Oliver Twist Party

     It's almost the anniversary for 1982's Oliver Twist. Back then, this article was published in Screen International ,a British publication, at the time the movie was released on American television. The producers and actors threw this party in honor of the film's release. 

     Richard Charles, the boy who brought the definitive version of Oliver to life, is caught in a rare moment off-screen. He apparently attended the party in-character, wearing the aristocratic get-up he wore in the film after Oliver's rescue, when he accepted a charity award for his performance, from Ward Thomas, chairman of Trident Television. I'd never heard of him, though I know of Norton Romsey, Twist's co-producer, but I didn't know he had a title until now. 

     Cherie Lunghi who played Nancy, and Eileen Atkins (Mrs. Bumble), and Oliver Cotton (Monks/Edward Leeford) are also in attendance. An actress who was uncredited (I do remember her scene) also came in character as a Victorian street flower girl. Ted Child's the film's other co-producer is there. Absent, at least in the photos, are the others, including Tim Curry, and George C. Scott, who had top billing as Fagin. I'm guessing Scott was in America at the time. The same might have been true with Curry. Even though he's British, Curry spent a lot of time in America, as I recall, and was working on (or maybe had finished) playing another villain in a screen version of Annie at the time. "Timothy Corrie" is someone entirely different.

      

     One other thing: I wonder why the heck Clive Donner isn't here. He directed, he's British, so he'd surely be in attendance.