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A lady who lived life to the full

It was announced yesterday that Clarissa Dickson Wright had died, aged 66. Although I shall leave full appreciations of her life to the media obituary writers, I noted that in the piece by Quentin Letts in the Daily Mail today that – according to Who’s Who – her recreations were listed as [...]

March 18, 2014 // 0 Comments

All’s well that ends well – even if it was short

It all started at a raucous dinner party for eight in Camden town last December. In the middle of an animated and hilarious conversation comparing our youthful theatre and stage performances, exhilarating and embarrassing, I found myself accepting a dare from a West End producer. I had better [...]

March 17, 2014 // 0 Comments

Classic FM

Alongside the more highbrow Radio 3, Classic FM is regarded as the Reader’s Digest of classical music. It repeats well-known classics, what impresario Victor Hochauser called the bank manager’s choice, and has disc jockeys. In some programmes the jockettes  have velvety sensual [...]

March 17, 2014 // 0 Comments

The Men Responsible

We film critics love to interview the stars but not the movers and shakers of the  industry. This is part of the celebrity culture where supposedly readers prefer the inanities of a luvvie to hearing about how a successful or more often unsuccessful film is made. Yesterday I had a drink with an [...]

March 13, 2014 // 0 Comments

A glitch a day keeps the listener awake

As a habitual night-owl, I tend to spend the wee hours drinking black coffee whilst sitting at my computer and listening to the radio on my stereo earphones. Just occasionally, on Radio Five Live’s Up All Night [0100 to 0500 hours] show an historic news item breaks … or some unexpectedly [...]

March 12, 2014 // 0 Comments

Like an old friend whose brilliance never fades

Several weeks ago now, Channel Four broadcast the Mel Brooks’ classic 1968 movie The Producers, featuring Zero Mostel as Max Byalistock and Gene Wilder as Leo Bloom. The same year, Brooks received an Academy Award for ‘Best Writing, Story and Screenplay – Written Directly for the Screen’ [...]

March 11, 2014 // 0 Comments

Peter Callander

Reading the obit section of the Times, I was saddened to read of the passing of songwriter Peter Callander as 44 years ago we met him on a family holiday in Rhodes.  He was the sort of fellow you would want to meet on holiday: jovial, fun loving and generous.  In that half-hearted way one does [...]

March 8, 2014 // 0 Comments

It wouldn’t have happened in my day …

The technical quality of BBC television programme production has been plummeting this week and you don’t have to be a telly insider to notice it. On Thursday evening, the distinctly average The One Show on (BBC1, weekdays at 7.00pm) – a programme whose audience consists mostly of people [...]

March 8, 2014 // 0 Comments

Fond memories revived

I was a huge fan of the satirical series Spitting Image, which celebrates its thirtieth anniversary with the opening of an exhibition Spitting Image From Start To Finish at London’s Cartoon Museum that will run until 8th June and BBC Arena documentary scheduled to be broadcast on BBC4 on 20th [...]

March 5, 2014 // 0 Comments

10 films about music

Music films, like sports films, can suffer as an actor is not a musician. Against that you can rely on a good score. Here are 10 of my favourites: 1. Spinal Tap 1984 Rob Reiner Rock music is not noted for either its humour or self-criticism but this film achieves both, an achingly funny [...]

March 3, 2014 // 3 Comments

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