NEWS
New Show Reel of TV stuff from the past 18 months
It always feels vaguely like a new term at school when you complete a new show reel. This one I am very pleased with because there is a great balance of stuff, from the more dramatic Gentleman in Moscow and Serpent Queen, to the ridiculous appearance in Dreaming Whilst Black. Enjoy!
A Garden In Hastings -
A Crowdfunded Documentary
We are raising money to help create an inspiring documentary about overcoming grief and trauma through nature, community and communication that I shall be directing.
74-year-old bricklayer Glenn Veness has for years, single-handedly, poured every ounce of his time and energy into his garden in an effort to keep the memory of his son Luke alive and to keep depression at bay. In doing so he has created a unique and sprawling natural haven amidst a suburban Hastings’ council estate. Over twelve months, this film will follow the garden’s ‘Men’s Group’ who meet to chat through their challenges and support one another.
‘A Garden in Hastings’ will be a documentary film exploring loss, mental health, recovery, friendship, based in the town of Hastings and following the development and journey of the town’s most magical and clandestine garden, which once played host to some of the most infamous parties in the town, but is now a performance space and venue to the Hastings Mens Network.
Queenie -
A Podcast of 6 episdoes
I created the character of Queenie as part of my ‘In Character’ show several years ago. I've always enjoyed the fact that audience reaction to him has often been one of ‘he is possibly the most frightening character I have ever seen’. This could be due to his violent outbursts, his graphic description of violence or his outrageous combover.
At the end of 2022 I began to formulate the idea of featuring this rather unusual creation in a podcast. He began to write the back story of this rather effete and highly educated and titled gentleman who, in the 1980s, began a life of violent crime, mainly targeting lawyers and bankers; those he deemed part of a system that were responsible for the death of his beloved mother.
The six part series feature a huge array of characters from a consultant psychologist, to former prison inmates, prison governors, probation officers, house mates and family members. Chiefly, it is narrated by broadcaster and journalist Magnus Finch who, when he came into receipt of a batch of recordings from a friend and professional colleague by the name of Grant McGregor, became intent on finding out more about this extraordinary character known only as Queenie. He used these original interviews, conducted between 2001 and 2003 and began to cast the net wider to find out more about the man that was synonymous as one of Britain’s most violent criminals.
Available through Apple, Spotify & Google.
Or you can click on the button here where you will find all 6 episodes and the teaser too.
The Voices Project 2
Last year, in an effort to learn how to use Logic Pro X I embarked on writing and producing a series of ambient tracks using various voices as my inspiration. So there was Richard Burton talking about alcoholism, there was a very swearing Ben Kingsley as Don Logan in Sexy Beast and there was a gloriously shouty Brian Blessed.
I knew I would do another and so I began to write and produce tracks at the end of last year and the beginning of 2022. This time round the voices include Nina Simone being very forthright and honest, John Lydon talking about Saville in about 1978, Bruce Lee being his beautiful Zen self, Quentin Crisp on his extraordinary life and a track made up of the Kilroy Silk intros from his BBC show in the 90s. Plus many more.
As before the album is up on Bandcamp, alongside the first one, and is free to listen to or you can purchase and download it from £8. A lot of work went into it and I really hope you enjoy it.
Lenny Beige YouTube Channel
During Lockdown, Lenny Beige was very busy presenting twice weekly shows which started life as a mixture of songs, gags and shout-outs to the viewers. By week 5 it was decided to make the Tuesday shows an interview-based format with a few songs, with the Friday night shows continuing as they had before. They started life being filmed on the phone streaming to Facebook Live and Instagram (when technology would allow) but we upgraded to a Mevo camera which is a dedicated streaming camera that acts like a TV gallery where you can cut from a wide to a close up shot and pan across the frame too. The Beige Family very kindly contributed their own money to buy this piece of kit to increase their viewing pleasure
The end result is a new YouTube Channel with content from some of thiose shows but with a whole load more vintage footage. There are classic TV appearances and interviews PLUS in the coming weeks the now salvaged BBC series Lenny Beige's Variety Pack.
