Letter: Sound of music

David Johnson
Friday 13 August 1999 00:02 BST
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Sound of music

Sir: I was delighted by David Benedict's piece on my entertainment extravaganza, Sing Along A Sound Of Music ("The stalls are alive ...", 9 August). However, I was less flattered to be described as a plagiarist: the article assumed that I had lifted the idea from the British Film Institute's Lesbian and Gay Film Festival.

Nothing could be further from the truth. I broached the idea with the BFI and in May I sent them a generous offer in terms of money, publicity and the future life of the event. It wasn't until 30 July (long after leaflets had been printed etc) that I received a call from the BFI to say that they didn't want any publicity, any royalty or share of the profits. Obviously the BFI are so well funded that they don't need to profit from the commercial furtherance of their (brilliant) idea.

DAVID JOHNSON

London N7

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