Max Boyce - Television and Other Side Projects

Television and Other Side Projects

As Boyce's popularity became established throughout Wales and the United Kingdom, he became involved in many side projects, including three books, several television series and televised concerts, and three multi-part television specials produced by Opix Films.

Boyce's spoken and sung poetry was first collected in Max Boyce: His Songs and Poems in 1976, with an introduction by Barry John. The comic illustrations that accompany the poems were drawn by his friend Gren Jones of the South Wales Echo (who had also illustrated the cover of We All Had Doctors' Papers). This publication was followed up with a similar collection, I Was There!, in 1980.

In 1982, Boyce went to the United States to be filmed participating at a training camp held by the Dallas Cowboys in California. The resulting four-part series, Max Boyce Meets The Dallas Cowboys was screened by Channel 4 in November that year. He returned to America in early 1984 to try his hand at being a cowboy in the rodeos of the Midwestern United States. The result of his bull riding and rodeo clown antics was Boyce Goes West, which also became a four-part series that went to air in June 1984. In the following year, Boyce took part in the World Elephant Polo Championships near Kathmandu, Nepal, with an all-star team sponsored by the jewellers and watch-makers Cartier. Not surprisingly, his team, consisting of Ringo Starr, Barbara Bach, Billy Connolly and Cartier chairman Alain Perrin, only managed to score a single goal during the tournament. To the North of Katmandu was released in 1986. These made-for-television adventures in America and Nepal, as well as many other anecdotes of his worldwide touring throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s, became the focus of an autobiography, Max Boyce in the Mad Pursuit of Applause, which was first published in 1987.

In 1991, Boyce entered the world of theatre by taking on the title role of "Jack" in Jack and the Beanstalk alongside Ian Botham. Debuting in the Alhambra Theatre in Bradford, the show went on to play in other centres including Cardiff, Norwich and Edinburgh.