Middleton’s 51st Pace Egg performance to feature in BBC Four’s Utopia: In Search of the Dream

Photo: Liz McInnes

Middleton Pace Eggers in 2016

Middleton’s Pace Egg Play is set to feature in the last episode of BBC Four’s ‘Utopia: In Search of the Dream’ on Tuesday (22 August).

The BBC filmed the 51st performance earlier this year, which tells a traditional tale of St George, played by Paul King, a Turkish Knight, played by Mike Cooper, and a doctor, played by Martin Gittens. This year, Derek Humphreys, who has played the King for the last 42 years, performed the role on a mobility scooter and abdicated his throne to Bob Ashworth, who played the specially-created role of Prince Consort for the occasion.

The story is performed in pubs across Middleton, starting at Dusty Miller before heading to The Roebuck, Britannia Inn, The Harbord Harbord, The New Inn, The Olde Boar's Head, and finishing at Ring o Bells.

Pace-egging is an old Easter begging custom dating back centuries. By performing a ‘play’, the poor of the parish could attach some moral legitimacy to asking for money (otherwise illegal), i.e. they were giving entertainment in return for alms.

There certainly seems to have been a Pace-Egging tradition in Middleton in the nineteenth century (though it probably goes back to the seventeenth at least), and this was revived in 1967, largely due to the efforts of Mike Harding.

Martin, who has played the Doctor since 1967, said: “The BBC were there for most of the day and filmed first at the Roebuck before filming other bits and pieces elsewhere.

“I was very impressed and I’m looking forward to watching it.”

Commissioned by Emma Cahusac, the three-part series has seen art historian Professor Richard Clay examine the enduring appeal of utopias and ask what it is in the human condition that yearns for it and what in human nature often frustrates us in getting there.

‘In Search of the Dream’ is part of BBC Four’s Utopias season of programmes celebrating and exploring the ideas, inspirations and visionaries behind the concept of utopia: a place or state of things in which everything is perfect.

Shining a light on the extraordinary individuals who have experimented with culture in the pursuit of a more perfect world, Utopias features a range of programming revealing and interrogating an eclectic range of utopian ideals.

Cassian Harrison, channel editor, BBC Four says: “Utopian ideals and the very idea of utopia itself have always fascinated and inspired the human race - from art and architecture movements, to genres of fiction, new experimental societies and beyond. With the intellectual ambition that is its hallmark, BBC Four is delving into a world of visionaries, philosophers, and genius to examine what propels us to endlessly search out ideas of perfection.”

Utopia: In Search of the Dream airs on BBC Four on Tuesday 22 August at 9pm.