Inspired by the latest failed apocalypse, I thought I'd read "War of the Worlds". I've not really paid any interest to it since I was Dancer #3 in the production of the musical version, at St Mitholmroyd's School for the Children of Distressed Gentlefolk. Anyone there may remember that Hayley (Dancer #2) and Tracey (Dancer #1) had to be dragged off-stage after spending five minutes waiting to start dancing while under the level of the dry ice smoke. There were questions about how it happened that the stage curtain failed, at that point, in that way. All I will say is that nobody ever proved I was near the handle at the time it was apparently sawn off with a hacksaw. And where would I have hidden a hacksaw? The answer, in a 1983 dance-based scenario, could well be in my leggings. I imagine.
In any case. I had forgotten to just what a degree War of the Worlds is set in the southern Home Counties. by a third of the way through, the Martians have already laid waste to Woking, Byfleet, Weybridge and Guildford. Which is a terrible experience for the people who lived there. And not great news for Waitrose.
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| "We reckon them big eggs have come from Sainsbury's" |
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There's even a big metal statue of a Martian tripod in Woking town centre, a must-see on the "Horsell common circuit" (after a latte and iced Belgian bun in Waitrose of course)
ReplyDeleteWoking, Byfleet, Weybridge and Guildford.....well, when I used to commute, I heard some naff excuses for the non-arrival of the 7.30 (no restaurant car) but no doubt if the Martians had arrived, the impeturbable announcer on Basingstoke station would have coped with that as well.
ReplyDeleteAnd we hardened travellers would just have stood there going "tut!"