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| Delicious Dames: Smith, Plowright, Atkins, Dench |
JD was once attended to by a paramedic after being "stung on the bum by a hornet". He wheedled: "What's our name?" and "Have we got a carer?" She burst out: "F--- ---! I've just done eight weeks in The Winter's Tale at the Garrick."
All agree none is "exactly an oil painting" (I'd dispute this but then I'm just a fella.) and several had related misgivings about playing Cleopatra. EA says she overheard someone say she lacked good looks but was, nevertheless, sexy. "I liked that," she adds, demurely.
One frightening figure in all their lives was (Lord – no Dame he!) Laurence Olivier, to whom JP was married. MS says he hit her hard on the face each night when she was playing Desdemona to his strangely blacked-up Othello.
Filming was done at JP's country house since she is somewhat frail and has lost her sight. Character is revealed. JD (whose roles include Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria) giggles helplessly while MS finishes off her one-liners with eloquently vulgar facials.
My patriotism, never strong, is presently being tested by Britain’s metamorphosis into a Banana Republic. These indomitable Dames, all self-evidently Brits, helped restore the balance for one night at least.
I recorded this and watched it last evening with my wife. We laughed and giggled with these magnificent ladies and decided we must get hold of (again) "Tea with Mussolini" which featured three of them.
ReplyDeleteLife enhancing.
Hpefully we'll get to see it in NZ at some stage - sounds like fun. Also interested to read in your previous post about your brush with Don Paterson poet. Did you enjoy his poetry? Want a glib definition of poetry? It's complicated.
ReplyDeleteAvus: I watched Dame on I-player (no recording necessary). However, during the sign-on process I was required to certify I was over eighteen, because of Dame Judy's naughty word. Phooey.
ReplyDeleteKay: During his address Patterson was not only funny and persuasive but also modest - his citations were from other poets. The fact that I bought his 732-page book would, I hope, suggest I'm not looking for glibness.
I would love to see this. I hope it becomes available in the U.S.
ReplyDeleteA carer? A career?
ReplyDeleteColette: Hope you get the chance. It will fit in with your sense of humour.
ReplyDeleteMikeM: I appreciate your unceasing desire to pick up my typos but in this case "carer" is correct: one who cares, usually in a professional capacity. The implication being that the paramedic thought JD was old enough to require one.
In fact this exchange may be just a little too English for furriners to comprehend. It hinges on the use of "our" and "we", patronishing pronouns which some people adopt when talking to children and/or those they suspect to be feeble minded. I'd appreciate it if you could let me know whether these "talking down" replacements - our replacing your, and we replacing you - are also US usages.
Oh yes, "we" and "our" are commonly used here as you spec. "Carer" is usually "caregiver" here. Thanks for the clarification.
ReplyDeleteAnd now we have Dame Beard! Which is an interesting conjunction of words...
ReplyDeleteOr you have, I should say!
DeleteMarly: I'm regularly astonished by your awareness of British minutiae. But perhaps this is due to a vow you have taken not to read about Trump. I'm sure we can say that Mary Beard, like Schiller's kiss, is for the whole world.
ReplyDeleteIndeed. I'm glad she exists.
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid that I am not much interested in politics, a dirty but necessary business that I can do little to influence. I wouldn't have liked Hilary any better--I don't quite grasp why we can't have at least two desirable, reasonably fluent candidates, except that candidates are usually politicians, a category whose behavior I tend to dislike. Nobody will remember much of our politicians, a century or so on. I try not to remember all that much about them now.
p. s. I liked Dench's "My Passion for Trees" documentary... Did you see that one? Something so sweet and open about her curiosity there.
ReplyDeleteMarly: You can't not be interested in politics; it permeates our waking moments. Think of your superior education, your freedom to write what you like in The Palace at 2 AM, the tumultuous referendum result in the Republic (of Ireland), the wherewithal to provide comfort in disaster areas, the (admittedly intermittent) face of humanity itself. The problem is Obama the symbol, as opposed to the president, made middle-class people like me feel smug; his election implied evil was on the back foot. We should remind ourselves that Satan always has another card to play and politics, which often depends on feeble-minded, venal, imperfect humans, is one of our few weapons when we need to get things done rather than merely disapprove about the way they're going.
ReplyDeleteI didn't see JD's thing about trees but might have. Alas the intellectual standards I appear to support in Tone Deaf are not always sustained when I'm off-camera and there may have been an F1 re-run. JD is a magnificent actress (she proved that - yet again - in her off-the-cuff role as M in the James Bond movies; a mere feuilleton but three-dimensional as you like in a cardboard landscape). She is very good at figures of authority, especially in the filmed version of The Winter's Tale which moved me appallingly. That's why it was almost a relief to see her totally relaxed and giggling like a schoolgirl, proof that her acting is based on rigorous technique and not some goddess substance.
Sorry. Am I being a bit gruff?
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