The Agents of The Shakespeare Code are delighted to report that….
……at Mid-day on Tuesday, 25th September, 2012….
…The Code received its……
SIXTY-THOUSANDTH VIEW!!!
ELEVEN new Countries also joined The Code……
ENTIRELY OF THEIR OWN VOLITION….
These happy lands and isles are:
MALAWI
SAINT LUCIA
CAYMAN ISLANDS
THE FORMER YUGOSLAVIA
UGANDA
BOLIVIA
OMAN
THE CO-OPERATIVE REPUBLIC OF GUYANA
ISLE OF MAN
MARTINIQUE
ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA
This brings the number of participating countries to…..
ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY SIX!!!
To celebrate, the Agents of The Shakespeare Code have decided to award a new Fellowship……
….. to the distinguished writer, director, producer, sportsman and gentleman…..
CHARLES SHARMAN-COX
……who now enjoys the INALIENABLE RIGHT to append the letters ‘F.S.C.’ (Fellow of The Shakespeare Code) to his name…
Charles…….
…….known affectionately as ‘Charlie’…….
…….is an Alumnus of the celebrated Southend High School for Boys……
…..whose Old Boys include The Kursaal Flyers, the guy who wrote A Whiter Shade of Pale, the Wimbledon Tennis Umpire who told John McEnroe where to get off and Code Chief Agent Stewart Trotter…..
Southend-on-Sea is a sea-side town on the Thames Estuary in Essex, England, once famous for its Pier……
……… and its punch-ups………
Charlie began his theatrical career, filling every conceivable post, at the ravishingly beautiful Palace Theatre at Westcliff…..
……another Estuary town next door to Southend….
……but a bit grander…..
Charlie has since triumphed in all three media of stage, film and television…..
…..with works as diverse as Oscar Wilde’s Picture of Dorian Gray, Bill Bryson’s The Lost Continent……
……. and Catherine Muschamps The Mother of the Pride.
His hauntingly bittersweet Los Angeles film, Take Me With You…..
….. has received an ‘Accolade Award for Excellence in Film-making’ at the Honolulu International Film Festival……
…… and was nominated for best short film in the LGBT category at the Swansea Film Festival.
Charlie was also one of the founding members of The Palace Theatre Guild which was formed in 2005…….
……..when the Southend Council, for no good reason, closed the Palace Theatre…..
The Guild’s aim was a simple one……
………to get it open again….
Dame Helen Mirren became The Guild’s Patron….
……a local Westcliff girl who, even as a schoolgirl at St. Bernard’s Convent…..
……was famed for her talent and beauty….
Indeed , her Cleopatra for the National Youth Theatre in 1965….
…..was admired at every level by Stewart Trotter, then a schoolboy….
Charlie raised THOUSANDS of pounds for The Guild by staging a concert version of A Christmas Carol ……
…..and The Guild finally triumphed…..
The Palace Theatre is now open again for business…..
…….and likely to remain so for many years to come…..
This year is also The Theatre’s Centenary…..
1912-2012….
…….so, to celebrate, Charlie (along with Rachel Lichtenstein and Stewart Trotter) has compiled a book entitled…..
TALES FROM THE PALACE THEATRE
………which LIFTS THE LID on theatre politics…..
……..in a way that NO OTHER BOOK HAS DONE BEFORE!!!
This is because Charles Sharman-Cox, F. S. C., has……
…….COAXED THE TRUTH…..
……..from everyone he spoke to…..
Indeed, the resulting manuscript was SO EXPLOSIVE it had to be vetted by a team of top show-biz lawyers…
In recognition of this…….
….STUPENDOUS ACHIEVEMENT…..
…..The Agents of The Code sent Trixie the Cat down to Westcliff …….
……..to offer Charlie his much deserved Fellowship…….
…….in conditions of the UTMOST SECRECY……..
TRIXIE’S TAIL
Brothers and Sisters of The Code……
If you think Charles looks sexy and smouldering in his photographs…..
YOU SHOULD SEE HIM IN REAL LIFE!!!
HE CYCLES UP THE PYRENEES!!!
I called on him at his beautiful home in Westcliff…..
…….which contrives to be both BOHEMIAN and IMMACULATE….
……where he was in the middle of hosting an ELEGANT fish and chip supper….
……with guests composed of writers, artists, intellectuals, potters, architects, lawyers and a Bishop of the Church of England ….
…..the crême de la crême of the Southend seafront.
I persuaded Charlie to take a turn with me in his garden……
…… while his guests tucked into some of the best fish batter Your Cat has EVER tasted…..
……..and offered him his Fellowship….
Charlie stopped dead in his tracks.
A Fellowship?
……he whispered….
…..from The Code?’
I waggled my ears…
He slumped into a garden seat…..
For a moment I thought we had lost him….
I jumped into his lap…..
He slowly revived….
…….then started to stroke me…..
……and seemed to gain strength from that simple act….
Finally he spoke….
Trixie, over the years I have received some notable accolades….
……a Leaping Wolf badge from the Cubs, a Richmond Avenue Junior School certificate for swimming 25 yards, the Peggy Bachelor Cup for verse speaking…..
……but these awards pale into insignificance when compared to becoming a Fellow of the Shakespeare Code….
He savoured his Honour…..
CSC FSC …..
It doesn’t get better than that….
Hot tears began to mingle with my fur…..
But suddenly Charlie arose….
……full of purpose and resolve…….
……hurling Your Cat into the rhododendrons….
Trixie – I must attend to my guests…..I’m taking them to Cinema Night at The Palace Theatre….
Charlie, stop!
…I cried…..
Sensing the urgency of my tone…
……he obeyed….
You love The Palace Theatre very much, don’t you?
Charlie turned….
She’s made me the man I am today….
With that he was gone……
…..lost to Your Cat……..
….. in the swirl of the Estuary Glitterati……
●
Charlie’s first act as a Fellow has been a generous one indeed….
He has allowed The Shakespeare Code to publish a SNEAK PREVIEW of Tales from The Palace Theatre….
The Code will shortly be posting extracts from….
PAUL’S TALE
……an OUTRAGEOUS account by……
PAUL GREENHALGH
…….of his days as a Leading Man in WEEKLY REP……
…….. at The Palace Theatre in the 1960’s…..
But Your Cat doesn’t like the look of those dogs…..
So she’s signing off….
‘Bye, now…..
To read ‘Paul’s Tale’ please click: HERE.
The Shakespeare Code 
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