Tuesday was a rather mixed day. I went to the noon funeral of an old football friend, Roger North. I had interviewed him on several occasions. There was a much bigger crowd than any of our local teams get at their matches, It was a full house and a hundred or more were standing outside. What a great tribute to him.
In the afternoon I went over to Seaview to see two old friends, Bob and June Ennis. Bob has an exciting new book getting near to publication. It’s fantastic and tells the story of the movies and television, as through Bob’s eyes. Can’t wait to see it published.
Had a great evening in the company of my long term friend Pam Everson, who sometimes comes with me to the Mayflower, when my partner can’t make it. We saw a brilliant show, called The Band. It’s so vibrant, with an great emotional storyline and such an energetic and talented cast. The music of Take That is featured throughout. I am afraid I disgraced myself. We stood during the finale, as the whole capacity audience was on their feet. There were screams everywhere when three of Take That came on stage. I saw this guy that was creating the most screams and never realised it was Gary Barlow. I got teased over that. In fact, I had never ever seen Gary in a TV show and, obviously, was never a fan of boy bands. There was some consolation – I would have recognised my favourite member of the band, Robbie Williams. His fantastic record of Angels would have been a hit in any era.
Went to the Apollo on Wednesday night for the unveiling of the brilliant Larry Holofcener sculpture depicting the Faces Of Olivier. Great to catch up with his widow Julia, a long-term friend of mine.
I had a scare on Thursday when I was due to travel to the wonderful Concorde Club, Eastleigh, to talk at a ladies Luncheon. We were booked on the 9am Red Funnel Ferry from East Cowes and arrived in good time at 8-30am. It was foggy – and we finally left at 10- 50. They did make good time and the journey took 50 minutes. We got to the luncheon with five minutes to spare. We were grateful just to get there. The ladies seemed to like my talk and I sold several copies of both of my books. I did have a thrill of seeing my book pictured in their brilliant forthcoming events brochure, amongst all those famous names. Had an interesting trip back on the ferry with Alex Dyke.