In this illustrated talk, our Festival Director Charlotte Crofts riffs off Pauline Kael’s famous quote: "Cary Grant’s romantic elegance is wrapped around the resilient, tough core of a mutt, and Americans dream of thoroughbreds while identifying with mutts" as a key to exploring some of Cary Grant's less glamorous roles. Grant never lost sight of his working-class Bristol roots (even though he replaced his Bristolian burr with a transatlantic accent) and played several Cockney's (with varying degrees of success with the dialect!).

The talk also explores Grant's on and off-screen relationships with dogs and outlines his connections to Bristol’s other most famous son, Nipper, the Bristol-born mongrel immortalised in the Francis Barraud painting His Master’s Voice, later adopted as the logo of a record label – who might even be more globally recognised than our Archie! Nipper also makes a guest appearance in Penny Serenade.

We want to make the festival accessible whatever your budget, but for those that can afford it, we'd really appreciate it if you can give generously to keep the festival afloat in these difficult times.

We rely on ticket sales as our main source of income, but Covid-19 has made this impossible this year, creating a huge shortfall in our finances. We're a biennial festival so we’re hoping by 2022 we'll be able to return to live events, but in the meantime we’re determined to celebrate Cary Grant as best we can virtually.

His Master's Voice: Cary Grant, Nipper and the Bristol Burr - illustrated talk with Charlotte Crofts