In the original stage production of Comedians by Trevor Griffiths, of the two brothers, Ged and Phil Murray, one of them is a big blue, and has a bloody great rattle on stage which he makes a hell of a row with. I never saw it, but I know it was first performed at the Nottingham Playhouse. I saw it a few years later, in London.
A fine play, by the way. Griffiths is I think a lifelong blue — born and grew up in Ancoats, anyway. I wrote to him two eyears back, but he never replied. He's pretty elderly now, it has to be said. I had an idea for doing a play, or short tv series, about the Lancashire cotton strike during the American Civil War. I still think it's a good idea, and I'm certain it's never been done.