December Challenge: “Hoganory”
Deadline For Entries: 31st December 2020
Background: I’m very conscious that I keep disappearing down Memory Crescent with these Challenges, so apologies for that, but with the nights short and family far away, I couldn’t help but think about the comfort when you were a child of ‘Watching With Mother’ – or more usually, Brother, in my case, to be totally honest. It probably isn’t a surprise that Jackanory was my favourite and Bernard Cribbins reading ‘Arabel’s Raven’ – screaming ‘NEVER MOREEE’ or even when I was older, checking out Rik Mayall doing his best Kevin Turvey whilst reading ‘George’s Marvelous Medicine’, have stayed with me. Don’t even get me started on Kenneth Williams and so many others. So I thought for the Challenge we would steal the clothes of Jackanory and turn it into a poetry reading. So many of you clever people have been doing readings on Zoom and Teams and such things, so I thought why not gather that expertise together and do something new with it – so I commend to thee December’s Challenge, Hoganory. One thing – when I was at school, if you felt somebody was lying to you, you would call them out by saying ‘Jackanory’ – they were telling you a story. So here I would like you to explain your poems, but lie through your teeth. The Challenge: I have set-up an as yet emptificated YouTube Channel. You can’t imagine how much fun that was for one so technically hopeless. Anyway, I would love you to fill it up for me with your Hoganory videos. If people do, I’d like us to share them with the world each week or month (depending on how many there are.) Here is the plan:- Choose a poem that you love
- Record a video of you reading it, remembering to:
- Introduce yourself ‘Hello I’m Mark, I like Sticky Buns’
- Give a few words of explanation about how you wrote the poem. I would LOVE IT if you would tell an absolutely whopping lie – how you wrote it with Elvis whilst Ski jumping in Walsall, how it was scribbled on Lou Reed’s back in lipstick in the Chelsea Hotel, or whatever.
- Speak slowly, smile, keep it clear
- Say goodbye at the end
- Extra points for shaky Crossroads style scenery. (I may be getting carried away here.)
- Send me the video and I’ll do the rest.
- Keep the video to a couple or three minutes
- Feel free to record more than one if you like
- Indoors or outdoors are fine, just make sure they are appealing, warm, cosy and happy things to watch. Even more extra points for humour, and if you can be stroking a Hedgehog throughout a la Blofeld.