Aldeburgh is a wonderful melting pot of events and activities and we appreciate the effort that goes in to making this tapestry so rich. The first weekend in November saw Aldeburgh play host to two events - Poetry in Aldeburgh and the Aldeburgh Documentary Festival. Rumour has it that there were actually people reading poems in the North Sea on the Sunday morning, brrr. We took the warmer option and settled into our seats at Aldeburgh Cinema to listen to Joanna Lumley’s soothing tones as she recounted stories from her travel documentaries. Vanessa Engle was keen to ask her about her interviewing technique and also how different she found documentaries to acting. Joanna explained that you can’t act the real life stuff and that she often found herself in such enchanting or moving situations it was impossible to pretend. From ‘Girl Friday’ through to ‘Japan’ we watched heart warming clips where Joanna just seemed to effortlessly get on with everyone she met even when there were language barriers present. She talked about the great divide that she witnessed between rich and poor but she summed it up by saying that the poorer people were, the more generous they tended to be and how stingy we’ve become in this country. How true. She’s such a natural speaker, so warm and engaging that we could happily have sat there all day. But the cinema had a busy schedule ahead which included the likes of Nick Robinson and Louis Theroux so alas we had to head back to the High Street. O&C Butcher is proud to be one of the Documentary Festival sponsors and for us an added perk was that Joanna Lumley and her good friend Diana Quick popped in to see us later that day. Actress Diana Quick is the Festival’s Artistic Director and has lived in Suffolk since 1981 - it was great to see them in the shop having fun trying on our hats and scarves. Perhaps Joanna should have visited before she filmed Japan! Have a look at photos of their visit to O&C Butcher on our Facebook page here > We look forward to next year’s Festival and we’re grateful for all the hard work put in by Thomas and the team at Aldeburgh Cinema. The cinema is a wonderful venue to have in the town and a fine piece of the Aldeburgh jigsaw. Take a look at what’s on at the cinema at: www.aldeburghcinema.co.uk For more information about the Documentary Festival please visit: www.aldeburghdocfest.com Images courtesy of Nick Tipping, Official Photographer for The Aldeburgh Documentary Festival