Pomona Rewind

  Ronald Pickup was not a household name. However he was one of those actors whose presence was often felt even when he was in the company of acting royalty. Born in Chester in 1940, he did not court publicity but simply got on with the job of being a consummate character actor on stage and screen. Raised by his lecturer father Eric and mother Daisy, he attended the independent King's School in Chester before studying English at the University of Leeds. By this stage, he had developed an interest in acting and following his graduation in 1962, he applied for a place at the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. It was there where he would pick up the Bancroft Medal but, more significantly, also meet his wife Rachel, an actress who he would marry in 1964. The couple would go on to have two children. Pickup would start to land work immediately, appearing in a 1964 episode of the BBC's sci-fi show 'Doctor Who' and in a theatre production of 'Julius Caesar' in

  If you were to survey people about their choice for the greatest concert film of all time, the chances are that Talking Heads and Jonathan Demme's 'Stop Making Sense' would be battling it out with The Band and Martin Scorsese's 'The Last Waltz' for the top slot. That is, of course, if you can get past all the One Direction fans lobbying for Morgan Spurlock's  'This is Us' . But what is this? David Byrne has teamed up with Spike Lee for a concert film as well? 'American Utopia' is very much a David Byrne creation. It is cerebral, visually striking and musically ambitious. But with a creative force like Spike Lee on board as director, he inevitably manages to put his stamp on the film version and the result is simply electric. Forged during Donald Trump's emotionally draining Presidency, 'American Utopia' arose out of the Talking Heads frontman's tenth solo album in 2018. The album was very much an attempt by the Scottish born

    In this age of streaming platforms acquiring movies and producing their own TV series, it's simply too hard to catch up with everything. Every now and again, a decent film, TV sitcom or drama series slips past us while Netflix, Amazon Prime, Apple+, Britbox and Disney+ shout every week for our attention. And that's before you even get to the content being distributed on the streaming arms of the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, Sky, UK Gold and RTE. Add to that the growth of video on demand film releases during the Covid-19 pandemic and you just have to raise the white flag. As we wade through the algorithms and pan for cinematic TV or movie gold, the odd nugget is going to slip by. Alan Ball's 'Uncle Frank' was released on Amazon Prime last year, in November 2020, with not a lot of fanfare. The story of a gay uncle returning from New York with his niece to South Carolina in Nixon's America, it was snapped up quickly by Amazon after its premiere at the 2020 S

   Few actors have enjoyed the longevity that Christopher Plummer achieved in his career. From a Broadway debut in 1954 in 'Cyrano de Bergerac' to a box office hit as the murder victim in Rian Johnson's 'Knives Out,' the Canadian aged like a great whiskey - scooping an Oscar along the way. It was a career rooted in critically lauded theatre career performances, with a particular focus on the classics. And while he did his fare share of popular TV and film roles, it was also marked by iconic screen performances that have remained popular through the generations. Born in Toronto in 1929, his parents divorced not long after his birth and he was raised mostly by his mum, who was a granddaughter  of the Canadian Prime Minister Sir John Abbott, in Quebec, in a town called Senneville, just outside of Montreal.  Fluent in both English and French, his first ambition was to be a concert pianist but confessed to Playbill he changed his mind after realising it "was very lo