Accolading

Yesterday I left the OH reading his paper and headed off into London.

to meet several people from the Archers Listeners forum on Ravelry at a pub for knitting/crochet and some lunch.

 followed by a trip to the Finborough theatre nearby, to see a play called "Accolade". The reason for all this? Well, way back in January, there was supposed to be an event that would Shake Ambridge To The Core (it became known as SATTC on Twitter, which confused some non-Archers people who got it mixed up with Sex and the City). It turned out to be Nigel Pargetter falling off the roof of Lower Loxley and being killed. Thus removing probably the best loved member of the cast from the programme (for people who are already  totally lost, the Archers is an incredibly long-running radio soap on BBC radio 4. You should listen to it.).

Anyway, Archers fans all over the world (yes, you can hear it on iplayer) couldn't believe that the Evil BBC and particularly the Spectacularly Evil Vanessa Whitburn, the Editor, had killed off Nigel. Much grumbling ensued on the forum, and some people even gave up listening. But then someone discovered that Graham Seed, who played Nigel, was appearing in a play called Accolade, at a tiny little theatre near Earls Court. One thing led to another, and several of us from the forum ended up buying tickets and greensideknits organised for us to meet up for lunch beforehand.

The play was great, incredibly contemporary, we could hardly believe it hadn't been put on since the 50s! At one point the female lead does some knitting and I'm glad she can't have been aware that about a fifth of the audience were knitters, as she really wasn't very good(!).

And the best bit of all, we lay in wait in the wine bar downstairs after the play, and met Nigel Graham Seed himself!

We were slightly gobsmacked, I think, to get a chance to speak to him and hand over a card, but he was very charming (despite us taking his time away from meeting his friends and insisting on having a photo!).

It was a lovely day, and I really enjoyed meeting up with some more knitters, who all felt like friends straight away!
I also really enjoyed the theatre, it was a tiny, very intimate venue, only seating about 50 and the furthest back people were only about 3 metres from the actors. I'm already thinking about a trip back to see something else.