It was almost a full house at our penultimate screening on Friday evening at the Market Theatre in Ledbury. Eternally grateful to the lovely John Bishop who turned up for our Q&A, despite a rotten cold and a funeral earlier in the day. An effortless raconteur and storyteller, he regaled the audience with more tales. Including this one – the finer details escape me now, however, it was something like this: between the ages of 12 and 16, John ran a successful business rearing and selling pigs. His father bought the first pigs to set John up, therein it was John’s sole responsibility. It proved to be a profitable business as his four pigs went on to litter twice a year, producing anything between 8 and 12 piglets, which John then went on to sell. The astonishing thing is that, by the age of 16, he had saved enough to buy a house in Colwall. ‘This would never happen today,’ he told the audience. In a snapshot, he demonstrated how the economics of farming have changed dramatically over the last 40 years. Many of John’s farming colleagues and neighbours were sat quietly in the audience, proving auctioneer Graham Baker’s assertion at another screening that farmers are shy and men (and women) with a gavel in hand, are show offs!
Marsha O’Mahony
We had a great turn out of 103 people with 20 copies of the DVD being sold. The audience were appreciative, and it was lovely to see that there is still a great appetite for the film.
Julia Goldsmith