March 16th 2020 was just one of many extremely weird days in recent times. For us at Soho Bites, it was supposed to be the date of a long arranged interview with jazz singer, David Tughan before a gig he was playing at Ronnie Scotts. Earlier that afternoon, Boris Johnson advised clubs, bars and other public places to close. Although the interview and the gig did take place (sort of ), it wasn’t quite the evening we expected…

David Tughan performing at Ronnie Scotts…. on a different occasion.

The virus has affected all of us – some more than others – and it has caused havoc with our recording / release schedule. The second half of the show was originally planned for a later episode but, in the end, it worked out just fine. Dr Adrian Smith, lecturer in film at Sussex University, made a socially distanced return visit to the pod, down the line from his home, to talk about the almost forgotten, Where Has Poor Mickey Gone? from 1964. In a first for Soho Bites, we were also joined by one of the stars of the film.

*UPDATE* Since recording the episode, John Challis has passed away.  He was fantastic in Where Has Poor Mickey Gone? and was a lovely guest to have on the show.  RIP Boycie.

Where Has Poor Mickey Gone? starts with Ottilie Patterson singing the theme tune. To my shame, I’d never heard of her before but now I’m her biggest fan. Discover her yourself on Spotify.

David Tughan’s website is here and his YouTube Channel is here. You can also find him on Twitter and Facebook.

The other musicians performing with David were Renato D’Aiello, Nigel Price, Mirko Scarcia and Alfonso Al Vitale.

Ronnie Scott’s has published an interesting document about the history of the club which you can find here.

You can follow Dr Adrian Smith on Twitter here, read his blog here and check out his film reviews on Letterboxd here.

Watch Where Has Poor Mickey Gone? on the BFI Player here or buy the DVD from UK Rarities here.

You can follow John Challis’s Twitter account, which is now managed by his widow, here.

The founder of Soho Bites, Dr Jingan Young, has launched a new research project. Find out all about it on the Cities in Cinema website and follow the project on Twitter.

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