Immortal role
There is no TV comedy more brilliantly written than Yes Minister and its sequel, Yes, Prime Minister. I was reminded of that last week when John Nettleton died at the age of 94. He played Sir Arnold Robinson, the scheming cabinet secretary who controls the prime minister, Jim Hacker, through his equally manipulative protégé, Sir Humphrey Appleby, the permanent under-secretary in the fictional department of administrative affairs. The BBC broadcast a clip of Sir Arnold and Sir Humphrey discussing the former’s post-retirement plans.
This is Sir Arnold giving Sir Humphrey his wish list.
“As you will know, I shall be chairman of the Banque Occidentale; on top, there’ll be directorships of IBM and BP and that sort of thing,” begins Sir Arnold.
HA: “Hmmmm…”
AR: “But I was thinking…”
HA: “Yes…”
AR: “Well, the chairmanship of the Opera House Trust will be coming up next year…”
HA: “Chairman of Covent Garden…”
AR: “… and the chancellorship of Oxford University…”
HA: “Hmmm…”
AR: “And then the deputy chairmanship of the Bank of England would be a…”
HA: “Challenge?”
AR: “Challenge, exactly… and head of the Security Commission and the presidency of the Anglo-Caribbean Association would give one…
HA: “… a chance to be of service?”
AR: “Precisely… especially during the winter months.”
Shaun Ley, who was presenting The World Tonight, laughed: “I’d have settled just for one of those,” he said.
Divided opinion
The opening session of the debut Chartwell Literary Festival *from September 8-10 will be held at Churchill’s home in the lush Kent countryside. The festival will mark the 70th anniversary of the Nobel Prize for Literature won by Churchill. The festival sets out the topics to be discussed by eminent scholars: “Viewed by some as the saviour of his nation, and by others as a racist imperialist, who was Winston Churchill really, and how has he become such a controversial figure?”
On Tuesday, I visited Chartwell, now in the care of the National Trust. Visitors were moving quietly from room to room in a state of reverential awe in what is a temple to the man who led Britain through the dark days of the Second World War. The place is worth a visit, especially by Indians settled in England, because some knowledge of Churchill is essential for an understanding of the English. Incidentally, Chartwell is full of Churchill’s paintings. He was an enthusiastic amateur artist who once said: “When I get to heaven I intend to spend a considerable portion of my first million years in painting and so get to the bottom of the subject.”
Be aware
It has become common in recent years for celebrities to reveal that they have been diagnosed with cancer. Most recently, Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York — she shares a home with her ex-husband, Prince Andrew — disclosed that she had undergone a successful single mastectomy. In early May, a mammogram revealed a ‘shadow’ in the breast. “Most people usually associate breast cancer with a lump but that’s not always the case. A lump can be detected by the patient, but this was a ‘shadow’, which can go undetected because it’s a wider spread of cancerous cells. A biopsy was taken and a few days later the results came back to confirm the diagnosis — breast cancer,” she said.
The King has written to his former sister-in-law, sending his sincere wishes for a speedy recovery. Fergie said she had received an “outpouring of kindness” and “love” with letters and flowers: “It’s really amazing the love I’m getting from the entire nation, it’s extraordinary. I’m telling people out there to go get checked. Go get screened. Go do it. I’m not just talking about breast cancer but all cancers.”
Fresh face
The Calcutta-born Amol Rajan received positive reviews from TV critics when he made his debut last week as the new host of University Challenge. The quiz show, which pits university students in a general knowledge contest, has had only two previous hosts — the late Bamber Gascoigne and the irascible Jeremy Paxman — in 60 years.
In Amol’s first show, Trinity College, Cambridge, which had one Agnijo Banerjee from Dundee, was beaten in a tie break by Manchester University captained by the Sri Lankan-origin Hiru Senehedheera, after both sides got 175.
