Spoilers, unexpected Brontës and New Model Army

In the news, today.

Susan Tomes complains in The Guardian about the spoilers in teasers and trailers of movies. She puts as example the trailers of the recent Wide Sargasso Sea in the on going Jane Eyre BBC series:

Those who've been watching the TV adaptation of Jane Eyre were treated to constant trailers for Jean Rhys's "prequel", Wide Sargasso Sea, which - as each trailer informed us - tells the story of the first Mrs Rochester and how she seduced Mr Rochester in the Caribbean. For anyone who didn't know the story of Jane Eyre, these trailers gave away its crucial secret, namely that poor Jane shouldn't fall in love with Mr Rochester because he already has a wife, a demented creature hidden in the attic. Charlotte Bronte conceals the mad Bertha from us until late in the book, and the TV scriptwriters followed suit. But Mrs Rochester's existence, carefully kept from us until the end of episode three, was a secret blown casually apart by every trailer of the prequel. Yes, Bronte's plot is a classic of literature, but these TV adaptations are aimed at least partly at those of us who haven't read the book.

The Huddersfield Daily Examiner comments about yesterday's Literary Luncheon and Juliet Barker's presence. She mainly talked about her latest book, Agincourt. But curiously, the Brontës also found their way through another guest, artist and author Lesley Pearse:

Ashley told the literary luncheon of his long love affair with the Yorkshire moors and how he paints "in the great cathedral of the open air.

"When I was 16 I wrote in my art book that I wanted to do with my brush what the Brontës did with a pen.'

Do you remember the Brontë Burlesque party ? It was one of the activities in the Radical Brontës Festival in Bradford. When we asked Joolz Denby, that was the soul of the event, she told us that Justin Sullivan, from New Model Army, had composed a special Wuthering Heights soundtrack for the event. Well, it turns out that this music will be also used in an upcoming theatrical performance of Wuthering Heights in Leytonstone, London, UK.

MUSIC by rock group New Model Army is being loaned to a Leytonstone amateur dramatics group.

The music, written for a special reading of Wuthering Heights at The Radical Brontes Festival last month in Bradford, Yorkshire, will now accompany the Woodhouse
Players' version of the classic Emily Bronte novel at the end of this month.

"It's pretty exciting for us," said director Sacha Walker.

"We have members from six to 60 but everyone in their 20s and 30s has heard of New Model Army. It's just brilliant." (...)

Justin Sullivan, New Model Army frontman and longest serving original member, wrote the music to accompany readings by the Brontes festival's artistic director, Joolz Denby, a poet, novelist, artist and also Mr Sullivan's partner.

The music made its way down the M1 after Wuthering Heights' Ms Walker met Mr Sullivan at a music industry party, and they got talking about their forthcoming Bronte projects. "I've been a New Model Army fan for a long time. I asked Justin if we could borrow the music and he agreed. It's fantastic timing, it's spooky really," she said. (Sarah Cosgrove).

We will return to these performances in its due time.

Categories: In_the_News,Movies-DVD-TV, Jane_Eyre, Wide_Sargasso_Sea, Music, Wuthering_Heights, Theatre