Valentine no more

Sad news. Another of the UK's most popular actresses, Miss Pauline Collins has departed for the bright lights of Fabulon.

In a career spanning seven decades, her roles encompassed realist drama, situation comedy, costume drama, children's programmes, sci-fi and a variety of "homespun" character parts on telly and on the big screen - everything from Z-Cars to Upstairs, Downstairs to Tales of the Unexpected to The Ambassador to Quartet to The Time of Their Lives (with Joan Collins).

Of course, it is for one marvellous performance that she is forever immortalised, however - Shirley Valentine (for which she was nominated for an Oscar)!

Shirley Valentine - Trailer

"That's right, Millandra, I'm going to Greece for the sex! Sex for breakfast! Sex for dinner! Sex for tea! And sex for supper!"
"Sounds like a fantastic diet, love!"
"It is, have you never heard of it? It's called the "F" plan!"

A superb film. A superb actress. We'll miss her terribly.

Facts about Pauline Collins:

• Despite her Scouse accent, Pauline was actually born in Exmouth in Devon; her family moved to Liverpool when she was a child.
• After an early part in Doctor Who, in 1967 she was offered to become the Second Doctor's next companion but turned the part down.
• She was "Dawn" in the first five episodes of the classic 70s BBC sitcom The Liver Birds, before Nerys Hughes debuted in the show as "Sandra".
• She and real-life husband John Alderton not only acted together as "Thomas and Sarah" in Upstairs, Downstairs and its eponymous spin-off, they were often cast as a couple - in Yes, Honestly, Wodehouse Playhouse, Forever Green and Mrs Caldicot's Cabbage War, as well as on stage.

RIP, Pauline Collins OBE (3rd September 1940 - )

Oh, I know...

Basil Fawlty: "Do you remember when we were first manacled together? We used to laugh quite a lot."

Sybil Fawlty: "Yes, but not at the same time, Basil."

'The fête itself, dear one,' said Elizabeth, 'is what I must speak about. I cannot possibly permit it to take place in my garden. The rag-tag and bob-tail of Tilling passing through my hall and my sweet little sitting-room and spending the afternoon in my garden! All my carpets soiled and my flower-beds trampled on! And how do I know that they will not steal upstairs and filch what they can find?'

'As long as I am tenant here,' said Lucia, 'I shall ask here whom I please, and when I please, and--and how I please. Or do you wish me to send you a list of the friends I ask to dinner for your sanction?'

RIP, Prunella Scales (22nd June 1932 - 27th October 2025). One of Britain's most wonderful and beloved actresses. We adored her.

Death's second self

That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou see'st the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.

- William Shakespeare, from Sonnet 73

It's all over for another year - British Summer Time is ended.

No light evenings until next March...

Sob.

The Queen of Salsa

We have another centenary to celebrate today!

From the Guardian:

[Celia] Cruz was perhaps the greatest Latin American icon of her era, dominating the Latin music charts, decorating her walls with gold records, three US Grammys and four Latin Grammys – alongside prizes from Billboard, the Smithsonian Institution and more – and receiving the keys to New York, Los Angeles, Miami and many other US cities. “I have lots of keys,” she later lamented, “but they don’t open any doors.”

They didn't need to - the great lady opened them herself!

As music producer Bruce McIntosh, whose label is releasing a series of reissues of music from her vast back catalogue says:

“Celia had been a star since the 50s, and she brought a bit of professionalism to [The Fania All Stars, the pioneers of the "salsa" sound].

She also brought a whole new demographic, broadening the scope. When she arrived, there were basically no other women singing salsa. After Celia, women were more drawn to it.”

Not one of them could even come close to the sublime talent of Celia Cruz, however! She was peerless:

Celia Cruz - Quimbara [100 Años de Azúcar]

All hail!

Úrsula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso (21st October 1925 – 16th July 2003)

---

PS

We're off to the centenary Celebration of Celia Cruz at the wonderful Cadogan Hall tonight...

Actors are not made

"Actors are not made, they are born."

"Bringing humour and bringing happiness and joy to an audience is a wonderful opportunity in life, believe me."

It is the centenary today of one of our most-missed Patron Saints, Dame Angela Lansbury!

All hail.

By way of a little tribute, here she is at her most camp portraying one of our most favourite characters...

Death on the Nile - "The Salome Otterborn Tango"

...and again, but this time with an "old pal":

Angela Lansbury and Bea Arthur - Bosom Buddies

Lordy, how we miss her...

Another style icon passes

RIP, Diane Keaton (5th January 1946 – 11th October 2025)

A bit of sex every 25 pages?

“We all need the pipe dream of writing the great novel, or winning the pools, or becoming managing director and kicking all our colleagues in the teeth. The world is deep and dark and full of tigers, and we need those shimmering white castles in the air to creep into when life gets unbearable.”

“I know [my novels] are frivolous; imperfect. But people love them — you should see the letters I get! Maybe one day I will write something more serious, but I don’t want to come across like a ghastly actor who wants to play Hamlet. Basically my aim in life is to add to the sum of human happiness. My dear, is that pompous, hmmm? Darling, am I being boring?”

“There are a lot of lewd jokes and ribald remarks but there isn't that much sex. Everybody says, 'Do you put in a bit of sex every 25 pages?' and I say, 'No, it happens when it happens.'”

“Our house is so difficult to find that people always arrive late, which means that by the time we go into dinner, I've had so many dry Martinis I'm practically under the piano, and it no longer seems to matter that I haven't put the potatoes on.”

“I'm bored stiff by ballet. i can't bear those muscular white legs like unbaked plaited loaves, and I get quite hysterical every time one of the women sticks out her leg at right angles, and the man suddenly grabs it and walks round in a circle as though he were opening a tin.”

“I'm not wild about holidays. They always seem a ludicrously expensive way of proving there's no place like home.”

“The male is a domestic animal which, if treated with firmness, can be trained to do most things.”

“People are going to be sent to prison for saying somebody’s common soon, aren’t they? Really. You can’t say anybody’s fat, you can’t say anybody’s anything, now. Not that one wants to say people are fat, but mind you, they are huge, aren’t they. Enormous. Enormous. I hate people being hurt. But nobody can say anything now. Anyway, enough of that. And all this [anti] wolf-whistling. I love being wolf-whistled at. I’m that generation. All contributions gratefully received.”

RIP, Dame Jilly Cooper, the creator of "the British bonk-buster".

So sad - she was lovely.