I’m a Dinnerladies fan. Twinkle’s my favourite character.
She was played by Maxine Peake and the chance to watch one of her films ‘Funny Cow’ at Moston Small Cinema followed by a ‘question and answer session’ doesn’t come along every day. I struck early and got a ticket.
Maxine Peake: Dinnerladies (Twinkle), Early Doors, Silk, Coronation Street, Peterloo, Hamlet, Funny Cow and many more. BAFTA nominee and UK Theatre Awards Winner. Smug’s the one with the beard.
The film was intense, shocking, realistic and brilliantly acted. Afterwards, Smug Roberts asked most of the questions and the audience needed no encouragement to ask theirs.
Maxine told us how she landed her role as Twinkle, about working with Victoria Wood, moving back up north and being around places she knew in Bolton. Hearing about her time at RADA was fascinating.
“It’s a real leveller” she told us. “In my year, there was a really good balance including lots of working class Northerners as well as people from places like Oxford and Cambridge. It was a really good mix; it reflected the business with someone from every walk of life, from every ethnicity.”
“One thing I admire about you is you’re not scared of voicing your opinion.” Smug commented.
“When you do a job you have to do publicity and you get asked all sorts of questions.” Maxine replied. “When I’m asked about how I feel I like to be open about what my feelings are. I never tell people what they should think; I don’t force my opinions on them.”
The audience were smitten with her and so was I. She was very witty, warm and open. The whole evening was a pleasure.
She’d mentioning having to do publicity but Maxine wasn’t at the Miners on a cold November evening to promote her film. She was there to promote and raise funds for Lifeshare, a charity that helps meet the needs of homeless and vulnerable people in Manchester and Salford.
She wasn’t the only performer at the event either. We were also treated to a surprise live performance of ‘Human Touch’ by IORA (Holly Phelps). It’s available to download for a minimum £1 donation by clicking here – all proceeds going to the charity.
The evening at the Miners Community Arts and Music Centre raised a fabulous £1,300. To find out more about Lifeshare and the work they do, click here.
It’s nearly Christmas so thank you for taking the time out to read this blog.
For details of up and coming events at The Miners, including films at the Moston Small Cinema, check out their Facebook page.
I wandered about amongst the crowd for a while. Felt like a wally on my own but once I had a ’99’ with strawberry goo in my hand I didn’t care.
When I left about an hour later the lady at the gate said “Did you enjoy the parade?”
Before I left I took another walk around the field and checked out displays by 
The start of the Bouncing Baby Competition was announced when I got to the gate but Tesco beckoned and I’d have ended up with no Sunday lunch. I’ll come back next year.
