The Links Here Provide A Literary Buffet. Select What You Find Most Appealing From Those Set Out Below. This Is Another One of Our ‘Pods On A Page’ Interviews. (For Some of The Content In The Later Links Simply Click On Page ‘2’ At the End of The Page)
Click Box On Bottom Right To Expand Video To Fullscreen).
(Centre Photo By Sharron White): The Multi-Talented Judith Jacob; (Left Video): Bright & Bubbly Wearing White Headband In A ‘Grease’ The Movie Comedy Sketch; (Right Video): Wearing Headscarf In An ‘EastEnders’ BBC Soap Opera Comedy Sketch.
A Little Yabba Yabba With Judith Jacobs
For The Last Three Years We’ve Conducted A Mother’s Day Interview Each March With A Mum That’s Caught Our Attention For One Reason or Another. This Years It’s Acting Veteran, DJ (Disc Jockey) & PT (Personal Trainer) Judith Jacob, Who Has A Daughter With Whom She’s Super Close.
Ms Jacob Is Very Particular, Wonderfully Eloquent, A Natural Proponent of Clear & Consistent Enunciation, Abreast of Current Affairs, And One Half of One of The Most Successful Relationships In Showbusiness. Therefore She Made For Great Conversation!
Being A Straight-Talker And Wonderfully Clear She Points Out To TheOrator.Press (TO.P) That She Is Not A Comedian. Nor A Comedy Actress. She’s Simply An Actress Who Can Do Comedy. As A Member of The BBCs Ground-Breaking Pioneering Satirical Comedy of The 1980s And 90s ‘The Real McCoy’ She Tells How Those Two Facts Co-exist In Reality And About The Different Influences In Her Life Over The Years, Including Actresses Betty Davis, Joan Crawford, And Diahann Carroll (Who Starred In ‘Nurse Julia’ During The 1970s) And Martial Arts Expert Bruce Lee.
Interestingly, Having Been Inspired By Diahann Carroll Playing Nurse Julia, Judiths’s First Official Acting Gig Was Playing A Student Nurse In ‘Angels’ The 1970s & 80s BBC TV Series. Diahann Carroll Would Later Star Alongside Joan Collins In The 1990s Glamourous Soap Opera Dynasty. She Was Also Famous For Her Starring Role Alongside Sidney Poitier, Paul Newman And Joanne Woodward In The Great 1961 Film Paris Blues. @judithjacob1313
Judith Is An Alumni of The Famous Anna Shear Theatre School, A Former BBC EastEnder And Albert Square Resident (Health Worker ‘Carmel Edwards’), A Lifelong Fitness Fan, And A Busy Busy Sexagenarian, With A Weekly Thursday Afternoon Radio Show On Reggae Station Conscious Radio 102 FM. There, For Over A Decade, She’s Been Playing Great Reggae Music, Adding Quality Chat With Commentary On News And Current Affairs, And Conducting Interviews With Engaging Guests From World of Reggae And Entertainment.
She’s Also A Former Talk Show Host, At One Stage Having Had Her Own Show (Yabba Yabba) Broadcast From A Local Community Centre. Now She’s Also On The Verge of Becoming An Author Having Been Asked Write Her Autobiography.
Just As We Were Leaving For The Interview A Friend of Ours Popped By Unexpectedly In Need of A Sympathetic Ear As He Had Recently Lost His Father. We Didn’t Have The Heart To Turn Him Away So We Invited Him To Come Along With Us (Something That’s Never Happened Before). Judith Was Understanding And So That’s Him You Here From Time To Time In The Background. The Two of Them Got On Just Fine Which Was Good And Testament To What A Great Lady She Is.
This March There’s Been A Lot Going On, So We Just Jumped Right On In As We Got Stuck In To A Palazzo Pizza (With Scotch Bonnet Honey). Yep, That’s A Thing At Palazzo’s Italian Restaurant Crystal Palace, South East London Where We Had Our Amicable Aternoon Assignation. There Was Also A Cocktail or Two And Some Wine. Well, It Was A Sunday Afternoon, The News Is Nuts Right Now, And There’s So Much To Talk About @bar.palazzo. (Seperate Review In This Month’s Issue).
We Hope You Enjoy This Latest Interview In Our ‘Pods On A Page’ Interview Series.
Yabba Yabba – No Shade – BUFF – Diahann Carroll As Nurse Julia
Independent Film ‘No Shade’ Was Released In 2018. It’s A Social Comment Movie About The Timeless Issue of ‘Colourism’ As Perpetrated Generally By Society Against Members of The Black Community. And Sadly Sometimes By The Black Community Against Itself.
It Starred And Was Written & Directed By The BUFF (Black Urban Film Festival) Co-Director Clare Anyiam Osigwe And Judith Was In It Alongside Her. Recently Judith Subsequently Narrated A New Boxing Film Which Was Featured At The BUFF (Black Urban Film Festival) Awards In December 2022. @bufilmfest
We Attended The Event In December 2021 And We Know It’s A Hotbed of Black Talent including The Great And The Good And Also Emerging Stars From Within The Film Industry, So On Seeing Her Pictured At The Glamourous Event We Decided To Reach Out For A Chat & A Catch Up. We Finally Got Together This Earlier This Month (March 2023) Some Three Months Later. Being Naturally Transparent And Quite The Intellectual She Didn’t Disappoint! She’s Eloquent, Fiesty, Fit As Fiddle And Full of Things To Say About Issues of The Day. And Back In The Day!
Film Maker Claire Is Married To Emmanuel The Founder of BUFF (The Black Urban Film Awards) @bufilmfest. She Later Asked Judith To Do The Voiceover For A Boxing Documentary And Judith Was Subsequently Invited To The Screening of The Film And In Turn The BUFF Awards. So She’s Very Offay With The Organisation.
TO.P: And How Did You Find The Night?
JJ: Wow! What A Night. I Saw Some Films That I’d Never Obviously Known About. Seen. Heard.
TO.P: Which Just Shows We Are Under Represented
JJ: Totally… And Some Stories That You’re Like Woe That Was Deep. That Was Deep. People Were Very Open About Their Stories. One Women Did A Story About Going To Prison For Her Sister. And I Thought That Would Be Me. I’d Be In Prison For My Sister Because That’s The Only Time I’d Get Involved – Would Be If You Trouble With My Family. I Think They Were Great.
Anyway It Was Eye-Opening And There Were Friends of Mine Who Were In Some The Films There.
I Made Connections With People I Was Just In Awe of That They Did What They Did. I Can Talk A Lot But Nothing Happens. These Guys Probably Didn’t Even Talk, They’re Just Like “How Can We Make This Happen?”
TO.P: The Next Generation, They’re Much More Fearless Aren’t They?
JJ: They Are.
PODs On A Page: Betty Davis, Joan Crawford, Diahann Carroll (As Nurse Julia)
PODs On A Page: Judith On Meeting Clare Anyiam Osigwe Whilst Presenting Her Talk Show Yabba Yabba
PODs On A Page: Inzinga
PODs On A Page: Modern Day Youngsters And Technology
It All Kicked Off At The BBC As Sports Presenter Gary Lineker Stood His Ground And Saw His Co-Presenters Speak Up & Support Him In A Show of Solidarity & Loyalty After He Criticised The Government’s Language Around Its Anti-Immigration Policy
Gary Lineker Criticised The ‘1930s’ Language of Sunak’s Government In Relation To Immigration.. The Merriam Webster Dictionary Defines Nationalism As Central To Facism (The German Nazi Regime 1933-45). A Populist Political Philosophy, Movement or Regime.
That Puts ‘Nation’ And Race Above The Individual, An Autocratic Government, Severe Social & Economic Conditions, A Dictator, And Suppression of Any Oppositon.
(They Also Often Use Violent Combat Groups As Foot Soldiers To Terrorise). Anti-Immigration Policies, Zenophobia And White Supremacy Also Often Feature, As Does Divide And Conquer, Division & Disunity And Hateful Philosophy.
Eddie Nestor (The Veteran BBC Radio London DJ And A Fellow Real McCoy Member), Football Commentators Ian Wright And Alan Shearer, Plus Other BBC Presenters Recently Made Clear In A Show of Solidarity Following The BBC’s Request That Gary Lineker “Step Back” From Presenting The Flagship Football Programme Match of The Day, That They Would Follow Him Out If The Corporation Took Dismissal Action Against Him. This Was After He Criticised Rishi Sunak’s Tory Government’s Language On It’s Extreme Anti-Immigration ‘Rwanda Policy’. @garylineker @eddienestor @alanshearer @alexscott2 @wrightyofficial
Meantime The Government Had Not Covered Itself In International Glory After Turning Afghans Who Helped Britain In The Afghan War As Interpreters And Later Abandoned Them In The Failed British And American Afghan Evacuation of August 2021. A Subsequent Official Report Outlined It’s Failures (Which Included The Trump And The Subsequent Biden Administrations, As Well As Britain).
We Asked Judith What She Makes of The Anti-Immigration Language Linekar Was Talking About.
POD On A Page: The BBC Kicking off On Match of The Day Presenter Gary Lineker
POD On A Page: Colleagues Support Gary Lineker
POD On A Page: The Foul Language of Suella & Sunak
POD On A Page: Economic Migration Historically Natural (Prime Example The Potato Famine)
Prince William’s Biased Perspective Exposed By Tweet On European Wars
Judith Also Makes The Poignant Observation That Impartiality Was Missing When Various News Presenters On National News Stations (As Well As Prince William) Made Comments Along The Lines of Ukrainians Are “Europeans Who Look Like Us And Are Not The Kind of People We Anticipate Having Such Random Wars” (Implicitly Compared To Black And Brown In African or Caribbean Nations).
The Gushing And Biased Favourable Response To Ukranian Desire To Come To Britain Is A Bias Noticed By Various Members of The Black And Brown Community.
On Social Media Prince William Got Taken To Task About His Comments, Not Least of All Because This Highly Educated, Multi-Lingual, Arguably Fraternally Disloyal Royal, Seemed To Forget Both World War I & II Were Started In Europe By Aggressive, Belligerent, Caucasian Europeans.
Similarly Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Language During PMQ’s Earlier This Month Wherein He Referred To Lawyers Helping Migrants As “Looney Left Lawyers” Was For Some, Deeply Disappointing From A Leader.
Firstly He’s The Prime Minister And Should Be Impartial And More Respectful When It Comes To Respecting The Need To Uphold The Rule of Law In A Democracy.
Secondly Not All Lawyers Who Represent Migrants Are Left Wing. Some of The Rich Oligarchs For Instance Which Boris Welcomed With Open Arms Needed Help From Immigration Lawyers. But As The Government Has Shown The World, Some Immigrants Are Considered More Acceptable Than Others.
Thirdly The Language He Was Using Is Re-Trumplican And Many Re-Trumplicans Are Known To Be Nazi Sympathizers Or Self-Confessed Nationalists. Trump Himself Has Admitted To Being A Nationalist.
Whatsapp With Hancock & Oakshot
Paul Brand At ITV @paulbrandtv Has Done Some Great Work on PartyGate/GatherGate And Various Other Things, Including Finding Out What Was Going On Behind The Scenes With Matt Hancock When He Was Health Secretary And Communicating Extensively Via WhatsApp Messages.
Hancock Reportedly Came Down Heavy On His Fellow Tory Ministers To Come Down Heavy On The Police To Rough Up Perceived Covid Rule Breakers. This In Turn Had Real World Consequences For The Black Community Members As The Police Harassed Black Men And Boys In The Street. Many of Whom Were Frontline Workers.
This Resulted In A Major Incident Where A Young Black Boy Was Harassed By The Metropolitan Police And Dragged To A London Police Station, Which Led To Protests (Increasing The Protestor’s Chances of Catching Covid; Which Is Another Example of How The Disease Effected Black And Brown Communities Disproportionately).
POD On A Page: Oakshot And Hancock
Mother’s Day
Judith Reveals That Mother’s Day Is Actually Bittersweet For Her Because At An Early Age She Lost Her Own Mother And Yet At The Same Time She Is Very Close To Her Own Daughter. So Much So That Her Daughter Has Followed In Her Mother’s Footsteps And Joined The Performing Arts Industry. Above The Two Are Pictured At A Screening of The 2022 Documentary Film ‘Blacks Can’t Swim’ (Which Features British Olympic Swimmer Alice Dearing As One of Two Black Youngsters From Different Classes, With Different Attitudes. One of Them Can Swim And One of Them Can’t!).
POD On A Page: Mother’s Day Being Bittersweet
POD On A Page: Judith’s Close Relationship With Daughter
The Bibi Crew & The Welsh Contingent
March 1st Is St. David’s Day With St David Being The Patron Saint of Wales. Daffodils Are Representative of Spring (Which Begins In March) And Also Representative of Wales. We Love Flowers Here At TO.P And So Have Been Keen To Highlight The Connections Between Daffodils, Wales And The Black Community. We Asked Judith If She Has Any Such Connections.
The Good News Is That She Does. Actress Suzanne Packer of The BibiCrew @thebibicrew Who Lives In Wales, As Does Her Brother Gold Medal Hurdler Turned Commentator Colin Jackson @colinrayjackson.
The Bad News Is They Recently Lost A Good Friend Who Was Part of That Connection. Her Friend Josephine Melville Died In October 2022 (Just A Few Months Ago) Following Breathing Difficulties Shortly After Coming off Stage And Feeling Breathless. She Had Just Delivered The Last of Her Lines In A Play Called ‘Nine Nights’ Staged In Nottingham. @colinrayjackson
Judith Was Visibly Moved By Recalling The Loss of Her Friend And Fellow Bibi Crew Member And Is Still In The Process of Coming To Terms With It. Our Condolenses Go Out To Her And All Jo’s Family And Friends.
In 2002 (Virtually Twenty Years Earllier) The Bibi Crew Collective of Actors, Writers, Producers And Directors Lost Another Founding Member Namely The Late Joanne Campbell. The Legacy of The Group Lives On.
PODs On A Page: The Bibi Crew @thebibicrew And The Welsh Contingent (March 1st Is Saint David’s Day)
PODs On A Page: Setting Up The Bibi Crew (1991)
PODs On A Page: Losing A Bibi Crew Member (2022)
POD On A Page: The International Women’s Day Awards (Dr. Charmaine Brown Charmaine Simpson And Angela Rose)
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