After twice postponing the original date for the showing of this remarkable documentary, the BBC have finally scheduled transmission for Sunday 19th February at 9pm on their BBC 4 channel. The other good news is that they are following the 75 minute programme with a separate 15 minute film: ‘Barbara Thompson in Concert’ - featuring two of Barbara's compositions – “Stairways” from the Bracknell Jazz Festival in 1979 and “Breathless” from the Stuttgart concert filmed in 2005, from the recently released DVD "Barbara Thompson's Paraphernalia - Live '05".
Anyone interested in Barbara's brave fight to keep playing and writing her music should try to make sure that they watch this very moving programme, depicting the way this progressively debilitating condition (it's not actually defined as a disease) gradually impairs the sufferer's ability to function.
Having watched the preview DVD, I admit that I 'welled- up' on more than one occasion. This highly acclaimed film by eminent director Mike Dibb, shows how, together with drummer Jon Hiseman ( her husband and musical partner for nearly 50 years), she has fought every inch of the way..never ever giving in to 'Mr. Parkinson' as they wryly refer to the awful shadow that fell over Barbara and Jon's life more than 10 years ago.
Try not to miss it.
