Will Waspe
The filming of The Whither Mart — starring Edward Woodward and Britt Ekland, screenplay by Peter Shaffer — would seem to have caused consternation, in and out of the company, on location on an island off the coast of Scotland.
The story involves a fair quota of weird goings-on — witchcraft, orgies and the like — and inevitably there came a scene in which Miss Ekland was required to remove all her clothes. Delectable though this would undoubtedly be to the likes of you and me, the word is that it was not delectable enough for the film's purposes, and, after a certain amount of delicate discussion, a professional striptease lady was summoned from London to ' double ' the star's body.
Startled party
Meanwhile, the company had become firm favourites with the local gentry, who were amused to have these personable thespians in their midst and in due course a party was given in their honour — the guests including, of course, the London stripper, whose
talents were not known to the hosts. The young woman, I hear, got quite perceptibly high, whereupon an impish
member of the company persuaded the band to belt into that driving instrumental number, 'The Stripper, whose beat proved to be so evocative and provocative that the professional, as if by second nature, took the cue and went into her act — all the way. The social standing of the acting profession is not now, I am sorry • to say, quite as high as it was with that particular wing of the Scottish gentry.
• Private party
The Omnibus File on 'The Critics' last Sunday (BBC 1) was a dreary business to be sure — a glum, ego-massaging session that could have been of interest to no one other than the preening participants. Anyone who switched on anticipating something on the lines of my own shrewd appraisal of the appraisers (a feature of our Christmas issues) must have been double grieved 'and probably as bored as the unfortunate moderator, Robert Robinson, looked. If Omnibus should ever again feel disposed to open this particular file. I shall be glad to advise them.
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