The New Murrey and Blue blog

I attended the day of presentations at Richard III’s church of St Alkelda, which formed part of the Middleham Festival weekend, celebrating the anniversary of Richard’s coronation, 6th July 1483.

The first act at 11.00 am was just that – acting! It was a one man play: Andrew Slade in ‘1 King, 2 Princes & Shakespeare’s Lie’. It began with the traditional Richard, entering in a sinister cloak covering his head, a hump on his back, even a limp and a withered arm. However, it was soon revealed that this was just Shakespeare’s version. The hump and withered arm disappeared and the hump was revealed as a folded up bag containing the props – the items that actually burdened him: his crown, his name, his nephews and Shakespeare’s work. Andrew Slade delivered a fluent and dramatic monologue revealing the truth: the fair judgements he’d made, the problems he’d had to deal with and the lies that were told about him after his demise. It was completely captivating and ended with a vote: innocent or guilty of the princes’ murder – the audience had to present a card showing a white or red rose. Of course, it was unanimous: innocent! There was a previous review of this play here: https://murreyandblue.co.uk/2026/03/30/andrew-slade-one-king-two-princes-and-shakespeares-lie/

Next, at 1.00 pm Richard Goddard presented ‘The Route to, and the Battle of Tewkesbury’, revealing a lot of detail I didn’t know about, such as that Margaret of Anjou had landed at Weymouth and had at one point gone to Bath, where she fed and watered her army and picked up some cannon! Not only was it very interesting, but Richard Goddard made it entertaining too, joking that, when she found out about Warwick’s death, Henry VI’s capture and Edward’s regaining of the crown, she would have made a better choice if she’d just had some fish and chips in Weymouth and gone straight back to France!

Finally, at 2.30 pm Actor-Director Thomas Dennis & Author Matt Lewis presented ‘A Taste of Loyalty: Richard III at the Battle of Barnet’. Matt Lewis presented the background to Barnet and Richard’s life leading up to then, including the powerful people he made enemies of during his life. I love the story of how Richard sided with the Harringtons against the Stanleysand prevented Thomas Stanley firing his huge cannon, Mile End, at the Castle by simply entering it himself, basically challenging Stanley to fire at the king’s brother. Of course, he didn’t dare! And Richard was only a teenager then. After that, we got to view the short film, A Taste of Loyalty, in which Thomas Dennis stars as Richard (and Matt Lewis makes an appearance too!) This is the crowdfunded short film, made using authentic re-enactors, armoured authentically, with props, clothing and colours as they would have been at the time. It will be used to show potential directors, etc, and pitch to make a full length, authentic film of Richard’s life, based on Matt Lewis’s novel, Loyalty. I was pleased to hear that they have ‘red lines’ which they won’t allow directors to cross, so we should hopefully end up with a magnificent, entertaining film, true to the life and history of the period, unlike the recent dire offering, King and Conqueror, which was supposedly portraying the period leading up to the Normal Conquest.