A promotional mock up of Peter as WT Stead
A regional editor joked that he had sacked his long-serving deputy after a less-than-flattering review of his performance on stage.
Northern Echo boss Peter Barron took to the stage at Darlington’s Civic Theatre last night to play his illustrious predecessor WT Stead in a production of ‘Titanic: The Musical.’
The show was reviewed in today’s newspaper by deputy editor Chris Lloyd, who remarked that Peter’s performance had been “more wooden than WT Stead’s original chair.”
It led to a humourous exchange on the microblogging site Twitter in which Peter joked that he had exiled Chris to the paper’s district office in Bishop Auckland.
The series of exchanges began when Peter commented: “Just read The Northern Echo’s take on Titanic: The Musical last night. It raves about the show but not about this editor’s performance…”
Regional MD David Coates then sent Peter a tongue-in-cheek message on Twitter asking whether any disciplinary action against Chris was pending.
Peter replied: “He’s now working in our Bishop Auckland office.”
To clarify matters, he later Tweeted: “For the one or two who didn’t catch the irony. I haven’t really sacked Chris Lloyd for his review of me in Titanic. It was a joke…”
WT Stead, who is credited by Peter with laying the foundations of the Echo as a campaigning newspaper, died on the supposedly unsinkable vessel after it struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage in 1912.
Peter was asked to play him in the Darlington Operatic Society’s current production which marks the 100th anniversary of the tragedy.
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The sad thing is that it had to be clarified that it was a joke. HR must have shat themselves!
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Come on HTFP this is a silly story. Who cares?
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Nice to see the staff of the Northern Echo apparently have time to jest about while JP hacks countrywide are waiting to see what the future holds…
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[sighs]
@formerjourno, Has the news agenda in this industry become so serious that there is no room for humour any more? Moreorless every time we do anything remotely tongue-in-cheek on this site, someone like you complains that it’s not really a story.
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Paul, you don’t have to justify yourself to bitter and twisted creatures with the time to snipe from the sidelines. I’ve got no problem with sniping – I rather like it myself – but old misery guts has lost his sense of perspective.
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Well said, Paul.
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@Paul – No problem with funny / tongue-in-cheek stuff, but another Peter Barron story? Really? What next – ‘newsflash, Peter takes a dump’?
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God this is painful!
Filed under… it seemed like a funny story at the time!
Cringeing!
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Yeah, well said Paul. It’s a nice quirky story. It made me smile.
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What next for Barron? The RSC in Much Ado About Nothing? Would the production make it to a Twelfth Night or would it be a Comedy of Errors? Perhaps it could be rounded off with All’s Well That Ends Well.
Seriously, critics should lay off. Peter Barron is a top journalist, and, thanks to his brilliance at self-publicity and not taking himself too seriously, the Northern Echo is rarely out of the limelight.
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Perhaps formerjourno is looking at the wrong website.
Maybe s/he should instead keep tabs on whichever industry is lucky enough to be enjoying the fruits of their talents.
Or maybe they just can’t let go…
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Ho, ho, ho, my sides are aching. Please Mr Barron, no more of your hilarious japes.
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