TIME

There was a hilarious documentary about Dave Clarke, which made extensive use of EPK footage of Sir Larry singing Dave Clarke's praises

As Stuart Maconie described the doc "Kim Jong Il would have found it a bit one sided"

All of that... and I loved it! Didn't see Cliff, think it was David Cassidy by the time I went.

8min onwards seems to have some footage from the stage production.

I couldn't remember clearly either so went in search of pictures and instead came across this Tomorrow's World report on how they achieved some of the special effects used - it gives some impression of the staging but I found it more fascinating to see what was considered ground-breaking enough 30 years ago to warrant a Tomorrow's  World slot compared to what is now achievable!

I remember for a while there was a fad for using the same type of projection on to mannequins in shops, but it really didn't work all that well when there was plenty of ambient lighting. It didn't help that there was rarely any great effort put into aligning the projection with the mannequin. The end result was that all too often you ended up with glowing figures with their faces crawling round to the side of their heads like radioactive flatfish. Attention-catching, certainly, but I doubt it did much to increase sales.

The whole of the stage floor raised up off the ground and then tiltrd 90 degress so it was niw facing the audience. Actually that moment is my current profile picture! If you enlarge it you can see how huge it was.

There were huge floating hydraulic chairs that seemed to float across the stage. It had more hydraulics than Metropolis and the stage had to be dug out and rebuilt to hold it all.

There was a thread on here a while ago about Time and its staging.

Indeed, I wasn't suggesting it was the first time effects were used, simply that the methods used to produce them which were seen as so ground-breaking then are very old hat now!

Im gonna guess that it was pre-recorded because of the amount of comments I've read about him blatantly reading his lines off cue (card or autocue). I'm guessing if he had been on for any significant run he'd have gotten to a point of learning lines. But if anyone can correct me...

Oh, no, Olivier was never live during this. He was very frail at the time, and I do believe he died shortly after the run or thereabouts. But it was cruel to expose him reading his lines. It may not have been noticed on a small monitor but when he is projected so large his eye movements reading give the game away. And it is a shame the process did not allow for any head movement. His head must have been in a clamp when he was filmed. Today things would be so much easier - well look at The Tempest down the road, though as usual the physical effects are the best.

I’ve been doing some random research into John Napier’s more epic set designs today and thought you’d appreciate these @tbfl if you haven’t seen them already. That was one immense fit-up, and the scale of design we’re unlikely to see again. I saw it as a kid towards the end of it’s run at the Dominion and it was unlike anything I’d ever seen - comparable to modern day Cirque shows in Vegas. 

No worries - your profile pic always brings up great childhood memories.

I thought that too about the 2nd photo but there are details in there that make me think it’s the real thing. Like the revolving flood lights built into the side walls (which I loved when I saw it) and that projection mapped ceiling. Not sure. But a fascinating archive either way.