JConthecover: TV Onda Tivu (1986)

This Italian magazine (TV Broadcast) from 1986 features Joan on the cover dressed in wedding finery for the Moldavian Wedding of her daughter Amanda (Catherine Oxenberg) to Prince Michael (Michael Praed) which ended Season 5 of the soap opera.
Inside is a general 4 page article about her work with various pictures.

Tonight At 8:30 - Red Peppers

The second of the eight playlets by Noel Coward in this series was an 'Interlude With Music', set in 1936 called 'Red Peppers' and Joan teamed up with ex husband the late Anthony Newley to play Lily Pepper married to George and part of the vaudeville act, Red Peppers.




The majority of the play was set between the two acts they performed on a daily basis in their dressing room where they argue about everything from the timing, and with the stage manager wanting to know why Lily accuses the conductor of being drunk on duty, and the shows leading lady looking to rest between performances, dressing room brawls are "top of the bill" as they say in the world of theatre.





Other cast members include, Moyra Fraser, Reg Varney & Henry McGee.

JConthecover: Veronica (1985)

I mentioned in a previous post about a second favourite magazine cover photo of all those I own in my collection, well here it is on a Dutch magazine called Veronica from January 1985. It was also used on a Polish magazine and on a copy of Cine Tele Revue.

This magazine has a 2 1/2 page article with colour photos from Dynasty.

Tonight At 8:30 - Hands Across The Sea

Following on from yesterday's post - this was the first of the eight playlets by Noel Coward. After the opening credits Joan introduced the synopsis of the play. This was a 1940's light comedy with Joan playing Maureen Gilpin (piggie to her friends), and John Nettles as her husband, both shown here in this rare press still.




Apparently there are 3 rules in the battle for Social success:

1. Always keep a diary and carefully note everyone's name, especially when you're travelling.

2. Never, when you're abroad make that routine invitation, "When you're in London / Sydney / New York or wherever please look us up!", addresses scribbled on bits of paper can cause chaos.

3. Never have the telephone in the drawing room.

Receiving a telephone call, Piggie is advised that The Rawlinsons are in London and about to descend on them following her kind invitation. But if the Rawlinson's are not who they seem, who are the Wadhursts?

Other cast members included Sian Phillips, Bernard Cribbins, Miriam Margolyes, Edward Duke and Nickolas Grace.

JConthecover: Radio Times (1991)

Today its back to 1991, and this issue of UK Radio Times dated 13-19 April. Joan featured on the cover dressed as one of the characters from her new series of Noel Coward Playlets called "Tonight at 8:30" which started that week. Inside was a great 3 page article, "Is This Our Joanie?"

Over 8 weeks Joan would play a different woman in a series of one act plays with her Repertory Company, including a femme fatale, a society hostess, a neurotic wife, good time girl, and spinster.
I will be featuring photos and details of each of these playlets in future posts.

When the series was shown in America, it was called "Collins Meets Coward.

50th Post

As this is my 50th post on the blog, it seemed appropriate to go with the Golden Theme, so today's magazine is an American one (from Florida) called Golden Years. This issue is from February 1986 and features Joan with Gene Kelly in a scene from the mini-series Sins. Inside the magazine is a 4 page article.


And staying with the theme and also with Sins, this photo shows Joan in the costume she wore for the Golden Ball scene in the mini-series.

Hope you are enjoying the blog, thanks for the e-mails and keep reading.

Film: Hansel & Gretel

In 1983 Joan was asked to appear in the Faerie Tale Theatre version of Hansel & Gretel, playing not one but TWO parts.



The first still shows her as Hansel & Gretel's Stepmother seen here with woodcutter husband Paul Dooley.

As the story goes they take the children one day deep into the forest in an attempt to lose them and as darkness falls they stumble across a gingerbread house adorned with candy occupied by Joan; heavily disguised as the Wicked Witch seen in this second still with Bridgette Anderson.


I'm sure everyone knows the rest of the story and like most fairy tales it does have a happy ending ...

The film was released straight to video by MGM/UA Home Video in the UK.