There have been rumours in the press that The Wombles could play Glastonbury Festival this year - but Mike Batt appears to have denied them.
The Sun reported that "the band are in discussion with festival organisers to take a coveted Sunday afternoon slot on the Pyramid stage", and claimed that "a source said: 'Discussions have been opened about The Wombles playing Glastonbury. They're certainly keen to be there.'" Many other news sources picked up the story.
However, Mike Batt commented on Twitter: "The Sun said today that we were 'talking' to Glastonbury re The Wombles. Who leaked that? Not us." He later added, "If Wombles R at Glasto this year I'll eat an anchovy. 2011, who knows?"
February
2010Haydon the Womble, aka Dean Parsons, will be running the London Marathon on 25 April.
The mascot of AFC Wimbledon football club is fundraising for The Children's Trust, a national charity providing care, therapy and education to some of the UK’s most severely disabled children.
He says: "I will be running (well, fast walking) the 2010 London marathon, forcing my furry body over 26.2 miles, to raise money for a charity I feel very proud to represent, as well as spread the word further about the mighty AFC Wimbledon."
You can find out more and sponsor Haydon on his Virgin Money Giving page.
A Facebook
campaign is aiming to get Bernard Cribbins back into the
charts with his 1962 hit Right Said Fred. The plan is for enough
people to buy the song during the week of 7-13 March, aiming for a
chart entry on 14 March.
The organiser, Charlie Ross, says: "Following the BAFTA honour to UK legend Bernard Cribbins and his amazing performance in the Doctor Who Christmas specials recently, I've set up a Facebook group to campaign to get his '60s hit Right Said Fred into the UK charts. I think this would round off a wonderful time for Bernard who is getting the credit he truly deserves. We're very close to getting Bernard himself involved and I know he knows and is very flattered by the campaign."
Find out more and join the Facebook group: Let's get
Bernard Cribbins back into the charts!
Download the song from iTunes
from 7 March.
Mike Batt, the Wombles songwriter and performer, has announced a one-off concert in London. He'll be appearing at the Cadogan Hall (near Sloane Square) on Monday 24 May, performing songs from throughout his career.
Tickets are on sale from 29 January from Live Nation or directly from the Cadogan Hall. For more information, see Mike Batt's official website.
Bernard
Cribbins talked about his time as the voice of The Wombles
during an appearance at the BFI Southbank in London on 16 January.
'Bernard Cribbins in Conversation' was organised by the British Film Institute and BAFTA to celebrate his special recognition at the BAFTA Children's Awards.
In a 40-minute interview and Q&A session, Bernard discussed his long and varied career, focussing especially on the family audience, from Jackanory and The Railway Children to his most recent role as companion to David Tennant's Doctor Who.
Thinking back to The Wombles, Bernard remembered that Wimbledon Common had problems with children arriving with bags of rubbish, who would scatter it all around and then wait for the Wombles to appear and tidy it up! The rangers had to explain that the Wombles weren't coming out today, and try to get the children to pick it all up again.
Talking about how he recorded the TV programmes, Bernard said that Elisabeth Beresford used to write a very minimal script - the lines for the characters. Then the films were shot, in laborious stop-frame animation, which took about ten days for each five-minute episode. Then Bernard would have a look at the film, and fill in all the gaps with coughs and sniffs and wheezes. "I used to do at least five minutes of snoring for every episode, for Orinoco," he laughed.
Asked if there were any Wombles outtakes, Bernard started speaking in the voice of Madame Cholet. He joked that he'd "always thought Uncle Bulgaria and Madame Cholet were having it off... making lots of little Wombles". Though he quickly said sorry to the parents of any children in the audience!
You can watch 11 minutes of highlights from the interview on the BFI website.
The interview was followed by a screening of Daleks' Invasion Earth: 2150 AD, the film that featured Bernard's first role in Doctor Who in 1966, as a companion to Peter Cushing. (For more about the Doctor Who side of things, see 'A lotta Mott: Bernard Cribbins at the BFI' on the Sci Fi channel website.)
In the YouTube video below, you can see Bernard collecting his BAFTA award last November, including an eight-minute tribute film that was also screened at the beginning of this BFI event.
There's a free guided walk across Wimbledon Common on Saturday, 30 January. The walk from Wimbledon Park to Richmond Park is part of Walk London's Winter Wanders, funded by Transport for London to encourage more walking in the city.
The seven-and-a-half-mile walk starts at Wimbledon Park Tube station at 1.30pm and finishes at Richmond station about four hours later. There's no need to book a place, just turn up on the day.
Walk leader Jill Green said: "This is walk six of the Capital Ring. This section is top of the list for green spaces in London. We will go across Wimbledon Common past the famous windmill, then to the woods where the Wombles of Wimbledon Common lived, by the Queensmere.
"We will continue on to Richmond Park, the largest urban park in Europe, then across Petersham Water Meadows to finish our walk along the Thames Path to Richmond. If you have a Womble please bring it with you."
You can read more about the walk route, and download a free route map,
directions and an MP3 audio guide, on the Walk London website.
Look through Uncle Bulgaria's archives to catch up with older news from the past seven years.
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