Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

Film and TV productions across the years

Alice's Adventures In Wonderland starring Fiona Fullerton made in 1972

introduction	picnic and rabbit	the pool of tears	caterpillar to duchess	a mad tea party
a game of croquet	the lobster quadrille	the trials beginning	odds and ends	next film

Roy Kinnear's Cheshire Cat puts in another appearance as he materialises in the sky above the croquet ground. The King asks who he is and, when Alice introduces him, the King suggests the cat might like to kiss his hand.

This doesn't go down too well with the cat, who refuses, and the King gets the Queen to order the usual execution."They seem awfully fond of beheading people around here," thought Alice.

An arguement then develops about a head needing to be attached to a body before it can be chopped off. The Duchess is called to sort it out but the Cat of course doesn't hang around for long and disappears again.

The Queen confronts the Duchess, with those immortally friendly (!) words -"Either you, or your head, must be off!" The Duchess takes the sensible course of action and runs for it. The Queen then takes Alice to see the Mock Turtle.

The Mock Turtle is played by Sir Michael Hordern, an actor with a wonderfully deadpan comic style. Hordern was not only adept at playing comedy, but also a renowned classical actor and his "King Lear" is considered one ofthe great performances.

The Gryphon is played by Spike Milligan, one of the funniest men on the planet. Milligan had a long history of writing and performing comedy and was able to reduce an audience to helpless laughter with a single mad glare. I know, I've been there!

Fiona Fullerton gets a lot of fun out of this scene, especially during the Lobster Quadrille when the trio leap and cavort around the set. Michael Hordern is "doubled" during the more energetic portions of the dance.

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