This weekend I am mostly dressing casual...

...like Miss Lilyan Tashman, in her dress designed by Erté to look like a perfume bottle!

And why not?

The most expensive drag queen in the UK

As the faboo Television Heaven site put it:

For 25 years Stanley Baxter produced the type of television spectacular that Morecambe and Wise could only afford to put on as part of their Christmas specials. Those legendary song and dance routines that Eric and Ernie performed in their shows may well be the stuff of television legend, but for Stanley Baxter, spectacular musical-comedy specials, reminiscent of Hollywood's best extravaganzas, were part of every series. And they were so flamboyant, and proved to be so costly, that Baxter was sacked not from just one, but two TV channels, who simply couldn't afford to keep him...

He is one of the true creative geniuses in British television light entertainment, and as far as comedy goes... Stanley Baxter is the true King of Scotland.

With his background in variety theatre, the Combined Entertainment Unit of the army in the post-War National Service years (alongside Kenneth Williams, John Schlesinger, Gordon Jackson and Peter Nichols) and - of course - panto, he was almost destined for a career in the fledging world of television (starting out in the 1950s), where his comedic talents and in particular his talent for mimicry (and drag) became a staple of Britain's "light entertainment" genre.

Very much a product of his time - his ITV "spectaculars" won the BAFTA Best Light Entertainment Programme Award two years running in 1973 and 1974 - much of Mr Baxter's fondly remembered output would nowadays be considered extremely non-PC, so repeats (were there ever to be any anyway) would needless to say be heavily edited; hence the reason why he is largely forgotten. However, to mark this milestone birthday, here are just three of Stanley's memorable sketches (that still remain out there in the interwebs)...

Stanley Baxter - Towering Quake '75

Stanley Baxter - The Fast Food Follies

Stanley Baxter - The Duchess of Brendagh

Happy 90th birthday, Mr Stanley Baxter (born 24th May 1926)

[More Stanley here and here]

It's been so lonely without u here

"As the last woman standing of the 80s superstar triumvirate born in the US Midwest in the summer of 1958 (the other, of course, being Michael Jackson), perhaps Madonna really was Prince’s only true peer." - Alex Needham, The Guardian.

"Most of all, thank you, Prince Rogers Nelson, for all that you have given us." - Our Patron Saint Madonna.

Amen.

I pull up my big girl g-string, follow my path, and move on

"Do you think I would have lasted 48 years if I really gave a flying fuck what people think? I pull up my big girl g-string, follow my path, and move on."

"I’ve always taken risks and never worried what the world might really think of me."

"The trouble with some women is that they get all excited about nothing - and then marry him."

"I wouldn’t give myself any advice, because advice is kinda bullshit. Take a deep breath and don’t take any of it too seriously."

"A girl can wait for the right man to come along, but in the meantime, that still doesn’t mean she can’t have a wonderful time with all the wrong ones."

"If you really want something, you can figure out how to make it happen."

"Until you’re ready to look foolish, you’ll never have the possibility of being great."

Wise words from the Goddess of Kitsch, one of our most glittering Patron Saints - Cher, whose seventieth birthday it is today!

We are not worthy...

Cherilyn Sarkisian (born 20th May 1946)

"It's Lacroix, sweetie." "I love it!"

You want colour? He uses lots. Patterns? Several in one garment. Accessories? More, more, more..!

M Lacroix, the idol of the catwalks (and of Edina Monsoon) is 65 years old.



Many happy returns, Christian Marie Marc Lacroix (born 16th May 1951)

On the Jukebox this Eurovision week

If these don't illustrate why a vote for Britain to leave Europe may be a good idea, nothing will...

Xylo-madness

It comes in rainbow colours!

Just because...

Here's Vesta!



Born Audrey Grimaldi of circus family fame.

A talent to be reckoned with.

This weekend, I am mostly dressing casual...

...like Miss Hedy Lamarr in Samson and Delilah!

One should always have feathers to hand in hot weather, I feel.

Fuck it, jump for joy!

She's seventy years old, you know...

"I find it a great antidote... lipstick and mirrors and hairspray."

"You only have one go at life, which is thrilling. Only you can make yourself into who you want to be. Don't blame anybody else. You are entitled to free fresh air, and that's it. Do the rest yourself."

"I've never felt the constraints of social acceptability."

"If you haven't got taste, money doesn't matter: You'll always look ghastly."

"Getting older isn’t a sin. If you’re alive, you’ll get old. There is no point denying it. Fuck it, if you’ve done how much I’ve done, you are just jumping for joy when you hit my age!"

Joanna Lamond Lumley, OBE FRGS (born 1st May 1946)