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Title: HALFWAY TO PARADISE: AL JOLSON

Reference number: 2325

Date: 1988

Director: [d. Maureen White ]

Sponsor: [ Channel 4 Television]

Production company: [ Big Star in a Wee Picture]

Sound: sound

Original format: 16mm

Colour: col

Fiction: non-fiction

Running time: 7.46 mins

Description: Interview with Hugh Dempster who talks about his career as a drag and mime artist. Shots of Dempster as Al Jolson in Glasgow streets. He defends his act against accusations of racism.

Film insert from Channel 4 magazine series HALFWAY TO PARADISE, transmitted Autumn 1988. Catalogued selected stories from series. Studio links, captions and stills not recorded on film but supplied by VT inserts (not acquired by Archive).

Credits: [cam. Jan Pester]
[series p. Don Coutts, Stuart Cosgrove]

Shotlist: No credits. Interview with Hugh Dempster, Glaswegian, in his home. He talks about his career as a drag and mime artist, and as Al Jolson. General views of Dempster miming to Al Jolson music in Glasgow streets and performing for an OAP's club. Shots in house making up for the part and getting dressed. Voice-over on how he defends his act against accusations of racism (7.46).