Copyright: ROB McGibbon clearly stated in print and online… not that any news outlet or journalist gave a four X!
Despite numerous requests for interviews from national newspapers to mark her 50th, Denise chose to do this interview exclusively with Rob McGibbon so that she could have confidence in the accuracy of the text. It was then syndicated to the wider media to gain maximum coverage…
Looking slim, fit and sexy, Denise van Outen strikes a raunchy and assured pose in a stunning exclusive new photo shoot with Karis Kennedy to mark turning 50.
The actress and TV star, who hits 50 today, has released the photos to celebrate how she is embracing the new decade with gusto.
In an exclusive interview, the Chicago performer and former Big Breakfast presenter reveals how she is striding into her fifties feeling “blessed” that so many aspects of her life are in the best shape ever.
In the wide-ranging talk, Denise opens up to reveal how:
– regular therapy sessions have given her a stronger mental health balance
– she has joined celebrity dating app Raya and is relishing the freedom of single life
– her acting and showbiz career is burgeoning in multiple new directions
– is preparing to fulfil a lifetime ambition to scale Mount Everest
Essex-born Denise – who has a 14 year old daughter called Betsy with ex-husband Lee Mead – is now gearing up for a year of celebrations to reflect hew new-found joie de vivre.
Denise on: Fitness, mental health and hitting the big 5-0…
“I feel great and I’m really happy about turning 50. With age, comes wisdom, and I’ve learned a lot of things about caring for myself better. If I think back to how I was at 40, I can see that I definitely make much more of an effort to look after myself now.
‘I have always kept myself physically fit because you have to be healthy in a career like mine. But these days I have a better balance and variety. I train in the gym and I play sport, like golf. I really look after myself and I only drink sporadically. I was a party girl in the 90s, but not too much because I was always working. I monitor my drinking and I’m more moderate now. If I go and party, I do it more during the day because I like a good night’s sleep.
‘But the big difference these days is that I also look after my mental health. I never really did things like this in the past, but as you get older, you realise it’s so important to look after your mind, as well as your body. I used to think therapy was a very sort of “American” thing, but I have since discovered that quite a lot of people do it – and I think it’s great.
‘I went into therapy about two years ago and have a session every two weeks – either on Zoom or face-to-face. Sometimes it’s just once a month. It depends what’s going on and how much stress I have in my life. It’s great just having that time to just sit down and discuss how you are feeling.
‘I have really close friends that I can speak to, but we all have really busy lives, so it’s nice to speak to somebody who is totally impartial. I’m a big supporter of having therapy because this is where you can talk about certain situations that are affecting you, or if things are getting too much.
‘I have been working in this industry since I was seven and I have been in the public eye since I did The Big Breakfast when I was 23. There has been a price to pay for all that. You sometimes feel like you live in a bit of a bubble and it makes you a bit closed off. Over the years I’ve felt like I can’t open up about how I’m feeling, but now it’s different. I can talk now and get my head around what is happening to me.
‘Back in the 1990s, anything I said or did would end up in a newspaper, so I became quite guarded and had trust issues. I decided that it was really important for me to start to address some of the situations I’d found myself in and change how I was affected by them.
‘Therapy has been really good for me and has helped me learn a lot about myself. I think the work I have done on myself has helped shape the person that I am at 50. And that is a totally positive thing.’
Denise on: Single life and the joys of being footloose and fancy free…
‘Anyone who has ever read a newspaper will know a bit about my love life! I have been single now for seven months and I’m really loving it. I think I never really ever allowed myself the breathing space between relationships to just enjoy the freedom of being single.
‘My parents have been married for 55 years and they have always been the benchmark for me when it comes to relationships. I hoped my love life would be like that, but obviously things have turned out differently. I’m OK with that. We live in a different age.
‘The thing is with me, I’ve always put everything into a relationship. I make the person I’m with the main focus – but I forget about me. I’ve had some relationships where I haven’t been able to fully be myself. A lot of women will relate to that. But I feel differently about it all now. I am older and wiser and because I have had my fingers burnt a few times, I now know what I don’t want.
‘This makes me feel really excited about the new decade and about the prospect of falling in love again. Since I was young, I have always either been set up on dates by friends or I’ve met someone through work, so I have never ever really done the modern way of dating until now.
‘I’ve always thought that a dating app would never be for me, but I joined Raya a few months ago. It’s known as “the industry” dating app and is for celebrities and people in the media.
‘I’m on there as myself and it has been fun. I’ve been going on dinner dates lately and I’ve met some really lovely guys. Some haven’t felt like a romantic connection, but I’ve made some friends, so I’m enjoying it.
‘I’m in a nice situation because I’m not in a hurry to find someone, so I don’t feel any pressure and it’s not as if I’m not looking to start a family, so the man doesn’t feel any pressure either.
‘Turning 50 feels like a very exciting new chapter in my life. I actually feel the sexist I’ve ever felt. I think with age, you don’t worry so much about what people think, you are more assured of who you are. And you know what you want.
‘It feels liberating to be single as a 50-year-old woman – totally liberating. I’m allowing myself to just go on dates and enjoy them for what they are. There was a time when I felt like I couldn’t really do that. I don’t feel pressured to rush into anything. When the time’s right, then I will be ready to meet “Mr. Right”.
‘Until that happens, I’m just going to sit back and go with the flow. I’m not gonna force anything. I feel like I can make the right choices now. This is the new me – single and ready for fun.’
Denise on: A busy career and new challenges ahead…
‘I’ve been in this business since I was seven and I have always worked. I’m a grafter and I come from a family of grafters. I used to feel guilty if I took my foot off the pedal, but I have got to the stage now where I have finally learnt to step back a little bit and make the right choices with work. I’m not just doing everything that comes my way.
‘I love my job, but it can be stressful at times and it can be overwhelming. I’m a single mum to a teenager, so I am constantly having to juggle things. There’s a lot to think about.
‘Part of being 50 and this new decade is making sure that I take time out and do all the right things that give me a fulfilled life. A lot of that means spending quality time with family. My parents are getting older, so I’m really prioritising seeing family members.
‘I’m very lucky that I get to do amazing things with my job, but sometimes just going for a nice walk every day and just being with family is far more valuable and that’s what you should embrace.
‘I also want to travel more and do fun things with my daughter. We’re basically best friends and she’s at an age now where we can do more together. We’ve gone through the hard part, so now is the time for more fun.
‘You realise as you get older that you should just embrace your age because you’re lucky to still be able to enjoy life. I lost one of my very close friends when she was only 52 to a brain tumour. When something like that happens you realise it’s a possibility for all of us, so you should grab life. I’m seizing the day and I’m seizing new opportunities.’
Denise has many ventures on the go. She now DJs at high profile events and will host a residency in Ibiza this summer. She has also set up her own DJ talent agency called Discoliscious and will release a self-penned dance track this June under the same name.
On top that, she is bringing back her Proud Cabaret burlesque show for one night only in August. Then, for two nights only in September in Southend, she will celebrate the 10th anniversary of Some Girl I Used to Know, the one one-woman play she co-wrote and performed to critical acclaim.
Soon after that play, she will release her first solo album, which contains a mix of covers and original songs she has written. Many are inspired by experiences from her life, which is why it is titled A Bit of Me – the name of her autobiography published by Penguin in 2022.
Denise is also re-uniting with Johnny Vaughan – her sidekick from The Big Breakfast – for a special television project to be announced soon.
On top of the work schedule, she will also begin plans to fulfil a lifetime ambition to climb to Basecamp on Mount Everest.
Denise added:
‘I seem to have spent my life spinning plates. Now I have decided to have a year of doing all the things I love – like the play and the music. Work will always be a top priority because it brings me so much joy and right now I’m back to really loving my career. I’m in a good place because I have so many different things going on.
‘I’m reuniting with Jonny Vaughan, but I can’t say at the moment what we’re doing. I’m sworn to secrecy under NDAs and all that, but we’ve got something really exciting for television that we’re announcing soon.
‘Alongside all the work, I am going to fulfil some personal challenges. I won’t be able to complete it in the next year, but I am gong to start planning to climb to Base Camp on Everest. That has been on my bucket list for ages.
‘I love trekking and leaving the commercial world behind to get back to nature. No phone, no glamour, just a rucksack. I’ve trekked in the Himalayas twice. I did Kilimanjaro for Comic Relief and I’ve done the Great Wall of China and Peru. I love the physical challenge of these things, so there will be a lot more of that stuff in my 50s.
‘On my actual birthday, I’m having a family meal, then I’m flying straight to LA that night. I used to live in LA, so I’m going out to see all my old friends there. I’m also going to Vegas to see Adele perform. I have known Adele since she was young.
‘I feel really fortunate to have reached a place of real happiness at this stage of my life. I’ve got amazing friends. I’ve met some incredible people through work and I’ve still got my old school friends. I’ve got a really good group of people around me and I have a lot of fun. Life is all about having the right mix of work, family and friends, so I feel totally blessed.
‘The cherry on the cake will be when I do meet a really good man. It’ll be nice when someone comes and sweeps me off my feet, but we’ll see. I’ve learned that you can’t force anything in life and everything’s about timing. I know it’s a cliche, but if something is meant to be, it will happen. I’m not in any rush. I’ve got a lot of fun to have before then – and that fun starts now!’
Some of the extensive national media coverage from this interview. …
Text copyright: Rob McGibbon.
Photos copyright Karis Kennedy Photography
This is a slightly extended version of the article that appeared in the Mail on Sunday newspaper…
Our jolly, mahogany-tanned captain glides the dingy tender to some rocks, then directs his group of excited day-tripper explorers to head for an indiscernible path between the tall reeds.
I lead the way with fearless vigour and a few minutes later we emerge at a beach of cinematic beauty, with alabaster-white sand and a glimmering sea of the palest emerald.
But the magical desert island spell is instantly broken by a vexed Italian woman striding towards us, clutching a walkie-talkie and snapping orders in comically accented English. “NO stop! NO towel! NO sit! Walk!” She then instructs our bemused troupe to follow her.
Welcome to Budelli island’s Cavaliere beach, a stretch of sand so precious that it requires its own security guard.
Budelli is one of more than 60 islands that make up La Maddalena Archipelago, a protected national marine park just off the coast of northern Sardinia. The entire area is gasp-out-loud gorgeous and has been a magnet for flotillas of sea-faring tourists for decades.
However, mindless souvenir hunters have stolen so much sand, shells and stones over the years that local authority officers are now stationed on a few ecologically fragile beaches during peak season. Fines can hit 3,000 euros for removing irreplaceable treasures.
I first went to Sardinia in 1977 (yes, I go that far back) and have re-discovered it in recent years as the idyllic European family holiday destination. It has everything: perfect weather, sea and beaches that match the Caribbean, delicious cuisine, plenty of culture and history, and a warm welcome wherever you go. And it’s only two hours from Gatwick.
We are here this time to discover the lesser-visited north and are using the hotels of Delphina Resorts, the island’s oldest hotel group, as stepping stones. It has eight luxury coastal properties in this region and is still owned by the two families who founded it 30 years ago. It has won numerous industry awards, most notably for its environmental initiatives.
Our first stay is at Capo d’Orso, a discreet hotel of only 80 rooms hidden amongst a woodland leading down to the sea. From the hotel, it is a short walk to a legendary local landmark – Roccia dell’Orso (Bear Rock) – a natural rock sculpture that has formed into the shape of a bear during the past million-or-so years.
After a gentle 500 metre ascent up steps, we stand beneath the belly of the beast and look down the Straits of Bonifacio that separates Sardinia and Corsica. An impressive vista. Safety ropes are on hand in case the wind gets too strong.
A short drive away is the port town of Pilau where we take a 15 minute ferry to La Maddalena island itself (60 euros with the car). We drive the length of the island in only 20 minutes and marvel at stunning coves that appear around almost every corner.
After Capo d’Orso, we take the SS125 and head to Le Dune resort on the far west. It is less than 50 miles across the entire width here, but we happily drag out the drive for most of a day to take detours. Driving is so easy and a joy in Sardinia. During a 10-day stay we did not encounter even one traffic light, let alone a traffic jam. As for speed cameras – Ha! – such malevolent, money-making machines belong to another, sadder world altogether. I think they call it Britain.
One stop along the way is to Aggius, a beguiling little town celebrated for its stone houses and for crafting the finest rugs on traditional looms. Sadly, the rug shops were closed when we arrived – the old fashioned lunchtime shut down – but we had the pleasure to stumble upon another local legend: Paolo Sanna, the doughnut maker. A cheerful and sprightly 81-year-old, Paolo has been frying his hand-made doughnuts from a little kitchen off the main street in the centre for the past 60 years. He rolls and fries one for me – one that is big enough to feed three. We happily devour it in the shade whilst sitting on slabs of granite with faces of angels chiselled on their sides. Sweet bliss – and the best two euros I have ever spent.
Le Dune, a sprawling resort on the far west coast, has copious sporting facilities and activities for children of all ages. It is perfect for families and is right beside Li Junchi beach, a stunning, uninterrupted stretch of 8km of white sand. Unfortunately, this is red-flagged for two days due to strong winds, so we head back to more tranquil waters on the northern coast.
On the way, we stop at Santa Teresa – Sardinia’s most northerly major town – and climb over and in-between enormous grey granite boulders to hike down to the sea’s edge. Here, we dunk our tired feet in the cool water and gaze at Corsica, just seven miles away.
A dreamy boat trip is really the only way to appreciate the beauty of the Sardinian seas and our next hotel has the perfect answer. Valle dell’Erica – the five star jewel in Delphina’s portfolio – has its own elegant 1927 wooden sailing boat called La Pulcinella exclusively available for guests.
It was aboard La Pulcinella that we visited Budelli and cruised around other islands, dropping anchor at breath-taking bays, to then dive off the side and swim in warm, crystal clear waters. A delicious lunch of seafood pasta and crisp local Vermentino white wine is served on board. On the way home, our deckhand flags down a passing Algida branded speedboat (Italy’s version of Wall’s ice cream), so we can buy Cornettos. A truly unforgettable day.
Most of our time at Erica, is spent kicking back on the serene Licciola beach, or in its spa and salt water swimming pools.
As we say goodbye to Sardinia, a member of the reception staff says with the warmest of smiles: “Stessa spiaggia, stesso mare.” She explains that this is a typical Italian summer farewell, imparting a simple wish to see you again next year at “The same beach, the same sea”. The phrase derives from a vintage Italian song of the same name that has had many popular cover versions over the years, most notably by Piero Focaccia in 1963.
Well, if the holiday gods shine on us again, we will definitely be to Sardinia – and we promise not to steal any of it!
Visit Delphina Hotels & Resorts at www. https://www.delphinahotels.co.uk/index_en.html
This interview with Dame Mary was for The Definite Article column in the Daily Mail’s Weekend magazine. It was conducted over the phone in November 2012 and was published on 15th December.
The prized possession you value above all others…My home in Surrey. It was left to my late husband Alexander [and business partner Alexander Plunket Greene who died in 1990] by his great aunt, who designed it and had it built in 1928. We moved here not long after we got married in 1957. It’s a beautiful house that is full of wonderful memories and remains my sanctuary. This is where I am happiest.
The unqualified regret you wish you could amend…I have always loved painting and drawing, especially still life and flowers. There’s a part of me that wishes I had developed that side of my talent more and exhibited, but work was always so frenetic. Also, I am such a private person that I recoiled at the thought of showing my art, as it is quite revealing of myself.
The way you would spend your fantasy 24 hours, with no travel restrictions…I would have breakfast in the garden at home with my partner Anthony Rouse, then we would be transported to the Pembrokeshire coast in south west Wales for a bracing swim. The water is so wild and wonderful there. I love swimming and don’t mind if it’s freezing cold because that makes you feel so alive. We would then go to Lake Como, Italy, for a superb al fresco lunch at Il Pomodorino with my son Orlando and his wife and my three grand children – Lucas, 10, Allegra, eight, and Massimo, seven. I’d have risotto and some chilled white wine, then we would all walk, swim and relax in the afternoon by the lake. I would end the day staying at La Colombe d’Or hotel in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, in the South France.
The temptation you wish you could resist…Wine, especially Pouilly Fume. I have always enjoyed not resisting temptation. Isn’t it the fun part of living? But I am 78 now and you have to be careful, so I try to resist drinking too much.
The book that holds an everlasting resonance…The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling touched me deeply when I was a child. I am a great animal lover and this story reminds you of the potent effect animals have on our lives.
The priority activity if you were the Invisible Woman for a day…It is not in my nature to want to spy on people. I can tell everything I need to know about a person from just looking at what they are wearing, or how they have done their make up. Why snoop around?
The pet-hate that makes your hackles rise…That funerals have to be big happy celebrations! There seems a need these days for everything to be jolly, but whatever happened to sadness? If you are being true to your feelings, I don’t think there is anything wrong with a bit of wailing.
The film you can watch time and time again…Gone With The Wind. I have lost track of how many times I have seen it, but I still can’t resist dipping in again whenever it is on television. I love its grand scope and it’s kind of sexy, but in a romantic way. I always love Rhett Butler [Clark Gable] saying “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn’. I will never tire of that scene.
The person who has influenced you most…Alexander. I met him when I was a teenager at Goldsmiths art school and he had the most incredible influence on my life and career. He was tremendously outgoing and confident and had amazing ideas. He was like dynamite. He encouraged my designs and launched the business. Without his drive and fearlessness I honestly don’t think I would have achieved half the things I did. He was a wonderful man.
The figure from history for whom you’d most like to buy a pie and a pint…The Italian designer Elsa Schiaparelli. She was daring and brilliant and one of the truly great designers on the 20th century. I got to know her a little towards the end of her life in the late 60s and early 70s, but I’d love to go back in time to see how she was inspired when she was at her peak in the 1920s and 30s.
The piece of wisdom you would pass on to a child…Smile. It is so easy to do, yet so easy to forget. Smiling brings warmth and love into your life.
The unlikely interest that engages your curiosity…I absolutely adore cows. They are the most fascinating, gentle and beautiful animals. Their eyes are so amazing. I have ten that live in the land around my house and they are adopted by us. I love to talk to them. There are few things better than falling asleep in a field and being woken up by an inquisitive cow.
The treasured item you lost and wish you could have again…My wedding ring. It was a chunky gold circle handmade for me by the jewellery designer Gerda Flockinger. It was always a bit loose and three years ago it fell off in a car park outside The Volunteer pub near Dorking. It was nighttime and I couldn’t find it. I went back the next day, but it was gone and I was heartbroken. If anyone can return it to me I will be forever grateful…
The unending quest that drives you on…Curiosity. I like to keep my mind active and up to date with the latest fashions and make up. I hope to never lose that sense of needing to know.
The poem that touches your soul…I love poetry and I have written quite a lot, but the Lord’s Prayer is the most perfect piece of poetry and surpasses all poems. I always feel at peace and moved when I recite it. I love nothing better than sitting in a quiet church on my own, just thinking.
The misapprehension about yourself you wish you could erase…That I am a confident extrovert. Even now people associate me with those glamorous photos from the 60s, but I am actually incredibly shy. Somehow I become a completely different person when I need to give a talk in public and can do it no problem. It is a strange contradiction because that is not me at all.
The event that altered the course of your life and character…Visiting Japan in the early 70s had the most incredible influence on me because its culture is so different. It changed the way I designed and my entire perspective on life. I found the women particularly fascinating. I virtually commuted to that country for many years and it took my career onto an even bigger world stage. I also discovered sushi, which I love to this day!
The crime you would commit knowing you could get away with it…I would find an ingenious way to embezzle one of the big bad banks and distribute the money to family and friends – keeping a healthy slice of it for myself!
The song that means most to you…Bring Me Sunshine by Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise. Alexander used to sing it to me whenever things were going wrong and it always cheered me up. It is so funny and silly that it helps you get everything into perspective and be happy.
The happiest moment you will cherish forever…Getting my OBE in 1966. I had never imagined I would be getting an award from the Queen. It was such a huge honour and I distinctly remember going to the Palace. As the Queen pinned it on me, she said simply, “More exports please!” It was typical of her to get right to the point.
The saddest time that shook your world…Alexander’s death. He was only 57 and it was ghastly losing him. He was such an exuberant, wonderful man and I still miss him. Andrew was also a great friend of his and misses him, too.
The unfulfilled ambition that continues to haunt you…I long for my garden to be complete. Working in it is one of my joys and I spend a fortune on planting and keeping it looking special. Obviously, it will never be finished because it is forever changing with the seasons.
The philosophy that underpins your life…Find time to stop and really appreciate your life. Ensure you enjoy it!
The order of service at your funeral…I don’t like to think about dying because I am still having so much fun. I went to Vidal Sassoon’s funeral at St Paul’s Cathedral in October and it was the best funeral I have ever been to. The music and the readings were just perfect, faultless. His family did the most amazing job, so I will leave the decisions to my family. But I will be happy with a small, private funeral at a church that is dear to me near my home. I would also like my ashes scattered in my garden.
The way you want to be remembered…As the girl who made clothes and make up that brought a touch of fun and colour into people’s lives.
Barbara Mary Quant was born on 11th April 1930 in Woolwich, London. She died at home in Surry aged 93 on 13th April 2023. RIP.
Copyright: Rob McGibbon
This interview with Paul was for The Definite Article column in the Daily Mail’s Weekend magazine. It was conducted over the phone on 6th November 2017 and was published on 2nd December.
The prized possession you value above all others…My five dogs – Olga, Bullseye, Eddie, Boycie and Conchita. They’re all rescue dogs, each with very different personalities. They follow me around everywhere at home and are really comical. They make me laugh and I love their company. If there was a fire, they’d definitely be the first things I’d save. I’m about to get another one from Battersea Dogs Home – a pregnant mongrel, who was found abandoned on Hampstead Heath. I’m going to give her a happy ending.
The biggest regret you wish you could amend…Messing around and not having a game plan for my life when I was a teenager. I lost valuable years of education and had no real goal or anything to aim for. I finally found a job I loved in Social Services when I was 22, but up until then I was a bit of a drifter, which was such a waste.
The temptation you wish you could resist…Staying up too late. I will read a good book, or start writing, and suddenly I find I’m still going at 3am or 4am. At other times I will stay up watching rubbish television, which by the early hours is always really horrible and violent programmes about serial killers or post mortems. Staying up late makes me feel like death the next day.
The book that holds an everlasting resonance…The Complete Essays of Michel de Montaigne, the 16th century French philosopher. They are full of little nuggets of wisdom that make you think about life. I keep a copy nearby, ready to dip into, and I always feel better for reading it.
The priority activity if you were the Invisible Man for a day…I would go to various friends’ houses and cause chaos by pretending to be a poltergeist. I’d smash a few things and do some levitation, but I’d be much scarier around the people I’m not so keen on.
The pet hate that makes your hackles rise…No.1 is always any cruelty to animals, but I also hate ticket machines at railways stations. They give you about 30 different options for a ticket when all I want is a single or a return. You need to do a bloomin’ course to know how to operate them. They are hell and I end up in a blind fury.
The film you can watch time and time again…Wild Strawberries from 1957 directed by Ingmar Bergman. It’s about an old man recalling his past as he makes his last journey. It is beautifully shot, superbly acted and very moving. I see something different in it each time. I generally watch it in January, when things are flat after Christmas, because it really suits the mood.
The person who has influenced you most…My whole family unit – my mum and dad, my uncles and aunties. They were all such great characters and so full of humour. They had a one-liner for everything and were always giving me good bits of advice. Having such a warm childhood surrounded by so many colourful people gave me a great grounding for life.
The figure from history for whom you’d most like to buy a pie and a pint…Rosa Lewis, who was the most famous chef in Europe in the 19th century. She was an eccentric and a formidable character. I’d go to her Cavendish Hotel in London to eat one of her feasts and talk about her life, but she was a real snob, so I’d probably be far too common for her.
The piece of wisdom you would pass on to a child…Try not to worry, it will all turn out well in the end. I’d encourage them to enjoy their childhood and not waste time worrying. Kids are under too much pressure these days, especially from social media.
The unlikely interest that engages your curiosity…Herbology. I’ve been making my own potions since my 30s and love it. I’m pretty good and can mix infusions that cure all kinds of ailments or illnesses. I’m completely fascinated by it and have stacks of books on the subject.
The treasured item you lost and wish you could have again…My hair colour. It was originally reddy brown until I got a flash of grey at the front in my mid-20s. Then it went salt ‘n pepper and now it’s as white as snow.
The unending quest that drives you on…Curiosity. I am constantly wanting to learn about new things. I know curiosity killed the cat, but it keeps me alive. If something grabs my interest, I will then read up on it so I know as much as possible.
The poem that touches your soul…First Fig by the American poet Edna St. Vincent Millay. It only has four lines, but is beautiful: “My candle burns at both ends/It will not last the night/But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends/It gives a lovely light!” I remember reciting it to myself in hospital 15 years ago after the first of my three heart attacks. I had been seriously burning the candle at both ends and I thought I was about to pay the piper.
The misapprehension about yourself you wish you could erase…That I am delicate because of my past health issues. My cardiologist examined me recently and was puzzled. He said: “I don’t know how you do it, but you’re in great health!” I’m 62 now and I’m as tough as old boots. I think health is all about mind over matter.
The event that altered the course of your life and character…Getting up as Lily Savage for the first time to compère a talent contest at the Elephant and Castle pub in Vauxhall in 1978. It’s a Starbucks now, but it was the roughest pub in London back then. I had no idea what I was going to say, but it just flowed out and people loved it. I was working in Social Services at the time and had no plan for a career on stage. It was done in a moment of madness and was actually the first time I had even spoken into a microphone, but it was a revelation. The next day I had loads of phone calls from other places wanting to book me and my career took off.
The crime you would commit knowing you could get away with it…I would mix up a lethal poison that would kill all the rotten, maniac leaders in the world. I don’t want to mention any names in case I end up with a needle in my foot from an umbrella.
The song that means most to you…You’ve Gotta Have a Gimmick from the musical Gypsy has followed me like a shadow throughout my career. It was part of my act for years, so I can hardly bear to hear it these days, but I will always have a soft spot for that song because it served me so well.
The way you would spend your fantasy 24 hours, with no travel restrictions…For starters, I wouldn’t go near any airports! I can’t stand them anymore because the security has gone beyond a joke. They even checked my glasses the last time. What did they think I had in them, a laser gun? So I would have the Orient Express re-routed to take me, my partner Andre and a group of friends to Scotland. Our day would begin with a fabulous dinner on the train, then I would sleep like a log because I always sleep well on trains. I’d wake up in Scotland and have breakfast as the beautiful landscape flipped by. We’d fly to the Isle of Skye by helicopter to have lunch at The Three Chimneys restaurant, which is wonderful. I’d have a dozen oysters with brown bread and a bottle of Guinness. In the afternoon, Andre and I would visit three wildlife rescue charities that are very special to me – Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre in Borneo, where I’d catch up with an orphan I love called Archie, then Wildlife SOS in India to visit the elephants, and finally one called CROW in South Africa. We would have dinner in Vienna at Hotel Imperial, which is like a stately home. I’d have a glass of red wine and goulash soup followed by some tafelspitz, which is boiled beef with carrots. It sounds disgusting, but is delicious and comes with a horseradish and apple sauce. We’d end the night listening to a jazz band and watching a burlesque show in a seedy underground club in Berlin, drinking the best absinthe whilst surrounded by a bunch of unsavoury characters.
The happiest moment you will cherish forever…Around my 30th birthday were particularly happy times. I had a nice flat in Central London, Lily had taken off and I was enjoying a very sociable, hedonistic time. It was all so much fun and joyful.
The saddest time that shook your world…The death to my long-term partner and manager Brendan Murphy in 2005 from a brain tumour. I nursed him for six weeks and it was hideous to see him suffer. He was like a brother and a soul mate, so it was a bleak time. I stayed strong for him, and physically had to carry him all the time, as well as keep working, but I exhausted myself and promptly had my second heart attack not long after he died.
The unfulfilled ambition that continues to haunt you…I always wanted a bright red Lotus Europa Mark II, but there wouldn’t be much point because I can only drive an automatic. I’m also told that they are death traps.
The philosophy that underpins your life…Get on with it is my mantra. There’s no time to be messing around.
The order of service at your funeral…I’d have it at a small historic church on Romney Marsh, Kent. I want to make sure everybody is weeping throughout, so my cortege will be led by the Salvation Army band playing Nearer, my God, to Thee, then Tom Jones will sing St. James Infirmary Blues backed by Jools Holland and his band, and then Mica Paris will sing one of Mahalia Jackson’s gospel funeral songs. To cheer everyone up I would be carried out to a New Orleans jazz band playing When the Saints Go Marching In. I want my glass-topped coffin laid in forest and guarded by seven dwarves day and night!
The way you want to be remembered…As someone who tried to help animals.
Paul O’Grady was born on 14th June 1955 in Tranmere, Cheshire. He died at home in Kent aged 67 on 28th March 2023. RIP.
Read an extended version of this article at Metro.co.uk:
‘The car that is driving smiles and smiles…’
Felicity Kendal, 75, spent much of her childhood in India on tour with her father’s repertory company. She shot to fame playing Barbara in the BBC sitcom The Good Life in 1975. She is about to tour in Michael Frayn’s farce Noises Offand is writing the follow-up to her 1998 bestselling memoir, White Cargo.
First stage play I saw
My family’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream — but I was nine months old, so does that count? I was the Changeling Boy to my mother’s Titania and my view was from a basket. My childhood was spent watching Shakespeare plays from the wings or performing in them all over India. The first play I saw that was not ours was a school production of Richard II at the Doon, a posh boys school in Dehradun, in the north. It was an open air production with a forest as the backdrop. My sister Jennifer, who was 13 years older than me, played Queen Anne and King Richard made his first entrance on a real stallion. Fabulous!
First film I saw at the cinema
This will date me. The original Walt Disney Peter Pan from 1953 when I was about seven. My aunt Mary took me to see it in Bangalore. I loved Captain Hook and his wicked smile and Tiger Lily, but I thought Tinker Bell was a pain in the arse. One of my very few regrets in life is that I turned down the Peter role in a great production at the Coliseum in 1976 because I was having problems in my love life. Damn. Whoever that boyfriend was, he wasn’t worth it.
First actor I admired
Paul Scofield playing Timon in Timon of Athens at Stratford-upon-Avon in 1965 when I was 19. I went on my own and sat up in the gods. Paul was mesmerising. He was physically beautiful and I remember him striding the stage like a panther, his voice filling the theatre. He had such charisma that he commanded concentration from the audience. I went again the following week, even though I had so little money.
His performance gave me the determination to fight to get into the business. I went on to work with him three times — in Amadeus, Othello at the National and in Heartbreak House. He was very special and I loved him dearly. I flatter myself that, as much of a recluse that he was, I became one of the few who could claim to be his friend.
First TV show I never missed
I was never that interested in television when I was young because I saw it as second class compared to theatre or films. Plus, there weren’t many televisions on tour in India. Back in England, I first lived with my mother’s family in Solihull and they watched TV every evening after supper. It was me and my three cousins, my aunt and uncle, all crammed into a tiny front room. The Avengersand The Man from U.N.C.L.E were firm favourites — but if there was anything remotely sexual my uncle felt so uncomfortable that he’d get up and go to his study.
First sitcom that made me laugh
Dad’s Army was unmissable. All the cast were fantastic, the scripts were to die for, and the comic timing was blissful. They made it all look so effortless. My favourite was John Le Mesurier as Wilson. I called him Eeyore because he was always the gloomy one. Comedy is all about timing and great scripts, which is what we had in The Good Life. I have done a lot of comedy over the years because it is fun and lifts my spirits. That’s why I’m doing Noises Off.
First book I loved
A thrilling biography about Mary Queen of Scots, simply called The Queen of Scots by Stefan Zweig. I remember reading it in my early teens on a voyage from Bombay to Singapore. Our theatre company always travelled in the cheapest cabins and I could not wait to crawl on to my top bunk, open the book and disappear to the 1500s. It was a total escape.
First album I bought
We only had a very basic portable gramophone in India and we had very little money, but when I was about 14 my sister Jennifer gave me an LP of Albinoni’s Adagio for Strings in G minor. I listened to it endlessly and I still love it. It is haunting and beautiful and it takes me straight back to those years. Jennifer died of cancer in 1984 when she was only 50, which was awful. She was the star of our family and that piece of music always reminds me of her, so it is particularly moving. It makes me want to cry.
First famous person I met
Nehru [the Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru] when I was about six. He came to our production of The Merchant of Venice in Delhi. He always invited my dad to lunch whenever we were in Delhi. I also met the Maharani of Jaipur — Gayatri Devi — when I was 12. She invited our company to tea. She wafted into the room on a cloud of glorious jasmine perfume. To this day, she is still the most beautiful person I have ever seen. I didn’t know at the time that she was famous, but I was stage struck.
First time I cried at the cinema
The first film that made me cry as an adult was Brief Encounter with Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard. They gave such subtle, beautiful performances — a masterclass in the lesson that less is more when acting in films. Being real is what works, not hamming it up.
Felicity Kendal is in the 40th anniversary production of Noises Off, opening at Theatre Royal Bath on Sep 22, then touring until Oct 29
‘This account will not be verified because…we could not reliably verify that the account is a notable person, organisation or brand.’ Try saying that to my mum…
I smiled wryly the other day whilst relaxing on my windswept Devil’s Island when I read on Press Gazette that a militia of 80-plus fellow islanders are waging a desperate campaign for Twitter to recognise them with the Blue Tick verification badge.
The skirmish has broken out because these humble freelancers have been rejected, despite Twitter’s grand gesture last May to let more people of “note” into its fancy blue club – including freelance journalists. Golly, the honour.
It was the unabashed neediness underlying the campaign that tickled me most – not least because I could relate to this embarrassing affliction. About six years ago, my faltering ego took me in search of a Blue Tick. I was miffed that certain staff journalists, ones who delivered a fraction of my output for far less high-profile publications, had a hallowed Tick of acceptability. How so? I want one.
I can’t remember exactly how I applied, but I got rejected and I gave up being bothered long ago. Then I read that even lowly freelancers – the Morlocks of the media – might now be allowed out into the sunlight, to step inside beyond the light blue velvet rope. So, I thought I’d try again.
On Tuesday, I faithfully loaded links to recent cuttings – Daily Mail, The Sun, Metro. Not too many to choose from, it has to be said. Foolishly, I also added a scan of my passport (Dammit! Idiot! Oi, Twitter, delete this private document, or at least explain what you are doing with it on your server farm).
About twenty minutes later, I got exactly what I deserved: REJECTION. Ahhh, the freelance’s most consistent companion. Twitter’s pet bot had lovingly emailed a brief, sniffy dismissal:
‘This account will not be verified at this time because the evidence provided did not meet our criteria for notability. As a result, we could not reliably verify that the account associated with the request is a notable person, organisation or brand.’ Try saying that to my mum.
Twitter bot added archly: ‘If you believe the account (that’s my career you’re talking about) may be a good candidate for verification in the future, we encourage you to submit again after 30 days. Thanks, Twitter.’ Now run along and fuck off.
Ha! I immediately updated my Twitter profile (10 years, 20.6k tweets, 2,502 Followers, folks) to celebrate the fact that I am officially not ‘a notable person, organisation or brand’. Proud. And then I did what all self-starting freelance journalists should do: I dusted myself down, spotted an angle for a story, and pitched the idea for what you are reading now to the editor of Press Gazette. Freelancing is all about turning a negative into a positive. Optimism is oxygen. It leads directly to heating and food.
So, exciting times ahead. I have now got a month to prove my ‘criteria for notability’ and re-apply for a Blue Tick. Maybe I can upload all my cuttings from national newspapers since that first shift on The Sun in October 1986. You see, I actually do have them ALL! Sad, but true. They’re in huge scrapbooks, or paper files, or boxes. I’m leaving this hard-won archive of journalistic genius to the British Library or the V&A – whether they want it or not.
But maybe I can narrow down the area of ‘review’ for Twitter’s bots to a few bite-size chunks of work, like my 400-plus celebrity interviews for the Daily Mail’s Weekend mag from 2011-18, or those easy-peasy long pieces for The Sunday Times Magazine. Or maybe I can just lob in a few hundred spreads with the ‘stars’ of London’s Burning and Bad Girls for the red tops throughout the 1990s.
Nah. Of course I’m not going to re-apply and today I encourage all freelance journalists to do the same. Don’t fall for this vanity badge bauble. It’s just a crass humblebrag to your mates, a little ‘ooh, look at me’ swagger. It is definitely not a calling card of credibility that will secure more work from editors, as one campaigner laughably suggests. No one has ever rejected a feature idea from me because I don’t have a digital blue thingy on Twitter. It was because the idea was not for them.
In fact, I am going one step further – I am launching a rival badge of authenticity, something that will ONLY be awarded to journalists. Comedians, politicians, doctors, lawyers, rappers, candlestick makers and, influencers – especially influencers – need not apply. This will be the journalists-only club. And what could be better or more credible? Staffers are welcome. Freelancers go to the front of the queue.
This badge will be for the people who create the content that becomes the news. I have been freelancing for national newspapers since February 1990 (after I told Kelvin MacKenzie to shove the job) and if I have learnt one thing, it is this: no newspaper, magazine, radio show, or TV bulletin, stands a chance of getting produced if it were not for the loyal army of long-suffering freelance journalists.
So, comrades, hold your heads up high. Kiss goodbye to the silly Blue Tick and say Hello to the ‘Blue-J’. The powers behind Press Gazette are on board and between us, we will authenticate all applications – personally, not robotically. With your support, we hope that this will become the global kitemark of journalistic excellence to be displayed on your social media profiles.
When I started writing this piece, I noticed that my dear showbiz light acquaintance Joan Bakewell was blue badge-less. Now, she’s done a bit of journalism in her time, so I wondered why. I emailed her and she promptly replied:
“Rob, It has never occurred to me to be concerned….or to apply. I don’t even know what the blue tick signifies. People have such fancy notions of themselves! Joan”
Ha! Good on you Joan. I will invite her to be the honorary president of the J-Badge Club and I hereby invite all 80+ of the desperate Blue Tick brigade to apply and become our founding members. Be proud to be part of a group that actually stands for something: JOURNALISM.
ENDS!
Dame Joan Bakewell has been a leading broadcaster, journalist and author since the 1960s, when comedian Frank Muir dubbed her “the thinking man’s crumpet”. Now 86, she was awarded a life peerage in 2011 and took the title Baroness Bakewell of Stockport to reflect her Northern upbringing. She has been married twice and famously had an eight-year affair from 1962 with playwright Harold Pinter, which inspired his 1978 play Betrayal. Bakewell lives alone in Primrose Hill, North London, and has two children from her first marriage, Harriet, 59, and Matthew, 57 and six grandchildren, aged 18-26.
My day begins with a rigid routine that gradually gets ragged as the day continues. The alarm goes off at 6.50am, which gives me time to fetch a cup of tea and come back to bed to listen to the Radio 4 news at 7am. I have Earl Grey – always decaffeinated because I have a lot of adrenaline of my own. I’ve not had caffein for at least ten years, so if I ever have it these days without knowing I’m as high as a kite.
I never listen to the Today program after the news because there’s far too much testosterone for me at that time of the morning. I have The Guardian delivered, so instead I read that cover to cover, except for the sport and pop music.
I am very much a morning person and wake up with lots of energy and buzzing with ideas – well, probably more attitude, than ideas. I go on Twitter and send out a few tweets in response to the news, as a way of getting any irritation out of me. I also respond to any comments from friends on Twitter, as a way of staying on touch.
Just before Christmas, I moved into my new home after living in the same big house for 55 years in Primrose Hill. Moving was a great trauma and a lot of stress, but it is important to make the move at my age before it’s too late. I had moved into the old house with my husband Michael in 1963 when the area was really shabby and unfashionable. The house cost us £12,500, which was a lot of money then and we needed a mortgage, but I will not say what I sold it for.
I have downsized to a very large former artist’s studio, which is just a ten minute walk from where I used to live. It is far easier to organise and manage, so I’m loving it. I have even prepared a small bedsit in the attic area for a carer, should I ever need one. It’s best to think ahead.
I take three pills each morning: two supplements – Omega 3 and Glycocyamine for my bones – and Statins to stop me having heart trouble. For years, breakfast was marmalade on toast, but recently I started having granola with fresh fruits, honey and yoghurt. I spend most mornings working from two desks I have on a mezzanine level overlooking the main room – a large one for general work, such as writing book reviews or speeches, and the smaller one for household bills and Thank You notes.
As you get older, you have to rely on people to help. My housekeeper and friend Frances turns up every weekday at 10.30am. She has been with me for 20 years and sorts me out. I work from a MacBook Air laptop, but I’m not particularly techie, so I have a man called The Mac Doctor who is a delight. If something goes wrong, I scream down the phone and he comes round and saves me.
Two mornings a week, from 8-9am, I go to the same pilates class I have been doing for 25 years at a studio a short drive away in Belsize Park. This has kept me agile and my posture in good shape. There are six of us in the class and we have become good friends.
I usually have something light and simple for lunch at home – a bowl of homemade soup, avocado with smoked salmon, or some cheese and biscuits. Quite often I will fry up leftovers from another meal. I was a war child, so I hate to throw anything away. I always listen to the World at One with Sarah Montague – and then it is time for my daily snooze!
I have been having an afternoon nap ever since doctors advised me to rest during the day when I was pregnant with Harriet in 1959. These days, I even have one whenever I’m on location filming for television. Storyvault Films, the production company I work for, really look after me and always fix up a local hotel room for my nap. If there isn’t one nearby, they bring a fold out bed, with sheets and pillows, which they put up in a Winnebago. I have a mediative technic that helps me neutralise my brain and sleep for 20 minutes. I believe in the great merit of a snooze because I come out bouncing and refreshed and will keep working happily long into the evening when everyone else is flagging.
My afternoons on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 2.30pm are spent at the House of Lords. I drive there in my red Mini Cooper, which is an extension of home. I crawl through the traffic thinking, listening to the radio and working. I park at the House where the Mini looks a bit lonely alongside all the big Audis and Lexus’s.
I was invited to be a working peer by Ed Miliband and I was more frightened when I was giving my first speech than I had ever been when broadcasting to millions. You are talking to an extremely learned lot who are very authoritative, but is a collegiate atmosphere and I enjoy dealing with ideas and engaging with interesting people. I get a sense of fulfilment going there.
I chose my title Baroness Bakewell of Stockport because I felt that it was important to go back to my roots. Initially, I thought of using Camden Town or Primrose Hill, but that would hardly authenticate any views I wanted to express about the great Northern Powerhouse! Besides, my roots are important to me.
My younger sister Susan and I were brought up on a new plot of houses on the outskirts of Stockport that had been built on the road to Macclesfield. The development remained unfinished for years because of the war, so we could turn left out of our house and within a matter of yards be in fields and then the countryside. It was a wonderful place to grow up. Susan died from breast cancer when she was 58 in 1997.
I had a complicated relationship with my mother Rose. She was a highly intelligent woman, but she had married young, as they did in those days, and felt completely unfulfilled in her life. She was depressed, although no one described it as that then. I just thought she was being difficult. She died from leukemia, also at 58, when I was 28.
At about 4pm I need a sugar rush, so I go to the River Restaurant at the House and have a cup of tea and a scone with cream and jam, or a piece of chocolate cake. Work there usually finishes at 6.30pm, unless there’s a debate, and then I creep home. Often I go out to dinner with friends, either locally or in the West End. I will have a glass of white wine, but don’t drink much these days. I also go to the theatre a lot and enjoy the opera. One of my great indulgences is using taxis. I either hail a black taxi in the street, or book one with the same local radio cab company I have been using for years.
I’m a news junkie, so my day ends with watching the headlines and the newspaper review on the BBC News Channel, and then I’m in bed by 11.15pm. I always have a couple of books on the go, so I will read for a while before nodding off. I’m a good sleeper, so I will be out until the alarm goes. I used to like a small brandy as a nightcap, but I have stopped that because, like most old people, I do not want to get up in the night.
“I’m not someone who looks back. 90210 opened some doors and I don’t regret doing it, nor do I have any illusions that the interest in it will go away”
A note on the text from Rob McGibbon: This interview with Luke was conducted during lunch on the last day of filming of The Beat Beneath My Feet in October 2013. It was written for The Independent, which commissioned it, then spiked it.
I was an Associate Producer on the movie, which had a screenplay by Michael Mueller and produced by Scoop Films. I had fluked into the film a few months earlier after an impromptu social meeting with Raj Sharma, the founder and owner of Scoop. He told me that he had just green lit a new film, but was really struggling to cast the lead role. I asked him to summarise the plot. After he had finished, straight off the bat, I said: “You need an American, someone who was really hot in the 1990s. What about Luke Perry?” It would prove to be a moment of divine casting inspiration – as well as deep relief that all those pointless years in showbiz journalism had not been entirely wasted. Raj was intrigued by the idea. Three weeks later, he took me to dinner and announced with a shrill of excitement: “You won’t believe this, but we have signed Luke Perry!” From that moment on I was heavily involved in the film. This included interviewing Luke, and, quite unbelievably, “starring” in the last scene of the film “with” him. My quote marks.
The director John Williams was in desperate need of a new extra for the final scene, but it was getting late. We had about an hour left to shoot before the film had to wrap and John wasn’t happy with the member of the crew who had been lined up for the part. He scoped around the school hall where we were filming and suddenly his eyes alighted upon me. He came over and scanned my blue Geox bomber jacket and my two-tone burgundy brogues. He then muttered a sentence that had never been directed at me before, nor since. “You have a great look.” I instinctively looked behind me. He then explained what I had to do in the scene. He noticed my alarmed look, then asked pointedly: “Are you up to that?” Er, yeah sure. I was to be Luke Perry’s guitar wrangler, backstage at a big rock concert. The scene involved Luke walking towards me, followed by the steady cam. I would shake his hand, wish him good luck, and pass him his electric guitar. Easy. Well, until a loud, beefy bloke aggressively shouts “Action”. Luke very kindly did a rehearsal with me before the camera started rolling. “You just do it anyway you feel is right, my friend,” he said. I immersed myself in character and impressed him with my natural talent in passing an object to another human being. It is fair to say that I nailed it. Well, I didn’t cock it up. In the final cut of this scene, my right elbow and hand get star billing. At least I can say, without any sense of hype, that I worked on a film with Luke Perry and that he was great to work with.
In all seriousnesses, he was. Luke was a generous actor, who was encouraging and kind to all the cast, most notably Nicholas Galitzine who was making his first film. But, beyond that, Luke also brought a vast amount of support to the production team, many of whom were very new to the business. He had no airs and graces and happily put up with his “luxury Winnebago” for the shoot, which was a particularly decrepit camper van. He was a shy and intense character who preferred to keep a distance, but he was also quick to muck in and help when help was needed. Once the film wrapped, we took over an upstairs room of the pub where we had been filming and Luke got straight behind the bar. He served drinks to all the crew for many hours. I had a brief chat with him before I left and he gave me a quick hug and thanked me for suggesting him for the part. He was a good guy with a big heart.
Interview by Rob McGibbon at The Bedford, Balham, London, October 2013.
It’s one of the last places you’d expect to find Luke Perry, the cool dude from Beverly Hills, but here he is high on the roof of a vast and fetid pub called The Bedford in Balham.
The sunny glamour of the 90210 zip code is replaced by the grey urban reality of SW12 9HD, but he’s gamely climbing sloping slate tiles during a photo shoot so the distant London skyline can fill the background. To his credit, Perry doesn’t even flinch when the photographer shouts, a touch gauchely, “G’on, gimme a mean James Dean look.” This was the impossible celluloid comparison he was saddled with twenty-five years ago. Evidently, it still shadows him.
Numerous moody scowls later, Perry squeezes in opposite me on an abandoned old picnic bench table and begins constructing a roll-up with Golden Virginia. A screen of pub tea-towels flutter on the washing line near us and trains from the station below clatter by. It begins to drizzle. Surely, that James Dean tag gets on your nerves?
“Hey, I’m easy, man,” he says in a husky drawl, with an insouciant smile. “There ain’t nothin’ new under the sun for me with that kind of stuff. I maintain a relaxed line.”
Perry’s resigned calmness is understandable. He lived through the mayhem of teen heartthrob fame and has the wardrobe of white crew neck T-shirts to prove it. And his face bears testament to that. The James Dean quiff has thinned and receded noticeably since those pin-up days, while the frown lines in his forehead are deeply etched.
He is also craggy around the eyes but, for 47 (soon to be 48), Perry has worn pretty well. The face is still angular and he remains lean, toned and handsome, not to mention, inescapably cool. He is affable and likeable, but is instinctively guarded and wilfully remote.
Throughout the 1990s Perry played rebellious Dylan McKay in that seminal teen series with Jason Priestley and Shannen Doherty. He chalked up 199 episodes and posters of him papered the homes of besotted girls around the world. Fans often besieged his parents’ home in the mid-West hoping he’d turn up.
The years since then have been mixed, both professionally and personally. There has been no stellar Hollywood movie career that many predicted, but unlike some of his fictional classmates he has never stopped working, which is no mean feat considering the typecasting inflicted by such a huge TV series.
American TV series and made-for-TV movies have been his staple out-put, as well stage work, including The Rocky Horror Show on Broadway and When Harry Met Sally in the West End in 2004. Life away from the screen has had its challenges, too, not least when his ten-year marriage to Minnie Sharp ended in divorce a decade ago. They have two teenage children – Jack, 17, and Sophie, 13.
You sense that bringing out the ashes of Beverley Hills 90210 could be a touchy subject with Perry, but he bats it away easily. “I look back on those days fondly,” he says. “I love those people. Jason [Priestley] is still a dear friend and we hang out a lot. We even vacation together with our kids. I’ve lost touch with most of the other guys, but hey it’s a long time ago, we’re all busy getting on with life.
“Any of the negative stuff that came from the show is far surpassed by the positive. I learnt so much about acting and filming and it changed everything for me. It was quite a ride and the association with such a big series has hardly been unkind. A lot of people watched it and loved it. Who I am to complain?”
But how about the pretty boy label, surely that has been a pain and hard to escape? “I don’t know how to answer that. If I had a succinct response, I would share it with you. I don’t think about those things because it seems you’re talking about someone else. I’m an actor. It’s as simple as that.
“Besides, I don’t really see the downside and, if there is one, I don’t concentrate on it. I’m not someone who looks back. 90210 opened some doors and I don’t regret doing it, nor do I have any illusions that the interest in it will go away. I mean, we’re talking about it now, even though it has nothing to do with what I’m doing here.”
Fair point. So what brings him to the dubious delights of Balham? Perry is here playing the lead amongst a group of unknown actors in The Beat Beneath My Feet, his first foray into a low budget British independent film.
The Beat Beneath My Feet is a comedy drama with Perry as a broken down American rock guitarist called Max Stone, who has faked his death after tragedy and financial ruin destroyed his life. Stone re-surfaces in South London, where he is recognised and blackmailed by an obsessive teenager called Tom, played by newcomer Nick Galitzine.
Tom is hell-bent on becoming a guitarist and their unlikely friendship makes for a moving and entertaining story that has been receiving a positive reaction on the independent film circuit. The movie launches at London’s Raindance Film Festival later this month.
But what on earth draws a star like Luke Perry to such a small movie and how does he swap Beverley Hills for Balham?
“I’m very comfortable in places like this,” he says, gazing across the rooftops. “I come from a very working class, blue-collar area in Ohio, so these smells and inner city vibes are as familiar to me as a place like Beverly Hills. Besides, I have a real love for all aspects of London. After-all, my ex-wife is British.
“And me doing this film always comes down to the same thing: Am I moved by the story? I read the script and it moved me. There have been moments on this where I have felt this character flowing through me and that has touched me deeply. I have felt overcome with emotion and those fleeting moments are the best you can hope for as an actor.
“Sure, it would be great to have an extra 50,000 dollars to spend on certain things, but that won’t necessarily make the scene any better. The only down side to this movie has been the food – it’s not been great!”
Clearly Perry has been doing well enough to indulge in projects that creatively appeal, so how are things looking for his career in general? He is predictably laid back:
“I’m somewhere between my last job and my next one. That is always the way I have looked at this business. My last job is behind me, my next job is out there somewhere in front of me. I just keep going like that and I’m lucky to be able to do things that interest me.
“I choose how much and what I do, but that doesn’t mean I get the pick of everything. Maybe Tom Hanks gets that trip, but any actor who says otherwise is full of sh*t. I just keep on going.
“As far as I can see, no movie can make your career and no movie can break your career. It’s all just one after the next. As long as people watch this and see something they haven’t seen before, then I’m happy. If the movie also makes some money, well, no-one is ever p*ssed when that happens.”
And, with that, Perry runs a hand through his hair and heads back for filming in the pub below. He hunches into the collar of his coat and ambles off looking, it has to be said, very much like James Dean.
Following a stroke, Luke Perry died in hospital in Los Angeles on 4th March 2019. He was 52.
Photo by Charlie Alcock for The Sunday Times Magazine (December 2018)
In 2002, writer Rob McGibbon was unexpectedly hit by gout. Years of secret suffering has followed, but here he explains how he turned the agony into a catalyst for positive change…
I have a painful secret: I get gout.
I will save the pain until later, but first I need to explain why I have kept this god-awful affliction quiet.
The problem with gout is that it makes people snigger. It’s hard to think of another serious condition that encourages such mirth, but it’s true, you get mocked. I vividly remember when this first happened to me, early on in my 16 long years of intermittent hell. I had to interview a celebrity, who should remain nameless – but won’t because it’s so annoying when people say that: it was Nigel Pivaro, Terry Duckworth from Coronation Street.
I limped into our meeting and naively told the truth about my condition, as my left foot throbbed inside a loosely-laced trainer. He laughed throatily, then lapsed into a pantomime skit of a bonkers, cheeky-puffing old General: “What-ho, Brigadier, have you been attacking that orful port at the club?” I’m all for heartless laddish banter, but I was a touch taken aback.
Nigel was not alone. That same week, I mentioned gout to one or two friends and they all reacted flippantly. As I cancelled golf, a mate started chuckling and cut away from the phone to yell this hilarious breaking news to his wife. Ha ha. It was clear that gout is for lightweights.
This early reaction made me feel embarrassed, so I decided to keep it private, except for those closest to me. Whenever I have had to venture out with obvious signs – crutches, or a severe limp are a giveaway – I have fudged the reason or reluctantly lied. Michael Barrymore was impressed I got crocked doing the Iron Man and my neighbours must think I’m more injury-prone than Frank Spencer.
To be fair, the jokes from friends have eased, but the disparaging ignorance of others is widespread. My most recent gout attack was last November. I told a friend – 35 and working in the shallows of showbiz – why I was really cancelling dinner. “Gout?” he replied, genuinely challenged. “I thought people got that in Victorian times, or during the plague”. It was time to break cover.
Gout has a PR problem. For starters, it’s such an odd, blunt word that actually sounds silly and light. It might help if it was re-branded to something longer and more medical. Things certainly aren’t helped when newspapers insist on using Henry VIII to illustrate every gout article. It is often described as the “disease of kings”, so mad Henry is our poster boy. Heck, even the current (edition of Tatler has gout in its 32 things that define what you need in 2019 to be upper class. Terribly funny.
The unavoidable reason why gout sufferers are ribbed is its age-old association with port-nosed boozers and gluttonous high living. Mea culpa – I’m pretty certain they’re the main reasons why I suffer, but it isn’t necessarily quite so simplistic. I have had four gout attacks brought on by strenuous exercise, such as football or long bike rides. Here comes the science bit. Concentrate…
Gout is inflammatory arthritis, the super-max kind with extra wincing on the side. It’s not the achy stuff that makes old folk grumble. It is caused when your blood is over-run with uric acid, which is generated when the body breaks down purines. Purines are a protein that is contained in a sweeping array of foods and certain lines of delicious alcohol – especially beer, red wine, and good ol’ port.
Uric acid settles around a joint and turns into urate crystals, which creates a gout attack. Trust me, it is horrendous. The big toe is the most famous location, but it also hits knees, elbows, even fingers. Ankles are popular. Gout particularly loves my left one.
Now for the pain: mine often begins suddenly across the top of a foot and panic sets in as it gradually spreads to the toes. Within five or six hours, the entire foot and ankle is transformed into a hot, bloated, pulsating red sausage of agony.
Traditionally, the fierce grip of gout finally arrives in the dead of night. My wife will hear me dragging a foot across the floorboards and mutter “Oh, nooo”, but she’s used to it. I was on crutches with gout when I proposed in Paris in 2006. Our celebratory ascent to Sacre-Coeur did wonders for my upper body definition. A year ago I dragged a gouty foot around Athens and a party-heavy New Year trip to New York in 2015 saw me convulsed in discomfort throughout the entire flight home. I thought my foot would explode. I needed the beeping golf cart transfer from the gate at Heathrow. Humiliating.
Forget sleeping with gout. You must lie there as motionless as possible, watching the dawn arrive with a foot dangling off the end of the bed to cool it down. Nothing must touch it. I mostly spend the first two days forcing the foot as often as I dare into a washing up bowl of icy water. It twitches as if hitting an electrical charge.
I have a set of crutches are on standby and if I’m lucky, this acute phase lasts 48 hours and then I can get around with a limp. All trace is gone within a week-10 days. The trouble is, at the same time you are also hit with flu-like symptoms and fever because your system is all mashed.
My gout nadir was in 2011 when it holidayed in my left knee. The entire joint ballooned. I couldn’t bend it, or put weight on it, and the slightest wrong movement left me hugging the kitchen island or a bannister, eyes closed, panting through gritted teeth. No pain killer was strong enough. I was on crutches for two weeks and unable to walk comfortably for close to two months. I finally emerged back onto my modest social scene to gushing praise for my leaner, detoxed glow. Gout boot camp. Don’t ever try it.
I have had 24 attacks since 2002, mostly in my ankles. I know all this because I have kept a gout diary – my contribution to “misery lit”. The first doctor to see me in A&E said with certainty that it was “cellulitis”. The next attack came three years later and again there was confusion with the diagnosis. Following five more attacks spread over the next number of years, my GP finally agreed with what I already knew.
A private consultant later explained that I have a genetic pre-disposition to gout that renders my kidneys unable to flush out uric aside fast enough. At times my body is like a cup of tea that cannot absorb any more teaspoons of sugar – except it’s acid. That metaphor cost me £250. Feel free to pass it on.
When you join the gout club, you get a watchlist of foods that have varying levels of purines. It is shockingly long. Red zone: offal, game, oily fish, seafood, yeast. Amber: all meat and poultry, spinach, asparagus, peas, beans, cauliflower, mushrooms, fizzy sweet drinks. It goes on and bloody on. You wonder what’s left. Salad, yoghurt, fruit, pasta, eggs and veg, that’s what. Super. Then it gets to the contraband that really matter, at least to me: beer and wine. And, of course, port, which I hate anyway. Spirits are fine, but I don’t drink those.
It’s all a bit depressing at first. You think you will never demolish a steak with a bottle of claret again, or a seafood platter served over ice in a sunny harbour. And how on earth can you pad up with your mates for a glorious day at Lord’s, the Home of All-Day Drinking. Alarm bells ring in your head just as things are getting merry. Anything north of three pints these days and I start to worry and stop. In the grand schemes of things, this is hardly the greatest burden, but the daft old ways of getting legless now take on a sinister reality, which can be a bore.
You soon learn to keep out of the red zone of food and alcohol except on rare occasions and staying dry for at least a few days a week is vital. Conversely, being hydrated (buckets of water) is essential. But there are plenty of upsides to all this and, bizarrely, gout has had a positive impact on my health.
My GP says that I am in decent shape for 53, so I should be OK in later life, when my hard-drinking pals will probably be dropping like addled flies. That said, gout has chewed arthritis into my left ankle, which means I’m unlikely to enjoy golf and tennis in my 80s. I’ll worry about that if I get that far.
These days, I get one attack a year, two if I’m desperately unlucky, or stupid. I reluctantly started taking the drug Allopurinol in 2010, after finally accepting that lifestyle change was simply not enough. Two little white 100mg pills a day helps neutralise the uric acid, but it is no panacea. I have tried endless supplements to reduce the acid, from sodium bicarbonate, to concentrated cherry juice, cranberries and Vitamin C. These days I just have a nip of apple cider vinegar each morning out of a tequila shot glass.
Medical research on gout seems to be sketchy and largely out of date, but all indicators suggest it is on the rise. Apparently, one in 40 people in the UK get it, mostly men. I find this extraordinary, especially given the amount of inveterate boozers I know, because I have yet to meet a fellow sufferer. Maybe they’re all keeping it secret. Hopefully, they won’t feel the need any longer.
As for the image of gout, I hope it can change. Maybe you can avoid the crass jokes. Simply say: “Ooh, you poor soldier. When you’re up and about let’s have a beer.” That little hope of a better day will ease the pain.
Copyright Rob McGibbon. Please do not use any of the above article or photos without proper permissions. 2019
This is an extended version of my interview published on 17 June 2017
“My unfulfilled ambition? I want to live until I am 120 and then get shot by a jealous husband”
The prized possession you value above all others…I would be lost without my whimsical mind and imagination, so they are incredibly precious. In terms of objects, I love my book collection. I have about 50,000, which includes countless editions on comedy, comedians, clowns and showbusiness. I am a performer at heart and these books feed my mind and soul. We are having an extension built to our house [he shares with his fiancée Anne Jones] in Knotty Ash, outside Liverpool, that will become my library. The books are symbols of my passion for entertainment.
The biggest regret you wish you could amend…I wish I had learnt more about the use of the English language, so I could write coherently like leading authors such as Charles Dickens and Mark Twain. I was very bright when I was a kid and I did well at school, but to write creatively is a great skill. I am a prolific note taker, but that’s about it. I have notebooks going back 20 years and I find it fascinating to read what I was thinking decades ago.
The temptation you wish you could resist…All kinds of sweets, especially Rowntree’s Fruit Pastilles. I always have a family-size packet on the go in the car. I’m up and down the motorway like a yoyo, so I eat far too many sweets. I also love ice cream – vanilla or strawberry.
The book that holds an everlasting resonance…The Coral Island by R.M Ballantyne, which I read when I was about six. It’s about three boys shipwrecked on an island in the South Pacific and it took me off into another world. Like any boy I craved adventure and I wanted to be heroic like those boys. I was lucky because God blessed me with the ability to read from a very young age. I was four when I started consuming books.
The priority activity if you were the Invisible Man for a day…I’d go to the Office for National Statistics to verify how they work things out. One day they’re saying something is bad for you, then three weeks later they say it’s fine. I never know what to believe.
The pet hate that makes your hackles rise…Bullying driving on the motorways. I do about 30,000 miles a year – it used to be well over 100,000 – and I see some terrible, reckless driving. There’s always some daft Hooray Henry driving too close making you pull over. Motorways should be a safe and speedy way to travel, but some drivers make it dangerous.
The film you can watch time and time again…The Producers with Mel Brooks is beautifully acted and always makes me laugh. Brooks is a truly great humorist and one of the giants of comedy.
The person who has influenced you most…My parents – Arthur and Sarah. My dad was a very funny man who loved variety theatre. He would come home after a show and sing the songs or tell the jokes to me and my brother and sister. He made us laugh so much. My mother was also very special. She always said, “Kenny, I don’t care what you get upto, so long as you wear a clean shirt.” I have never forgotten that – and I always have a clean shirt.
The figure from history for whom you’d most like to buy a pie and a pint…William Shakespeare. His plays are full of poetry and imagery, with words that are like little miracles. He gives such a wonderful insight into the world and the human spirit. I’d ask him if he really wrote them all.
The piece of wisdom you would pass on to a child…Always follow your dream. If you work hard and do everything with enthusiasm, it will come true. The secret of happiness is to plant a seed and watch it grow. Plant the seed of your dream and cultivate it.
The unlikely interest that engages your curiosity…Philosophy. During the past couple of years, I have enjoyed reading the great philosophers. I have been trying to understand what “it” is all about, the meaning of life and such like.
The treasured item you lost and wish you could have again…The ability to swim with confidence. I was terrified of water when I was kid and hated putting my head under water because it was too claustrophobic. I got over it with lessons in the 1980s, but now the fear has come back.
The unending quest that drives you on…To keep breathing and staying alive! I’m 89 now and I want to keep spreading a bit of happiness. My energy is good and I have no intention of slowing down.
The poem that touches your soul…I love the religious quote: ‘However black the clouds may be/In time they’ll pass away/Have faith and trust and you will see/God’s light make bright your day.’ I recited it for my first audition when I was young – before I was a teenager – and I have never forgotten it. I enjoy going to church every week and those words remind me to believe in God, the Lord and creator
The misapprehension about yourself you wish you could erase…I am very grateful that the British people treat me well and I don’t know of any preconceived ideas they may have that are wrong. I am often mistaken for George Clooney and a woman once came up to me and said, “Hello handsome – can you tell me the way to the opticians.”
The event that altered the course of your life and character…When my dad took all the family to my first show at the Shakespeare Theatre of Varieties in Liverpool when I was seven or eight. I sat there wide-eyed and I knew then that I wanted to be a performer. I was totally inspired.
The crime you would commit knowing you could get away with it…At my age, any thought of crime does not appeal. I might steal a kiss from a pretty girl, but that’s about it.
The song that means most to you…My song Happiness has become my signature tune and means a lot to me. I sing it at every show and I’ve done it thousands of times, but I still love it. I love life and that song is a celebration of being alive and enjoying all the wonderful things that life can bring.
The way you would spend your fantasy 24 hours, with no travel restrictions…I have travelled all over the world in my time, but these days I prefer to be in Britain. East-West, Britain is best is my motto. So I’d be happy having a quiet morning at home. Our house was built in 1782 and I have spent most of my life there, so it’s where I’m happiest. I am a great tea drinker, so I’d have a few cups for breakfast with some Shredded Wheat. I’d then read the paper – Daily Mail, of course! – and try and find something funny to put into my show that night. Later, I’d take my black poodle Rufus for a walk. Britain has some of the most beautiful scenery in the world, so I would probably head somewhere in Yorkshire. Rufus is lively and affectionate and is about the seventh black poodle I have had over the years. I’d have soup – pea or oxtail are my favourites – for lunch, then spend a few hours looking through some rare books in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University. My life is ruled by my gigging diary and I am happy with that, so then I would get ready for a show. I would pack up the machine – a Mercedes – then head for the motorway. There are so many wonderful theatres across Britain, but my favourite venue is always the one I’m performing at that night. I feel blessed because I spend my life around happy people who are out for a night to have fun. I am completely in love with showbusiness, so I will enjoy myself playing a gig.
The happiest moment you will cherish forever…Being made a knight in the Queen’s Honour List this year was a huge moment. It made me feel special and I am grateful to all the people who helped make it happen. Prince William gave it to me. Now I am getting measured up for some armour and I’m getting a horse.
The saddest time that shook your world…Losing my parents was hard. They were absolutely wonderful people who gave me the most fantastic childhood and so much good advice and support. Bereavement is very personal. It was a lonely time in my life, but my faith in God helped me through.
The unfulfilled ambition that continues to haunt you…I want to live until I am 120 and then get shot by a jealous husband.
The philosophy that underpins your life…The man who never made a mistake, never made anything. I tell this to young people who ask me about going into showbusiness. Never be afraid of making mistakes because that is how you learn. It is called experience.
The order of service at your funeral…You definitely won’t get me answering this one. No. No. No. I am to busy living to think of that.
The way you want to be remembered…He gave us happiness and laughter.
Sir Ken was born in Liverpool on 8th November 1927. Following being hospitalised for a chest infection, he died at his home in West London on 11th March 2018. He was 90.
RM says: Interviewing Ken for something as specific as The Definite Article was like trying to herd cats. He zipped around tangentially, or fenced away sensitive subjects with jokes. But he was fun and a gentleman. He called my mobile on the day it was published some weeks later and left a wonderfully nuts and appreciative voice message. Such manners in showbiz are rare. We spoke later and he invited me to one of his shows. I wish I had gone, but the dates never aligned. What a character, what a legend.
By Rob McGibbon
This is an extended version of my interview published on 27 June 2014
“I want my body laid out in my coffin on a bed of sliced truffles, then carried in by six beautiful women. I then want a big party in the foothills of Mont Blanc, where my ashes will be put into a huge firework rocket and fired into the sky”
The prized possession you value above all others…My home in South West London. I moved in eight years ago and I call it Il Castelluccio – The Little Castle. It’s a 1950s property, not overly big, but it is in a cul de sac so it is very quiet. My garden is full of fruit. I have prunes, pears, quinces, and plums. The house is probably worth over £1m, but I do not care about such things. I live here alone and this is where I find peace and silence. It is my sanctuary.
The biggest regret you wish you could amend…That I no longer have any communication with my ex-wife Priscilla and her children and grandchildren. They were my stepchildren and such a happy part of my life for so long, but something has happened and I cannot explain what. It is hard for me to understand. My philosophy in life is never to hurt anyone, but something has happened and it makes me sad.
The temptation you wish you could resist…Asking so many questions about everything! I believe that man’s ability for knowledge is infinite, so I am always curious to learn more. But sometimes maybe it is better to not have an answer and to enjoy a bit of mystery.
The book that holds an everlasting resonance…Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy. They are such fascinating books that work on so many levels – for young people, as well as adults. They are incredibly complex and challenging to follow, but I love the fantasy and losing myself in the stories.
The priority activity if you were the Invisible Man for a day…I would follow a traffic warden around London and cause chaos as he or she gives out tickets. I’d like to find out what goes on inside the head of a traffic warden because it seems to be the most nonsensical occupation. I cannot understand why anyone would want to do it.
The pet-hate that makes your hackles rise…Ignorant people who have no appreciation of the world or their fellow humans. I have to take a deep breath when I came across ignorance because it makes me so angry.
The film you can watch time and time again…Il Postino is the most beautiful and touching film and it always moves me. The acting is wonderful and the story takes me back to happy times in my childhood in Northern Italy when my father was the local railway stationmaster.
The person who has influenced you most…My mother, Maria. Throughout my childhood she was so full of life. She was tender, but also very strong and always ready to defend her nest of six children. My mother gave me my values and taught me a lot about cooking. She died about 20 years ago and there are only three of us children left now.
The figure from history for whom you’d most like to buy a pie and a pint…The great actor Peter Ustinov. I met him briefly at a party in the 1990s and he was such an interesting, intelligent man with a great sense of humour and he was an incredible mimic. He had an amazing life. I’d love to go back to the early 1950s when he was playing Nero in Quo Vadis [released in 1951]. I loved him in that film. He could speak many languages and I can speak five, so we might have fun chatting in multiple languages.
The piece of wisdom you would pass on to a child…Think big and don’t be disappointed if things don’t go as you plan. Just try again. Everything in life is possible. I came from small beginnings and have fulfilled many dreams.
The unlikely interest that engages your curiosity…One of my great passions is whittling – making walking sticks. I started when I was a boy and I now have about 300 in my collection. I am even a member of the British Stickemakers Guild. I find it relaxing and satisfying to create a beautiful object with my hands and the small old knife I always use. I love the feeling of the wood and I particularly like to work with hazel because it is so straight. Another passion is searching for mushrooms. I go into the woods, with one of my favourite walking sticks, and find the most delicious mushrooms to eat.
The treasured item you lost and wish you could have again…A four-inch high bronze statue of a little girl holding lilies, which was given to me when I was about 18. She was like a little angel and I loved that piece, but it was stolen during a house move about forty years ago. Even though it’s so long ago, I still miss her!
The unending quest that drives you on…To totally understand food, but I think it’s an impossible quest. I also wish I could cook Chinese food. It has the most incredible spices and flavours, but I can’t do it. My friend Ken Hom is pretty good and he has taught me a bit, but I believe it has to be in your blood to do it properly.
The poem that touches your soul…I Love You So Much by the German writer and painter Joachim Ringelnatz. I lived in Vienna for three years in my 20s and I met a girl called Inge there. She was my first true love and that poem reminds me of her. All this time later, I still think of her!
The misapprehension about yourself you wish you could erase…That I am grumpy and aggressive. My face is not entirely sympathetic and some people think I look like a Mafioso! In reality, I am a jolly and gentle person. People often meet me expecting me to be rough and they say they are happily surprised to see that I am friendly.
The event that altered the course of your life and character…The death of my little brother Enrico when he was 13 and I was 23. He drowned in a lake near our home. He got cramps after swimming so soon after eating. It was devastating for all the family. My mother never recovered and, in many ways, I don’t think I have ever got over it either. I ended up leaving home to escape the grief and it has affected me since on so many levels. It made me question the motivations of the Catholic Church, as well as the existence of God, so I have stopped believing in both.
The crime you would commit knowing you could get away with it…I would organise a spectacular robbery of the secret treasures from the Vatican, then give the proceeds to the poor.
The song that means most to you…I Would Like to Kiss You. It’s an old Neapolitan song, which was recorded by Pavarotti, Bocelli and many others, but I remember it from when I was really little and my father Giovanni singing it to my mother. He was an old romantic.
The way you would spend your fantasy 24 hours, with no travel restrictions…My day would begin quietly in my garden listening to the birds. I would have some porridge and coffee then some fruit from my trees. Then I would meet up with my girlfriend Sabine and go on an adventure deep into the Amazon rainforest to meet a tribe that is lost to civilisation. I only hope they are a friendly tribe! Later I would go for a walk in my favourite woodlands in Hampshire to pick mushrooms. I cannot tell you exactly where because mushroom pickers like to keep their best locations secret! Sabine and I would spend the afternoon on a stunning island in the Caribbean. I would soak up the sun and go snorkelling to look at turtles. Lunch would be a big salad with fresh fish and tomatoes dipped in the salt water of the crystal clear sea. Delicious! After lunch I would relax in a hammock with a big Havana cigar, then have an afternoon nap. Then I would go to a small fishing village beside the Back Sea and eat my way through a kilo of Beluga caviar. Then I would watch penguins bringing fish home to their young off the coast of Australia, which is an incredible sight. Sabine and I would watch the sun go down during a safari in Africa, then arrive at a tranquil lake in Kerala in India for a spicy dinner. I don’t drink much alcohol, but I would end this day with a nice malt whisky nightcap.
The happiest moment you will cherish forever…The day in 2009 when I finally awoke from depression. I had been in a dark and difficult place and I had tried to kill myself [Antonio stabbed himself in 2008], but after going into The Priory hospital I slowly got better and the heavy cloud lifted from my life. I am a different person today. I am happy and I know how precious life is. I want to live, not die.
The saddest time that shook your world…Enrico’s death. I was like a father to him and his educator. He was so cheerful and wonderful. He followed me around and we had a really special friendship. I would practise throwing a javelin and he would run after it and bring it back to me. He would be 67 now. Sadly, that awful moment I saw him in the mortuary is an image that will never leave my mind.
The unfulfilled ambition that continues to haunt you…To organise all the photos from my life. I must have more than 10,000 but they are all over the place, in boxes and drawers. I would love to be able to sit down and look at them in the order they were taken. I thought that was something I would do in my retirement but I am 77 now and I have no plans to retire. Maybe it will never be done!
The philosophy that underpins your life…MOF MOF: Minimum of Fuss, Maximum of Flavour. I made that phrase up decades ago when everything in cooking seemed to be so complicated. It has been the mantra for my cooking ever since.
The order of service at your funeral…I won’t have a church service because I have stopped believing in God, but I want my body laid out in my coffin on a bed of sliced truffles, then carried into the crematorium by six beautiful women. I then want a big party in the foothills of Mont Blanc in Italy, where my ashes will be put into a huge firework rocket. During the party, this rocket will explode high in the sky and scatter me across the beautiful countryside.
The way you want to be remembered…As a jolly fellow, who was good to people and enjoyed the simple things in life.
Antonio was born in Salerno, Italy, on 19 April 1937. He died following a fall at his home in West London on 8th November 2017. He was 80.
Antonio was a big-hearted, passionate and sincere man, who inspired so many young chefs, not least Jamie Oliver.
This is an extended version of my interview published on 26 September 2015, which was conducted in Michael’s study where he wrote at his home in Little Venice on 24th August
“I want to be remembered as a friendly person who was ready to listen. And for never missing a deadline!”
The prized possession you value above all others…The original Paddington bear toy. He is a little teddy bear that I bought for my ex-wife Brenda from Selfridge’s on Christmas Eve in 1956 as a stocking-filler present. He was sitting on a shelf all by himself and I fell in love with him. I called him Paddington and some time later I was looking at him and wondered what would happen if a real bear arrived at Paddington Station. I put a few words down on paper and it caught my fancy. That little bear was an inspiration and he changed my life. I keep him very safe.
The biggest regret you wish you could amend…Not buying a flat in the Montmartre area of Paris that I rented for 35 years. I was offered it about ten years ago, but decided to keep renting. I used to go there for a week every month to write and always loved it because no one bothered me. But last year the daughter of the original owners, who had died, decided to move in.
The temptation you wish you could resist…Ferrero Rocher chocolates. I love the nutty soft centre and I like to have a box on the go when I am writing. I will eat four, then make myself stop. They are very moreish.
The book that holds an everlasting resonance…It’s not a book, but a weekly magazine called I used to read it by torchlight under the bedclothes from aged about nine and it had a big impact on my life. They were such marvellous stories and great characters. It was the first time that I appreciated good story telling and it taught me the power of repetition in writing.
The priority activity if you were the Invisible Man for a day…I would wander around freely listening in on people’s conversations. A piece of snatched conversation can be very good for a story and it has helped me often over the years. But it is never good to be caught eavesdropping, so this way I could relax.
The pet hate that makes your hackles rise…Cold telephone calls in the evening from people trying to sell me something. They are often a foreign voice and they start off by saying, “Good evening, Mr Bond, how are you tonight?” I would be much better if you didn’t call me during my dinner!
The film you can watch time and time again…The Third Man. The screenplay by Graham Greene is excellent and Orson Wells is wonderful. You never know when someone is going to pop out of a window or a manhole. I love the Ferris wheel scene.
The person who has influenced you most…My grandfather, on mother’s side. He came to live with us in Reading when I was a boy after his wife died. He thought very highly of me – more than anybody else! I would wait at the window when he was due home from work and run down the road to meet him as soon as I saw him. He gave me confidence in myself. He drummed into me that you can do anything in life, if you concentrate and do it to the exclusion of anything else. I took his advice when I came to write. I gave up all sorts of things and let it take over.
The figure from history for whom you’d most like to buy a pie and a pint…John Logie Baird, the man who invented the television. I would love to watch a modern day TV set with him and discuss what has happened to his invention. Imagine what he might think.
The piece of wisdom you would pass on to a child…Politeness costs nothing, but it can be worth an awful lot. Politeness has been thrown out the window these days. When I was small, if any elderly people came along my dad and I would move to one side, raise our hats and let them pass. I used to think, Oh good, people will do that when I am old, but they don’t. I have a walking stick, but it feels like I need it more as weapon!
The unlikely interest that engages your curiosity…Bricklaying. Like Winston Churchill, I have always found it to be mentally restorative in times of stress. It is satisfying and sets the mind free.
The treasured item you lost and wish you could have again…A little toy dog my girlfriend Nora gave me when I joined the RAF aged 17. She had made it from wire and fur and I carried it around in my breast pocket for four years. It went everywhere, but one day in Cairo I sent some clothes to the laundry without taking it out and it was gone for good. I was so sad.
The unending quest that drives you on…To keep writing. I will be 90 next January but I still write every day and I hope that Paddington and my other characters will have plenty more adventures.
The poem that touches your soul…I am not very good on poems, but the French National Anthem La Marseillaise always stirs me. I am quite a Francophile at heart.
The misapprehension about yourself you wish you could erase…That writing is easy. People particularly think this of me because the Paddington books are quite short. I actually hone them down from a much longer text and re-write continuously. It is hard work, but immensely satisfying.
The event that altered the course of your life and character…Replying to an advert in the local Reading newspaper when I was 16, which was seeking someone interested in radio. I was keen on building radio sets, so I wrote off and to my amazement I got a reply from the BBC. They were setting up a transmitter in Reading and wanted someone to look after it. I met the man in charge who asked me if I knew what Ohms Law was. I told him and then he said, You have got the job! This eventually led to me working as a senior cameraman for BBC television, a job that I loved.
The crime you would commit knowing you could get away with it…There is always a cost to pay for the smallest crime, so nothing could tempt me. When I was ten I took a half-eaten chocolate bar off the counter of my local shop and ate it. To this day, stealing it has been on my conscience!
The song that means most to you…All or Nothing at All, by Frank Sinatra. Nora bought me a vinyl disc of it because it was our favourite song and I kept it for years. That song reminds me of her.
The way you would spend your fantasy 24 hours, with no travel restrictions…I wouldn’t want an action-packed day with a magic carpet taking me to all different places. At my age, you are happy to go at a slower pace. I would simply board the first Eurostar to Paris with my wife Sue and go straight back to my old flat. My last day there was 4th December 2014, which was one of the saddest days of my life. I miss it dreadfully, but on this day it would be MINE! There would be no emails, no phone calls – and no visitors! I would spend the day reliving my life as I gaze out of the window with its vista over northern Paris. I would be happy going for lunch at my favourite fish restaurant – Le Dôme in Montparnasse. I would have the lobster salad, which his rated the best in the world, followed by tarte fine aux pommes. After that I would be happy to be back in the flat, reading and writing and looking out on Paris.
The happiest moment you will cherish forever…The day my young daughter, Karen, was made better. She was born with a dislocated hip and was in and out of hospitals having operations for her first six years. One surgeon really buggered it up and made it worse. Then a very good surgeon in Oxford put it right and she made a full recovery. It was such a relief.
The saddest time that shook your world…The death of my grandfather when I was 13. He died from a heart attack and it was the first time I had experienced a death in the family. He was a particularly nice person to me.
The unfulfilled ambition that continues to haunt you…To have a lawn with a surface like a billiard table. The previous owner of our home in North London filled in the garden with lots of old bricks. We have lived here for 30 years and it has been a losing battle trying to lay a nice lawn. Bricks and holes always appear, or the foxes dig it up.
The philosophy that underpins your life…Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. In life, it is important to treat people well.
The order of service at your funeral…I will leave the details to my family and do as I have always done – which is to go where I am pointed!
The way you want to be remembered…As a friendly person, who was approachable and ready to listen. And for never missing a deadline!
Michael Bond, born on 13th January 1926, died on 27th June 2017 at home in London following a short illness. He was 91.
He was a modest, kind and gentle man. He will live on through his wonderful gift to us all: Paddington Bear.
By Rob McGibbon
Published 8 August 2014. Interview conducted a few weeks earlier
People think I am cleverer than I really am because of the Inspector Morse plots. I know a lot, but I’m definitely not as smart as Morse”
The prized possession you value above all others…
A signed first edition from 1896 of A.E Housman’s A Shropshire Lad – his cycle of 63 poems. I bought it in 1966 for £600 and it is probably worth at least £4,000 now. I started collecting first editions when I was 17 and have about 75 now, but that is the book I’d rescue if the house was burning down. I love his work.
The biggest regret you wish you could amend…
Having four operations on my ears during my 20s to cure deafness. I first started losing my hearing when I was 18, but the operations didn’t help and I wish I hadn’t put any faith in them. They caused me a lot of pain and I’d wake in the mornings with blood on the pillow. My life has been smitten by deafness, which ran in my family, and has caused me a great deal of anxiety. I would sit at dinner parties and tell people, “Don’t worry about me, talk amongst yourselves,” and I’d never hear a word of the conversation. I can only hear now with the help of hearing aids.
The temptation you wish you could resist…
Biscuits – especially Ginger Nuts. I was diagnosed with diabetes in my 40s, so I have had to watch what sweet things I eat ever since. I still find it hard to resist biscuits and I’m always getting told off for eating them by my wife Dorothy [83].
The book that holds an everlasting resonance…
Bleak House by Charles Dickens is the greatest novel in the English language. I have read it three times and its plot and characters always strike me a Masterclass in writing. It really is marvellous.
The priority activity if you were the Invisible Man for a day…
I would be intrigued to see what life is like for the Queen and Prince Phillip when they are in private at Buckingham Palace. I have heard that they enjoyed watching Morse for years – maybe they watch Endeavour now! It would be fun to know.
The pet-hate that makes your hackles rise…
Litter. I’m 84 now and I’m in a wheelchair, but each day Dorothy, or a kind lady who helps us, takes me for a walk along the Banbury Road in Oxford. We always pick up any litter and by the time we get home the bag is full. I find it disgusting how people litter our streets. What are they thinking?
The film you can watch time and time again…
The African Queen starring Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn. It is directly brilliantly by John Huston, but above all I love the interaction between Bogart a Hepburn. It has such tension and chemistry.
The person who has influenced you most…
My brother John. He was 18 months older than me and we were very close. Our family was so hard up that we had to share a bed for 19 years. One night, when I was about 16, he woke me up by playing Beethoven’s 7th Symphony loudly on the wireless. I told him to turn it off, but he had tears rolling down his face. I was intrigued that music could have that much power and began listening. That night, John opened the door to classical music, which has been one of the great joys in my life. Later, he began to teach me about Wagner, who is my favourite composer. Sadly, John died two years ago.
The figure from history for whom you’d most like to buy a pie and a pint…
Richard III. I would love to know what really happened to the Princes in the Tower [Prince Edward and Richard, the sons of Edward IV, were imprisoned in the Tower of London by Richard III and later disappeared. Many suspect they were murdered upon his orders]. I studied the case in my teens and came to the conclusion it was not him, but he would have known what really happened. I’d also like to know where he would want to be buried now that his skeleton has been found. My vote would be for Leicester because he was originally from there!
The piece of wisdom you would pass on to a child…
I’m not sure I have much wisdom to pass on! I loved teaching Classics, Latin and Greek from 1952 to 1966 and I always told my pupils to speak up and ask a question if they didn’t understand something. Asking questions is vital. That’s how you learn.
The unlikely interest that engages your curiosity…
I have been fascinated by Greek mythology all my life and I loved reading Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey. The trouble is I have forgotten much of it now – not least the names of Zeus’ 117 daughters.
The treasured item you lost and wish you could have again…
The ability to follow to The Archers! I loved that programme for 56 years, but I finally gave up soon after the 60th anniversary. I could hear it OK with my hearing aids, but by then I could no longer distinguish between the female characters because they all talk too quickly and sound too similar. I lost the thread as to what was going on. It is such a shame because I really do miss it.
The unending quest that drives you on…
Throughout my writing career I always strived to write the best page I could. If it wasn’t good enough, I’d start again. That still applies today if I am writing a short story, but I don’t do much writing these days.
The poem that touches your soul…
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard by Thomas Gray from 1751. I learnt it by heart when I was 14 and I still know it well. It is so wonderfully lyrical that it feels like music when you read it. It is beautiful.
The misapprehension about yourself you wish you could erase…
That I am cleverer than I really am! The Inspector Morse plots made people believe that I must be very smart. I do know a lot, but not that much! And I certainly don’t know as much about opera as I could. I’m definitely not as smart as Morse.
The event that altered the course of your life and character…
Getting my first book called Liberal Studies published by in 1964. It was an academic book and I was thrilled when the publisher liked it so much he said they didn’t want to change a comma! The Morse books began with Last Bus to Woodstock in 1975, but that first book put me on the road to my writing career.
The crime you would commit knowing you could get away with it…
I would steal Vermeer’s painting The Milkmaid from the Rijksmuseum museum in Amsterdam. I love the colouration and light in that picture. I have admired it so much over the years that I put a print of it above the fireplace in Morse’s home.
The song that means most to you…
Something by The Beatles. They were the greatest when it came to words and music. It is such a beautiful song and so romantic. It reminds me of my daughter Sally because it was her favourite when she was young.
The way you would spend your fantasy 24 hours, with no travel restrictions…
It would help to enjoy this day if I were a few years younger – so let’s say I am 50! I’d begin with a nice bowl of porridge in a comfortable hotel in the mountains of Austria, with the ringing of bells from pretty churches filling the air. After that, Dorothy – who’s a Welsh girl – and I would go for a brisk walk in the hills of mid-Wales and stop off in Machynlleth for tea. We used to love visiting there in years gone by. Then we would go for a nice drive through Florida to Fort Lauderdale to get some sun. Later, I’d have fish and chips with mushy peas for lunch at The Trout Inn by the river in Oxfordshire, where we’d be joined by Sally and our son Jeremy and his children – Thomas, 24, and James, 22. I used to love a pint of ale and any type of whiskey, but doctors warned me to give up alcohol 15 years ago, or else I wouldn’t live to old age, so I’d just have a glass of Robinsons Lemon Barley Water. After lunch, I’d a paddle in the sea at Skegness for old time’s sake. I loved going there as a boy and I remember the advertising poster said, “Skegness – it’s so bracing!” They should have written “bloody cold” – but we loved it so much. I’d then watch England beat Australia in the final overs of The Ashes series at The Oval. I would finish the day in Germany at the Bayreuth Festival in Bavaria listening to a performance of Die Walküre, which is my favourite opera in Wagner’s Ring Cycle.
The happiest moment you will cherish forever…
When I was given the Freedom of the City of Oxford in 2001. At the time, the only other living recipients were Nelson Mandela and Aung San Suu Kyi. Oxford has meant a great deal to me and this was a wonderful honour. However, I have never exercised my right to drive a flock of sheep or cows across Magdalen Bridge.
The saddest time that shook your world…
When my daughter’s King Charles Cavalier dog died. He was called Mycroft and was very poorly, so I had to call the vet over to the house. I remember it looking at me from the kitchen table as the vet prepared the needle with such deep sadness in his eyes. I have never forgotten that look. I felt like the executioner. I had to hold him as the vet gave the injection and I could hear my daughter, who was 13, weeping in the next room. It was one of the few times in my life that I have really wept.
The unfulfilled ambition that continues to haunt you…
To be World Chess Champion. I was pretty good when I was at school and that was my big dream, but in truth I was never good enough.
The philosophy that underpins your life…
It comes from the Latin phrase initium est dimidium facti, which means “Once you’ve started, you’re halfway there”, or “The beginning is half of the deed”. I have always found that the beginning is the hardest part of anything, but once that is done, I am off and away. The rest is about getting your head down and doing the bloody work.
The order of service at your funeral…
I would be happy with a simple affair without too many tears, as long as they played the hymn O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go, which is sublime. I do not believe in the Afterlife. I’m with Socrates, who spoke of it as being like a dreamless sleep. I’d rather be burnt than buried and for all I care you can put the ashes in the dustbin.
The way you want to be remembered…
As a good teacher. I got more pleasure from teaching than any other job in my life.
Colin Dexter was a modest, fun and gentle man to interview. He died aged 86 peacefully at home in Oxford on 21 March 2017
By Rob McGibbon
Published on 3rd October 2014
My philosophy for life? KISS A TIT! It’s an acronym I made up in my 40s to help me focus on my work. It stands for: ‘Keep It Simple, Stupid, And Think It Through.’ It can be applied positively to just about anything in life.”
The prized possession you value above all others…
Two steel bowls from a vintage magic trick called The Rice Bowls. They were made for the British magician Robert Harbin in the 1940s and were a present from the Irish magician Quentin Reynolds, as a thank you for helping him out early in his career. I advised him on how to look after the business side of magic and he was very grateful. The trick itself is probably worth about £2,000, but it is incredibly rare and it was a very thoughtful present. I keep it on display in a cabinet.
The biggest regret you wish you could amend…
Wasting so much money on flash cars in the 1980s and 90s. I started off with a Citroen Maserati, then a Ferrari, followed by a couple of Bentleys. I threw away hundreds of thousands of pounds in what I call a “Clarkson-syndrome”. No matter what you spend on a car, it’s still no more than a metal box with wheels. I also spent a fortune filling those things with petrol. These days, I have a 10-year-old Mercedes E Class Estate, which is a fine workhorse, and an Isuzu Trooper for pulling my boat.
The temptation you wish you could resist…
I try not to resist anything – what’s the point! But I do wish I didn’t check my Twitter and Facebook accounts every morning because I spend at least an hour responding to messages and comments when I should get on with work. It’s a big distraction, but I enjoy the interaction with people.
The book that holds an everlasting resonance…
Greater Magic by John Northern Hilliard. I came across it in my 20s, but I only really understood it properly years later. It covers the full gamut of magic tricks, but it also deals with big subjects, not least the meaning of life and how magic fits into it all. The Prologue and Epilogue are brilliant and full of wisdom.
The priority activity if you were the Invisible Man for a day…
The American magician Mac King is a great friend who does a very funny skit in his Las Vegas show when he pretends to be invisible. I’d love to freak him out by being a real invisible man during that. That would be hilarious.
The pet-hate that makes your hackles rise…
My own untidiness. Every day I promise to turn over a new leaf and start putting things back in the right place, but of course I don’t. This means that Debbie [his wife, Debbie McGee] and our housekeeper always put things away, which I then struggle to find. It’s all basically my fault.
The film you can watch time and time again…
The Wizard of Oz. My dad Hughie was the projectionist and then the manager of our local cinema [in South Bank, near Middlesbrough]. I was about nine when I watched the film there and I remember being amazed as the screen turned from black and white to colour. I can still see that transformation in my mind today. Judy Garland’s voice is wonderful and it is, for me, the most beautiful movie ever made.
The person who has influenced you most…
My dad influenced me in every way. He was a lovely man, whom everybody liked. He was short, stocky and very strong and was so practical that he could do everything, from mend cars, to do the electrics in the house. We would sit down and invent things together. He was incredibly knowledgeable and he inspired me to want to know about things.
The figure from history for whom you’d most like to buy a pie and a pint…
I’d like to sit down with Stalin and ask him why he murdered all those people. I simply want to understand what he thought gave him the right?
The piece of wisdom you would pass on to a child…
Read as much as you can, about as much you can. And always question everything you read.
The unlikely interest that engages your curiosity…
I’m in interested in everything! But I am particularly fascinated by the human memory system. I have studied it to the extent that I am now paid to coach people how to remember things.
The treasured item you lost and wish you could have again…
The tip of the ring finger on my left hand, which I cut off when I was working with a circular saw on New Year’s Day 2012. The top phalange – as it is known – has completely gone. I had to re-train myself to do card tricks. I am fine now, but every object I touch with that finger still feels like they have a hole in them. The brain still thinks it has a fingertip there, which is a strange sensation. The surgeon pulled over the loose bit of flesh that was left to create a pad at the tip. Astonishingly, that has now started creating a new fingerprint!
The unending quest that drives you on…
The pursuit of new knowledge. I already have a good general knowledge, but I love learning, so I won’t ever stop. They say that nobody likes a know-all, which is probably why Debbie refuses to watch Eggheads with me!
The poem that touches your soul…
None! I don’t read poetry, although I have always been tickled by Ogden Nash’s work because of it silliness and clever play on words.
The misapprehension about yourself you wish you could erase…
That I am not 6ft 2in! For some reason, everyone, except me, thinks that I am 5ft 6in. Seriously, it is annoying that people think I perform the same on stage as I did on television. TV is a 5th rate entertainment medium because it goes through so many layers of control before it reaches the viewer – like the producer, the director, the cameraman etc. My live performances are way funnier and more entertaining than the TV shows. I’ve had people come up to me after my shows and say, “I couldn’t stand you on telly, but that was great!”
The event that altered the course of your life and character…
Reading about the Age Cards prediction magic trick when I was 11. I was trapped in a house on holiday in Yorkshire with it raining outside when I came across a Victorian book with instructions on how to do that trick. I sat down and learnt it, then did it on a few people. It was very exciting and it opened up the whole world of magic to me and changed the entire course of my life.
The crime you would commit knowing you could get away with it…
I would wipe out the people who make decisions NOT to dredge our rivers – preferably by drowning! All this flooding we have had – including our house in Berkshire – is because their bad decisions have made our rivers a lot shallower.
The song that means most to you…
Zadok The Priest, which is one of Handel’s Coronation Anthems. It was played at the end our wedding celebrations in 1988 as we fired off thousands of pounds worth of fireworks. It was a special day and that music always takes me back.
The way you would spend your fantasy 24 hours, with no travel restrictions…
A perfect day would be spent with all my family. My three sons – Gary, Paul and Martin – are spread over the country, so we are seldom all together at one time. So, I’d start the day with the boys and my grandchildren – Martin’s kids Lewis, 15, and Camilla, 12 – with a big breakfast at the Magic Castle Hotel in Hollywood, which is so much fun. Then we’d head to Disneyland. I love the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, so that’s a must. Then we’d go to Knott’s Berry Farm theme park, also in California, which has loads of rides and a Wild West theme. Lunch would be in a Red Lobster restaurant in LA, then we’d head north to Universal Studios. I love all things to do with movies, which harks back to my dad running a cinema. I’d stop off in the Psycho House. I’d pop back to London for my favourite snack – double eggs and chips with white bread and butter – at the Windows Restaurant at the top of the Hilton Hotel on Park Lane. I asked for it there once, even though it was not on the menu, and they were very understanding! In the evening, Debbie and I would check into The Venetian hotel in Las Vegas then go and see two spectacular shows – O by Cirque du Soleil and Mac King’s magic show. After all that, we would relax at La Chevre d’Or hotel in Eze, high up in the hills in the South of France. I rarely drink, but I’d have a glass of Sancerre on the terrace and watch the lights of the boats sparkling far off on the Mediterranean until late into the night.
The happiest moment you will cherish forever…
Pulling off a particularly difficult gig in the early 1990s in Brussels. It was a charity event to raise money for cancer but the audience was super rich bankers and European aristocracy – people not best known for being able to “belly laugh”, as we call it in Yorkshire. It was the toughest audience you can imagine, but not long into the gig I could see people crying with laughter. I really had got ’em and it felt very satisfying. Doing great shows is what drives me on. I love making people happy.
The saddest time that shook your world…
The day my father died 20 years ago when he was 73. He had suffered a series of strokes and died in hospital. I was with him when he went. I felt like I had lost my mate and it hit me really hard. I still miss him, even now, but I talk to him all the time. I will be in my workshop struggling to make something and I’ll say, “Come on now, Dad, how do I this?” And he’ll help me in some way or other.
The unfulfilled ambition that continues to haunt you…
To be in a movie would be great fun. A comedy would be ideal, but I’m up for any role.
The philosophy that underpins your life…
“KISS A TIT!” It’s an acronym I made up in my 40s to help me focus on my work. It stands for: Keep It Simple Stupid And Think It Through”. It can be applied positively to just about anything in life.
The order of service at your funeral…
It will be a non-religious event because I’m not a ‘believer.’ If they’ll allow it, I’d like a service at the Prince of Wales Theatre in the West End, with a few friends getting up to tell a load of lies about how much they loved me, followed by a little party at our house on The Thames. This would end with a fireworks display and my ashes exploding from inside a rocket fired over the river.
The way you want to be remembered…
As the only man who lived to see the end of the DFS Sale!
Paul Daniels died aged 77 from a brain tumour on 17 March 2016
By Rob McGibbon
Published on 1st September 2012
I have never been one for ambitions or seeking things out. Life has just happened for me. I have just been incredibly lucky”
The prized possession you value above all others…
A beautifully inscribed piece of paper signed by the Queen conferring a knighthood on me in 2005. It was an enormous honour and is hanging in a prominent position in my study.
The unqualified regret you wish you could amend…
I have been too lucky in life to have any regrets. It really has been charmed, so it would be invidious of me to say I wish something had been different. Besides, I am an optimist, with a reasonably sunny nature, and I believe that regrets are futile. Things go wrong in every life, but you must move on.
The way you would spend your fantasy 24 hours, with no travel restrictions…
I would begin with a breakfast of fresh mango on a boat in the Andaman Sea off Thailand with my wife Helen, followed by a stroll on the beach at the Banyan Tree hotel in the Seychelles. Our three children and five grandchildren – the whole cotton-pickin’ lot of them – would then join us for a fun al fresco lunch at Club 55 in St Tropez. After that we’d all head to Crane Beach in Barbados where I would attempt to body surf, but probably drown. I’d then have a cup of tea in a boat beside the Fastnet Rock off Cork in Ireland, followed by cocktails at the Borgo Santo Pietro hotel in Tuscany. Helen and I would have a candlelit dinner in a garden in Marrakech and I’d end the day with a large Armagnac on the terrace of our holiday home in Gascony, South West France. As you can see, my perfect day is geared around regular intakes of food and drink!
The temptation you wish you could resist…
Trying to do everything at once. I am not much good at preparing and I like to do things quickly, so I tend to do at least two things at the same time. My whole professional career has been built on no preparation.
The book that holds an everlasting resonance…
The Catcher in the Rye. I read it when I was 17 and it was the archetypal book for your late teens that spoke to my generation.
The priority activity if you were the Invisible Man for a day…
I always longed to be invisible around exam time so I could get an early peak the questions. But the general thought of being invisible doesn’t appeal to me now because I would see things I’d be better off not seeing!
The pet-hate that makes your hackles rise…
Hatred in all its forms. It is futile and worthless and causes all the ills in society. Hate ends in nothing but tragedy.
The film you can watch time and time again…
High Society. There’s never been a cast like it – Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly – and the music of Cole Porter. I’m a great fan of musicals and this one never fails to lift me.
The person who has influenced you most…
It has to be Helen. We have been married for 47 years and not only has she given me the greatest thing imaginable – my family – she has also made me a better person. She is kind, loyal and gentle, and I have to live up to that, rather than think of myself. She’s also a bloody good cook!
The figure from history for whom you’d most like to buy a pie and a pint…
I’d never buy a pie and a pint for anyone because it’s a recipe for indigestion! I’d like to have a chat with the ancient Greek warrior Alexander the Great and ask him what drove him on. He is the antithesis of me. I’m lazy by nature and can’t understand why he didn’t just stay in Macedonia and enjoy himself, instead of conquering all those countries.
The piece of wisdom you would pass on to a child…
That’s easy – be kind. Kindness is the most important thing in life, but sadly there is not enough of it in the world.
The unlikely interest that engages your curiosity…
I have a keen interest in birds. To say I’m a twitcher would be going to far, but I am fond of sitting in the garden looking at the parakeets or red kites. The beauty of birdsong in the morning is something to behold.
The treasured item you lost and wish you could have again…
I don’t recall mislaying anything, but when you get to my age – I’m 73 – possessions are less important. I am more concerned about losing my marbles and my memory. I am forever putting my glass down in the evening, then saying, Who’s taken my drink?!
The unending quest that drives you on…
I have never been one for ambitions or seeking things out. Life has just happened for me. I have never been driven. I have just been incredibly lucky.
The poem that touches your soul…
I am a great lover of poetry, particularly the First World War poets. Wilfred Owen is my favourite and his Dulce et Decorum Est is very powerful. It is a testament to the false gods of nationalism and the futility of war.
The misapprehension about yourself you wish you could erase…
That I have more brains than I actually have! I seem to be credited with intelligence way beyond the reality. I am in a privileged position, so people think I have the answers, but it is important to always have humility and be aware of your limitations.
The event that altered the course of your life and character…
In 1967 I sent a tape of a radio programme I did in Ireland to Mark White, the assistant head of the BBC’s gramophone department. He wrote back and offered me a slot on Midday Spin, which I did down the line from Dublin. I was astonished to get a reply, let alone a job. I had always wanted to work for the BBC and everything grew from there. It was the changing point of my life. It wouldn’t happen nowadays because no one at the BBC would listen to an unsolicited tape.
The crime you would commit knowing you could get away with it…
Crime is not something that we should encourage. I am too bourgeois and law abiding to want to do a crime. I wouldn’t even rob a bank because I worked in one for four years, so it wouldn’t feel right!
The song that means most to you…
Stardust by Nat King Cole with the arrangement by George Jenkins is a masterpiece. Like all great music, it speaks to your heart. That song brings back romantic memories, but I’m not telling you what they are!
The happiest moment you will cherish forever…
It’s hard to single out one happy moment because I have been happy through most of my life. But it was incredible when I sunk the longest televised putt in history at Gleneagles in 1981 during one of Peter Alice’s Pro-Celebrity Golf games. I was playing with Fuzzy Zoeller against Lee Trevino and Trevor Brooking when I holed out on the 18th to win the match. Perhaps it will be the only thing I am remembered for.
The saddest time that shook your world…
When our daughter Vanessa died from heart complications a few weeks after she was born in 1966. They were terrible days, but I don’t like to dwell on it, or say too much publicly. You deal with tragedy as best you can. Life has to go on.
The unfulfilled ambition that continues to haunt you…
To have played rugby for Ireland. My left knee was injured badly when I was younger, not that I would have been good enough to make it. I was walking around with a duff knee for fifty years, until I got it replaced two years ago.
The philosophy that underpins your life…
I believe in stoicism. Life happens and we cannot control it. Accept whatever it brings.
The order of service at your funeral…
I’m not gone yet! Give me another 10 years and I might start thinking about it, but I haven’t got a gravestone marked, or told anyone what I want because I am not ready to go. I am not religious, but I would expect to have a service at our local church and be buried in England, not Ireland, because this is where my family is. I would want a party afterwards where everyone will say, “Well, that’s the end of him, let’s have a drink!” Death doesn’t scare me. There’s a lovely song called When You Are Old, which has the lyric: ‘When you are old and full of sleep/And death no longer makes you weep’. I’m stoic about it all.
The way you want to be remembered…
With affection. For people to have liked you is about all you can hope for.
Sir Terry Wogan died aged 77 from cancer on 31st January 2016.
Flashback with Mick Hucknall – The Writer’s Cut
Mick Hucknall remembers writing songs with Motown legend Lamont Dozier, 1986…
“That Paul Smith suit was the first time I had anything made for me bespoke. I’ve still got it and I can get into it – just!”
This is me with Lamont Dozier, one of the greatest legends in pop music. He wrote and produced [with Brian and Eddie Holland] some of the biggest hits of the Motown era in the Sixties and way beyond. He worked with The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, The Four Tops and many others and I’ve lost track of how many hits he’s had [14 No.1s in America alone]. I went to his home in Los Angeles in late 1986 for a songwriting session. I was 26 at the time and Simply Red had recently really taken off. Our first album Picture Book was already a hit and Holding Back The Years had gone to No.2 in the UK and No.1 in America a few months earlier. My life had changed dramatically, so it was an incredibly exciting time, but there was also a lot of pressure because the record company wanted a second album as fast as possible.
There was a big rush on, but there wasn’t anyone else in the band who could write to my standard, so the responsibility fell to me. It was a major burden, which was made worse because we were touring the whole time. I have always liked writing at home in my own time, so it was tough to suddenly write on the road, in hotels or on planes, when everything was always so hectic.
My manager thought it was a good idea for me to work with another songwriter to broaden my horizons, so I was put together with Lamont. I have been a Motown fan since I was a kid and I’m an aficionado. I have most of the Early and Mid catalogue on vinyl, so I knew Lamont’s work and he was a big hero. I remember sitting at the piano in his house and having some of his hits flashing through my mind – Baby Love, Stop! In The Name of Love, Going Back To My roots – and thinking, This guy wrote these!
We spent a whole morning just making a lot of noise and banging out tunes on the piano and recording it on a Walkman. There was no singing, or writing of lyrics, it was just us working out some melodies. Lamont is an ideas machine and works fast, like he’s on a production line, and I remember having to respectfully keep reining him in. I would still be trying to get the first part of a song right when he’d be on the chorus, or at the end!
It was a very convivial few hours. Lamont is such a warm, friendly guy and he was quite paternal towards me. A lot of writers from his time got ripped off, so he told me to stay sharp and not allow myself to be exploited. Advice from someone like him was a great help and over the years I became a bit of a Rottweiler to make sure I got what was rightfully mine.
After that session I went away with an ordinary audio cassette and worked out the songs on my own. Eventually I came up with Infidelity and Suffer, which both appeared on the Men and Women album the following year. Lamont was happy with them, although he thought the words to Infidelity were a bit risky – but I was just writing about how things were for me at the time!
We worked together again at his house a couple of years later and wrote two more songs – You’ve Got It and Turn It Up – for Simply Red’s third album, A New Flame. We lost touch after that, but I remember bumping into him at a wedding in the 90s and we talked about writing again together. He’s 73 now and still going strong. What he has achieved is really amazing.
I laugh when I look at this picture because of my double-breasted suit. Simply Red had just done a deal to be kitted out by Paul Smith. We were all measured up at his shop in Covent Garden and Paul made me this one for me in Prince of Wales check with a beautiful red lining. It was the first time I’d ever had anything bespoke, so it was a thrill and I was very proud of it. In fact, I still have that suit and I can still fit into it – just! Interview by Rob McGibbon
The new Simply Red album Big Love is out now and their UK tour begins on 28th November. Visit www.simplyred.com.
Flashback with Stuart Broad – The Writer’s Cut
Stuart Broad remembers hanging out at cricket grounds with his dad, England opening batsman Chris, in 1991
This was taken when I was about five at Trent Bridge – Nottinghamshire Cricket Club’s home ground. Dad was playing for them at the time, two years after ending his England career in 1989. He had done really well with England and had been the Man of the Series when they retained The Ashes in the 1986-87 series in Australia after scoring centuries in three successive test matches.
My Mum and Dad split up when I was three, but they both lived in the Nottingham area and remained on good terms, so I spent most weekends staying with him. That’s when I first became aware Dad was a cricketer – because he had to take me to work! Trent Bridge became like a home from home with the staff looking after me while Dad did his stuff. One of my earliest memories is following him onto the pitch as he went out to bat when I was four. I thought, well if Dad’s playing, I’m going too, and I had to be grabbed by one of the members. Another time, I got way out onto the pitch in the middle of a match and had to be brought back by a fielder.
They were great times for me because I loved being around the cricketers. I went to grounds all over the country, so it was a real eye opener to the lifestyle and it was also inspirational to be in the dressing room. I got to hear all the match talk and the banter and I was allowed to mess around with the kit. I got to try on pads and gloves and play with grown-up bats. I got quite obsessed with cricket and from a young age I insisted on wearing white clothes, even when I was out playing with my mates. It was a nightmare for my Mum when it came to the washing! In this picture I am wearing a proper Nottinghamshire match jumper, which belonged to a batsman called Paul Johnson. His wife had shrunk it in the wash and because he was only 5ft 4in it nearly fitted me, so he gave it to me. That was my first bit of professional kit, so I absolutely loved that jumper!
Generally on match days, I only watched Dad bat for a bit, then I’d go off playing sport with other kids whose dads were in the teams. I remember us often using a large rubbish bin that was taller than me as stumps. And when I was seven I was playing rugby during a match at Bristol – when Dad was playing for Gloucestershire – and I broke my collarbone in a tackle. He was fielding at the time, so someone had to dash out to tell him that I was being rushed to hospital. He came off later to find me with my arm in a sling.
I was very proud of Dad when I was growing up. I used to walk about a yard behind him because it is hard to keep up with an adult’s stride when you’re a kid, so I’d see people do a double-take and say, “Hey, that was Chris Broad!” It was weird hearing people whisper about my Dad, but that’s when I knew he was sort of famous and had been successful. He was always encouraging about me following in his footsteps, but neither him, nor Mum were at all pushy. The key for them was that I had fun with sport and, even to this day, I still treat cricket as my hobby, not as a job. It’s the only way if you want to keep loving the game.
Dad and I are still really close and we live near each other in Nottingham. We enjoy sharing good dinners and nice wine, but we are really competitive, especially at golf. He is now an ICC (International Cricket Council) referee and is really proud of what I am achieving in cricket. All my life I have been called Chris Broad, but it has never bothered me. When I was starting out, kids would come up and ask, “Can I have your autograph, Chris?” and I’d say, “Of course. Do you want me to sign it Chris – or Stuart?!”
The name confusion has been a running joke between me and Dad. He used to tease me by saying, “I will only know that you have made it when I am called Stuart Broad’s dad!” Then, about 18 months ago, he was at a dinner event and he was introduced as “Stuart Broad’s dad”. It gave him a real buzz and he phoned to tell me what had happened. He said, “Well, son, it looks like you have officially made it!”
Stuart Broad is an Investec cricket ambassador. For information about Investec private banking visit investec.co.uk/pb or @InvestecCricket.
What Turns Me On – Arlene Phillips – Uncut
The dance judge and choreographer needs the soothing sounds of Ed Sheeran, the joyful steps of West Side Story, radio plays and the secrets of magic.
TELEVISION
I am obsessed with minimalism, so I tune in to Grand Designs hoping there will be some fantasy home that you can only dream of. I really like Kevin McCloud – he is so bright and easy going – and I love the way the programme is set up. You always think the people are going to run out of money and never get to the end of the project, so there is an element of drama that draws you in and keep you watching. The best ones are when Kevin goes back two years later and the people don’t even like the dream home they spent all that time creating. I always find that quite fascinating. My home in North London is pretty bare. It’s a 1930s house, which I had gutted and re-styled. It wasn’t exactly on a Grand Designs scale, but it was a big enough job. Now, the house is all white walls and simple stone or wood floors, with very little furniture and no clutter. If I had my way I would live in a glass box!
I have been reading Agatha Christie books for as long as I can remember, so Poirot and Miss Marple have been enjoyable evergreens in my TV viewing since they started in the 1980s. They’re wonderful, harmless escapism. I like getting my teeth into a good mystery and I prefer one that is all wrapped up in a couple of hours. I am relieved to see how loyal the shows are to the books. The characterisations are spot on and I love the locations, the homes and the costumes. More recently, I have fallen for Sherlock. How they have taken that old story and knitted it into the modern world, with all its new technology, is quite extraordinary. Benedict Cumberbatch is absolutely brilliant.
THEATRE
Dance has been the constant thread throughout my life. In one way or another it has always been there and led me through the maze. A New York dance company called the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre has been a major inspiration in my career. I first saw them at Sadler’s Wells in 1970 performing Revelations – a series of dance suites about black African slaves. I was 27 at the time and it was such a powerfully moving piece that I left the theatre determined to go to New York and study with them. I saved up and did just that three years later. I used to see them dance regularly at Sadler’s Wells and I was always in the standing area at the back because that was all I could afford. They didn’t perform in London for many years, but I caught them at the London Coliseum two years ago and they are still fantastic.
Earlier this year I saw the perfect play – Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale – as a full-length ballet at the Royal Opera House and it was outstanding. I have always wondered how you could ever put a play as wordy as that into dance, with absolutely no dialogue, but it certainly succeeded. Christopher Wheeldon’s choreography was stunning and Ed Watson as Leontes was magnificent. It was the ultimate performance in a dance drama and I could hardly get up out of my seat when it was over.
MUSIC
When it comes to contemporary music, I’m really into Sam Smith. I could listen to his voice all day – it is so beautiful that I get lost in it. Another big favourite is Ed Sheeran. Funnily enough, I first came across him six years ago when I was doing the choreography on the ITV series Britannia High. Ed auditioned in Manchester, but he didn’t make it through because he needed to dance as well as sing. He played guitar and sang and right then I thought, My Goodness, this boy has got a bright future. His lyrics are very clever and I love the way he makes a story about everyday things, like in his song Lego House, which sets off a whole story in my head. It’s amazing what he has achieved, particularly in America, which is so hard to break.
Bizarrely, I generally listen to contemporary music on my computer at my desk because I see it as a part of my work. There’s a reason and a purpose to my listening, so I like to delve further into the words and understand how the music is constructed. When I am just pottering about the house I will have classical music on in the background and Mozart is a big love.
FILM
My favourite film of all-time is West Side Story. It is Romeo and Juliet taken to the limits on modern day streets with racial tensions and clashes. I first saw it when it came out in 1961 and I was blown away. It is still sensational – on stage or as a film – and I never tire of it. You have music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and Jerome Robbins doing the choreography as well as co-directing with Robert Wise. I think Robbins was the guiding light, but you just pay homage to such an incredible team.
The film I have adored recently is The Grand Hotel Budapest. It has an unbelievable cast with the likes of Ralph Fiennes, Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Adrien Brody and loads of others. It is a musical and visual feast and so gloriously strange. You wonder what on earth is going on half the time, but I love things that are odd and original. I was carried away by it and I still listen to the soundtrack a lot.
RADIO
I have been an avid fan of Just a Minute! on Radio 4 for as long as I can remember. Nicholas Parsons is extraordinary. To think, he’s 91 [on Oct 10th] and his brilliant brain is still whirring away as sharply as ever. He is such an amazing example for anyone worried about getting old. Paul Merton is wonderfully witty and quick, but I heard Sue Perkins recently and she really bowled me over. I knew she was smart, but, Wow, not that smart! After the show, I often test myself by picking a subject at random, then trying to talk for a minute on it. I sit there, by myself, talking against the clock. If anyone saw me, they’d think I had finally lost the plot!
The other staple radio regulars for me are the Today programme and Woman’s Hour and lately I have become quite fascinated by plays on 4Extra. I switch it on while I am cooking early in the evening and I become engrossed in the stories and these wonderful voices coming from the radio. It is like lighting a deliciously scented candle and letting the balm waft around the kitchen. The only problem is that I frequently don’t stick with it to the end of the play, so I have countless unfinished plays in my head!
ART
My dad was a barber, but his favourite thing to do at weekends was looking at art, so from about seven onwards I went with him to all galleries in Manchester all the time. We used to look at the Lowrys and dad would talk to me about the paintings and what to look for. The other person who taught me a lot about art is Andrew Lloyd Webber. I have known Andrew for years and he introduced me about the Pre-Raphaelites. He has a wonderful collection and his knowledge is incredible. He taught me so much about Burne-Jones and Rossetti and how Jane Morris – the wife of William Morris – became their muse. I have plenty of books on that period. That group of artists is endlessly fascinating – especially when you have someone like Andrew talking about it.
David Hockney has easily been my favourite contemporary artist since I met him in the mid-1970s. Wayne Sleep introduced me to him at a party in London and I was utterly mesmerised by hearing him talk about art. I remember him being excited about some new pens with brushes that he had just brought back from Japan. He was always looking for new ways in which to create his work – and he still is. I have gone to every one of his exhibitions in London since then, including the Blue Guitar series. I particularly loved The Bigger Picture exhibition at the Royal Academy in 2012. Those huge paintings of the woods in Yorkshire through the seasons were stunning. The colours, the leaves, the bare trees, the paths, I found it all so captivating. His energy and the way he keeps adapting is quite amazing.
BOOKS
Throughout my childhood, from as young as eight, I was consumed with books about relationships and families. I would wrap myself up in the characters of Little Women, Anne of Green Gables and Ballet Shoes. It was as if what they went through would begin to live inside me. There was often a lack of harmony in their families and their relationships and I connected with the girls who had ambitions and the courage to find their own way, whether it be to marry, to be an engineer and get educated, or to dance. I was somebody who wanted to fight against the odds to be a dancer.
I have always loved a good autobiography and I’ll consume them rapidly, whether they’re by great actors like David Niven and Steven Berkoff, or the marvellous wartime dancer Gillian Lynne. Currently by my bed is a very odd book called Sleights of Mind by Susana Martinez-Conde and Stephen L. Macknick, who are American neuroscience professors. It is about magicians and it reveals the science of how they trick your mind. I am fascinated by magicians like David Blaine and Dynamo and how they convince you they have made something disappear, even though you know it is not possible. This book explains how the brain works and how the illusionists change it to make you believe what they want you to believe. It is an entertaining book, but it’s also quite educational because it gives wannabe magicians like me a close-up on the secrets of magic.
Arlene Phillips is supporting Quit With Help, a campaign to help smokers stop for good. For a free quit plan visit www.quitwithhelp.co.uk.
How senior executives at The Sun and I were unwittingly taken in by the PR man’s first celebrity stunt
This is a piece written for Huffington Post on 29th April 2014 following Max Clifford’s conviction...
It was good to see Roy Greenslade being a touch magnanimous about Max Clifford in his Guardian blog yesterday. I have been surprised to see certain others chasing the blue light to the radio and TV studios to put the boot in to one they once so openly loved.
The Professor, for that is he, resisted kicking Max “now he is down” because he happily admits to plenty of dealings with him back in the day. I know that’s true because I was the wide-eyed young journalist Roy sent on a story that became Max’s first front page exclusive.
It was November 1986 and I was 21. A few weeks earlier I had been sacked from my first job in journalism – on the Wimbledon News – for moonlighting on The Sun. I had little option but to try and make it full time in Fleet Street at an absurdly young age. I managed to get more casual shifts at Wapping. It was an exhilarating, yet supremely stressful time that shredded the nerves on an hourly basis.
Thanks to Kelvin MacKenzie, The Sun newsroom of that era was a wretched place. His driving motto greeted you each day in the form of a large sign on the wall: “DO IT TO THEM BEFORE THEY DO IT TO YOU”. Sadly, a few fellow workers enjoyed doing “it” to others in the office, not just the opposition.
Somehow, I landed two major scoops in my first few nights – exclusive “reaction” interviews with Boy George and Noel Edmonds on two big news stories ahead of all others on The Street. This prompted News Editor Tom Petrie to remark: “We can’t work out if you are good or lucky. Let’s hope you are both!”
On newspapers, they like a hack on a roll. They keep you going until you cock up, then they burn you. At least that’s how it worked on The Super Soaraway in the ’80s. Tom put me forward for a “special” the features department had, which is when I met Roy Greenslade for the first time.
Roy outlined the situation: “An EastEnders star is cheating on his fiancée with her sister…go to this nightlcub and meet a man called Max Clifford…” The “star” was in fact a bit-part actor who was already an ex-EastEnder (Simon Henderson. Eh?) and the club was the Broadway Boulevard in Ealing. All very once-removed, but I recall an excited Martin Dunn coming into Roy’s office to check who was doing the story.
The snapper and I duly waited outside the club later that evening. I remember Max pulling up in his silver Jaguar/Daimler and struggling to park. He kept bumping into other cars. No doubt he had over-estimated the length he had to play with!
Inside an eerily empty nightclub, we saw the ex-EastEnder canoodling with a woman. Max wanted to know my game plan. “Well, I have to ask him straight up why he’s not with his fiancée?” “That’s a bit direct, isn’t it?” he said. “Let me have a chat first.”
Sure enough, a few minutes later I was interviewing the “star” and his girl. There was plenty of giggling and some unexpectedly candid quotes and they even posed up for a photo. At the time, I thought it was all a bit odd. A chat with the nightclub owner didn’t help. “Max is great at getting me publicity,” he sniggered, then handed me a VIP membership card to the club. Showing precocious ligging skills, I gleefully accepted. Sadly, Ealing was never exactly convenient for a lad living in Sydenham.
I duly wrote the story and Roy was delighted. It became a clearly desperate Sunday-for-Monday splash the following week – EASTENDERS STAR CHEATS FIANCEE. By coincidence, my purple patch had continued and I landed the other big story on that front page – another exclusive with Noel (both my stories were subjected to artful by-line banditry by staffers Paul Hooper and Phil Dampier. Bastards!).
Tom Petrie asked me to get a follow up from the fiancée, so I called Max for a steer, then a funny thing happened. “Actually, she’s asked me to look after her story and is happy to chat….I think five grand should do it,” he said. I told Tom, who was momentarily perplexed, then he sighed. “I think Mr Clifford is playing games with us.” Features eventually did the buy-up.
It was such a ridiculously obvious PR game and we all willingly, blindly fell for it. It was only later that Max’s games changed. The money got bigger and the lies got nastier and the newspapers lapped it all up. And I include those “worthier” newspapers that filled acres of newsprint following the stories he peddled.
I didn’t work with Max again. I always saw him at newspaper Christmas parties and then I went along for a general chat at his Bond Street office in 1998 to, as he put it “get something going”. Thankfully, we never did. I took along the cutting from ’86 and we laughed about the story before he signed it: “To Robin, Our first front page!! Those were the days!!” he wrote.
Indeed they were. Such innocent days. Or so it seemed.
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