The Stone Tape, 1972

The Stone Tape is a television play directed by Peter Sasdy and starring Michael Bryant (as Peter Brock), Jane Asher (as Jill Greeley), Michael Bates (as Eddie Holmes) and Iain Cuthbertson (as Roy Collinson). It was broadcast on BBC Two as a Christmas ghost story in 1972. Combining aspects of science fiction and horror, the story concerns a team of scientists who move into their new research facility, a renovated Victorian mansion that has a reputation for being haunted. The team investigate the phenomena, trying to determine if the stones of the building are acting as a recording medium for past events (the "stone tape" of the play's title). However, their investigations serve only to unleash a darker, more malevolent force.

The Stone Tape was written by Nigel Kneale, best known as the writer of Quatermass (film in wich a very young Jane starred in). Critically acclaimed at time of broadcast, it remains well regarded to this day as one of Nigel Kneale's best and most terrifying plays. Since its broadcast, the hypothesis of residual haunting – that ghosts are recordings of past events made by the natural environment – has come to be known as the "Stone Tape Theory".

The play focuses on the relationship between three scientists: Jill, a talented computer programmer attuned to psychic phenomena; her arrogant, egotistical and ruthless, if frequently charming, boss (and lover) Peter; and Collinson, the foreman on the project and confidante to both of them. Their differing personal experiences of the mansion's haunted room provide the framework for the drama and are drawn along traditional gender lines. Kneale's script explores male and female perspectives, contrasting rational problem solving and the application of the scientific method with intuitive and emotional responses and solutions aligned with a compassionate feeling for people and their circumstances. Peter and Jill stand at the opposite poles of this dialectic, and as their inability to communicate their differences increases, so their personal relationship disintegrates. Collinson comes somewhere between the two, as the main identification figure for the audience. Iain Cuthbertson gives a powerful yet restrained performance in the role, which was expanded considerably during filming as his character replaced the one played by Michael Bates, who became unavailable when the shooting of some scenes had to be rescheduled.

The special effects in the climax, in which Jill is pursued by ancient shapeless creatures and taken back thousands of years to a high sacrificial altar before falling to her death, are often startling, despite their crudeness. The use of sound by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, however, is highly sophisticated, with atonal electronic sounds used to merge music with the noises made by the scientific machinery. 

Although reminiscent of Kneale's own earlier Quatermass and the Pit (BBC, 1957-58) in the way that science unleashes supernatural forces from the past, The Stone Tape can also be seen as a dark meditation on Charles Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol', with Peter as a Scrooge figure, basically uncaring of those around him, who eventually learns the error of his ways through supernatural intervention, but only when it's too late.

So It Goes...: Jane Asher in Rumpole of the Bailey, 1978

 * Please, notice, this is a reblog from the So It Goes... blogspot*

Jane Asher in Rumpole of the Bailey, 1978

Screencaps of Jane's guest appearance in the Rumpole of the Bailey episode, Rumpole and the Alternative Society, first broadcast on 10th April, 1978. The episode sees Rumpole journey to the west of England to defend Jane's character, Kathy Trelawney, a hippy schoolteacher who is charged with selling cannabis to a police agent provocateur. Like her appearance in the debut episode of Hazell also that year - shown just three months earlier in fact - Jane's role came relatively early in what was the second episode in what was the first ever series of Rumpole. It shows that Jane was quite a pull at the time, a star name that ITV felt would be able to attract viewers to their new productions.

I especially liked her court outfit seen in the last few pics. That, combined with how she wore her hair, made her look rather Pre-Raphaelite. Lizzie Siddal would have been proud!

Indian Love

The 15th August is India's Independence Day, and to celebrate it, I've posted pictures of Jane in India and wearing sari.

The Beatles visited Rishikesh in India in 1968 to attend an advanced Transcendental Meditation training session at the ashram of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
The Maharishi's compound was across from Rishikesh, located in the holy "Valley of the Saints" in the foothills of the Himalayas, and the home to many ashrams. The Beatles arrived there in February 1968, along with wives, girlfriends, assistants and numerous reporters, joining about 60 other TM students.
The Starrs left on 1 March, after only a short stay; Paul McCartney and Jane Asher left mid-March due to other commitments; while The Lennons and The Harrisons plus Jenny left abruptly in April 12th following financial disagreements and rumours of inappropriate behaviour by the Maharishi, accusations which were made public.

Lady Jane group at yahoo!

 

Lady Jane group at yahoo!

 

Our 100th post!

So this is our 100th post! :D
I had different ideas of how to celebrate our 100th post, like posting my favourite Jane Asher pictures, doing a little summary of what's already been posted, or even a list of our tags (but you can check them at the right of the page).

So maybe I thought interesting the idea of sharing my memories about Jane. When I fell in love with her and what made me love her so much.

It all began in the (now) distant 1990s. In 1998 to be fair. I was a teenager back then and I loved The Beatles. My parents loved them and used to listen to them a lot. So while all my classmates listened to the Spice Girls, Back Street Boys or Britney Spears, I listened to The Beatles (and others). So yes, my Jane discovering was linked with The Beatles.

My twin sister and me were one of the many afternoons after finishing school at a friend's flat. We did the homework together, and then talk, or play at any game. And we had a magazine. For one side there was a report about Linda's health (or death? now I can't remember). I admired Linda and Stella. they were my first favourites Beatle Girl and Beatle Child. Then, in the same magazine (a Spanish magazine about celebrities) there was an article about an Unofficial Paul McCartney biography. 

And there was a picture of Paul and John Lennon, another or Paul and Linda, and this one of Paul and Jane:

I never heard of her before! (she was never famous in Spain, just in the 1960s when she was Paul's "friend" or "girlfriend", yes, with the quotation marks). And in the picture's caption and article it said: "Paul MCartney at 25, when he had a romance with the stage actress Jane Asher". And I fell in love with her: she was a stage actress! Back then I used to play stage plays with my cousins at home, and in the district theatre with the school. I loved (and still love!) the theatre, so I found that amazing. Plus she had a career herself, she wasn't just a beauty face!

Afterwards, me and my twin-sister bought The Beatles Anthology book to our parents as a Christmas present. Her favourite Beatlegirl became Pattie (being Cynthia the first one), after seeing her beautiful pics at the Anthology book. Before that we only new about Linda, Yoko and Cyn (in that order). And I saw Jane pics in colour, finally! And then I knew she was a red-haired girl! Because with the black and white picture of the Spanish magazine I thought she was brunnette... this made me love her even more, because red hair it's just very rare and so beautiful.

And not long after that we had internet at home! so at our spare time we started to search for pics of Jane and Pattie, and started to wonder also what they were doing "today" (in the mid/late 1990s!).  Also, every 1960s film I saw with a red-haired actress I wondered if she was Jane, and wondered also in which films she acted and how was her role.
We started to save all the pics we found of them on the net at disquettes (do you remember them?!). First we saved pics of all the 60s Beatlgirls (well, Cyn, Mo, Jane and Pattie). Each of them had a folder, with the pics, and then a folder with the "all together" pics. Then, we started to save the pics with a little info (the year, the place...). There were many websites, such Senti's Beatles Women, First Wives Club, She Loves You and an Argentinean one that we loved a lot (in geocities).

But then we saved too many pics, so each of the women had their own disquette! and we found out about the yahoo! groups, but, don't ask me why, we weren't keen to join. So we didn't. And we asked our friends to scan the Anthology's pics of the girls (because we didn't have a scanner back then). Our friends thought we were bit crazy, I think!
And, together with the pics, we searched a lot of information. I searched for Jane's bio and acting career, and knew she was an actress since her childhood and that was Paul's girlfriend and fiancée for 5 years! And it came one point that we didn't care of The Beatles anymore... (my sis and me we still love them), it was just the girls!

But, alas! The disquettes failed once. All the pics, thousands of them, were lost. So we started all over again. But saving them in CDs. It was a different story, but we wanted to have the pics. And then choosing the larger one, or the fuller one, or the one with the best quality. I remember, also, there were many pics which we didn't know the date. So we just thought of a year, and when we did find out the correct date, we only went wrong for one year (one year over or one year below), so we were amazed about our "knowledge".

In the end I joined some yahoo! groups. And eventually my sister joined them too. And we started websites for the girls as well because we had many pictures and we wanted to share them with everybody! Which sense had to have saved them if afterwards nobody else would look at them? So we started the websites at free hosting sites (why to pay?). First it was piczo. I built a site for Jane (Sixtie's Jane [sic], if anybody remembers it, back in 2006), and This Bird Has Flown for Cyn. And my sis a site for Pattie and another for Maureen.

I eventually became the moderator of the Lady Jane group at yahoo because I added maaaany pics, and some details. The historian in me wanted to know all the details, and there were many sites for Pattie and with the details, but not for Jane! So thanks to that now I'm owner of the Lady Jane group at yahoo :)

 

My Sixtie's Jane [sic] site at piczo eventually grew up to store pics also from the 1950s and until 2000s. Sadly I started to have many problems with piczo and finally I decided to change the host at webs.com (in 2011), where now my site is located. And the following logical step was to build a facebook page for Jane when the social media expanded (on April 4th 2012). In fact I think it was my sis who created the page, I wasn't keen on with the idea at first! And also a tumblr blog (launched on November 9th 2012).

Then, my sis started to buy vintage magazines from e-bay and other collectors sites. Many 1960s English magazines, because, as I said, you don't find pics and info in today's Spanish magazines. But in the 1960s there was! Also we finally just decided to save pics of Jane and Pattie (and all other new muses we discovered thanks to the internet!), as they were our favourite ones. And now I have 2 copies of the pics, and my sis another copy at external memory devices, so we hope (let's touch wood!) this time they aren't lost!
 
So that's my story. Since I was a teen in the 1990s my love for Jane hasn't stopped a day. Sometimes when you grow you discover new things, change and evolve... but then the classics are always the classics, and Jane has been always a classic. Maybe I can have a season in which I'll be mad about Lee Starkey, Shannen Doherty, Drew Barrymore or The Corrs (my other childhood and teenage idols). But I'll always come back to Jane. I'm pretty sure my love towards her, and my admiration, will never ever stop.