Fame – 24 May 2010

The only recording today starts with the end of Newsnight. There’s a weather report. There’s a trail for An African Journey with Jonathan Dimbleby. There’s a trail for Radio 1’s Big Weekend and one for Money with Nick Frost. Then we have Fame. I’ve always been a bit more familiar with the TV spin-off, as it was huge, so it’s always interesting to see the film that started it all. It’s directed by Alan Parker, who was not averse to the musical, having made the excellent Bugsy Malone, and he’s go on to make Evita too. But the thing that still impresses me about this film is just how many people are on screen at the same time. And they’re all reasonably young. And they’re often performing choreography, or playing music. How much work is on screen just getting all these people to hit their marks, interact, move through the scene, and sometimes even having dialogue. It’s frankly amazing. The principals are Irene Cara, who we all remember because she sang the theme song, and later performed…