This Midnight Sex Talk came together at the last minute, and a cracking one it was too. We were fortunate to have Piers Gibbon, presenter and Voiceover King doing some readings. Historic Moment: Piers' first time saying the c-word on air!
We had an interview with Matthew Glamorre about Polari, the gay slang that grew out of C18 thieves-and-theatre culture. There is, I discovered, a Polari Bible. Shame we didn't have time to read some of that out - it's hilarious.
We also spoke to poet, playwright and shaman John Constable, AKA John Crow, author of The Southwark Mysteries, about Cross Bones, the ancient prostitutes graveyard in Southwark. (More on my visit below...).
And, at the 11th hour, we got Hallie Rubenhold on the phone, to talk about Harris's List. We also had a message from Alex Fitch, our film reviewer, who only discovered recently that he's a direct descendant of Samuel Pepys! Man, the connections were flying on Sunday.
A VISIT TO CROSS BONES GRAVEYARD
Every Halloween since 1998, and more recently every 23rd of the month, John Crow and his crew, plus whoever else feels the pull, meet at 7pm at the site in Red Cross Way, off Southwark Street in SE1. Fortuitously, this month's meet-up was the day after the show, and it was full moon as well. Shout to Ian who heard about it on the show and came down. Shame about the nutter in the pub. Sounded like he was running girls, and not very successfully at that.
You can't miss the big red gates, which are covered in ribbons and personal totems all year round. All you can see of the site now is waste ground and rubble, but beneath the concrete lie the skeletons of perhaps 15,000 people. Back in the day they only closed it because it was full up.
Songs were sung, a gin offering was made to the outcast dead, and the gates rippled in the evening breeze. This is an important place. More pictures in the art gallery to the left. I only discovered later that there was a whopping great fingerprint on the lens - what can it mean?
Update: There was a bug in the album, and you could only see the new pictures. I think it's sorted now - we can't have Kim in his kinky boots dropping off the page!
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