In fact though that wasn’t quite the end of the anniversary story. While the teams had been dancing in Reading on Sunday, they were seen by one of the BBC Radio Berkshire presenters on the Andrew Peach morning show, newsreader Sarah Walker, who reported on air on the Monday morning that she had seen “an obscene amount of morris dancers in Reading on Sunday”, including “some women dancing with what looked like pallet knives…”. This was latched on during the show, and people were asked to phone in if they had any idea what it was about. Eventually Brian from Kennet phoned in, and explained it was to do with Berkshire Bedlam’s 40th birthday celebrations. He was asked about us, and somehow in the ensuing dialogue we were described first as ‘cabaret morris’, and then somehow as ‘almost burlesque dancers’. As a result of this, we were immediately invited to go on the show the next day (Tuesday 25 July) to show what ‘burlesque cabaret morris’ was all about (gulp). Anyway, as a result, Alun, Mark, Charles, and Malcolm all went along to the studio next morning and were featured on the show from about 9.15 to 9.45, including a short demonstration done to the music of an iPhone held to a microphone – not ideal but just about worked. And after doing it the 3 presenters also had a go – Andrew Peach, Sarah, and sports guy Ady Williams, a Welsh football international and former captain of Reading FC. Not sure what they all made of it, especially Ady, but they seemed impressed, especially by the fact that (apart from Malcolm) the dancers were all young!
