Gareth Preston's Blog, page 21

Doctor Who – Deep Breath reviewed

One of my little side activities is writing reviews for the consumer site Ciao.co.uk, mostly on DVD’s. Unusually one my most recent submissions was rejected because the DVD in question “Doctor Who – Deep Breath” featured an episode I had previously reviewed as part of the Series 8 box set. Although as you’ll read the DVD also includes material not included in box set. Anyhow it seems a shame to waste the article, so my blog seemed an ideal home for it.

With the release of the complete Series...

Live from Worktown poetry/comedy/music festival in Bolton

Whilst I’m not intending to spam the timeline with Live from Worktown notices, I’d be remiss if I didn’t put up links to both main webpage http://livefromworktown.org and the online box office http://livefromworktown.ticketsource.co.uk
Especially since I’ve just been putting a lot of work into the latter, listing all the events the organisers have planned for April and May. We’ve really got some big names coming to my home town of Bolton, UK, including one of the original Merseybeat poets –...

Doctor Who – The Lost Episodes – Taking Part in the debate

My good friend filmmaker Nigel J Anderson has been hosting some film tuition nights at Manchester Central Library. For one of these evenings he was demonstrating how to film and edit a debate, and he asked John Isles, Anne Louise Fortune and myself to appear in the exercise. We are all knowledgeable Doctor Who fans and the subject under discussion was the remaining lost episodes of from the Sixties. Many episodes of the BBC science fiction series were wiped in the early Seventies, along with...

Submissions wanted for the next Worktown poetry anthology

This year I am once again involved behind the scenes with our local poetry and related live performances festival. As part of it we are publishing an anthology with an open submissions opportunity for poets from the north of England:

As part of the Live from Worktown Festival 2015, we would like to invite poetry submissions from poets living in the north of England to appear in our festival anthology. The festival this year aims to showcase international performers and writers such as Brian...

Lear’s Daughters (or why is everyone so evil in King Lear?)

Hello again. One of the hats I wear is updating the Bolton Little Theatre website. I’m also on the marketing committee. At the last meeting I suggested filming some interviews with the creative souls at the theatre to promote up-coming plays and I’ve just completed the first one, which you can watch below.

It is centered on our forthcoming production in April of “Lear’s Daughters”, a prequel to “King Lear” looking into what made Goneril, Regan and Cordelia the women they are in Shakespeare’s t...

Scott Devon – So that’s why I write poetry

Last year I had the idea of interviewing various creative Bolton folk (well, let’s face it – friends) on camera for a series of youtube clips. I decided to start with one of my best mates – Scott Devon, who’s a published poet in the UK, Greece and the USA. I went over to his home and recorded nearly an hour of material for my pilot episode. Unfortunately when it came to editing his fascinating but verbose answers into a snappy ten minute montage, I was frankly struggling. So I decided to chan...

Exciting times ahead – Music, Poetry and Bolton

Live from Worktown was a 2014 festival of poetry and music based around the UK town of Bolton, my home. As well as the best local talents, it also featured sets from international names George Wallace and Anjum Malik. The photo above came from my favourite night, the unique multicultural poetry event – Lost in Translation. I was involved on the filming side and general gophering.

Tonight I’ve been at a meeting to discuss the forthcoming arts festival Live from Worktown and I’ve come away feel...

Now writing for WhatCulture.com

I’ve started contributing articles to WhatCulture.com, a pop culture website. My first one is about one of my obsessions Doctor Who and more specifically, tie-in novels which I think would great television adventures. You can read about my top ten here:

http://whatculture.com/tv/10-doctor-novels-make-great-tv-episodes.php

Hope you enjoy it.

Go Ape! Or Get Your Stinking Paws Off My DVD Boxset

I am a terrible hoarder of unwatched DVD boxsets. It���s a modern blight of our affluence. So this year I���ve been doing my best to reduce the clutter on my DVD shelves and that has led me to this six disc collection in an orange slipcase. Watching the five Apes movies in order for the first time I���m struck by how good the continuity is, especially considering that most of the films were not planned with sequels in mind. Little details like reusing the design of the spacecraft throughout t...

Santa Claus Conquers the Mayans

For the past few years, my friends and I, under the guise of Westlake Films, have made some kind of comedy video to tie in with Christmas. This year’s production, made despite all kinds of problems and completed against the clock by director/editor Kevin Hiley, is Santa Claus Conquers the Mayans. Written by John Isles, it features a Mancunian Santa and his Chief Elf in a race against time to stop a deadly boardgame from destroying the world. A plan that involves robbery and Mexican wrestling....