Talking Statues

The latest way of bringing statues to life in London and Manchester is Sing London’s Talking Statues. You need a smartphone to avail yourself of this novelty. You place your smartphone on the tab provided and a moment later receive a phone call from the person or animal depicted by the statue. I heard some of them yesterday on a BBC News video. Prunella Scales as Queen Victoria in Manchester’s Piccadilly Gardens and Nicholas Parsons as Samuel Johnson’s cat Hodge in Gough Square struck me as particularly amusing. Part of the fun is identifying the famous voice. Shown is Sir Eduardo Paolozzi's Statue of Isaac Newton (1995) based on the famous William Blake monoprint of Newton plotting the immensity of the Universe. It sits in the Piazza of the British Library (CLICK). There is a competition to write a monologue for William Shakespeare. CLICK for a list of statues already primed to give your phone a ring.