The 2024 top of the crop had a distinctly thespian theme – gays and the arts. Could it be any more of a cliché? Or maybe it just reflects a need for a distraction in worrying times. Who knows? Also thrown into the mix were celebrating the life of a dearly departed, a fond memory from our lotus-eating days in Turkey, and a few Greek postcards from gorgeous old Corfu Town. Oh, and then there was the little piece about my money-making side hustle as an Only Fans porn star. If only.
For some inexplicable reason, a 2020 post about a game old bird fit for the pot waddling around our modest small holding took off. Why? It’s a mystery.
Also, numbers-wise, Perking the Pansies enjoyed the best year since 2016, so there’s still life in the old blog yet. I thank you.
Happy New Year. Let’s hope for a lot more peace for 2025.
Les Misérables – Not Glum At All
Affectionately known as ‘The Glums’, the spectacular musical ‘Les Misérables’ has been a London fixture for nearly forty years. I’ve seen the West End production twice. I also bought the soundtrack and saw the star-studded and much-praised 2012 film adaptation. So it’s fair to say I’m pretty familiar with the tale and the tunes. I…
by Jack Scott
13 April, 202413 April, 2024
Jack on OnlyFans
Only kidding. I doubt anyone would hand over their hard-earned cash to watch me waving my wrinkly old willy about. Though, way back in my pretty-boy days, I was occasionally offered a few farthings for a facial. But that’s another story. So I do wonder why certain internet search terms bring furtive fumblers to pansyland…
by Jack Scott
13 January, 202413 January, 2024
Betty Blue Eyes Brings Home the Bacon
For rural shires on the eastern edge of this green and pleasant land, East Anglia is rather blessed when it comes to live theater. It seems everyone’s at it, from the have-a-go luvvies in drafty old village halls to well-seasoned thesps treading the boards at the rather magnificent Theatre Royal, Norwich. Unsurprisingly, it’s a mixed…
by Jack Scott
3 February, 202423 February, 2024
Now That’s What I Call Acting, Dear Boy
Dustin Hoffman is a famous devotee of the ‘The Method’, where an actor tries to get right under the skin of a character to deliver the most authentic performance. The story goes that, on the set of Marathon Man, he stayed up for two nights to shoot the scenes where his character hadn’t slept for…
by Jack Scott
23 March, 202423 March, 2024
Lost Boys and Fairies
Sometimes something just turns up without warning, punches you in the gut and has you reaching for the Kleenex. Such a thing is Lost Boys and Fairies, the three-part prime time BBC drama about a gay couple – Gabriel and Andy – applying to adopt a child in Wales. No big deal in these more…
by Jack Scott
15 June, 202412 June, 2024
All Good Things…
In late 2008 we jumped the good ship Blighty and washed up on a Turkish beach. For our first year, we dropped anchor in Yalikavak, now a flashy resort with a fancy marina for the filthy rich and high prices to match. But back then it was a sleepy hamlet with a laid-back, bohemian vibe.…
by Jack Scott
16 March, 202416 March, 2024
The Ties That Bind
My oldest friend died in January 2020. He’d just finished his shift as a drama teacher at a North London school and was about to drive home. He had a cardiac arrest in his car. It was sudden and without warning. He died shortly afterwards. We met in the first year of our secondary school…
by Jack Scott
14 September, 202414 September, 2024
Postcards from Corfu Old Town
Following a week or so of life-affirming lolling and libations on Paxos, we’ve switched it up a gear for a couple of nights in Corfu Old Town – Kerkyra to the locals. We’re staying at the Hotel Konstantinoupolis, a beautiful but faded 19th-century neo-Venetian pile overlooking the Ionian Sea with a faint but distinct whiff…
by Jack Scott
10 August, 202413 August, 2024
Opening Night
We love a wacky musical and they don’t come much wackier than Opening Night, a brand new West End show from the pen of singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright. Based on a 1977 film of the same name, the musical stars Sheridan Smith as an aging has-been who’s lost her mojo and hit the bottle. It’s a…
by Jack Scott
30 March, 202430 March, 2024
Computer Says No
The queue is as quintessentially British as fish and chips, a Sunday roast or a post-pub kebab. I’m all for it. It appeals to my first-come-first-served sense of fair play. Every-man-for-himself is where anarchy reigns and the Devil thrives. And, for those of us in cattle class, queuing is an indispensable part of modern-day mass tourism.…
by Jack Scott
20 July, 202423 October, 2024
I’m Not a Pheasant Plucker
When I put food out for the birds, I don’t expect a big fat pheasant to waddle along and scoff the lot. Bold as brass it was. Where’s the pheasant plucker when you need him? I feel a tongue twister coming on. I’m not the pheasant plucker, I’m the pheasant plucker’s mate, And I’m only…
by Jack Scott
10 October, 202014 October, 2020
