hope to have the whole thing wrapped up by the end of next week,” he said.

Winslow Town Council has agreed to contribute up to £1,000 in sponsorship towards the event.

Town mayor Llew Monger said: “The town council is pleased to be able to support this venture because we think it’s good for Winslow. It supports our aim of making Winslow a vibrant community.

“It will bring many visitors over the course of the week into Winslow and I’m confident they will come back again and again.

“I hope the organisation can find a way to make the opera accessible to all.”

Tickets are on sale, at £60 a head, from Mr Secret on 01280 848275. For more information, visit www.stoweopera.com

CHILDREN at Winslow Combined School have been taking part in a science week linked to the Olympic Games this week.

Every year group has been involved, from Foundation to Year 6.

The school has used elements of existing science units dovetailed with different aspects of the games.

Year 3 children focused on materials and their properties and created their own version of the Olympic rings using a variety of materials, while Year 5s focused on healthy eating and created sculptures of the heart. Both year groups had help from an artist in residence.

Year 4 pupils learned about friction and created a dance routine, led by a dance specialist.

On Monday, parents will have a chance to watch the dance performances and view the work done by the children during science week.

LOCAL BAND: Ahead of the release of their debut album, Drama In the Drawing Room, The Red Bullets are playing a show at the Stables Theatre in Milton Keynes tomorrow, Saturday.

The Thornborough-based band will be playing tracks from their new album as well as some of their classics and will be joined on stage by George Michael guitarist Graham Kearns and Judie Tzukekeyboard player Jonny Dyke.

The support act is soulful singer Azu.

Tickets £14.50 from 01908 280800 or www.stables.org

THAMES Valley Police is appealing for witnesses following a distraction burglary in Mursley on Monday.

At 1.08pm, two men called at the home of a 77-year-old man in Cooks Lane and claimed they needed to check the pipes because of impurities in the gas and water supplies. They said it was an emergency situation.

The men went into the property and one distracted the man in the kitchen by asking him to move the fridge, while the second man searched the property.

They made off with a quantity of cash.

Both of the men were white, about 5ft 10ins tall and had Irish accents. One was in his late 20s, of heavy build, clean shaven, with medium-length brown hair. He was wearing navy blue clothing.

The second man was slim built with medium-length brown hair. He was wearing a black duffle coat and gloves.

Det Con Richard Bazeley from Aylesbury CID is appealing for anyone who saw the two men in the area, or has information which could help the inquiry, to come forward.

Call him via the 24-hour police enquiry centre on 101.

If you don’t want to speak directly to the police you can contact the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or online at crimestoppers-uk.org

No personal details are taken, information is not traced or recorded and you will not go to court.

FANS of the Carry On series will recall the cheap and cheerful comedy brand’s take on package holidays, when a clutch of English stereotypes headed off to Spain to find that their hotel hadn’t been finished, they didn’t like the food, life was full of problems but they somehow made the best of it.

Fast forward 40 years and the world is a much bigger place, which is why The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, while essentially going over the same ground with an all-star cast, switches the action to India.

Shakespeare In Love wallah John Madden directs long in the tooth luvvies like Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Tom Wilkinson, Bill Nighy and Celia Imrie, along with Slumdog Millionaire star Dev Patel, in what would like to be a heartwarming comedy.

It’s the film version of a hit book – Deborah Moggach’s These Foolish Things, if you don’t recognise the title – and it’s always good to see actors of a certain age getting leading roles, even if it does always seem to be the same ones.

But this is a curate’s egg of a film, good in parts but failing to convince – yes, India looks vibrant and intriguing, the big names do their stuff, but despite their best efforts it fails to convince.

> Very few stars these days can lend class to any old rubbish just be being there. Denzel Washington is one – however daft the story, he somehow brings a bit of glitz and gravitas to the set.

In Safe House he teams up with flavour of the month Ryan Reynolds and the deservedly ascendant Brendan Gleeson in an action thriller set in South Africa.

Reynolds is a rookie CIA agent in charge of a safe house who finds himself playing host to Washington’s ‘most dangerous man in the world’ – a rogue agent who has been selling secrets to the highest bidder. The bad guys soon move in to rub him out before he can tell all he knows, and the pair go on the run. Bang! Kapow! You won’t have time to think as the action unfolds, just sit back and enjoy the ride.

> The top talking point about One For The Money must be this: OMG, Katherine’s gone brunette! Hollywood’s top blonde but essentially anodyne rom com star Katherine Heigl is unlikely private eye Stephanie Plum, the heroine of a whole series of comedy thrillers so the potential for a franchise is clear. Think My Cousin Vinny with a chick instead of a chap in the lead role, and no courtrooms.

> Films with animal stars seem to be all the rage these days, but even in The Artist they don’t get the name role.

That’s not the case in Red Dog, a family movie about a stray who sneaks in and steals the heart of a hard-bitten Australian mining community.

Again there’s a book behind this, written by Captain Corelli’s Mandolin author Louis De Bernieres, but it’s billed as a true story filled with earthy Oz humour, romance and tears. It has all the ingredients required to make it a sleeper hit, expect it to still be picking up punters long after the Marigold Hotel has shut its doors.

]]> 1.3531712 Thu, 23 Feb 2012 06:40:46 +0000 http://www.buckinghamtoday.co.uk/geoff_cox_s_guide_to_new_dvds_1_3531711

TOM Hardy certainly has a commanding screen presence, as witnessed by his remarkable turn as Luton-born jailbird Charles Bronson.

And his performance is as powerful as one of his knockout punches in WARRIOR (12: Lionsgate), a rousing mix of sports and family drama.

The film makes an impact from its very first scene, with Tommy Conlon (Hardy) cutting a dark and brooding figure, simmering with pent-up anger, as he sits drunk on his estranged father’s doorstep.

It soon becomes evident that his alcoholic dad (Nick Nolte, deservedly nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar) split the family, leading the young Conlon brothers to take very different paths.

The elder, Brendan (Joel Edgerton), throws in a promising career as a fighter to become a high school teacher, while Tommy joins the marines.

There’s bitterness and resentment on all sides and reconciliation seems impossible until the siblings enter a mixed martial arts tournament.

The pace of the story is faultless, with snatches of family history never undermining the action, and it’s all brought to a head in an emotional finale that rivals Rocky.

> Rowan Atkinson is back as the spy oblivious to his own incompetence in lively comedy sequel JOHNNY ENGLISH REBORN (PG: Universal).

The bumbling secret agent retires to a Tibetan monastery in disgrace after a mission goes wrong, but he’s lured out of retirement by his former bosses at MI7 to hunt down an international group of assassins plotting to kill the Chinese premier.

Armed with the most high-tech gadgets the world of espionage has to offer, English sets off across the globe to bring the bad guys to book, unaware that the real threat may be closer to home.

Gillian Anderson and Dominic West as fellow MI7 operatives add to the fun with their straight-faced support, yet this is clearly Atkinson’s show from start to finish.

He’s great value as the idiot sleuth, although some of the stunts and set pieces would be better suited to the slapstick antics of Mr Bean.

> Well-crafted supernatural horror flick DON’T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK (15: Studio Canal) makes you jump on cue and really delivers the grisly goods.

Nasty critters appear in this remake of an acclaimed 1973 American TV movie.

Sally Hurst (Bailee Madison) goes to live with her architect father (Guy Pearce) and his new girlfriend (Katie Holmes) at the 19th century Rhode Island mansion they are restoring.

Stumbling upon a hidden basement, Sally unleashes an ancient dormant force that puts everyone’s life in grave danger.

From its atmospheric Hammer horror opening to its expertly staged creature attacks, featuring imps travelling through air ducts with sharp weaponry, this superior flight of dark fantasy bears the unmistakable touch of class of writer Guillermo Del Toro and contains more than a few nods to his earlier Pan’s Labyrinth.

> Starring Timothy Spall and Honor Blackman, REUNITING THE RUBINS (PG: Kaleidoscope) is amiably amusing, but not the rollicking Jewish comedy that debut director Yoav Factor strives for.

He’s well served by the reliable Spall as retired lawyer Lenny Rubins, who postpones a well-deserved luxury cruise to reunite his bickering grown-up children for their ailing grandma (Blackman).

They may be peas from the same pod, but in Lenny’s eyes his children – a workaholic executive, an eco-warrior, a Buddhist monk and a rabbi – are not from the same planet.

His offspring are reluctant to answer the call, especially when Blackman reveals that she has bought the home in which they spent their unhappy childhood.

Preachy topics such as globalisation, human rights, religious intolerance and family ties are given an overblown airing, and a series of heart-to-hearts and medical emergencies produce little more than than a mediocre sitcom.

> BEST LAID PLANS (15: Sony), a tale of recessional Nottingham, represents a ham-fisted attempt to update John Steinbeck’s masterpiece Of Mice And Men.

Dreaming of living in a camper van, gentle giant Joseph (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) does everything wheeler-dealer protector Danny (Stephen Graham) asks of him, even if it means cage fighting to help his pal pay off his debts to a local lowlife.

But Joseph unwittingly jeopardises their safety when he becomes besotted with equally simple soul Isabel (Maxine Peake).

With Danny falling for a tart with a heart (Emma Stansfield), the film struggles to staunch the sentiment and cliche.

Contrived plotting and clumsy characterisation undermine it at every turn, although good use is made of the rundown locations and it conveys something of the struggle those on the lower rungs face to keep hold of fleeting pleasures.

Safe House

Prepare to see a lot more of director Daniel Espinosa in the next few years as his action-packed thriller Safe House, starring Ryan Reynolds and Denzel Washington, promises to please, writes guest reviewer Alison Devlin.

If you like fast car scenes, brutal fights and non-stop twists, Safe House is the film for you.

Matt Weston (Reynolds) is a normal guy. He has a girlfriend, a nine to five job and a good life. Doesn’t sound like an interesting thriller at first, but add in that he works for the CIA and that his office is a secret safe house and get ready for a film that keeps you on your toes.

One day the phone rings and Weston’s world is turned upside down when Tobin Frost (Washington) becomes his house guest. A newly captured rogue agent who has sold American intelligence all over the globe and who is currently holding one of the biggest secrets in the world, but what the CIA doesn’t know is others want his secrets, too.

Before the audience can blink, the safe house is compromised and Weston is drawn into a world of corruption and danger, followed by Frost in handcuffs.

“Rule number one – you are responsible for your house guest.”

During a recent interview Washington described his character as “the psychopath next door” and said his character, Frost, “would rather play with Matt, not kill him”.

Though Washington gives an amazing performance as usual, it is Reynolds who captivates the audience with an emotive performance throughout the film stealing the limelight from Washington. He begins the film as a boy, but ends it a man.

The film lacks a defining moment between Washington’s and Reynolds’ characters. They are both very secretive, but as their relationship develops, you expect and want them to open up more.

Unfortunately it never happens, and Espinosa makes up for that through explosions and gunfire.

So if you like to be put on the edge of your seat with your blood pumping and your heart pounding, this is a film for you.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Some fine British acting talents head up this comedy drama that rarely strays much from the Carry On Abroad template, thanks to a sugary coating that doesn’t do its talent justice.

A group of retirees head to India, believing they are going to spend time in a luxury resort.

Managed by the charming and engaging Dev Patel, it’s far from luxurious but, as you can guess, after initial disgust they let their prejudices slip away and the true India and the truth of their lives unfolds.

A nice film that is very sentimental, but thanks to its cast, including Dames Judi and Maggie, Bill Nighy and Tom Wilkinson, is always watchable.

Red Dog

Talking of sentimental, this is an Australian ‘true legend’ of a red dog who united a community in the Outback.

It’s fun and fluffy and really sugary, but the lead canine is adorable and charming. Move over Uggie from The Artist.

accident: A 64-year-old woman was air lifted to hospital following a car crash on the A422 near Turweston this week.

Just before 8pm on Wednesday. February 22. land ambulance crews got the women out of her vehicle with the help of a Brackley fire crew.

They called the Warks and Northants Air Ambulance in order to transfer her to a trauma unit in Coventry

A TEENAGE girl has been left shaken after being attacked in an alleyway in Brackley on Valentine’s Day.

Sometime between 6pm and 6.30pm on Tuesday, February 14, a 15-year-old girl was walking along an alleyway close to Oak Road and Ash Drive, the St Peters Park Estate.

The teenager, from Brackley, reported to police that she was attacked from behind by a man who forcibly pinned her to the ground.

The man then asked her a question before releasing his grip and leaving.

A police spokesman said: “We do not have a description of the man in question. The girl ran to a nearby friend’s house. She sustained no injuries but was extremely shaken by the incident.”

Parents in the town were warning friends not to let their daughters out alone after dark via social networking sites.

One parent on Facebook said: “The council needs to relight the street lamps down all passageways where weirdos like this can hide!

“Please repost and warn everyone to be aware.

“Our streets are obviously not safe.”

Northants County councillor for the area Andrew Grant visited Brackley this week after hearing about the attack and said there were several working streetlights in the alleyway behind Ash Drive.

He said attacks like this were rare in Brackley and that it could be wrong to suggest street lighting was a contributing factor in the attack.

He said any concerns about street lighting from residents or police would be dealt with.

He added: “From the police’s own information, since April last year there has been a drop in crime. And of course we will be re-lighting the county through the new PFI agreement to upgrade all streetlights.”

Anyone with information about the attack should contact Brackley Police Station on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.

A BUCKINGHAM-BASED organisation that supports children with special needs and their families is on the hunt for new premises.

And while families come from several counties to use its services, the group is desperately hoping it will be able to stay local.

For 12 years, Clearly Speaking has operated from premises next to Buckingham Youth Centre, which it rents from Bucks County Council (BCC).

It offers a range of services to the families of children with disabilities, particularly autism spectrum disorders, including confidential advice and support, clubs and activities and respite care.

Clearly Speaking runs Sunday youth clubs for ages five to 19, runs horticulture and art courses and has a sensory room where children can calm down.

In the past, the group has been able informally to spill over from its small premises into the youth centre when needed for activities requiring more space, such as sports.

But now BCC will no longer be paying for the running of the building, the Youth Club Management Committee is responsible for hiring out the building as regularly as possible to meet the running costs.

Clearly Speaking director Janet Nicks said, unless it finds alternative premises, the group will not be able to offer its programme of activities for children during the Easter holidays, which give respite to parents.

She said: “It’s not a question of funding. We’ve got money to pay for hire as long as it’s realistic. It’s a question of finding the right site.

“We would really like to stay in Bucks. But if we’re offered somewhere suitable in Milton Keynes, we’d be silly not to consider it.”

Stuart Vincent, from Northampton, said his son Sam, aged 22, who has Asperger’s syndrome, has been coming to Clearly Speaking for five years and now helps the younger children with activities.

Mr Vincent said: “To be quite honest, it has been a lifesaver for Sam and myself.”

Find out more about the group at www.clearlyspeaking.org.uk or call 01280 824871.

A WINSLOW woman is taking on the challenge of a lifetime to run this year’s Virgin London Marathon and raise money to help deafblind people.

And she’s holding a charity gig at the town’s Bell Hotel on Friday, March 2, to help reach her target.

Rosie Clayton, aged 31, said she has always wanted to put herself through the mental and physical challenge of a marathon. But it was reading about the work of national deafblind charity Sense that inspired her to sign up.

Rosie, who works as an associate director for a mystery shopping agency, wants to raise £1,500 for the charity and has already held a number of fundraising activities.

She is aiming to complete the marathon in under five hours and has been training hard with up to six sessions a week.

She said: “This is my first marathon and I’m looking forward to it – especially the satisfaction of crossing the finish line!”

The charity gig next Friday includes sets from local band The Cantells and acoustic soloist Steve Bennett. 

Sense provides support, advice information and specialist services to deafblind people, their families and carers. It offers day services where deafblind people can learn new skills and runs houses in the community where people are supported to live as independently as possible.

To sponsor Rosie, visit www.justgiving.com/rosies-marathon-madness

To find out more about Sense, visit www.sense.org.uk

A RESTAURANT manager in Brackley is continuing to support his community with a charity night in aid of an Oxford cancer ward.

Since Faz Miah took over the running of Chilli and Pepper in Banbury Road the Bangladeshi and Indian restaurant has been host to numerous fund raising evenings. Most notably in September dinners helped raise over £1,000 for the Katharine House Hospice, and more recently the owners topped up the £500 takings from a night in aid of Seb Strudwick with its own donation of £200. The restaurant has also helped raise money for schools in Brackley and Helmdon.

On Wednesday, February 29 food takings for the night will be donated to The John Radcliffe’s Adult Sarcoma Ward. The evening is almost fully booked, but to find out more about the restaurant visit www.chilliandpepper.co.uk.

JUBILEE: There will be five days of thrills and spills, community events, and live music when Brackley celebrates the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in June.

Festivities start on Friday, June 1, with an five day exhibition by the Brackley and District History Society at Space in Market Place.

The annual Community Carnival has been bought forward to Saturday, June 2 and the there will be a glittering Jubilee dinner at Winchester House School in the evening.

On Sunday, June 3 the High Street will host the thrills and spills of the Soap Box Derby and in the evening tribute band Queen II will perform an open air concert at Magdalen College School. On the Monday there will be a vintage car show followed by a concert with the Brackley Male Voice Choir and on the Tuesday there will be a Gruffalo family picnic at the Tudor Way Park.

See the Advertiser for more details in due course.

BLUE badge holders and evening car park users who were fined between April 4 and 13 after changes to parking charges in Bicester are set to get their money back.

Cherwell District Council is to repay around £11,600 to the recipients of Excess Charge Notices (ECN).

In April last year, new fees were introduced including charges for blue badge holders to park in marked disabled bays.

But the charges were reviewed during the summer following complaints from disabled drivers, traders and other members of the public. The changes were overturned in November.

The announcement is made on the back of a report issued by the Local Government Ombudsman which concluded more could have been done to highlight the changes specifically to those users who previously would have had no cause to use the ticket machines.

Council leader, Barry Wood, said: “We are disappointed with the findings of Ombudsman. This authority went over and above the legal requirements to ensure that changes to parking charges were communicated well in advance of implementation.”

He added additional signage was introduced and letters were sent to blue badge holders after a high number of ECNs were issued during the first two weeks of the changes.

He said: “While we do not concur with the findings of the Ombudsman, it is time to move on from this issue. We are therefore taking steps to issue refunds to Blue Badge holders and those who received an ECN after 6pm during April 4 and 13.”

Other ECNs issued will remain in force. Those affected by the ruling will be contacted by the council.

SO, our whole economic system is suffering from a massive hangover but it’s binge drinking that’s going to get sorted out.

You may wonder whether that nice Mr Cameron has got his priorities right – but there’s no denying that, if he can make some headway, he’ll have made as big a contribution to public health as his unlamented Labour predecessors did by introducing the smoking ban.

There’s a strategy on the way, of course, but for starters the PM has called for bars and supermarkets to help tackle a problem that costs the NHS £2.7bn a year.

But it shouldn’t be about money, and we shouldn’t even be thinking about a ban.

And the PM ought to be looking to recruit far beyond the pint-pullers and grog floggers to help achieve this admirable end.

It’s one of those issues – like seat belts and the smoking ban, which have been great successes, and the ban on using your mobile at the wheel, which is still a boil to be lanced – where the vast majority of us are just waiting for someone to take a sensible lead.

And the way to do it is to make life more difficult for the drinker – and when I say drinker, I don’t just mean the lager-fuelled lout or the alcopop addled teenager – I mean all of us.

I’m fed up of all sorts of expensive measures being put in place to pick up the pieces of other people’s lack of self-control. The aim has got to be to stop people regarding the act of getting completely hammered as an option for a night out, or even a night in.

So here are a few ideas to throw into the mix, for the PM to consider over a relaxing glass of wine one evening.

Number 1, ban all alcopops. Strong drink isn’t supposed to taste like lemonade.

Number 2, restrict the sale of all spirits to people over the age of 25. If I had my way I’d also make it illegal to use mixers to soften the taste of hard liquor, for the same reasons that alcopops have to go, but I do enjoy the occasional gin and tonic so that one will have to stay on the drawing board.

Number 3, by all means introduce a higher unit price for alcohol but don’t penalise those who enjoy a bracer but know when to stop – jack up the pub prices only after the first two drinks, introduce maximum purchase rules in supermarkets and the like just like they have for painkillers these days, and halt the sale of alcohol in containers larger than one litre, especially if we’re talking about super strength cider.

Number 4, forget street pastors and people being paid by the public purse to get drunk and incapable kids home safely. Employ them instead to wander town centres at closing time, corner people who have had a skinful, and paint their faces purple.

The paint should not be permanent, of course, but it should be pretty much immovable for a week or so as evidence of a bender that would last a lot longer, and be a lot more visible, to the world at large than a hangover.

Then it would be for the rest of us to bring peer pressure to bear, and sneer and snigger at the victims for long after whatever memory they had of a good night out had faded. Purple paint would make them pariahs, and we’d soon change their habits.

BRACKLEY’S biggest visitor attraction has been shortlisted for an award run by a national antiques magazine.

Following an online public vote The Brackley Antiques Cellar was voted one of the county’s top five most popular antiques centres.

The awards are run by the Homes and Antiques Magazine (formerly the BBC Homes and Antiques Magazine) and the winners will be announced by Kirsty Allsopp during a ceremony at the Bath Decorative Antiques Fair on Thursday, March 8. The cellar is owned and run by couple Debbe Perry and Jim Broomfield.

Ms Perry said after the public vote a lot of customers, dealers and other business owners in the town congratulated them.

She added: “We’ve had a lot of comments which is brilliant, but we also think it’s good for Brackley it brings in so many people.”

Ms Perry is trying not to build her hopes up to much but added: “It’s just so exciting.

“The thing is there’s been so much hard work by everyone at the cellar, we’re always trying to improve things and bring in new stock.”