A new live audience comedy sketch show by Charles Waples and Simon Meats which pays homage to the great radio comedy teams of the past whilst forcing out new dirt wherever it may lie.
Your convivial anchor, Charles Waples, is the pole around which the characters in Talk to My Handbag joyously prance. Amongst the contemporary characters are London’s beehived one woman rehab centre, Baby Belsize, who returns with more grooves. The Yummie Mummies of the trendy burbs rub shoulders with Pearl Diva, the greatest drag act on her block whilst ballet dancer Billy Idiot yearns to be a coal miner.
Audio clips
Welcome and Yummie Mummies (3:50)
Talk To My Handbag Song (1:32)
Pearl Diva & Dean Dagenham and Baby Belsize sings “Paracetemol Girl” (7:34)
Charles' Intro and Late Night Review (5:12)
Billy Idiot (3:58)
Club Night (2:04)
Paul Distemper, 50’s Detective, and Charles’ “I Like South Kensington” (14:33)
Recorded at Canal Cafe Theatre, 2010
Photos
Biogs
Charles Waples
Charles began writing for radio for Arnold Brown and Co in 1990 and has been at it ever since. Material he wrote for BBC, Granada TV and Sky, lead to working with Caroline Aherne, John Thomson, Paul O'Grady and Johnny Vaughan. He writes films and radio shows, is an illustrator and is taller than you'd think.
Sam Alexander
Sam was at the RSC for two years tackling all manner of roles by Shakespeare. This lead to the Chichester Festival and various television roles. He was seen recently in BBC's Doctors and is off to Manchester's prestigious Royal Exchange to appear in The Bacchi this autumn.
Neil Dickens
Neil Dickens has voiced series for National Geographic and E Entertainment, launched FXUK, played a psychologist for a series of Lexus ads, was signed up by Chevron Texaco for two years (!) and voiced Land Rover's 60th Anniversary commercials in North America. A graduate of Bang improv studio in Los Angeles, he wrote and starred in his own one man show 'Britz In Pieces', interviewed TV stars for Channel 4 UK's Faces of Four and appeared in short films and various TV projects. Now based in London, he's studying to be a psychologist and considers Talk To My Handbag excellent future diagnostic practice!
Simon Meats
Along with Charles, Simon is responsible for the elegant mix of sophisticated ribaldry that is Talk To My Handbag. A former runner-up to BBC North's Playwright of the Year, Simon has previously contributed sketches and song lyrics for a number of other artists including Rory Bremner and Roy Hudd. As well as collaborating with Charles on feature film scripts his future projects include a play "Frances and Francis" and a novel entitled "Rejoice! Rejoice!," a look at Thatcher's Britain." He is a little shorter than Charles.
Fliss Walton
Fliss’s screen credits include: Doctors (BBC1), Natasha in Holby City (BBC1). Her theatre credits include: Emma Bovary, Breakfast with Emma (Time Out Critics Choice) and Desdemona, Othello - both for The Rosemary Branch Theatre; Portia, The Merchant of Venice (C Company); Brook, Popcorn (Baron's Court Theatre); Gwendolen, The Importance of Being Earnest and Lady Macduff, Macbeth - both for Changeling Theatre. Fliss writes and performs as one half of the raconteur comedy duo Irony and Bliss, and is currently writing her first solo show.
Credits
Musical accompaniment by Afterwardsness
Recording by Soundbomb
Photography by Tracey Vaughan
Website by CreativeOddJobs