Died: April 8, 2021. PETER Terson, who has died aged 89 after suffering from Parkinson’s disease, was a playwright who brought to the stage and screen authentic representations of working-class culture inspired by his childhood in the industrial north-east of England. His first major success, Zigger Zagger, staged at the Jeanetta Cochrane Theatre, London, by the National Youth Theatre in 1967, opened a window on the world of football hooliganism. The 90-strong cast stood in a specially constructed stand, singing their irreverent comments and chants such as “Zigger zagger! Oi! Oi! Oi!”, with some stepping out on to the stage, Greek chorus-style, to play their featured roles.
Last modified on Thu 15 Apr 2021 13.20 EDT
In 1967 the National Youth Theatre in London performed the first new play it had ever commissioned, with 80 performers arranged on a set depicting a football stand. The play would be revived with new casts eight times over the next 20 years, and again at Wilton’s Music Hall in London in 2017. It was televised twice, and entered the school curriculum. The play was Zigger Zagger, and its writer was Peter Terson, who has died aged 89.
The story of teenager Harry Philton and his friend Zigger Zagger, who draws Harry into a band of rioting football fans, has as its timeless theme the poverty of choices faced by a young, working-class male. Terson continued his exploration of this subject the following year with his next National Youth Theatre play, The Apprentices (starring Barrie Rutter), in which exploited young men turn cruelly and violently on each other.
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John Hole as many in Worcester will remember him TRIBUTES have been paid to John Hole, one of the driving forces behind putting Worcester’s theatre on the nationwide map, who has died at the age of 81. John was artistic director of the Swan Theatre from 1967-1974 and Ginney Quiney (formerly Hole) said: “John was the eternal optimist. “He was enterprising, had boundless energy, was dedicated, inventive and a jack of all trades (essential in the early days at the Swan). “He was a strong advocate of regional theatre. Above all he believed passionately that theatre should reach out to the whole community. He expanded the already existing Saturday morning children’s story slot into Children’s Theatre with a weird and wonderful set of regular characters, including himself as an ill-starred conjurer with two puppets (Jaspar the Monkey and a rabbit called Sainsbury).