Frollies

Chiswick Enders by the Chiswick End Book Club
Tim Gane
Rod Barnes singing 'Ancient Brits'
Tim Gane
Andy Ranner presenting the Weather Forecast
Tim Gane
Lesley Farbridge and Wendy Esson presenting the Weather Forecast
Tim Gane
Bev and Jerry Cottrell in Another Day at the Vets
Tim Gane
A Tribute to Billy Bennett by David Piggott
Tim Gane
Ryan's Daughters, aka Wendy Esson and Lesley Farbridge
Tim Gane
The Shipping Forecast - Andrew's Angels
Tim Gane
Marilyn Monroe in the shape of Di Ware signing 'Happy Birthday' to Mr Peter Allen
Tim Gane
Chiswick Enders Finale - Always Look on the Bright Side of Life
Tim Gane

What an extraordinary wealth of talent we have in this village!  John Elvin, jazz pianist, Sean (Sax on Legs), er, saxophonist, Rod and Caroline on guitar and flute respectively, our multi-talented station master in a tribute to Billy Bennett, Laura and Florence sang so well, Sarah Louise played guitar and sang (and she writes her own material), Andrew Betts got the very best out of the village hall piano with a beautiful Nocturne, Gillian Shepheard amused us with poetry she wrote herself.  We were lulled by the gentle sound of hand bell ringers Cambells, Andrew’s Angels aka Holy Trinity Church Choir delighted us with an impious piece and a weather report ably accompanied by Mrs Penfold on the piano, Chiswick End Book Club, hilarious with their ‘Chiswick Enders’ sketch, Andy Ranner wrote and played a part in a sketch with a couple of old birds about Y-(weather) fronts.  There was a rendition of Cheap Flights including a stab at Riverdance (not) and a sketch ‘Another Day at the Vet’s’ complete with dead parrot and a classic case of corpsing.  Of course, there were nutcases.  Some of these were already known to us, however some new ones emerged and we do, of course, welcome them.  Thank you everyone who gave time and (in some notable cases) talent.

Tickets for Frollies slid out of the printer and into ‘reserved’ envelopes scarcely before the ink was dry, selling out without the need for recourse to the ents24 website.  Thank you SO much to all of you who supported this evening of chaos and calm, talents and twits and those who, lured by the microphone succumbed and told jokes while Nick Gane ably juggled lighting, sound and curtains, usually in the right order and with considerable aplomb, not to say competence.

The provision of supper for the gathered masses is a task we do not underestimate and we greatly appreciate the efforts of all those who jacketed potatoes, cooked chilli, grated cheese, baked beans(!) and cakes etc., particularly Joan Gane and Shirley Chapman.  We cannot overlook Tim Gane’s willing muscle power which meant we had very nearly enough tables and chairs for everybody . . .

Thank you to Radio 5 Live Drive’s presenter Peter Allen whose 65th birthday the day before Frollies provided an inevitable theme for the evening.  He kept the chaos together with good humour, skill (what else did he think he was there for?) and a certain amount of cheek.  The late Marilyn Monroe put in an appearance to personally ‘Thank you Mr Presenter’ and wish him a happy birthday.  An extraordinarily brave lady (well done, Hilary!) succumbed to Peter’s entreaties and won a bottle of champagne for completing the reading of The Pheasant Plucker without embarrassing herself, or anyone else.  Brilliant!

To everyone’s astonishment, we have been asked to repeat the exercise next year (yes, it really was more than one person) when we hope to add to the money we raised this year and provide our village hall with its own PA system and lighting so that Nick is not required to call upon the services of his physiotherapist mother and can concentrate solely on the manipulation of the mysterious knobs and levers rather than hauling such heavy equipment across the county.

Grateful thanks to you all.

To see the full line-up for 2011’s spectacular Frollies show, view the programme.

Do you have any photos from Frollies 2011?  If so we would like to include them on this page. Please add a comment below.

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