Thurs 3 Nov
Bridport Electric Palace
FILM: Bridget Jones’s Baby (15) (2016) 123mins
Starts 7.30pm
£4 on the door
After breaking up with Mark Darcy (Firth), Bridget Jones’s (Zellweger), “happily ever after” hasn’t quite gone according to plan. Fortysomething and single again, she decides to focus on her job as top news producer and surround herself with old friends and new. For once, Bridget has everything completely under control. What could possibly go wrong?
Then her love life takes a turn and Bridget meets a dashing American named Jack (Dempsey), the suitor who is everything Mr. Darcy is not. In an unlikely twist she finds herself pregnant, but with one hitch…she can only be fifty percent sure of the identity of her baby’s father.
‘Broad gags, choice turns and some terrific slapstick involving a hospital revolving door elevate a possibly opportunistic outing into a solid and satisfying comeback.’ The Guardian
Fri 4 Nov
BLUES NIGHT: Sam Kelly’s Station House
Bridport Electric Palace
Doors 7pm / starts 8pm
Tickets: £10.50 (£10 + 50p bf) adv / £12 door
Sam Kelly’s Station House has been featuring on the UK music scene for many years. Originating from London’s Station Tavern in the early 90s, Station House was formed from the concept of an all-black blues band, mixing instinctive funk/soul rhythms with the diversity of the blues.
Founder members Sam Kelly, TJ Johnson and Dave Clark were joined by lead singer, Root Jackson. The band held a monthly residency at the Station Tavern for more than a decade, performing with artists such as Chaka Khan and Taka Boom. When the venue closed down, Sam Kelly took over the running of the band and, together with some changes in personnel, Sam Kelly’s Station House evolved.
Fast forward to 2009 when Sam re-launched the band boasting a new line up of Sam Kelly (drums/backing vocals), Paul Jobson (MD./keys/vocals), Richard Sadler (bass), Tony Qunta (guitar/vocals) and Jerome Marcus (percussion/backing vocals). This format continues to work at venues and festivals all over the UK and in Europe.
Fans across the world have waited more than 10 years for news of a new album. Funkin off the Blues is due for release early in 2016, packed with original material and funky blues tracks. The new album also acknowledges the great works of TW Henderson, incorporating a selection of tracks from The Wilderness Years album.
Sam’s playing career started in the early 1970’s with funk pioneers Cymande, working and recording successfully in the U.S.A. between 1971-1974. His self-taught style of drumming has placed Sam in the drumseat with Cymande, Dr. John, Chaka Khan, Eddie Floyd, Robert Plant, Roger Chapman, Michelle Shocked and the late, great Gary Moore. Sam played drums on Gary’s last R&B album Bad for you Baby.
Recently, Sam has played with Imelda May, Paul Jones, Robben Ford, Andy Fairweather Low, Chris Barber and Mike Sanchez. Sam continues to work all over the U.K. and in many areas of Europe, stamping his brand on all genres of music, from blues to rock, R&B, funk, soul and reggae. With a delicate sensitivity to rhythm and a great understanding of dynamics in music, he has earned the respected position of Musical Director for Soul Britannia. Sam has also been honoured in Blues in Britain’s Gallery of Greats after winning ‘UK Drummer of the Year’ for five years running.
Weds 9 Nov
Mr. Gandy’s Grand Tour: Alan Titchmarsh – in conversation with René Wyndham
Bridport Literary Festival event at Electric Palace
Doors 5.30pm / start 6.30pm
Tickets: £10 from Bridport Tourist Information Centre, 01308 424901
Without question Alan Titchmarsh is one of Britain’s National Treasures and is known to millions through his career as a television presenter and gardening expert as well as the host of The Alan Titchmarsh Show and his new ITV games show: Masterpiece. He has written more than 40 books on gardening and is the author of 8 bestselling novels and three volumes of memoir. The hero of Alan’s new book, Timothy Gandy, has aspired for 40 years to abandon his humdrum existence and to embark on a Grand Tour of Europe in the footsteps of eighteenth century aristocrats. When the opportunity suddenly arises, he is propelled into a series of adventures that he could never have foreseen and which amount to a voyage of self-discovery as well as the wonders of humankind found in unexpected places.
Thurs 10 Nov
MUSIC: Seth Lakeman with Wildwood Kin
Bridport Electric Palace
Doors 7pm / starts 8pm
Tickets: £26 (£25 + £1 bf) adv / £28 door
Award-winning folk-singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Seth Lakeman will release new album ‘Ballads of the Broken Few’ in Autumn 2016 and is touring the UK in November & December with his band and special guests Wildwood Kin.
Seth has successfully steered English folk music into the mainstream with high-energy performances and a series of best-selling albums over the last 10 years. His previous albums include 2014’s Word of Mouth which entered the UK Top 20 album charts on its release, Mercury-nominated ‘Kitty Jay’ and the gold-selling ‘Freedom Fields’.
The last few years have been eventful and busy for Seth. In between writing and recording albums he has played to audiences around the world including two tours of Australia, he has become a dad to twins, played with the BBC Concert Orchestra, presented a show on BBC Radio 2 and played at a diverse range of venues including the Royal Albert Hall, the Minack Theatre, a number of Cathedrals and in Trafalgar Square.
Seth Lakeman’s eighth studio album is a stunning combination of his dynamic song-writing and playing, the genius of legendary producer Ethan Johns and the sublime harmony vocals of emerging young female trio Wildwood Kin. Between them they have conjured up an epic, soulful album of compelling songs that are stripped back to their very essence.
Wildwood Kin are an acclaimed Anglo/Americana trio from Exeter in Devon comprising two sisters, Beth and Emillie Key, and their cousin, Meghann Loney. The music is a mix of their own beautiful and thought-provoking original songs with a few stunning arrangements of some better known covers. Their voices meld perfectly in effortless and sublime close harmony and they accompany themselves on a range of acoustic instruments.
In 2015 the girls were shortlisted for a major BBC Radio Music Award and performed at the Press Launch of the BBC’s Christmas scheduling. This year they have performed a live session on Radio 2 and their debut single Warrior Daughter spent several weeks on the Radio 2 playlist. Their tracks have notched up over 2 million streams on Spotify.
They headlined the BBC Introducing stage at Somersault festival and they played numerous festivals including Glastonbury, Cambridge Folk Festival and Beautiful Days. In January they played a headline tour in the Alps. They feature on Seth Lakeman’s next album produced by the legendary Ethan Johns. They are currently recording their own EP and album due for release in 2017.
‘Powerful stuff.’ Steve Wright BBC Radio 2
‘Pretty damned impressive.’ Simon Mayo, BBC Radio 2
‘One of the most beautiful session ever, stunning.’ Bob Harris
‘They just blew me away…’ James Santer, BBC Introducing
‘Cambridge show stealers… the real deal.’ Mark Radcliffe
Fri 11 Nov
Land Rover: Ben Fogle – In conversation with Boris Starling
Bridport Literary Festival event at Electric Palace
Doors 10am / start 11am
Tickets: £10 from Bridport Tourist Information Centre, 01308 424901
It is said that for more than half the world’s population, the first car they ever saw was a Land Rover! It mirrors many of our national traits – stiff upper-lipped and slightly eccentric. Ben Fogle, writer and adventurer, is as quintessentially British as his utilitarian car and his best beloved Labrador companions. He has travelled the length of the British Isles spending time with the Royal Marines, the Dartmoor search-and-rescue teams and consummate explorers such as Sir Ranulph Fiennes to find out what makes this iconic vehicle a beacon of durability.
Fri 11 Nov
Resolution: A.N. Wilson – In conversation with Sally Laverack
Bridport Literary Festival event at Electric Palace
Doors 1.30pm / start 2.30 pm
Tickets: £10 from Bridport Tourist Information Centre, 01308 424901
A.N. Wilson’s powerful new novel explores the life and times of one of the greatest British explorers, Captain Cook, and the golden age of Britain’s period of expansion and exploration. Witness to Cook’s brilliance and wisdom, the protagonist is George Forrester who travelled with Cook as botanist on board the HMS Resolution and penned a famous account of the journey. Forrester’s own story is every bit as extraordinary as Cook’s and Wilson weaves a tale of a remarkable cast of characters to look at human endeavour, ingenuity and valour.
Fri 11 Nov
The Romanovs 1613 – 1918: Simon Sebag Montefiore – In conversation with Jason Goodwin
Bridport Literary Festival event at Electric Palace
Doors 5.30pm / Starts 6.30pm
Tickets: £12 from Bridport Tourist Information Centre, 01308 424901
Prizewinning historian, Simon Sebag Montefiore, tells the intimate story of twenty Tsars and Tsarinas whose lives were touched by genius and madness, inspired by holy autocracy, tainted by remorseless killing and sexual decadence. This family chronicle reveals a secret world of unlimited power, ruthless empire-building and palace conspiracy, with a global cast of tyrants, poets and adventuresses – from Ivan the Terrible to Lenin, Tolstoy to Lincoln, and Katherine the Great to Queen Victoria. The Romanovs is a story of triumph and tragedy – a portrait of an empire that still defines Russia today.
Sat 12 Nov
Game of Spies, the Secret Agent, the Traitor and the Nazi Bordeaux: Paddy Ashdown
Bridport Literary Festival event at Electric Palace
Doors 10am / start 11am
Tickets: £10 from Bridport Tourist Information Centre, 01308 424901
After service as a Royal Marine and as an intelligence officer for the UK security services, Paddy Ashdown is supremely well placed to tell a riveting three-way spy story set in occupied France. Three Men: one British, one French and one German were caught up in an atmosphere of collaboration, betrayal and assassination in which comrades sold fellow comrades. It is a story of the SOE, of treachery and heroism in a city once labelled ‘la plus collaboratrice’ in the whole of France.
Saturday 12 November
Being a Beast: Charles Foster – The Kenneth Allsop Memorial Talk
Bridport Literary Festival event at Electric Palace
Doors 1.30pm / start 2.30pm
Tickets: £12 from Bridport Tourist Information Centre, 01308 424901
Charles Foster, writer, barrister, veterinarian, traveller and Fellow of the University of Oxford, wanted to know what it was like to be a beast: a badger, an otter, a deer, a fox, a swift. What it was really like. And through knowing what is was like he wanted to get down and grapple with the beast in us all.
A passionate naturalist, Foster set about living life as a badger for six weeks, sleeping in a dirt hole and eating earthworms, facing shrimps at close quarters as he lived like an otter and raiding bins for food as he lived like an urban fox.
It also provided a literary challenge. Looking at what science can tell us about what happens in a fox’s or badger’s brain when it picks up a scent, he uses this information to imagine their world for us and to write it through their eyes, or rather through the eyes of Charles, the beast.
Part of the proceeds from ticket sales will be donated to Common Ground, the West Dorset environmental-arts charity.
Sat 12 Nov
A Life in Questions: Jeremy Paxman – In conversation with Susannah Simons
Bridport Literary Festival event at Electric Palace
Doors 5.30pm / start 6.30pm
Tickets: £10 from Bridport Tourist Information Centre, 01308 424901
Undoubtedly one of the nation’s most accomplished and incisive political commentators and programme presenters of his generation, Jeremy Paxman’s memoirs are a literary highlight this year. His recollections of reporting in war zones, the role of journalism in our political system and his observations on the state of the BBC and his years as anchorman of their flagship Newsnight are candid, witty and self-deprecating.
An often impatient and acerbic host of University Challenge, Paxman is also the author of nine best-selling books covering everything from military history to the role of monarchy. He is also the recipient of many awards and honours including five Royal Television Society Awards. His love of fly fishing, his loyalty to Leeds United and his eclectic taste in art together with his wicked sense of humour are both entertaining and revealing. A conversation with Jeremy Paxman is a treat in store.
Weds 16 Nov
SCREENING: Alan Bennett’s Diaries (12A) plus live Q&A with Alan Bennett (from London)
Bridport Electric Palace
Doors 7pm / Starts 8pm
Tickets: £10.50 (£10 + 50p bf) adv / £12 door
This unmissable live event will take a candid look into the mind of Alan Bennett, Britain’s best-loved writer, who, at 82, shows no signs of slowing down. The event will include a screening of Alan Bennett’s Diaries, a new film about the writer, followed by an exclusive Q&A with Alan Bennett from his local community library in Primrose Hill.
Inspired by his acerbic and often hilarious diaries, the film shows Bennett as he’s never been seen before – following him to New York, the scene of his early triumph in Beyond the Fringe, to accept an award from the city’s Public Library; to Shepherd’s Bush to record an episode of Private Passions for Radio 3 and open up about the importance of music in his life; to his local community-run library in Primrose Hill which, he despairs, some would rather see turned into a Pizza Hut; to the East Coast railway line, which he’d like to see renationalised, and the village in Yorkshire he calls home. Intimate encounters, filmed over the course of a year, reveal a writer who is bemused by his own popularity and is still as angry and irreverent in his 80s as he was in his 20s.
Fri 18 Nov
FILM: Captain Fantastic (PG) (2016) 118mins
Bridport Electric Palace
Starts 7.30pm
£4 on the door.
Viggo Mortensen leads an outstanding cast as a grizzled rural eccentric who hits the road with his brood of home-schooled, off-grid children. Mark Kermode’s film of the week 11 Sept 2016.
Ben Cash (Viggo Mortensen) is raising his six children off the grid in rural Washington. They live in a sort of yurt with adjacent tree houses and other buildings, they hunt and farm all of their own food, and they celebrate Noam Chomsky’s birthday like it’s Christmas. Ben is the sort of ideological-minded communist who hates the greater capitalist culture of America and teaches his children five languages as well as a doctrine to stick it to the man. Their life seems ideal, enough to make you want to cut up your Costco card, buy a VW bus and bathe under a waterfall after doing yoga in a meadow.
Though the kids seem almost feral at times, the family meshes well, literally making beautiful music together by the campfire. That’s all threatened when Ben’s wife, who was bipolar, kills herself in a mental institution. Ben packs up the family bus (named Steve) and takes his brood on a five-day journey to New Mexico, where his wife’s parents are holding a funeral. Everything starts to unravel as the children experience the outside world for the first time (you can only imagine their reaction to violent video games) and Ben’s fitness as a father is attacked.
Just like former Sundance success Little Miss Sunshine, Captain Fantastic questions what it means to be a father and just what values are important in a family. However, unlike that movie, it looks at the cost of idealism and questions to how far a person must go to live an authentic life. Ben isn’t quirky; he’s fighting for what he believes is right for himself, his kids and the world at large. Mortensen, looking his most mountain-man handsome, is winning and charismatic, walking on the knife’s edge between principled and unhinged. Shockingly, all the children, including the littlest tykes, are up to the challenge. The biggest standouts are George MacKay as the oldest, who is considering going off to college, and Nicholas Hamilton as the middle child, who starts to question why they live like they do.
Sat 19 Nov
MUSIC: The Simon and Garfunkel Story
Bridport Electric Palace
Doors 7pm / Starts 8pm
Tickets £18 (£17 + £1 bf) adv / £20 door
Direct from its success in London’s West End, a sold-out UK tour and standing ovations at every performance, The Simon & Garfunkel Story is back.
Now seen by over a 1/4 million people across the world, ‘The Simon and Garfunkel Story’ is a critically acclaimed concert style theatre show about two young boys from Queens, New York who went on to become the world’s most successful music duo of all time.
Using huge projection photos and original film footage, this 50th Anniversary Celebration also features a full live band performing all the hits including Mrs Robinson, Cecilia, Bridge Over Troubled Water, Homeward Bound and many more.
Get your tickets fast as this is an evening not to be missed!
‘Fantastic.’ Elaine Paige, BBC Radio 2. ‘
‘Authentic and Exciting.’ The Stage
