The Full Monty writer reveals all!

The story of six unemployed men who rediscover their pride and sense of worth after forming a male striptease act, The Full Monty says as much about our times as it does about the mid-1990s when the international smash hit film was set.

Backed up by a winning soundtrack, it’s a taut, telling and frequently hilarious comedy drama that has won over generations of fans some of whom were not even born when the film was released in 1997. A decade ago its writer, Oscar-winning Bournemouth Film School alumnus Simon Beaufoy adapted it for the stage, and now the show is back on the road again.

Drawing on history

The most memorable episodes in human history are written in blood, guts and gore; just ask any kid. It’s a truism that author Terry Deary has been demonstrating in spectacular fashion for thirty years since the first volume of Horrible Histories was published in 1993. With more than 30 million book sales in some 30 different languages, Deary has been dubbed the most influential historian of our times and for three decades his closest partner in grime has been illustrator Martin Brown.

Snap! Iconic moments

From an unconventional prep school on Purbeck’s Jurassic Coast, to an encounter with punk glamourpuss Debbie Harry in a Bournemouth basement via an advertising and fashion course at The College, Dorset forever has a special place in the heart and career of photographer Lawrence Impey. His work has graced the pages of numerous books and Read More…

The fine art of the modern polymath

As modern polymaths go few fit the bill quite as well as Paul Gough. A painter, author, broadcaster, producer, educator, academic, art historian, researcher and writer, his work has taken him all over the UK and Europe, as well as Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong. In January, he was selected to exhibit in The Art of Creative Research at the NIE Gallery in Singapore.

He says he’s from ‘everywhere really’ having been to school in Aberdeen, polytechnic in Wolverhampton and gaining a Master’s degree in Painting from the Royal College of Art. His family home is in Bristol where he was Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of the West of England, before six years as Vice-President of RMIT University in Melbourne. Since 2020 he has been Principal and Vice-Chancellor of Arts University Bournemouth.

Lucy’s ‘voice’ heard at long last

Bournemouth’s Russell-Cotes Gallery is hosting a major new exhibition of work by Lucy Kemp-Welch – the first for more than twenty years – in the town where the esteemed equestrian painter was born in 1869.

Eastenders in Dorset

Dorset’s highways and byways, countryside and coast have provided inspiration to some of our greatest artists at least since Turner and Constable went canvas to canvas under its skies in the early 19th century. So to find artists from the much-feted East London Group between the wars were just as taken with its scenery is Read More…

Exhibition goes back to the future

Whether it’s retro marketing, re-launch, or plain old revival, there’s no doubt the 1980s are back – from the runaway popularity of the Stranger Things sci-fi streamer on Netflix and Kate Bush back at the top of the pop charts, to mullet haircuts, brightly coloured fashions, even leg warmers, it’s all bang on trend.

The perfect time then for Dorset Museum to be hosting I Grew Up 80s, an unashamedly nostalgic wallow in the decade as seen through the eyes of a child.

Twins’ flights of fancy thrill thousands

The die was cast the moment they found themselves playing with Daleks and jumping into the Tardis on the set of Dr Who story Destiny of the Daleks being filmed at the old ARC sandpit on Binnegar Heath where their dad worked in maintenance.

Identical twins Gary and Paul Hardy-Brown were only seven years old in 1978, but from then on they have been obsessed with special effects, tricks of the eye, sleight of hand and making the incredible credible.

Now into their fifties they’re as keen as ever and preside over The Twins FX, a multi-million pound business creating bespoke theatrical visual special effects, illusions and animatronics. Their work has graced countless stages, from Olivier Award-winning pantomimes at the London Palladium and around the country in touring productions such as Barnum, to the stadium tour of Dr Who Live and now Back to the Future: The Musical, currently in the West End but destined next year for New York and beyond.

George’s fast, furious and full-on Paralympic dream

One of the most physical and possibly even savage of all para-sports, wheelchair rugby is fast, furious and full-on. A member of GB Wheelchair Rugby’s talent pathway squad, just one step below the elite squad that won Olympic Gold in Tokyo last year, the sport is all very far removed from the polite audiences that Lighthouse steward George Rogers helps see to their seats.

The sound of the sunny south

Poole-based fringe dwellers Da Biz found their feet in the fiery wake of punk as singer songwriter Ronnie Mayor and lead guitarist John Hole formed the group Tours in 1977 with Basher Spiers on drums and Steve Jeff on bass they established themselves by opening their own venue at The Brewers Arms in Poole and set about changing the world.