THE ANNIVERSARY (of sorts…)!
1967… Another time. Another world. And another naive 23-year-old, hoping his writing would eventually ‘hit the big time.’ (2025… Still hoping…)
1967 was the year I joined SPC, having been introduced to it by Barbara Foster, the wife of a teaching colleague, who was already a member.
The ground floor of the Bedford Place building was occupied usually by a Play Group (nothing to do with theatre!) and was also used by a church – so I set off, up the flights of stone stairs to the NVT’s theatre, where SPC (founded in 1935 by Charles Walker, who also founded The Southwick Players) were now holding their monthly Sunday meetings. Half way up the stairs was an open door-flap, where NVT’s founder, A Graham Philips, was usually to be found, sitting inside the small ‘cupboard/study’ and greeting people as they went past.
In those days, between 30 and 50 members usually attended SPC meetings (the number depending on who had written the play that was about to be read! some one learnt to avoid!) and at first I found it somewhat daunting, with many formidable-looking ladies among the cast of readers, although eventually and gradually I relaxed and was able to ‘pass the time of day’ with MOST – but not all – of them! (‘Who does this young whipper snapper think he is?!’)
The playwright, Philip King, was Vice-President and attended many of the meetings – he’d had several farces performed in the West End and a couple of them were filmed. He also wrote more serious plays, which were not quite as popular. Much later, he had a failure with a comedy until Jimmy Edwards and Eric Sykes adlibbed and turned BIG BAD MOUSE into a roaring success. Poor Philip probably went crying to the bank!
Constance Cox, who had joined in the late 1940s and remained with the Club until her death in 1998, was already a leading light as the Club’s treasurer. By then, she’d had a couple of plays performed in the West End and her numerous adaptations of classic novels had been staged by theatre groups and published by Samuel French. She also enjoyed great success on BBC TV with Sunday afternoon serialisations, such as Dickens’ OLIVER TWIST that caused newspaper headlines, because of a scene revealing Bill Sykes’ violence towards Nancy. Tame stuff by today’s television standards! Later, she wrote several episodes of the very successful adaptation of THE FORSYTE SAGA. She was very shrewd and gave a name to a butler in her version of LORD ARTHUR SAVILE’S CRIME that didn’t appear in Wilde’s story, to see if other adaptions were just using hers and not the original!)
When I first joined, many of the SPC members were enjoying success at varying levels, writing plays that were performed by repertory companies around the country, mainly in seaside towns, and were often being published. Worthing Connaught had its own permanent company, and similar places would often stage a different play each week during the summer season. This provided an opportunity for competent writers to try to get their work accepted. Alas, times – and holiday destinations – quickly changed!
During my first year, Peter Vincent was an SPC member, before he moved to London to write material for Dave Allen (and also to tour Australia with him), as well as writing sketches and scripts for a range of comedians and comedy series, becoming script editor for THE TWO RONNIES for several seasons and producing situation comedy shows for Ronnie Corbett on both radio and TV. I met him again (before he died a couple of years ago in Shoreham) – a fascinating man and very able at his chosen work.
Over the years, I was lucky enough to have a few one-act plays published for the amateur market, with productions in various places including at the Arundel, Steyning and Brighton Fringe Festivals. I also wrote many short humorous poems for young children and individual ones have been included in over 200 books and publications in the UK and abroad, with one poem ‘The Painting Lesson’ appearing in over forty different publications. Sadly, I discovered there’s even less money in poetry than there is in play writing! I was elected onto the SPC committee on several occasions, serving for about twenty years in all and was co-Chair for about three. NVT ran a nationwide ten-minute play writing competition for about four years and I, along with two other SPC members, helped to judge it. What fun!
When the impresario, Robert Sherwood (co-producer for JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING MONEY-SPINNER, etc.) became SPC’s President, he instigated an annual playwriting competition (at first, under his name) , with around fifty to ninety scripts being received each year from around the UK and occasionally from, abroad. A team from the committee read all the entries, short-listed them and appointed a guest judge (sometimes Paul Moriarty) to make the final decision. On Connie’s death, the competition was named after her.
Connie briefly dabbled in the world of musicals. Her stage version of VANITY FAIR was adapted and used as the book for six months, in a musical version composed by Julian Slade (SALAD DAYS, TRELAWNY, etc.). Once, over lunch, Connie recounted how he and she were waiting in Tottenham Court Road to meet the producer, who was very late. ‘Suddenly, I saw this BOY come running towards us – very out of breath. He said his name was Cameron Macintosh…!’ Ah – that was before he’d reached the height of fame… Unfortunately, someone else’s book (not Connie’s) was eventually used for the musical but (by way of compensation?) the show only lasted a few months.
A second and sadly unsuccessful musical venture for Connie was in 1972 when she wrote the book for TWO CITIES, starring Edward Woodward. It was at the Palace and it folded after three months, even though it had a musical score by Jeff Wayne who went on to compose and write THE WAR OF THE WORLDS. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see it before it closed.
With a locally-based composer, I attempted a modest and unsuccessful musical myself. with the help of a small Arts For Everyone grant – it was given a first ‘work-in-progress reading and singing’ at SPC. Connie was always generous with her observations, being gently critical, her approach being to surround the pain with encouraging and complimentary comments.
After the ‘performance’ and some polite applause, she made a few criticisms as was expected and then she prepared to finish with her encouraging remark. ‘I don’t see why, with a little more work, it shouldn’t be a success. However, what you’ll have to do is, you’ll need to concentrate everything around your hit song. Er – but I’m not quite sure which one of them that was…’
Another time, I brought a group of 9 to 14 year olds to SPC to ‘perform’ a play I’d written for them (a friend and I ran a small children’s drama group that staged a couple of new items a year in small venues). Connie was always supportive and came along to see the shows themselves. Halfway through the SPC reading, a leading ten-year-old member of the cast said, ‘Mr Harvey – I don’t arf want to go to the toilet!’ That got the best laugh of the evening and the session somewhat disintegrated after that.
And now… here I am, 2025. My 58th year since joining SPC. I’ll celebrate the anniversary now as I might not be able to wait around for another two. I’m not sure there’s anyone else left from that long ago. It’s a real milestone. Or, who knows – perhaps I was a millstone…?
I’m delighted that Pippa and Thomas are still keeping the Club going so well – brilliant! Here’s to the 100th!
Trevor Harvey
July 2025
Website -Trevor Harvey at Writers Unlimited
